Tales of the Cocktail - Vancouver

Posted by Darcy O'Neil on January 22, 2012

With the start of the new year, the cocktail events for 2012 begin once more. One of the first is Tales of the Cocktail Vancouver (February 12-15) which takes the Tales experience on tour. Every year it gets better and this year is no exception. Some of the esteemed presenters include Audrey Saunder, Charlotte Voisey, Wayne Curtis, Harold McGee, Dushan Zaric, Paul Pacult and Jacob Briars to name a few. For anyone on the west coast looking to increase their knowledge on all things drink related,… Continue

Layman’s Guide to the 100 Point Wine Scale

Posted by Darcy O'Neil on December 17, 2011

When I was at the Moscow Barshow (September 2011) I had the opportunity to judge the cocktail competition that pitted the best bartenders in Russia against one another. Robert "Drinkboy" Hess was also one of the judges and afterwards we had a discussion on the best way to rate cocktails in a competition. The discussion is ongoing and at some point we'll probably have some refinements, meanwhile I've been doing some digging around and looking at other rating scales.

Obviously,… Continue

Bitter Recipe List is Back

Posted by Darcy O'Neil on November 26, 2011

For those who don't follow me on Twitter or Facebook, I have finally recreated the bitters recipe database. It was originally "lost" when I migrated from one hosting company to another, but I have managed to find most of the recipes and have put them back together. I have also been adding more recipes from sources I discovered while writting… Continue

When the Drink Comes Calling

Posted by Darcy O'Neil on November 19, 2011

This morning I woke up, infused my body with caffeine and then read some news. An article in the Toronto Star seems to have "gotten my goat". It is an allegory written by Ann Dowsett Johnston for the Atkinson series on women and alcohol titled "When the Drink Comes Calling". The evils of alcohol are discussed, which is nothing new, but the tone and how alcohol… Continue

Chocolate Phosphate

Posted by Darcy O'Neil on November 12, 2011

The Phosphate was the defining category of drink during the soda fountains golden era and the Wild Cherry Phosphate was the most popular, but not far behind in popularity was the Chocolate Phosphate. That's right, chocolate soda. This wasn't an egg cream or chocolate milkshake this was a carbonated drink that combined a chocolate… Continue