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Additional Articles/Posts by Liquor.com

  • 7 Scotch Cocktails for Father's Day
    Dads are notoriously difficult to buy gifts for — despite what they say, only so many power tools will fit in the garage. So this year, we recommend giving your pops something a little more spirited than, say, a polo shirt embroidered with a college...

  • The All-American Spirit to Drink This Thanksgiving
    Advocates for whiskey in general and bourbon in particular like to claim they represent the true spirit of America. They insist you should reach for liquor made from grain when you’re feeling wistful around holidays like Thanksgiving. Yes, but...

  • The 5 Biggest Gin Myths
    Gin has gone through so many ups and downs over the last 400 years, it deserves its own reality show on Bravo. And just like the Kardashians, the liquor seems to engender a very passionate response — both positive and negative — from drinkers...

  • The Best Spirits for Less Than $25
    We’re not gonna lie: Getting to drink high-priced, rare spirits like Johnnie Walker Blue Label Scotch and Pappy Van Winkle Bourbon on a regular basis is one of the best perks of working for Liquor.com. (It’s a tough job, but somebody’s...

  • The World’s 17 Craziest Vodka Flavors
    When it comes to liquor sales, there is no competing with vodka. Last year, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), it out-sold gin, rum, tequila, Irish whiskey, and Scotch — combined. And what’s helping drive...

  • Louisville's Edward Lee on Bourbon, Southern Tea, and Cocktails
    It’s no surprise that star chef Edward Lee is a bourbon lover; after all, he runs two of Louisville’s hottest restaurants, 610 Magnolia and the brand-new MilkWood. He even has a collection of vintage whiskies in his home bar that go as far...

  • Easy Punch Recipes for Memorial Day
    It’s finally time to take off your hat and scarf: Monday is the unofficial start of summer. So fire up the barbecue, dig out your bathing suit and, of course, get out the punch bowl. No matter if you’re hosting a Memorial Day party or...

  • Cocktail Beach Reads
    Right up there with swimming in the ocean and grilling outside, one of our favorite summer activities is sitting in the shade enjoying a cold drink and a good book. So before you head to the beach, buy of these spirited volumes. AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO...

  • Raising the Bar: Bobby Heugel From Anvil Bar & Refuge
    For a star bartender, Bobby Heugel has a pretty unusual reésumé. He didn’t hone his skills at any well-known watering holes or hot speakeasies. Hell, he hadn’t even been inside a proper cocktail bar when he opened his own...

  • 6 Best Bets for Tales of the Cocktail 2013
    If you’re serious about mixed drinks and spirits, you need to attend Tales of the Cocktail. The annual festival takes place in New Orleans’ French Quarter from July 17 to 21 and features an array of seminars, tastings, dinners, and parties....

  • 11 Hot Celebrity Spirits
    It’s no secret that celebrities will endorse just about anything, from Rachael Ray’s Nutrish Dog Food to Maria Sharapova’s Sugarpova line of candies (including, of course, tennis gum balls). Anything for exposure, right? But over the...

  • The Hottest Cocktail Bars in Miami
    To paraphrase Rodney Dangerfield, Miami gets no (mixological) respect. It’s still far better known for nightclubs requiring bottle service than watering holes serving classic concoctions. For a number of years, the acclaimed Florida Room in the...

  • The 5 Biggest Bourbon Myths
    Bourbon is undeniably on a major roll. Over the last few years, sales of the whiskey have shot up around the world. While we love that bars and stores now boast big selections of the spirit, we still hear plenty of misinformation about the liquor. So to...

  • Cocktails a Mother Could Love
    Forget flowers and chocolates; Mother’s Day is all about brunch. While mimosas and Bloody Marys are our standard beverages for the meal, your mom deserves something really special on Sunday. We suggest fixing a cocktail that’s refreshing,...

  • Drinking with 'The Great Gatsby'
    Thanks to the new film adaption of The Great Gatsby, which comes out on Friday and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, and Carey Mulligan, people across the country will no doubt be throwing Jazz Age-themed cocktail parties. But the F. Scott...

  • Drinking Gadgets for Mom
    No matter how much you love your mom, Mother’s Day has a way of sneaking up on even the most dedicated of children. But don’t worry; there’s plenty of time to find her a great (and spirited) gift. So check out our present suggestions...

  • New Bourbons We Love
    For about two minutes on Saturday, the whole country’s attention will be focused on Churchill Downs. But the Kentucky Derby is more than a horse race: It’s an opportunity to don your most impressive hat and fix a delicious mint julep. And to...

  • How to Drink Tequila This Cinco de Mayo
    Chef Sue Torres takes her tequila and mezcal neat. "If it’s good, you really don’t need much," she says. And the menu at her New York restaurant, Sueños, reflects that idea. It stocks more than 50 different agave-based spirits...

