Drinking in the New Year

Posted by Brooklyn Bill

Toward the end of '09, I did a lot of thinking about drinking. Pretty much the whole goddamn decade was one long reason to get plastered, if you were paying attention to current events. But I started focusing on, specifically, cocktail drinking late this year because of an article about making proper drinks for a party that I edited for the magazine where I work.*

Then I saw The Essential Cocktail by Dale DeGroff in a Papyrus store and bought it on impulse, though it was an impulse purchase backed with the knowledge—gained from the wine and spirits columnist for the magazine—that DeGroff is pretty much the person you'd want to learn about cocktails from. And I've been having lots of fun reading it and taking in the drink-porn photos.

For Christmas, at my request, my sister and her family gave me a sleek and sexy cocktail shaker, a jigger, and a cocktail spoon that doubles as an ice chopper.

Now all I need is some booze! And some recommendations. I've been on a kick for gin and tonics lately** but I'm eager to branch out. What cocktails do you make at home or request at a bar that I should try? I'm also curious about which brands of liquor you think are best and which expensive ones aren't worth the extra coin.

*In the interest of keeping my working and blogging lives separate, I'm not going to link to the story here. If you're curious to read it, shoot me an e-mail and I'll send you the link.

**That's the result of another article I edited by that columnist about new ways to spruce up the classic G&T. I'm obviously highly impressionable when it comes to what I drink. :-)