Robert Simonson writes about cocktails, spirits and bars for the New York Times. He is the author of The Old-Fashioned: The Story of the World's First Classic Cocktail (2014), A Proper Drink (2016) and 3-Ingredient Cocktails: An Opinionated Guide to the Most Enduring Drinks in the Cocktail Canon (2017).

Seriously, What’s Up With Angostura’s Midcentury Ads?
In the 1940s and ’50s, the company’s strategy for selling bitters skewed bizarrely violent and deeply disturbing.
- story: Robert Simonson
- illustrations: Via Reid Mirenbuler