#70, Gegam Kazarian, founder Yerevan Cocktail Week, Magika Cordials, champion bartender, renaisssance man

The Philip Duff Show

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=en
Yerevan Cocktail Week website: https://yerevancocktailweek.com/

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