From the Arctic Circle to the agave fields of Mexico to London’s gin distilleries, Noah Rothbaum has traveled the world in search of a good drink. He’s one of the world’s leading authorities on cocktails and spirits as well as a Kentucky Colonel, a James Beard Award winner and the author of the acclaimed drinks books, The Art of American Whiskey: A Visual History of the Nation’s Most Storied Spirit, through 100 Iconic Labels and The Business of Spirits: How Savvy Marketers, Innovative Distillers, and Entrepreneurs Changed How We Drink. Noah is also the associate editor of the Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails, which won the American Library Association’s prestigious Dartmouth Medal for the best reference book of 2021 and the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for Best New Book on Drinks Culture, History, or Spirits. The Washington Post called it “the drinking buddy you’ve been waiting for.” His next book is The Whiskey Bible, which will be published in the fall of 2025 and is the sister book to Karen MacNeil’s New York Times best-seller The Wine Bible. Previously, he was the editor of the Daily Beast’s Half Full section. Under his leadership, the site won the 2018 and the 2020 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for Best Cocktail & Spirits Publication. He also co-hosted the podcast Life Behind Bars, which the New York Times called “a perfect comfort listen for the curious drinker.” The show won the 2018 and the 2021 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for Best Podcast Series. According to Chicago magazine’s former chief dining critic, Jeff Ruby, “Rothbaum knows drinking like Newton knew gravity, but he’s not all high and mighty about it, creating laws and whatnot.”