As someone who’s pretty geeky about spirits, I’m enjoying Bartender quite a lot. The question for me is whether there’s enough to justify covering it. We’re basically looking at a series about mixing cocktails here. There’s some personal drama and a hint of comedy in the shaker too, but really, this show is the art and science of being a bartender. That’s interesting, but I’m on the fence about whether I can write enough about it every week to have it on the schedule. This is a season that’s mostly bubble to begin with, so those decisions get a bit tougher.

You can never go wrong adding Uchida Naoya to a series, that much I know. He joins the cast as Kuzuhara Ryuuichi, AKA “Mr. Perfect”. He’s the most lauded barkeep in Japan, and works the counter bar “K” at the Diamondstar Hotel. That happens to be the bar that the Chairman is hoping to rival with the Cardinal’s version, and unsurprisingly he and the Chairman have some personal history (seemingly friendly in the main). Kurushima-san visits him as he’s receiving an award (at his own bar) and clearly has in mind to set up a showdown between Kuzuhara and Sasakura-san (perhaps in part as a measure of just how good the young upstart is).

Once the old coot has lured Mr. Perfect to Eden Hall, Kuzuhara decides to test the young man (his reaction on hearing the name reveals he’d heard of him already) by ordering a Gin Fizz. That’s not one in my portfolio, since gin is one of the few spirits I absolutely can’t stand. But apparently it’s a perfect test of a bartender, as it requires all the basic skills to compile. Sasakura’s tweak is to use a bit of wasonbon sugar (a delicate sweetener used in Japanese confections) to give the old dog a bit of a new trick. Kuzuhara is fooled into thinking it’s rum the pup has added (apparently there’s a taste overlap) and is clearly none too thrilled by having one put over on him.

I don’t think I’d be able to tell much from a Gin Fizz, but a Manhattan is one I’d be interesting in throwing down with. That’s the drink Miwa-san orders for the showdown her grandfather engineers at K. This is more interesting to me, because it reveals a sort of philosophical difference in the approaches of the two men. The old dog is singularly focused on making the perfect, unchanging, Platonic ideal of a cocktail. The pup tailors his concoctions to the customer (as we’ve already seen), and mixes Miwa’s Manhattan just a tad warmer than Kuzuhara’s. It doesn’t hold its flavor as well as the ice cools it down, but on initial impact it’s the winner.

I’m not sure this is as clear-cut as Kuzuhara makes it out to be. There’s merit to Sasakura’s approach in my view, but I think Kuzuhara is mainly interested in acting the unassailable icon he believes himself to be. Sasakura is a bit humiliated by this, although he recovers himself in the act of counseling the young bartender who’d come in to Eden Hall just after quitting her job. Kuzuhara has found great success his way, but broadly speaking I believe there are multiple paths to greatness in any art – and bartending is certainly no exception. Sasakura-kun is better off sticking to his own ways, and I suspect he has enough self-belief to do just that.