Despite the impression given by running a website about booze, I’m not the hard-drinking type. I drank little before I came of age, although I did celebrate my 21st birthday week with 3 trips to Oktoberfest in Munich. However, I recall (or don’t) having a number of indulgent nights in the decade since, and I’ve …
Category Archives: Entertaining
Gifts for Drinkers
Holiday season is approaching, so I put together a list of things any beverage enthusiast would enjoy. Bundaberg Ginger Beer ($5.99) Munktiki Mugs (varies) Vacuum Coffee Siphon ($110) Japanese Barware (varies) Flask Playing Cards ($29.98) Subscription to Imbibe ($20) Artisanal Cocktails ($24.95) Happy Hour Glasses ($20) iSi Soda Siphon ($62.99) Lillet Blanc ($15) Buffalo Trace …
Brilliant Johnnie Walker video
This Johnnie Walker advertisement starring Robert Carlyle was created in one take with a single camera, and not only is it engaging, but it’s an interesting take on the history of the brand, and of blended Scotch whisky.
The Drinker’s Dictionary by Benjamin Franklin
Originally published in The Pennsylvania Gazette in 1737, Ben Franklin wrote a comprehensive list of all terms meaning “drunk,” some of which are still in use, and a hundred more I wish were still common parlance. Pick your favorite and use it while out getting “oxycrocium” until it catches on. Update 5/7/11: now available in …
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Soda Siphon Shenanigans
At Tales of the Cocktail, I went to a session on Mixologists and their Toys, and after the first two presenters both talked at length on making sodium alginate sphericals (clearly they didn’t coordinate), the 3rd presenter demonstrated his new cocktail carbonating invention, the Perlini. During the Q&A I grabbed the mic and asked why …
Cheers!
I am tired of hearing people say they are, “going to cheers,” when a round of drinks is delivered. That involves a trip to Boston, as far as I am concerned, and I’m not sure how it has come to the point that I hear “to cheers” used in place of “to toast” more than …
Retelling Tales of the Cocktail
The impetus for launching LibationLab came from my experience in New Orleans a few weeks ago, at Tales of the Cocktail. “Tales” is the preeminent cocktail event in the nation, and probably the biggest convention of bartenders in the world. With press credentials secured based on my existing food and beverage blog, I went out …
On my way to Tales of the Cocktail…
Because I couldn’t just spend the weekend celebrating the 4th and packing for Tales, I: made a batch of hot sauce from farm-fresh chilies created a tincture of shiso made a gallon of traditional umeshu improvised almost a gallon of apricot/pluot “umeshu” infused a bottle of Hendrick’s gin with cucumber and persimmon devised the Tomcat …