Balkan Ekspres

If you’re lucky enough to hit the streets on a festival or holiday, you may come across a tent with a brass band playing and tables set outside with food on sale to soak up all the beer, which of course is the main focus! You normally order your beer (my favourite is the weissbier) from the dirndl wearing waitresses with the leather wallets passing to and fro taking orders, who you pay directly. Sometimes you can also order your food from them too, or go and get it direct from the stall. We tried the bratwurst sausage with sauerkraut (pickled cabbage) and a roll with mustard or ketchup on the side. Personally I found it a bit dry and preferred the other Austrian favourite, the Wiener Schnitzel that we had at the Mayday festival in St Wolfgang, served with a warm potato salad on the side and some berry relish. It was a bit more classy than the bratwurst, but then St Wolfgang is a pretty classy kind of place, set beside the lake with the picturesque painted houses.

In recent years Mozart has gone from strength to strength in UK bars and since the introduction of Mozart Chocolate Bitters earlier this year barely a cocktail competition goes by without an inclusion.

With this in mind Mangrove, the UK distributors, organised a series of Masterclasses across the UK with Mozart’s Brand Ambassador Anna Kruggel. The sessions promised tastings, cocktails, food and education on the brand along with live distilling. BarLifeUK was of course on hand at the London event in Nightjar to bring you all the Mozart-iness.

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