Season’s greetings everyone! The time to raise our cups is here! I added one more holiday recipe to the site just in time for Christmas: Christmas Sangria (appropriately). It delivers the fruity, easy-drinking pleasures of Sangria with enough holiday flavors put you in festive spirits (ahem, so to speak). It features a pairing of cinnamon (what else?) elderflower that is particularly delightful. I’m making a batch myself for my family’s Christmas day celebration. Visit the Christmas Sangria Page! There are plenty of other holiday cocktail options to choose from on the site's Holiday page. He ..read more

Happy Thanksgiving Eve! I posted a new holiday themed recipe to the site for a Spiced Cranberry Margarita. We’re not reinventing the wheel here, this is just a Classic Margarita with some cinnamon syrup and unsweetened cranberry juice. If you’re saying to yourself, “isn’t this just your Port of Call with Tequila?”, well you’re right! It’s definitely a similar flavor profile (though tequila changes everything). One of the great lessons of cocktail creation is they don’t all have to come from new ideas, they just have be delicious. In addition this new page, there are plenty of recipes to cho ..read more

The Watermelon Margarita brings together two of the most delicious members of the culinary kingdom. But despite the promise of its alluring name, this drink is rarely made to its full potential. That fate will not befall you.You can't just add watermelon to a Margarita and call it a day, adjustments need to be made. The most important: watermelon syrup, using my recipe, it is a game-changer. If you're into all things spicy, I highly recommend using jalapeño tequila in this. Regardless, follow the steps and irresistible refreshment awaits you! Visit the Watermelon Margarita Page ..read more

The Jack Rose is a classic, fruit-forward sour with Apple brandy and grenadine. It was huge in it’s day - which was the early 20th century - but today is not embraced the way some other resurgent classics are (Last Word, Sazerac, etc.). This is likely because of the grenadine, which has a reputation for kid’s drinks and cocktails that are better off forgotten - sorry, Tequila Sunrise. But real grenadine is a legit classic cocktail ingredient, provided you don’t use the mass market stuff. I've always made it from scratch - my recipe is also on the new page. If you use that in your Jack rose, a ..read more

After 2 years of focussing on recipes, I'm finally making on update to the Liquor Guide. This new section contains 5 new pages about the inner workings of spirits production: from fermentation to distillation to barrel maturation, and beyond. I've been working on this on and off for 4 or 5 years (seriously) and in the coming months, I’ll be adding individual pages for each spirits category that will include definitions of different styles, production details, and some of my personal brand recommendations. This new section will serve as a foundation to all of that. Fair warning, is without a d ..read more

This is one of my favorite cocktails that I’ve created. Which is ironic, because it was kind of an accident. I threw it together on a whim thinking it would be a tasty Martini riff. But because it was so simple I assumed the recipe already existed in an old cocktail book somewhere. That turned out not to be the case. But while some drinks are very similar (it’s basically a Martinez with a little dry vermouth) there’s nothing out there quite like it. So I did what any humble bartender would do. I claimed the drink as my own, and named it after myself. To be clear, I’m not saying this is the pe ..read more

Christmas approaches! As such, I'm adding another Eggnog recipe to the site, which brings the total to 4. Pumpkin spice has become so popular it’s practically part of the American Zeitgeist. Not only is it delicious, it manages to evoke the warm cozy feeling of autumn, winter and the holidays all rolled into one. So adding it to Eggnog - which also evokes those things - was a no brainer. What’s nice about this recipe is it actually contains, and tastes like, real pumpkin. Most pumpkin spice-flavor things are just the baking spices associated with pumpkin pie: cinnamon, ginger, allspice and nu ..read more

The Mai Tai is the most iconic tiki cocktail of all time. Why am I posting a tropical cocktail in the middle of November you ask? Because I started working this post in July. It was a beast. Lots of time, research and Mai Tais went into the making of this page. From how to make orgeat (an almond syrup), to the proper rum blend to the history, there’s a lot of ground to cover. But at long last, here it is. As you'll see, the Mai Tai is a drink that takes some effort to collect and prepare all the ingredients for. But it is well worth it. For those who complete the quest, paradise awaits. Visit ..read more

The Paloma is the most popular tequila cocktail after the Margarita (unless you're in Mexico, where it's more popular than the Margarita). It's endlessly refreshing and dead simple to make, just blanco tequila topped with grapefruit soda, a squeeze of lime and a pinch of salt. Of course, as those familiar with me and the site won't be surprised to hear, perfecting the recipe together wasn't so easy. Over the past 6 weeks I've tried, and made Palomas with, every grapefruit soda I could get my hands on - some I had to hunt down - along with several tried different ratios and compositions (rim t ..read more

Playing a bit of catch up here. I've made a few additions to the site over the last month. On Mother's Day I posted at page on the Cosmopolitan, which is is actually a damn good drink. If you wrote it off after Sex and the City ended, it's worth revisiting. Visit the Cosmopolitan Page! I also just posted a page on the Constant Gardener, a Daiquiri variation that I created with muddled red bell pepper and peach liqueur. It works, trust me! Visit the Constant Gardener Page ..read more