Tales of The Cocktail 2019

In 2019, I went to my first spirits industry event, Tales of the Cocktails. 

Hosted in one of my favorites cities, New Orleans, I met some great people in the industry and had some wonderful cocktails. Some of my favorite seminars included “Fake Booze News, How to tell when a cocktail story is crap!”, “Navigating Intellectual Property” and “Spirits Branding and Re-branding”.

I thought that the professionals from the bar and restaurant world would pooh-pooh the Barrelsmith concepts and I was nervous socializing ready to drink craft cocktails at the event. After all, these are the best bartenders, managers, and bar owners from around the world and, of course, they know how to craft an excellent cocktail. But the consistent response was — they do not have the time, space, or the staff to craft a cocktail in bulk, source barrels, and age the cocktails until they are ready to serve. 

And that’s why my mom couldn’t get a Negroni as good as Barrelsmith at the upscale Italian restaurant.