Alcademics.com

How to make a gin and tonic, if you have a lot of time and chemical equipment on your hands

Tonight I stopped into the Martin Miller's Gin & Tonic competition at Beretta. The winner of the event was Jennifer Colliau of Slanted Door, who had some sort of bitters frozen into ice that slowly changed the flavor of the drink as it melted. Clever.

But the most interesting drink was designed by Joe Parrilli who works at Bacar. To make his drink, all you need to do is:

1. Make some dehydrated lime slices

2. Create spheres of tonic with gold cake decoration using molecular mixology techniques

3. Make some gelatin gin and tonic

4. Carbonate some gin

5. Assemble the drink and enjoy

So go ahead, it's easy!

Labels: contests, gin, molecular_mixology, tonic

Don't quit your day job

The title I wanted for this story in July's San Francisco Magazine was "Take a Shift Where You Eat," but I can see why they didn't go with that :)

Don't quit your day job Thanks to new amateur hours, dilettantes can give their dream careers a trial run. By Camper English, Photograph by John Curley

Most fantasy careers (astronaut, movie star, Mrs. Clooney) are a bit out of reach for the average desk jockey. But at least there are some new ways to take dream jobs in the service industry for a test spin.

Read the rest of the story, with information about guest bartending at Elixir, the guest sommelier program at Fifth Floor, being the guest chef at Kuleto's, and guest stripping at New Century Theatre here.

Labels: bartending, camper_clips, SanFrancisco

How to lose a drinking contest

Fla. Man Dies After Taking 23 Shots in 30 Mins.

"Apparently [other bar patrons] were describing the shots as 'cherry bombs,'" said Callaway, referring to a shot of liquor that is typically made by combining cherry-flavored vodka with Red Bull, a popular energy drink.

This begs the question: Are they sure it wasn't the Red Bull that killed him?

Alcademics responsibility note: Drinking contests are dumb.

Labels: energybooze

EO SF: NO

I emailed with Dushan Zaric, an owner of Employees Only in New York, to ask about the rumor of a San Francisco outpost that's been going around town. The word is:

"We are currently not working on a SF Employees Only although it is in our plans to eventually open up an EO there...a lot of people have been asking but I have no idea how they got this information."

I have to admit that I'm glad to hear it. Though I have no problem with spreading a good thing around, local pride may may cause a little "We don't need New Yorkers to show us how to make drinks!" angst.

That said, the lines between New York drinks and San Francisco drinks are already starting to blur, and I think SF bartenders are practicing more professionalism and consistency, and NY bartenders are increasing the amounts and varieties of fresh juices and herbs in their cocktails. In another year, much of the regionalism may disappear from these two cities. In another year, New York may have a few dedicated tiki bars and and SF may have membership clubs.

I've been thinking about this a lot recently, getting ready for my talk at Tales of the Cocktail on Regional Trends in American Cocktails on Saturday morning. Last year at Tales, it became very clear that there were regional differences in cocktails between the coasts and that each brings something to the game. This year, we're moving beyond just SF and NY as cocktail centers, seeing amazing things in the Pacific Northwest, Southern California, Boston, Atlanta, Chicago, and DC. Next year at this time, with the opposing forces of greater awareness of national cocktail culture versus the increasing amount of regional micro-distillers and focus on local ingredients, I'm not sure what will happen.

In the end I'm glad that there there isn't yet a homogenized idea of what good cocktails are, what they taste like, and in what types of bars to get them.

Labels: NewYork, SanFrancisco

London and Plymouth pics

Are now online. Get 'em all here.

Labels: bars, gin, London, travel

Last night in London

The last night of our too-short press trip to London with Plymouth
gin, we hit the town for a second night of barhopping.

First up was Salvatore's at Fifty, a bar owned by legendary bartender
and author Salvatore Calabrese. He told us stories of serving martinis
to the queen, inventing the breakfast martini, and how his mother gave
him his first hangover cure. The drinks were heavily vodka-based and
full of citrus, unlike anywhere else we went in London, but each one
had a surprising element or taste profile that really worked. I had
two drinks with vinegar in them.

