(Photos by Jenna Lane except where noted, by JW Walthall)

This weekend we hosted our annual Derby Day party, for the first time at Rainlily Farm. Bulleit Bourbon Mint Juleps were poured in abundant quantities.

We harvested the mint just a few steps away from where we were serving the juleps
(JW)

Bulleit Juleps in Bulleit glasses

The bar was staffed by Austin cocktail notables Bill Norris (left) of FINO, Mindy Kucan (right) of Hilton Downtown, and, when I wasn't too busy talking, myself.


Hollis Bulleit, daughter of founder Tom Bulleit, was in attendance.

Paul Michie of Alamo Drafthouse was generous enough to serve up his interpretation of the classic hot brown. Hollis proclaimed Paul's hot browns the most attractive she'd ever seen--and they tasted as good as they looked. RJ Spade of Blue Star Cafeteria rounded out the Derby Day table with Benedictine sandwiches and Burgout, the latter made with local grass-fed lamb from Loncito Cartwright, and venison from Mary Louise Butters.

Everybody looked so fabulous! Nicole Eeds and Charles Glenn
(JW)

Gals in their Derby Day hats
(JW)

Paula Angerstein of Paula's Texas Spirits with Paul Grosso, left, and Graham Wasilition, right

That is me on the left with my friend and colleague Jessica Maher of Spoon & Co

Rainlily proprietor Stephanie Scherzer (center) in the field with legendary organic farmer Larry Butler of Boggy Creek Farm

Paula with Addie Broyles (center) of the Austin American-Statesman

Amidst all the cocktails there was actually time to watch the race

At the end of the party, miss Hollis signed the leftover bottles
(JW)

Our dear friend Bill Norris will be traveling to San Francisco next week for the national finals of the World Cocktail Competition. He will be representing the Austin/Central Texas chapter of the United States Bartenders Guild; the winner of the contest will represent the United States in the international competition in Berlin, so there is a lot at stake here--specifically I am thinking of all the rounds of drinks that Bill will buy us upon his triumph there.

I know that it is customary for persons of faith to pray for drinkers. But what do you do for drink-makers? Everybody has his or her own way of sending positive vibes out into the universe so I would like all friends of Bill N and fans of fine drink to send your best wishes to him on Tuesday. I seriously doubt that this contest is the type of event that will be televised, not even on one of the more obscure permutations of ESPN. But perhaps some voracious San Francisco blogger will live-blog the event, in which case we can all gather at FINO and drink to Bill, sending our cosmic shout-outs* through the ether, while we huddle around a laptop, watching the words pour onto the screen as fast as the blood vessels pop out of Bill's head. Good luck, my friend!

*Bill, should it be shouts-out? You're the grammarian, The Professor

Sometimes I get the impression that the press release writers of America's PR firms think that every cocktail is the Ramos Gin Fizz. Not because they actually know what a Ramos Gin Fizz is, but because they think that every cocktail is so difficult and laborious to make that every new convenience product that hits the market brings salvation akin to the liberation of 19th century house wives by the automatic clothes washing machine.

I noticed during this last holiday shopping season that the Caipirinha is apparently so taxing on the home bartender that a Caipirinha Mix is in order. Is it really that much easier to bust out the Caipirinha Mix than to squish a lime in the bottom of a glass with some sugar? Are we really that lame? According to this gushing review by Robert Plotkin, this product rocks and I am the Grinch Who Stole Cocktail. I haven't tried the product yet so perhaps I shouldn't be commenting on it. But there is something disingenuous when spirits marketers say things like this, in a press release about this product: "The combination of Finest Call Caipirinha mix and Cachaça will create an authentic Caipirinha with no muddling, squeezing or hassle." My response: NO, it doesn't. The authentic version of the cocktail implies/requires/necessitates the muddling and squeezing. That's what is authentic about it.

Today I discovered that I have been too generous when entertaining guests at my house. For some foolish reason, I have been under the impression that when hosting company, it was imperative to serve them a beverage of the type and quality that I would serve myself. Perhaps, I should go all out and serve something even fancier, to really show them the love at Tipsy Manor. But I was misguided. That pile of spent fruit carcasses that we take to the compost pile after a party? A messy, unnecessary waste. The bottles of premium spirits that fill the recycle bin? Totally superfluous.