  • Raising the Bar: Bartender John Lermayer
    At the Gale South Beach, a newly revamped circa-1940s hotel in the middle of Miami Beach’s hectic Collins Avenue, a mix of glammed-up models and trendy couples flock to the wood-paneled Regent Cocktail Club. And amazingly enough, they’re...

  • The Truth About Tequila
    Tequila has come a long way. The former spring break drink of choice is now a favorite of top bartenders around the country. That’s not to mention the selection of premium brands to choose from. But there are still all-too-common misconceptions...

  • The Coolest Vintage Tiki Bars
    Fifty years ago, if you wanted a special night out, you may well have headed to a tiki bar. In the '50s and '60s, following the lead of Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic’s, tropical joints popped up all over the country, offering fruity rum...

  • Rainy-Day Cocktails
    Summer is so tantalizingly close we can practically feel the sunshine and taste an ice-cold Tom Collins. But before that happens, we need to get through the next few soggy weeks. While there’s not much we can do about April’s famous showers,...

  • Duty-Free Spirits You Don't Want to Travel Without
    A big perk of flying internationally is shopping for liquor at the airport. But the selection can be a bit overwhelming. So what spirits should you buy at duty-free that you can’t purchase at home? Here are six bottles to bring back with you. (Just...

  • Behind the Bar with 'Mad Men'
    With the new season of Mad Men starting on Sunday night, we decided to ask master mixologist and Liquor.com advisory board member Dale DeGroff about the accuracy of the drinking portrayed on the show, since he was employed at an ad agency before becoming...

  • Toasting March Madness
    OK, we admit it: We have Final Four fever. And the only cure is… well, more basketball. And if we’re going to stay inside Saturday watching games, we want to be drinking something good, too. So, naturally, we turned to top mixologist Tony...

  • A Cocktail Recipe for Deception
    Some of the best April Fool’s Day tricks take a bit of planning and setup. And to give you plenty of time to scheme, we got top cocktail consultant and Liquor.com advisory board member Aisha Sharpe to create a couple devious recipes that deceive...

  • Major League Cocktail Hour
    There are few pairings as perfect as baseball and peanuts. And we’ll be enjoying both on Sunday night, when we watch the Texas Rangers play the Houston Astros in the opening game of this year’s season. But this special occasion warrants...

  • 2 San Francisco Bartenders Spill All
    On a quiet street in a mainly residential part of San Francisco’s Mission District, you’ll unexpectedly find one of the hottest bars in America. Trick Dog, which opened in January, is packed shoulder-to-shoulder night after night, with...

  • Liquor Style Icons
    Frank Gehry and Karim Rashid walk into a bar... It sounds like the start to a bad joke, but spirits brands around the world have increasingly been turning to star architects and designers to create ever more innovative packaging designs. Here are a few of...

  • 5 Tips for Making Spring Cocktails
    After months and months of Hot Toddy weather, spring finally started! It’s time to break out of your winter rut by fixing a new set of cocktails featuring a range of delicious seasonal ingredients. We can’t think of a more beautiful place to...

  • Maple Cocktail Season
    Snow, slush, freezing rain: By March, winter’s weather has lost all of its charm. But there’s an upside: maple syrup season. As we make the transition from winter to spring, over a massive swath of North America, from West Virginia to Nova...

  • Hot Cocktails for the Holidays
    Snow, sleet, ice... the weather this time of year calls for a heavy-duty defroster: hot cocktails. You can warm up with one of these toasty drinks at your favorite bar, but you also can make them easily at home. Mastering the classics is always a good...

  • Your New St. Patrick’s Day Whiskey
    While we always have Irish whiskey in our liquor cabinet, you can bet that we’ll be having a dram on Sunday to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. We’re surely not alone: Sales of the alcohol have exploded over the last few years. According to...

  • For the Love of Irish Pubs
    Some of my very favorite joints in New York  — Swift, McSorley’s Old Ale House, Mustang Sally’s — are Irish pubs. Don’t get me wrong; I love hanging at speakeasies and swank cocktail bars, too, but if you ask around, you...

  • The Icons Behind Your Liquor Labels
    It’s no secret that Captain Morgan, Johnnie Walker, and Jack Daniel actually existed. (For the record, they were a Welsh pirate, a Scottish grocer, and an American distiller, respectively.) But there are a number of other familiar spirits that are...

  • The Best Bars for a Cocktail in San Francisco
    I moved to San Francisco in 1998 from South Africa and found a city with an amazing culinary culture and a rich drinking history. The Bay Area is now also blessed with an exceptional selection of watering holes. No matter if you’re looking for a...

