Over the last 9 months or so, something I have been experimenting with has been making Mead. I have done a couple of batches with varying success on quality and like with my chilli plants it's still very much a learning process.

After 14 years in the hospitality industry (working in bars, venues and restaurants) I have held pretty much every role on those hallowed grounds from manager to lowly bitch boy. Now you may refer to these establishments as the local, the boozer, the hunting grounds and for some less than honest spouses the office. For me it was hell. Not because of my colleagues or working within a high pressure industry (and trust me 20 impatient drunk people makes for a pretty high pressure environment) no! The single solitary component that made working in a pub feels like purgatory is you, the general public! However do not threat. For I am here to amend your horrendous habits and wicked ways. And teach you the correct way to behave in a drinking establishment. In essence this is a guide on how not to be a dick.

Peruvian Pisco. What is it?

The summer months will be rolling in soon and we all know what means. Backyards up and down the country will become the host to numerous BBQ’s on the weekends with hosts and guests all enjoying some great food and refreshing drinks. However, for the latter, it doesn’t always have to be cold beer. Why not try something a little different by adding some popular cocktails for your guests to drink?

This is a fictional web series I created for my Multimedia Communications Performance course at the Academy of Art University in 2016. For our midterm, we had to create a two minute "How To..." video. The only thing I could think of was cocktails. This piece was shot in the spring, that's why I chose Henny and Ginger ale. It's a spring time drink and it can be devoured any time of day or evening.

5 Reasons My First Attempt at Quitting Drinking Failed

Planning to host a dinner party soon? Impress your guests by delivering a great dining experience through impeccable alcohol pairing. Alcohol pairing is a skill that can be learned by simply combining good tastes. When you carefully curate your alcohol pairing, you are also enhancing the taste of the alcohol, as well as the food and cigar collection that you paired it with.

At one time, you could go into a store and find a liquor aisle to browse through. That aisle has now turned into a dozen aisles, with spirits you probably never even heard of. Some of those liquors you may never want or need. When you do want something different for a special occasion or a gift, how do you know where to start?

When you first visit Winc.com, you’re greeted by a flashing message that promises the experience of a hand-delivered, hand-picked, and hand-crafted world of wine. Scroll down a bit, and you’ll find an easy-as-1-2-3 formula to discover the wine of your dreams: 1 quiz, 6 questions, 4 bottles and 5 million reviews. This pairs perfectly with their millennial-aged customer base who love to take quizzes to learn more about themselves.

What is a Pisco Sour? Oh, you don’t know? Then, sir, or madam, I envy you. Because your first experience with the world’s greatest cocktail is still in your future, while mine is in the distant and ever more opaque past.

If you head to a little joint called Crif Dogs in the East Village to fill up on hot dogs and cheese fries, try walking into the wooden phone booth in the back and picking up the red phone to dial "1."

5 Reasons My First Attempt at Quitting Drinking Failed

‘Party hard and drink harder’ is the universally accepted motto of the pub hopping social butterflies. But they always decide not to get so drunk the next day when the hangover hits them hard on their bodies. Innumerable glasses of water and multiple rounds of lemonades too fail to create the magic of getting them ready for yet another round of partying. ‘A weekend without a drink is a weekend wasted’ is what the ‘Party Gurus’ exclaim with their party pals. But a sloshy morning and a gloomy mood call for something effective. Effective like Bloody Mary.

Sometimes, when it comes to alcoholic beverages, you crave something that’s a little lighter than a lager, ale, or cider ("hard cider," if you’re American). Thankfully, that’s where spirits come in. Either drink them neat like a little daredevil, or mix them with your favourite soft drink ("soda," if you’re American), and they’re perfect on a night out, with a meal, or just when you’re relaxing at home. So what does your favourite spirit tell you about what you’re like as a person? Let’s find out.

After 14 years in the hospitality industry (working in bars, venues and restaurants) I have held pretty much every role on those hallowed grounds from manager to lowly bitch boy. Now you may refer to these establishments as the local, the boozer, the hunting grounds and for some less than honest spouses the office. For me it was hell. Not because of my colleagues or working within a high pressure industry (and trust me 20 impatient drunk people makes for a pretty high pressure environment) no! The single solitary component that made working in a pub feels like purgatory is you, the general public! However do not threat. For I am here to amend your horrendous habits and wicked ways. And teach you the correct way to behave in a drinking establishment. In essence this is a guide on how not to be a dick.

