Clik here to view.
Now Boarding TikiKon Air: Iron TikiTender 2015 Recipes from Seattle Bartenders
A highlight of the CocktailWonk blog last year was attending TikiKon 2014 in the Portland/Vancouver vortex. In addition to classes and parties, my personal highlight was the Iron TikiTender...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Getting in sync with Sauza 901: Justin Timberlake wants you to buy, buy,...
With the rise of upscale artisanal tequilas like Partida, Fortaleza, and Suerte, the big tequila heavyweights like Jose Cuervo and Sauza have seen an opportunity (or threat) and released new products...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Check out Pacific Northwest distilleries and watch me judge a cocktail competion
This Friday, 5/15, is the Seattle Uncorked "Meet Your Makers" event. A number of local and nearby distilleries (including 3 Howls, Captive Spirits, Oregon Spirits Distillers, Westland, and Oola) will...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Checking out Amaro Lucano
Several years ago, when I was a less-experienced cocktail wonk just starting with my spirits collection, I quickly ran head-first into the confusing category of amaros (aka amari), Italian for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cocktail Obsession: Hemingway in the Hebrides
I have a (bad) habit of conjuring up spirit flavor combinations that sound great in my head, then inflicting those ideas as off-menu request to my favorite Seattle bartenders. An entirely drinkable...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Checking out Alberta Rye Whisky Dark Batch, A Most Unusual Canadian Rye
As a cocktail wonk, I’m constantly expanding my spirits library, building an essential set of specimens representing the major spirits categories. My whisk(e)y collection has grown steadily, with...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Checking out Afrohead XO Rum
Unless you’re a spirits aficionado, you might not know about blending and the role of the “master blender.” And it might be a surprise to you that, say, a seven year bourbon isn’t simply liquor that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Gin is Big at Seattle’s Captive Spirits
My GPS tells me that I’ve arrived, but I’m not quite sure I believe it. I’m trying to find Captive Spirits, in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, but I’m clearly on a residential street, and the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Checking out Mezan Jamaican XO Rum
Having recently inventoried and loosely categorized my ever-growing rum collection in a spreadsheet (because that’s what wonks do), it’s no surprise that Jamaican rums are among the best represented on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cocktail Obsession: The Starboard (Pisco, Suze, and Apricot)
One of the benefits of getting to know your local bartender is figuring out what they’re passionate about and then letting them run loose with that desire. At a recent pisco throwdown at Damn the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Meet Dozens of Pacific Northwest Distillers at Proof Washington – July 11th,...
While visiting distilleries is always the best way to meet the folks who craft your spirits, the Proof Washington Distillers Festival is the next best option for sampling spirits from dozens of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Reviewing Paul Clarke’s The Cocktail Chronicles: Navigating the Cocktail...
As an avowed wonk about all things spirited, I have a secret shame involving books about cocktails and drinking. I have more than a few, including most of the current “must haves” of the past decade:...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Checking out Copacabana 1940 Rum
One of the best things about Instagram, assuming you follow the right folks, is see a ton of interesting things you wouldn’t see otherwise know about. Recently on my feed I came across Copacabana Rums....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Minimalist Tiki: What you truly need to make the classics at home
Recently there’s been a torrent of articles in the mainstream press heralding the re-emergence of Tiki drinks as worthy of the craft cocktail movement, and highlighting well-regarded top-tier Tiki bars...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Wonk’s First Trip to Tales of the Cocktail
It’s 11 PM, and after a long day, Mrs. Wonk and I are bone-tired. Yet we’re standing in a large courtyard in New Orleans where despite the late time, it’s still approximately 1000 degrees. On a raised...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rumtastic Happenings at Tales of the Cocktail 2015
David Wondrich, Martin Cate, Paul Clarke, Alexandre Gabriel, Jeff BerryIt’s 8:45 AM on the second full day of Tales of the Cocktail 2015, and I’m in bed, dreading the imminent alarm clock. Only a few...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Grape Escape: Peru’s Pisco Varietals at Tales of the Cocktail 2015
Pisco is a spirit that’s taken me a while to wrap my head around. A clear, grape-based spirt from South America, I’ve been enchanted by it since my first sip, and later making my first pisco punch at...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Wonky New Orleans Cocktail Bar Roundup
If there’s one thing New Orleans is not short on, it’s bars. In the touristy part of town (the French Quarter) you can’t go more than a block without seeing people spilling out of a bar, clutching...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Plantation Rums Brings Out the Rarities at Tales of the Cocktail 2015
The agony and ecstasy of Plantation Rums is a direct result of their many, many releases of rums purchased from distilleries around the world and finished in France. Once you’re hooked on their sublime...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lost Spirits Rumbles into High Gear: Aging Reactor Release Imminent
After Lost Spirits’ big announcementthis past April that they’d be leasing their revolutionary “reactor” aging technology to other distilleries, owners Bryan Davis and Joanne Haruta have gone mostly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Vermouth: A Wonky Primer on What It Is and How to Care for It
There’s an old trope about ordering a “dry” martini so devoid of vermouth that the bottle was merely opened in an adjoining room, or that the word “vermouth” was merely whispered nearby. People who...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Checking out the La Quintinye Vermouth Lineup
Every so often, a press release for a new product jumps off the screen to capture my attention. Such was the case when I read about La Quintinye vermouths, which claim to be the first vermouths made...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Unveiling the THEA One Aging Reactor from Lost Spirits
Driving through Silicon Valley on U.S. 101, you’d be forgiven if you didn’t notice the southernmost town of Morgan Hill, a dusty bedroom community of 40,000 residents, two freeway exits, a Walmart, and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Checking out Tanqueray's Bloomsbury Limited Release Gin
With the rise of craft spirits, established brands are finding themselves under attack by an army of Lilliputians, all touting their small batch, artisanal, hand-crafted credentials to great effect in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
California Rum Fest 2015 and Rational Spirits Santeria Pre-Launch
It’s 10 PM on Saturday night and I’m standing in the dark by the side of Highway 17 in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. Bryan Davis, master distiller of Lost Spirits holds his iPhone aloft,...
View Article
