Hi, I’m Nick, and welcome to First Pour Cocktails! What’s First Pour Cocktails? First Pour Cocktails is a blog dedicated to exploring Ann Marie and I’s passion for crafting new cocktails with our own geeky spin. It’s also a living, breathing testament to our continued exploration of cocktails, the amazing bars and people who make them, and a resource to try to help enthusiasts (like us) develop their skills.
So how did we get here?
Back in 2011 – I was unemployed – almost living in my parent’s basement – and long on time to do nothing. Pumped full of excitement from 2008 Gary Vaynerchuk, with the wreckage of a failed attempt to create a video game studio behind me, I decided to do what any 20 something year old would do. I started a blog.
First Pour Wine was a goofy sort of thing. The kind of idea that you can only found when you have no actual idea what you’re doing – but have a great love of a product. It inspired me to conscript my best friend Greg into hanging sheets in my basement – so that we’d have a white background to record me teaching Greg about wine for under $10. It was a lot of fun – and we still joke that somewhere out in Berkeley there were a bunch of kids drinking every time Greg said wood.
While the settings improved (I’m being really generous here), they were nothing compared to the change in my palate. I developed a deep appreciation for wine that would take me all the way the Wine Blogger’s Conference in 2016. The WBC was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in my life and I was extremely fired up to continue to grow in the wine world.
Not too long after I returned, I got a bit short on time thanks to my day job. The pressures of writing an article a day on First Pour Wine got a bit heavy – especially while juggling an entire factory and an international team to boot. It wasn’t so much that wine and I divorced – we just sort of drifted apart.
Reflecting back – even when I was writing about wine, and attending the wine blogger’s conference – I referred to wine as my lover and whiskey as my mistress. Perhaps this was a bit of stretch – but the first drink I ever had was Johnnie Walker Black (perhaps a bit ahead of schedule). At RIT I’d had a phenomenal wine teacher and mentor, Lorraine, how helped guide me. She even helped me to complete my independent study – where I designed a Whiskey’s of the World class as an independent study. I was motivated to move beyond mere fermentation.
Something bigger was distilling.
First Pour Wine – Cocktails
Some time ago, the first seeds of First Pour Cocktails were planted when I began exploring the idea of wine as a base for cocktails. My girlfriend Ann Marie began helping with the filming and editing, and became something of a sounding board during the process. While the idea hasn’t totally panned out, it did lead to some early videos and posts around cocktails on First Pour Wine – as well as an original drink or two. Both the Vinopolitan and Sixth City stand out to me as something that I should revisit.
These drinks paved the way for more experimentation. In an attempt to make a cocktail to Ann Marie’s liking, the Peachoid was born (and renamed to Peach’s Parasol). It made a brief appearance on our short-lived Toasts and Towers craft site, before just showing up on the deck on warm summer days.
By the way – if anyone wants to buy a coaster – I still have plenty.
By the end of 2017 – I was out of gas at work – and it showed in the writing. To make it harder, I changed jobs into a 100% travel role – and then completely lost the plot on First Pour Wine. With the business still failing to turn a profit despite trying to sell the crafts we made – and me out of time – it was time to close up shop in 2018.
Shake It Off
Sure it was disappointing to have to close up shop. I had put a lot of time into First Pour Wine and had a great time doing it. Things were looking up though. The new role was considerably less stress, the pay was better, and I was getting to scratch my travel itch. Only problem was, I wasn’t getting to spend as much time with Ann Marie.
In one of those funny little accidents, we found ourselves talking about cocktails before our Saturday night steaks. We talked about how it was interesting to get inspired by characters (like Peach) and how it might be fun to test ourselves by making some cocktails. It started out simple enough, just something to look forward to on the weekends. An opportunity to try to make something with some guard rails. But before we knew it, we had started to fill notepads with cocktails.
Somewhere around here – we started to play with the idea of writing a book. As some of our friends are aware, this led to a few cocktail parties to try to make sure that we:
- Weren’t in our own echo chamber crazy, and that a drink tasted good.
- Had made something that someone else might enjoy as well.
While we didn’t have the recipes to round out a book – we began to get closer and to learn more techniques. Some through great books – like Smuggler’s Cove, others through tasting at amazing bars like the Aviary, and still others through speaking with bartenders.
By the time we’d amassed over 180 bottles of different liquor – it became obvious that our little hobby was no longer just a little hobby. We wanted to share.
Crafting The Future
This long road has led us to the launch today of First Pour Cocktails. We’re excited to share what we learn with you the reader. In the coming weeks, you can look forward to:
- Liquor and Equipment Reviews
- Original Cocktails
- Cocktail Bar Visits
- … and much, much more.