Isolated at the farthest western tip of Texas is a desertic and mountainous gem. With over 500 miles between it and Austin, its closest major Texan city, El Paso, Texas, has become a flamboyant hybrid of the American Dream and Mexican culture. Two miles south of El Paso is Ciudad Juárez, one of the most populous cities in Mexico. The only dividing apparatuses between the two major cities are the Rio Grande and four international bridges of entry.

The term “Dive bar”brings to mind various images, depending on what you have seen or heard. Many used to call this type of establishment a “hole in the wall”, where using the terminology of the day, the riff raff would hang out to drink, gamble, and find prostitutes. Older movies would often show preachers outside of these places telling the sinners to repent. “Dive bar” is considered a colloquial term used in the United States to describe a low income neighborhood bar where the local folks get together to drink and or socialize. Dive bar can also refer to a bar or pub that is disreputable, in poor condition, seedy, sinister, disreputable or considered a detriment or blight in the community.

It’s often said that bartenders are like cheap therapists, and most days that feels like the truth. So, one day when I saw a reserved older man, sitting at the end of my bar all alone and looking like he had the world on his shoulders, naturally I went over and asked what he wanted to drink. He smiled kindly, his eyes crinkling around the edges just a little.

We've all been there. You're working the bar, making everyone's specific drinks as they ask for it and tell you exactly how they like it. Then someone comes up and says, "eh, I don't know, whatever's good but not too boozy."

For the past three years I've had a part time job as a bartender to get me through university. This summer I'm about to graduate, which means leaving the bar work behind me for a full time job. I wanted to look back on the past three years and think about what advice I would give to past me to save myself (and you) some aggro. So I've compiled a list of 10 things you should know about bar tending based on my own experiences on the front line.

I've never been a big drinker. That's always been amazing to me, considering how many alcoholics I've known and am related to. I definitely did the thing where you almost drink yourself to death until you turn 21 and then basically stop completely because drinking legally literally took all the fun out of it. When I was 17 and 18, anytime I had the opportunity to drink I got so wasted. Not just white girl wasted either. I was too cool for mixed drinks (which means I couldn't stomach them). So when I wasn't drinking beer, I chugged bourbon from the bottle (because for some ridiculous reason chasing it with a beer seemed like a great idea). But like I said, I didn't carry on this way for too long. The older I got, the more I just wanted to sit and relax with a nice cold beer when hanging out with friends.

I'm Matt Maratea, and I'm back again to share another round of beer reviews! The Sporting Chance Podcast continues and thus my "hobby" of enjoying craft beer continues as well.

For us craft beer lovers, we can't get enough of our favorite craft beers. We order cases and cases from our beloved breweries every month and even visit our favorite breweries and enjoy their tap rooms. And for those who have a passion in craft beer, we're attracted to the scents, the intense flavors, and the overall look of these beers. Anything that involves our most loved craft beers, we have to be involved, as well. Not to mention wanting the latest updates on what's going on in our favorite breweries.

Peruvian Pisco. What is it?

This is a fictional web series I created for my Multimedia Communications Performance course at the Academy of Art University in 2016. For our midterm, we had to create a two minute "How To..." video. The only thing I could think of was cocktails. This piece was shot in the spring, that's why I chose Henny and Ginger ale. It's a spring time drink and it can be devoured any time of day or evening.

The Amaretto Sour is a delicious cocktail. The Amaretto, which is the main alcohol in this cocktail, comes from the Italian word amaro, meaning “bitter”, from the bitter almond which is one of the key ingredients of this liqueur. To sweeten it, simple syrup or almond syrup is added. While there is another Italian liqueur called “amaro”, they should be confused with one another. It is safe to say, though, that they share a trait - bitterness. However, amaro is a lot more bitter than the amaretto, therefore rightfully gaining its moniker, “the little bitter”.

Over the last 9 months or so, something I have been experimenting with has been making Mead. I have done a couple of batches with varying success on quality and like with my chilli plants it's still very much a learning process.

Many of us are stuck at home, eyeing our half-emptied bottle of rum and a can of Coke and wishing we could be out and about on a Friday night. Don't despair: It's not as difficult as you might think to make yourself a delicious drink! You just have to understand the basic science of crafting cocktails, which is called mixology.