Next we hit the bar in the Dukes Hotel for martinis served tableside.
They wheeled out a small cart, put a drop of vermouth in each frozen
cocktail glass, displayed the freezer-fresh bottle of gin, then poured
it directly into the glass. Then they cut off a lemon peel strip and
cracked in in half over the drink before dropping it in. A great
presentation, but I like my martinis with a little water in them.

Next up was Hawksmoor, a meaty restaurant with largely excellent
drinks. This place and several others had a tiki section on the menu
of drinks split into several categories, usually old style types like
flips and sours. After a long meal that left us all uncomfortably
stuffed, we took off again.

Green & Red was next. It's a tequila bar and Mexican restaurant with a
DJ playing downstairs. We had a round of margaritas and a shot of Ocho
tequila, then were out the door.

My final stop of the night was at Milk and Honey, a membership bar
with a New York outpost we've all heard of by now. I had a scotch
drink with ginger and honey, and a sherry cobbler, and of course a sip
of everyone else's cocktail too. Generally quite good drinks.

Also I hadn't realized it was so big- four floors with a bar on each-
and that they have reciprocal memberships with a few other bars.

Anyway, suddenly it was three in the morning and I had to get up at 7,
so it was time to bid London goodbye.

Plymouth

Hello chums. The Plymouth gin distillery, it turns out, is just as
beautiful as they say, but much smaller than I imagined. Just one big
copper pot still makes all their gin, and they don't even need to run
it full-time.

Beyond the distillery tour, the building holds a restaurant and a
cocktail bar, so you can just pop on in and hang out with the gin. I'd
probably spend a lot of time there I'd I lived here.

Alas, time is short. Today we're doing a hike to Plymouth's water
source, taking the train back to London, then hitting more of the
cocktail bars to ensure that I'm plenty hungover for the plane ride
home on Saturday.

Cheerio!

Wish you were here

Last night we hit the London bars, stopping in to the Lonsdale,
Trailer Happiness, Montgomery Place, then later Mahiki. I think
Montgomery Place was my favorite, though I loved the Jersey Sangaree
from Lonsdale. We tore up the dance floor at Mahiki late into the
night, drinking out of coconuts and being jealous of the giant punch
served out of a treasure chest(!).

Now I'm on a train to Plymouth to see the gin being made. Of course,
I'm still sweating out last night's gin. Mmmm juniper.

Glossy Booze- late June edition

Here's a round-up of booze stories in the magazines that come to my house.

- Esquire (July)- Looks like David Wondrich got the month off! No booze stories.

- Details (June/July) - Rob Willey bucks the usual trends with a story on summer red wines (but with a sidebar on sangria), then writes a feature on summer cocktails, including the Americano, Pina Colada, Mai Tai, Mojito (with ugly looking mint- again!), Tom Collins, and the Pimm's Cup.

- Sunset (June) has a story on pairing sparkling wine with food- including deviled eggs and hot dogs!

- Playboy (July) has a big spread on tequila, though I'm not sure what their criteria was for inclusion in the story (ahem). Brands mentioned are Patron reposado, Hornitos plata, Jose Cuervo Platino, Partida Elegante, and Del Maguey mescal. Also in the magazine the Gimlet is mentioned as the hot cocktail this summer (seriously) made the Raymond Chandler way with half Rose's Lime Juice. (Seriously.) Also for the summer issue, they recommend (pre-made, in a plastic glass) Metropolitan Martinis, and a not-quite Dark and Stormy with Myer's Jamaican dark rum. In local news, SF-based Lotus Vodka got a big plug in the issue. Congrats, guys!

Labels: magazines

You know you've become an annoying bar patron when...

...you ask to see the size of their ice cubes before ordering.

What's wrong with this picture?

Hint: it's the bong. I didn't expect to see that in the Virgin airport
lounge.

How's THIS for luxury?

When you take a Celebrity cruise, you too will be handed a 12-ounce martini with six olives to help warm it up and make it taste like the salty ocean over which you're boating. Decadent!

Sometimes too much of a good thing is not such a good thing.

This is yet another ad in the cocktails = vacation theme I've been tracking here on Alcademics. They just keep coming!

Labels: ads

Getting kinda tired packing and unpacking...

Oh, the day before travel. It's always the same- stuffing bubblewrap into your suitcase so you can bring bottles home, watering the houseplants, and muddling all the leftover produce into cocktails. (I no longer muddle the houseplants.) I've got the routine down by now.

