Garnish…I know it’s tempting to just finish building your drink and letting the cards fall where they may, but I’m a firm and true believer on putting the period at the end of your cocktail sentence. Go the extra mile and garnish. It really adds a beautiful & extra finish to all your work. If a garnish is mentioned in the drink recipe follow through. Some cocktails don’t call for a garnish….but sometimes, I just will add one as kind of a missing puzzle piece. Home bars mean never having to say “I’m sorry. I call a Martini a “salad” if I add 3 olives. Do you agree?

Hello Darlings! It’s the Missus here. Happy Holidaze! My favorite time of year has finally arrived. Hang the mistletoe and get your Honey to meet you there at 5 o’clock sharp. Carving out a time every week for cocktail hour can help rekindle the flame in your relationship. Despite the outdated image of women who would cook and clean while wearing heels and crisply pressed dresses there are many things that we can learn from the marriage wisdom of long ago.

Cocktail Hour – Couples Time

The premise is simple, having some time each day to reconnect with your partner or spouse in an environment that is free of distractions is important.  Whether you prepare a martini or serve a seltzer, it’s the caring gesture that is more important than the beverage.

Couples time definitely plays a role in creating a happy marriage and has a positive effect on children too.  Today, many psychologists believe that respecting mom and dad’s alone time is important to the development of children to help them understand that while they are an important member of the family  they are not the center of the universe.  So don’t be afraid to take a little alone time to reconnect even it means telling the kids that they need to amuse themselves for a bit.  If you can protect 30 minutes to an hour of distraction-free couples time daily, everyone will benefit from it.

Now to get you in the mood turn up the music…

“New York, New York” (abridged version)

Just spreading the joy,

With vodka and gin,

I wanna be a part of it,

Cocktails, cocktails,

These martini flutes,

Are longing to fill,

I wanna be a part of it,

Cocktails, cocktails,

I wanna wake up,

In a city that wants to drink,

To find I’m queen of the night,

Ready to clink, fill me with joy….

The mixers are prepped,A

ll melt in your mouth,

I’m gonna drink the night away,

Cocktails, cocktails,

And if I can – make them well,

The party will – be quite swell,

It’s up to us, cocktails, cocktails….

What do you think? Do you have any retro advice of your own?  Please share your thoughts in the comments section.

The cocktail’s fragmented history begins in the nineteenth century. One of the first modern cocktails to be named and recognized is the martini. It’s unclear where, who, and what went into the creation of the original Cocktail, but it seems to be a specific drink rather than a category of mixed drinks during that time. It can be traced back to an 1862 recipe for the Martinez. This American recipe consisted of four parts sweet red vermouth to one part gin, garnished with a cherry. “Professor” Jerry Thomas tended the bar of the old Occidental Hotel in San Francisco and reputedly made the drink for a gold miner on his way to the town of Martinez, which lay forty miles to the east. The recipe for the Martinez in Thomas’ 1887 bartender’s guide called for Old Tom gin, sweet vermouth, a dash of maraschino and bitters, as well as a slice of lemon and two dashes of gum syrup.

A modern day dry martini consists of gin and dry white vermouth, garnished with an olive. Obviously, gin has changed a lot since then, when it would have been relatively sweet compared to modern gins. Some even claim the martini was named after the Martini-Henry rifle used by the British army around 1870, as both the rifle and the drink had a strong kick!

What we do know is that by 1900, the martini had become known nationwide and had spread to the other side of the Atlantic. This is said by some to be the beginning of the golden age of cocktails. During this time a basic list of cocktails emerged and steadily became more and more popular.

Hello, the Missus here! Check out these amazing upcoming cocktail conferences and festivals for all my boozy lovers out there. Let the fun, drinking and learning begin!

 

San Antonio Cocktail Conference

http://www.sanantoniococktailconference.com/

Modeled on the wildly popular Manhattan Cocktail Classic and New Orleans’ Tales of the Cocktail event.  San Antonio’s own Cocktail Conference is the first of its kind in Texas.  It is bringing together top bartenders for four days of education seminars, guided tastings and cocktail parties.  Conference proceeds will benefit HeartGift.

 

Manhattan Cocktail Classic

http://www.manhattancocktailclassic.com/

Part festival, part fete, part conference, part cocktail party-the Manhattan Cocktail classic is an annual celebration of the myrid of points of intersection between cocktails and culture. With over one hundred events spread across five days and five boroughs, the Manhattan Cocktail Classic offers a vast array of unique experiences to enthusiasts and professionals alike, expanding the very definition of what constitutes a “cocktail event.”

 

Tales of the Cocktail: New Orleans

http://www.talesofthecocktail.com/

 

Tales of the Cocktail®, the internationally acclaimed festival of cocktails, cuisine and culture, returns to shake things up in New Orleans, July 20-24, 2011. The event mixes the best and brightest of the cocktail community—award-winning mixologists, authors, bartenders and chefs—for a five-day celebration of the history and craft of cocktails. This year, the most spirited event of the summer will be shaking up the cocktail industry with a spirited series of dinners, cocktail demos, tastings and competitions, seminars, book signings, tours and parties all perfectly paired with some of the best cocktails ever made.

To put the event in quantifiable terms you can chew on, Tales of the Cocktail® 2010 used 207.2 gallons of bitters, 2800 Driscoll’s blackberries, 1305 cucumber slices, 1320 egg whites, 1760 lemon twists, 2902 mint sprigs, 995 orange wheels, 475 ginger slices and 18,750 sets of taste buds that were delighted during the five-day festival.

 

San Diego Spirits Festival

http://www.sandiegospiritsfestival.com/

San Diego Spirits Festival is a two-day celebration of spirits, cocktails and local culture – the only event of its kind on the West Coast.

The 4th Annual San Diego Spirits Festival will take place at the stunning Port Pavilion on Broadway Pier – an expansive oasis surrounded by the sparkling San Diego Bay.

 

Coppenhagean Spirits and Cocktails Festival

http://www.copenhagenspiritsandcocktails.dk/FRONT.16.aspx
50,000 ice cubes, 1,080 lemons, 210 bunches of mint and 58 liters of freshly squeezed lime juice. These were just some of the ingredients in the shaker when 1,000 cocktail lovers from all over the world gathered at Denmark’s first ever spirits and cocktail festival in Moltkes Palæ, Copenhagen.

During the festival’s two eventful days, visitors could sample new spirits products and classics from some of the leading producers in the business, while some of the world’s best bartenders and mixologists gave a taste of their talents on stage and behind the bar. The festival also saw the best Danish bartenders competing for a trip to Cuba and the titles of Danish Champion of Classic Cocktail and Flair.

1,000 people visited the festival before the shaker was put away and the stars travelled back to New York, Los Angeles, London and Amsterdam. But do not despair: next year’s festival is ready for serving in February 2012. And until then…well, why not pass the time with a Copenhagen Cocktail at your local cocktail bar?

 

BarBot Cocktail Festival

http://robogames.net/barbot.php

Come hang out with some alternate life-forms at BarBot-the annual festival of Cocktail Robotics!

Barbot is a celebrating of cocktail culture and man-made machine interface. Get a drink from an actual robot. Chat up a snarky electronic bartender. Listen to some graceful tunes being played by robotic music makers. And, after downing your sixth martini, you can finally admit that it’s the geeks who shall inherit the earth.

These robots don’t clean carpets. What they will do is much, much better. They make you a delicious drink! Let your roommate do the vacuuming. These bots have got better programming on their mind.

Did you miss any? Leave a comment if we did.