Shake It Up With: Best Bartender Nominee Ross Harris of Más

Shake It Up profiles the eight Beijing mixologists that are up for the title of Beijing's Best Bartender in the Beijinger's 2015 Reader Bar and Club Awards (vote here through midnight today, May 17). For our final installment, we talk with Ross Harris of Más.

TBJ: Describe the drinks that you’re preparing for us today.
The first one is a Gold Coast, one of our most popular cocktails. It’s made with Sailor Jerry spiced rum, vanilla bitter, lemon and honey. It’s a little sweet and great for the hot summer weather. We’re also making a La Francesa, which has ginger syrup, martinique rhum and lime juice.

Can you remember the first cocktail you ever drank?
No I don’t remember, but I’m sure it was a glass of some super sh*tty thing in some beach town in a hotel, something with a bunch of fruit in it.

What makes your bartending technique special?
We do really unpretentious drinks, and we don’t charge a lot of money for them. There are a lot of bars here that charge a lot for high-end ingredients, but maybe the technique is not that great. Or maybe they’re aiming for a client that we don’t need to aim for. Our customers want something more casual and delicious, that’s easy to love. Our focus is on fun drinks.

How do you come up with drink ideas?
We do a lot of research, looking at popular cocktail books and websites. There’s a really good one from a  New York bar called Death + Company. But we’re also inspired by this tiki mixologist, Beachbum Berry, even more so than Death + Company. Berry has a great website, and he does really interesting twists on tiki cocktails.

Do you have any hangover remedies that you can recommend to you readers?
I usually make fruit shakes, with a pear and yogurt. or maybe something with heavy fibre.

Want another round? Follow the Shake It Up series here ... and don't forget to honor your favorite Beijing watering hole before midnight today (May 17) here.

Photo: Kyle Mullin