Kirsten Amann, Cocktail Consultant in Boston, Massachusetts
Known to friends and clients as Kitty, Kirsten Amann is a Boston-based consultant specializing in cocktails, wine and spirits and health and wellness — optimizing the unique space where these contrasting worlds meet.
As a wine and spirits consultant, Kitty has more than 15 years of experience in the beverage industry as a brand ambassador, publicist, bartender, freelance writer and cocktail book author. She was the Boston-based ambassador for the Italian brand Fernet-Branca and has represented many other brands including Plymouth Gin, Beefeater, Bols Genever, The Bitter Truth, No. 3 Gin and others.
Kitty works with clients to champion their brands, develop dynamic events, create delicious cocktails and find some healthy balance in the process. She also writes a monthly cocktail column for Massachusetts Beverage Business under the byline “Pink Lady.” Her cocktail writing has appeared in Daily Candy, The Weekly Dig and Chilled Magazine among others.
In June, Kitty and fellow acclaimed bartender Misty Kalkofen will release “Drinking Like Ladies: 75 Modern Cocktails from The World’s Leading Bartenders,” a collection of the world’s best bespoke cocktails by women, for women. Kitty’s first cocktail book, “The Screaming Orgasm: 69 X-Rated Cocktails,” was published in 2012.
As a health and wellness professional, Kitty is an American Council on Exercise-certified personal trainer, yoga instructor, and Reiki practitioner who works with clients of all ages and fitness levels. Since 2010, she has given presentations about health and wellness at cocktail festivals including Tales of the Cocktail, The Manhattan Cocktail Classic, Portland Cocktail Week and The Boston Cocktail Summit.
Kitty has been working with The Perfect Purée throughout her cocktail career and finds its variety of flavors a never-ending source of inspiration.
“I absolutely love working with The Perfect Purée because the products are all so well-balanced and offer such great consistency when mixing cocktails. It’s also allowed me to work with many flavors that I haven’t been quite as familiar with but found can work in surprisingly versatile ways. The Perfect Purée Passion Fruit Concentrate, for example, is a flavor that we certainly don’t have easy access to here in New England. I’ve been able to use it in a variety of drink preparations and find the high acidity is an intriguing addition that can kick your drink up a notch from simply using fresh lemon or lime,” Kitty says.
More recently, Kitty has enjoyed making delicious non-alcoholic beverages with The Perfect Purée.
“I love to delight people who approach the bar thinking their best option will be a cran-soda with a lime,” she says.