stepwise improvement

1 1/4 oz Planteray Stiggins' Fancy Pineapple Rum
3/4 oz Campari
3/4 oz Punt e Mes
1/4 oz Maraschino (Luxardo)
2 dash Absinthe (20 drop St. George)

Stir with ice, strain into an old fashioned glass with ice, and garnish with an orange twist. As I was sorting through the various months' posts to start on the year end wrap-up, I spotted Liholiho Yacht Club's Step into Liquid. Knowing how Maraschino can soften Campari – a trick that I learned at Eastern Standard with their Carnivale, I decided to modify their drink via the 1880s Improved Cocktail addition of Maraschino and absinthe. The drink that I dubbed Stepwise Improvement began with orange and nutty cherry aromas. Next, a dark grape sip flowed into rum, pineapple, bitter orange, nutty cherry, and anise flavors on the swallow. Overall, the addition of Maraschino and absinthe took the combination into a more tropical realm.

reverend de louisiane

2 oz Planteray Stiggins' Fancy Pineapple Rum
3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth (Alessio)
1/4 oz Benedictine
3 dash Peychaud's Bitters
3 dash Absinthe (30 drop St. George)

Stir with ice and strain into an old fashioned glass. Two Tuesdays ago, I spotted Matt Pietrek posting a pineapple rum riff on the De La Louisiane on Instagram. The recipe was called the Révérend de Louisiane as a nod to the job title of Stiggins in The Pickwick Papers as the hypocritical shepherd of the temperance movement, and it reminded me of Trina's Starlight Lounge's Stigginserac. When I inquired if the drink was his, Matt replied, "Yep. It's great with aged agricole, and at some point I thought, hmm... What about Stiggins'?" Once prepared, the Révérend de Louisiane opened up with anise and dark rum aromas. Next, a semi-sweet grape and dark cherry sip gained pineapple notes as the cocktail warmed up, and the swallow gave forth rum, pineapple, herbal, cherry, and anise flavors to round out the drink.

banana calling

1 3/4 oz Gin (Ford's)
1/2 oz Giffard Crème de Banane (Tempus Fugit)
3/8 oz Fino Sherry (Lustau Manzanilla)
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
1/4 oz Simple Syrup

Shake with ice, strain into a coupe, and garnish with a grapefruit twist (Madrusan source) or a dried banana chip (Difford's Guide) (I used a grapefruit twist). Two Mondays ago, I decided to make a recipe that I had uncovered while researching The Clash cocktail biopic that I published in October called the Banana Calling. The recipe was crafted by Cameron Attfield at Dandelyan in London 2018 as a riff on Chris Jepson's 2002 London Calling cocktail that I featured in my article. While both the The Madrusan Cocktail Companion and Difford's Guide both had the recipe, I used the spec from the former and the history from the latter. The latter summed up the drink as, "This short, sharp cocktail is best described as a Fino & Banana Gin Sour. The Fino and banana notes are subtle, so subtle that it is not obviously a banana cocktail, although the name should serve as a clue." In the glass, the Banana Calling gave forth a pink grapefruit and floral bouquet to the nose. Next, lemon and caramel notes on the sip sung out to gin, lemon pith, minerality, and a touch of cooked fruit flavors on the swallow.

lower west side

1 3/4 oz Irish Whiskey (Teeling Small Batch)
3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth (Alessio)
1/2 oz Lustau East India Solera Sherry
1/2 oz Dry Vermouth (Dolin)
1 dash Angostura Bitters
1 pinch Sea Salt (4 drop 20% Saline)

Stir with ice, strain into a coupe glass, and garnish with a cherry. Two Sundays ago, I found a recipe by Kenneth McCoy at Ward III in New York City in a 2019 Imbibe Magazine article called the Lower West Side. Historically, the Lower West Side of Manhattan was a major center for Irish immigrants that intensified with the famine in Ireland during the 1840s-50s, and many found work on the nearby docks as longshoremen and congregated around waterfront taverns in the area. The combination of Irish whiskey and Lustau's cream sherry reminds me of Eastern Standard-related recipes like the Goonight Irene at the Hawthorne and Velveteen at Equal Measure. In the glass, the Lower West Side channeled a grape, nutty red cherry, and clove aroma to the nose. Next, grape and plum notes on the sip transformed into soft whiskey, oxidized nuttiness, and herbal flavors on the swalllow. Overall, the soft Irish whiskey gently blended into the background giving the sherry, vermouths, and bitters a much larger stage than in a classic rye Manhattan.

