Absinthe. An herbal spirit born in Switzerland and made famous in France by artists and authors. The word absinthe alone conjures up many stories and myths of la fée verte, or the Green Fairy. It is shrouded in fables and propaganda from the 19th and early 20th centuries, when, for most of the world, it […]
Spring is done. She has said farewell to us for the year and her hussy sister, summer, has come for the duration. But there’s one way to beat the heat: Sipping on summer drinks. When it’s 100 degrees out and the sun is beating down on our porch umbrellas, sweat is dripping and sliding from […]
My love affair with all things drinkable began in scotch and evolved to bourbon. Kind of backwards, I know, but it conjures up memories of friends gathered next to a fire in early spring, sitting on the porch sipping Mint Juleps in the dead heat of summer, and a clear change in how and what […]
Three days into my trip to Puerto Vallarta, I had an ephiphany. I’d traveled there with the Tequila Interchange Project, a nonprofit group working to preserve sustainable, traditional, and quality practices in the tequila industry, and we would spend seven days drinking the Mexican juice and learning about the process of making it. But my […]
Spring has finally sprung, and with the change in the weather comes a change in many folks’ drinking habits. In particular, the increased orders of the king of all drinks—the martini. This time of year, we bartenders see a rise in sales in the clear spirits categories like vodka and gin. Now I’m not saying, […]
I don’t care if you’re at a speakeasy, a restaurant bar, or a dive—there are unspoken rules of conduct to which one adheres when you belly up to the bar. Many of them can change with the type of joint you’re hanging in for the night, but all have basic codes that are very much appreciated. […]
The first thing that many of us do when we sit down at a restaurant or belly up to a bar is pick up the beer menu, the wine menu, and/or the drink menu. Some of us take a break from old faithful and try something new on occasion. It is for these reasons that […]