Well, not really — I’m too much of a curmudgeonly contrarian to ever hew to a corporate line for very long — but if you somehow missed the big announcement over at Jeffrey Morgenthaler today, there’s a new Spirits and Cocktails Advertising Co-op out there, and The Cocktail Chronicles is proud to be onboard.

Why? Well, while booze blogging starts as a labor of love, the costs start to add up, and every dollar I spend on server fees and other expenses is a dollar I’m taking out of Murray and Jamie‘s pockets. So, in the interest of supporting my local bartenders even more, I’m taking the burden off of myself and putting it onto you.

Not you, the average reader, but you, the reps from liquor companies, distributors, PR firms and related industries. Together, the sites that make up the the co-op attract thousands of sets of eyes each day, all perusing our coverage of some of the newest (or, in my case, oldest) and most interesting things to do with a range of different spirits and mixers. And in case you haven’t noticed, we’re also all pretty sociable with one another — having an interest in good drinks has a tendency to do that — so when there’s an event like a Repeal Day or a Mixology Monday, these cool surges of viewers wend their way through our sites, everybody looking to see what kinds of drinks they should check out.

So why wouldn’t you want to advertise? Head on over to the BlogAds site, and see what we have to offer.

(And mondo thanks to Darcy for putting this whole thing together)

—- Press Release —-

Industry: Food & Beverage
Release Date: June 27, 2007

Bloggers Launch Spirit and Cocktail Advertising Co-op

In the past few years the revival of the cocktail has resonated around the world. This new popularity has been helped along by shows like Sex and the City, and by events like the annual Tales of the Cocktail conference in New Orleans. This growth has coincided with the development of a great number of websites that celebrate great cocktails and use a chef-like approach to their drink creations. A significant part of today’s cocktail renaissance is being driven by a group of dedicated cocktail and spirits bloggers who have made intelligent cocktail discussions a reality, and have created a community of like-minded individuals wanting to learn more about this intriguing culinary art form.

Because of the rapid growth and increased competition in the beverage industry, many companies are looking for better ways to connect with customers. Participation in Internet communities has been demonstrated to be a great way of staying connected to customers.

To facilitate the inclusion of food and beverage companies into this growing online community, a group of bloggers has created the Spirits and Cocktail advertising “Hive”, through BlogAds, that allows companies to purchase premium ad space on the participating sites. The initial group of sites includes The Art of Drink, Jeffrey Morgenthaler, The Liquid Muse, The Cocktail Chronicles, A Dash of Bitters, Cocktailnerd and Kaiser Penguin. These blogs are written by bartenders, cocktail enthusiasts, restaurant / bar owners and industry experts, and together they represent the best the web has to offer in modern cocktail creation and spirits reviews. Additional sites will be added in coming months.

This advertising co-op offers participating companies approximately 50,000 highly target ad impressions per week, from people who are keenly interested in their products. The readers of these blogs are people who are looking for quality products for use in cocktail creation. They have an interest in learning about new liquors, bar tools, techniques, books and related beverages.

Industry participation helps to support the bloggers who provide a valuable service to the industry. Not only do these websites provide opinion and discussion for a wide variety of products, they also promote responsible consumption of alcoholic drinks by focusing on quality instead of quantity, these bloggers believe and promote the idea of “Drink Better, Not More.”

For more information please visit the Spirits and Cocktails Hive on the BlogAds site.

Tags: General by Paul
No Comments »

…And they keep coming!

It appears that booze blogs are now breeding like rabbits — after posting info about the 15 newish (or old, but new to me) blogs a few weeks ago, I’ve come across / been reminded of /noticed a major change in another round of sites.

Here are a few more worth checking out:

Dave’s Drinks – Dave Curry, a charter poster for Mixology Monday who jumped into the fray again with the latest round, recently launched his own cocktail blog, replete with recipes and ratings for an array of drinks. Dave is very detailed and methodical in his coverage; I’m curious to see what his further explorations with rum and cachaca turn up.

Intoxicated Zodiac – well, why hasn’t there been a site like this before? Gwen manages to mix coverage of cocktail recipes and drink trends with the alignment of the heavens. One of the most unique concepts I’ve come across in a while.

