Welcome to our newest series, Back to Basics! Every month we'll provide you with a 101-style feature about a different spirit that not only goes in-depth, but can be electronically shared and/or printed out and given to your staff. Let the educating begin with...Tequila!
At a key moment in "The Shawshank Redemption," Morgan Freeman's good-hearted convict friend, Red, posed the question: "Seriously, how often do you really look at a man's shoes?" Well, anyone who hung around Shane McCarthy in January and February of this year likely looked at his footwear quite a bit. The assistant general manager and beer manager at Ronnie's Beverage Warehouse in Bel Air wore pink boots day in and day out to promote a very special event his store hosted on February 26 to raise money and awareness for the Pink Boots Society.
Some of you reading this may be asking, "What is the Pink Boots Society?" It is an international organization of women that was created to empower female beer professionals to advance their careers in the beer industry, chiefly through education. The organization also seeks to teach women beer professionals the judging skills necessary to become beer judges at the Great American Beer Festival and other competitions. Society members include women who own breweries, who design beers, serve beers, package beers, and write about beer. The group currently has more than 3,000 members and counting.
"I've read a lot about beer history," McCarthy stated, during a late January interview with the Beverage Journal. "Women were actually the main brewers a couple of hundred years ago. A lot of the beer was made by women. That's where the term 'alewife' came from. But, today, it is a male-dominated industry. So, it's really unique that these ladies are trying to change that. They don't want to drink wine. They want to drink beer ... good beer! That really inspired me to reach out and try and raise money to send a woman to brewing school, because the Siebel Institute of Brewing Technology is NOT cheap!"
"I love the creativity aspect of my job. I love the autonomy that I have and the challenges I've been given to come up with new drinks."
So said Erin Ivey, bar manager at Lincoln on Vermont Ave., during a recent interview with the Beverage Journal. Ivey, who has been tending bar at various area establishments for the last decade, has become known for her craft cocktails. "What drew me to craft cocktails is I really love the integrity of the drinks as far as fresh juices and ingredients," she stated. " I enjoy making twists on an Old Fashioned, different syrups and such. I love being able to play and bring a different and unique element to drinks."
The drink that she most recently played around with and created is the Cherry Blossom Cocktail. She believes it to be one of the best concoctions she has ever come up with. "I don't like to make sweet drinks," she said, "so I chose morello cherries as the key ingredient. Morello cherries make a really wonderful syrup -- not too sweet, not too tart, right in the middle. I wanted to do something with rye, in particular, so I chose one of the most flexible ones I could think of, Bulleit Rye. I threw some mint in there for freshness; along with some fresh lemon juice; the rum syrup; and crushed ice, which is really appealing to the eye. The Cherry Blossom Cocktail has a beautiful red color. I'm very proud of it. It's got a great taste, and it's very refreshing. There is a little bit of residual sweetness. But mostly you get that tart cherry taste, along with fresh mint and lemon."
After a long career working for everyone from RNDC to Southern Wine & Spirits, Barry Cregan moved to the supplier side about a year and a half ago to serve as East Coast Vice President of Carolina Wine Brands USA. The company handles mostly South American wines for the U.S. market for Carolina Wine Brands, one of Chile's main winemaking groups owned by the agro-industrial group Watt's SA.
If you've seen Cregan or any of his colleagues lately, you can tell they are riding a real high. That's because the company's flagship winery, Santa Carolina in Chile, recently won the New World Winery of the Year 2015 honor from the Wine Enthusiast. Cregan traveled to New York City in late January to attend the awards ceremony.
"All of the big companies were there," he marveled. "It was neat getting that award because a lot of people in the industry were able to recognize who we were, and they came up and gave us congratulations. We also had the chance to have people taste our wines while we were there. It was a great experience. Winning an honor like Best New World Winery really tells the world where we're standing. What it also does is it allows us to use that in our marketing. We're putting little, round stickers on our bottles that say 'New World Winery of the Year.' We're going to use it on our point-of-sale. We're going to parlay that to the consumer and say, 'Hey, good value ... fantastic wine ... try me!'"