San Francisco’s 2nd annual Cocktail Week kicked off last night with free cocktails at Harry Denton’s Starlight Room atop the Sir Francis Drake hotel. The place was packed, as you might expect when one of the city’s cocktail hot spots is giving away the goods. Denton himself (at right) was on hand, along with [...]

My trip to Portland last year included several visits to Powell’s book store. For those who don’t know of it, imagine a used book store that stocked 5-10 new used cocktail guides nearly every day. Seriously. Cocktails for Two caught my eye, and unsurprisingly so. The cover features a Manhattan poised [...]

Little gives me more pleasure than extracting dusty, unappreciated bottles from my liquor cabinet and putting them through the gauntlet. I’d bet many of you have a mostly-filled bottle of Lillet Blanc hibernating amongst more frequented spirits. It comes out a few times a year, brings smiles to onlookers, and then resumes napping, [...]

[ed. A question about green cocktails was posed during one of the panels at Rum Fest yesterday which just happened to coincide with Blog Action Day, so I've consulted our resident environmentally friendly forest creature and connoisseur of fine exotic cocktails, Adam. Adam provided the deliciously green photo above as well.]
Yesterday was Blog Action Day, [...]

I am totally amazed how the Test Pilot has evolved since my post about it over a year ago. The first time I made it, I used the following recipe:

Test Pilot

1/2oz lime juice
1/2oz falernum
1/2oz Cointreau
1 dash Angostura bitters
1/8t Pernod
3/4oz light Puerto Rican rum
1 1/2oz dark Jamaican rum

Blend with 1c crushed ice for 5 seconds, [...]

Saturday Recap
12:01am - Gretchen and I were sitting in the lobby of Hotel Monteleone eating awesome pralines from the Southern Candy Makers. More importantly, there was a peanut butter-filled Ritz cracker sandwich coated entirely in bittersweet chocolate. Before long, Chuck and Wesley showed up and joined us in the comfy seats. The [...]

I am a lurker. And according to my stats, 90% of you are too. How do you know if you’re a lurker?
Let us imagine together …

You are sitting at your computer sipping a tasty concoction, one of your standbys, and going through your list of bookmarked cocktail blogs. You scan headlines looking [...]

After enjoying the Coronado Luau Special for the first time at Forbidden Island, I knew I must add it to my overwhelming collection of tiki drinks that make up the summer schedule. I rushed home and eagerly flipped through the citrus-stained and rum-marked pages of Berry’s books for the recipe …
I must pause to [...]

Winter’s icy scepter has finally made its killing stroke. The wind chill brought the temperature down to -18F today. Is it wrong that all I can think about is if I can get my ice down to that temperature so I can crush it for tiki drinks?
Truth be told, the tiki gods have [...]

It’s not often you come across a cocktail that so successfully combines six liqueurs, and especially not one that does so with equal measurements. I somehow graced over this daring conglomeration on my first … ok, 50th time through The Gentleman’s Companion Vol. II, but I sure am glad I found it.
I would expect [...]