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COCKTALE As far as Irish whiskey cocktails are concerned, few spring to mind so easily as the Irish Coffee. It’s a delicious and warming treat when prepared correctly, but one that can go horribly awry in the wrong hands. For whatever reason, modern bartenders are often woefully uneducated about how... Read More

Somewhere, the ghosts of colonists are smiling.  The spirit that the New England settlers not only consumed by the punch bowl, but produced in great volumes and used as currency, is undergoing a major revival.  But this resurgent interest is hardly a rush for rum and colas or a nostalgia-driven... Read More

CHRIS PEDERSEN – 49 Charles Street Liquors – Beacon Hill, Boston, MA Candid and casual, Texas-born Chris Pedersen arrived in Boston as a computer specialist, and turned a love for wine into his life’s work when he became manager at this venerable Beacon Hill shop.  He turned a faded business... Read More

Australia, a continent the size of the USA, seems to occupy a virtual space, not a real one, hulking at the fringes just as it appears on our world maps. Last February, we saw images of the devastating brush and grass fires that ravaged the Yarra Valley, one of Australia’s... Read More

Starting in earnest during the early years of the 198Os, few could have guessed just how much the complexion of the American beer industry would change. It’s moved from an era when a small handful of corporate brewers reigned supreme from coast to coast to a time when the plains... Read More

The Daiquiri COCKTALE With frozen, fruit-flavored versions a mainstay of the Island Oasis machine, the Daiquiri might not be the first drink that springs to mind when you think of endangered cocktails.  The original recipe for the drink – a simple mixture of rum, fresh lime juice and sugar –... Read More

While technically, both domestic and import numbers were collectively down this year, I’d be surprised if too much sleep was being lost over it.  Behind only vodka and rum, the Cordials+Liqueurs category continues to soar, thanks in part to consumers’ on-going passion for home mixing and the versatility the category... Read More

If any liquor store has a storied past, it’s Pioppi’s Package Store. If any shop has a particularly New England storied past, it’s Pioppi’s. The Plymouth shop is something of an institution in its own right, earning the Best Liquor Store nod from the readers of Old Colony Memorial 11... Read More

Port season is upon us and, although it has not been growing recently on the American market, the venerable fortified wine from the Douro Valley remains one of the world’s classic categories that, from a qualitative standpoint, goes from strength to strength and keeps renewing itself with improved techniques of... Read More