#84 Jörg Meyer - Gin Basil Smash, 50 Best Bars, Le Lion, German Bar Scene

Jörg Meyer is the founder of Le Lion — Bar de Paris in Hamburg, one of the most consistently recognised cocktail bars in the world and the birthplace of the Gin Basil Smash, a drink he created in 2008 that now accounts for upwards of 25,000 pours a year at Le Lion alone and has become one of the few genuine modern classics produced outside London and New York. In this episode we go deep on the full origin story of that drink: the Whiskey Smash he fell for at Pegu Club in New York, the G'Vine recipe booklet with a basil garnish that caught his eye, the batch of basil he borrowed from a restaurant warehouse next door, and the blog post on July 10th 2008 that set the whole thing in motion. We talk about the strange position of being a committed classicist who loves two-ingredient drinks and measures success in restraint... and yet being best known for a vivid green herb cocktail that outsells everything else on the menu by a considerable margin. Along the way we get into the surprisingly technical world of basil sourcing (500 kilograms a year, with quality varying dramatically by country of origin), why over-muddling produces a drink that tastes of chlorophyll rather than basil, and what a gin fizz served at Bar High Five in Tokyo taught Jörg about the cost of too much lemon. We also get into the World's 50 Best Bars list in considerable depth — Jörg was on it for seven consecutive years, peaked at number 16 in 2013, and has since developed a very clear-eyed view of what the list actually is, how it can be gamed, and why being on it can sometimes be more damaging than helpful for small independent bars. Elsewhere we cover the Diageo World Class competition and what happened when Jörg started asking questions about how it was being run in Russia, the business mechanics of Le Lion right now (sales up 30% without a price increase), the Le Lion summer pass modelled on an 80s German youth leisure scheme, and a Midori cocktail that a Ueno San of High Five in Tokyo served him with barely concealed contempt. We end on Germany's bar scene — where it came from, where it is, and Jörg's honest and slightly uncomfortable answer to the question of what Germany uniquely contributes to global cocktail culture.📷 Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tristanstephenson/📚 I've written quite a few books on spirits and cocktails - https://www.thecuriousbartender.com/