Every classic cocktail and every boozy ingredient you can think of in one handy (and incredibly detailed) chart. more ›

Although this drink hails from outside the city limits, it would be right at home warming you up on a chilly winter's evening in Chicago. more ›

The new brew, "Eldergin," joins the star-studded pantheon of North Shore's limited release spirits. more ›

Stop in for pre-and-post Thanksgiving drinks, and enjoy discounts on North Shore products and cocktails. more ›

Hire a professional to help you learn to mix and stock your home bar. more ›

Bottom Lounge was filled with hand-crafted, small-batch booze last night. more ›

The inner workings of the spirits industry seem to escape even the keenest wine enthusiasts and cocktail geeks. What you drink at bars or see on the shelves of your local liquor store is a result of a confluence of numerous forces and players, from dusty and obtuse state laws to influential product distributors to the flow of gobs of marketing dollars. To help us better understand the business, we sat down with Christophe Bakunas, proprietor of Chicago-based Local Wine & Spirits Company, the exclusive supplier of Ransom Wines & Spirits products and other West Coast wines, including a pinot noir called Jigsaw that Bakunas himself helped launch. Ransom is probably best known among us cocktailians for reintroducing a 19th-century style of gin called Old Tom to the newly resurgent American craft-distilling scene. And Local just announced last week that Ransom has also added a vodka to its lineup called Exchange. more ›

The Independent Spirits Expo, a gathering of American micro-distillers, importers and small, independent spirits brands, comes to town for the first time on Wednesday, September 28. For the past several years, organizer Dave Schmier has hosted installments of the Indy Spirits Expo in New York and San Francisco, drawing an average of 40 exhibitors. The debut event in Chicago, which will take place at the Bottom Lounge's Volcano Room, in the West Loop, has already attracted lots of craft producers, including local and regional distillers like Koval, Evanston's fledgling F.E.W. Spirits, Rehorst and North Shore Distillery. more ›

We pay a visit to Evanston's new craft distillery. more ›

As part of the North Shore Distillery Tour, we also got to taste their new infused vodka, Sol. more ›

Last month we reported on the debut of a cocktail app optimized to run on Mac computers. As far as we can tell, the "Cocktails for Mac" program ($4.99) remains the first and only one of its kind. At the time, it was still too new to review; we've been messing around with CfM long enough now to rate it a resounding "meh." more ›

Over the past few years, a groundswell of independent spirits distilleries has cropped up all across the country. Some call the Chicago area home (such as North Shore and Koval), while many more are setting up shop in Oregon, New York and Michigan. These newly minted enterprises are producing a stunning range of products, from whiskey to rum to absinthe. Sensing the tremors underfoot, Indianan Matt Colglazier has taken to writing the revolution. more ›

In May 2010, Topolobampo hosted the release party for Del Maguey Mezcal Vida, the latest offering from the renowned brand of Oaxacan Mezcals. Vida de San Luis del Rio, as its full name goes, has since become a darling of the Chicago bar scene. Vida is starring in a number of hit drinks right now; Big Star's Oaxaca Vieja, Violet Hour's Heads You Lose, the Drawing Room's Los Muertos and WaterShed's Italian Hurricane (which we recently reviewed) are just a few examples. more ›

As founder, CEO and acting board president of the Brotherhood and Sisterhood of Jeppsen's Malort, I have found that there's no holiday that can't be made better by applying a small dose of our locally-infamous grimace-inducing herbal liqueur. As such, select Chicagoistas y -istos flock to anything that combines the Christmakwanzakkah spirit with bitter flavor, and finding this warmed our hearts with the glow of a dozen ounces of Carl Jeppsen's mulekick. more ›

The most intriguing aspect of Ed Marszewski's complete overhaul of his mother's Bridgeport bar and package store is the community cocktail menu. Instead of bringing in a ringer like the Whislter's Paul McGee or Brad Bolt of Bar DeVille to craft a cocktail menu, the list of highballs is being crafted by neighborhood locals and customers on a case-by-case basis. It fits with Marszewski's concept of bringing back the semblance of community to the tavern and gives those customers who do land a drink on the menu a sense of ownership and pride. more ›

Even though the city wants more liquor served and sold near the beach, Chicago police are stepping up security and targeting illegal drinking along the city’s lakefront. In the wake of increased violence at some city beaches, police have begun random searches of bags and coolers and installed more security cameras. Ald. Vi Daley (43rd Ward) told the Tribune the random bag searches wouldn’t be permanent, but was hopeful they would help curb incidents such as the large party broken up by police that Mayor Daley blamed on suburban youth and text messaging. more ›

