When Adam Aaronson turned 21, he started a list of cocktails he's tried out. He called it Legal Cocktails. A few years later, he discovered that the International Bartenders Association (IBA) has an official list of cocktails that currently has 102 recipes. Aaronson edited his list to conform with the IBA list, and discovered he'd already tried 33 of the 89 cocktails listed at the time. Thereafter, his goal was to try all of them. In 2025, he has achieved that goal.
At first it was easy, but as Aaronson eliminated the most common drinks, he ran into the more obscure recipes that didn't appear on cocktail menus or required ingredients bars don't keep in stock. Sometimes it was easier to just share his unfulfilled drink list with a bartender. Sometimes it required traveling to distant locations. And he even had a few instances of giving a recipe to a bartender for a drink he or she never mixed before. Most frustratingly, the IBA added cocktails to the list as he was closing in on completion. Read the highlights of Aaronson's adventures in IBA cocktails as he celebrates its completion. -via Nag on the Lake
(Image credit: Sam Howzit)