Boulder Cocktail Tours

We’ve been having a great time on Boulder Cocktail Tours this month.  Thanks so much to West End Tavern, Tahona, SALT, and The Pinyon for serving up some great libations along with a mini lesson on spirits, distillation, oak and aging, adding carbonation… there’s so much to learn, which is why I’m thrilled to have been guiding cocktail tours since April 2011.  If you haven’t yet joined a cocktail tour, I encourage you to register for a Thursday tour in Boulder or a Saturday tour in Denver.  I like to think of these tours as continuing education for anyone who enjoys going out for a good time.

If you have been on a cocktail tour, I encourage you to register for another one.  They’re always different and always fun.  Here’s an idea of what we’ve tasted this month.  Cheers!

Caroline from West End Tavern knows her bourbon and can tell you everything she knows while offering sips of different spirits and samples of her signature cocktails, such as the Ron Burgundy (left) and an Old Fashioned (right).

Tahona has been a fun stop on some tours and we’ve been sampling a variety of blanco, reposado, and añejo tequilas.  If you have questions about the differences between blanco, reposado, and añejo, it’s probably time you join us on a cocktail tour…

Tina offered us a blanco Republic Tequila as well as some Republic that they had barrel aged in house into a reposado.

On a different tour, Ally offered us a tasting of Gran Centenario plata, reposado, and añejo as well as a tasting of her coin style margarita.

Connor at SALT treated us to a sweet creation of his, the Barry White and a classic- The Aviation.

The Pinyon was also a featured stop on a couple tours and we drank a Hops not Tonic (left), a beer cocktail created by Dan Mirsky, and a soda bottled cocktail with some dangerously good chicken wings.

Chef owner Theo Adley likes hanging at his own bar, so we’re often very well entertained at The Pinyon.

Boulder cocktail tours run every Thursday.  We visit 3 great local bars and get to ask the experts all of our cocktail questions.  It’s the best way to bar hop in town.

The Colorado Cocktail Project

What does Colorado taste like?  The Colorado Cocktail Project is seeking an answer to that question in the form of a unique cocktail created by Colorado mixologists featuring Colorado spirits.  That sounds like a cool competition to me!  As New Orleans has the Sazerac and New York has the Manhattan, so too will Colorado have an official cocktail.

The rules, according to esteemed libations expert and creator of the Colorado Cocktail Project, Sean Kenyon, are:

-The base spirit (at least half of the spirit in the cocktail) must be a Colorado spirit — one produced by a Colorado distiller.

-There is a seven-ingredient maximum, including garnish

-All ingredients must be commercially available

-The cocktails must be available at the bartender’s establishment, preferably on a menu, from April 1 through June 10.

Boulder has some representation in this project-

Justin Lavenue from Bombay Bistro submitted “The Rocky Mountain Wildfire”

Caroline Johnson from The West End Tavern submitted “The Western Slope”

Evan Faber from SALT submitted “The Diamondback”

And there are a lot of entries from great mixologists in Denver, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins, and a number of mountain towns.  This is going to be fun, and I wish I could be an official judge!  But, I still have a lot to learn about cocktails before I’d be judge-worthy.  Guess that means I should head out to a number of establishments and order some Colorado cocktails as I refine my cocktail palate.

Check out the list of mixologists and their cocktails on the Museum of Contemporary Art’s website, and then go drink cocktails and get a taste of Colorado!

More details:

Sunday, June 26, 2011 12-6PM
Drop-In Colorado Spirits Tastings & Lecture Marathon Series
Food Trucks. Drinks. Colorado Cocktail Experts.

Monday, June 27, 2011 5-9:30PM
Meet the Bartenders and help the judges decide which will be the winning Colorado Cocktail. Learn. Drink. Vote.

Tickets:
$40 per day
$70 two-day pass
available at www.coloradococktailproject.com or by calling 303-298-7554

Cheers!