Recent Posts

bar, bartending

Bartender’s Resume

When you first decide you want to be a bartender, you usually pick up a book or two about cocktails and then maybe sign up for a bartending course. All of this effort will get you started, but bar schools usually don’t impress employers, they want experience. Knowing all of your cocktails is great too, but just because you know […]

Blog Post

Skinny Girl Margarita

The Margarita is most likely the number one requested summer cocktail. The problem is that very few people actually enjoy a genuine Margarita. Early in its history, it was a simple drink–related to the Daisy class of alcoholic drinks–which consisted of tequila, triple sec, lime and salt. Sadly, over the last 30 years, this poor cocktail has been maimed and […]

Blog Post

Fix The Pumps Amsterdam!

If you happen to be residing in Europe, or loitering around the area on vacation or other such adventure, there is a little event happening in Amsterdam on August 23rd at Vesper. Philip Duff has offered to host this intimate soiree and introduce attendees to some lost drinks and interesting soda fountain ingredients from the book Fix the Pumps. Philip […]

Soda

Seltzer Works

Very rarely do I post PR material, but in some cases the information is actually interesting and useful. This one isn’t even about a product, more about a TV show on PBS looking into the world of seltzer and the people / companies that sell it the old fashioned way, in glass syphon bottles. For anyone who liked Fix the […]

History, Soda

They Thirst for Cocaine

The title of this post may sound like something out of a fictional tabloid you get at the grocery store checkout, but it comes from the Los Angeles Times (February 25, 1902 edition). I’ve posted the newspaper article because it is an excellent example of what soda fountains were really like at the turn of the 20th century. Plus it […]

bar

Last Gasp of a Dinosaur

There is an interesting post over at the Bartending Magazine blog about the new complex nature of cocktails. To summarize the post, the author laments the fact that progress is interfering with “;classic cocktails”, like the Rum and Coke and Screwdrivers, because these newfangled cocktails require things like egg whites and uncommon liqueurs. From the post one thing is apparent, […]

Soda

Lactart

Acid Phosphate may have been all the rage during they heyday of the soda fountain but that didn’t mean it was the only alternative beverage acidulent. There were actually a number of competitors, most of them trying to cash in on Acid Phosphates popularity. Some used hydrochloric acid, a not so great drinking option. Another one was called Lactart and […]

Travel

Tales 2010 Summary

Wow, what a week. This year was bigger and better than last year. In fact there were so many people I wanted to have a drink with that there just wasn’t enough time. But I did manage to drink my fair share and chat with a lot of people. This year I went as a presenter and not media. I […]

Cocktails

Feliz Natal Christmas Cocktail

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, […]