Last night I enjoyed a lemon gin cucanectartini that was a delicious send-off to my next destination: London.

Wahoo!

Labels: travel, writing_life

Reading material

- A nice summary of micro-distilling in Oregon. They have 17 micro-distilleries already! The article also alerted me to a surely fine Oregon product called Bu-Tay vodka, which comes in regular and blue. It's hard to beat their tagline: "Make Bu-Tay Your Call."

- Eric Felten rediscovers the Twentieth Century cocktail, and an annual celebration of the drink by train (and Sherlock Holmes) enthusiasts.

- The "Richard Branson of India," Vijay Mallya, announced a patent on diet vodka and diet whisky. Approximately .0002 seconds later, the Scotch Whisky Association announced "that ain't no whisky."

- This article from Plenty Magazine lists some eco-cocktails. I learned from it that there is an organic Pisco, an organic line of liqueurs including brandy, orange (could this be the orgo triple-sec we've been waiting for?), chocolate, and coffee, as well as two more organic rums called Matraga and Papagayo.

- Madison approves banning cheap liquor in the downtown area to discourage panhandlers. That's ridiculous. If they can do this, can't neighborhoods ban cheap anything to keep out the poor and middle classes? You suck, Madison.

- Mmm, tacky fashion wine box.

Labels: distilling, eco-booze, funny, packaging, vodka

Note for the next heat wave

Cantina has air conditioning.

Unfortunately that was only the first stop on a bar crawl to show my pal Ana from New York around to the new cocktail bars that have opened since she was last here.

After a quick refresher at Cantina we hit Rye, where we sat in the outdoorish smoking patio hoping for a stray breeze, but no such luck was had. A drink was had instead.

Then off we went to Bourbon & Branch where it wasn't as stifling as it can be in there, so I felt lucky. Joel Baker made me a repeat of his Chatreuse/peach/basil/sherry drink from the competition a few days earlier, so I felt luckier- and he even sent someone out to pick up a peach to make the drink. Now that's what I call service!

By this time Ana was tipsy and hungry, so headed to NOPA where she could satisfy her urge to eat and I could satisfy mine to stay tipsy. It was hot, but not insufferably hot in there. Ana had one of their famous pork chops and pronounced it the best she's ever had (yeah for her, too bad for the pig), and I had some vegetable goop. Soon poor Ana, unable to contain her carnivorous voraciousness, had consumed the entire gigantic pork chop and grew uncomfortably full.

Time for an uphill walk in the not-cool night air! Up Divisadero and further up Haight Street we traveled to reach The Alembic. No heat relief was to be found there- it had to be over 90 degrees inside. Luckily, relief came in the forms of the Pisco Sour and new-to-the-menu Gilded Lily with Plymouth gin, Yellow Chartreuse, orange flower water, and sparkling demi-sec.

At this point Ana, who lives in New York and should really be better at this, pooped out. I think she was sufficiently impressed with the cocktails in SF and I was sufficiently impressed with myself for out-partying a New Yorker.

Not a bad way to beat the heat.

Labels: bars, SanFrancisco

Chartreuse on the loose

This week I helped judge a Chartreuse cocktail competition- tough job! Bartenders love making cocktails with the stuff, and I love drinking said cocktails. With my fellow judges Johnny Raglin of Absinthe and Carlos Yturria of Bacar/Grand Pu Bah I think we were in complete agreement with our top choices.

Joel Baker of Bourbon & Branch made a phenomenal drink with Yellow Chartreuse, Manzanilla sherry, lemon, peach, and basil, but unfortunately he lost points for going past the time limit (such a perfectionist).

Steven Liles of (is it Boulevard?) combined Yellow Chartreuse, St. Germain, gin, lemon, sugar, and cucumber with a lemon verbena garnish that was messy but delicious.

Camber Lay of Epic pretty much always brings the thunder and her drink (pictured) with rose geranium, gin, lemon, lime, peach, Szechuan peppercorn, and Green Chartreuse was terrific. If they'd only let her bring her fruit dehydrator who knows what would have happened.

And the big winner for the day was H. Ehrmann of Elixir, who combined bourbon, Green Chartreuse, muddled cherries, lavender, and vermouth, sort of like a sweet Chartreuse-cherry-lavender Manhattan. I don't know how it worked, but it totally did. Lavender?

