Building The Crafty Rascal, an In-Home Cocktail Bar

>> Link to the full post here (Google Docs) <<

Like many other newcomers to the hobby, I started during 2020 when there was nothing else to do than stay inside and pick up new antisocial hobbies. I started gardening and got better at cooking, and then the next rational place to go was craft cocktails to compliment a good meal. Honestly, beyond the margarita and the rum & coke, I didn’t really know any cocktails.

I started on YouTube and began to learn just how much I didn’t know. I learned about the different ways to build cocktails, names of tools and specialty glassware to use, fancy bottles and where to find them, and why bitters are important. I started to find my style and developed a house menu of the stuff that I liked to drink most – that’s when I picked the name “The Crafty Rascal”, because of my love for fantasy tavern names and as a nod to Jess’s affinity for racoons. I started tracking what people ordered at the bar to learn what people preferred, and to bring a little science to the art. In 2022, I ended up serving 113 cocktails to myself and others over a number of parties, hangouts, and other random events at our house. Practice makes perfect, as they say.

Finally, over the winter holidays, I decided to get some formal books on cocktails and develop a proper menu. That brings us to the present where I’m confident enough to actually write a blog post about it. One of my meta-hobbies is learning new hobbies, and then distilling them down to a formula that’s easy to learn for others. (heh, get it? Distilling? That was a booze joke). So just like the gardening post linked above, this post will detail my foray into the world of craft cocktails and will present a few ways that you can dip your toes in the water for yourself.

>> Link to the full post here (Google Docs) <<

Overview of Content: