Alcademics

Behold! Here is my round-up of all the cocktails and spirits books (plus a few others) that were released in 2017. This year, beyond the annual deluge of whisky books, there are books aping the bartender lifestyle (Drink Like a Bartender, Straight Up), more narrative books (I Hear She's a Real Bitch, By the Smoke and the Smell), and recipe books seeking to simplify the process (3 Ingredient Cocktails, The Imbible, Road Soda) rather than reveal the secrets of complex drinks from top bars. All in all, another great year for reading about drinking.  Read more →

The convention is a meeting of the second tier of the three tier system: the distributors who buy from the producers and sell to either bars or liquor stores as required by US law. Read more →

My annual list of most all of the cocktails and spirits books that have been released. This year we see tons of whiskey books again, and a whole segment of bar-specific cocktail books and a new category of narrative cocktail history. Read more →

We go through a lot of bottles in the beverage industry, and most of them go into the recycling bin or worse, the trash. However a few companies have designed bottles specifically to keep some of the glass out of the trash can for at least one more use. Read more →

Images from some recent creative cocktail menus in my collection in the form of card decks, comic books, subway maps, and more. Read more →

The title of the post on Details.com is "An Artist-Designed Tequila Decanter That Will Haunt Your Dreams." Read more →

This week a company Cosmic Lifestyle Corporation announced work on a new space program to make cocktails in space a reality. The idea isn't to cater to astronauts, but rather for the much delayed space tourism industry expected to launch this year. We're not talking about sipping a drink Capri... Read more →

During Hawaii Cocktail Week I attended a seminar called Designing Bars that Make Money at the cafe/gallery Loft in Space. The seminar was lead by Tobin Ellis of consultancy Bar Magic, Kate Gerwin of the bar Imbibe in Albuquerque (and also of Bar Magic), and Julian Cox of Rivera and... Read more →