CREATIVE SPACE #12 of 2021 (uploaded June 9th 2021)
CREATIVE SPACE is a series spotlighting local (Antiguan and Barbudan/Caribbean) art and culture. As a brand, it dates back to 2009, published in LIAT’s inflight magazine. It was revamped in 2018 and ran to 2019 on Antiguanice.com. Its publishing partner, as of 2020, is the Daily Observer newspaper. It continues to expand across other media platforms (e.g. AntiguanWriter on YouTube). CREATIVE SPACE is created, owned, and written by Joanne C. Hillhouse – Antiguan-Barbudan/Caribbean author, journalist, producer, and freelance writer, editor, and trainer.
Here’s a link to the issue as it appeared on June 9th 2021 in the Daily Observer:
Below is the extended online edition (not a duplicate of the edition with publishing partner Observer Media) with extras.
If you would like to be featured in a future CREATIVE SPACE or to pay for a (web only) sponsored post (on jhohadli.wordpress.com exclusively), BOOSTing your BRAND while boosting Antigua-Barbuda Art and Culture, contact Joanne.
CREATIVE SPACE: Timmy Time’s Cocktail Creations
Is mixology, the creation of cocktails, art or science? “A little bit of both,” responds Daniel Thomas. “Science because you have to use different flavours; you have to know what goes with what. Art because you have to be out of the box sometimes.”
Thomas owns Timmy Time Cocktails which took off in 2020. He began as a bar hand in the late 1990s, before levelling up to bartender, and whenever a course was available he “didn’t miss out.” Today, he’s a mixologist.
Masterclass.com describes a mixologist as someone who “studies the history of mixed drinks, has a rich appreciation of the ingredients and techniques used, and regularly creates new and innovative mixed drinks.” They work the bar, but they also do a lot behind the scenes, “creating new craft cocktails and putting their signature twist on exciting favorites.”
Reading between the lines, a mixologist is an artist. This artist’s creations include The Blue Pill 
– the Viagra reference is intentional; OMG, which wowed at the Angostura regional competition because “I went out of the box and used sweet corn”; Spring, as refreshing as its name suggests with its unlikely mix of Apple vodka, organic apple, ginger beer, fresh lemon juice, and bitters; and Natural Mystic which has distinct layers of red, gold, and green. Ole Time Something, “a bush tea type of cocktail with a lot of herbs”, was served up in a bamboo cup accented with madras cloth at his last regional Angostura competition. He swept the 2019 Taste of Wadadli Mixer, put on by the local Tourism Authority, with a cocktail named Local Guava Ice ‘n Cream, a fusion of coconut cream, rum, and guava.
Timmy, as he is commonly known, has proved his bona fides as a master of mixology by capturing several prestigious titles over the years. These range from deciding to “just give it a try” at the Mango Fest mixology competition which he won twice beginning in 2009, when he was still “playing and tweaking” and didn’t feel as confident as he does now; to the Angostura Global Cocktail Challenge, which he won thrice in the 2010s, resulting in him receiving additional training, including media training, in Trinidad and becoming brand ambassador for a time; to the Patrón competition he won in 2017 – “tore it right up”.
Winning cocktails from Mango Fest.
The former Princess Margaret School student and semi-pro cricketer worked at a number of resorts and restaurants – Pineapple to Coconut Grove. Sticky Wicket was a favourite because “they taught me so much…you had to be up to level with everything.” It was there that he earned professional certification. But, over time, there stirred in him a restless urging to do his own thing.
These days, Daniel Thomas is a busy man. But it’s a good busy. “I’m proud to be running my own company…it’s been always my dream to do my own thing,” he says. Family is a big part of it, especially Tamisha Roberts, his business partner and personal partner of 11 years. “I run the operation, she runs the business,” Timmy says. Bottling the cocktails was her idea – pre-pandemic during the 2019 Christmas season hustle, i.e. private bartending service, when he couldn’t be everywhere at once. When everything locked down (in 2020, due to COVID-19), they levelled up; bottling and delivering Timmy Time’s popular mojitos, Amaretto sours, and other cocktail creations, later, setting up an outdoor bar along the QEH. Thomas loves that his cocktails are out in the world and dreams of them being worldwide. Another dream, providing consulting services to restaurants and hotels about improving bar services.
“I’m not stopping, I’m just pushing,” says the enterprising mixologist.
Images except the Mango Fest cocktails which I grabbed from the second Antigua and Barbuda page here on the blog (the original source of which may be Food and Drink), are from the Timmy Time Cocktails facebook page.
EXTRAS
The ‘formula’: “It depends on flavour; a cocktail entails a strong, a weak, a sour, a sweet, and an additive.”
A ‘secret’: “ice make up 20% of the drink”
Secret to his success: “Personal touch, personal training, a lot of studying”
A number of Timmy’s cocktail recipes are linked in this post and more can be found in the Food and Drink Guide.
Timmy and Jason ‘Salad’ Christopher, a member of his team, were guests on the Public Library’s A Little Bit A Dis, A Little Bit A Dat series facebook series earlier this year, demonstrating the making of some of their favourite cocktails and discussing the moves he’s made in 2020.
One of his sons is also a bartender with Timmy Time Cocktails.
Daniel’s middle name is Timothy; hence, Timmy Time Cocktails.
Though the cocktails are now readily available at home, Timmy does encourage drinking responsibly; don’t overindulge.
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