Hotsy #totc - Tales Returns

If you're hearing more ice cubes rattling in town this week, it's because there are more drinks than usual being poured in New Orleans. Tales of the Cocktail - the alcoholic seminar that became a phenomena is back in town. Last year, say the organizers, 18,750 people attended the five-day festival. None of them teetotalers. Though all are encouraged to imbibe responsibly, there will be plenty of what the French have recently taken to calling Le Binge Drinking. I won't be running with that crowd. Instead, I'll try to attend as many seminars as I can. I'm especially looking forward to hearing Atlantic writer Wayne Curtis and his lecture on Colonial cocktails. Wayne always mixes great history and great drinks. You can still order his charming and insightful book And a Bottle of Rum: The History of the New World in 10 Cocktails. Good stuff. Otherwise I will retreat to Neal Bodenheimer's Cure on Freret and let the cocktailing come to me. Enjoy Tales. It's #totc on Twitter.