August 2018 Cocktail Events Round-Up

Your August 2018 cocktail events guide is a bit abbreviated because I didn’t find that many events on offer this month.  Apparently you should be vacationing.  (May I recommend Maine, where I visited last month and came up with this take on the Scofflaw.)  For those who, like me, will be spending most of August in the District working, here are some things to put on your calendars, along with National Rum Day (August 16th) and National Whiskey Sour Day (the 25th):

Medicine Making Class: Herbal Vinegars, Cordials, & Cocktails at Smile Herb Shop.  The Smile Herb Shop in College Park has specialized in herbal products since 1975.  This month, herbalist Besty Miller will teach you to make herbal vinegars like “fire cider,” strawberry rose shrubs, and herbal cordials with elderberries and fruits.  These ingredients can be used to make “delicious and healthful herbal cocktails,” and cocktails, we are assured, “can be medicine too.”  (This brings to mind the Traditional Chinese Medicine cocktails at Tiger Fork, which you can read about here.)  Tickets are $100; more information here.  4908 Berwyn Road, College Park; August 18 from noon to 3 p.m.

Cocktail Class: Make Your Own Gin at Via Umbria.  As past round-ups reveal, Via Umbria has been conducting monthly cocktail-making classes.  This month it mixes things up slightly by showing you how to make your own gin at home.  Continuing this month’s herbal theme, Via Umbria tells us that gin’s first use was as an “herbal medicine” (but also its current use, am I right?).  Via Umbria also explains that the heart of gin is the juniper berry (which is not actually a berry but can be found in abundance in Maine, so one more reason to visit).  Playing host to District 209 – maker of several gins – Via Umbria will show you how to mix those (non)berries with “sugar, spice, and ice” to craft your own home gin.  1525 Wisconsin Avenue; August 29 from 7:30 to 9 p.m.

Class: Cocktails 101.  If making gin is not your thing there is another option at basically the same time:  a cocktail-making class for “the novice and intermediate home mixologist” at Benjamin’s on Franklin at Tastemakers in Brookland.  Benjamin’s promises to teach you how to make three classic cocktails and educate you on the history behind them.  2800 10th Street N.E.; August 29 from 7 to 9 p.m.

That’s all I have this month.  As always, please send me any events you’d like to see featured here!