Welcome to your skinny holiday drink guide, I'll be your truthful host this season. (throws glitter)

One of my favorite hobbies is exploring what drinking is like in different parts of the world. Have you tried Japanese whisky or Korean Soju? What about lesser known European spirits like Ouzo and Jenever? Along with tasting these international beverages, it's important to understand the drinking culture in the regions where they originated. Here are some of my favorite drinking rituals from around the world—I encourage you to try them for yourself!

The sun shined the wrong way through your disheveled blinds, waking you from your stupor as you sweat your way through your sheets. Somewhere your alarm clock is going off; you're late for work, and your stomach is churning bile over and over at the bottom of your throat. You're counting the number of times your headache can pound inside your head until you're ready to get out of bed, and you taste blood running from your cracked lips as you pull yourself off your pillow. Swinging your legs off the bed, you try to stabilize yourself on your end table, knocking over beer bottles and soaking your carpet in alcohol. Now the race is on to get to the bathroom before you wretch all over your bedroom, tripping over clothes and empties from the night before. Admittedly, I've done this. It might even be safe to say the majority of people have done this. If you do this every morning though, it may be one of the signs you're an alcoholic.

When you hear “DUI,” most people immediately think of operating a motor vehicle under the influence. However, many states have different policies on how and what is defined as a motor vehicle. There are still other ways you can find yourself behind bars, even if you didn't get behind the wheel of a car.

Captain Morgan is a name known far and wide, but today the only fear it generates is in people who can't quite remember what they did after their eighth shot of rum on Saturday night. However, unlike some products that come up with catchy names and memorable mascots to go with them, Captain Morgan was a real person. Beyond simply existing though, Captain Henry Morgan wrote his name in gunpowder and blood all throughout the Caribbean in the 1600s.

In fact, many countries have banned alcohol, at some point in history. A typical example is the famous American period of Prohibition.

When the topic of drinking laws is brought up, Prohibition is usually what initially comes to mind, as this marked a particularly stringent era of federal restriction in regards to alcohol. However, across the world, there are plenty of odd drinking laws that structure the ways in which we are or aren’t allowed to consume alcohol, and some of them certainly prove that truth is stranger than fiction. From banning certain types of alcohol to implementing meticulously specific laws about how or when it can be served, there are plenty of bizarre legal hoops that people have to jump through if they want to drink. The weirdest drinking laws throughout the course of history are comical reminders that alcohol and our aversion to it make us do strange things.

Story researched and Developed by The Writers Room for FIN Media exclusively on Vocal

Planning to host a dinner party soon? Impress your guests by delivering a great dining experience through impeccable alcohol pairing. Alcohol pairing is a skill that can be learned by simply combining good tastes. When you carefully curate your alcohol pairing, you are also enhancing the taste of the alcohol, as well as the food and cigar collection that you paired it with.

College is the time for experimenting. You’re still young. You’re going to be introduced to many different views and walks of life. Everything you learned (history, science, how a class functions even) before is going to be questions and you're going to like it. Your liver is fresh and hangovers are cure easily with a plate of tator tots. Cheesy eggs if you’re feeling fancy. That being said, please drink responsibly.

I remember being 8 years old and sneaking a sip of my uncle's can of Budweiser beer he usually kept in our refrigerator when he came to visit.

If you’d have told fresh-faced, eighteen year-old me that at twenty-two I would be writing an article for public consumption under this headline, I would have laughed in your face and taken a big swig of my G&T at such a ludicrous suggestion. And yet, here I am, having felt inclined to put pen to paper on this subject for months, the reasons leading up to which I will discuss below.

