The Everyday Guide to Spirits and Cocktails: Tastes and Traditions – Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan

Scotch sipped from a tumbler on a cold evening. A shot of gin adding a pleasantly sharp bite to an after-work cocktail. The satisfying sweetness of aged rum enhancing a homemade punch. Regardless of where, when, or how you enjoy them, spirits offer a nearly limitless array of tastes, aromas, sensations, and traditions.

Yet despite their varying degrees of sophistication, spirits can be understood and enjoyed by anyone. Knowing the secrets of tequila, cognac, whiskey, cordials, and more—their history, their production, their varieties, their uses—can offer endless rewards for both you and others. It can transform you into someone who knows how to make parties exciting, unique affairs; someone who can easily pick the perfect gift to impress a cherished friend or important business client; someone who knows how to order the best drinks to match specific occasions.

In the six interactive lectures of The Everyday Guide to Spirits and Cocktails: Tastes and Traditions, join acclaimed expert Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan, a Certified Specialist of Spirits, as she demystifies the world’s most popular spirits and shows you how to

• discover your own personal preferences,
• make classic cocktail recipes just like a master mixologist, and
• use little-known insider tips and techniques for tasting and shopping for spirits.

Taking you around the world from the comfort of your living room, these dynamic lectures feature fun and interactive tastings, illuminating interviews with industry experts, engaging footage that captures expert bartenders in action, virtual tours through the production process of spirits, and much more.

Discover the Secrets of Popular Spirits

Each lecture of The Everyday Guide to Spirits and Cocktails, filmed entirely on location at a nationally renowned venue, is devoted to a popular and well-known spirit. In each instance, Ms. Simonetti-Bryan provides interesting historical facts behind the spirit’s origin; reveals the details of how each spirit is processed, aged, and flavored; demonstrates how to taste, judge, and compare the quality and complex notes of each spirit; and offers recipes for making the best cocktails that show off the spirit’s unique characteristics.

• Whiskey: At its core, whiskey is distilled beer aged in oak and the product of a fascinating process of malting, milling, and mashing grain. While Ireland and Scotland were the first official producers of whiskey, the United States, Canada, and even Japan also make it.
• Tequila: Made from the root of agave plants, tequila gets its name from the Mexican town where it originated. In fact, tequila can only be called “tequila” if it comes from blue agave grown in the region of Jalisco and bordering states. Tequila from highland regions is more fruity and delicate, while tequila from lowland areas is more earthy and robust.
• Vodka: One of the most popular spirits in both the United States and other parts of the world, vodka is a clear spirit that is extremely “mixable” for a variety of cocktails. It can be made from any fermentable agricultural product, including grain, potatoes, molasses, grapes, and even onions.

Make Amazing Cocktails—Just like a Mixologist

You’ll also learn, from Ms. Simonetti-Bryan and award-winning bartenders, how to mix these and other spirits into a range of cocktails to fit any occasion. Among the cocktail recipes you’ll find in these lectures are those for the best

• Martini, the veritable “king of cocktails” that can be made with either gin or vodka and is best garnished with plenty of olives;
• Brandy Alexander, a rich brandy cocktail that enhances the comfort of this popular spirit with its mix of dark crème de cacao, heavy cream, and nutmeg; and
• Mojito, a refreshing blend of white rum, mint, simple syrup, lime juice, and soda water originally popularized by Cuban farmers.

Plus: Get Two Bonus Sessions with Insider’s Tips

The Everyday Guide to Spirits and Cocktails comes with two bonus sessions featuring a wealth of tips—drawn from Ms. Simonetti-Bryan’s expertise and experience—that you can use to dramatically change the way you think about shopping, tasting, making, and serving spirits and cocktails. Here are just three of the many tips you’ll find, both in these bonus sessions and throughout the entire course.

• Garnish your drink the right way: Garnishes are the perfect way to make any cocktail look delicious, impressive, and professional. For mint garnishes, make sure to use spearmint, as it has small leaves that don’t wilt as easily as others. Also, the best oranges for garnishing are navel oranges, which have a thicker skin and less juice.
• Pair the right spirit with the right dish: One tip for delicious spirit-food pairing is complementing a cocktail’s flavor to the same flavor in the dish being served. One example: pairing a wild mushroom ravioli with scotch, as the earthy flavors of the dish create a strong connection to the peaty aromas in the scotch.
• Make cocktails more figure-friendly: You can still enjoy spirits while trying to watch your weight by following helpful tips. These include avoiding sweet touches such as sugared rims, drinking cocktails with club soda mixers (which have few calories), and substituting some liqueurs, such as triple sec, with juice.

As a Certified Specialist of Spirits, one of the most prestigious titles in the spirits industry, Ms. Simonetti-Bryan lends an unparalleled authority to The Everyday Guide to Spirits and Cocktails. She has trained thousands in the industry, has judged in international spirits competitions, and is frequently sought after by the media for her incredible ability to make even the most complex aspects of spirits both easy to understand—and fun.

By the end of her interactive course, you’ll have a comprehensive knowledge of spirits sure to make your next encounter with spirits—and all future ones—a deeper, more rewarding experience.