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Slow Drinks, Philadelphia, PA (2026)

08/03/2024

I drove up to New York on Thursday afternoon to begin prepping for an event meant to be held last night at a beautiful outdoor park/venue/ampitheater called Little Island in Manhattan. The event was rained out almost immediately (literally sold one drink 😵‍💫), but we got to hang out in the dressing room with everyone who was supposed to be working the event, including Susan Sarandon who was one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. We all ate the food and drank the drinks that we worked really hard to prepare, and had a great time despite it all.

02/02/2024

Hey friends! Super excited to share that on Tuesday, February 13 I’ll be hosting back-to-back classes at in Kensington geared towards valentines, galentines, palentines, and whoever else wants to join.
The event will focus on how to make seasonal cocktails in the dead of winter, whether you’re having a cozy night in with a significant other or entertaining guests. The drinks, botanical ingredients, and techniques explored in the class will be highlighted from our book, “Slow Drinks”, which will be available to purchase at the event.
Tickets are $150 per couple ($75/person) and include cocktails, small bites from the International, and a take-home cocktail mixing kit courtesy of the and their sister brand who are sponsoring the event. Seatings will be at 5:30 and 7:30. Link in bio, hope to see you there!

01/31/2024

Umami Martini - Vodka, aged lacto-tomato water, fino sherry, pickled green tomato brine and garnish.
Is it just me or has January felt like an absolute eternity? This Martini has the power to transport you back to last summer while simultaneously brightening your mood to make you remember that spring is just a month and a half away.
It features a few pantry staples, namely summer tomatoes from the garden that were lacto-fermented in 2% salt and allowed to age, and vinegar pickled green tomatoes from just before the first frost.
The aged lacto-fermented tomato brine doesn’t possess the bright acidity of peak summer tomatoes, and instead lends a deep umami flavor from the naturally high levels of MSG (yes, that MSG) found in tomatoes. This flavor is further amplified from the savory and umami notes of the fino sherry, one of my personal favorite ingredients in the world. The brine from the pickled green tomatoes gives the drink a nice acid lift, and the pickled green tomatoes are delicious, adorable, and reminiscent of olives in a dirty Martini. Vodka lets it all shine through ✨🍸
How do you drink your Martini?

01/23/2024

I’m very excited to announce that Slow Drinks has been long listed for the , the UK’s annual awards for food and drink books. In addition to being entirely amazed and honored to be listed amongst so many other great titles, I’m very proud to be the lone mixed drink and cocktail book in the beverage category. Congratulations to all of the other authors on the list, especially my fellow authors, + 🥳🍾

01/14/2024

Fermented Chicory Cola - roasted chicory, burdock, and dandelion root ‘coffee’, demerara, maple, citrus zest, vanilla, and spices.
In my ongoing pursuit to create homemade sodas that can serve as stand-ins for the big commercial brands, I finally have one that I can proudly call a cola. Here’s how it came to be:
The idea started when I listened to an old episode of where they talked about discovering what may have very likely been the original recipe for Coca-Cola. When the episode first aired, it was so popular that it temporarily crashed their servers (I’ll post a link to the recipe in my stories) .
The process included brewing a sweetened cola concentrate with citrus oils, cinnamon, coriander, and nutmeg, which were made into a syrup with the addition of sugar and vanilla extract. They then recommended taking one ounce of the syrup and mixing it with five ounces club soda to make something that would taste similar to the real thing. Although it wasn’t bad, it sure wasn’t good. Not only was the flavor diluted, but it looked nothing like Coca Cola, which definitely plays a role in how your brain perceives (and tastes) it.
This got me thinking about alternatives that could increase the cola flavor and I thought about trying to include my herbal “coffee” made from the roasted, ground, and brewed roots of three local members of the Asteraceae family - chicory, burdock, and dandelion. To make the soda, you start by brewing the “coffee”, diluting and sweetening it with both the original cola syrup and maple for added vanilla notes. To this, I added just a touch of lemon and lime and cultured it with the ginger bug.
This mix is allowed to ferment for two days at room temp then bottled and allowed to carbonate under pressure as fermentation continues in the bottle for another day or two.
While it’s excellent spiked (rum works really well), it’s also a great dry January alternative that is probiotic, prebiotic, and digestive aid. I’m hopeful to have a reel posted with this whole process in the next week or two… Stay tuned!
Chicory root - and Burdock root -
Dandelion - foraged

01/09/2024

Hey Philly friends! I’m very excited to announce that I’ll be hosting two back-to-back sessions of Slow Drinks School later this month at while the crew is OOO on their winter break. Class breakdown as follows:
On Sunday 1/21, I’ll be teaching an introductory Slow Drinks 101 class that explores the basics of the approach as well as the principle preservation techniques and ingredients featured in the book. There will be plenty of samples throughout. No experience necessary.
On Monday 1/22, the same topics will be explored, but they will be geared towards the professional looking to incorporate these principles into their restaurant or bar program. Again, lots of samples throughout.
Seats are super limited, so don’t wait to grab your tickets. Also, I’m not including a copy of the book in the ticket price in case people already own a copy, however, the class will be taught directly from the book and attendees will benefit most by having a copy in hand. I’ll have plenty of copies for sale at each of the sessions!
Ticket links in bio!

