Tales on Tales of the Cocktail

By Madelyn Miller, the TravelLaday

WEDNESDAY
Off to a good start. I was upgraded to first class on my flight from Dallas to New Orleans. Since I had not eaten, I was looking forward to lunch. I could not believe that even in first class, all I got was peanuts (although the flight is only an hour so they have some excuse). Everyone else in first class was enjoying the free cocktails, but I was on my way to Tales of the Cocktails, so I didn’t want to spoil my appetite.

I checked in to my hotel, the Astor Crowne Plaza, and things went surprisingly well. But the clock in my room was off by an hour (really) and I was disoriented. I thought I was going to a seminar on trendy cocktails. Instead I wandered into a session on how to motivate older bartenders to make newer drinks.

I walked by the Tales of the Cocktail speakeasy purple velvet curtain. Each journalist was givin a key to the room and a tote bag, so we could choose exactly what swag you wanted. Most people went for the whole big bottles of alcohol. I grabbed boxes of chocolate olives (chocolate in the shape of olives, not chocolate covered olives) and tea. After a few seminars, I was sorry I had not grabbed a couple bottles of Domaine de Canton, a French ginger liquor with Cognac. Great in lemonade.

Wednesday night, I had an appointment to meet with the brand reps for Tyku, a new sake. We were to meet at the W bar. Unfortunately, I did not know there were two W hotels in New Orleans. Neither did the doorman at my hotel, who directed me to the wrong hotel.

Finally connected and had my own personal tasting. They had flown in a bartender to create the drinks--just for me! (and the Tyku girls) I felt like a dignitary. I was really glad I had learned to drink the week before on the Colorado wine trail. The Tyku people mentioned the mixologist’s name was Cat. I happen to have met one serious mixologist in Dallas. Her name is Cat. She was the one they flew in. Tyku people were extremely impressed that the mixologist and I knew each other. I am afraid that reinforced their assumption that I was a serious player.

Cat made wonderful drinks and I loved them all. Especially a lemon drop made with sake and another yet-to-be-named creation made with cream of coconut rum.

After several drinks, I needed some food. Ordered some carpaccio which was doused with truffle oil. I could have had it every day.

After a day of traveling, no eating, (and not getting much sleep the night before) I was ready to get to sleep. Most of the other Tales people were going to numerous night parties.

THURSDAY
The first seminar I went to, “How good is your palate?” was the best part of my experiences at TOC so far. I did not look at my iPod during the whole seminar. I learned that you have to take two sips, even if you spit. The first one is like a mouthwash. The second one will give the true flavor as it reached each taste receptor. Bourbon does taste different from Scotch or Vermouth. We did blind tastings and soon I understood how to look for flavor profiles.

Not all of the seminars were as interesting.

There were numerous extraordinary cocktail parties. I went to one for Diago--40 different stations in the Presbytere where the Zulu Mardi Gras costumes are displayed. I went nuts taking pictures of the gorgeous costumes. No one else seemed to care about the costumes. They were orgasmic over the drinks, with the famous mixologist who created each drink at each station.

I saw Tony Abu-Ganim, whom I had met in Hawaii. I just started to walk past his station and he saw me and boomed out, “Hi, Madelyn!” Everyone turned to see who he was so excited to see. He insisted on taking a picture with me. I was feeling like a celebrity again.

Blue Sapphire invited me to a dinner at the Bombay Club. It was a spirited pairing and the food and drinks were really special. But most fun was the group of journalists at my table. We bonded. They even convinced me to go on to ANOTHER party at the Mardi Gras float site (and it was already after 11pm).

The party had a loud DJ and go-go type girls dancing under colored strobe lights. It was really not my kind of party. But they had a voodoo priestess with a snake and you could have pictures taken with her. My new friend Melissa went first. The snake behaved well and it was a cute picture. I decided to go next. I was a little apprehensive but Melissa made it look like so much fun.

The snake was obviously attracted to me. It opened its mouth and stuck its tongue into my mouth (which was opened in horror) I am not making this up. Everyone was taking pictures. It got more attention than the go-go girls. I was freaked out. Another new friend said reassuringly, “ got great pictures of you.”

I guess my Mom was right. If you stay up after your bedtime, you get into trouble.

Back in my room, the staff at the Astor had sent up a gorgeous tray of chocolates. It was a moment when I needed chocolate.

FRIDAY
I see a pattern. The first seminar of the day (or at least the ones I signed up for) is the best. I am not sure if that observation is affected by the fact that I start drinking in the morning and I am not in training for this.)

I started with a seminar on “Prostitution, Drugs and Drinks in Storeyville.” How bad could that be? Actually it was very, very good. The panel were all entertaining experts. They gave us a CD of the music they played during the seminar.

Next to a blogging seminar. I thought they would talk about how to be a better blogger.

After lunch, I went to a seminar on “Sugar: The Science of Sweet.” I was sort of embarrassed to have signed up for it, but it had the longest line of any of the seminars I went to. Even though it was scientific, it was interesting to do a vertical tasting of glucose, sucrose and fructose.

Finally, tea seminar. It is very trending to use tea in cocktails. There were demonstrations on how to infuse the tea. I finally figured that you can put anything in cocktails. Either it enhances the flavor, or the alcohol masks the taste. Tea seemed to be the healthiest ingredient all day.

I went back to my room to take what one cocktail writer called a “disco nap.” By the time I woke up I had missed “On the Fly Competition” for bartenders and a Leblon Caipirinha competition. When I woke up, I remembered the tray of chocolates and had that for dinner

Saturday is a seminar on cocktail photography, a burlesque seminar and the final spirit awards.

Sunday morning early I leave for Denver, where I will be test driving a Ford Flex hybrid on Tuesday and Wednesday in Boulder. Let’s see how drinking and then driving combine. I hope there aren’t any snakes.

Snake photos by Creative Commons

Madelyn Miller is a travel and food writer who considers Big Island Candies place in Hilo, Hawaii, the ultimate chocolate shopping experience. Read her stories on www.travellady.com, www.yogayaya.com, www.carladynews.com, www.choocolateatlas.com, www.cocktailatlas.com, www.coffeeatlas.com, www.teaatlas.com and has more F&B TravelAtlas sites planned.

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