While living my best life I attended Eden’s 30th birthday. The event was at Mosman Hotel in a small outside room upstairs. It was a hot Stormy day, the kind of weather that sets the mood, that promises drama and excitement. It’s the kind of weather that lacklustre cinematographers use to tell the story when they lack the artistic ability to convey a nuanced mood. But yeah, it was promising weather for a promising night. I was ready to get wrecked and the weather had my back. I generally have a pretty solid tolerance for alcohol. I would back myself in a drinking competition against anyone but the most hardened of alcoholic miners. Tonight, I was going to test the tensile strength of my liver and I was going to have a blast doing it. I was enjoying myself catching up with my old Uni crew. It had been three months since we were all together, the last time was Charles 30th. It was the year of 30th birthdays, the year of everyone saying goodbye to their twenties and most of them stepping up to the ‘I’m an adult for real and proper now’. Obviously, I didn’t do any stepping up, but the people around me were starting to make those life choices. I had polished off my 3 bottles of white wine and decided to switch to vodka, as you do in the second hour of drinking. I decided to be a reformed former smoker for the night as well because it seemed like a good idea at the time. By this stage I was visibly drunk, but there is never any stopping Dionysus. Dionysus doesn’t want your speed zones, Dionysus doesn’t see your stop signs, Dionysus wants to have fun, and fun happens at pedal to the metal. The thing that stopped me, my metaphorical wall if you will, was a cigarette. After smoke bombing myself for hours, it was a cigarette that tipped me over the edge. The room started to spin uncontrollably. It had been a while since I had drunk that much and smoke bombed myself that hard, and the consequences of my day hit me all at once. Like Sally Pearson, my system just gave up on me, lay down and cried, but unlike an Olympic rowing team there was no-one left to row row row my boat to shore. Like introverts everywhere I decided to do the dodgy bail, to sneak away and order an uber and hope no-one noticed. To my surprise as I exited the pub there was 4 taxis already lined up. I tried to order an uber through my phone app because it’s cheaper than a taxi but I was by this stage incapable of using my phone. It’s entirely possible I was trying to order my Uber on the back screen of my phone or maybe even on a shoe like a funky modern version of get smart. The point being it wasn’t working. I decided to take a taxi because, while expensive, it was within my current capabilities and I wanted to get home. We got about 2 kms in the taxi before I started to feel violently sick. As politely as possibly when incoherently intoxicated, I asked the driver to pull over so I could throw up. He pulled over, and I opened the door just in time to throw up. I threw up so violently that I briefly lost consciousness and came to, face down in a pile of vomit in the gutter. Half in and half out of the taxi, I languished there like an uncoordinated flamingo. I had hit my head on the gutter, torn my ear at some point, and was covered in a foul-smelling wash of blood, vomit and shame.

The summer months will be rolling in soon and we all know what means. Backyards up and down the country will become the host to numerous BBQ’s on the weekends with hosts and guests all enjoying some great food and refreshing drinks. However, for the latter, it doesn’t always have to be cold beer. Why not try something a little different by adding some popular cocktails for your guests to drink?

Alcoholic beverages and nostalgic sweets have always had a rather experimental relationship ever since the early days of unusual mixing. But, for a specific audience, a certain sweet comes to mind. And, when swirled with the perfect liquer, can often leave a punchy note that can make a collective Swizzels lover swoon. This, of course, is all about parma violets and all of their gorgeous glory.

Happy hour is an all too well-known concept where bars and restaurants offer half -price drinks and appetizers or deals on specific drinks and appetizers, normally in the late afternoon from around 4 to 6 PM. Sometimes you find those bars that have signs outside like “Happy Hour all day,” and they are always a good find and a place you'll remember, or maybe not, I don't know.

Hello, and welcome back to another fruity edition of the Ginger Tea Reviews! Tea is my passion, and I am making it my goal to share my passion with the world! Today, we are going to be talking about a recipe from a great cook book, The Culinary Tea.

About 30 minutes outside of Salt Lake City, nestled in the small town of Tooele is a great craft brewery called Bonneville Brewery. Now, Utah isn't traditionally known for their alcohol but with a new generation of brewers on the rise, Utah is quickly becoming fertile ground for the growing industry. Bonneville is what I would describe as the perfect brewpub with a great balance between innovative brews and delicious eats.

ZIMA is BACK! If you've been living under a rock for the last month and haven't heard the news, the original flavored malt beverage, Zima is back for a limited time only!

Whether you are into wine-making or just seeking to learn more about fine wines, these terms will broaden your understanding. Wine-lovers can add to the following wine terms their vocabulary as they explore the wide array of wines originating from many wine-producing regions of the world.

Holidays and any celebration event is incomplete without a bottle of wine. The art of uncorking a bottle of wine, smelling it, and then slowly sipping it in moderation is terrific. Many studies done over the years show the health benefits of wine. Wine is full of body-boosting properties that have a positive impact on your health. Here are the top ten surprising health benefits of wine.

Wine is one of the most favoured across the world. The richness and sweetness of this drink are not the only reasons for its popularity. There are many other surprising yet lesser-known facts of this drink. Some may even say that wine is a thing that you should consume if you want to live a healthy and long life. It is indeed true, and also you will agree to this once we highlight the benefits of wine. Be it red, white, or rose, all wines have their unique taste, and more than that, the interests that each one of them has to offer.