The Coolest People In Drink Slideshow

In a cocktail culture where everyone is going old-school, Arnold is going old-school in the style of a modern-day chemistry geek. At the newly launched New York City bar Booker and Dax, he is the visionary behind a bloody mary riff that calls for horseradish essential oil, tomato juice clarified by centrifuge, and a glass chilled by liquid nitrogen. But enough beating around the bush: Arnold is cool because he literally custom-built a red-hot poker to heat cocktails with; cooler still is that it's more than a gimmick — the poker caramelizes the sugars in the alcohol and enhances the flavor of the cocktail.

A tall guy, with wavy gray hair and a pleasantly goofy grin, Beveridge studied geology and geophysics and ran dynamite crews for oil rigs in South America before drifting into the mortgage business. But with a name like Beveridge... well... He started making a little vodka under the counter for friends, gradually taught himself the distiller's art for real, and got the first legal distillery license in Texas in modern times, eventually launching Tito's Homemade Vodka. The bottles are plain, the labels straightforward, and the vodka is really good and smooth and cool as a Texas drawl.

Cooper is well-known in art circles for his light sculptures and other environmental installations, but after he discovered true artisanal mezcals in the Oaxaca countryside in 1990, he saw a different kind of light and made it his mission to bring these unique and powerful spirits to an American audience. Cooper's Del Maguey bottlings are produced absolutely by hand, from agave hearts roasted in stone pits and ground in horse-powered mills; some are trucked out to market on muleback. Much more varied in flavor than tequilas, these are superior spirits, and the intense but affable Cooper proselytizes for them with charm and serene savvy.

Or, as he likes to call himself, "provocateur, punster, philosopher & winemaker." Lanky and long-faced, with an abundant ponytail and owlish glasses, Grahm was one of the original Rhône Rangers — American vintners who specialize in southern French varieties — with his Santa Cruz-based Bonny Doon winery, and may well have coined the term. It's his kind of pun. (His book Been Doon So Long includes chapters with titles like "Trotanoy's Complaint," "Howlbariño," and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Rootstock.") Grahm gave us Big House Wines (since sold off) and continues to produce lots of very good stuff, much of it Rhône-inspired, usually under engagingly silly names.

The Dublin [Texas] Bottling Works was dealt a nasty blow when their leading soft drink, so-called Dublin Dr Pepper — sweetened with cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup — was essentially forced into early retirement through a settlement with the Dr Pepper Snapple Group. The public outcry was significant, and the hoarding of the overnight-collector's item bottles was fast and furious. Impressively, the person who has reacted best to this loss is the one individual who should be the most upset: Jeff Kloster, co-owner and vice president of Dublin Bottling Works. Instead of sulking over the loss of what was his best-selling product, Kloster stayed cool, and has taken the opportunity to revamp the company's line of sodas, becoming something of an icon in the craft soda industry in the process.  
Says Kloster, "I'm having the most fun I've ever had going out and marketing our beverages because the Dublin name has such a great, positive customer identification. It's just phenomenal to wear that Dublin shirt."

When Lynch opened his first little wine shop in 1972 in Albany, Calif., next door to Berkeley, practically nobody in America had heard of great southern French producers like Domaine Tempier, Auguste Clape, Domaine du Vieux Télègraphe, Clos Sainte Magdeleine, and Mas de Daumas Gassac. He sold their wines and lots of other good ones to Chez Panisse and to wine lovers all over the place, and helped bring varieties like syrah, grenache, and mourvèdre into the mainstream. He also owns a vineyard in Bandol and a winery in Gigondas, and has released three CDs as a singer, one featuring Boz Scaggs and Alvin Youngblood Hart, and one on which he covers Hank Williams' "Cold Cold Heart."

This gregarious Scot grew up in the whiskey business on the island of Islay, off Scotland's western coast, rising from apprentice barrel maker to international brand ambassador over his 40-year stretch at the estimable Bowmore distillery. In late 2000, he left his longtime employer to take over another Islay property, the long moribund 1881-vintage Bruichladdich. He restored ancient steam-powered stills, revived old-fashioned methods of production, and pioneered a new range of terrific whiskies, including Octomore, said to be the most heavily peated whiskey in creation. He now roams the world spreading the Bruichladdich gospel, and there are few more entertaining and genuinely passionate fellows you'd want to share a dram or three with.

He can speak French in Russian. He once challenged himself to a staring contest; on the fourth day, he won. Even his enemies list him as their emergency contact. Every time he goes for a swim, dolphins appear. He once had an awkward moment, just to see how it feels. He is the Most Interesting Fake Cool Person in Food and Drink in the World. With a little help from the voice of Frontline narrator Will Lyman, the marketing firm Euro RSCG turned an actor named Jonathan Goldsmith into advertising gold for Dos Equis, the Mexican beer, making him one of the coolest personalities in food and drink. According to the company, from 2006 to 2010, U.S. sales increased each year, tripling in Canada in 2008. And TMIMITW is a pitchman who admits he doesn't even always consume his own product, for crying out loud.

The New York Times has called him "a living iPod of drink lore and recipes" and Conan O'Brien has referred to him as a "crazy, bearded Civil War general." Others might simply call him "the number one draft pick for our American cocktail trivia team." Or, "the guy I want to make me a classic drink, and then tell me its entire history (and not in an obnoxious way)." All of the above apply.