For many years, I’ve occupied two worlds: not only have I been behind the bar full-time for the past 20 years, but also I’ve been writing about it for well over a decade. People like myself, who not only publish their thoughts on spirits and cocktails but also work behind the bar on a daily | Read More

So after much deliberation, I decided to print this question and my response, as it’s a question that I get from you guys at least once a month. And therefore I think it’s important. So here we go: Hey Jeff, I’m new to the bar, but not our company’s restaurant group. I’ve done my research | Read More

So, for the past couple of years I’ve gotten a lot of emails from people who have visited this site, and many of them read something like this: To: Jeffrey Morgenthaler Subject: Web Form Submission From: Some Loudmouth Content-Type: text/plain; charset=”UTF-8″ Message-Id: <20140412235755> Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2013 16:57:55 -0700 (PDT) Hey Asshole When are | Read More

Years ago, I shared with you all a video from yet another bartending school or something that showed the most horrific excuse for a Mint Julep many of you have ever seen. It’s so bad that I’m honestly surprised that Woodford Reserve hasn’t bothered to have the video taken down. You can watch it here: | Read More

Happy National, uh, Daiquiri Day? I can’t believe it’s already National Daiquiri Day and I’ve still got my National Margarita Day decorations up! I mean, I haven’t even begun to think about National Sazerac Day or National Mojito Day. If it turns out that there are 365 different PR people working for giant liquor companies, | Read More

Today, on April 15th, while the United States is busy mourning Tax Day, the Argentineans are celebrating Bartender’s Day. Here’s the story as related to me by my friend Federico Cuco: Sixty-nine years ago today, a group of young bartenders from Buenos Aires met for a dinner hosted by the magazine The Barman (the first | Read More

This appalling affront to the craft that so many of us have worked hard trying to restore over the past fifteen-plus years has been making the rounds on Twitter, but I thought I’d share it here with all of you. Browse at your own risk, my advice is to keep a bucket handy. Oscar Party | Read More

To get to the town of Cognac, France, you have to fly into the airport at Bordeaux, nearly two hours south. You spend a good hour on the freeway, which looks pretty much like any freeway in the world, until eventually you see an exit marked “Cognac”. You then make your way from the main | Read More

For many years before this whole cocktail thing really took off, I worked in dive bars. Really crappy dive bars where people would visit – often nightly – for what appeared to be the sole purpose of getting very, very drunk. These bars were loud, they were obnoxious, and at times they could be very | Read More

Wow, I apparently thought it was still late-October or something, because it came as a complete surprise to me today that my favorite drinking holiday in the whole world is next weekend. I guess that between keeping my nose to the grindstone at work and traveling extensively lately, it was bound to happen. Then I | Read More