My Passion

Today, with an understanding of history, ingredients, and proper technique, we can craft our own versions of the classics — staying as true, or straying as far, from the original as we desire. From its earliest description, in 1806, by The Balance and Columbian Repository of Hudson, New York, the “cocktail” was defined as a beverage composed of sugar, water, and bitters mixed with a “spirit of any kind.”

The use of the phrase “spirit of any kind” reinforces the notion that even in the heyday of the cocktail era, it was common knowledge that cocktails can easily be transformed into different concoctions by interchanging an ingredient for another which has a similar alcohol strength and flavor intensity.