The Spirit World

Have you ever wondered what your favorite liquor, cocktail or beer would look like if you looked at it through an optical microscope? No? Well maybe you would if you knew that the image above is rum!
This amazing site has several photo galleries filled with:
“full color photomicrographs (photographs taken through a […]

Last Saturday at three o’clock the Second Annual Long Island Real Ale Festival tapped off, or I should say tapped on with 15 Firkins of Real Ale — as opposed to Fake Ale? I’m glad you asked.
Real Ale is brewed the same way as any other beer. What makes Real Ale Real is […]

To me, cocktail recipes aren’t supposed to be messed with very much. If you go into a bar, and ask for a relatively standard drink, you should know what you are going to get, and not be handed something different. “That’s the way we make them here” just doesn’t cut it for me. The “Mai […]

Rob the Fan recently left a comment on Robert’s Daiquiri post asking how to keep from getting too much pulp in your drink when using fresh-squeezed citrus juices. This comment gave me pause for two reasons. The first is that when I’m out and about I actually like to have a little pulp […]

[Editor’s note: “Whisky” refers to product from Scotland, while “whiskey” is the spelling used for Irish and American products.]
I knew I was in trouble when the bartender at the Edinburgh Sheraton asked me which brand of single-malt Scotch whisky I wanted.
“Uhhh…how about that famous one. You know. ‘Glen something-or-another.’”
He eyed me with one […]

It’s no wonder my liquor closet keeps expanding! As I research and try to pull together great experiences for these posts I find myself scouring the shelves of liquor and grocery stores looking for the perfect ingredients. However, sometimes they are just a bit too elusive and then I decide to scrap the project […]

From time to time, I will write about beer styles. There are some two dozen major style groups each of which can be subdivided into half a dozen or so sub-styles. Each major beer style has characteristic flavors, colors, and aromas. Each example of a style is just one brewer’s interpretation of […]

These days it seems as though the Daiquiri isn’t quite getting the respect that it deserves. When properly made, it is a delightful and refreshing cocktail made from three very simple ingredients: Rum, lime juice, and sugar.
Since there is a town called Daiquiri on the east coast of Cuba, it is fairly certain where the […]

I’m part of a Cocktail Club that meets on a monthly basis to check out various bars, lounges and restaurants around Seattle. Part of the goal is simply to get us out and about to new places or places we haven’t been to in some time and the other part is to look at the […]

I picked this little specialty book up while browsing through the Barnes and Noble bargain books tables. The bright and cheery cover caught my eye and further inspection revealed great photography and many brightly colored, layered drinks.
Many of the drink names are entertaining: Pecker Wrecker; Bird Dropping - describing the look of […]