Bar Stories – “I was a bartender. These are my stories.” says San Francisco-based Jessie Jane. Thoughtful, well-written posts on drink trends, bar life and alcohol-related current affairs. Refreshingly thought-provoking.

A Grandiose Blog – call it good timing, but I was just alerted to the existence of this online magazine today. Still very new, and cocktails are only part of their coverage, but the drinks they have so far are well-chosen and in good taste. Worth keeping an eye on in the months to come.

Off the Presses – wine and cocktails as approached by New York-based journalist Robert Simonson. Anybody who gets a sudden craving for a Monkey Gland is okay in my book.

And, a trio of sites from our friends in Germany: Bitters Blog and its related Library and Traveling Mixologists sites cover the incredibly dynamic cocktail scene that is now going on in Munich, Hamburg, Cologne and Berlin. At least I think they do — my German has gotten pretty rusty since college, but I can tell that Joerg Meyer and Stephan Berg (the guys behind, and on the label of, The Bitter Truth bitters, one of the tastiest products to come out in years) and their colleagues are truly dedicated to their craft, and these sites reflect their passion for their profession. Even if you don’t speak German (some of the posts are in English, though), it’s worth the time to browse through these sites to take a look at the contemporary photos and the images of vintage books and cocktail guides. And the Library? I suspect if you’ve ever been in a bare-knuckle brawl on eBay over a pre-Prohibition cocktail manual, only to come out on the losing end after a final charge by a deep-pocketed buyer in Germany, you may eventually see the prize turn up here.

EDITED TO ADD — She’s been blogging for a while though it took me until recently to clue into it, but Natalie at The Liquid Muse has a rapidly growing site replete with recipes, reviews and, soon to come, video. A mainstay of the online cocktail world.

Okay — now, is that really everyone?

Tags: General by Paul
10 Comments »

Tequila por Mi Amante, or Tequila for My Beloved; Mexico City, 1937

This is a prepared beverage requiring patience and from three to four weeks.

Tequila, 1 pint
Ripe strawberries, 1 quart, cut in halves

Wash and stem the berries, put into an airtight jar or bottle, pour on enough tequila to cover. Shut tightly and stand for at least twenty-one days. Strain . . . This berry process extracts some of the raw taste, adds a rosy dawn touch. Our Mexican drinks it straight always. We opine that handled in the same way as sloe gin, discoveries would be made . . . Other fruit like wild cherries, blackberries, and so on could be tried.

– The Gentleman’s Companion, Charles H. Baker, Jr., 1939

I didn’t really pay attention to measurements — just cut up some ripe berries (finer than 1/2), covered with Cazadores reposado (no particular reason — just what I had on hand), and sealed it up.

Wish me luck.

Tags: Tequila by Paul
18 Comments »

Whoo-ee, do I love free shipping.

In my case, of course, I missed the UPS van on Friday, so that meant I had to wait until Monday to tuck into the Lucid. Having now strolled down the newly-paved legal absinthe lane, I have to say I’m pretty pleased.

I’ll leave the detailed breakdowns to those with more learned palates than mine — there are plenty of those over at the Wormwood Society, should you be looking — but in my modest experience, I’d say Lucid is a very good quality absinthe. As a big fan of Jade’s Edouard and Nouvelle-Orleans absinthes, I had expectations that were perhaps too high for the product, but still, Lucid managed to please me on a number of fronts. As mentioned in its press materials, the herbal aspect of Lucid has been recalibrated for the U.S. market — which means it has a less robust anise presence than do the Jades or most other quality absinthes I’ve tried (and thanks to WS events, I’ve tried some very pleasant ones), but it has a well-balanced complexity that blows the doors off of many more moderate quality brands, not to mention any absinthe substitute on the market (and if your sole experience with absinthe is from trying something like Hill’s or King of Spirits, be prepared to wet yourself with pleasure from trying an absinthe that’s not only palatable, but damn enjoyable).

