No. 93 September/October 2021 - Imbibe Magazine Subscribe + Save

No. 93 September/October 2021

The drinks community has been very good to us over the years. Bartenders and brewers, coffee roasters and sommeliers—they’ve all been essential to the work we do at Imbibe, and they’ve welcomed us as family. But working so closely with these professions and industries, we’ve also seen room for improvement—and the good news is, many of these drinks professionals are motivated to reinvent their industries as they emerge from the darkest days of the pandemic.

Sustainability had been a buzzword in bars and cocktail conferences long before COVID hit, and many of today’s bartenders, distillers, and other drinks professionals are now moving beyond feel-good measures to significantly tackle issues related to climate change and waste; Max Falkowitz brings us this story. The wine world has similarly found itself in flux as its educational institutions have sometimes failed to adequately respond to a changing world, and Jennifer Fiedler explores this new landscape of education. And while lagers are a cornerstone of the beer community, they’re also receiving renewed attention these days and evolving in surprising new directions—Josh Bernstein digs into that story.

But not everything is new again, and when it comes to that classic American beverage, root beer, the drink’s history is helping to define its future; check out Sarah Karnasiewicz’s feature. And the Negroni may be the star of the cocktail circuit in America, especially with Negroni Week taking place this September 13-19, but that’s not always been the case—Robert Simonson uncovers how the Negroni’s fortunes have changed in the U.S.

We’ve also got seasonal cocktails made with figs, an Alabama bar owner’s story of making it through a tumultuous year, and an introduction to Delphine Gardère, owner of Barbancourt in Haiti, as she leads her family’s historic rum distillery into the future.

There’s change afoot in the drinks space—turn the page, and see how it’s unfolding.

—Paul Clarke

Recipes in the issue

Negroni Sbagliato

Negroni Sbagliato

Basic Beer Bread

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