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Winter Warmer – Featured Craft Cocktail

In the world of hot craft cocktails we often see tea, coffee, cider, etc. However, my favorite this time of year is cranberry.  This months featured craft cocktail is a hot cranberry drink called the Winter Warmer. I created this cocktail about 10 years ago while bartending in Portland, Oregon and it was an instant […]

Everyone Loves Lists – The First Top 5

It’s that time of the year when we make a couple of lists and check them twice.  This won’t be like David Letterman’s Top 10, more like Five & Five.  Five things that inspired us about this past year and five trends we hope either continue into 2015 or simply sail away into the night, […]

Blue Blazer – Featured Classic Cocktail

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Now that winter is here and the weather has shifted it’s time for hot cocktails. For this reason, the classic cocktail feature this month is the Blue Blazer. This drink was made famous by Jerry Thomas who is credited with being America’s first great Mixologist. His reign was during the Gold Rush era. His story was […]

Testing My Knowledge!

I’m in the process of studying for my Certified Cicerone® exam. For those of you not familiar with the Cicerone program, it is a Certification Program for product, systems, and service knowledge (beer is the implied subject). There are three levels: Certified Beer Server, Certified Cicerone®, and Master Cicerone®. As of October 23, 2014 there […]

Bourbon Bramble – Featured Craft Cocktail

Bourbon Bramble Our craft cocktail feature for this month is a Bourbon Bramble. This is a riff off the classic Bramble cocktail. Or more accurately, it’s a marriage between a Whiskey Sour and the Bramble. Much like a proper Whiskey Sour or Bramble, the key to making this cocktail shine is choosing a quality base […]

The Bramble – Featured Cocktail

The Bramble This month The Bramble is our featured classic cocktail. The Bramble was created in the mid- 1980’s by Dick Bradsell at Fred’s Club in Soho, London. Typically, Classic Cocktails date back to prohibition era. However, the Bramble became so popular worldwide it is now an entire classification of beverage. For this reason, I consider […]

Bluegrass Punch – Featured Cocktail

Bluegrass Punch

BLUEGRASS PUNCH The Bluegrass Punch is a cocktail I’ve had a ton of success with. I’ve served it as a single cocktail or I’ve made it in batches for 1,000 people. Either way, the Bluegrass Punch is always a crowd pleaser. I use Old Forester 86 for the base because the expressive bourbon qualities shine […]

Hendrick’s Hot Gin Punch – Featured Cocktail

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Hendrick’s Hot Gin Punch Every month I choose one classic and one contemporary cocktail to showcase. This month I’m focusing on Punch. Punch cocktails are classic by their very nature. Many Prohibition era cocktails were served in Punch style. For this reason, instead of choosing one classic and one contemporary, I am going to showcase […]

Global is Local

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Global is already Local. Past, present and future. When first thinking about this, there are dozens of things that come to mind.  Vodka is rarely one of the things on the top 5 list of most exciting trends…by law it is supposed to be odorless, colorless, tasteless.  Watching paint dry is literally more kinetic, but then […]