yellow jacket

3/4 oz Bonded Apple Brandy (Laird's)
3/4 oz Amaro Nardini
3/4 oz Lime Juice
3/4 oz Ginger Syrup

Shake with ice, strain into a coupe glass, and garnish with candied ginger. Two Saturdays ago, I reached for my copy of The Madrusan Cocktail Companion and spotted the Yellow Jacket in the Gimlet section. While there are several Yellow Jacket recipes out there to the point that the one in the Cocktail Dive Bar book called theirs the Yellow Jacket #2 to acknowledge that it is not the most original of names, this one was crafted by Greg Keesee at the Nashhville branch of Attaboy in 2021. Given the flying insect motif, it is most likely a riff on Sam Ross' Mosquito with its spirit, bitter liqueur, ginger syrup, and citrus structure that I last observed in the Dragonfly (and I more recently had the Overtime but without the bug naming convention). In the glass, the Yellow Jacket buzzed to the nose with ginger, apple, and herbal aromas. Next, lime and caramel notes on the sip opened up into apple, ginger, herbal, and minty flavors on the swallow.

throwing shade

1 1/2 oz Suntory Toki Japanese Whisky
3/4 oz Grapefruit Juice
1/2 oz Zucca (Sfumato)
1/2 oz Ginger Syrup
1 dash Peychaud's Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail coupe. Two Fridays ago, I reached for my copy of Nico Martini's Texas Cocktails book, and I honed in on the Throwing Shade by Jessica Sanders at Nickel City Bar in Austin. The combination of whisky, Zucca, and grapefruit juice reminded me of Backbar's Zucca Hour, so I was intrigued. Once prepared, the Throwing Shade landed a smoky herbal and ginger bouquet on the nose. Next, grapefruit and roast notes on the sip gave way to whisky, herbal, ginger, and smoky bitter flavors on the swallow with an anise finish.

:: fred's picks for the top cocktails of 2025 ::

At the end of 2010, someone asked what my favorite drink of the year was, and I lacked an answer at first for there were so many good options to chose from. My choices were influenced by two factors – tastiness and uniqueness; it had to be both memorable and worth repeating. In past years, I did one post for drinks that I had out at bars and one post for drinks that I had at home; however, as I found myself going out less due to my work schedule and other factors, I cut it down to one post back in 2018. Each month here was selected for when the drink post appeared and not when it was enjoyed (unlike my real time Instagram account, I have a two week delay here before it goes live to give myself an ample window to write). Without further ado, here is the sixteenth annual installment of my best drinks for the year with a pair of runner ups.

January: The month with its cold, blustery winds was matched by a lot of stirred instead of citrusy cocktails. It was tough to pick a top drink, but I gave the award to Elayne Duff's Bienvenidos, an agave bitter-banana number from the updated The Tequila Ambassador from Wonk Press. Given the nod for second and third was Rosewater in Houston's Road to Ruin, a big, burly, and bitter number that came with an intriguing warning that was close to the top spot, and the Fireside Chat that was a maple-tinged Old Fashioned with the 1910's mezcal-Cognac base from Clyde's in Alexandria, Virginia.

February: The top choice for February went to the most gentle Malört drink I had all year with a solid ounce and a half – namely, the Wake Up Call at Shame & Regret in Colorado Springs. Bronze and silver in no particular order are the bitter Mane of Needles by Jason O'Bryan at URBN in San Diego as a Boulevardier riff on The Violet Hour's Autumn Negroni, and the Sidewinder, an apple-maple take on the Rattlesnake – the rye-sugar egg white Sour from The Savoy Cocktail Book. March: For March, a rather elegant Martini riff that spun in touches of Jamaican rum and banana liqueur, the Portorico from the 1000 Misture book from 1936, was a favorite, and I enjoyed serving it to my regulars who went off-menu with dealer's choice at the C-Side Bar. Honorable mention to Backbar's Right Paw of Destiny as a sherry and Montenegro twist on the neo-classic Right Hand, and to Butcher Chef's Patty O'Cann as a Scotch-Irish whiskey mashup of a Preakness and a Little Italy.

