My name is A.J. Martinez and this is the story behind Spirited Discourse

A historian by training, I have a tendency to obsess over the topics that catch my attention. To that end I actually enjoy conducting exhaustive research on random topics that often extend far beyond my native domain of the history of science. Alcohol has proven no different. Thus, when I rekindled an interest in spirits and cocktails over this last year or so (2016-2017) I started my usual deep-dive into all the information I could get my hands on.

To my dismay, I’ve found that there’s very little factual information readily available concerning the modern history of spirits, and especially cocktails. Anthropologists and historians of the distant past can tell you when and where alcohol was made. They can talk about the role it played in civilization in a general sense. But as soon as you start looking into the specifics of the brands and drinks that we are familiar with today, the well runs dry (and not in the pleasant, dry martini sort of way). There is little, if any, serious peer-reviewed historical study of modern alcoholic beverages being conducted. And any information you can find tends to come from the producers’ marketing departments or have been passed down largely through unreliable word of mouth. Both cases cause the historian in me to cringe, with the latter being only slightly more palatable as a result of the fact that it wasn’t developed specifically to sell something.

Which brings us to the genesis of the blog which you are now reading. While the primary intent here is to chronicle my own personal journey through the world of adult beverages, I hope to also sift through the legends and uncover some serious historical fact along the way.