The approach of New Years Eve means that millions of people will be over indulging in the festivities, and paying the price on January 1st. For some reason most people think the best way to start a new year is to spend all day on the couch with a pounding headache and an upset stomach. If that’s your idea of a good start to the new year, so be it. But, there are some really simple solutions to ease the hangover, such as drinking less alcohol and drinking more water. But, those two simple items always seem to be forgotten in the spirit of the moment. If the party is worth the price the next day, then here are  few tips to get your new years rolling with a milder hangover. 

When you say beer, most people think lagers like Molson Canadian, Budweiser, or Heineken. Even if a person thinks ale, they'll be thinking of a pale ales or amber ales. But there is so much more the beer world has to offer. There is of course the stout category which most people have tried, but there is also a very impressive category dealing with beers from Belgium. Actually there are number of categories like lambics and Trappist beers, like Chimay. I was recently introduced to a number of beers that I haven’t had the opportunity to try before. One of them was Chimay Grande Reserve, but because availability is unpredictable, I sought out something similar and found Trois Pistoles from Unibroue.

While I was reading my morning newspaper I came across a cocktail from the 1943 called the Ortona cocktail. This drink was created during World War II by the Royal Canadian Regiment while they were fighting German forces to take control of a strategic junction near Ortona, Italy. Two days before the regiments 60th birthday they fought a considerably difficult battle, with a great loss of life. But being war the regimental brass decided that it was still proper to celebrate the 60th anniversary. They mixed up a cocktail made of dark rum, brown sugar and water and served it in white china mugs found in a partly destroyed farmhouse.

One of the contributors to the decline of the professional bartender is the Ready To Drink Malt Beverage (RTD), aka coolers or alcopops. These beverages are the quick solution to a thirsty crowd and a low overhead, money machine for the bar owner. They come in an amazing array of colours and flavours, mostly synthetic, and are usually carbonated. They are sweet with an alcoholic punch, usually a higher ABV than beer, and they are made so that they won’t offend most people, nor will they impress anyone. The target market is Generation Y and Generation XL, thankfully I’m Generation X and have no interest in a sickly sweet, lightly carbonated, candy flavoured alcopo. But there are many people out there who love them, or at least think they do, and this is a problem to the professional bartender.

It seems people are finding lots of old bottles of whisky that are still sealed and are wondering whether they are still good and what the value of the bottle would be. For the most part any bottle of unsealed high proof spirit should be safe, as we’ve seen by the sales of very old scotch whiskies. As for the value of these old bottles it will depend on the type of spirit and the stated age (i.e. how long it was barrel aged) and how old the bottle is. For example a bottle of Glenavon whisky from 1851 sold for about $29,000. The bottles that will attract the most interest would be anything pre-prohibition, or items that are out of production. But there are exceptions to this and even I would be interested in comparing some old Canadian whiskies, like a bottle of Crown Royal from the 1940's.

One of the issues that impedes great cocktail creation is access to quality fresh fruit. Certain parts of the world, like California and Florida, have access to fresh fruit pretty much year round. As for bartenders in more northern climates, it becomes costly to use fresh fruit, plus the quality is mostly lacking after two weeks on a truck and storage in a cavernous warehouse. Because of this there are all sorts of sub-par, sugar loaded and artificially flavoured fruit substitutes out there and they don’t leave much to be desired. They especially don’t make for a good tasting drinks. But luckily there are some quality options out there, including frozen fruit purees from Boiron who sent me a couple of samples to try.

After browsing the Mixology Monday summary over at the Welfed Network: The Spirit World, I noticed that they are in the process of nominating the "Best Blogs".  In the catagory of Drink Blogs, it looks like wine blogs are clustering near the top. So, if you are interested in furthering the cocktail revival please feel free to head on over and nominate a cocktail blog. Feel free to nominate any cocktail website, be it The Art of Drink, Cocktail Chronicles, Day's That End in Y or Martini Lounge, among others. Please note that there are rules as to who can be nominated. To nominate a drink blog, post a comment on the following page with your choice: Nominations

It is the holiday season and Mixology Monday, being hosted by The Spirit World has decided it should be a festive occasion. There are so many great drinks during this season, some people turn to punches, other the ubiquitous egg nogg and others a Hot Buttered Rum in front of the fire place. Well I don’t have a fire place, so Hot Buttered Rum is out. There isn’t anyone around, so mixing up a punch would be a waste, so it looks like a cocktail is in order. A while back I was tasting Port and came across a cocktail called a Feliz Natal, which means Merry Christmas in Portugese, and it seems appropriate for this Mixology Monday.

Ask any bar manager what’s the most important skill is for a bartender and you’ll get a lot of different answers. Some will respond that speed is key, others will say a good personality, more will say appearance is important, and then you’ll get one or two who say mixology skills are key. There are a lot of things that definitely make a great bartender, like being trustworthy, friendly, reliable, hard working, clean and organized but those are important aspects for any employee. The one skill that I think makes a great bartender is memory. And if you are an aspiring bartender I’ll explain why and give you some tips on improving your memory.

Well, living in Canada you expect to get snow, and usually lots of it throughout the winter, but when you get it all at once, it makes for eventful nights. In a period of 24 hours, 60 centimetres (two feet) of snow has been unloaded upon this region. Everything is now at a stand still, schools are closed, business are slowly opening and only essential people are being asked to go to work. Well being a bartender, I assume I’m essential, so I’ll be driving into the restaurant, later today, to provide people suffering from “cabin fever” some respite.

Today, December 5th, marks the day that prohibition ended in the US, back in 1933. Prohibition is often referred to as the “noble experiment”, which is really all spin.  It wasn’t really noble and the results were anything but good. People turned to criminal elements to supply their spirits and operate the speakeasies of the 1920's. Illegally produced spirits, like “bathtub gin” were quite common, and deadly, but a lot of the liquor being supplied to the very thirsty USA was smuggled from other countries, like Canada. Yes, Canada the good, was actually Canada the booze black market. In effect, Canada was the supply line for quality spirits during America’s time of need. That’s what friends are for, to float you a drink when things are down.

The redesign of the site has been mostly completed, there are still a few touch ups here and there. The next part is adding additional functionality and information to the site. The first thing I’ll be rolling out is a cocktail database. Now I know what you are thinking; “How many more web sites do we need with ten thousand recipes and two hundred for a Sex on the Beach!”. Well, it isn’t going to be the worlds most comprehensive database, more like a historically accurate database with modifications for modernism. Also, I’ll be adding pages for beer and wine I try, basically my tasting notes will be online, but I’ll still be writing blog posts about the stuff I try. Shortly afterward I’ll be adding a search feature and whatever else I can think of doing.

The Cognac region of France has many great things to offer. Obviously Cognac is the most recognized product, win and champagne are also well known but there is also a product called Pineau de Charentes that is a combination of cognac and freshly pressed juice from very ripe grapes. This product is very common in the Cognac region of France, but the further you get from Cognac, the less know this product is. But really, it should be more well know because it has some great qualities and it differentiates itself from other wine based aperitifs. Best of all, it would work very well in cocktails.