Thursday morning tasting rooms at Tales!

The spirits featured in the Thursday morning tasting rooms at Tales of the Cocktail couldn't have been further from each other in taste and promotion. 

Before I hit the rooms though, I stopped by the Absolut Bloody Mary Bar in the Mezzanine at the Hotel Monteleone. I was being adventurous, which is what Tales is all about, as I normally would not even consider a tomato juice based cocktail. It's the spices lining the inside of the glass that makes me a little grossed out, but this particularly morning they were serving the national Absolut Bloody Mary winner and it was clean, and surprisingly, my belly welcomed it. 

In a small room next to the Bloody Bar was the first of the tasting rooms of the day, Midori, a melon liqueur. We hear it's making a come back. Wonder if it has anything to do with Kim Kardashian being their spokesperson. Probably not, but I must admit, she looks hot in the ads, but unfortunately, didn't make a Tales appearance. It no doubt would have been a hot mess. 

Next up was the Barcardi rum tasting room lined with signature cocktail stations and vintage memorabilia as the brand celebrates its 150 years in existence. Pretty impressive. The highlight of the room was a Japanese bartender named Shingo who mixed his Bacardi based cocktail with green tea powder using his foreign tools and implements. His shaking style was like nothing I've seen and was part shimmy, party snake, like the old dance move. 

The Kahlua tasting room included a cupping education session and a taste of the Kahlua black product. Swag in this room was a small reusable Kahlua bag with a mini coffee peculator and tops the list of my favorite take away items of all of Tales.