Highlights of Tales so far

Posted on July 19, 2008
Filed Under Jay Hepburn | 3 Comments

Jay Hepburn is a cocktail enthusiast from London, England. He documents his adventures in mixology at Oh Gosh!.

It seems redundant to say it, but Tales of the Cocktail is a blast! Between the people, the sessions, and all the cocktails it is essentially impossible to not be having fun from the minute you leave your hotel room to the hazy recollection of arriving back at that room far later than planned. With so much new information from the sessions it’s going to take me a week to process it all, so instead of trying to detail everything I learned I thought I would instead offer some photos, and what for me have been the highlights of the past few days.

The bloggers reception, where I got to meet most of the other bloggers I’d not met the previous night. They say bloggers are shy, boring nerds, but not this lot!

My first session of Tales, Phil Greene’s exploration of Ernest Hemingway’s life which appropriately enough served five cocktails before midday.

One of my favourite sessions so far, as an Englishman and a gin lover, was Juniperlooza. Experts like Simon Ford and Phillip Duff, plus 10 different gin samples from traditional Dutch styles to modern American gins, plus some rarities like Old Tom in between.

As if 10 gin samples wasn’t enough, straight after was the Cognac and Armagnac session with 10 different brandy samples. The real surprise for me here was how good the sample of unaged Armagnac was – kind of Pisco like and very enjoyable.

On to Friday and the first session was on bitters, a subject close to my heart (and liver). Ancient bottles and modern attempts to replicate the classics? Yes please!

Ultra-rare ingredients was the theme yesterday, with the next session on liqueurs featuring the appearance of créme yvette and Forbidden Fruit, two ingredients that make créme de violette seem positively common. The bottle containing the vintage Forbidden Fruit may look familiar, but the contents was truly unique.

The only way I can think of describing créme yvette is a less perfumey, more fruity créme de violette, but that’s not really doing it justice. When it was announced créme yvette would hopefully be released early next year, the crowd cheered approvingly. These are my kind of people…