Aaron Goldfarb – författare

An irreverent and wide-ranging treatise on building and maintaining a standout brand in business or in life, from the marketing mastermind behind countless iconic booze labels. Steven Grasse made a name for himself as not only a distiller but also the mind behind beloved brands like Hendrick’s Gin and Sailor Jerry Rum and the guy who made cheap-beer-standbys like Narragansett and Miller High Life cool again. Through his work in advertising and marketing, Grasse has changed the game in the booze world and become an authority on building an authentic, enduring, and deeply beloved brand. Food & Wine has called him “the punk-rock prince of small-batch spirits.” So how did he do it? Through practicing brand mysticism, a mentality for all endeavors based on keeping an open mind, taking risks, and developing authenticity—skills that have benefited him in booze, business, and beyond. In this book, he’s sharing this practice with the world. Through lessons (big life things that feel like just cool stories), case studies (how did Sailor Jerry become the punk rock Captain Morgan?), and magical ingredients (what makes a great message sing), Brand Mysticism guides you through the steps it takes to channel entrepreneurial spirit into a brand, a business, a creative practice, or a life that breaks with tradition to achieve the remarkable.

An entertaining journey into the booming world of vintage spirits, the quirky and intensely passionate “dusty hunters” who chase them, and the history they reveal, from an acclaimed author and journalist.This is a buoyant, thirst-triggering voyage into a unique subculture that has exploded in popularity in recent years.In Dusty Booze: In Search of Vintage Spirits, journalist Aaron Goldfarb goes on an adventure in vintage spirits. This is an intoxicating story of obsessives on the hunt for old bottles of whiskey, tequila, rum, chartreuse—you name it—from estate sales, grandpa’s liquor cabinet, and out-of-the-way liquor stores that may just have a case or a few bottles lying around in the basement.What Goldfarb and these “dusty hunters” discover are more than just bottles from bygone brands or old formulations no longer available—they find portals into history. Spirits, once bottled, don’t age like wine. A bourbon from the 1935 lets you savor the end of Prohibition. A 1940s rum cocktail with actual 1940s rum tastes the way it would to a GI returning from WWII. An old Italian amaro captures la dolce vita in a glass, and vintage gin is a drinkable time capsule from Mad Men-era lunchtime martinis.Dusty Booze mixes the history of our drinking culture and the Indiana Jones-meets-Simpsons Comic Book Guy adventures of the collectors, including the hunt for rumored stash from a reclusive Hollywood legend.