Tales of the Cocktail

Tales of the Cocktail 2009 – The Beginning

July has come around once again and Tales of the Cocktail is upon us.  Every year bartenders, brand representatives, cocktail luminaries, and a rag-tag collection of cocktail nerds enthusiasts bloggers descend on New Orleans for 5 days of intense cocktail education and consumption. Subjects vary from how to operate as a beverage program consultant (that [...]

Distillery Tour: Old New Orleans Rum

During Tales of the Cocktail this year, I decided to make a trip down to see Celebration Distillation – home of Old New Orleans Rum.  I wanted to get an inside look at how this small American distillery was producing a unique collection of rums that they claim captures the essence of the Crescent City [...]

Filed Under: Rum

Mixology Monday: New Orleans

Home safe and sound from Tales of the Cocktail, and I’m still nowhere near caught up in all of my writing…or my detox.  It was a dizzyingly enjoyable trip that included a lot of different cocktails that are special to the city that calls itself “The Birthplace of the Cocktail”.  I sat in bars with [...]

Filed Under: Rum

Tales of the Cocktail may have officially started on July 16, but for several intrepid rum-lovers, the festivities got going on a little earlier.On Tuesday, July 15, Ed Hamilton opened the 2008 Ministry of Rum Tasting Competition.  This year’s competition saw 24 judges sitting on a panel to judge more than 60 different rums and [...]

Filed Under: Rum

10:27am – Finally got my wireless working so I won’t be using my blazing fast cellphone for this.  I don’t think there were this many island shirts and straw hats at Jeff Berry’s tiki-themed Spirited Dinner.  Jeff “Beachbum” Berry, Wayne Curtis, Martin Cate, and Stephen Remsberg.  Behind the bar toils the entirety of what we’ve [...]

Filed Under: Rum

Attack Of The Parties

This was originally posted yesterday on Tales Blog, and in my haste I neglected to cross-post it.  If you haven’t been following Tales of the Cocktail on Tales Blog, you should really start doing so today.As day one of Tales of the Cocktail drew to a close, the festivities fought back, refusing to go gently [...]

Drinking In The Big Easy

This is just  a short note to let everyone know that I am still alive.  I had meant to blog every day that I was here, but yesterday got a bit away from me.Tales of the Cocktail didn’t officially start until today, but the Ministry of Rum Tasting Competition started yesterday.  I joined 20+ experts [...]