Tales on Tour will return to continue their work in Puerto Rico April 2020
NEW ORLEANS, LA – October 23 , 2019 – Tales of the Cocktail Foundation is pleased to announce that Tales on Tour will return to Puerto Rico in 2020. The four-day festival will take place from April 19-22 in Old San Juan with Hotel El Convento once again serving as the host hotel. Tales on Tour is an annual initiative that partners Tales of the Cocktail Foundation with a domestic or international host city outside of New Orleans to further the Foundation’s mission to educate, advance, and support the industry on a global scale. The Foundation first brought Tales on Tour to Puerto Rico in 2019 to directly help the community rebuild after Hurricane Maria and support the region’s spirits and hospitality industry.
“Bringing Tales on Tour to Puerto Rico this past March was one of the more meaningful things we have ever done as a Foundation,” shared Gary Solomon Jr., Board of Directors Co-Chair. “When we arrived last year we wanted to create a lasting impact and when we left, we felt our work in Puerto Rico was far from done. We are thrilled to be returning to further aid the larger hospitality community.”
Tales on Tour 2020: Puerto Rico will include a Day of Service, a Day of Education, Beyond the Bar programming centered on mental health and wellness programming, Spirited Dinners and the organization’s signature Cocktail Apprentice Program. The Day of Education will showcase a seminar from Jeff Berry, the 2019 recipient of the coveted Golden Spirit Award. Every year, Tales of the Cocktail awards the Golden Spirit Award to the seminar presenter who received the highest evaluation scores from attendees. With this award, Tales aims to recognize the recipient’s dedication to sharing his or her knowledge with the industry in an engaging, relatable way. Berry will be presenting his seminar “The Cocktail Menu: History & Theory” with panelist David Wondrich which will dive deep into the past, present and future of the cocktail menu.
“It is such an honor to win the Golden Spirit Award,” shared Jeff Berry, Owner of Beachbum Berry’s Latitude 29. “This really means something special to me, because it’s a reflection of what the audience thought of my and David Wondrich’s collaboration and at Tales of the Cocktail, the audience is everything. Nothing matters when you’re live except not boring your guests and with luck actually giving them something new they can use or at least be amused by. The Tales of the Cocktail audience is the ultimate test: they are knowledgeable, they are erudite, and if they are engaged and not bored by what you say then you’ve really hit your mark. So my thanks to them for choosing David and me out of the many other outstanding presenters. Also, thanks to David Wondrich for once again saving my butt with his brilliant patter, his deep-dive research, and his generosity of spirit. Of course, without the mixological expertise of the CAPs and the hospitality of the staff, we couldn’t have done any of this, so mahalo nui loa to y’all!”
Other seminar highlights during the Day of Education include “The Queer Community Revealed: Turning Allies into Advocates” from Chris Cabera, “Personal Branding: Behind the Bar & Beyond” from Eylane Duff and “Operation Bootstrap: How Puerto Rico Reinvented Rum, 1930-1960” from Culture Advisory Committee member Wayne Curtis.
La Factoria’s team will once again be a close partner for Tales on Tour 2020: Puerto Rico working alongside the Foundation to host a special takeover event during the festival. Tales on Tour 2020: Puerto Rico is sponsored by Discover PR, Don Q, Bacardi, Aardvark Straws, Tabasco and Q Mixers.
More details will be released in the weeks to come as more programming is announced. Hotel block for El Convento can be found here. For more information, please visit www.tocstaging.wpengine.com.
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About Tales of the Cocktail Foundation
Tales of the Cocktail Foundation is an non-profit organization that educates, advances and supports the global hospitality industry and creates lasting impact in our host communities. Tales of the Cocktail Foundation is the global leader in spirits education and a platform to tackle issues facing the industry. The pillars of the Foundation are to Educate, Advance and Support the hospitality industry through programs that benefit individuals and organizations in the community and to make a lasting impact in communities that host our events. For more information on Tales of the Cocktail®, please visit www.tocstaging.wpengine.com
About Tales of the Cocktail®
Founded in 2002, Tales of the Cocktail® has grown from a small gathering of cocktail lovers into the world’s premier cocktail festival. Each year the international spirits industry is welcomed to New Orleans for a week of seminars, tastings, networking events and much more. With 400+ annual events developed specifically for bartenders, distillers and other spirits professionals, Tales of the Cocktail® is the industry’s annual meeting place for the exchange of new ideas, products and techniques.
Media Inquiries:
Gia Vecchio, [email protected], 917.280.5043
Katherine Crawford, [email protected], 404.513.0528
