Cocktailians

So Yeah, It's Been A While

Which isn't to say that I haven't been busy. I've been writing a lot elsewhere, but will renew my efforts to keep up the ship here. For you. Yes, you. You're my favorite.

I've been writing for CNN:

• National Mint Julep Day;
• National Bourbon Day;
• National Dry Martini Day;
• National Anisette Day; and
• National Pina Colada Day.

And I've been reviewing new and new-ish cocktail bars in New York for Diffords Guide's CLASS Magazine, which has been tons of fun. Here are links to my reviews:

• October 12, 2011, when I reviewed Ai Fiori, The Lantern's Keep, JBird (the original location, before they decamped to the Upper East Side), White & Church, Theater Bar, and Rum House;
• November 29, 2011, when I reviewed On The Rocks, The Bar Downstairs at the Andaz, Bathtub Gin, The Tippler, Amor Y Amargo, and Lani Kai;
• February 28, 2012, when I reviewed The Beagle, Mother's Ruin, Prima, The Vault at Pfaff's, Silver Lining, and Whitehall;
• April 19, 2012, when I reviewed Booker & Dax, The Wren, The Wayland, The Shanty, Anejo, and Pulqueria; and
• June 20, 2012, when I reviewed Experimental Cocktail Club, Ginny's Supper Club, The Daily, The Library at NoMad, Demi Monde, and Madam Geneva.

More TK as I write 'em!

I'll Make It A True Daily Double (Shot), Alex

We here at Cocktailians are as pleased as punch that one of our authors, one Tony Hightower, appeared on Jeopardy! this week, and downright surprised and tickled that he gave this li'l ole blog a shoutout in his chat with Alex. (Yours truly, the other co-author, was on the show some ten years ago, but didn't do nearly as well.)

It's been a crazy several months around here, and we have several posts in the pipeline, so stay tuned. But if you want to find out more about what we do, feel free to read, poke around the archives, and drop us a line. (And here are some links to some of our greatest-hits posts. and more info on Paul Clarke's great Mixology Monday, or check out the "MxMo" category here for our entries.) We hope you stick around.

Drinky Linky: M'Aidez Edition

It's not May flowers as much as May showers, if I look out the window at Cocktailians HQ -- remembering to move the bottles on the windowsill full of various infusions -- but it seems as good a time as any to check in.

 The winners of Saveur.com's Best Food Blogs Awards have been announced, and DrinkDogma takes the Best Cocktail Blog award. Huge congratulations to Bobby and the Anvil/DrinkDogma team for their good-looking, solidly-written, well-photographed site. I'm humbled and honored that Cocktailians was nominated, especially in such august company, and everyone that voted for us has my utmost thanks. All of my fellow nominees do quality work, and you should check them out -- Alcademics, Kaiser Penguin, Jeffrey Morgenthaler, and Cask Strength. (Shame on me; I hadn't been familiar with Cask Strength until his nomination. Andrew Bohrer's a hilarious, passionate writer, and I'm pleased to add him to the blogroll. (To my further shame: I need to update the blogroll one of these months.))

Here's what else has been catching my eye on my traipses around the interwebs of late:

• Are you familiar with "wiking"? The combination of wine-tasting and hiking is apparently big. (Next up, if I can figure out how to keep everything cold, is my company which will outfit and lead people on "walktails.")
• Jeremiah's Vanishing New York finds beauty in Sardi's and its swizzle sticks;
• More white dog/new make unaged whiskey is hitting the market! Yeah, it's trendy, but it's an interesting trend;
• Can cocktails improve your complexion? Frank Bruni investigates. (I'm glad he did and not me, as Provocateur sounds like a perfectly horrid place...part and parcel of why Team Cocktailians tends to avoid the meatpacking district.) One would think that if booze really makes one's skin better, Bompas & Parr's 2009 experiment with alcoholic gin mist would've tightened wrinkles all over SoHo;
• Does the "perfect bourbon" exist? Buffalo Trace thinks so, and is trying to narrow down exactly what that might be;
• Dean Martin's recipe for bourbon burgers;
• and to complete the bourbon trifecta, a look at bargain bourbons that are still worth drinking;
• Toby Cecchini's recipe for lime/ginger cordial looks really good. Your gimlets may thank you;
• If you're interested in synesthesia, how better to investigate the phenomenon than by visualizing the flavors of cocktails?
• I like me a Negroni, and it's always easy to talk most bartenders through one. Frank Bruni pronounces the Negroni Sbagliato at dell'Anima a drink for an imperfect world. I'm not sure I'd go that far -- gin is lovely, after all -- but it's good addition to the palette. I'd be remiss if I didn't note that Cocktailians visited dell'Anima a few years ago, and it appears that their current Negroni Sbagliato is an evolution of their earlier Roasted Orange Negroni, which went down very nicely indeed;
• Amor Y Amargo. A "bitters tasting room", run by the Bittermens folks. Interesting;
• "A swirl of gin, and just a hint of tonic." Anderson Cooper introduces his "white bread ripple";
• Derby Day wasn't long ago, and Saveur presented some variations on the classic mint julep that may be of interest as the summer unfurls;
• CitySip profiles five New York hotel bars;
• and Auntie Beeb names America's best cocktail bars;
• a primer on the Margarita;
• the Piri Pressure sounds really good;
• a lovely post on the Americano;
• "Do You Need to Think When You Drink?" Robert Simonson recaps a discussion on mixological historicism, in the Times;
• So last month I mentioned the various royal-wedding-themed drinks out there. (And I'm still getting them in the mail! Cunard's line of themed Bombay Sapphire cocktails looked good.) But apparently what the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge prefer is the "crack baby": the oh-so-PC mix of passion fruit, champagne, and vodka. But if Big Willie and Babykins' (see? The things you learn from Radar magazine...) favorite cocktail isn't frightening enough...then check out this amazing picture of Kathie Lee Gifford trying one out. (Previous actual royal cocktails include the Prince of Wales cocktail and the Queen's and her mother's well-documented love of gin and Dubonnet.) 

