The DrinkBoy Forum , active from 1999 to 2008, was an online message board initiated by cocktail enthusiasts under the guidance of Microsoft employee Robert Hess on Microsoft’s MSN Groups web service. This forum was where many participants in the nascent “cocktail renaissance” of the late 1990s and early 2000s found their voices, and it was the place where many of those people first met each other. See cocktail renaissance.
The first wave of forum participants included Robert Hess, Gary Regan, Mardee Regan, Bob “Magoo” McCarthy, Kevin “Tantris” Brown, Bryan Cabrera, Martin Doudoroff, Marko “Kristian” Susimetsä, Robert Semmes, and Steve Visakay. They were soon joined by Audrey Saunders, Cheryl Charming, Rafael Ballesteros, occasionally Dale DeGroff, and also Ted “Dr. Cocktail” Haigh, who had been leading a similar group within the America Online network.
A second wave of active correspondents began appearing around 2002, including Chuck Taggart, David Wondrich, Kevin Verspoor, Fernando Castellon, Philip Duff, Eben Klemm, Angus Winchester, Darcy O’Neil, Chris Carlsson, Adam Elmegirab, Jared Brown and Anistatia Miller, Gonçalo de Sousa Monteiro, and Joerg Meyer, along with many others, some of whom were silent observers.
Popular topics over the years included blue curaçao, maraschino cherries and alternatives, the Margarita, the Singapore Sling, molecular mixology, infusions and tinctures, the Aviation, grenadine, bitters, flavored vodka, Jerry Thomas, Harry Johnson, muddlers, and contemporary bars and bartenders. A couple of bitters brands, the Museum of the American Cocktail, and the annual Tales of the Cocktail event were all inspired or influenced by the milieu. See Museum of the American Cocktail and Tales of the Cocktail.
In 2008, with the termination of the MSN Groups web service, the DrinkBoy forum was retired and officially replaced by the new Chanticleer Society message board, loosely affiliated with the Museum of the American Cocktail.
See also Hess, Robert; and cocktails on the internet.
By: Martin Doudoroff