A couple of months back, I received an e-mail with a simple, one-word subject line: “GIN!” As you can imagine, I opened it immediately. The gist of the message was that one of the local monthlies was planning an article on gin, and the editor wanted to invite me to participate in a gin-tasting panel… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Spirits
Running a Tab
I’ve gnashed my teeth before about the escalating prices of vintage cocktail manuals on eBay and online bookstores, but even books currently in print can take a toll, in terms of both finances and time. Case in point: Ted Haigh’s modern classic, Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails. Granted, the price tag is only $15.99 (cheaper… Continue Reading
MxMoVIII: Tahitian
It’s been a blisteringly busy few weeks. Not just the normal kind of busy, but the brain-boggling, overdrive kind of busy where you wake up thinking of all the things you need to do, then flail away at that list all day until finally giving in to exhaustion, and fall asleep while thinking of all… Continue Reading
Frisco
I hate the name, too. In 1907, while San Francisco was still in shock from the devastating earthquake that had struck just a year before, a group of women from the Ladies Outdoor Art League of San Francisco formed an Anti-Frisco committee, labeling the nickname for the city “obnoxious,” and seeking to have the term… Continue Reading
Blinker
Great cocktails can come from grapefruit juice. Consider the Hemingway Daiquiri (aka, Papa Dobles) — rum, lime juice, maraschino liqueur and, for a nice twist of character, grapefruit. Or the Comet — an obscure mixture of cognac, grapefruit juice and Van der Hum liqueur, brought to light a while back by David Wondrich. And don’t… Continue Reading
