Cocktails Archives | Palate Press

4 min read

It’s comical to see someone’s reaction when I tell them I am smoking water for the sole purpose of making ice. It’s not exactly the most common thing you see on a barbecue menu. However, it makes sense. Hear me out. You may be asking why anyone would want smoked Read More

Best of 2016: Bitters and the mystery of blending

Erika Szymanski

Features Spirits

5 min read

I had expected great things from my first experiences with cocktail bitters. Bitter flavors are great, and so are condiments. Make me a kale and radicchio salad spiked with anchovies, garlic, and mustard and I'll nosh contentedly. So I was surprised, when I splashed some of the classic Angostura on Read More

Bitters and the mystery of blending

Erika Szymanski

Features Spirits

5 min read

I had expected great things from my first experiences with cocktail bitters. Bitter flavors are great, and so are condiments. Make me a kale and radicchio salad spiked with anchovies, garlic, and mustard and I'll nosh contentedly. So I was surprised, when I splashed some of the classic Angostura on Read More

Going clear: Appreciating vodka

W. Blake Gray

Features Spirits

5 min read

I wasn't always a wine drinker. The first thing I liked to drink was vodka: vodka with cranberry juice, or a Black Russian with a slice of lime. Now, though, I am entirely too hip to drink vodka. I sneer at vodka, and at people who drink vodka. If I Read More

Amaro, Ti Amo: Italian herbal liqueurs for sipping and cocktails

W. Blake Gray

Features Spirits

4 min read

We don't think of spirits as having terroir. Amari are a big exception. "Amaro" means "bitter" in Italian. These traditional spirits, flavored by roots and herbs, are drunk at the end of a meal in Italy to aid the digestion. For a long time in the U.S., an Italian restaurant Read More

Wine Country Cocktails

Michelle Locke

Features Spirits Wine Spotlight

3 min read

Meet FOAM, the Napa Valley’s top secret, well kinda secret, cocktail society After a hard day working in the cellar, or the vineyard, or the office filling out paperwork, winemaker Judd Finkelstein likes to relax with an adult beverage … and it’s probably not the one you’re expecting. Sure, Finkelstein Read More

Getting to grips with grappa

Michelle Locke

Features Spirits Wine Spotlight

4 min read

In Friuli, the Nonino family makes grappa in a sophisticated spirit Earthy, rustic, fiery -- grappa's got a reputation as a real party animal, white lightning, Italian style. But did you know there are elegant, single-varietal grappas that can hold their own at the fanciest of soirées? Or grappa cocktails Read More

Cocktail Historian Erica Duecy’s Storied Sips Gets the Back Story on Classic Drinks

Michelle Locke

Features

2 min read

Did you know that the Kir Royale was named for a French resistance fighter? Or that the South American classic, the Pisco Sour, was invented by a bartender from Utah (!) who was working in Peru? These and other titivating tidbits are artfully presented in cocktail historian Erica Duecy's new Read More

Smoked ice gives cocktails a campfire kick

Best of 2016: Bitters and the mystery of blending

Bitters and the mystery of blending

Going clear: Appreciating vodka

Amaro, Ti Amo: Italian herbal liqueurs for sipping and cocktails

Wine Country Cocktails

Getting to grips with grappa

Cocktail Historian Erica Duecy’s Storied Sips Gets the Back Story on Classic Drinks

2018 Notturno Drei Donà Romagna DOC Predappio Sangiovese

2019 Jordan Chardonnay, Russian River Valley, Sonoma County

2018 Ghost of a Chance Wines “Gangster of Love” Red, Sierra Foothills

2020 One Flock Sauvignon Blanc

2020 One Flock Red Wine, California