Umami Mart

If you’re daydreaming of lounging in warm, faraway places with a drink in hand, we have something for you: Tippleman’s Falernum. While it won’t physically take you away, adding falernum to your rum, tequila, or even bourbon drink will at least take your mouth on a tropical vacation. Just what is falernum, you ask? It’s a sweet, thick syrup […]

According to Aztec tradition, the eagle warriors were an elite unit of the Aztec army, considered the most brave and fearsome. They mostly comprised of the bravest noble-born men of Aztec society, but commoners who displayed notable courage on the battlefield were occasionally admitted as well. Eagle warriors were recognizable because they adorned their bodies […]

The #2 drink in the PDT Cocktail Book is the #3 Cup. If you like the Pimm’s Cup, then you cannot pass up this one, which appeared on the PDT menu in the spring of 2009. Created by former PDT bartender Gerry Corcoran, the drink’s name is a reference to the now defunct Pimm’s No. […]

It’s that time of the year, when my well-windowed apartment gets really cold and I have to bring out multiple space heaters to supplement the un-strategically placed central heater that seems to whisper lukewarm puffs of air. Luckily, my Zojirushi water boiler and warmer just arrived in the mail and I will have a steady […]

I really wanted to do a special Christmassey cocktail for you all but in the end I couldn’t really get my mental mojo into it– sorry, folks. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always enjoyed the special feeling the season invokes despite being an avowed atheist. I think I’m like most people in that sense, who […]

Thanksgiving has long been the source of mixed emotions for me. On one hand it’s a day when I can unleash my monster appetite without abandon. I love to eat, and I love to eat well. Yet on the other hand I consider myself a person of conscience, and Thanksgiving is a yearly reminder of […]

I recently read an article by Gary Regan about a couple of modern cocktails he predicts will eventually become classics, and it made me think about exactly what makes a cocktail a classic. The answer may seem fairly obvious in that it just needs to taste awesome, but I’ve had many newly created cocktails that […]

  Last week I wrote a post on the CKTL Jam event that took place at the Astor Center in NY, and I promised that this week I would share the recipe for the second of the two improv cocktails I created, as soon as I figured out what to call it.  I still haven’t figured out […]

  It’s that time of year again folks! That’s right, it’s Cinco de Mayo, or as some call it, “Cinco de Drinko,” which is Americans’ favorite Mexican holiday that most Mexicans don’t celebrate. Contrary to popular belief, Cinco de Mayo is not the day of Mexican independence.  That would be September 16.  Rather, Cinco de […]

  Every few years or so it seems the brains of the folks down in Arizona (aka God’s underwear chafe) burst with a brilliant idea that seems to justify the rest of the world’s perception of them as backwards ass, gun-toting, cactus-chewing clodhoppers. In the early 90s they decided they’d rather not recognize the Martin Luther King, […]