Fernet Branca is member of the Amaro category of Italian liqueurs and bitters. In The Craft of the Cocktail, by Dale DeGroff, he recommends first trying Amaro Averna, which is both sweet and a bit bitter, and Branca Menta, which is Fernet Branca blended with creme de menthe. After enjoying those, he explains, you may […]

Pernod is intense. And lot’s of people find the pungent combination of star anise and aromatic herbs quite unpleasant. To be honest, anise used to be on my top five hated foods list as of four months ago. I didn’t really discriminate between licorice and anise, either. Nearly everything with those flavors, especially liquor, tasted […]

“Let’s do a taste test of the tonic water!” Dan utters with excitement after he notices that I’ve been grabbing both Schweppes and Canada Dry from the fridge during the tasting. By this point we had sampled several new “finds” from far away liquor stores in addition to conducting some unscientific comparisons between various whiskeys […]

According to the seasonal calendar of Kaiser Penguin, summer begins when the temperature hits a balmy 60° F, and I see no room to argue, because with warmer weather comes gin and tonics. Some would argue that drinks belong with their season. And although there are no hard-fast rules when it comes to matching drinks […]

Technically, the Pancho Villa takes its name not from the famous Mexican revolutionary, but from a Filipino Boxer who adopted the nickname. The fighter (real name Francisco Guilledo) is considered a national hero in the Phillipines. For more information, visit the Wikipedia article. This drink benefits from being very cold, so I would recommend using […]

My first cocktail book was The Craft of the Cocktail, by Dale DeGroff. Its tattered, multi-colored sticky pages continually bring me back for old favorites and new finds. When I got the book, I knew next to nothing about making cocktails; I had my assumptions, but that’s about it. Loving to cook, I figured that […]

Beachbum Berry’s Grog Log continues to fill me with the lust of the tiki. And even though my epic quest to acquire demerara rum in Pennsylvania continues to thwart me in every direction (save one, which will not be spoken of), there are still many recipes that I can make from the wondrous tome. I […]