Drinking - we've been doing it as long as we've been on this planet. All people from all places have drunk and will drink, and for the same reason. To make the pain go away. The pain of defeat, the pain of loss, the pain of work - the pain of life. Drinking knows no barriers - not age, not race, not sex, not class. Pain finds us all, no matter where we are, where we go, it finds us eventually. And those of us who have more pain, drink more, until it too is the pain. Alcoholism is not a disease, it is too much cure.
Somewhere along the line we must have overcome enough pain because we made eating and drinking stylish, even artistic. Until now artisinal food, micro beer, wine that is bought to be stored not drunk, and hand crafted hard liquor drinks flag for our attention from every billboard, magazine, and tweet as if we were either some john, or some rube from the country. We speak of green sourcing and terroir, of single vineyards and copper stills, of house made and especially imported. We speak of everything, but of the only real reason to drink, sublimation.
Not just to ease the pain but to transition from the pain to a more sublime place, attainable only through the pain. Attainable only with a medium. And so when Dante, or Samedi, or Dr John are not around to help us avoid the circles of Hell, we turn to the local spirits. Specifically, the well made drink. And it is the 'well made' than saves us.
The older I get the more the world is too much with me, the gyre continues to widen, and all the other metaphors or semaphors of warning seem to be coming true. And so I now know only a few things -
One -- very little beats a well-made drink.
Another -- they are as hard to find as one-legged soccer players. Lots of reasons for this, but I'm not interested in poking sticks at staggering horses. What does interest me is how to rebuild, in at least the confines of my home, the spirit of classical drinking -- Civility, Intimacy, and Delight.
So this site is not about liquor - it is about drinking. Drinking at home. What to drink, how to make it, and when to drink it. It is an attempt to make of drinking not just an escape from the pain or an over indulgence in the momentary luxury of no pain. It is to help drinking be what the Classic period of the early 20th century made of it - a Grand Urban Exploration. An exploration of ourselves, of others, and of this petri bowl we are all aswim in called being alive.
Unlike most sites, this one reads forward only. No links will allow you to wander off the path. Making a drink well- and I don't mean following a recipe - is a developed skill. And like any skill you are better off following than wandering.
So don't be in a hurry. This is the Civility part of the formula. Time engenders a knowledge and intuition that hurried study can't. This is the Intimacy part. Finally at the end of the process, you will be Delighted at your ability to make yourself, maybe even a companion, a drink appropriate to the mood and time of day that will be transcendent.
So, follow "Learn to Drink" - and watch out for Le Fee Verte along the way. If you think you are all that and a bag of chips you can go straight to drinking by following "I Know How." Finally, if you have read, memorized, sworn off on, and submitted your SAT exam on this site, dare to follow "This way be Monsters." Bring a Designated Driver.
MrCharles
anyone with a need to comment may do so at drinkwelloften@gmail.com