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BARTENDER, I’D LIKE AN “APP-EALING” DRINKNext time a customer asks you for the ingredients in one of those fashionable pre-Prohibition era cocktails and you aren’t quite sure of the recipe, just turn to your iPhone.  Much more discreet and all-encompassing than a battered Mr. Boston Bartender’s Guide, there are dozens... Read More

I was surprised and delighted by the Alto Adige when I first visited twelve years ago. This beautiful alpine corner of Italy does not at all conform to one’s usual expectation of that delightful land, as registered by more southerly regions. Here are the picture-postcard peaks and valleys of the... Read More

Spring is Riesling season par excellence. While I personally enjoy drinking Riesling year-round, from a commercial perspective this is the moment to focus on lighter styled, more delicate herb and floral scented versions, whether they feature discernible residual sugar or not, because of the strong link between Nature’s annual reawakening... Read More

Brewers have long embraced the changing consumer drinking patterns that accompany shifting weather patterns, helping fuel the demand for seasonal products. These beers often appear as little known styles, such as Kolsch or Helles, often rebranded by savvy breweries as Summer Ales. People usually associate the summer months with the... Read More

From the locally crafted to the iconic imports, vodka reigns as it’s poured.  One conspicuous point of distinction has been that several so-called “value” brands have gotten more than their fifteen minutes of fame courtesy of the economy.  Some consumers have traded down and have made the discovery that there’s... Read More

Their prices having converted Vega Sicilia and Pingus into theoretical wines for most of us should not put us off to the many affordable and fine wines of the Ribera del Duero (“banks of the Duero River”). Let’s see about this isolated region just east of Valladolid in north-central Spain,... Read More

SUZANNE SCHALOW 4OKATE BAKER 41Co-owners, Craft Beer CellarBelmont, MA The Bay State’s craft brew craze is going – bacterial – and these gals are in the thick of it.  The sisters in suds met as co-workers at the Lizard Lounge a decade ago, and struck up a coalition.  They’d worked... Read More

I live in Lager Land. Here in Pennsylvania, Yuengling Lager is ubiquitous, which has created a beer landscape unlike any other in the country. It’s pretty much taken as given here that concern over Yuengling’s incredible growth – from under 2OO,OOO barrels in 1985 to 2 million in 2O1O –... Read More

LA PALOMA A recent trip to Mexico to learn about tequila introduced me to the joys of a simple, refreshing cocktail called La Paloma.  If you find yourself sick of sipping Margaritas this Cinco de Mayo, we suggest you change it up.  The drink was invented in the tiny town... Read More