About 18 months ago, following a gradual slowdown in posting here at the Cocktail Chronicles, I realized that the future of this blog lay in one of two directions: either I could make a graceful bow and head for the exit after four years of intense booze-blogging; or I could pull my shit together enough to trot out a few new things in thanks to those who’ve been visiting the blog since the early days, and for the more recent arrivals, as well. Choosing the latter course, I inaugurated 30/30, which was just a lazy shorthand way of saying, “I’ll write about 30 drinks over the course of 30 days†– a manageable yet still challenging workload, especially for someone whose enthusiasm for blogging was still barely visible in my rear-view mirror, waving forlornly in the receding distance as I headed down the metaphorical highway without it.
Well, if mid-2009 was a slowdown for the Cocktail Chronicles, late 2010 has been all but dead. It’s been a couple of months since my last recipe went up, and if it weren’t for a bit of enthusiasm for Audrey Saunders’ and Dave Arnold’s recent event in New York, it would have been total radio silence here — not that there’s enough of a readership right now to really notice the quiet. But as one commenter noted on my most recent post — my ONLY recent post: “screw the rest of your life and responsibilities – get back to work on this more often to make me happy.†And as tongue-in-cheek as that was intended, it’s also absolutely spot-on — this blog originated in mid-2005 as an alternative to what I had going on in my day-to-day at the time, and was designed not only for my own entertainment but for the purpose of getting good drinks into the hands of more people. Now that the Cocktail Chronicles has helped lead me into writing about drinks full time, there’s no reason the blog shouldn’t be a continuing part of my boozy little world, so it’s time to once again show my thanks to those who keep coming around to this site by actually posting on a drink or 60.
Yes — I’m making “Thirty in 30†a double. Starting today, and continuing until — oh, hey, that’s Christmas Eve! –I’ll post recipes and detailed nonsense about two drinks every day, for a grand total of 60 shots of joy, wrapped into 30 posts that will more-or-less run along clear themes. In an attempt to reconcile my day-job drink-writing with my free-time booze-blogging, I’ll be raiding my own back catalog to a certain extent, writing about some of the drinks I’ve come across while working on articles for magazines or newspapers but which I never got around to posting online. I’ll also dust off a few drinks I’ve written up over the past few years for Serious Eats, and throw in a few recipes that have been hanging out in my notebook for months or years, that were always intended as posts but just never made it all the way. And finally, I’ll be featuring a few cocktails that are more gestures of gratitude on my part than drink recipes per se, that I’m soliciting from a few Seattle bartenders who have been so incredibly patient and helpful to me over the past five or so years.
Is this some sort of gimmick? Hell yes! But why not — it was fun the first time around, mostly, and I could probably use the exercise in speed-blogging. I can’t promise there’ll be photos for everything, and I’ll certainly not promise that they’ll all be drinks you’ve never had – indeed, I have a few on the list that are either recently celebrated oldies or in the running for contemporary classics; obscurity isn’t the goal here, quality is. One thing I can promise is that I’ve sampled my way through all of these drinks, and there are some genuine winners on the list.
So, enough talk – let’s bring on the first round of 60/30.
Would be sad to see CC give up the ghost. Readership levels be damned – your work has been very helpful for a number of folks out here in the ether.
Another lurker coming forward to express my relief that you are not giving up the ghost just yet.CC was one of the first cocktail blogs I discovered and has inspired me to spend far too much money on booze that I wouldn’t even have known existed.Not to mention all the great drinks MxMo has thrown up(bad turn of phrase there sorry) 60/30 you post them I’ll try to make em cheers kevin
Paul,
Your blog was largely responsible for getting me interested in well-made cocktails, and while my wallet may have suffered for it, I’m immensely grateful, and so also very excited to see this pop up in the RSS reader today. Can’t wait to see what the next thirty days bring!
-Dan
I love your pieces in all the different publications you write for, but CC is such a great all-in-one kind of resource, so this reinvigoration is awesome news.
I’ve just started my journey into quality cocktails, and your site and insight have both been invaluable to me. Even if it gets stale, just don’t let it go away.
Also, I don’t know how typical of a reader I am, but I have your site added to my rss aggregator. When it updates, it updates, and I get a pleasant treat. When it doesn’t, it doesn’t, and it takes no time it inconvenience. So, while I may only show up as a hit on your statistics when you update, or when searching for an old post, I’m a reader, and I’m not going anywhere.
Ambitious!
very glad to have you back. i’ve read pretty much every post here on the blog, and its been a wonderful education. and i tried to follow along with your 30/30, when I had the correct ingredients in the house. I don’t think i’ll be able to keep up with 60/30, but I’ll continue to learn along with you.
Paul, you have a great blog that has been a big inspiration to many. I am for one glad to see it return! I certainly understand how hard it is to keep up with a blog, it’s a lot of work!
Everyone has already covered my points but I’ll make them all the same 🙂
1. Glad to see you back in action and looking forward to trying to keep up with 60/30
2. RSS readers mean when a post does pop up it’s a nice little surprise
3. Silly amounts of money have been spent on obscure and imported booze since discovering CC and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I just wish we had a few more of the more obscure ingredients here in Australia as importing is not an option given our tax / customs laws.
Nate – Sydney, Australia
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Welcome back, Paul! I have definitely missed you, and I wish you godspeed in your lofty challenge. Looking forward to the rest of the posts!
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