Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina got it right: “Happy families are all alike;” and I’ll add “so are cocktails, at least until a global pandemic takes hold.” Therein lies the inspiration for this journey through the world of spirits and their myriad concoctions. After the lockdown began in March 2020, it took me a few months to realize that a daily cocktail might be an interesting way of distraction. 

Mind you, I think I’d had the same few bottles on hand for years: a bottle of bourbon, another of rye, a nasty coconut rum, some vodka, a few tequilas from when Amy and I took a trip to Mexico’s Isla Mujeres before we were married along with 4 bottles of Kahlua. I have no idea why so many. I’d been introduced to the Aviation at some point, and thought I’d start there.

So I tracked down a bottle of Creme de Violette – there’s a long history to that liqueur I’ll save for another entry – as well as Luxardo maraschino cherry liqueur. After that, I needed to find more things to create. That led to picking up one modern cocktail book, then another and another. Pretty soon I’m Instagramming my way to a really nice collection of cocktail recipes and a few of my own musings about most of them. 

Here in mid-January 2021, as the world continues to do that crazy thing we’ve been dealing with for almost a year (pandemic, civil unrest, attempted insurrection, the (blessed) election of Joe Biden & Kamal Harris, as well as Georgia turning blue in not one but TWO elections) I’ve made about 150 unique drinks. This blog will be an attempt at documenting these and letting my friends track their favorites down – something Instagram and Facebook don’t really facilitate all that well. 

I hope you’ll join me on this journey. There is so much more to the cocktail than I ever realized. Let’s go!