Into The Barchive

In this week’s episode of Into the Barchive , Blake and Tim continue their tiki and tropical cocktail series with one of the most recognizable vacation drinks of all time: the Piña Colada. Timed with National Piña Colada Day, this episode looks beyond the drink’s reputation as an overly sweet frozen cliché and explores why the Piña Colada deserves a more thoughtful place in the tropical cocktail c...

In this week’s episode of Into the Barchive , Blake and Tim continue their tiki and tropical cocktail series with the story of Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron, the one-legged barman from California who helped turn tiki into an international empire. After exploring Don the Beachcomber in the previous episode, Blake and Tim now step into the world of his greatest rival and one of tiki’s most influentia...

In this week’s episode of Into the Barchive , Blake and Tim continue their tropical and tiki cocktail series with the man who helped create tiki culture itself: Don the Beachcomber. Before he became a cocktail legend, Don was Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt, a Texas-born adventurer, rum runner, Hollywood consultant, and world traveler who turned his experiences into something America had never seen...

In this week’s episode of Into the Barchive , Blake and Tim kick off a brand-new series on tropical and tiki drinks by going back to the foundation: grog and Planter’s Punch. Before the paper umbrellas, flaming garnishes, and elaborate tiki mugs, there was watered-down rum on British naval ships. Blake and Tim explore how grog began as a practical drink for sailors, combining rum, water, lime, and...

In this week’s episode of Into the Barchive , Blake and Tim dive into one of the most recognizable cocktails in the world: the Aperol Spritz. More than just a bright orange drink in a wine glass, the Aperol Spritz is tied to the Italian ritual of aperitivo, the pre-dinner tradition of slowing down, gathering with friends, enjoying light snacks, and easing into the evening. Blake and Tim explore ho...

In this week’s episode of Into the Barchive , Blake and Tim sail into the story of one of the most dramatic and refreshing highballs in cocktail history: the Dark ’n Stormy . With International Dark ’n Stormy Day coming up on June 9, the guys explore the drink’s deep connection to Bermuda, maritime culture, ginger beer, and dark rum. From the Gosling family’s rum legacy to the sailors who helped s...

In this week’s episode of Into the Barchive , Blake and Tim shift their focus from a cocktail to one of the most influential figures in the modern cocktail renaissance: Sasha Petraske . As the founder of New York City’s legendary Milk & Honey , Petraske helped redefine what a cocktail bar could be. In an era dominated by sour mix, flavored vodka, and loud nightlife venues, he created a quiet,...

In this week’s episode of Into the Barchive , Blake and Tim head south of the Margarita to explore Mexico’s true everyday tequila cocktail: the Paloma . While Americans often reach first for a Margarita, the Paloma is the drink many people across Mexico know and love. It is simple, refreshing, lower ABV, and deeply tied to everyday drinking culture rather than a glamorous origin story or famous ba...

In Episode 22 of Into the Barchive, Blake and Tim dive into the story of America’s most-ordered cocktail: the Margarita. From its debated origins and connection to the Tequila Daisy to the rise of Tex-Mex restaurants, frozen drink machines, and the cocktail renaissance, this episode explores how tequila, lime, and orange liqueur became one of the most recognizable drinks in the world. Along the wa...

Episode 21 of Into the Bar-Cive dives into one of the most iconic cocktails of the last 50 years: the Cosmopolitan. 🍸💖 Often dismissed as just a trendy pink drink from the 1990s, the Cosmo actually played a pivotal role in bringing sophisticated cocktails back into mainstream culture. From its debated origins in San Francisco and South Beach to its explosion in popularity through Sex and the Cit...

The mint julep isn’t just a drink—it’s a ritual, a symbol, and a story layered with centuries of history. In this episode of Into the Barchive , we go beyond the silver cups and Kentucky Derby traditions to uncover the deeper origins of the julep. What started as a medicinal syrup in the Middle East evolved into a colonial American staple, shaped by agriculture, innovation, and the often-overlooke...

Welcome back to Into the Barchive , where every drink comes with a past. This week, we’re asking a deceptively simple question: when is a martini… not a martini? 🍸 Step into the neon-lit world of the 1990s, where anything cold, colorful, and served in a V-shaped glass earned the “martini” label—whether it had anything to do with gin and vermouth or not. From Appletinis to the now-infamous Porn St...