  • Thanksgiving in a Glass
    Putting together Thanksgiving dinner doesn’t take much creativity. Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie — the menu practically writes itself. But coming up with drinks to pair with the holiday meal is quite a bit more difficult....

  • What Would a Pilgrim Drink?
    While I’m all about celebrating holidays with the appropriate beverages, Thanksgiving is a tough one. That November day in 1621, the Pilgrims — bless their grim, determined souls — found themselves sweating things out at the end of a...

  • The Best Spirits for Thanksgiving
    It’s not a proper Thanksgiving at my table until I raise a glass of fine spirits and begin a toast to the women in my family. While beverage pairings for the holiday meal tend to default to wine, there are terrific opportunities to pull the rabbit...

  • The Best Custom Bar Ingredients
    These days, any cocktail bar worth its salt is producing house-made… well… something. From syrups and sodas to bitters and tinctures, custom drink ingredients are a must. And they’re used to make all kinds of delicious elixirs. But...

  • The Cocktail and Spirits Books We Love in 2013
    Good news: Spring is less than a month away, and summer is just around the corner! But before you dig out your shorts and flip-flops, there are still many long, cold evenings to weather. We suggest you use the time wisely and read these new spirited books...

  • Movie Mixology
    It’s Oscar time again. And on Sunday, I suggest you get dressed up and fix a round of drinks before settling in for the red-carpet coverage and awards ceremony. It only makes sense, since cocktails and movies are as natural an American pairing...

  • 5 Tips for Making Spiced Cocktails
    The best cocktails ever invented are some of the simplest, which is important to remember when concocting a new recipe. For me, that process starts with the basics, and then I begin working out from there. Small amounts of a new flavor can provide...

  • The Best Drinks in America's Ski Towns
    Traditionally, ski towns have been known for the quality of their snow and the speed of their chairlifts. And if you were lucky, there was a serviceable bar with a fireplace where you could warm up. But that’s fortunately changing. A couple of years...

  • Spirited Cooking: Boozy Cupcakes
    Forget chocolate. Forget flowers. To show your sweetheart just how much you care this Valentine’s Day, you need to bake something delicious. But a batch of regular old Toll House cookies isn’t going to cut it. (That goes double for oatmeal...

  • The 5 Rums to Try This Winter
    For years, mixologists and spirits experts have been trumpeting the return of rum. And its popularity and status in the world of cocktails is now without question. Just as with Scotch, there are bars devoted to the liquor and an ever-growing...

  • Hot Cocktail Ingredient: Dried Fruit
    February is a tough month to be a cocktail lover. The last of the winter citrus is quickly disappearing from store shelves, and it’s a while until the new spring crop. You can certainly find fruits grown around the world, but they’re just not...

  • All-American Super Bowl Punch
    When it comes down to it, the Super Bowl is all about performance; from who will win and who will lose to, of course, the quality of the commercials and halftime show. And let’s not forget the pressure of making friends and family a tailgating feast...

  • Lowland Whiskies: The Gentler Side of Scotch
    Big, bold, brash whiskies get all the attention right now. While nothing tastes better than a dram of Ardbeg on a cold and wet winter’s day, sometimes you just don’t want a glass full of smoke and wood. So what do you drink? Lowland malts....

  • New Orleans’ Favorite Punch
    Down in New Orleans, they really know how to party. Mardi Gras festivities started a few weeks ago and will continue for almost another month. (And that’s not to mention that the city’s hosting the Super Bowl in 11 days.) So how do they do it...

  • The 5 Principles of Cognac
    With more than 150 bottlings to choose from, including a variety of vintage spirits dating back to the early 20th century, the Brandy Library is the best place to enjoy cognac in New York and possibly the whole country. And Flavien Desoblin, who opened...

  • Cheat Sheet: Fruit Brandy
    I’ve been behind the bar many a time when a customer has asked for The Rose or Charles H. Baker’s venerable Remember The Maine, which both call for cherry brandy, and expected a cocktail with a sweet cherry taste. But the spirits in these...

  • 5 American Single Malts to Check Out
    While America is, of course, famous for its bourbon and rye, another type of domestic whiskey is getting popular: single malt. Though the term is usually associated with Scotch, an increasing number of craft distillers across the U.S. are creating...

  • Anvil Bar & Refuge's Bobby Heugel on Shaken or Stirred Cocktails
    “The important thing is the rhythm,” says Nick Charles in The Thin Man, as he demonstrates how to make a proper cocktail. “Always have rhythm in your shaking. Now a Manhattan you shake to fox-trot time, a Bronx to two-step time, a Dry...

  • The Best Bars in Houston
    As the old adage says, everything is bigger in Texas. And that’s certainly true of the bar scene in the state’s largest city: Houston. It boasts an exceptional number of establishments specializing in tequila and is home to one of the most...

