bringing drinks to life

Sitting in a hotel somewhere in the backwoods of Mississippi, Sarah, Steve and I are reminiscing about the last 5 days spent at Tales of the Cocktail. All three of us agree that it has been an amazing experience and that we will be back to do it all again next year.  We also are all of the opinion that a day or two off the sauce wouldn’t be amiss.

So here are our thoughts on what makes Tales such a good event and why we expect you to start saving your pennies now so that we can see you in New Orleans in 2010.

THE SERIOUS SIDE

New Orleans is a fun city and having 15,000 people who are interested in booze dropping-in on the French Quarter is going to lead to a lot of partying, but we’ll get onto that in a minute. There is a serious side to TotC, which acts as a core around which to build your time in New Orleans; every day there are 16 seminars to chose from as well as tasting rooms, meeting rooms and various VIP treats (massages and martinis springs to mind).

The seminars cover such a wide range of topics that there is something for everyone here, so what do you want to learn about?  The psychology of making your customers drink what you want them to? How to bang out top quality drinks fast (ironically this course over ran because Philip Duff was not fast enough!)? American Whiskey straight from the mouths of four of the legends of the category? The science behind sweetness? Cocktail photography? You name it they’ve got a seminar about it!

Now this may all sound a little dry but the team behind TotC have done an outstanding job of pairing some of the great characters of our industry (Philip Duff, Angus Winchester, Charlotte Voisey, Robert Hess, Francesco Lafronconi etc.) with experts on the subject of each seminar. That, coupled with the fact that bartenders aren’t afraid to ask questions and that drinks are served throughout, makes for some pretty interesting sessions. That’s not to say that they’re all great… we did sneak out of a couple to top-up our suntans at the rooftop pool and bar, but overall it’s well worth the effort to tag along to a couple of sessions each day.

THE SOCIAL SIDE

One of the great things about this event is that it draws a crowd from all over the globe so it’s the perfect place to catch up with old friends and make some new ones. For us the ‘networking’ (read drinking beer in the pool while getting a tan) was as important and enjoyable as any other aspect of Tales of the Cocktail.

Bring a stack of business cards and your drinking legs - you’re going to need them. Personal highlights for us were catching up with Dan Warner and John Gakuru by the pool and meeting John Ulrich, Jimmy and Nikolay from Copenhagen, catching up with our old mate Rich from NY as well as having random conversations with strangers (now friends for life).

The drinks industry is full of real characters, so don’t be shy, get out there and meet some people; plus, networking provides the perfect excuse to break up your day so you don’t spend all your time in seminars and also means that you’re guaranteed to hear about all the parties and events going on each evening.

THE FUN SIDE

Let’s face it, 5 days of seminars (even with networking breaks and free drinks) might not be a compelling enough reason to spend all that money, take time off work and travel from whatever corner of the world you happen to be in.

Maybe this will act as the icing on the cake for you… Every night there are 2 or 3 brand-sponsored parties as well as countless impromptu gatherings to check out. The two stand-out events for us this year were the Hendrick’s Gin Burlesque party which was appropriately inappropriate; it was in a great venue (a ballroom in the Roosevelt Hotel) paired with great drinks and an amazing burlesque show. Then there was the Plymouth party after the Spirit Awards dinner, which was kicked off with the tradition of burying an old cocktail that’s had its day. This year it was the turn of the Red Headed Slut. Now that doesn’t sound too amazing, but this is New Orleans where anything goes… The Red Headed Slut was sent to her grave with a full New Orleans style funeral including a brass band, a wailing widow, a preacher and a police escort through the streets of the French Quarter!

There are a handful of great bars to checkout, some for historic reasons, some for good drinking. I should qualify this by saying that if you come here thinking that you will be served the best Sazerac or Ramos gin fizz then you might be disappointed. There are a few really good bartenders here who are doing great things (I am thinking of the two Chris’ in UnCommon and French 75 specifically) but overall the bar scene is more tradition than cutting edge.

The drinks may not all blow your mind, but the drinking experiences are great. There are loads of bartenders who are real characters (they all think that their way of making a sazerac is the right way) some stunning old venues and of course a crowd of old mates or new best friends.

There is no doubt that we will be back out next year for more rooftop lounging, liquid learning, blues and bourbon swilling and of course that all important networking. We hope to see you at Tales too!