True, Lucid isn’t the end-all and be-all of absinthes, and I find it a bit milder in flavor than I’d prefer, but for a first product to hit the U.S. market, it’s pretty damn good. (And apparently I’m not the only one who feels that way; DrinkUpNY, which has the free shipping offer, is now out of stock until late July).

One of the biggest reasons I was eager to have Lucid in the house is because, being a cocktail geek, I needed a more reasonably priced absinthe to try in a few old timey cocktails. Prior to this week, the only ones I had on hand were Combier Blanchette and Jade Edouard, and while I’ve grown accustomed to using the Edouard as a rinse for my Sazeracs, there’s no way I’m pouring an ounce of my $150 bottle of booze into an experimental cocktail.

A $60 bottle, though, that’s another story. Here’s a drink I plucked out of George Kappeler’s Modern American Drinks, from 1895. As with many bartending manuals of the era, Kappeler starts off with several absinthe drinks — mainly variations of the absinthe drip or frappe — but prefaces the section with a warning for his fellow bartenders that reflects a commonly held belief of the era:

The free use of absinthe is injurious. Never serve it in any kind of drink unless called for by the customer.

Look — here’s me, calling.

Absinthe, Italian Style

Put into a thin eight-ounce glass containing a few lumps of clear ice one pony [one ounce] of absinthe, two dashes maraschino, four dashes anisette. Slowly fill the glass with ice-water, stir well with long barspoon. Serve.

So, a drip with some ice and a little flavoring.

To be completely honest, it doesn’t taste all that different from your average absinthe drip — though that’s not a bad thing. There’s maybe a touch more funkiness and a bit stronger anise note than you’d usually have, but that’s about it. Still, considering that an absinthe drip is a lovely thing to behold, and a little funky exoticism is a good thing in the middle of the week, the Absinthe, Italian style may make a return engagement in these parts.

Tags: Absinthe, Drinks by Paul
4 Comments »

In case you can’t tell from the lousy photo, the drink is actually a bit more gray than violet.

It’s also not too bad, though I can’t see myself making one again anytime soon.

This round of Mixology Monday is brought to us by Anna at Morsels & Musings, and for her theme, Anna has chosen cream. True, she did specify cream-based liqueurs to be used in the drinks, but she provided an out for folks like me by specifying that other creamy-type things would also be admissible.

Good thing, because I haven’t a cream liqueur in the house, and I don’t really foresee a need for one in the near future — nothing against them, and I enjoy the occasional homemade Irish cream around the holidays, but they’re just not my usual thing.

But, I also didn’t want to post the first cream-based drink that pops into my head, the Ramos Fizz, partially because I’ve already blogged about that one, but also because I figure somebody, somewhere, is going to hit it tonight.

Which brings me to the Fizz a la Violette.

I’d like to say I plucked this from some old-timey drink manual in my collection, but truth be told, I got the recipe from CocktailDB.com and then just tweaked it. True, I did go searching through the books for some original recipe, and while I found Violet Fizzes in the likes of David Embury’s The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, and in The Flowing Bowl by “The Only William,” neither of these recipes had in common the factors that initially caught my eye in this version — namely, the use of violet liqueur (once it caught my interest, I couldn’t let go of it) and, of course, the use of cream.

While I was initially apprehensive, I’ve gotta say the result isn’t too bad. Creme de violette can really dominate a drink, but I think the cream and the egg white manage to distract it enough to keep it from being a bully. Of course, the color doesn’t translate well, and the gray tinge to the eggy, creamy foam is a bit unappetizing, but no matter — it’s a Monday, I’ve been busy as hell, and right now I want something strong, cold and attention-getting; the Fizz a la Violette fits the bill.

Fizz a la Violette

• 2 ounces gin
• 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
• 1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
• 3/4 ounce creme de violette [Hermes -- other options available soon]
• 1/2 ounce cream
• 1/2 egg white
• 1 tsp simple syrup

Shake all ingredients really strenuously with ice; strain into tall, chilled glass (about 10-12 ounce capacity), top with chilled seltzer.

Head on over to Anna’s place to see who else came up with creamy goodness.

Tags: Drinks, Gin, Mixology Monday by Paul
4 Comments »