Mmm...red

With the release of new Bacardi Raspberry Mojito, all you have to do is screw off the top. That muddler, you might as well throw it in the fireplace. "Offering a real flavored mojito taste in a ready-to-serve package," says the press release, Bacardi Raspberry Mojito "can be enjoyed anywhere, making entertaining an ease." I feel like they should have put an exclamation point on this sentence. Amen, brothers and sisters! Entertaining is an ease! (Though not as E-Z as this toxic treasure). This begs the question--should entertaining be an ease? At what point does it cease to be special when you entertain with such ease? I was at a recent cocktail party where the guests were joking that the hosts, most likely, procured the spread of appetizers from the nearby Whole Foods, discarding the packages down the trash chute before guests arrived. There is nothing necessarily wrong with this. But I think it goes without saying that guests appreciate things made from scratch; that when you're hosting company is the time go a little further than you usually would. If you usually drink swill behind closed doors, bust out the good stuff for your guests. That's what really irks me about all of these mixes; they tout the entertaining-with-ease virtues of a product that completely goes against my values of hospitality. They vilify the process of making cocktails, when it is the process--the love, the care, the skill, the art--that makes the cocktail so special. The process is not the enemy. The enemy is all of these "convenience" products that are essentially the frozen-t.v.-dinners of drink.

“After the original mint and lime mojito, the raspberry mojito is one of the most popular mojitos requested at bars and nightclubs, so offering a convenient, ready-to-serve raspberry mojito for home entertaining was a natural extension for the brand.” Thanks, Bacardi, but no thanks. When people come to my house, I'm going to ease myself out to the garden and pick some mint. Then I'm going to ease my happy ass back in to the kitchen and pull out the raspberries, some lime, and some Flor de Caña.

Entertain this--the Tipsy Texan Raspberry Mojito. Muddling, squeezing, and hassle required.

Last week we hosted a food blogger preview of a class that we are doing with Jam Sanitchat this upcoming Thursday at her store, Thai Fresh. (NOTE: At present there are still a few tickets available for this event. Please email Jam at thai-fresh.com to confirm. Tickets for class are $55). Jam is serving up three easy classic Thai appetizers, two of which will be taught hands-on in the kitchen. The Tipsy Texans are doing three classic summer cocktails, with three easy variations. There is no shortage of food, drink, or good times.

Clockwise from top: My belly in stripes, with jiggers; Joe pouring Hemmingway Daiquiris; Muddling mint; Jam with the Chicken Satay; Corn Fritter batter; a beautiful and delicious Treaty Oak Cocktail. Photo montage by Addie Broyles for Austin360.com

We had a full house for the preview event and are looking forward to a full house for the class on Thursday. Thanks to Addie Broyles of the Austin American-Statesman for attending and writing about our event at her Relish Austin blog. Also in attendance were Rachel and Logan from Boots in the Oven; Jodi Bart and Adam from Tasty Touring; Kate Thornberry of HungerSauce and the Austin Chronicle, who wrote about the event here; Jennie from Miso Hungry; and a few more who I can't think of right now but who I'm sure I'll hear from shortly.

This photo is typical of how things work when we do a lecture or class: I talk while Joe works

There are a few tickets left so take a hot date or get your momma that mother's day gift you forgot to get...see you in class!

On Monday I will be taking off for Nicaragua on a bartender's adventure (understatement of the year!) sponsored by Flor de Caña rum. I have known since September that I would be going on this trip at some point, but the reality of it is finally setting in. A few days ago I received a preview itinerary with a list of the colleagues with whom I will be traveling. All I can say is WTF?? The list includes some serious notables, which makes me feel like a serious schmuck by comparison. But I am very excited, and very humbled, to be able to spend some time with people who are at such an elevated place in the industry, and I'm looking forward to learning everything I can from them, or in the absence of learning, drinking my weight in Flor de Caña.

In preparation for the adventure, I have decided to do a little interWeb research about my travel companions.
Representing the West Coast we have Pablo Moix. Pablo hails from Queens, NY (which means that basically everybody on this list is a New Yorker except me, and perhaps the other guy from Texas) and has worked in the industry since a young age. His professional tutelage was under that of noted mixologian Ryan Magarian. Pablo is now the mixologist for the One Group, based in Los Angeles but developing successful properties all over the country. There is a good profile of him at Liquid Muse.

This is Pablo's bio pic from the Tales of the Cocktail Web site. I wonder if he will look this suave and sophisticated after a few days in the wilds of Nicaragua.

Brian Miller tends bar at New York's Death and Co. According to one interview, he believes that a good cocktail is a right, not a privilege. I couldn't agree with him more, though I live in a city where I am only able to exercise my rights in a couple of venues. Of all the arguments I have made about cocktails, I have never started from a Inalienable Rights of Man point of view, but perhaps I should.

I found this picture of Brian online. He looks very intense. I like it.

Eben Freeman is a noted cocktail consultant and bar man at New York's Tailor. I attended a seminar at Tales of the Cocktail last year in which Eben participated, the highlights can be found here.

Eben looks like one happy-shaking mofo in this picture.

