The world of blogging is interesting, to say the least. To be successful, you must be passionate about your topic and secondly you must write without reservations or expectations. That means you do it because you like to, not because you get paid. For most bloggers, in the cocktail realm, that is the standard. Sure there are perks, like free booze mail, which causes a Pavlovian response everytime the UPS truck drives past the house. Or better yet, there are a few advertisers that pay to place a banner on our sites and I’d just like to make mention of it.

With all of the mega-brewers heading in the same direction (i.e. mergers) we will eventually have a monobrew that doesn't offend anyone, nor does it excite anyone. Thankfully, we have a bevy of microbrewers that are creating something unique for those of us that appreciate choice in our life. One of those microbrewers has just started production 20 minutes from my doorstep, so I thought I'd venture out and support some local talent. Now let us see if Iron Spike Blonde is worthy of the trip to St. Thomas.

Well, I've decided to bring the Art of Drink to Facebook. Why? Because it is the trendy thing to do of course. On AoD I like to do long winded diatribes about what I love and hate about all things drink related. But, Facebook should give me an opportunity to do shorter, more tolerable, soap box preaching on all things drink. Sound like fun doesn't it? Come join the fun, you know you want too.

The cocktail is going through another "golden age", but it seems to be happening in only a handful of locales. This is understandable, since renewed ideas take time to grow and spread. But, in the city I live, London, Ontario (Canada) the idea of a good, or interesting, cocktail is about as alien as life from another planet. I am literally stuck in a cocktail backwater where ordering anything that is not a Cosmopolitan or Vodka Martini is effectively impossible. If I want to have a good cocktail I can drive two hours to Toronto or possibly 90 minutes to Detroit. Having said that, Detroit probably won't be a cocktail mecca anytime soon. 

This months Mixology Monday topic is rum, which is a spirit I very much enjoy. I have a fairly decent collection of rum and most of it is purchased based on reviews, curiosity or recommendations. To celebrate Mixology Monday I decided to add another bottle of rum to my collection, and this time it falls under the "curiosity" category. Why, you may ask? Well, because the 2008 San Francisco Spirits Competition picked it as a gold medal winner in the dark rum category. "Big deal" you say, "everything wins a medal in San Francisco". But this time it was a rum I've passed by many times, never giving it a second thought, but with that gold medal, they at least increased their sales by one bottle.