Tales 2011 – Follow Along

Anyone who knows anything about cocktails is aware that Tales of the Cocktail is just about upon us. For those that don’t know what “Tales” is, it is the largest annual migration of the worlds best bartenders and drink experts, who congregate in New Orleans for a week of learning, socializing, [...]

Tales 2010 Summary — Darcy O’Neil

At the Art of Drink, Darcy sums up his Tales 2010 experiences:
Wow, what a week. This year was bigger and better than last year. In fact there were so many people I wanted to have a drink with that there just was enough time. But I did manage to drink my fair share and chat [...]

Soda’s Influence on Cocktails

Darcy O’Neil is a bartender and chemist in London, Ontario. He publishes The Art of Drink.
Darcy’s third seminar at Tales (busy man!) is “Soda’s Influence on Cocktails,” which discusses the influence of the old-time soda fountain on bartending and cocktails. He discusses it on his site, so click through to read more.

Big Fish, Small Pond

Darcy O’Neil is a bartender and chemist in London, Ontario. He publishes The Art of Drink.
The world of book publishing has changed significantly with the fiendishly rapid development of the Internet. Less than a decade ago, if you wanted to publish a book you needed to get a publisher, or if excessive rejection wasn’t your [...]

Umami in Cocktails

Darcy O’Neil is a bartender and chemist in London, Ontario. He publishes The Art of Drink.
In the culinary world umami is an extremely important component of great food, in the cocktail world, not so much. The key reason for this is that the benefits of the umami flavour in cocktails hasn’t really been explored by [...]

A Tales Retrospective

Darcy O’Neil is a bartender and chemist in London, Ontario. He publishes The Art of Drink.
As soon as Tales of the Cocktail gets started, it seems it is over. As a friend said, too many drinks makes the nights go by fast. But, most people used their time very well and made the most of [...]

Sensory Perception and Mixology

This is the first post from Darcy O’Neil, a bartender and chemist in London, Ontario. He publishes The Art of Drink.
Have you ever wondered why one person loves a drink and another hates it? Most people have a basic understanding of personal preference, but do you really understand what makes a persons taste buds tick? [...]