The Drink of the Year Awards is my favourite event of the Boothby events we do each year, and it’ll be back again in November 2024 for the third year. For this episode of Drinks At Work, however, I’m talking to the bartender behind the drink that took the number one spot on the top 50 last year. That is of course Samuel Thornhill, he’s the head bartender at Melbourne cocktail bar Byrdi, and we talk about how he developed the drink, Bad Apple, why it took over a year to get right, and why he almost walked away from the idea altogether — it’s a drink that’s all about fermentation and makes fermented fallen apples attractive. It’s really interesting what he’s done with it.

And, given that Byrdi is one of the few bars genuinely pushing the boundaries of the way drinks are conceived and presented in Australia, I also ask Sam about the creative process at the bar, how drinks get on the list, what they look for in new hires and a lot more. Here’s one thing to keep in mind, if you’re keen on working at Byrdi — you’ll be working across the bar and the kitchen, which — with the likely death of the pure play cocktail bar and the blurring of lines between bar and restaurant — is a genuinely interesting approach to bars and one that might be worth exploring further.

https://www.boothby.com.au/drinkoftheyear/