  • 2013: A Drinker’s Preview
    Now that the holidays are behind us, it’s time to start thinking about 2013 and planning your year. We found a range of spirits, books and products launching in the next 12 months, plus new bars and great events you’ll want to check out....

  • How to Mix Spirits & Chocolate
    During the next few days, it’s going to happen: You’ll be faced with an open bar as well as a selection of decadent chocolates and holiday confections. Which treat do you choose? We say have them both together. In this case, you really can...

  • Leftover Libations
    At this point in the holiday season, our liquor cabinet is full of a range of half-empty bottles. That’s not to mention the collection of odds and ends in the fridge, including random beers and several wines that need to be finished. Surely, we aren...

  • Holiday Gift Guide: Last-Minute Spirited Gifts
    It’s time to ‘fess up. We promise that we won’t judge you if you haven’t finished your holiday shopping. But don’t worry, all is not lost: You still have a few hours left. So we strongly urge you to check out our Last-Minute...

  • Spirited Cooking: Bourbon, Vanilla, and Chocolate Milkshakes
    You’ve been good all year: counting your carbs, working out regularly, and even eating your oatmeal. But the holidays are about enjoying rich foods and fine drinks with friends and family. And Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, owners of Brooklyn...

  • Hot Drinks by the Pitcher
    Just as the holiday-party season kicks into high gear, most of the country is unfortunately plunged into a deep freeze. (Well, that is, unless you reside in sunny Southern California, in which case, we’re officially jealous.) So to help you warm up...

  • Holiday Gift Guide: High-Roller Spirits
    We’re sorry to have to tell you this, but you’re probably not going to get any of the five items in our High-Roller Gift Guide this year for the holidays — no matter how good you were. But we still suggest you check it out and fantasize...

  • Holiday Gift Guide: Scotch
    Long before people gave each other gift cards, Scotch was the universal holiday present. And we proudly carry on this tradition. One of our favorite things to do this time of year is to pair friends and family with different whiskies. To help you...

  • A Spirited Hanukkah Celebration
    While there are many Hanukkah traditions, such as lighting the menorah, playing dreidel, and making latkes, we’ve never heard of any kind of special cocktail. Though the Maccabees were fond of wine, we think the holiday deserves its own festive and...

  • Holiday Gift Guide: Rum
    While the Caribbean may now be synonymous with rum, Americans have been drinking the rich and complex alcohol for a long time — we’re talking hundreds of years. Back in the colonial era, there were even dozens of distilleries in the Northeast...

  • Piping Hot Cocktails
    Forget fancy gifts or long, heavy meals; all we want for the holidays is a piping hot cocktail. One so steamy that it would melt a snowman — or at least stop a teeth-chattering chill. Fortunately, there are plenty of such libations. A favorite of...

  • Gift Guide: Tequila & Mezcal
    Just a few years ago, it was pretty tough to find a bar that served tequila or mezcal cocktails when it wasn’t Cinco de Mayo. Fortunately, times have changed and not only are the two spirits now in demand year-round, but there are even a...

  • Holiday Gift Guide: American Whiskey
    The ideal accompaniment to your holiday festivities is, naturally, a glass of delicious whiskey made right here in the United States. The liquor is also the perfect gift if you aren’t hosting the big meal, and it makes a welcome holiday present in...

  • Empire State Cocktails
    As befits a city with the stature of New York, plenty of cocktails have been named after Big Apple destinations over the years, from the Bronx, the Brooklyn, and the Park Avenue to the Greenpoint and the Astoria. But hands-down the most famous of...

  • Raising the Bar: Neal Bodenheimer & Kirk Estopinal
    A new rum-focused craft-cocktail bar will open in New Orleans in a few months, but don’t expect to be notified by blaring trumpets or a glitzy party. NOLA natives Neal Bodenheimer and Kirk Estopinal, two principals behind the acclaimed Cure and...

  • Spiced Thanksgiving Cocktails
    While turkey and cranberry sauce take center stage at most Thanksgiving celebrations, it’s important to remember that the drinks selection matters almost as much grandma’s pumpkin pie — and should be as full of spices. From classic...

  • Cranberry (Cocktail) Season
    This time of year, it’s pretty hard to avoid cranberries: From baked goods and, of course, sauce to, yes, even cocktails, the tart fruit is everywhere. Though the Cosmopolitan made the simple berry a year-round favorite, guilty pleasures like the...

  • A Scotch Martini (Yes, Really)
    We thought we’d seen pretty much every kind of possible martini variation — and then we recently heard about another one: a whisky martini. Let’s just say the concoction, which replaces the classic’s vermouth with Scotch,...

