by Kirsten Titcomb February 24, 2023

Many B.C. craft distilleries and cocktail aficionados have been swooning over the work of bartender/photographer Adam Dewar @the.secondshot for a few years now. It requires incredible skill to design unique well-balanced cocktails that wow the palate, but to capture cocktails in the form of crisp, high quality visuals, requires a level of talent that only a handful possess. Thanks Adam for boosting our craft distilling industry one deliciously created & captured cocktail at a time. 

Want to learn more about Adam, follow @the.secondshot on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube and enjoy learning a little more about him in our Q&A featured below. 

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What drives your desire to predominantly use local craft spirits?

• There’s always so many new craft spirits coming out so it’s hard not to want to try them all. There’s a lot of great commercial spirits but the really interesting ones always come from the Craft industry, and the unique ones are the ones I love trying.

 

How many cocktail videos have you produced since you started @the.secondshot?

• Oh, I've easily passed a hundred by now and since I'm mainly doing videos instead of photos, that number will double by the Fall.

 

Where do you get all your amazing glassware?

• Equal parts Thrift Stores and Modern Bartender in Vancouver. I tend to pop into both occasionally just to see what's new and what I could use.

 

What is the best cocktail photography trick you have up your sleeve?

• A simple $10 piece of Foam board. For real it adds just the right amount of reflection for most shoots I do.

 

Do you have an outtake reel?

• I don’t but if I did it would probably be full of me swearing in the background because I either forgot something, or I spilt something haha

 

What is your go-to DEVINE spirit?

• My go to is definitely Black Bear. It’s the only Spiced Rum spirit I use cause I love it so much! After Black Bear I'd go with Ancient Grains for sure!

 

What's your process of putting together a recipe?

• I usually have some sort of a mood or vibe in my head for where/when I would want a Drink, then I come up with flavours to match that mood. Once I find the flavours I find the spirits that can give those flavours and see how they work best together. I find it fun this way because it gives the drink a story in my head. 

 

In your wildest cocktail making dreams, what ingredient or concept would you dare to introduce next? 

• I want to get more into Tiki drinks but in a more elegant way. I've done some before, like a stirred down Pina colada, but I want to push deeper into them and see how far I can go with it.

 

What are you looking forward to most about 2023 with the @the.secondshot?

• So many things haha. I'm stoked for events coming up this year, new spirit releases, and growth. I'm putting more focus on my YouTube this year and hope to grow that as much as possible.