Phil Ward once worked with Brian at Death & Co but has recently started his own temple to agave spirits, Mayaheul.

I couldn't find a picture of Phil online but his bar looks sexy. This pic from New York Magazine online.

Dimitrios Zahariadis is from Connecticut and grew up working in his parents' restaurants. He has also worked in New York at Tao. He is as far as I can tell the only traveler on the crew who has his own logo.

Robert Krueger runs the bar at Employees Only. You can see him in action at a recent cocktail event here.

Greg Seider runs the bar at Minetta Tavern. He seems to be the most under-the-radar of the travel companions, as I can't really find anything about him online, though he works at a high profile venue. I look forward to meeting him.

Last but not least there are the two dudes from Texas. A guy from Houston named Matt Tanner, I have no idea who he is. Then there is me.

My flight to Nicaragua went by in a snap because I made friends with a nice Nica lady who was on her way to visit her mother. Upon landing we were greeted in third world charm by crews of airport workers in Swine Flu masks, and were made to stand before a thermal imaging device the purpose of which none of us were able to determine for sure, but which we imagined to have something to do with H1N1.

The beautiful Pamela was the Flor de Caña crew member to greet us and show us to our bus, where we would spend much of the next week. Freddy the bartender was on duty at the ice chest, and within half an hour of landing in Nicaragua I had a cocktail in my hand. This is most certainly my preferred way to travel…

We were fortunate enough to have the amiable Freddy as our designated Cantinero for the week.

We waited for a while for the last group of travelers to arrive, and then proceeded to the hotel. We were put up in none other than the Intercontinental Metrocenter. Dinner the first night was taken at the restaurant El Churasco near the hotel. The only thing more abundant than the succulent cuts of meat was the Flor de Caña—a theme that would predominate the rest of the trip. (When you are traveling as the guest of a rum company, you drink the company juice—and the company juice, in this case, is mighty fine.) After dinner we were taken across the street to the Diamond Club. The Diamond Club, as you might imagine, is not the sort of establishment that deals in precious gemstones. The jewels of this place were of the human form, and within a few minutes of our arrival, their human forms were all over us.

At this point anyone who knows me well might wonder what the hell I was doing in a strip joint. Well, when in Rome… I have spent a fair amount of time in American strip joints with straight friends. In the American strip joint it is possible to enjoy the stage show without an extreme amount of unwanted attention from the strippers. However in a central American strip joint, such is not the case. At the late hour of our arrival, the ratio of women to men was roughly that of mosquitos to humans in a swamp, with the women being only slightly more persistent than the mosquitos.
Flor de Caña was soon on the table and the women were on the laps, although not on mine, though looking back I should have just gone with the flow. I am thankful to James, one of our hosts, for being gracious enough to rescue me at one point and retire with me to the bar, where he told one of the girls who approached us that he and I were just having a chat, and that we didn’t like girls. Thanks to James for taking one for the team!

We were treated to a limited number of dances and an unlimited amount of rum, the latter of which being what I partook of fully. I finally stumbled my happy ass back to the hotel some time after the 4 o’clock hour, though I can’t say for sure. I know that I woke up in all of my clothes, spread out across the king size bed, having made no apparent effort to utilize the pillows or covers. An ease for the housekeepers, to be sure, but a sign of a very unpleasant morning to come, in the form of a hangover for the record books. We boarded the bus and headed for the distillery.

On our first full day in Nicaragua our primary objective was to travel to the rum distillery, though I think a secondary objective was to regale ourselves with tales of the previous night's exploits at the Diamond Club, the strip club across the street from the hotel. The drinking began early on the bus this morning, as the revelers sought either a hair-of-the-dog that bit them the night before, or for some particularly athletic crew members, a continuation of the buzz that hadn't yet rested from the day before.

Some of the boys wanted to smoke upon our arrival, but were greeted by members of the Flor de Caña fire department with friendly reminders of what happens when you smoke around a column still, as anyone who is familiar with the Dripping Springs Vodka saga can attest to.

We arrived at the distillery and were treated to a brief presentation on rum production before beginning our tour of the facility.

Planta de Destelación reads the sign above the door. This building houses the column stills that produce Flor de Caña 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

The barrels are dated and stored in giant warehouses. The buckets of water at the bottom of the frame supposedly help maintain proper humidity in the room; I personally didn't sense any lack of humidity on this steam bath of a day.

Though the 18yr is the oldest rum that they take to market, they have stores of other rums that have aged longer. This particular barrel has been aging 20 years. Mauricio, left, is one of the managers of the brand in Central and South America, and one of the hosts of our tour. They are using a hand pump to draw unfiltered, cask-strength rum out of the barrel for us to taste.