01/07/2024

So what am I up to these days? Well, in addition to book promotion and events, I’ve been really focusing on building the consulting branch of Slow Drinks for the last four months. Consulting has been more creatively rewarding than I could’ve ever imagined, as it allows me to take the foundational principles of my approach and adapt them to the vision, style, and theme of other bars, restaurants, farms, cafes, hotels, and businesses. If you think this is something that could benefit you or your business, let’s chat! Our services include:

- Implementation a hyperlocal, botanically-centered alcoholic and/or non-alcoholic beverage program through foraging, facilitating relationships with local growers, and growing in an on- or off-site garden when possible.
- Establishing a preservation program focused on the development of value added products. Processes include but are not limited to fermentation (n/a sodas, kombuchas, vinegars, lacto-ferments), vinegar preserves (shrubs, pickles), sugar preservers (syrups, jams), and infusions (liqueurs, amari, bitters, tinctures).
- Beverage menu development including original cocktails, non-alcoholic offerings, and spirit, wine, and beer curation.
- Utilizing locally-sourced and preserved ingredients to reduce waste, increase sustainability, and bridge the gap between the bar and the kitchen.
- Hospitality branding - photography, video, PR, social media content and narrative development.
- Staff and management selection and training centered around development of workplace culture and buy-in.
- Classic cocktail education and skills.
- Bar layout and design.
- Equipment selection.
- Financial analysis.

12/28/2023

American “Tartufo” Amaro - Dog-harvested Appalachian truffles, hardy orange peels, spicebush berries, spruce tips, staghorn sumac, shagbark hickory bark, juniper berries.
Of all the styles of amaro, the tartufo (Italian for “truffle”) category has always symbolized a holy grail for me. Part of this is that I’ve never tasted a tartufo amaro as they aren’t commercially available here in the US. The other is that truffles represent the ultimate treasure for foragers because they grow out of sight in underground symbiosis with tree roots and can only be gathered with the highly trained sense of smell of dogs and/or truffle pigs.
Although truffles are most commonly associated with France and Italy, there are some species that can be found growing here in the US. These include the black, white, and brown truffles of Oregon, the pecan truffles of the southern and central US, and a few species of Appalachian truffles which can be found growing throughout much of the mountainous eastern US.
I’ve long since succumbed to the fact that I will probably never forage truffles on my own and my hopes of trying a traditional Italian tartufo amaro have all but disappeared through the years. However, I decided to try my hand at making my own tartufo when the folks from .market contacted me about using their online marketplace and I learned about the folks at in Asheville, NC who harvest native Appalachian truffles, Imaia gigantea, and ship them nationwide.
This was my first time encountering domestic truffles and I was absolutely enamored with their earthy, woodsy, almost cheesy aroma. Here, I infused them into a locally-inspired take on a tartufo amaro with other foraged ingredients I ordered from the foraged.com site including hardy oranges and staghorn sumac for acidity, and spicebush berries, spruce tips, shagbark hickory, and juniper berries for spice. I’ll let these ingredients macerate in 151 proof spirit for a little over a month before barrel-resting, then diluting and sweetening with maple sap + syrup harvested from the trees in our yard.

12/05/2023

Slow Drinks x My Loup
A few snapshots from last night’s pop-up at .phl featuring style drinks done with techniques and ingredients. We started planning this event back in June and have been busy foraging, fermenting, and infusing for months to create all these amazing one-off cocktails. Obviously, pop-ups and collaborations are incredibly fun, but when two old friends put their heads together and pull out all the stops, the result was truly something special. Offerings included:
Foraged Old Fashioned - fig leaf bourbon, sassafras syrup, black walnut bitters
Pine Barrens Cosmo - vodka, foraged cranberries, italicus, combier
Persimmon Milk Punch - japanese whisky, jamaican rum, Danny’s persimmons, lemon oleo- + spices
My Loup x Slow Drinks Amaro Sour - fall genepy amaro, cardamaro, maple, lemon, egg white
Juniper Transfusion - vodka, grape sorbet, fermented juniper tonic

Slow Drinks

08/03/2024

02/02/2024

01/31/2024

01/23/2024

01/14/2024

01/09/2024

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12/28/2023

12/05/2023

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