oh, hi.
Welcome to Diluted Shares, and thank you for joining me on this journey! After [redacted] years of sipping cocktails & sharing trivia with my friends, I realized that cocktails are beloved by many, but few actually feel comfortable making cocktails at home (and your Tito’s & Soda doesn’t count). Do you shake or stir? What’s Benedictine? Why can’t I find Chartreuse anymore?
The truth is, it’s easy to make really good cocktails at home with some basic cocktail know-how and the right ingredients. Of course, it looks a lot harder when you’re cozied up to a dark wood bar with tinctures and tonics galore, but making the perfect Old Fashioned? You can do it! Even with a good recipe book and the right techniques, building out a home bar can be intimidating and expensive, but it doesn’t have to be!. I’ve been building a home bar collection for over a decade, so I know the bottles you burn through quickly, and the ones you rarely have to replace to make the idea of having a home bar less daunting.
The same goes for hosting events. Beer and wine is the easy get, but when it comes to spirits, most hosts take the easy way out with very basic spirit/mixer combos. For home parties, most hosts would like to stir among the guests rather than stir up martinis all night. (Yes, by the way, martinis are to be stirred. James Bond may be a style icon, but shaken martinis are a faux pas.) I learned this first hand at a holiday party a few years ago. My partner and I made some delicious black walnut Old Fashioneds for a couple guests, and soon enough everybody wanted one…and we had 40 people in our 2 bedroom condo.
A hired bartender isn’t in the budget for most people, and even if it was, many catering bartenders are used to making very simple mixed drinks, not craft cocktails. That’s where cocktail catering comes in. No need to hire a bartender, no need for you to be the bartender. I put my years of drinking experience to work, curating a menu that’s sure to impress even the most discerning guest, while fitting in with your menu or event theme, and eliminating bottlenecks at the bar.
If you drink well at home, chances are you drink well when traveling and I aim to help there too. Traveling through the lens of cocktails is a great way to soak up even more of the local culture. Whether it’s sipping Genever in Amsterdam, a crawl through London’s bars on the World’s 50 Best List, or a pulqueria in Mexico City, drinking the right way while traveling will open your eyes (and mouth) to the world.
I hope you come back often as this journey evolves, and maybe one day hire me to teach a class or prep your bar for your holiday party.
Cheers!