April: The Mohu as a Scotch-Bourbon Creole variation of sorts from the private members-only club The Poodle Room in Las Vegas caught my attention for the month. Urban Grub's dual amari Black Manhattan, the Spaghetti Western and Butcher Chef's apple-tinged Prospector Cocktail-style drink, the Forbidden Forest, were solid sippers too. May: I really enjoyed the Anyone's Shadow from Portland's Rum Club so much that it inspired me to riff on it with the Souls of the Mountain a few days later. May is also the month when my mint patch returns, so second tier mention went to Craig Herman's cribbage-Tiki (And) Knobs is Thirteen redux of the Ward 8, and also tropical but not citrussy with Brian Maxwell's Right Hand riff, Save the Last Dance.

June: I'll call June a draw with one shaken: an apple brandy-rum Swedish punch number called the Lost Generation at Bygone in Baltimore, and one stirred: a bitter fruity tequila drink dubbed Isla Bonita at Good Company in St. Louis. July: July was a winner of tropical-tiki month with top pick to Raine's Law Room's Bright Side as a banana-Armagnac Rye-Tai. Also delicious were Erick Castro's tequila-based Tiger's Claw at Gilly's and the complex Mistah Bittah Hai by Jacoby Morciglio at Adrift Tiki Bar in Denver.

August: August was a rather tough month to choose with a lot of tropical winners (as well as a few stirred ones as well). However, the Samson Swizzle by Samson Miller at the Zombie Village took the Queen's Park Swizzle into the tiki waters got my attention. Close second and third (in no order) were one of the many Coco Lopez drinks that I made, the Barrio Tropical at Good Company in St. Louis (the Piña Verde might have gotten the mention but it is already well known and Green Chartreuse is too difficult to source right now to promote an ounce and a half at a time), and a Meaghan Dorman's Averna for curaçao Mai Tai riff called Across the Pacific. September: The simple elegance of the Mexico Navy by Jordan Valls at Palomar in Portland read like a ginger Infante gets top merits for September; a few weeks later in October, I had a chance to get a drink from Jordan at Palomar during Portland Cocktail Week. A cool coffee-chile liqueur Coco Lopez number, the Aztec Warrior by Chad Austin in his Pandemic-era Everyone Has a F*cking Cocktail Book, and a great nightcap called the Essenza Vintage at Jacksonville's Cataluna were definitely notable.

October: The most memorable drink of the month was at a Ford's Gin-sponsored seminar at Portland Cocktail Week where they served a 3 Martini Lunch; riffing on my favorite Martini riff, the Tuxedo #2, to yield the Velvet Tuxedo No. 2 with the added fruit complexity and richness of sloe gin was a winner. Tavolota's bitter-tropical tequila Golden Eagle and the over-the-top Death Daiquiri with pineapple syrup from Rosewater in Houston need pointing out too. November: I may have been skewed by the fact that the Elected Official was created by my Instagram friend Tim Kirkland as a tribute drink inspired by my style, but it was an complex sipper with a split base, two modifiers, and bitters. November did keep tropical going with Lost Lake's No Bye/No Aloha that seemed like a Saturn gussied up in a variety of ways, and also worth mentioning was La Factoria in Puerto Rico's Hijos de Borinquen as a complex Daiquiri of sorts that fell between the Cuban Anole and the Periodista.

December: Another Saturn-inspired recipe caught my attention to place first for December with the Beyond the Solar System with rye whiskey, cinnamon, and an apple garnish to mix things up. Nick Mallia's Day For Night as a cucumber riff on the White Negroni at Bar Lunette and the Buffalo Soldier at Nineteen at TPC Sawgrass in Florida as a tequila-Bourbon Old Fashioned played good supporting roles for the month.

Some of my favorite creations not mentioned in yesterday's year end round-up: There were some drinks that I did not mention in my other roundup that got attention on Instagram including my Lion's Tail taken through a New England lens called the Bobcat's Tail, my Overpowered by Funk that I crafted for The Clash cocktail biopic, the Montebank as a Scotch-apple-amaro number, and my St. Mark's Street tribute of Save the Robots. It was great seeing other people in my feed taking the time to give my recipes a try this year! And below is a photo of my Doctor Yah-Yah as a Drink of Laughter and Forgetting meets a Nui-Nui. 2025 was definitely a great year for cocktails even if the trend of not going out on the town as much is still a thing for me. My job last year did not provide a lot of spare spending cash, and many of the bars in town are still making drinks too complicated to write up (still a hold over from the Pandemic as folks are wanting something they cannot make at their elevated home bars). Overall, I was able to narrow down the 12 months into 35 recipes that ranged from bitter stirred drinks to garnished up tropical ones, and that is around the top ten percent of posts on here for the year. Best wishes for 2026 both in your glass and in your life. Cheers!

