Tristan Stephenson is an award-winning bar operator, bartender, barista, chef, some-time journalist, and bestselling author of The Curious Bartender series of drinks books. He is the co-founder of London-based Fluid Movement, a globally renowned drinks consultancy firm, and half the brains behind the drinks programs at some of the world’s top drinking and eating destinations. In 2009 he was ranked 3rd in the UK Barista Championships. He was awarded UK bartender of the year in 2012 and in the same year was included in London Evening Standard’s ‘Top 1000 most influential Londoners’.
Having started his career in the kitchens of various Cornish restaurants, Tristan was eventually given the task of designing cocktails and running bar operations for Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant (in Cornwall) back in 2007. He then went on to work for the world’s biggest premium drinks company, Diageo, for two years. After co-founding Fluid Movement in 2009, Tristan opened two bars in London – Purl, his first, in 2010, and then the Worship Street Whistling Shop in 2011. Worship Street Whistling Shop was awarded Time Out London’s best new bar in 2011 and was placed in the ‘World’s Fifty Best Bars’ for three consecutive years. In 2014 Fluid Movement opened their next venue, this time outside of London. Surfside, a steak and lobster restaurant on Polzeath beach in North Cornwall, was awarded the No. 1 Position in The Sunday Times’s ‘Best alfresco dining spots in the UK 2015’. Tristan served as head chef there for the first year and continues to manage the food and beverages menu. In 2016 Fluid Movement opened Black Rock (a bar dedicated to whisky) to excellent reviews and in 2017 they opened The Napoleon Hotel at the same site. It is proud to be London’s smallest hotel, boasting just one bedroom, but features three separate bars: The Devil’s Darling (a classic cocktail bar), Sack (a sherry and tapas bar) and the original Black Rock whisky bar – all of which offer room service!
Tristan’s first book, The Curious Bartender Volume I: The Artistry & Alchemy of Creating the Perfect Cocktail was published in October 2013 and shortlisted for the prestigious André Simon Award. His second book, The Curious Bartender: An Odyssey of Malt, Bourbon & Rye Whiskies hit the bookshelves in October 2014.
In Spring 2015 he published The Curious Barista’s Guide to Coffee (having previously successfully harvested, processed, roasted and brewed the first cup of UK-grown coffee from the Eden Project in Cornwall, achieving international press coverage). His fourth book The Curious Bartender’s Gin Palace, was again shortlisted for the André Simon Award. During the course of this research for this project, Tristan travelled to over 150 distilleries around the world, in over 20 countries, including Scotland, Mexico, Cuba, France, Lebanon, Italy, Guatemala, Japan, the US and Spain.
Next, his fifth book The Curious Bartender’s Rum Revolution was published in 2017 and similarly involved a tour that demonstrated how rum has moved beyond its Caribbean heartlands, with vibrant new distilleries appearing in Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia and Guatemala and in unexpected corners of the world, from Australia to Mauritius and from the Netherlands to Japan. This, his sixth book to be published by Ryland Peters & Small, is a follow-up to the original bestselling Curious Bartender Volume 1.
Tristan’s other commercial enterprises include his drinks brand Aske-Stephenson which manufactures and sells pre-bottled cocktails in flavours as diverse as Peanut Butter and Jam Old-Fashioned and Flat White Russian. He has also recently launched an on-line whisky subscription service called whisky-me.com, which enables customers to receive top-quality single malt whiskies for home delivery. Finally, in March 2017 Tristan joined discount supermarket chain Lidl UK as a consultant on the own-brand spirits range.
Tristan lives in Cornwall and is husband to Laura and father to two small children. In his very limited spare time he rides a Triumph motorcycle, takes photos, designs websites, bakes stuff, cooks a lot, attempts various DIY tasks beyond his level of ability, and collects whisky and books.