What to say about my old mate Gegam Kazarian? In his native Armenia, he studied biochemistry, then floral design, then silversmithing, started bartending, followed his passion for Spanish classical guitar by emigrating to Spain, started several bars and a mixology lab, won the Havana Club Rum European championships, the G'Vine Gin Connoisseur Program world championships, then moved back to Armenia after COVID, and started Yerevan Cocktail Week in 2023, and is launching Magika, a range of very high quality cordials. In short, an annoyingly well-rounded man. And a great human. I just returned from teaching at Yerevan Cocktail Week 2024, so we sat down to chat about his career, his Indian bar mentor in Armenia and his German one in Spain, why everyone should approach bartending like kung-fu, and what it's like to organise a cocktail week for the first time, and for the second, in a smaller country, and what Yerevan Cocktail Week 2025 will look like.Oh, and looooooooots more. Enjoy!Gegam on IG: https://www.instagram.com/kazaris/Yerevan Cocktail Week on IG: https://www.instagram.com/yerevancocktailweekofficial/?hl=enYerevan Cocktail Week website: https://yerevancocktailweek.com/ Get in touch with Duff!Podcast business enquiries: consulting@liquidsolutions.org (PR friends: we’re only interested in having your client on if they can talk about OTHER things than their prepared speaking points or their new thing, whatever that is, for a few hours. They need to be able to hang. Oh, plus we don't edit, and we won’t supply prepared or sample questions, or listener or “reach” stats, either.) Retain Philip’s consulting firm, Liquid Solutions, specialised in on-trade engagement & education, brand creation and repositioning: philip@liquidsolutions.orgPhilip on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philipsduff/ Philip on Facebook: Philip Duff Philip on X/Twitter: Philip Duff (@philipduff) / Twitter Philip on LinkedIn: linkedin.com Old Duff Genever on Instagram: Old Duff Genever (@oldduffgenever) • Instagram photos and videos Old Duff Genever on Facebook: facebook.com Old Duff Genever on X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/oldduff...