An Interview with Warren Bobrow
Warren Bobrow, the Cocktail Whisperer, is the multi-published author of six books: Apothecary Cocktails: Restorative Drinks from Yesterday and Today; Whiskey Cocktails: Rediscovered Classics and Contemporary Craft Drinks; Bitters and Shrub Syrup Cocktails: Restorative Vintage Cocktails, Mocktails and Elixirs; Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails and Tonics: The Art of Spirited Drinks and Buzz-Worthy Libations; and his celebrated 2017 release The Craft Cocktail Compendium. He also has an edition of Apothecary Cocktails translated into French for the European market. Bobrow led a panel on cannabis cocktails for Park Street University at the Berlin Bar Convent in Germany. Bobrow attended the B2B event named Hall of Flowers in Santa Rosa, California in 2019.
He currently makes his living in the cannabis industry having in prior years supported craft spirits focusing on craft bourbon and unmanipulated rum. Warren has been a rum judge for the Rum XP and the Ministry of Rum having first tasted rum off Anegada in the British Virgin Islands in the early 1980s.
Warren appeared on the television show named Viceland Live on February 27, 2019.
He presented at 2018’s SXSW: Disrupting the Cannabis Kitchen and Cannabis Cocktails.
He was the Mercedes-Benz Me Conference Mystery Speaker on Wellness for SXSW 2018.
In 2015, Warren traveled to Moscow where he taught a master class on non-manipulated rum and was the USA master mixologist and national brand ambassador on Mezan Rum for his then employer, Marussia Beverages.
Bobrow has written articles for Saveur magazine, Voda magazine, Whole Foods’ Dark Rye, Distiller, Beverage Media, DrinkUpNY and many other national and global periodicals. He has written for SoFab magazine at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum in New Orleans and has in the past written restaurant reviews for New Jersey Monthly. He has also contributed to the Sage Encyclopedia of Food Issues and the Oxford Encyclopedia edition Savoring Gotham: A Food Lover’s Companion to New York City.
Warren judged the 2016 Asheville, NC, Cocktail Week. Warren was nominated for a Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award in 2013. Warren appeared in the Saveur magazine’s ‘one hundred’ in 2010. He taught a master class on un-manipulated rum during the Moscow Bar Show in 2015 and a class on mocktails and acidulated beverages, AKA: Shrubs at Stonewall Kitchen in York Harbor, Maine.
His books consistently lead in overall sales during Tales of the Cocktail held yearly in New Orleans.
What inspired you to start writing this book?
I knew that in 2015 that my idea of making drinks with cannabis would become a ‘thing.’ I wrote the first book on this topic, according to the library of congress.
Tell us the story of your book’s current title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?
It took me all of a few seconds to decide upon the title. As the published author of six books, finding the right words come easily to me.
Describe your dream book cover.
My dream book cover would be the revised edition of Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails and Tonics!
If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?
I’d have my friend DF Tram weave a sonic journey to inspiration.
What books are you reading (for research or comfort) as you continue the writing process?
I hardly read other people’s writing.
What other professions have you worked in? What’s something about you that your readers wouldn’t know?
I was initially in the television and motion picture industry, but because of nepotism rules in the 1980s I was unable to secure a job. This disappointment led to a journey to become a chef – I was the first manufacturer of fresh pasta in South Carolina – until Hurricane Hugo, when I lost my company and moved around the country working as a chef again until my now late father called my loans and forced me to pay him back for all the help he’d given me. I got a job in a bank as a teller and worked my way – for nearly twenty years – to private banking. I didn’t belong there. Not for a second. Nights and weekends, I worked in wine stores and as a private chef. My corporate job ended in May of 2009 on my fiftieth birthday. I cashed out my pension and my 401k, went back to school, and reinvented myself yet again.
Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?
I had a dream and it became a reality.
Where is your favorite place to write?
At my desk at home.
What advice would you give your past self at the start of your writing journey?
I should have started writing decades prior.
Are you a writer, too? Submit your manuscript to Atmosphere Press.
Atmosphere Press is a selective hybrid publisher founded in 2015 on the principles of Honesty, Transparency, Professionalism, Kindness, and Making Your Book Awesome. Our books have won dozens of awards and sold tens of thousands of copies. If you’re interested in learning more, or seeking publication for your own work, please explore the links below.