The Cocktail Artist

In case you don’t know us personally, or haven’t read the bio on our blog , you may not realize the “The Cocktail Artist” is really a partnership between two architects (who also happen to be married to each other). One of us comes up with the recipes, does the photography, and writes the blog posts – the other one creates all of the original artwork and offers opinions on the cocktail recipes. Being architects, we sometimes let our design-sense get the better of us – meaning we have been known to purchase a bottle of booze because we like the design of the bottle.  Occasionally this backfires, but rest assured (with some creative mixology or a bit of barrel-aging) we have always been able to make use of the contents of those impulse-buy bottles. Right now, two of the most attractive bottles in our liquor cabinet contain Italian spirits – Malfy Gin Con Limone and Italicus . Italy has always been a design trendsetter, so it’s not surprising that these bottles stand out (they ev

A seascape is an artist’s view of the sea - typically a beautiful scene either tranquil or menacing. What you don't generally see in a seascape is pollution. If we want this to be our reality we need to think about how we live – and how we drink. We were invited to participate in Strawless Cocktail Week to raise awareness for the damage that is done to our waterways from plastic pollution. According to the Plastic Pollution Coalition   over 500,000,000 plastic straws are used each day in the United States. People have come to expect plastic straws in drinks - an example of extreme waste being generated for minimal convenience. These short-lived tools are usually dropped into a garbage can with no further thought, instantly becoming a source of plastic pollution.  Let’s make a commitment to say "no" to plastic straws. We don’t use them in our cocktails. For drinks that require a straw there are options other than plastic (reusable metal straws or paper straws).

We can’t say why it has taken so many years for us to get around to trying the classic pre-prohibition cocktail “The Last Word”. It’s an equal parts mixture of gin,  green Chartreuse, lime juice, and maraschino liqueur. The balance of sour (lime) and sweet (liqueur) marries perfectly with the herbal (Chartreuse and gin). So shame on us for not only ignoring this cocktail, but for not using this recipe as a launching pad for an array of variations - as so many others have done. In this article from  Punch , bar owner Padraig O’Brien says that The Last Word “is like lasagna… There are 100 different variations on lasagna, but they all work. It’s about getting the ingredients and the proportions right.” By the way, O’Brien’s bar (in Astoria, Queens) is named “The Last Word”. So we’re including the original recipe in this blog post, and a version we came up with that incorporates Aloe Liqueur (that we recently purchased on a whim while browsing through a liquor store) and mint (which