Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Threads, etc) is a rotten corporation, and if you, like me, wish to spend significantly less time on them yet still remain in community with fellow cocktail enthusiasts and bartenders, there are a few alternative spaces. They include: Bluesky (find my profile here) that is just New... Read more →
Esquire magazine printed an article with the Ten Best Cocktails of 1934 - the year after Prohibition was repealed. They included at the end a list of the Worst cocktails as well. Esquire’s link to the story is here, but it requires a subscription to view. DiffordsGuide has the list... Read more →
I stumbled across this thread on Threads -it’s a history of the wonderful and historic the bar Heinold’s First and Last Chance Saloon in Oakland’s Jack London Square, as seen through pictures of its front. If you haven’t been, Heinold’s is a little shack built from the remains of a... Read more →
Clipart, as we know, if the highest form of art. In its role as a visual representation of a subject heading, clipart is not a picture worth a thousand words; it is a picture worth one to three words, max. Every week, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau... Read more →
I recently visited the San Francisco location of The Spanish Table, a store that sells foods and wines from Spain. I was there to look at sherry, but I spied some bottled waters I hadn’t tried yet. (This is exciting for me.) They had: Vichy Catalan - A super salty... Read more →
"The Drunkard has the Right to be Indiscriminately Loud" Illustration by Don Herold. From The Future of Drinking (1930) by Gilbert Selder. Read more →
Here’s a fun excerpt: The American Mercury 1924-09: Vol 3 Iss 9 CLINICAL NOTES BY GEORGE JEAN NATHAN AND H. L. MENCKEN The cocktail, once observed George Ade, follows the American flag. That was twenty years ago. The flags of all nations today follow the cocktail. Its fame has spread... Read more →
Most of us ice nerds know about making a clear ice sphere shell as pioneered by The Aviary, but you can use the same easy technique to make other shapes. The technique to make the ice shell for a drink inside a sphere can be found in The Ice Book... Read more →
I keep a close eye on new books on drinks (mostly cocktails and spirits rather than beer/wine), and I read most of them that come out every year. On this post I'll keep track of them. I probably won't include every cultural franchise tie-in cocktail book (Harry Potter, Star Wars,... Read more →
New Booze for December 27: Old Hamer Whiskey from West Fork- it’s bourbon with a 99% corn mashbill (corn whiskey must be aged in used barrels so that’s why it’s not that). In addition to these three, they have an 80 proof version and three different finishes in various casks.... Read more →