Periodista (Photo: Susanna Bolle)

This month has been a busy one for Boston’s most intrepid cocktail sleuth, Devin Hahn. For the past year, he’s been on a quest to uncover the origins and history of the Periodista, a tasty rum concoction that has strong and somewhat mysterious ties to Boston. He’s chronicled his journey in good potboiler style in Periodista Tales.

Recently, his search brought him to New York City, where he talked to a collector of cocktail ephemera and dug in the stacks of the New York Public Library looking for old drink menus. A filmmaker by trade and an obsessive by nature,  Hahn has a knack for storytelling and an ear for dialogue, so it’s worth reading the whole story from the beginning. In the process, you’ll get to meet some of Boston’s best barkeeps (and some national cocktail luminaries) and get a fascinating course in cocktail history.