HOW AL’S COCKTAIL CLUB WORKS
Al’s Cocktail Club is sort of a paid newsletter-meets-correspondence course for people who enjoy history as much as they do cocktails. Each month we travel to a different place and time in cocktail history. (Scroll down for a list of past themes!) Most months, the four cocktail recipes are originals created by Al in their signature “cocktails that might have been” style, which reflect the aesthetic and structure of the period we’re studying. Occasionally, the recipes are borrowed from Al’s colleagues in the cocktail world.
When and how weekly emails arrive
Every Monday morning an email goes out to Club members around 10AM Eastern time.
For months with five Mondays: Al sends out the Overview the first Monday of the month and each of the four weekly emails on subsequent Mondays.
For months with four Mondays: the Overview goes out on the first Monday, followed by Week 1’s email on that first Wednesday. Weeks 2, 3, and 4, respectively, are sent out on the remaining Mondays.
If you see Club emails going to your spam / promotions folder, drag them to your inbox. If a dialogue box pops up asking to sort all Club emails to your inbox, click YES. Add club@alculliton.com to your address book for good measure.
What’s in the emails?
For the best user experience, click the “View this email in your browser” button at the top right, above the Club logo banner. This will allow you to use the Table of Contents feature, which lets you navigate to various sections of the email, like jumping down to the recipe, video, or sources sections.
The monthly Overview emails contain a note from Al introducing the theme and previewing the cocktails we’ll be making. The Overview also contains the Supply List, which shows you everything you need for the whole month, broken down into sections: Bottles, Leftovers (using items from previous months), Non-perishables, and Perishables by week. You can use the Download the Supply List button to save the PDF; on your phone, just press, hold, and select “save image.” The Supply list is included in each email throughout the month for easy access.
Monthly emails contain a brief note from Al, followed by the History section with an article they’ve written around some aspect of the theme and discussing the history of the drink we’re making that week. That’s followed by the Prep Tasks section, which instructs members in concocting homemade syrups, cordials, etc., and lists any other tasks for that week’s drink such as juicing citrus. Below that, you’ll find the recipe card (more on that below), followed by the how-to video. Our videos are professionally-produced by Luis Salazar of Salazar Media Studio and New England Media Lab in Holyoke, MA. There’s also a Sources section listing the books and articles Al has used to research that week’s History section.
Each month, the email in Week 3 or 4 has a Next Month’s Theme at the bottom with a brief teaser of what’s on deck. There’s also a Catch Up On This Month section in each of the Weeks 1-4 emails where you can quickly navigate to HTML versions of the previous emails from the month.
Anatomy of a recipe card
Our recipe cards are designed by Tart NYC, a graphic design and branding studio run by Isabella Giancarlo. They also created the Club’s brand identity and Mailchimp template. Cocktail photographs and drawings/doodles are by Al! As with the supply list, you can save the images of the front and back of recipe cards to your phone or computer. There’s also a button for a printable PDF below the recipe card; these are formatted to be printed and folded crosswise to create a physical recipe card.
On the front of each card, there’s a photo of the drink as well as two tag words that give a clue to the style of drink, such as PUNCH, STIRRED, FIZZY, MUDDLED, etc.
On the back of each card, you’ll find:
a few lines about the drink’s history
ingredients on the left hand side, with instructions for mixing on the right
an ABV meter, to give you an idea of the strength of the cocktail
Other things to know!
If you need to change your payment information or membership status, head here to sign into your account.
We sometimes do live virtual events! So far we’ve done a holiday party (December 2020) and a Postwar American Steakhouse event (March 2021), both with excellent guests and drink demos. We’ve got more in the works! Stay tuned.
I’m here for you as a resource! Please feel free to email me at club@alculliton.com with any questions you might have as well as suggestions for what you’d like to see more or less of. I really enjoy getting emails from Club members.
If you post photos of the drinks on Instagram, please tag me! I’m @al_culliton and our Club hashtag is #alscocktailclub.
Past themes
New York hotel bars, 1880-1920
Olde New England
The roots of the midcentury steakhouse
Alpine ski lodge
Victorian Christmas
1930s and ‘40s tiki
Tom Bullock’s The Ideal Bartender
Nineteenth-century Broadway theater
1900-1920 cocktails reimagined with tequila