  • One for the Road: Classic London Bars
    I remember discovering the London bar scene around 1997. It was a really exciting time when Dick Bradsell’s (the U.K.’s Dale DeGroff) first generation of students were opening up amazing cocktail joints. I was drinking at Oliver Peyton’s...

  • Make Your Own Irish Cream
    Some of the best holiday treats we’ve enjoyed were homemade. What could be better than that? Treats that are homemade and involve liquor. Sure, you could make spicy bourbon balls, whiskey butterscotch sauce, or almond cognac cookie sandwiches, but...

  • A Cocktail Family Tree
    If one were somehow to assemble all the people in the world who are obsessed with cocktails, it would — well, it would look a lot like Tales of the Cocktail, only bigger, louder, and even crazier. But assume you managed to get the "enthusiasts...

  • A Spirited Wake-Up Call: Coffee Cocktails
    While turning the clocks back is perhaps not as painful as moving them forward, it still throws off your circadian rhythm, leaving most of us pretty tired. We have to admit we’re not excited for the end of daylight saving time.  What certainly...

  • Cocktails for an Adult Halloween
    After years of research, we’ve found that Halloween cocktail recipes are usually more of a trick than a treat, packing sugary sweetness that rivals a handful of candy corn. And don’t even get us started on the names… But we still love...

  • Scotch on the Rocks: Best Ice Cube Trays
    The way you like to fix your Scotch — neat, on the rocks, with soda, or in a cocktail — is, of course, your business. (Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.) And a whole industry has sprung up to supply you with a range of...

  • Raising the Bar: Sam Ross
    For fans of New York’s cocktail culture, 134 Eldridge Street is hallowed ground. It was here, back in 2000, that Sasha Petraske’s Milk & Honey first introduced many of us to egg whites, honey syrup, jumbo ice, and the modern-day speakeasy...

  • A Gin for All Seasons
    We know it’s officially summer when we start craving a refreshing gin and tonic on a hot and sunny afternoon. But even though it’s now fall and the weather is crisp and the daylight is growing shorter, you don’t have to banish the ...

  • The Whisky Trail: Speyside
    From The Glenlivet and Glenfiddich to The Macallan, Speyside, Scotland, boasts to some of the country’s best-known single malts. It’s also a beautiful part of the United Kingdom and a trip all drinkers should make. Here are a few of...

  • 5 Scotch Myths
    I travel the world educating drinkers about Scotch for a living. Most recently, I was in Taiwan for the annual Whisky Live show in Taipei. Over the course of two days, I conducted 10 masterclasses, during which a number of misconceptions surfaced. I...

  • One for the Road: Prague
    The first time I visited Prague was in 1990, when it was still part of the Eastern Bloc. Cocktails weren’t a priority for me then, but even if they had been, I don’t think I would have found very many good ones. Fast-forward to 2012. I have...

  • Scotch Boon: 2012
    Fall is a great season for not only bourbon drinkers but also for Scotch lovers. Distillers across Scotland are introducing a range of delicious new blends and single malts. Here are a few you need to try. Slàinte! THE BALVENIE DOUBLEWOOD...

  • Spirited Cooking: Whiskey Butterscotch Sauce
    We know it’s dangerous to suggest mixing Scotch with anything but a few drops of water or perhaps an ice cube or two. Let’s just say people are very particular when it comes to fixing a dram. So if you’re sensitive about this...

  • How to Mix Beer and Liquor
    Maybe it’s all the college and pro football games on TV or the start of the baseball playoffs, but we’re suddenly craving a brewski. While we’ll skip the Oktoberfest lederhosen and polka, thank you very much, beer’s malty flavor...

  • Ingredient Hunter: Distillery Bottlings 2012
    We’ll go out of our way to get our hands on a good bottle of liquor, especially if that involves taking a trip to a distillery. As we reported last year, a number of brands offer special spirits exclusively at their visitor centers. Here are a few...

  • Best Bourbon Bars in America
    No matter if you frequent dive bars or fancy faux-speakeasies, bourbon is generally in plentiful supply. But some establishments go even further, boasting massive collections of the whiskey and offering an array of cocktails calling for it. So...

  • The Hot List: More Fall Cocktail Ingredients
    Every year, around mid to late July, the emails and phone calls start. It’s the journalists. This is how it generally goes: "Hey, hope your summer is going well. I am writing a piece about fall cocktails. What do you plan to offer this time?...

  • Raising the Bar: Joaquín Simó
    For Joaquín Simó, it’s been an unlikely journey from his native Ecuador to center stage at the Tales of the Cocktail convention, where he was just named American Bartender of the Year. He started out behind the stick in dive bars and...

  • Must-Have Ingredients for Fall Cocktails
    While the kids have gone back to school and football season has already started, it’s not officially fall until Saturday’s equinox. And to properly celebrate this celestial milestone, you need to fix some appropriate cocktails. Try whipping up...