Brian came prepared with his own flask, for the only 20yr rum that would leave the distillery. This image of Brian Miller two-fisting drinks is one that would not be uncommon for the rest of the trip, though on occasion (beginning the first night when his glass was misplaced at the Diamond Club) he would forgo the glass and go straight for the bottle.

Mauricio explains how the Flor de Caña facility utilizes green energy, and produces ethanol from its own sugar cane. I don't even understand how a AA battery works so I will not pretend to explain the complexities of the green energy program at this distillery, though it sounded pretty convincing at the time.

Inside the storage warehouse with mountains of Flor de Caña cases, packed differently depending on receiving market. With bartender for scale.

Employee Parking Lot, Nicaragua-style

The entire crew of the trip, from left to right: (standing) Brian Miller, Eben Freeman, Greg Seider, Dimitrios Zahariadis, Pablo Moix (seated) KK Lewis, Rob Krueger, Phil Ward, Martha Lizarazo, Mauricio Solorzano, Master Distiller's son whose name I can't recall, Me, Samuel Fitch, Matt Tanner. Not pictured: James Bruton (he was holding the cameras)

On the second morning we departed Managua for the beach town of San Juan del Sur. I would learn that day that an attempt earlier in the morning by one of our travel companions to bring back some of the crew of the Diamond Club to the Intercontinental for a pool party was met with a cold response from hotel security.

While my companions were frolicking with strippers (or attempting to, at any rate) by the pool, the day started off brutally for me at about 4am, when I woke up with the convulsive pains of "Montezuma's Revenge". Fortunately I had a few hours to try to get it out of my system before hopping on the bus. A few Pepto Cocktails throughout the day sustained me at a relatively reasonable level.

The rum started flowing very early on the bus. I think it is safe to say that dozens of cocktails were consumed before the noon hour.

We stopped off at a road-side produce stand to pick up some fresh fruit for the cocktail expo that was to take place that evening at the hotel bar.

(L-R) Phil Ward, Brian Miller, Miss Pamela

A few years ago the Flor de Caña company started an initiative to create an official drink of Nicaragua, in the way that the Caipirinha symbolizes Brazil. They came up with the Macuá, and they've done a good job at spreading the word about the drink. Even Finest Call has a Macuá mix that I saw on store shelves and behind bars. Eben Freeman was interested in pursuing other local flavors that would create a "sense of place" in a Nicaragua cocktail. In addition to the produce stand he perused the nearby mini-mart looking for local juices and sodas.

Ironically, the motto of Finest Call is "Add a splash of fruit with Finest Call" It seems like the most obvious way to add a splash of fruit would be to actually add a splash of fruit.

On the highway outside of Managua we pulled into a national natural area to visit the Volcan Mombacho, one of the only active volcanos in the world that you can drive up to the edge of and look into. This is good, because given my condition there is no way I was going to climb that bitch.

The homeys enjoying the view from the volcano

The road to San Juan del Sur seemed interminable, despite traveling in good company with copious libations. There was one stop after another--for volcanos or mangos, hammocks and potties, it seemed like we were never going to get to the beach. We finally arrived late afternoon and had a little lunch at the beautiful cafe. The Piedras y Olas resort is pretty much breathtaking. The restaurant overlooks the pool, which overlooks the Pacific Ocean. The little protected harbor of San Juan del Sur is something out of a postcard, at least it is right now before all the honkeys show up.

We retired to our rooms for a spell before reconvening back at the restaurant where there was to be a cocktail exposition behind the bar. I took a nap and woke up to a spectacular sunset, and feeling much better about myself, and about Montezuma.

Down in the bar the crew began shaking cocktails for a special presentation for the mayor of San Juan del Sur.

Eben is working on a cocktail featuring the flavors of Nicaragua. Here he is playing with a local cola.

In the absence of a bona fide muddler, Phil Ward used the agitator from the VitaMix blender.

Eben let us in on a little secret he was working on: the powdered substance is dehydrated rum, which he intended to use with Coca Cola pop rocks for a dehydrated Rum & Coke

After the bartending demo we went down to the beach where we ate fresh seafood at a restaurant that was just yards away from the water's edge.

One of the people at the restaurant was walking around with a little baby tiger. The star of the food show was a fish "carpaccio" with jalapeño and parmesan.

When the host saw that the tour was a complete sausagefest, he asked that a couple of the company spokesmodels come along to achieve gender balance. The girl on the left we called Text because she spent a lot of time sending text messages; the girl on the right was super charming and a hell of a dancer, I think her name was Maylene. She brought a lot of cheer to the trip. In this picture she is dancing on the table before the nightclub owner asked her to step down--he must have been smoking something because she was putting on a hell of a performance.

Holistar, I guess, is the third-world equivalent of Hollister