Downtime Cocktails would like to formally invite our fellow honorees—Beyoncé, Bob Dylan, Jason Momoa, and Mike Love—to join us for a celebratory dinner in Los Angeles so we can all toast our being designated one of the “5 Celebrity Spirits That Are Actually Great” by Forbes magazine.

At Downtime Cocktails, we place a lot of value on “doing good” with Batch 22. As a spirit producer, there’s lots of demand for us to attend fundraisers and charity events, and we’re happy to do it as much as we can.  

A delicious cocktail is one thing, but it’s made so much better by a great space in which to enjoy it.  That’s not to say your favorite wood-paneled neighborhood watering hole—dimly lighted with neon beer brands buzzing in the windows—doesn’t have its place.

Before an American vodka producer from Austin, Texas (Tito’s) became the most popular brand of vodka in the world, Smirnoff held that title without challengers. And it had reigned for many decades previous.

Smirnoff vodka was first produced in Moscow . . .

Since the launch of Batch 22 two years ago, we’ve been very fortunate to garner great reviews in the press and to win numerous awards. We gotta say, the praise and validation never gets old.

Molecular gastronomy, which involves using scientific methods to create new flavors and presentations in food, has influenced the world of cocktails. Some techniques used in both areas, such as spherification and aeration in food, and the use of dry ice and aroma guns in cocktails. Let’s look at some of the complex and expensive tools used by ambitious cocktail innovators.

PUNCH recently announced their list of the Best New Bartenders in America, which they have compiled since 2018.

Have you recently ordered a Pink Lady? A Grasshopper? A Blue Hawaii? A Harvey Wallbanger? These were among the most popular cocktails of the 1970s. Most are vibrantly colored and designed to mask the base alcohols with lots of sweet liqueurs and flavors such as mint, orange juice, and coconut. 

Jim Beam, the company, sold 17 million cases (204 million bottles) in 2023, which is more than any other whisky brand on the planet, beating out Jack Daniels and Jameson respectively. The origins of this powerhouse label go back more than 280 years, to a small corn farm in Kentucky.

Walk up and down the aisles of your favorite liquor superstore and you’ll experience the dizzying number of choices that are available to the average consumer. Some of the larger retail outlets, for example, will have double aisles filled with just one category; hundreds of gins, hundreds of vodkas, masses of mezcals and tequilas.

The next time you’re in a bar or restaurant, pay close attention to how the service teams communicate with each other. You’ll probably notice that they have a language and a set of behaviors all their own.

When we first entered the spirits market with Batch 22, we plunged in headfirst. We did our research and pre-planning, of course, but like so many things, we soon found out that there’s a whole bunch of critical stuff you can only learn by doing.

Take a look at the Top 10 Best Bars in North America list, published every year by TheWorlds50Best.com.

Think back for a minute. What have been the most satisfying bartender experiences you’ve had in the past?

America’s Founders loved to drink. During Colonial times, sanitation was not great and water sources were often not potable.

Coffee cocktails have been one of the hottest trends to hit the American bar scene in recent years.

On Saturday evening, June 15, the Downtime Cocktails team was honored to be part of the 12th Annual Ed Asner & Friends Celebrity Poker Night, which was held at NBC’s Radford Studios in Studio City, CA.

Our favorite way to honor our dads is simply to pour a glass of Batch 22 and toast them with a shot.

You know how, when you walk into a Total Wine, a Bev Mo!, or any other big liquor retailer, you’re always hit by a bunch of huge displays featuring one big brand or another?

When you’re in the business of introducing aquavit to the American public at large, the one thing you probably need more than anything else is patience (other than some good aquavit, of course).