Alcademics

Category: Tales of the Cocktail

  • The Fourth Annual Tales of the Cocktail Swag Awards

    Another year, another Tales of the Cocktail convention in New Orleans, another chance to rank the swag! I started giving the swag awards in 2007. 

    Once again this year they had a gifting suite rather than a swag bag, wherein you were able to fill up a sack with anything from the room. This is what made it home with me. 

    Swag piles

    I have a lot of swag around the house (and nearly all my jackets and t-shirts have a booze logo on them somewhere), so I try not to take stuff just to take it. I grabbed a bunch of Firefly Sweet Tea Bourbon from the suite, as I knew you can drink that stuff without any mixers back in the hotel room. I saw writer Jason Wilson with a flask of a Dubonnet Cocktail (Dubonnet, gin, bitters) created from all swag items- nicely done. I recreated that in the room as well.

    I typically don't have time to make (or the inclination to fight the crowds for) the swag-rific tasting rooms at Tales, but I did receive a few items outside the gifting suite like the full bottles of Angostura rum and Geranium Gin. 

    Absinthe spoons 

    I was also handed this year's second place swag winner, an absinthe spoon from Tempus Fugit Spirits. They had the spoons custom made with the skull design, and as a joke kept the real spoon at the end. I will probably use this spoon for every meal and not just for absinthe. Alas, though, the spoon was not heavily-enough branded with the Tempus Fugit name, so it cannot win the award for Best Swag at Tales this year. 

    That honor goes to Aperol, for their orange sunglasses. 

    Aperol sunglassess
    Hip enough to be popular, using the color of the product and subtle branding of the name on the side of the sunglasses, inexpensive enough to give out tons of them, extending the brand beyond the bar, and keeping in line with the brand's image (a sunny summer spirit), Aperol knocked it out of the park for Best Item of Swag this year. 

    That said, there were tons of items of swag I'm sure I didn't see. For those who attended, what was your favorite item of swag? 

  • Every Drink I Had at Tales of the Cocktail

    I just returned from New Orleans for Tales of the Cocktail, a cocktail convention attended by many of the world's top bartenders, drink writers, PR representatives, and superenthusiasts. I think this was my favorite year of the convention to date. 

    I tweeted every cocktail I had over the week. Let's see how messy that looks added up!

    Tuesday July 20, starting at 5PM

    • Vieux Carre and an 
    • Abita beer @ Monteleone Bar
    • Another Abita beer at Carousel Bar at Monteleone
    • makers mark on the rocks out of a plastic cup at acme oyster house
    • Sazerac at Carousel Bar
    • Vieux Carre at Carousel Bar
    • Vieux Carre
    • Giant Bud Light with some awful Pizza somewhere on Bourbon Street.

    Wednesday July 21

    • Coffee with Kahlua to start the day!
    • Gold kiwifruit St Germain Splash
    • kiwifruit cucumber reviver
    • not sure what it's called but kiwi yummers
    • Shot of rum before my seminar begins
    • Three drinks at my seminar- rear admirals grog
    • perudriver
    • margarita
    • Firefly bourbon in hotel room
    • another sweet tea bourbon
    • a shot of dubonnet cocktail out of a flask
    • 3 glasses of Veuve Cliquot at dinner at Arnauds
    • Shot of bourbon 
    • bourbon cocktail
    • miller lite
    • orgeat drink
    • 2 shots of Stock Fernet
    • Ocho tequila
    • Miller lite
    • stock fernet

    Thursday, July 22

    • Cat Daddy Moonshine coffee drink at breakfast
    • Drinks of Asia seminar cocktail: unkown cocktail with some herb that tastes like fuzzy lemon dandelion leaves
    • cognac old fashioned
    • Self Publishing seminar- an amaretto and gin cocktail
    • Ron Abuelo juicy drink at Carousel Bar
    • nutmeg drink at Consulting seminar 
    • firefly bourbon
    • Diageo Happy Hour drinks:
    1. Joaquin riff on seelbach cocktail
    2. Wayne Curtis drink with Oronoco rum and fernet
    3. Singapore sling punch
    4. Aviation from Simon Difford
    5. Daiquiri from bill Norris
    6. rosy sinclair by Jason Bram
    7. Valentinos Denise by Jim rondall
    8. Bryan Dayton serves a Mary Pickford
    9. Phillip Duff makes a Clubland
    10. Tequila negroni from Ricky gomez
    11. Brian miller makes drink with tanqueray dolin chartreuse cocchi
    12. Misty Kalkoffen drink 
    13. John Lermayer drink
    14. Lynette Manero makes a drink
    15. Tommy klus Serves a Mexican firing squad
    16. Pisco drink from Aisha Sharpe
    17. Ed Hamilton actually makes a cocktail!! With Zacapa
    18. Jim meehan with a Cuervo drink
    19. Spicy drink from Wondrich
    20. Sean Muldoon serves a trader Vic drink
    21. Andrew Friedman serving a sagatiba drink
    22. Cable Car from Tony Abou Ganim
    23. Chad and Christie drink
    24. Francesco Lafranconi drink
    25. Josh Durr drink
    • Cure bar daiquiri
    • Another daiquiri at Cure
    • Dubonnet cocktail In hotel room

