It’s no secret that I am a fan of the cocktail. Friends know they can count on me to join them for a cool Manhattan any day. If you’re a cocktail enthusiast as well, skip on over to The Internet Cocktail Database, the brainchild of Martin Doudoroff and Ted (Dr. Cocktail) Haigh. Unlike a lot of online cocktail sites, this is a repository for the serious imbiber. All of the recipes are validated in print, and have been researched by experts in the field. You won’t find a hack’s homegrown experiment here–just a treasure trove of recipes dating back to 1862 along with insights on ingredients and techniques. Haigh is better known to many enthusiasts as Dr. Cocktail. He is often quoted and sourced for his in-depth knowledge of perhaps the most American of indulgences. Ring in the new year right — have a good drink.

It was only a matter of time before the celebrity wave hit the bartending trade. Even in Los Angeles and Manhattan, few could probably tell you the name of the reigning celebrity mixologist. That hasn’t stopped pop culture cities across the continent from claiming barkeeps who promise the same sheen to drinking that celebrity chefs have cast on big food. There must be a Bravo show in the making (but I haven’t heard of it).

But before we get ahead of ourselves, finding the Tom Colicchio and Gordon Ramsay of the bar, let’s ask for caution. The mixologist drive threatens an American institution. After all, the cocktail largely came of age in the US, beginning with the mint julep in the south and the martini in the north. According to author Andrew Barr, the cocktail emerged because we yanks couldn’t get our hands on decent liquor. Wine and beer didn’t travel so well on cross-Atlantic shipping lanes, and not everyone could drink rum by itself. That led to the creation of punch, a blending of fruit juice and rum that went down the gullet easier than rum alone. In time, we invented the sling (a mixture of rum, water and sugar), and then the cocktail (a sling with the addition of bitters, and often with the freedom of other spirits than rum). The cocktail is our birthright.
(more…)