About Us

ANISTATIA MILLER AND JARED BROWN (that's us) are cocktail historians, cocktail creators and consultants, as well as spirits developers.

That's right. We drink for a living and spend a lot of time writing and talking about it.

BOOKS AND ARTICLES

Established in 1995, our web site Shaken Not Stirred: A Celebration of the Martini led to the publication of our first drink book (you guessed it) Shaken Not Stirred: A Celebration of the Martini (HarperCollins, 1997 and Europa Verlag, 1998). Our homage to the bubbly, Champagne Cocktails, was published two years later (ReganBooks, 1999).

We are contributing editors for Hamptons, Gotham, LA Confidential, Boston Common, Capitol File and Aspen Peak magazines. We also write a regular cocktail history column for Mixology Magazin für Barkultur (Germany).

Our articles have also appeared in Wine Spectator, Cigar Aficionado, FoodArts, Wine & Dine, Slammed, DiffordsGuide to Drinking, and Theme (UK).

Shaken Not Stirred: A Celebration of the Martini

Champagne Cocktails

EXPOSITION UNIVERSELLE DES VINS ET SPIRITUEUX

As director/curators of Exposition Universelle des Vins et Spiritueux, we are spending most of 2007 and 2008 cleaning up, documenting, and refreshing this remarkable exhibition of wines, spirits, and glassware that will celebrate its 50th anniversary in July 2008.

Located on Ile de Bendor, the collection was originally established by Paul Ricard to celebrate the global scope of the beverage industry, filling the building with 8000 examples of the distiller's and vintner's arts and 500 pieces of glassware from esteemed French, Italian and Czech crystal houses.

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

We've made numerous national, local, and international TV and radio appearances, discussing our favorite subjects--cocktails and spirits. But most of our time these days is spent on the road spreading the word about the cocktail's (and spirits) fascinating history.

At the 2006 Bar Show in London, we delivered the Abridged History of the Cocktail in 45 minutes along with our good friends the Worldwide Cocktail Club's Henry Besant and Dre Masso.

In early October 2006, we had the privilege to conduct the inaugural 3-day master classes of the International Bar Business School on Ile de Bendor, a private island in southern France. The subject: Cocktail History: A Spirited Journey through Civilization.

Our history of vodka and vodka cocktails plus the stories of famous champagne cocktails have packed the house at the annual Tales of the Cocktail held in New Orleans for the past 4 years.

Museum of the American Cocktail seminars that we've conducted in New York, Seattle, and New Orleans have covered topics such as Kitchen Cocktails, Champagne Cocktails, Martinis, and classic summer cocktails from around the world.

COCKTAIL DEVELOPMENT AND BARTENDER TRAINING

Cocktail recipes? We've developed signature recipes for spirits companies including Dewar's, Kobrand, Bacardi, Martini & Rossi, Heavy Water Vodka, Voss and Remy Amerique.

We've also trained bartenders from the Vail ski resort to Gin Lane and Balance in New York.

MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN COCKTAIL

As co-founders of the Museum of the American Cocktail (along with Dale and Jill DeGroff, Robert Hess, Ted Haigh, Dave Wondrich, and others) we are the publishers of the museum's book and scholarly journal division, Mixellany Books , which publishes Mixologist: The Journal of the American Cocktail.

Mixologist: The Journal of the American Cocktail

Mixologist: The Journal of the American Cocktail, volume 2

To aid hospitality workers in New Orleans who were victimzied by Hurricane Katrina, we organized the nationwide "Save New Orleans Cocktail Hour" which raised nearly $100,000 in two hours that was donated to the New Orleans Hospitality Workers Relief Fund established by Alex Brennan of Brennan's Restaurant.

SPIRITS DEVELOPMENT

Back in 2002, we developed the formula for Heavy Water Vodka, which won the Beverage Tasting Institute's (BTI's) gold medal in 2005, plus gold and "best of" designations in 2002. We've also won medals for the vodka and its packaging at the 2005 and 2006 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

We even helped to develop gin, rum and vodka for America's first micro-distillery restaurant, The Bardenay. The gin received a BTI score of 92 points at its 2003 tasting.

WHERE TO FIND US

We call New York home these days. Manhattan to be exact. And Pegu Club to be really precise if you're trying to hunt us down. But you'll also find us lurking in London, where we spend nearly half of every month.

Want to send us an email?

Here's where to find us: jaredbrown1@mac.com

ALL ABOUT ...

SHAKEN NOT STIRRED:
A CELEBRATION OF THE MARTINI

IT ALL STARTED on Halloween Night, 1995. We'd decided to stay in and have a quiet evening of cocktails. That lasted about 10 minutes. We'd gotten onto the subject of Websites, and decided we'd sit down and see if we could build one ourselves. We both had lots of experience in computer programming, but neither of us had worked in HTML. Well, AOL had just started offering members 10MB of data storage for free (they still do!); and Martinis were a subject that was not only close to our hearts, but in our hands at that moment. So the subject was selected, and off we went.

A man staggered past a bar carrying a huge grandfather clock out of an antique shop next door.

Seeing this a drunk yelled to him, "Hey buddy, why don't you just get a wristwatch."

Never expected that anybody was going to be interested, but to complete the experiment we tossed it up on a couple of search engines. That's when we found out how many other people are as obsessive when it comes to see-throughs as we are. Recipes, lounge recommendations, quotes, humor, and other stuff started pouring in from all over. Our book by the same name came about when we received an e-mail from an editor at HarperCollins asking us if we'd like to do a book on the subject based on the website. Even had a few people approach us to put ad banners on the site, or to officially sponsor it, or even to buy it outright. But this is personal. We started because we love Martinis, not to turn a profit. And that's the way we intend to keep it!

"Let me get this straight," barked the judge, "You expect better treatment because this is the twentieth time you've been brought in front of me on drunk and disorderly charges?"

"Sure," replied the drunk, "It's about time you treated me like a steady customer."

So why do we do it? Martinis!!!!! Serious dedication to developing new recipes, ferreting out forgotten classics, and testing them all. We needed some excuse. Otherwise it'd just be rampant drinking. Now it's up to you to test these recipes and let us know if there's room for improvement or any recipes we've missed. It's gonna be rough, and we expect you to do it with all due responsibility (don't mix gas and alcohol). So hang in there and get shaking! And many many thanks to all you folks who've been doing just that for all this time.

CHEERS!

Jared & Anistatia

Copyright 1995-2007 Jared Brown & Anistatia Miller. Shaken Not Stirred is a registered service mark. All rights reserved. The contents of this page was expressly posted for individual viewing purposes on the internet only. No part of this web site may be published, reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (including electronic, mechanical, photocopy) whatsoever without written permission from the above copyright holder.

About Us