    Friday, July 23

    • a sip of Ron Abuelo rum at breakfast
    • 2 Disarono cocktails at my Social Media seminar
    • A Glenfiddich drink from Jon Santer
    • Bourbon carbonated grapes that taste like a Mint Julep at the Bax vs. Clift seminar
    • Sazerac with absinthe fog
    • Molecular michelada
    • apple sous vide infused calvados. 
    • Dehydrated fruit cereal with champagne
    • Old fashioned with orange peel smoke served in a jar
    • Quick bourbon in the room before a meeting
    • 2 Abita Amber and a veggie mufalatta at Cage Maspero
    • Pimms Cup at Napoleon House
    • Abita Amber at Napoleon House
    • glass of bourbon
    • Hilo Hai cocktail with Teader Tiki Syrups!
    • Stella Artois.
    • nip of Ron Abuelo

    Saturday, July 24

    • a spicy Hendricks cocktail 
    • Mount Gay Rum punch.
    • Wet Grave cocktail in Darcy Oneils fascinating Soda seminar- bourbon, acid phosphate, bitters, vermouth, claret syrup
    • Soda seminar drink with Root beer, gentian, bourbon, acid phosphate
    • 10cane rum drink in the Subconscious Drinks seminar
    • a sip of Geranium Gin
    • Brandy Milk Punch in the Caousel Bar
    • 2 rum drinks in hotel room followed 
    • 2 martinis at Tales of the Cocktail awards
    • Glenlivet Nadurra 16 
    • Another gin martini at Tales awards 
    • Many swigs of Jameson 18
    • a beer with my slice of awful but sobering pizza on bourbon street

    Sunday, July 25th

    • A morning Akvinta vodka cocktail.
    • Stella Artois at breakast
    • A Dalmore cocktail at the Keeping Ahead in an Online World seminar
    • second Dalmore cocktail
    • A final vieux carre at carousel bar.
    • One last beer at the airport 

    Apparently I had 35 drinks on Thursday. That would be terrifying but do keep in mind that for the vast majority of these drinks I had only a sip out of a glass that only held an ounce or so at maximum. 

    Still, my liver will be getting a much-earned rest for a while now that I'm home. 

  • Latin, Packing, Pisco: A Few Articles I’ve Written Lately

    I've had several stories come out recently, so I thought I'd share them here. This blog is also my resume, after all. 

    Friday I wrote about my recent piece in the daily email Tasting Table San Francisco. This one is about Encanto Pisco, brought to us by a bartender, a sommelier, and a distiller. 

    Attention people attending Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans this July: My story about what to pack for the week (for media, speakers, bartenders, PR, and brand reps) in the June issue of Tasting Panel Magazine is now online. 

    Executivetravelmaycover  In the July issue of Executive Travel Magazine I have a story on the Latin libations that are hot and the ones that soon will be. 

    I have recently become a regular contributor to SilverKris, the in-flight magazine for Singapore Airlines. Unfortunately the magazine is not online. Recent stories have focused on new classic cocktails, the return of absinthe, and where to drink in Wellington, New Zealand. 

  • The Third Annual Tales of the Cocktail Swag Awards

    It's that time of year again, the time for the Tales of the Cocktail Swag Awards!

    View the winners from 2007 here and the 2008 Swag Awards here.

    This year instead of a gift bag there was a swag room at Tales, so you took a bag and walked around and filled it up with items of interest. My items of interest became clear during this exchange in the elevator of the hotel immediately afterward.

    Stranger, looking at my sack o' swag: "You know San Francisco's in the house when you see somebody with a bag of Fernet."

    He was mistaken- I only had about 10 minis of Fernet on top of the bag. I also filled with the bag with other minis, making up the majority of my swag.

    Mini swags

    And to add to what I am now calling a collection, a few more muddlers.

    Muddlerss

    I also was given four different cocktail shakers and managed to give three of them away before I got on the plane.

    Most of best swag came from the cocktail bloggers' conference held the two days before Tales though. I got a full set (minus the new Bittermen's Bitters) set of The Bitter Truth cocktail bitters,

    Bitter truths

    as well as a nice set of Rosle garnish tools.

    Rosle toolss

    But the best was a tiki mug- in the shape of Magnum, P.I. from Tiki Farm!

    Magnumpi tiki mugs

    However, as the Drink.Write 2009 conference was a private event, even the best mug cannot be declared the winner.

    But what can? Find out after the jump…

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  • Look at me, err, at what I wrote

    Maltadvocatetales2008loldrink
    I have a story in the latest issue of Malt Advocate– my first one for them. Hooray!

    It's a round-up of whisky events at Tales of the Cocktail and the increased presence of whisky at the event in general. Run screaming to your local newsstand and read it.

    You'll find my story right beneath the picture of Lew Bryson.