A weblog detailing cocktails, spirits, liqueurs, barware, bars, and bitters. Maintained by Michael Dietsch, a hobbyist mixer in Providence, R.I.

From the category archives:

On the web

Odds and Ends

by Michael Dietsch on December 21, 2010 · 0 comments

in Booze in the news,Cocktail parties,Cocktail recipes,On the web,Rum,Serious Eats

No one ever seems to blog much during Christmas week, and I’m no exception. Just wanted to drop a quick post linking out to a couple of other things I’ve been working on.

The biggest news is that I’m contributing to Serious Eats. I’m writing a weekly column for the next several weeks on basic cocktail techniques. Right now, I’m in the middle of a three-part series on party planning. Parts 1 and 2 are up, along with a recipe for a batched Negroni. Part 3 should be up next week. I still can’t believe people pay me to write about what I love.

I also have a recipe that’s part of a crowded field at Food52, competing for best Hot Toddy recipe. My entry, the Rum Tum Toddy, features baked apple and Smith & Cross rum. I love the drink and hope it has a chance, but we’ll see. Here’s a video of me flaming an orange twist to go atop the toddy. I sloppily managed to drop the twist pith side up, which irritates me, but I didn’t get a smudge of match soot on the peel, which would have vexed me even more. (Yes, that’s a box of wine behind me. Sigh.)

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Jen on the radio

by Michael Dietsch on May 17, 2009 · 0 comments

in Food and spirits,Media,On the web,Pairings

Two Jens, in fact! A couple of Wednesdays ago, Jen Huntley-Corbin and Jen Hess got to talking on the radio about food, blogging, and Jen’s inspirations in starting Last Night’s Dinner. Check it out here.

Since I was in the studio, Jen H-C prevailed on me to make a couple of comments too, but I tried to keep from stealing the focus from the Jen Party. She asked first about my use of vodka in making pie crusts, and then later, we talked briefly about pairing cocktails with food.

Oh, and I babbled pretty incoherently when Jen H-C asked me about the tip about the vodka in the pie crust. Jen (Hess, that is) had pointed me to a post on Smitten Kitchen about it way back when, and that’s where the idea originated. Deb explains it much, much better than I did on the radio, so if the idea intrigues you, go read Deb’s post for a better explanation.

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Jen’s Dish, audio

by Michael Dietsch on March 22, 2009 · 5 comments

in Applejack,Bourbon,Cocktail recipes,Media,Mixology,On the web

I now have the full audio from my appearance on the Jen’s Dish radio program.

Download it here.

Or listen to it, embedded, here:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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Happy New Year!

January 2, 2009

As promised/threatened, I made the Ford Cocktail that Ted “Dr. Cocktail” Haigh recommended on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday. Doc said to Liane Hansen that this is a drink he wants to revive in 2009 and rightfully so. It’s delicious. He describes it as lovely and beautifully balanced, and once again, the doctor’s prescription is right [...]

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The Flowing Bowl

September 23, 2008

You might have noticed from my previous post that The Only William’s book The Flowing Bowl is available on Google Book Search. Well, guess what? It’s available here, too, thanks to a nifty new feature from Google Books: Edited to add: Hrrm. It’s showing up only sporadically.

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MxMo in the Crescent City

July 28, 2008

For this month’s Mixology Monday, which has a New Orleans theme, I’m going with a couple of drinks, both inspired by panels that I attended at Tales of the Cocktail. The first drink is the Sloppy Joe’s Mojito, inspired obliquely by the To Have and Have Another panel, on the drinking life of Ernest Hemingway. [...]

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Very Good Taste

January 5, 2008

I’ve been remiss in linking out to this, but my friend Andrew Wheeler, an English food and drinks writer, is blogging, with his writing partner Jill, at Very Good Taste. Among the foody posts at Very Good Taste are a couple of great boozy entries–one on the Sazerac and another on gin. I feel like [...]

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Neo-prohibitionism

December 5, 2007

If you think Repeal Day, 74 years ago, was the end of the story, think again. Check out this great, exhaustive site by David J. Hanson, a professor of sociology at the State University of New York in Potsdam: Alcohol: Problems and Solutions The gist of the site is to explore, even-handedly, the effects of [...]

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