I love gin. I love whiskey. Those statements combined can make it hard to order a cocktail. Now that Old Tom gin is back on the market, though, we can enjoy the best of both worlds. (For details on how this came to be, see my column in today’s Kansas City Star.) Two brands are… Continue Reading
My cocktailing went on holiday hiatus amid the baking, bows and boxes of Christmas. Sure, there was the odd glass of rum-spiked eggnog, but I was largely out of drinkin’ mode. That all ended with last week’s trip to New York, ostensibly to cheer on the Kansas State Wildcats in the inaugural Pinstripe Bowl. Slogging… Continue Reading
Tasting Ransom Old Tom gin is like sipping history. That’s because Old Tom gin had largely disappeared from the U.S. market by the 1940s, so there wasn’t much to go by when Oregon distiller and winemaker Tad Seestedt decided to make one. “I didn’t even know what Old Tom was,” Seestedt told me in October.… Continue Reading
The martinez is an almost mythical cocktail, given that it was impossible to order one until recently. My first sighting came in 1995, while reading Barnaby Conrad III’s The Martini. The book includes this recipe from the 1887 edition of Jerry Thomas’s bartending guide: “Use small bar glass, one dash of bitters, two dashes of… Continue Reading
Everyone has a go-to drink for weddings, work events, fundraisers—any place there’s a party bar stocked with well spirits. My mom’s was gin and tonic. She hated gin, so one would last all night. I tried that trick years ago, but it didn’t work for me. I like gin’s juniper bite and the bitter-sweet tonic… Continue Reading