Welcome back to Into the Barchive, where every drink comes with a past. April 19th marks National Amaretto Day, making it the perfect time to revisit one of the most misunderstood bottles behind the bar. Often dismissed as overly sweet or stuck in the disco era, amaretto’s reputation says more about how it’s been used than what it actually is. In this episode, we set out to change that. We start b...

The gin and tonic may be rooted in British history, but its story doesn’t stop there. In this episode of Into the Barchive , we follow the G&T beyond its origins as a medicinal drink and explore how it has been reimagined around the world. From its beginnings as a quinine delivery system in colonial outposts to its evolution into a global symbol of refreshment, the gin and tonic has adapted to...

Welcome back to Into the Barchive, where the past comes alive. As we move deeper into spring, we turn our attention to a category of cocktails that feels both fresh and misunderstood—floral drinks. For some, floral cocktails can feel overly perfumey or too sweet. But historically, flowers weren’t added for decoration—they were functional. Long before cocktails were crafted for menus, floral ingred...

This week, in honor of Women’s History Month, we take a deeper look at the stories cocktail history too often leaves out—the women who helped shape the bar as we know it today. While the narrative is often centered on legendary male bartenders, this episode widens the lens to reveal a richer, more complete story. Women weren’t just present behind the bar—they were innovators, leaders, and culture-...

This week on Into the Barchive , Dr. Blake Jones and Tim Wright give vermouth the attention it deserves. For a lot of home bartenders, vermouth becomes a question mark. You buy a bottle for one martini or Manhattan, tuck it into the fridge door, and hope it is still good the next time you need it. Or worse, it sits on the bar cart getting dusty and oxidized while the drink gets blamed when things...

This week on Into the Barchive , Dr. Blake Jones and Tim Wright take on St. Patrick’s Day without the green beer, gimmicks, or Irish car bombs. Instead, they dig into the real history behind the holiday and build two cocktails that reflect two very different sides of Irish and Irish-American drinking culture . First up is the Tipperary , a historic Irish whiskey cocktail with roots in the early 20...

Few phrases in cocktail culture are more famous or more misunderstood than “shaken, not stirred.” But behind the pop culture reference lies a much deeper question bartenders have wrestled with for over a century: What actually changes when we choose one technique over another? In Episode 12 of Into the Barchive, we run a controlled experiment using the classic Gimlet as our case study. Same histor...

On Into the Barchive, we dig through the footnotes, forgotten names, and overlooked pages of cocktail history to better understand what’s actually in our glass. And for Black History Month, we’re spotlighting a figure whose name deserves to sit alongside Jerry Thomas and Harry Johnson. Tom Bullock. Bullock was a working bartender at the highest levels of American hospitality in the early 1900s, an...

In Episode 10 of Into the Barchive, Dr. Blake Jones and Tim Wright slow things down and explore the quiet ritual of the nightcap. Not dessert drinks. Not last-call chaos. But intentional, spirit-forward pours meant to signal that the evening is winding down. Because a nightcap is not about indulgence. It is about closure. This week’s builds keep it simple and contemplative: 🥃 Rusty Nail Blended S...

This week on Into The Barchive , the beads are flying, the brass bands are rolling, and Mardi Gras is in full swing. So there is only one drink that makes sense to tackle. The official cocktail of New Orleans. The Sazerac . Blake and Tim dive deep into the history, myth, and ritual behind one of America’s oldest cocktails, a drink that sits right at the crossroads of medicine, culture, and celebra...

February can feel like the longest month of winter: cold, dark, and still a ways from spring. In Episode 8 of Into the Barchive, Dr. Blake Jones and Tim Wright turn up the heat and explore the often overlooked world of hot cocktails, drinks that long predate cheap ice, refrigeration, and even the word “cocktail.” Blake builds the classic Hot Toddy, a comfort-first template that started as simple s...

Usually on Into the Barchive, we talk about spirits like gin, rum, tequila, and whiskey, the ingredients that give cocktails their backbone. But as Dry January winds down, Dr. Blake Jones and Tim Wright ask a different question. What makes a cocktail a cocktail when you take the alcohol out? In Episode 7, Blake and Tim explore the rise of non-alcoholic cocktails, not as an afterthought or a “kids...

In Episode 6 of Into The Barchive, Dr. Blake Jones and Tim Wright close out their inaugural cocktail family series with the richest, most decadent template of them all: the Flip. If sours and daisies are about balancing sweet and sour, flips are about balancing alcohol, sweetness, and richness to create a cocktail that drinks like dessert. That richness comes from a key ingredient many people stil...