the missing

1 1/2 oz Mezcal (Peloton de la Muerte)
1/2 oz Ancho Reyes Chile Liqueur
1 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Passion Fruit Syrup
1/2 oz Falernum (Velvet)

Shake with ice, strain into an old fashioned glass with ice, and garnish with a grapefruit twist. Two Thursdays ago, I was still thinking of the Mai-Kai's Last Rites that I had the night before. Hearing "Last Rites" made me think of the 1988 Ministry song "The Missing" that has those as the lyrics, and I took the trio of citrus plus modifiers and was inspired to replace the rums with something appropriate for my new job at Gato Exotico. Indeed, I ended up using the 3:1 mezcal to Ancho Reyes ratio found in the Ancho Noir and Aztec Warrior. When served over a large ice cube instead of the Last Rite's crushed ice, The Missing gave forth grapefruit, vegetal, and smoke aromas. Next, lime, roast, and passion fruit notes escaped into smoky agave, pepper spice, tropical, and clove flavors on the swallow.

:: fred's top 10 cocktail moments of 2025 ::

Back in 2010, someone asked what my favorite cocktail that year was, and I decided not only to start a list of my favorite drinks, but I decided to list the top moments of the previous 12 months. So to continue with the tradition, here is the 16th annual installment:

1. Changed jobs.
After helping to open the C-Side Bar in October 2024, I decided to leave in November 2025 to seek out adventures that would give me more hours, more money, and more purpose. Too many of the shifts were solo ones (not the original plan, but it was rarely busy enough for duo shifts which put a crimp into the number of hours I got scheduled for). It never felt like a team and more like a solo sport (save for the fact that all my night efforts to make money were split with the day time bartender). When it was time to leave, I reached out to my contact at the local tiki wonderland Wusong Road after seeing a job ad for a bartender there. That was countered by an offer to help open up their new space, the Mexican-themed Gato Exotico, on the otherside of the mall from the C-Side. I started there at the latter half of November to help set the place up and to do training, and we opened on Black Friday and are rounding out our 5th week in a few days. It is great to be part of a team again and feel part of growing a community of regulars. Here is a photo that a friend took during our soft opening during the Boston Tiki Society event: 2. Did some writing.
Since my job at the C-Side Bar was not paying the bills, I sought out freelance work for a bit. I wrote two more articles for Men's Journal and would have written more but my editor left for another magazine that was not liquor related; I wrote a history of Bock beer with bottle suggestions for each of the styles, and a piece on my favorite Canadian whisky: Lot 40 Rye. I wrote another article for Edible Boston that began with a pitch on rhubarb drinks for Spring that ended up being an article on local amaro options for the Summer issue (included a rhubarb-root liqueur). The biggest honor was getting my name in the bylines of Punch with the Georgetown Club that I remastered from the work of Charles H. Baker Jr.'s South American Gentleman's Companion for the menu at Loyal Nine years ago. Besides my Men's Journal editor leaving, I got stalled out when one publication accepted my pitch and later the article I submitted, but continuously delayed publication with mumblings that the photos were not good enough. This was a band retrospective and a collection bartender-submitted recipes and photos for a The Clash cocktail biopic. I ended up requesting the right to publishing it elsewhere since they had never delivered payment to own the piece. In addition, while I did not get the byline for these three articles, I was either the only or one of the two or three people quoted extensively in these articles in The Manual on best Bourbons for beginners, debunking cocktail myths, and what makes a winter beer. Also, I had my Hot Buttered Cider recipe published in issue #1 of the local 'zine The North of the Charles Revue.
3. Gave talks and wrote essays. I had two opportunities to speak in public this year. The first was in January when a bar guest at Josephine had invited me to give a talk in Colorado Springs for a historic preservation society that was a year and a half in the making. I presented a 44 slide Powerpoint for a 75 minute session at altitude (I practiced the talk at 60 feet above sea level and did not realize how much less oxygen there is at 6000 feet) on the intangible heritage of cocktails. I also made two drinks from the talk, namely Jerry Thomas' Saratoga and Brother Cleve's Ward Nine, at the happy hour afterwards. The second opportunity was in September when I participated in a Boston Rum Week panel discussion on "The Anatomy of Rum Cocktails: Choices, Trends and Culture in a Glass" with moderator Garnett Philip and co-panelists Shannon Mustipher and Katie Stryjewski. Speaking of rum, I finished up a historical piece on the distillery in Somerville, Massachusetts, about a mile from my house that lasted from the early 1880s until Prohibition. The publication of historical maps online gave the last bits to a story that began for me around 16 years before. I also wrote an essay on how to talk to your bar hero after returning home from Portland Cocktail Week this year. 4. Traveled a little
As I alluded to above, I ventured to Colorado Springs for two nights to give a talk. The first night, I visited a few local breweries (check out the ornate historic bar by clicking on the photo in my Untappd check-in at Phantom Canyon Brewing Company). After my talk on the second day, I hit 3 cocktail bars after dinner starting with Shame & Regret where I had this Malört drink. That bartender convinced me to go to Cocktails After Dusk where she introduced me (after doing a shot with the bartender there). And my final stop (which had been recommended by multiple people) was Chiba, a Japanese cyberpunk bar where I later met up with the bartender from the second bar after their shift. Wearing a Fernet Branca shift might have helped usher in that level of hospitality. In May, I traveled to Atlanta for the United States Bartenders' Guild (USBG) national meeting where I sat in on a number of great talks including a history of absinthe and its many uses in mixology by Darian Everding and Theodore Breaux that I wrote about in the Wide Eyed after being gifted the cocktail in an airline-friendly container. There were some great night time events with one of my favorites being at a hunting lodge-themed speakeasy called the Ranger Station for a Sazerac-sponsored event where I had the Tiger's Tale. Since the conference center was so far away from everything, I only hit one brewery on the way to the airport, Monday Night Brewing. My final bit of travel was in October for my third Portland Cocktail Week (2012 and 2022 were my other two). As a student, I had a full week of classes and great night time events including an over-the-top haunted house and yard done up by Campari. I also gave back by signing up to provide mentoring sessions; it started as 9 official ones that folks reserved in advance, and 3 more happened either on the fly or by messaging. It was also a great feeling to connect that week with folks in their 20s to remind me of the aspects of that time in my life including music and literature.

