Lesley Jacobs Solmonson

People have a peculiar talent for making booze out of almost anything. In Asia, snake whiskey -- also, scorpion, toad and centipede, to name but a few others -- will put hair on your chest. To get a legal high, you can drink Agwa de Bolivia, made from coca leaves......

It began with a trip to Florida. While staying at her grandmother's house, Brittini Rae, bar manager at Goldie's, discovered her grandmother's cache of recipe books, one of which -- dog-eared, the cover worn, the pages tattered -- called out to her. In the back of the book, she found......

With the holiday season fully under way, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle. If there's a nagging little voice in your brain whispering, "Stop, slow down," then heed the call and seek out some liquid refreshment. These four drinks are worth taking the time to savor......

What do FDR, Utah and booze have in common? If you guessed Repeal Day you'd be correct. On Dec. 5, 1933, Prohibition, or the 18th Amendment -- that dark swathe of government-mandated alcoholic abstinence which lasted 14 years -- was officially repealed with the deciding vote coming from the state......

In 1905, a Swiss fellow named Jean Lanfray murdered his family with a shotgun. His lawyer argued that he was a victim of "absinthe madness" even though he was a habitual alcoholic. The trial became known as the "Absinthe Murder," alcoholism and absinthe-ism became synonymous, and absinthe was banned almost......

Riesling gets a bad rap. Despite being one of the most complex grapes in the world, capable of slate-y minerality, palate-cleansing acidity and explosive sweetness, it often gets overshadowed by the buttery popcorn profile of California chardonnay or the grapefruit zing of Aussie sauvignon blanc. Historically, German and Alsatian rieslings......

It all started in Provence with a glass of rose wine. Well, actually, a glass of pastis before the rose. While Paul Sanguinetti, lead mixologist for the Patina Group, was in France studying wine, he and his colleagues always started dinner with a glass of pastis. Sanguinetti returned to the......

Even after the admonitions of the film Supersize Me, Americans still tend -- not always, but often -- to think big. Everything from oversized cars to oversized burgers to oversized cocktails (soup bowl margarita anyone?) is there for the choosing. So, it's refreshing when something is small -- on purpose......

Wine drinkers beware. The grape-ocalypse is nigh. Or at least that's what some analysts said last week at Morgan Stanley. The facts seem to speak for themselves. In 2012, there was a shortfall of about 300 million cases of wine per year, the most substantial drop in about 50 years......

Whether a twist on spiced cider or apple pie, a riff on the king of Halloween candies, or a particularly strong brew, here's a selection of cocktails from some of L.A.'s most creative bartenders to help you out if you find yourself hosting a Halloween party instead of haunting someone......