The Tales end

I'm home from Tales of the Cocktail, the annual cocktail convention in New Orleans. This year was fast and confusing and pretty great, and I think it will take me a few days to process it all. I don't really go for the partying that happens at night, as I can do that every day in San Francisco, but for the lectures during the day. Some of the talk highlights for me were:

• The Sagatiba cachaca tasting room session by Jared Brown and Anistasia Miller, in which they talked about several of their new incredibly exciting (you know, to drink nerds) findings on cachaca history and how it predates rum. I think the information in their new Sagatiba-sponsored book will fuel many cachaca stories for the next year.
• Martin Cate's talk on Cocktail Garnish, which was so much fun and had great visuals in the presentation.
• St John Frizell's talk on Charles H. Baker, Jr. Not only was it fascinating to learn more about Baker- a well-read drink writer but largely unknown person- St. John's lecture was hilarious. Did you know he made the first literary reference to the word "Ho"?

For those who attended- what were your favorite talks?

Labels: books, cachaca, garnish, tales_of_the_cocktail