Welcome to Cocktails With Suderman, Year Two
More cocktails. More Suderman.
This newsletter turns one this week. I can’t believe I’ve been writing this thing for a whole year! So: Make yourself a drink. It’s time for a bit of housekeeping.
First, there are the people I need to thank — the ones who have sent me cocktail photos and corrections, the commenters and emailers, the people who follow me on Twitter, and all of the readers and subscribers who have made this Substack something that I look forward to writing every week.
When I started this newsletter, I knew that I was enthusiastic about the topic and that I had a lot to say (in part because I’d already said a lot of it to my friends while making them drinks). But I really had no idea whether there would be any reader interest at all in what amounts to a somewhat discursive, somewhat wonky deconstruction of cocktail-making for the home bartender.
As it turns out, there is quite a lot of reader interest! No, this isn’t one of the bigtime Substacks you read about in The Wall Street Journal. But the number of subscribers to this newsletter has grown every single month since it started. And the responses — your responses — have been genuinely heartening. My inbox is filled with people who have interesting thoughts and smart questions about cocktail recipes and bars. My Twitter mentions are now seasoned with photos of homemade drinks. I meet people in bars who have read the newsletter and made or consumed these drinks. You people get it. It’s truly delightful.
And so I am incredibly excited about what the future holds. For year two, I am planning some new features, including reviews of cocktail books and interviews with bartenders and folks who write about cocktails. And since you folks seem to really, really like whiskey — and since I do too — I’m planning to add occasional whiskey reviews and comparison posts as well.
But for the most part, you can look forward to more of what you’ve already come to expect from this newsletter: techniques, tips, and tricks aimed at home bartenders; drink structure and comparative recipe analysis; specific ingredient recommendations; ideas for substitutions; thoughts on how to manage shelf and refrigerator space; goofy metaphors; a minor (er, major?) obsession with ice.
In the past year, we’ve looked at Martinis, Negronis, Daiquiris, and tiki essentials. And so in the coming year, we’ll cover more classics, including the Sazerac, the Sidecar, and the Margarita, as well as a number of less popular drinks that should be more widely known. We’ll discuss scotch, amaro, and mezcal/tequila, among other spirits. We’ll look at batching and party prep, the role of glassware and garnishes, and warm drinks for the winter. And there will probably be a gimmicky but delicious holiday drink or two. You’ve been warned.
In the meantime, I want to ask something of you: Tell me what you want to see. Tell me what you liked, what you didn’t, what you want more of. I can’t promise to fulfill every request, but I do take them seriously. I read the comments. I read your emails. Your feedback is valued and helpful.
And of course, I hope you’ll keep on subscribing, and reading. It’s already been a lot of fun, and it’s going to be a lot more fun. I hope you’ll stick with me.
Something I would like is a shopping list for the Friday post. Pretty frequently I won't have all of the ingredients, and hitting up a liquor store in Utah on Friday nights after work is not the most fun.
Happy anniversary! I get so much out of this newsletter that it's easily worth multiples of what it costs. Some of the things I've liked best are the syrup recipes and techniques, especially demerara gum, rich simple, grenadine, honey, and ginger. All the tikis, all the negronis, the improved Last Word, the Gold Rush, the Laphroaig Project. Using cracked ice in martinis. The four-hour martini! The book recs, like the Bar Book and A Proper Drink. There are really too many gems to name. I like that there's so much information about the provenance of the drinks--who created them and where to learn more about those bars and bartenders. Only one thing really worked out badly for me, and that would be barrel aging. I got the barrel that was linked to, followed the maker's instructions on curing and leak-proofing, but it drives me crazy with the constant leaks, especially from the spout (which I frequently smear with barrel wax). I went with the Boodles/Dolin martini which tasted delicious when I sampled the pre-aged version, and tasted good after a week. After three weeks I bottled it and it just tastes like wood juice. I also have to be careful of it because it causes blinding headaches. I'm sharing this because you asked for the good and the bad, but mostly I just want to acknowledge what a thoughtful, well-written, and helpful series you've written!