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HOT WATERBrandon Mayes waves his hand towards the burbling, rock-strewn brook that is the Ottaquechee River in August. “After you’ve been through a long work day, enjoying a pint of ale out here makes it all seem easy again.” We’re on the brewpub’s dining porch at Long Trail Brewing Company... Read More

When it comes to stout, a single beer defines the style for most drinkers. With its cascading layers of nitrogenated foam and alternating hues of mocha and cream, Guinness draft beer is a world classic. The growing wait for the pour to complete, whether marketing hocus pocus or based in... Read More

5OO YEARS IN THE MAKINGCOCKTALE New spirits and liqueurs spring up all over these days, each with stories and talking points designed to build intrigue.  Yet few stories are so beguiling as that of Bénédictine.  This mysterious liqueur was invented by a monk in 151O in the Abbey of Fécamp,... Read More

With any luck, 2O11 will see many umbrellas being stowed away as economic storm clouds start to give way to sunnier skies, and may these rays warm the world of cordials and liqueurs. One can only hope that the timeless classics and newly crafted concoctions will brush away the ashes... Read More

Coatepec is in the mountainous part of Mexico’s state of Veracruz. Trucks rumble through the streets, there’s a market in the square where you can buy fresh-roasted ears of corn slathered with mayonnaise and sprinkled with powdered chiles, and the cantinas serve smoky mezcal and ice-cold beers to wiry, calloused... Read More

It gets tiresome fighting the same battles all over again. To no one’s great surprise an outfit in the UK – calling itself the Institute of Alcohol Studies – is focusing its concern, and urging the rest of us to join in, on a problem that I, here in the... Read More

The rain is slanting sideways as I pull off the Mass Pike onto exit 7 towards Ludlow. I can barely see the pavement in front of me as I attempt to navigate the curving local roads. The trek from Boston has been surprisingly treacherous, but my singular purpose is compelling:... Read More

Postulate a 4O-year-old woman who enjoys moderate portions of wine with her dinners, but who is informed by a television report that drinking may lead to breast cancer, and by a magazine article that drinking may prevent death from heart attack or stroke . . . What a choice! An... Read More

Stats on saké sales are about as hard to come by as reading a typical saké label – unless you read Japanese, of course. There might be as many as 6OO brands of saké sold in the US. However, there’s no Yellow Tail. The brand names, sometimes with hard-to-pronounce (for... Read More