“It has been said that a Scotchman has not seen the world until he has seen Edinburgh; and I think that I may say that an American has not seen the United States until he has seen Mardi-Gras in New Orleans.” (Mark Twain, Letter to Pamela Moffett, March 1859)

New Orleans has always been the part of the United States I have most wanted to see. I will finally be seeing it when I attend Tales of the Cocktail in July. The trip will be a great chance to learn more about cocktails, see a city that has long interested me, meet some people, and generally have some fun.

Thus far my first hand experience of the United States has been limited to a couple of childhood visits to Disneyland. As a child I was dimly aware that Disneyland was but an imperfect representation of American reality. Adulthood has made this awareness stronger. My understanding of America is thus limited, and even my knowledge of Disneyland has become outdated. This being the case, I am expecting my trip to be highly educational – and not just for the locals.

But why is New Orleans such an interesting city? For me at any rate, I think it because of its interesting history and culture. What other United States city can boast an equally long and venerable history? What other city has such a mixture of African, Caribbean, European and North American influences? What other city has invented the Sazerac? For the Sazerac alone, New Orleans surely rouses international envy.

Mark Twain suggested that Mardi-Gras was the time to visit New Orleans. However, he was writing long before Tales of the Cocktail. If he were writing today he might well identify the biggest cocktail party in the world as the highlight of the New Orleans calendar. He did after all make the following recommendation:

“Never refuse to do a kindness unless the act would work great injury to yourself, and never refuse to take a drink– under any circumstances.” (Mark Twain’s Notebook)

Between now and Tales of the Cocktail I hope to make a few interesting posts. You will be able to read these here, and anything specifically Tales of the Cocktail related will also be appearing on the Tales of the Cocktail group blog (also accessible via the icon on the sidebar). Tales of the Cocktail related areas I plan to blog on include the legendary drinker Ernest Hemingway, and French aperitifs as served in the cafes of Paris - or maybe Provence. There will be some fascinating sounding workshops on these areas, along with tons more, at Tales of the Cocktail in July.

Coming up shortly I will take a look at Pineau des Charentes. Appropriately, given the New Orleans connection, this is a French aperitif wine. Not widely used in cocktails, it has the potential to be used more than it is.

On another note, I also plan to take a look at Genever soon, interesting for being both the original gin and a venerable cocktail ingredient in its own right.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 2:40 am and is filed under Blogsphere events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.