Ben Schaffer

The Path

At Bard College, Ben Schaffer’s training gave him a base that later showed up less as a single discipline than as a way of working across publishing, drinks culture, and the written record. That mix is visible in credits like The Dead Rabbit Drinks Manual and 1982 Janine, where the job is not just to write, but to shape language around a moving craft culture. The editorial side of the work is just as central. As publisher of Rum Reader, an online rum magazine, and as the co-author of The Dead Rabbit Drinks Manual, Schaffer operates in the space where cocktail technique, reference material, and editorial judgment meet. The result is a career built around making drinks knowledge legible on the page without flattening the field it comes from.

The Work Today

He says, "I am co-founder and CEO."

Signature

The signature works here are Tropical Standard: Cocktail Techniques & Reinvented Recipes and The Dead Rabbit Drinks Manual. Together, they show the range of Schaffer’s practice: one title names technique and revision explicitly, while the other sits inside a collaborative drinks manual that helped define his public profile. In both cases, the craft is editorial as much as it is cocktail-facing; the work is about organizing knowledge, clarifying method, and giving bar culture a durable form.

In Their Words “I've had a variety of interesting life experiences with this hobby that somehow has started into a career.”

Acclaim

The Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for best new cocktail book is the key recognition attached to Ben Schaffer, and it lands in line with the rest of his output rather than standing apart from it. The award sits with his work on The Dead Rabbit Drinks Manual and his role with Rum Reader, which together place him in the practical business of recording, editing, and extending cocktail knowledge. That kind of recognition is less about a single title than about consistency across roles: publisher, co-author, editor, host, and co-founder, all working in the same conversation about drinks and the language used to carry them forward.