The night before I departed for New Orleans I was at my parent's place hanging out. I just happened to be sitting beside a bookshelf and when I glanced over I noticed an old book called Recipes and Reminiscences of New Orleans (1971). Well it seemed to be a sign so I open the book and started browsing the recipes inside. One section of the book was dedicated to drinks of New Orleans and within the pages I came across the Douce Amere (Bitter Sweet) bitters recipe. I did a quick search on the Internet and only found references to a perfume, but nothing on this drink. It seemed like something that should be shared.

The idea of breakfast cocktails isn't particularly popular in modern times, except in certain locals. Where I live, no alcoholic beverage may be served before 11AM, except in a private residence. That pretty much makes it a lunch cocktail, or on weekends, a brunch cocktail. In the past, many drinks were considered early morning eye openers, hell the term "cocktail" was originally described as a drink enjoyed first thing in the morning. Some cocktails are still considered best served with breakfast, such as the Ramos Gin Fizz, Caesar (Bloody Mary), Mimosa and the Brandy Milk Punch.

Well, about Tales of the Cocktail anyway. You can only beat a dead horse for so long before you need to move on. This post will summarize all of the other great things and events that happened while I was in New Orleans. There is a lot to cover, including the Spirited Dinner at the Delachaise, the Rum Tasting, Jeff “Beachbum” Berry’s “Best of Show” presentation on all things Tiki, and the Absinthe session which has peaked my interest in this otherwise forgotten spirit. There were some other things in there as well, such as the VIP dinner, breakfast and the Cocktail Hour. I’ll touch on those briefly, but all the other cocktail bloggers have written about the same thing so I’ll try not to bore you. After this we will return to our regularly scheduled programming.

While at Tales of the Cocktail I participated in the Cocktails and the Blogosphere session. Paul did a great job of rounding things up and doing all the prep work, while the rest of us just blathered on about our blogs. Being bloggers, we are naturally long-winded, and love when people listen to us. Really, blogging is a cry for attention, well that’s what my wife says anyway. I believe that information should be free and opinions matter, so I share what little I know and give you my opinion on all things drink related. But when four people share a stage and only have 75 minutes to divulge everything they know about cocktail blogs, we inevitably ran out of time. So here is a summary of some things we discussed and some things I would have liked to discuss. 

Usually it’s my computer that crashes, not me, but yesterday my body ordered me to sleep more. It seems my body can’t do the living on four hours of sleep a night, for a week, anymore. But the resting was good and I did go to work so it wasn’t a complete crash. As I promised, here’s what happened on the Friday in New Orleans. You can also check out Cocktail Chronicles, Kaiser Penguin, Liquid Muse and On the House for other Tales of the Cocktail summary posts and comments.

I have returned from New Orleans with so much to write about that it will probably take a few days to cover everything. Also, I’ve used up every energy reserve I have, so I’m sleepy and my mind seems to be having a hard time recalling everything I’ve done in the past five days. That’s what happens when you only get four to five hours of sleep per night and then spend 14+ hours getting home. I think I’ll tackle this in reverse chronological order since the most recent memories are the easiest to remember.

by Caroline O'Neil

After taking inventory of Darcy’s liquor collection, I decided to award my favourites. I will openly admit that my taste buds are not as refined as Darcy’s and that I have not even come close to sampling everything in his bar. Some of the awards are simply based on experience. I have included a couple of additional categories for extra credit towards my homework. I’m sure that Darcy has already reviewed most of my selections so I will post a link to what the expert thinks.

And the winners are, drum roll please

Day 1 of Tales of the Cocktail has been great. I've met almost everyone in the first 12 hours og being here. New Orleans is a very interesting city, and I definately like it. Lots of character in the old buildings and many historical sites to see. But, my agenda is quiet busy so we'll see how much I can do outside of that. Excuse the abundant errors, I'm writing this on a PDA.

by Caroline O'Neil

Many of you may wonder what it is like to live with a real bartender. It certainly has its advantages. Personally I could not make a decent cocktail to save my life. Sure I can make the foolproof drink that only has two ingredients, such as a screwdriver. Anything more complicated than this and it is a complete train wreck. Over the years, I have learned a lot from Darcy but I certainly prefer him behind the bar. I think back to our waffle making competitions we held every week early in our relationship. We came up with the perfect waffle recipe that we still enjoy every weekend. Now Darcy is pretty crafty because he let me win the waffle competition. Guess what? Seven years later and I’m still making the waffles. Therefore, I have no intention of entering the cocktail competition with him. I’ve learned my lesson; I will sit back and simply enjoy his wonderful creations.

