Category: history
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Heinold’s First and Last Chance Over the Years
I stumbled across this thread on Threads -it’s a history of the wonderful and historic the bar Heinold’s First and Last Chance Saloon in Oakland’s Jack London Square, as seen through pictures of its front. If you haven’t been, Heinold’s is a little shack built from the remains of a paddle steamer boat, which opened in…
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The Cocktail is the International Alcoholic Esperanto
Here’s a fun excerpt: The American Mercury 1924-09: Vol 3 Iss 9 CLINICAL NOTESBY GEORGE JEAN NATHAN AND H. L. MENCKEN The cocktail, once observed George Ade, follows the American flag. That was twenty years ago. The flags of all nations today follow the cocktail. Its fame has spread over the globe, and justly. It…
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The Best Drinks Books of 2024
These are some of my favorite cocktails and spirits books I read in 2024. Several of them I blurbed for their authors. There are few more books that were published this year that I haven't read yet, so maybe they'll get on next year's list. My 2023 Best Of List is here, by the way. In…
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Why Are Spirits Called Spirits?
I wrote my take on this subject for The AlcoholProfessor, where the story first appeared. Why is Distilled Alcohol Called Spirits? The word “spirit” has many definitions but most center around either the idea of the conscious self as opposed to the physical body; or an attitude, as in “the spirit of the movement”…
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Thirty Four New Drink Books for Fall 2024
Update 2: Now this list is up to 34 books Update 1: Detailed reviews of many of these books in my story for AlcoholProfessor are here. Citrus: A World History A Forager's Guide to Wild Drinks: Ferments, infusions and thirst-quenchers for every season Sicilian Cocktails: Contemporary Island Mixology Flavor Lab Creations: A Physicist’s Guide…
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The Gibson is a New York Drink Gone Big in San Francisco
It was believed that the Gibson cocktail was created in San Francisco. In this 2008 blog post I cited what David Wondrich told us on a tour. The information is repeated in the Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails: But now new information has come to light. Martin Doudoroff shared information from a tweet on…
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Aqua Vitae Vs Arrak, Terminology and History
I am reading The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails in order with the Alcademics Book Club, which you may join on Facebook if you wish. (We're on the A's in early January.) I've already learned so much new information and also old information I'm seeing in a new light. One example of the latter…
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Did British Gin Come from Dutch Genever? Part 2
I watched a video by Philip Duff on the history of gin – is gin the British interpretation of Dutch genever? Or does it come from a more or less independent distilling tradition since British spirits were usually based on a neutral base distillate? I watched a seminar by Jared Brown and Anistatia Miller that…
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The Five Best Drink Books of 2023
This year I read more than 40 books, mostly about drinks. My top five favorites are below. This list is not actually the best drink books of the year, but my favorites. (And my favorite technically came out in 2022.) I wrote the title for SEO! What I want out of drink books is new…
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Black Caterers in Food and Cocktail History
In a nice coincidence, right after reading Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice that I reviewed here, [amazon][bookshop] my other book club chose High on the Hog [amazon] [bookshop] as their pick for the month. I just finished up the book (haven't seen the Netflix series yet but will watch next month- having only heard…