The Spirit World

Hello and welcome!

The focus of this new blog, if you haven’t already guessed, is the world of spirits. Not as in the spirit of your beloved grandmother who seems to still be lingering in the garden she loved so much, but as in liquor and all you may associate with it!

And it looks like we have impeccable timing! The January 2006 issue of Food and Wine magazine, declares this is the “Year of the Cocktail”. We say about time! Although those of us involved with this project have been celebrating the cocktail for quite some time!

This is a group effort and we have several writers who will be contributing columns on a weekly basis. And even more contributors who will be reporting on a more casual basis. The weekly columnists are Robert “Drinkboy” Hess; Rosanne Marks; Donavan Hall and me, Brenda Pederson. Since we have profile information up on each of them, I’ll let you take a look at that information instead of repeating it here. From time to time we’ll introduce other contributors so that over time you’ll get to know everyone involved.

We have a couple of different goals here. The first is to have fun! And while we are having fun we hope to bring some useful and interesting information to you. Robert will be authoring a series called “Mixology 101″. Each week he will explore a different drink; help you learn how to make it correctly and perfectly; modify it for your own taste; and outfit your home bar along the way. Donavan will writing the weekly “BrewsDay” column. His topics will vary but the focus will be on that hoppy beverage we know as beer. Rosanne will be traveling from country to country, at least “in spirit”, as she covers “Drinks Around the World”. And I’ll be writing a column I’m calling “Happy Hour at Home”. In these posts you’ll find a seasonal beverage and a complementary appetizer that is perfect for your weekend!

In addition to the weekly columns we’ll guide you to online references; report on mixology books; document our visits to cocktail lounges and pubs; maybe cover some history; and hopefully talk to some people in the industry for a slightly different view of it all. Basically, anything having to do with hard liquor or beer is fair game! We won’t be focusing on wine in this blog although it may come up from time to time. A WellFed blog devoted to wine is planned to come online in the near future. We’ll certainly let you know when it’s available.

We hope you will join us as we explore and learn all we can about this amazing world of spirits!

Feel free to leave a comment with requests, ideas or questions (or just to say hello) and we’ll do our best to take care of you. We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Salute!
Brenda