Ann Tuennerman

The Path

The founder role at Tales of the Cocktail places Ann Tuennerman inside the structure of the event itself. The work reads as an act of organizing existing conversation: New Orleans supplied the subject matter, and she supplied the platform that let history, imagination, and trade knowledge meet in one place.

The Work Today

As founder, she has kept the language around cocktail history exact. On Sazerac, Ann Tuennerman has said: "Sazerac. It is one of the original cocktails from New Orleans, and it's [made from] sazerac, rye whisky and Herbsaint." The description is plain and specific, treating the drink as part of the city’s working heritage rather than as decoration. That same clarity runs through her view of the form: ingredients, name, and place are presented as the core of the story.

Signature

Ann Tuennerman's signature work is Tales of the Cocktail. Framed that way, the event becomes more than an annual fixture; it functions as her public language for conversation, tradition, and exchange. The project sits at the intersection of hospitality and record-keeping, where a gathering can also serve as a way to preserve what the city already knows.

In Their Words “Sazerac. It is one of the original cocktails from New Orleans, and it's [made from] sazerac, rye whisky and Herbsaint.” “New Orleans is a unique city and everything coming together is so interesting.”

Acclaim

Her own line, "As we always say here, we're drinking history," is the clearest statement of the work’s point of view. It treats the cocktail as a carrier of lineage and memory, not just flavor. When Ann Tuennerman says, "New Orleans is a unique city and everything coming together is so interesting," she is pointing to the conditions that shaped Tales of the Cocktail: a place where layers of influence are not flattened, but kept in view and brought into conversation.