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 …
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 …
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 …
One of our hardworking retail wine reps posted this video on YouTube of him building a display. If you’ve ever wondered what a retail wine sales rep does, check it out. (Most don’t don’t make short films though; nice job, Jake.)
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. …
One of the nicest things about the world’s nicest wines is that—almost invariably—they are grown in some of the most BEAUTIFUL parts of the world. Think of Tuscany, Burgundy, New Zealand, Napa, South Africa, Greece… even Traverse City, Michigan (not exactly Queenstown, N.Z., but not too far off). Geek had …
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 …
Alphabet Soup When Wine Geek was a little wine geek, his father’s best friend sold ‘booze’. Not exactly sure of everything he sold, but Geek specifically remembers hearing that said salesman ‘could drink any man in town under the table’. Apparently, this was the skill-set needed to be a ‘booze …
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, …
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 …