The City Council's License Committee advanced the Park District's request to more than double the number of liquor licenses on the lakefront yesterday, approving 14 new locations along Lake Michigan. "The Chicago Park District is not at all interested in creating a tavern, packaged goods or any sort of beer garden environment anywhere on its property, and consumption of alcohol is intended to be limited to the footprint of the premises as provided for in the liquor license application as submitted by each individual applicant," Timothy King, the park district's director of intergovernmental affairs told the Tribune. more ›

It's Spring, and time to do some cleaning. Kitchens and pantries are full of "non-perishable" items that get kept until the dust coating them is thick enough to use for socks. Most of these items DO have a shelf life, and it's often shorter than you think. more ›

We ran our very first Properly Sauced nearly two years ago. So, after a bit of research, we were shocked! shocked! to discover that we had never written about what is arguably our very favorite cocktail: the Mai Tai. more ›

• Drawing Room mixologists Charles Joly and Timothy Lacey will be setting up shop at Nacional 27 (325 W. Huron) for a "Latin Happy Hour" this evening from 6-9 p.m. Joly and Lacey will be serving up complimentary cocktails made from Cabana Cachaça and Adam Seger's Hum Spirit.
• Kendall College's Monday Night Dining Series this evening will focus on Midwestern cuisine: local artisan cheeses, fall fruit cobbler and roasted pork loin with apple and cornbread dressing are part of the menu. Goose Island will also be on hand to pour some of their brews for the dinner. Dress for the dinner is business casual, RSVP here or by calling 312-752-2328 (900 N. Branch St.)
• Quencher's 29th annual European Beer Tour is now underway, running through Friday. the tour allows participants to sample, at their own pace, 6-10 beers from 12 different countries. The short tour ($35) includes 6 beers and various parting gifts. The long tour ($60) includes 10 beers and more parting gifts. (2401 N. Western)

Via Art of Drink we discovered Beverages De Luxe, a wonderful bar book dating from 1914. Digitized from a copy in the collection of the Library of Congress, it's an utterly fascinating glimpse into the world of alcohol just before Prohibition. It features a number of pieces written by various distillers and brewers, including chapters entitled "New England Rum" and "Making 'Hand-made' Sour Mash." The entire second half of the book is made up of cocktail recipes from clubs and hotels across the country, and that's where we found the Auditorium Cocktail. more ›

If you were crazy enough to make the Tiki on Acid after we posted about it then chances are you've still got a bottle of green chartreuse in your liquor cabinet. The magical green elixir has such a potent kick that a little goes a long way, and there aren't many cocktails in standard rotation that even try to incorporate its intense herbal flavors. more ›

(Last month we arranged to have our "Properly Sauced" tag team of Anthony and Rob tour North Shore Distillery. North Shore's Sonja Kassebaum told us that today is the distillery's fifth year anniversary. We hope you enjoy this recap of Anthony and Rob's tour.) more ›

A couple weeks back Rob and I attended a tasting of Rosangel, a new infused tequila from the makers of Gran Centenario, at Nacional 27. Rosangel takes Gran Centenario's reposado tequila — aged for 60 days in port barrels — and then is infused using hibiscus flowers. The result is a pinkish-colored tequila with the faintest sweetness imparted to it from the flower petals. more ›

According to an article in today's Trib it looks like beer, wine and other alcoholic packaged goods could be coming soon to a Walgreen's near you. After Prohibition the drugstore began selling alcohol at many of their locations, but that was phased out in early 90's because it was deemed too costly. Now, according to company spokeswoman Tiffani Washington, new computer systems will make it easier to manage. Profits at the chain have been slipping recently. Perhaps booze can pump them back up. We're completely in favor of the change, as it would mean another way we'd be able to avoid CVS, not to mention it's easier to find a Walgreens. more ›

The Tribune reports today that Wirtz Beverage Group, which is best known locally as Judge & Dolph, Ltd., is in the final stages of purchasing Glazer's Distributors of Illinois. When the deal is finalized, Wirtz Beverage group will once again become the largest distributor of beer, wine and spirits in the state. more ›

big spirit of the year. We've written about Lucid absinthe before, and we were able to get our hands on a bottle of Kübler, a Swiss absinthe now being sold locally. more ›