Cocktails were, by some accounts, born in New Orleans. There are other claimants to the title, but the veracity of the claim notwithstanding, we are a center of cocktail culture. A couple of local businesses are taking this culture by storm with their own brand; call it, the X-factor.
Cocktail & Sons was started by Max Messier and Lauren Myerscough. Their goal was to make craft cocktails easy to make at home, and with their syrups and mixers, they’ve succeeded in a big way.
These are not your mass-produced, corn syrup-heavy mixers; rather these are made with ingredients largely sourced locally, with real cane sugar and nothing artificial.
Whether you’re looking for mixers to make classic cocktails like a margarita or a mojito or are more inclined to branch out with syrups like the seasonally available watermelon and Thai basil, ginger honey or their king cake flavor, if you have alcohol, a stirrer and some bitters, you’re halfway to a fantastic drink.
Speaking of bitters, another local company that’s doing standout work is El Guapo Bitters. Christa Cotton grew up in Georgia, where she helped her family establish 13th Colony Distilleries, the first such operation in the state. She moved here in 2010 and after working in public relations for hospitality industry clients, she bought the El Guapo brand and the rest is history.
If you are not deep into cocktail culture, you may not understand how important bitters are to the end result. You may be familiar with Peychaud’s or Angostura, but there’s a world outside of those products that, added in amounts small enough to require a dropper, will amaze you with the flavors they bring to a drink.
El Guapo has a host of recipes on their website (elguapobitters.wordpress.com) and they have a host of flavors such as Polynesian kiss, gumbo, cucumber lavender, crawfish boil and my favorite, summer berries.
El Guapo also does syrups and mixers in a variety that one despairs of ever tasting them all without doing significant damage to one’s liver.Â
Cocktail & SonsÂ
Cocktailandsons.com
@cocktailandsons
El Guapo Bitters
Elguapobitters.com
@elguapobitters