by Caroline O'Neil

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself as Darcy’s secretary/wife. For the next few days I will become the Cocktail Widow. I have been a part of the Art of Drink in spirit. However, I am now in the vicarious position of maintaining Darcy’s website in his absence. Some of you are fortunate to be attending Tales of the Cocktail with Darcy but most of us are stuck at home. Now I would have been very disappointed if I was left at home in a Canadian snowstorm while he basked in the sun. However, it is still summer here so I plan on catching a few rays myself. First of all, I would like to submit a disclaimer that if his website goes up in flames during his absence I am not responsible. So what are my credentials? Well, I can’t even enter the previous discussion of Bartender vs Mixologist because I would classify myself as a mere guinea pig. I have been subjected to many of Darcy’s creations over the years and I’m still alive to tell about it. I do recall making a webpage back in one of my university courses and this is in fact my first blog posting. I don’t want anyone to hit the panic button because I was given a crash course called, Maintaining a Website 101, before he boarded the plane. So as you can see I have very big shoes to fill over the next few days.

The week is finally here and I’ll be flying out early tomorrow morning to New Orleans. I think tomorrow may very well be a 20+ hour day. Up at 4AM to get to the airport and the VIP dinner is tomorrow night, which may lead to a long, but fun, evening. Anyway, my agenda is pretty full so I’m not sure how many posts I’ll get to do while I’m in New Orleans, plus I lost my PDA which I was going to use to post (yay, my wife found it, so expect more posts!). I’ve lined up a guest blogger who’ll provide some humorous content on Friday. A full write up, with pictures, will be forth coming when I return. So here’s what going on in New Orleans.

It’s another Mixology Monday and this edition is brought to you by Paul at the Cocktail Chronicles and the topic is Blog Love. What is Blog Love you ask? Well according to Paul, since the number of cocktail and spirit blogs is growing like an unabated rabbit orgy, we should each show another blog some love. Consider it “hug a cocktail blog day”. So which blog is going to get some kudos from The Art of Drink?

This weekend was the 4th annual Drinks Show held at the Brick Works in Toronto. This event was created by Laura and Michelle of the Martini Club as a way of celebrating modern cocktail culture. The show is a cocktails only, no beer, no wine, which is a nice touch because focus is good. It runs from 5PM to 11PM Friday and Saturday and parking is effectively no existant, but they do provide free bus service to, and from, the show to select locations in Toronto. This was my first year attending the Drinks Show, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Here’s how it turned out.

Carbonated beverages play a significant role in the word of mixology. Coke, Pepsi, 7–Up, Sprite and the list goes on and on have all helped make a better cocktail. The Cuba Libra wouldn’t exist without it, nor would the Pimms Cup or the 7&7. They all require some sort of sugar laden, carbonated beverage to make them shine. But people are changing their drinking habits, they are starting to look at how many calories are in a drink. Say good bye Colorado Bulldog with your Coke and cream combination. People want good drinks with health benefits. Is that even possible? Air Force Nutrisoda thinks so.

With the temperature getting hotter and hotter every day this summer, the efforts to find something cool and refreshing gets easier and easier. Basically, anything cold will work, but beers from Belgium tend to have a knack for summer thirst quenching. Belgium lambics are spontaneous fermented beers with a characteristic sour finish. Many lambics incorporate fruit into the aging process. This results is a great, refreshing beer for those hot summer days. Depending on where you live, the hard part may actually be finding one of these great beers.

As I was perusing the Liquid Muse’s blog, Natalie had a great topic in one of her posts. During an interview she called Rick, from Martini Groove, a “mixologist” and his response was that the term should be banned from the English lexicon. I found that to be an odd response. But a little discussion started about which term is used where and why people would choose one over the other. I found it quite interesting and decided that we should open up the discussion over here.

The Internet is awash with videos of how to make cocktails, but as we have seen, many of them are very, very bad. But thankfully the Small Screen Network has taken production values, and mixology, seriously and created The Cocktail Spirit, which is hosted by Robert “Drinkboy” Hess. Each week Robert talks about something mixology related, be it a classic cocktail, how to setup a bar or interviews with industry people. As many of you know Robert is a dedicated advocate for the classic cocktail. He also takes his drinking seriously, so when you’re watching each episode take note of the excruciating detail of every drink being made. I’m waiting for the episode where Robert shows us his modern cocktail creating skills and creates something brand new. Check it out.

The online world of the cocktail just keeps growing. I always like to post about these new sites to help encourage the owners to continue writing. Recognition is the only reward they may get for all of their research, photography, video editing and writing efforts. On a related note, Paul, over at Cocktail Chronicles, has been doing a great job of highlighting the new spirit and cocktail based websites popping up around the Internet, but if you haven’t browsed over there, then here is what’s new.