  • Best Drink Books for Fall Reading
    We like to spend cool autumn weekend afternoons in a comfy chair with a good book and a dram of whiskey. The only thing we enjoy more is when the book is about drinking. Fortunately, this fall there are a number of volumes you should add to your spirited...

  • Crowdfunded Drinks
    Martin Kastner wanted $28,000, and he wound up with almost three-quarters of  $1 million. The Chicago designer has been creating unique pieces of custom servingware for celebrity chef Grant Achatz for nearly a decade. But he dreamed up his most...

  • Gridiron Drinks: Drinks for Football Season
    We know it’s been a tough week. While Labor Day was just a few short days ago, summer fun seems like a distant memory. Well, at least we have some exciting news: it's NFL season. To get you back into the tailgating spirit, we asked one of...

  • The Best of Bourbon
    These days, with bourbon sales soaring around the world, it seems like every month is a celebration of American whiskey, but September is actually National Bourbon Heritage Month. While the designation might sound phony, it was decreed by an act of...

  • Back to (Cocktail) School
    Whether or not your kids are starting another school year this fall, we think it’s the perfect time for you to buckle down and do some studying of your own — mixological studying, of course. It’s the ideal project, since you’ll...

  • A League of Their Own: 5 Innovative Spirits
    Though many distilleries both large and small have been producing an array of innovative spirits, there are a handful that have truly pushed the envelope. These brands are experimenting with exotic ingredients and unusual combinations, which has led to...

  • Spirited Cooking: Chocolate Whiskey Tart
    The only people who love working with spirits as much as bartenders are bakers. From chocolate candy to pastries, liquor is the secret ingredient in a range of delicious treats, adding depth and complexity (and often a boozy kick). While brandy is tasty...

  • Spirited Side Trips: Labor Day
    Next Monday marks the unofficial end of summer, and millions of Americans will be hitting the road for the Labor Day weekend. And if you’re going away for the holiday, in addition to swimming, shopping, and relaxing, we suggest you plan a side trip...

  • Masters of Mixology: Ada Coleman
    In 1899, a certain Ada Coleman mixed a cocktail. "I remember it was a Manhattan that I made first, and that it was Fisher, the wine butler, who gave me my first lesson," she recalled in an interview in England’s Daily Express some 26...

  • 5 Tips: Summer Punch
    Nothing unites a gang of new and old friends like a shared task, be it raising a barn or cleaning up a park — or simply getting to the bottom of a bowl of punch. And by punch, I don’t mean the kind of thing your fraternity brother or sorority...

  • In Defense of Whiskey and Soda
    When I was in my early 20s, living in Austin, Texas, and still a relatively inexperienced drinker, I had a slightly older friend who favored Scotch and Soda. Upon entering one of his usual haunts, this commanding fellow would bark, "two Dewar’s...

  • Spirited Cooking: Ice-Cream Cocktails
    Thanks to weeks of scorching temperatures, all we want is ice cream and ice-cold cocktails. But why choose just one when you can have both — together? Consider these adult treats that feature some tasty liquors as a reward for having survived...

  • Shaking Up the Beat: Music in Bars
    During the many, many years I spent "going to college," I worked in restaurants, and music was always a big part of the job. I remember vividly the tension in one kitchen over our prep-work soundtrack — our chef would only play techno, our...

  • The New Whiskey Frontier
    While we’ve seen a flood of vodkas produced from all kinds of things — including grapes, soy, and even maple syrup — whiskey, no matter where it’s distilled, is usually made from rye, wheat, corn, barley, or a combination of these...

  • How to Make the Green Beast Cocktail
    Five ingredients are all you need for this punch: absinthe, lime juice, simple syrup, water, and a few cucumber slices. This Green Beast cocktail is easy to make for parties, and won't require you to stand behind the bar the whole night.  Learn...

  • How to Drink Absinthe
    Absinthe. Ever thought about how to actually drink the stuff? You may not think you can drink it — after all, it was banned from the United States for the better part of the 20th century — the (now legal) elixir is heaven to a true...

  • Cocktail Survivors
    Drinks such as the martini and the Manhattan can be had at damn near any bar in the world. They’ve been around for more than a century, and it’s unlikely they’ll ever fall from grace. Then there’s a second tier of...

  • How to Make the La Perla Cocktail
    Summer cocktails are undeniably some of our favorite mixes in the office, and Liquor.com's resident tequila expert (and advisory board member) Jacques Bezuidenhout brings us this new one — La Perla. In the following video, Bezuidenhout shows how...

