A couple months back we attended a panel discussion that included local cocktail blogger and booze aficionado Camper English (he of Alcademics fame), and as a hand-out Camper prepared a locally-based glossary, if you will, of cocktail style varieties which included Bay Area venues where one might sample examples of these styles.

While the glossary provided here is less detailed than Camper's original, it still borrows heavily from his taxonomy and definitions (contact him if you're interested in having him present the full lecture), and we hope it will help you to navigate the landscape of the vibrant cocktail culture here in San Francisco -- a culture which many touted as the most exciting and sophisticated in the country. These definitions overlap a bit and remain slightly vague, but we mean here to provide a loose guide for those not yet familiar with the broad variety of mixology happening in your backyard.