5. Created some drinks. I wrote up around 28 drinks created in 2025 in a variety of styles. There were Old Fashioned ones like the Devil's Disciple, Illegal Dance Moves, and Souls of the Mountain. Tropical ones like the Cobra's Tail, Bucking the Tiger, and The Nameless City. Manhattan- or Martini-like numbers like Mexico City Blues and Dream of the Lava Beds. Unusual Sours like the Black Hand Society, the Angostura-heavy Rogue's Romance, Ghost Rider, and the Lechuza. I even created a potential cocktail for Gato Exotico that got workshopped and improved upon called the Aztec Death Whistle. 6. My drinks got featured in videos, databases, articles, and books.
I think the most amusing of these was being featured on Spike's Breezeway Cocktail Hour on YouTubewhere they made fun of my name and mixed up my Jungle Grog (my 2018 recipe). My Cantinflas Mustache based off of Chris Elford's Sharpie Mustache with base spirits inspired by Phil Ward's Oaxacan Old Fashioned was featured on Difford's Guide -- my fourth drink to make it there but my first to earn Simon's 5 star rating! That recipe was also published in Bar & Restaurant News renamed as La Calavera Catrina for a Day of the Dead article. Also in Bar & Restaurant News, my Bornean Spiderhunter with Cynar for an article on low ABV drinks, my Horror Hotel for Halloween, and my Army Navy Grog for Memorial Day. Horror Hotel was also published in Clair McLafferty's Spooky Cocktails book in late Summer. Many of my recipes and recipes gathered from my site found their way into five of J.E. Clapham's books this year, including ones on Benedictine, Chartreuse volume 2, Cynar, Suze, and Smith & Cross.