Vote For Meeeeee!

Well, what a lovely suprise that was! I went to Vermont for a few days (reviews of maple bitters and maple liqueur TK), and return to find that Cocktailians has been named one of six finalists in the Best Cocktail Blog category of Saveur.com's Best Food Blog Awards.

It's quite an honor, and we're up against some very fine blogs, heavy hitters all: Alcademics, Cask Strength, Drink Dogma, Jeffrey Morgenthaler, and Kaiser Penguin. I hope you go and check all of them out.

However, I'd be lyin' if I didn't say that I hope you come right back and vote for Cocktailians. Voting's open till May 12, and I'd love it if we had your support. Thank you!

Welcome, Wooters

Hey Wooters: welcome, thanks for weading my bwog. (And thanks to Scott Lydon for the linklove. Drinks on me next time.)

If you enjoyed the post on airborne cocktailing, you may also like some other favorite posts:

• Terrible, Terrible (Hopefully Fictional) Drinks;
• High-Tech Cocktails;
• and from the same mad scientist, the Red Hot Poker;
• Seder Ain't So, a Passover-themed cocktail;
• Mint Julep Time;
• Splice the Mainbrace, with a history of Royal Navy rum;
• the Prince of Wales Cocktail, one of my favorite 19th-century drinks;
• Bourbon Slushies and the Party Vortex;
• a Pre-Prohibition Cocktail Party at Keen's Steakhouse in Manhattan;
• Here's How To Mix Them, an aural cocktail manual from the 1950s;
• Chilling Effects: The Intellectual Property of Booze;
• Homemade Maraschino Cherries; and
• my Ironclad Rules of Drinking (though I'm beginning to relax a bit on #4.)

Enjoy, and feel free to stick around, read, and comment.

Noggin' It

You really should go over to Eatocracy and check out this post I wrote on eggnog and some variations thereof. (Included: Jeffrey Morgenthaler's eggnog recipe, my mother's favorite eggnog recipe, and my grandmother's recipe for Southern Boiled Custard. All yummy.)

Diary of a Tales Virgin, Part 1

I'm greatly enjoying my time at Tales of the Cocktail so far. Hotter than the hobs of Hades, as my friend Tizzie puts it, but it certainly feels goshdarned civilized to stroll down the sidewalk with a St. Germain cocktail clutched in one's paw. (The impending Tropical Storm Bonnie should at least dump some rain here. I think I'll stay inside the Hotel Monteleone, only leaving for medicinal Powerade refills and fried-oyster po'boys. We journalists suffer, I tell you.)

I've had excellent food at Green Goddess and the Acme Oyster House and Nola and the Old Coffee Pot so far. But how were the cocktails? My God, this place is amazing. Yesterday I had to pause and realize that I had to slow down and pace myself, because I was reaching the point where I had to pay attention to my consumption of free drinks or else lose my effectiveness for the day. It was 10am.

Thank goodness there is coffee available -- you just have to remember that spiking said coffee with Kahlua Especial is going to have an effect. But chalk up any sightings of green monkeys and man-sized celery stalks to the booze industry's promo folks, and not what's nestled in your tasting glass. (I'm proud of that link, by the way: my first CNN.com byline.)

More soon.

I Hear The Kids (Ahem, Those Over 21) Love It

In case you do that crazy Facebook thang, Cocktailians now has a Facebook page.  Express your fandom!

Green-Eyed Monster

Okay, I don't have much here, except to say how insanely jealous I am of all of the Tales of the Cocktail crowd.  Looks like it was a very good time.  I anxiously await all the wrap-ups.

TypePad Featured Blog

Thanks to TypePad, our blogging engine, for making Cocktailians one of their Featured Blogs on Wednesday.