Congratulations to the winners.

Labels: contests, liqueurs

Poppers

It's so hot in my apartment in San Francisco right now that a cork stopper just spontaneously popped off a bottle of vodka in my living room.

Or perhaps it was a divine sign that I need a refreshing cocktail right about now...

Labels: funny, writing_life

Itemizing

I just learned that my 2,000 word story on scotch due next Monday was actually due yesterday, so posting may be a bit light for the rest of the week. Here are some things that caught my eye.

- San Francisco Brewcraft solves the lack-of-hops problem by introducing a Burningman Hopless Absinthe Ale brewing kit complete with wormwood, lavender, and anise. (What, no fennel?)

- Though they're advertising it as a beer pong ice rack, there is no need to limit its use to the "sport." Fill it with water and freeze it to keep ten plastic cups cold on the tray.

- Jay from Oh Gosh! tasted 23 orange liqueurs and has now summarized his findings into awards. I think he deserves an award for the effort.

- Seamus of Bunnyhugs lists some old-school genever cocktails to try out with the new genevers on the market.

- Imbibe Magazine (sorry I'm late with that scotch story!) lists some cocktailian uses for home-grown herbs.

Labels: absinthe, beer, recipes

Level III opening + a cucumber recipe

Friday night I attended the opening party for Level III in the JW Marriott, which, it turns out, was also the 7X7 Magazine Best of SF issue party.

It's hard to say what the place will look like when the party lights are off and the space returns to its normal hotel lobby look, but they did a terrific job of fixing it up for the event.

They served three drinks from the menu: The Shanghaied, Portman Cosmafornian, and Cable Car No. 2. They were all batch-made drinks for the big party, so they weren't a good indication of how the drinks might taste when made on the spot- we'll just have to see about that going forward.

The Portman Cosmafornian is basically a Cosmo with a sweet lime foam on top- without the foam the drink is nothing special but the sweet lime foam really works. The Cable Car No. 2 is full of tequila with a chili powder and cocoa rim. I really liked where it was headed, though I think I would swap chili powder with wasabi. (Mmm, wasabi.) I wasn't sold on the chocolate but I like chocolate less than the average person.

The Shangaied with Square One cucumber vodka, Canton ginger liqueur, and lemongrass syrup had great flavors (though it came out too sweet in the batching) and the lemongrass bits kind of get stuck to your lips, but it's worth it. This could be a great drink for summer. It contains just three ingredients, and if you batch the lemongrass syrup (or buy it from Monin), would make a great party drink.

And the Square One folks just gave me permission to print the recipe. At Level III we had this drink served on the rocks instead of in a cocktail glass as directed below.

Shanghaied
Created by H. Joseph Ehrmann, Mixologist and Brand Ambassador for Square One

2 ounces Square One Cucumber Vodka
1/2 ounce Canton Ginger Liqueur
1 ounce lemongrass syrup*
3 - 4 inch piece of lemongrass stalk for garnish

Combine in a mixing glass with ice. Shake hard for 10 seconds and strain into a cocktail glass.

*Lemongrass Syrup: Trim the stalk at the bottom and just past the heart of the stalk (4-5 inches). Save top half for garnish. Cut the heart lengthwise down the middle and with a mallet pound the lemongrass to break it up. Boil lemongrass in one cup of water for 2-3 minutes then add one cup of sugar slowly, stirring constantly to dissolve. Bring to a boil then simmer for 3-5 minutes until syrupy. Remove from heat and cool completely. Pour through a strainer and into a storage bottle. Refrigerate.

Labels: events, recipes, SanFrancisco, vodka

Green drinking

As I was picking the fallen houseplant leaf off the shag carpet, I wondered what it would taste like in a drink. (Who wouldn't?) I bit into it to find it reminded me of snap peas shells. Undeterred, I proceeded to experiment with a cocktail.

Intervention Inspiration
4 leaves of houseplant, with center veins removed
2 ounces cucumber vodka
1/2 ounce honey syrup
1/4 ounce lemon juice
pinch black pepper

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into cocktail glass.

The drink is disgusting, of course. And now I can't get the taste of houseplant out of my mouth.

Labels: funny, recipes