7. Read a bit.
I finished 20 books this year. My favorites include The Tequila Ambassador by Tomas Estes and associates and republished in a grand larger format by Matt Pietrek's Wonk Press, and also a cultural, historical, and scientific overview in Agave Spirits: The Past, Present, and Future of Mezcals by Gary Paul Nabhan and David Suro Piñera. Wayne Curtis' The Great Walk was an intriguing treatise on social changes that also highlighted to me how good of a writer he is and how he has other interests besides cocktails and spirits. I rather enjoyed the cultural overview in Marni Davis' Jews and Booze: Becoming American in the Age of Prohibition and the hops-worthy overview in Breandan Kearney's The Hidden Beers of Belgium. And despite misreading this as "forager" when I first heard about it, I ended up purchasing it after a high school friend messages me to pick it up, namely The Absinthe Forger: A True Story of Deception, Betrayal, and the World’s Most Dangerous Spirit by Evan Rail. 8. Got over my dislike of competitions. Back in November 2014, I was beaten four times, twice in person and twice online, by the same bartender in 30 days especially with the Dipolomatico one where I was told that I had the best cocktail but the other bartender was more marketable. Competing in person costs money for ingredients and travel (and sometimes hotels), time off whether from relaxation or in giving up work shifts, and more. While there were positive aspects, I had also experienced a bit of negativity at competitions including trash talking that I really have no desire to be a part of. I laid off of competing save for email or web-based ones that did not require video submissions or canvassing for votes for almost 11 years. This Fall, I was tempted by the Mai Tai competition at Wusong Road and even schemed up a great recipe, but alas, I could not pull the trigger to submit a drink. However, when the Malört competition reared itself, I decided I wanted to do this to hang out with folks sick enough to love Malört that much and also for the t-shirt and other swag. I presented my Swedish Paralysis and did it up in tropical style. My goal was to make a good showing and a good drink all without nerves, and I succeeded. The judges also noted that and awarded me third place! I earned enough prize money to break even with the cost of my ingredients that included freshly made syrups and fruit juices. While second and third places were really close with a point difference, first place was awarded to the disciple of that 2014-era bartender. That part of the game did not change, but my attitude towards competitions did change and perhaps I will compete again if the theme and guidelines speak to me.

9. A good year for beer. Besides writing an article for Men's Journal on Bock and being quoted about winter beers, I visited 153 different breweries in all 6 New England States plus New York, Georgia, Oregon, and Colorado. Some memorable visits included a trip to Sasanoa Brewery on Westport Island in Maine after hearing an interview with the brewer on the All About Beer podcast about how he includes botanicals from his farm into his saisons; it was the furthest north in Maine that we had traveled for a brew. We did travel pretty far north in New Hampshire to hit Schilling, Wildbloom, and Rek-Lis. A few in Vermont like Bent Hill, Foley Brothers, and River Roost and a few in Connecticut like Fox Farm were gems. Some great first time visits were to Rejects (a punk-themed brewery), Canterbury Ale Works (with a Monty Python and British theme), Witch Doctor (where I bought Andrea a handmade voodoo zombie doll) and Dead Language Project in Connecticut, and Belleflower and Allagash in Portland. We got last beers shortly before a few closed including at Honest Weight, Smug, and Flying Dreams. I also volunteered and drank at the NERAX Cask Festival this Spring that I have worked for many seasons since my first in 2014, and I have also been enjoying cask beer at my local, the Olde Magoun Saloon, that has three cask engines flowing. 10. Bits and bobs.
The previous nine went so quickly, so here are a bunch of random things to fill the last slot. The above is the image produced by the Bartenders podcast for the session we recorded in mid-November for broadcast in mid-late February 2026. A discussion of moments in bartending, being a natural introvert and professional extrovert, and more. In USBG news, after I finished my second three year term in December 2024 with the Boston USBG chapter, I took a break due to burn out. Unfortunately, without me there, the chapter stagnated and the remaining leadership fell apart. I still went to the yearly national meeting as the only representative of the chapter (the other was Geo Thompson but he is considered part of the national board more than our chapter these days) and have been active in the national education committee. Eventually USBG National reached out if I could be on the chapter's board of directors as a placeholder and a mentor in case local leaders want to step up and guide the chapter. To kick-start things, I have organized a pair of early afternoon coffee sessions, a tour and tasting at a local distillery, and gin and aroma blending education class with Silent Pool Distillers at Darling. In addition, I had a great time giving back to the community by volunteering to work the Campari Day of Service this year at a women's shelter here in Boston and to assist at Speed Rack to help breast cancer charities. Overall, 2025 turned out to be a rather interesting year. I look forward to seeing where my new restaurant can take things, and I am anticipating a few adventures over the next 12 months. Cheers!