Saturday, February 22 is National Margarita Day. If you’re at least middle-aged and the date sounds vaguely familiar, it used to be celebrated as Washington’s birthday. Nowadays we commemorate our first president on the third...
Read MoreHypochondria has its unsung benefits: There are people who pretend to be sick just to have an excuse to drink hot toddies. I suspect there are also individuals who visit ski resorts for the same reason, although this seems to be...
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Everyone loves a good story; in fact, if the tale is good enough, few people really care if it’s...
Read MoreThe Hemingway industry is alive and flourishing in many places, but most of all in Florida. The number of bars in the Sunshine State in which Papa allegedly drank is only exceeded by the New England stopovers in which George...
Read MoreAbout six weeks ago I did a post on bizarre beverages, and made the observation that yesterday’s strange beverage is today’s commonplace quaff. Yoghurt liqueur is a good example. Ten years ago it would have made most Top Ten...
Read MoreBy Mark Spivak Like most classic cocktails, the origin of the Pina Colada is shrouded in mystery, and there are many different versions of how it appeared on the scene. The most romantic story, and probably untrue, was that it...
Read MoreAt the mention of Bourbon, our thoughts turn to Kentucky. Bourbon whiskey was declared to be a “distinctive product of the United States” in a joint Congressional resolution issued on May 4, 1964, and the lawmakers went on to...
Read MoreSous Vide has intrigued me a long time. Leave it to Mark Spivak to see how creative and cutting edge bartenders are using this method to infuse spirits. ~MDH . . Over the past decade, the sous vide cooking process has morphed...
Read MoreMany Americans are unaware of cachaça even though it is the most popular distilled spirit in Brazil. An astonishing 175 million cases are produced each year, but most of it is consumed within the country; while no more than 10%...
Read More“Organic” is one of the buzz words of the moment, and consumers are making an effort to seek out products that are naturally and sustainably grown. It wasn’t always so, particularly in the beverage world. A decade or two ago,...
Read MoreIf consumers confuse Livermore’s Concannon Vineyard with the Irish whiskey of the same name, the mixup is understandable—the two products have a common lineage. James Concannon left Ireland for America in 1865, harboring...
Read MoreThe art of pairing beverages with food is comparatively new, and with good reason: Historically, the dividing line between liquids and solids was a very fine one. The most obvious example is soup, which has been produced since...
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