  • One for the Road: Charleston, South Carolina
    I was recently on a road trip and made a pit stop in Charleston, S.C. I was on vacation and had no intention of tasting cocktails (that’s what I do for my day job), but the restaurant I chose for dinner, FIG, has incredible drinks. And I recognized...

  • VIDEO: The Corpse Reviver No. 2
    Cocktail expert Simon Ford (who works for Plymouth Gin and Pernod Ricard USA) shares with Liquor.com how to make the Corpse Reviver No. 2 in its new video series, How To Cocktail. This classic gin cocktail, spiked with absinthe, will make you look extra...

  • Double-Down Cocktails
    While you can now find all types of exotic and inventive cocktails — including ones that have been barrel-aged, carbonated, and even frozen with liquid nitrogen, to name a few — it’s still pretty rare to see a drink on a menu that...

  • Cooking Up Alcoholic Ice Pops
    When we heard that the new book People’s Pops included recipes for adult treats featuring liquor, let’s just say we were a bit excited. Like beg-your-momma-for-a-dollar-and-run-after-the-ice-cream-truck excited. The volume, which comes out...

  • Tom Collins Season
    There are few drinks that embody a season as well as the Tom Collins. The deliciously refreshing combination of lemon juice, simple syrup, gin, and club soda is the personification of summer. And fortunately, you still have a couple weeks to brush up...

  • Bluegrass Mixology
    Two hundred and twenty years ago, the western half of the Commonwealth of Virginia was admitted to the Union as the 15th state. Since that event, the Commonwealth of Kentucky has made many fine contributions to American culture, but this is Liquor.com and...

  • In Defense of High-Proof Spirits
    I have a relationship with high-proof spirits that I admit most resembles a fetish. I love a solid foundation on which I can build my cocktails safely and creatively, and potent liquor provides just that. My first discovery of this phenomenon was when I...

  • Coffee and Cocktails
    I’ve often wondered why there’s not more overlap between the world of coffee and the world of cocktails. The two beverages — bookends for many of us on a typical day — were once bit players on the fine-dining stage, prepared...

  • 6 Best Satellite Bars
    Speakeasy-style joints complete with secret entrances and unlisted phone numbers may be old hat, but there’s now a new breed of even-more-intimate establishments opening across the country. The best part? You can find these watering holes inside...

  • Boozy Beach Reads
    The unofficial start of summer is just two weeks away. As you begin buying hot-weather provisions, put these new spirited books on your list along with sunscreen, bathing suits, and flip-flops. Not only will you enjoy reading them during your travels, but...

  • Gift Guide: Mother's Day 2012
    While you may still be recuperating from last weekend's Cinco de Mayo and the Kentucky Derby festivities, there’s actually another holiday to observe: Mother’s Day. To make Mom’s Sunday, here are some spirited present ideas. Cheers!...

  • In Defense of Drinking Vermouth
    Vermouth has come a long way since its days gathering dust on back bars. That’s not to mention the regular derision from "martini" drinkers who would ask their bartenders to give but a curt "nod toward France." Indeed, we are now...

  • Favorite Brunch Bars
    We’re big fans of sipping cocktails in the afternoon, but why wait? Mid-morning eye-openers pair perfectly with hearty dishes like omelettes, French toast, and waffles. Luckily, brunch is just as much a specialty as mixology at these bars across the...

  • In Defense of Mezcal
    There are few things I love more than 100 percent blue agave tequila. I have been known to drink it in all types of creations (and even occasionally from a vuvuzela). But in the last several years, I started an affair with another agave-based artisanal...

  • MVP Mixology
    Baseball is a game of traditions and superstitions, from the seventh-inning stretch to the wave. And heaven help you if you accidentally step on a chalk line on your way to the dugout...  But this year, it’s time to shake things up a bit. We...

  • Recipes for Deception
    Some of the best April Fool’s Day tricks take a bit of planning and setup. And to give you plenty of time to scheme, we got top cocktail consultant and Liquor.com advisory board member Aisha Sharpe to create a couple devious recipes that deceive...

  • 7 Favorite Regional Spirits
    Looking for something special? We’re talking about bottles so unique that your drinking buddies won’t be able to find them at all. Well, you’re in luck. Thanks to the dozens of craft distilleries and small brands around the country,...

  • Behind the Drink: Fish House Punch
    We’ve all heard of people seceding because of a desire for liberty, a deep political grievance, or out of a sense of ethnic solidarity. Understandable, if sometimes wrongheaded or unwise. But what about seceding just for fun? That’s what...

  • The Spirit of St. Patrick's Day
    While the jury is still out on the powers of four-leaf clovers and the existence of leprechauns, we can assure you that the rebirth of Irish whiskey is very real. Over the last decade, the Emerald Isle’s distillers have flourished, and Americans...

