Digging through old photo archives can lead you to some interesting discoveries. In this case I found a couple of interesting bourbon ads. The first is a trading card, printed for Big Spring whiskey, sometime between 1880 and 1920. What makes it interesting is that the subject is a naked woman. The second is for “Belle of Nelson Old fashion […]

Temper has a number of meanings, but they all stem from Latin which is “to moderate”. The Temperance movement took the term and used the more extreme definition of “to control”. Then there is “intemperance” which means “without moderation” and has strong associations with alcohol consumption and alcoholism. Extreme views are common place amongst many people, but I try to […]

The temperance movement most likely started shortly after alcohol was first consumed. Chronic alcohol consumption is a bad thing, and during the 1800s it was out of control in many places. To paraphrase Newton’s third law of motion: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Where there was a drinking problem, the Temperance Leagues intervened. Unlike the […]

We often see drinking and driving as recent problem (last 30 years or so) however the deadly combination of alcohol and motor vehicles has been know for over a century. When cars became common place, it didn’t take a genius to realize that driving while intoxicated resulted in serious consequences. One of the earliest observations came from Puck magazine in […]

This photo is a great example of what a classic soda fountain/pharmacy looked like around 1910. The picture was taken by the Detroit Publishing Company around 1910, but no information was provided on where it was taken, though it assumed to be in Detroit. Sandy Levine of The Oakland bar in Detroit suggested that it looks similar to the space […]

If you’ve read Fix the Pumps, you may have noticed that one of the reoccuring themes was the competition between saloons and pharmacies (bartenders and druggists) to hook the people on their tonics. Until 1906, when the Pure Food and Drugs Act was introduced, the local pharmacy/soda fountain had no restrictions on what they could serve and the taxes were […]

The world of alcohol is fraught with risks and great bartenders know how to manage them. One method is to insert a low or non-alcoholic drink into the mix. Unfortunately, most non-alcoholic drinks suck, though things are getting better. One area that offers a lot of potential is essential oils and soda fountain techniques. The actual “Holy Grail” would be […]

When it comes to drinks, a good cup of coffee is probably at the top of the list for many people, mine included. Like cocktails, there are decent cups of coffee, bad coffee and great coffee. A decent cup of coffee would be from a coffee shop chain like Tim Horton’s or Starbucks (suspect coffee quality with me). A bad […]

There, I said it. Actually, it was pointed out to me by SeanMike on Twitter that I have been saying this since 2010 at the first Portland Cocktail week. Before I said it, Rick Dobbs prophesied it back in 2008. Let’s say the writing was on the wall and today the coroner is just about to sign the death certificate. […]