Friday, August 28, 2009

World's oldest bartender retiring

• From the Associated Press

WEST VIEW, Pa. — Only minutes after Prohibition died in 1933, Angelo Cammarata, 19, served a 10-cent bottle of Fort Pitt beer to a customer in his father's neighborhood grocery.

Ever since, except for a 30-month hitch during World War II, the son of Italian immigrants has been tending bar and serving drinks. Guinness World Records dubbed him the longest-serving bartender a decade ago, and he's earned induction into Jim Beam's Bartender Hall of Fame and numerous other honors.

Now 95, he's calling it quits.

[Go here for the full story.]


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Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Bushmills preps rollout for new bottle

Bushmills' iconic Irish whiskey has been around for more than four centuries without a whole lot of changes. So, when the Northern Ireland distiller decides to repackage its spirits, it's news.

Bushmills' new bottle (right), which goes on the Northern Ireland market this November and then globally next March, represents an investment of $2.8 million by owner Diageo, part of an ongoing investment program that has hit $16.7 million since it acquired Bushmills in 2005.

“The new bottle highlights a lot of the quality and pride people at the distillery have been investing into this whiskey for centuries," Gordon Donoghue, Bushmills supply director said at a press conference. "It’s an Irish whiskey made by local people, and we’re delighted to be able to launch it in its home market nearly six months ahead of its global release.”

The new bottle has an embossing of both the 1608 original distillation license and the famous Old Bushmills Distillery potstill.

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