  • Where to Drink in Vancouver
    Vancouver has always been a drinker's town. Even before the craft-cocktail movement kicked into high gear, you could easily find a decent tipple. Now, of course, the city boasts many fine bars and has its own satellite Tales of the Cocktail conference...

  • Behind the Drink: The Sazerac
    On the main drag of Austin, Nev., according to the 1878 The Sazerac Lying Club: A Nevada Book by Fred H. Hart, there once was a saloon known as the Sazerac. The regulars at the bar "sat around the stove, smoked their pipes, fired tobacco juice at a...

  • Masters of Mixology: Charles H. Baker
    In the spring of 1926, Charles H. Baker, Jr., was stranded on a lifeboat in the Sulu Sea off the coast of North Borneo. Before his motor died, he had been on an excursion to the city of Sandakan — a three-hour tour, you might say — from the SS...

  • How to Use Winter Citrus in Cocktails
    When the weather gets cold and the days get shorter, a shot of liquid sunshine can make winter seem a little more bearable. Unfortunately, many people assume that citrus fruit is just in season during the summer. But a number of varieties are actually...

  • Sleeping at the Distillery
    For a spirits lover, what could be better than visiting a distillery? Sleeping over. Around the world, a handful of distillers are not only opening their doors to the public during the day but also hosting a few lucky guests at night. Safe travels! Black...

  • The Old(er) Fashioned
    Up until a few years ago, it was a truly rare occurrence for a customer to walk into my bar and order an Old Fashioned. As soon as I’d recover from the surprise, I would access the Rolodex of recipes in my mind and set out to fix the drink as I was...

  • Mixing It Up with Molasses
    Mention molasses and the first thing that comes to mind is gingerbread or gingersnaps. But what about using it to sweeten some fall cocktails? Though classic sweeteners like simple syrup, honey, agave nectar, and maple syrup have all been well explored,...

  • Old-School Spirits
    From computerized stills and bar-coded casks to mechanized bottling lines, many spirits brands have embraced cutting-edge technology. But there are a few holdouts around the world that continue to use old-fashioned techniques. Here are some of our...

  • Extreme Cocktail Ingredients
    In their quest to produce ever finer cocktails, bartenders have unearthed centuries-old recipes, learned the art of ice carving and planted gardens. But for some, that’s just not enough. There’s a new generation of mixologists who are going to...

  • The Shaking Rhythm
    “The important thing is the rhythm,” says Nick Charles in The Thin Man, as he demonstrates how to make a proper cocktail. “Always have rhythm in your shaking. Now a Manhattan you shake to fox-trot time, a Bronx to two-step time, a Dry...

  • H2O Cocktails
    When it comes to creating cocktails, polar opposites can be a source of inspiration for me. Over the last few years, lots of the drinks I’ve been served were bitter and brown. But what about the other end of the spectrum? Something light and...

  • The Second Life of Bourbon Barrels
    Bourbon is now popular around the globe, and so too are the barrels that it’s made in. Thanks to the spirit’s official rules, which state that the whiskey must be aged in new American oak, there is a thriving secondary market for these...

  • A Bitter Revolution
    If bitters are seasoning for cocktails, old standbys Angostura and Peychaud’s are like salt and pepper. But there’s now a whole mixological spice rack at your disposal, stocked with a wide variety of new artisanal products in an amazing range...

  • Behind the Drink: The Martini
    Who created the Martini? It seems like a simple question. After all, the Martini was an instant icon, and not knowing who invented it is kinda like not knowing who invented the six-gun, the Model T, or Coca-Cola. And yet we do not know. There are...

  • The Honey Pot
    Honey was surely served at the first Happy Hour. About 9,000 years ago, the world’s earliest barflies drank it fermented in humanity’s original tipple: mead. While the natural sweetener has been eclipsed by other mixological ingredients, it...

  • The Morning After
    “The light did him harm, but not as much as looking at things did,” wrote novelist Kinsley Amis in 1954. “He resolved, having done it once, never to move his eyeballs again.” The verdict is in: More great literature has been...

  • The Morning After
    “The light did him harm, but not as much as looking at things did,” wrote novelist Kinsley Amis in 1954. “He resolved, having done it once, never to move his eyeballs again.” The verdict is in: More great literature has been...

  • Take Me Out to the Bar Room
    It would have been fine if Max Sanford hadn’t dropped the ball. But the New Yorker did, just as the blue-uniformed Neal Farren was closing in on him, and he got pinched. The authorities were not amused: It cost Sanford a thousand bucks to get back...

  • The Other Tequila Cocktails
    On Cinco de Mayo, there are three things you are pretty much guaranteed: tequila shots, mariachis, and Margaritas. We have nothing against this holy trinity, but we want you to seriously consider shaking up your holiday traditions a bit this year. While...

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