Welcome to the Next Year of Cocktails With Suderman

More cocktails. More recipes. More theories. More dogs. More Cynar.

Dear readers, 

When I started this newsletter three years ago, I had a newly built bar in my basement, a lot of free time, a bunch of ideas for columns about how to make better cocktails at home — and not much hope that anyone would ever read them. 

Sure, it was a pandemic: Bars were closing, people were cooped up inside, and some of them were learning to make cocktails in their kitchens and dens and finished basements. But did anyone want to read a somewhat wonky, somewhat discursive, somewhat obsessive newsletter about mastering the micro details and macro theories of making quality drinks at home? 

As it turned out, many of you did want to read that newsletter. Far more, in fact, than I ever imagined. 

So here we are today. This newsletter is now three years old. It’s covered hundreds of recipes for hundreds of cocktails. It’s been somewhere on Substack’s Food & Drink leaderboard pretty much since the moment it launched. And I couldn’t possibly be more thrilled or thankful. 

Making delicious cocktails is always enjoyable, but the greatest pleasure comes from sharing one’s creations with others. And thanks to this newsletter, I get to share them with all of you. 

So as in previous years, I just want to take this anniversary as an opportunity to say thank you to all of you who subscribed.

You made the drinks. You drank the drinks. You argued with my syrup proportions. You put up with my footnotes and movie references and Cynar-ized variations. You left kind notes in the comments section about my dogs. You made this newsletter a small but real success. I very much hope you’ll stick with me during the year to come.

In the coming year, we’ll delve into more cocktails, more techniques, and more theories. We’ll try some fun holiday drinks, including a fantastic back-to-basics eggnog. There’s a delicious new Thanksgiving cocktail arriving in your inbox tomorrow. (Stock up on apple brandy, rye, lemons, and frozen cranberries.) There will be silly gimmick drinks and brooding classics. Obviously, there will be Cynar. 

I have a lot of plans and ideas for the coming year that I’m excited to share. But my plans aren’t set in stone.

So I also want to know: What do you want more of? Less of? What do you enjoy about this newsletter? What do you want that it’s not delivering? As with cocktails, constructive feedback is always appreciated. I have my own ideas about how this newsletter should work — but I also very much want to make something for you, dear reader, that you’ll appreciate and enjoy. 

Cheers!