Introduction: What's The Point?

Welcome.

My intention for this blog is to provide a place for contemplation and study of the noble art of cocktailmaking. I am no industry expert, but having been studying the subject for only a fairly short time it has become clear to me that the humble cocktail is a much-misunderstood thing, and the process of a typical cocktail's creation can be as muddled as the fruit in this alleged 'Old Fashioned'.

While it would be comforting to dismiss the above gut-wrenching atrocity as a one-off aberration, this is by no means the only horror of this kind I have encountered.
What's even more extraordinary is that many of these videos, most of them even, are presented by people who appear to work as bartenders! And indeed I've encountered similar wrong-headedness in bars I have attended myself, even quite expensive ones. How can it be that this persists, but from a near-universal lack of understanding of the fundamental aims and methods of cocktail preparation? 

As a fairly recent mixological initiate myself I am still working my way through the classic drinks of the last two centuries, so when interesting new ingredients or recipes come my way I'll write about my experiences, lessons learned and insights gleaned. And of course, any drinks I happen to conjure up along the way will be recorded here for posterity and comment.