About Us

Meet Kristen and MayaLou! They share the same love for creating the unimaginable! As authors, musicians, mixologists, teachers and close friends, their drive to think big continues to build!  This passion pairs well with their love for mixology.  They have been rocking behind the bar, side by side, as friends and coworkers since 2012, all the while conjuring up their dream to concoct  a “Rocktail” book series where the drinks demonstrate cocktail knowledge and music appreciation. 

 Rocktails: An Amped Up Spin On Mixology is a cocktail book series and events company, honoring musicians through the art of libations  Kristen and MayaLou share a passion for the music scene in its entirety, from performing, planning events, and creating ambiance. They both celebrate every morsel of detail that goes into making an evening amazing.   

Dig deep into your stacks of musical wax. See if you can find a Fraternity or King label. Perhaps you may even discover an album with a Federal or Jewel label. Slide it out of the sleeve and slip it onto your turntable. As it turns, your ears are filled with the familiar and intoxicating thumping bass lines of Funk, Soul and R&B; or perhaps the light vocals of early Pop songs, highlighted by the elegance and extravagance of stringed Swing Era Standards, float above your head; or maybe iconic guitar licks and witty lyrics of Bluegrass, Country and Rock & Roll compels you to stomp your boots; all of which are somehow embedded into your very being. Now flip through the pages of Cincinnati Rocktails, and you  might find yourself to be reading about an artist playing on the very track to which you are listening. Twist the volume knob a little louder. Let the notes soar around the room while you are whisked away into Cincinnati’s rich musical history. 

While flipping through your collection of treasured tunes and musical memories, you come across James Brown’s,  Live At the Apollo Album and take it for a spin. Inside the cover of Cincinnati Rocktails, you find a recipe for a  twist on the classic cocktail, “The Godfather,” and it has been Amped Up to personalize and honor the iconic “Godfather of Soul.”  Gather your ingredients, mix up the carefully curated cocktail and take a musical journey through the book’s pages. With every turn, the stories lead back to the Queen City. When James Brown shouts, “Take it to the bridge,” he is obviously talking about Cincinnati.  

This first edition of the Rocktails: An Amped Up Spin On Mixology series, evolved into a documentary of original experiences as a Pop Up Party every second Saturday in 2018 at The Listing Loon in Cincinnati’s eclectic neighborhood of Northside. Each month Kristen and Maya produced their “Rocktails Experience” by hiring the entertainment and creating each menu inspired by the featured bands or DJ’s,  in addition to reinventing the physical bar space to transport the patrons to a unique environment each month. The book boasts an album of “Amped Up” cocktails from sunny sangria tributes to Yacht Rock greats The Doobie Brothers, to Indie Rock salutes to Siouxsie Sioux combining the grit of pear juice with the sexy notes of round dark rum, bitter Campari, grape soda and a black licorice garnish. An example of Rocktails’ love of local is represented with Dirty Blues honors inspired by Dayton, Kentucky’s own original band, All Seeing Eyes, using Absinthe soaked, flamed candy cigarettes affixed into gummy orange slices as garnishes, atop a smoky Laphroig rinsed whiskey and beer cocktail spiked with Watershed’s Noccino Black Walnut Liqueur.