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Jay Barmann from SFist.com attended my talk at SF Chefs.Food.Wine and kept the handout. Today he's posted my categorization of nearly every type of cocktail program in the city, which is good, because formatting html is a pain.
The categories I made up so don't get too hung up on them- it's just how I see them.
I've been thinking of giving that talk again, because PowerPoint is forever. Let me know if you're into it and maybe I can put something together.
People seem to like my pumpkin cocktail recipe listing, so here are some cocktails made with apples.
Zaya’s Hot Rum Apple Cider
2 qts. Unsweetened Apple Cider
1 (6 oz.) Can Frozen Orange Juice Concentrate (thawed)
1/4 c. Lemon Juice
1/4 c. Honey
2 Sticks Cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp. Whole Cloves
1 tsp. Coriander Seeds
1 Whole Nutmeg
1 1/4 c. Zaya Rum
Combine the first 8 ingredients in a large sauce pan and cook on medium, stirring frequently until thoroughly heated. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. With a slotted spoon remove the Cinnamon Sticks, Cloves, Coriander and Nutmeg. Stir in Zaya Rum and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently until thoroughly heated. Do not boil. Pour into mugs and garnish with Cinnamon sticks.
And here are two from Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur.
Domaine de Canton Apple Bob
The Domaine de Canton Apple Bob is a spicy play on the traditional Halloween game. Green apple puree gets a kick with Domaine de Canton Ginger Liqueur, tequila and Cointreau. The cocktail is perfect for the chilly nights surrounding Halloween and will make you happy you grew up past sticking in your head in a bucket of water in order to get an apple treat.
1oz Domaine de Canton
1oz Cazadores Reposado
1oz green apple puree
1/4oz Cointreau
1/2oz fresh lime sour
rimmed with cinnamon sugar and garnished with a green apple slice served over ice
Ginger Cider
With Domaine de Canton’s delicious ginger notes, a tsp of honey, apple cider and cinnamon, this cocktail is the perfect way to welcome the fall with traditional flavors of the season. Whether served hot or cold, nothing makes a Halloween night cozy like a delicious drink that looks, smells and tastes like fall.
1oz Domaine de Canton
1oz Calvados,
1tsp runny honey,
2oz apple cider,
1 cinnamon stick.
This one is only available in California- sorry, rest of world!
Craft Distillers, the Ukiah-based marketing group that makes Germain-Robin brandy and helps market other brands they believe in, has been importing Los Danzantes mezcal for a few years now, after Ron Cooper of Del Maguey introduced G-R's Ansley Coale to some artisan distillers in Mexico. They're now bringing in a new mezcal called Mezcalero- a whopping 168 bottles of it for sale in California only.
Mezcalero is made in San Juan del Rio in the Mexican state of Oaxaca and distilled by Joel Antonio Cruz. As you may know, all tequila is a subset of mezcal, made from one type of agave/maguey (Blue Weber). Much mezcal that is not tequila is made in Oaxaca and Chihuahua and it is made from espadin agave/maguey. Mezcalero, on the other hand, is made from a blend of wild harvested tobala and tepeztate agave.
Mezcalero has that smoky glue aroma associated with mezcal (from roasting the agaves in a smoky pit rather than baking it in steam ovens as in tequila), but with an equally powerful very bright, sweet, overripe green olive aspect to the nose as well. On the palate there's an amazing citrus burst that quickly dissipates into a sweet nothingness but the fire and smoke you expect from mezcal is absent, leaving a pleasant charred touch on the tongue while a creamy orange green pepper and jalapeno flavor lingers. I'd never have guessed it's 45.6% ABV.
I can't claim to be any sort of expert on mezcal, but I can tell you this one is gooood.
I really like the 1800 Tequila Essential Artists series, for which artists submit their work to be included on tequila bottle labels. Well, they just announced their new batch: 12 new bottles culled from 15,000 online entries. You can see them all here.
Some of my favorites from the new batch are below the jump, as is a link to a YouTube video of the series.
Ciroc is a grape-based vodka made in France. I sat down with the brand's creator, Jean-Sebastien Robicquet, at E&O Trading Company in San Francisco and learned little more about it and the two flavors launching this winter.
I hadn't realized it before, but Ciroc is made a little bit like gin. About 95% of it is made from ugni blanc grapes that are distilled in a tall column still. Around 5% is made from more floral, aromatic Mauzac grapes in a smaller column still. Then the two are blended and redistilled in a pot still- that's the part that's a bit like gin.
In January/February of 2010, Ciroc will release its first flavors. The flavors are only 35% alcohol (compared with the unflavored's 40%). They'll come in Red Berry (strawberry/raspberry and other fruit flavors) and Coconut (which tastes fairly authentic for coconut).
Frankly I'm surprised that any brand is releasing new flavors these days, but I'm sure if they're doing it there must be a demand. Coconut?
A week or so ago I attended the San Francisco launch event for Don Roberto tequila, hosted by Junior Merino at Cantina. Don Roberto is made by the Orendain family in the lowlands of Jalisco, Mexico in the town of Tequila, at the La Purisima distillery. Merino says that this is Mexico's largest tequila distillery. (You can see the brands made at the distillery by putting in "1437" into the search box on Tequila.net)
Despite the distillery having the high tech equipment like autoclaves and diffusers, Don Roberto is made in a more traditional style using hornos (ovens) to cook the agave. The brand has been on the market in Mexico since 1995 but is just launching in the US (I believe SF and NY first) around late November.
As is typical for a lowland tequila it has notes of overripe tropical fruits with a nice white pepper spice. In some lowland tequilas the fruits are so forward as to make the tequila taste a bit gamy, but I think Don Roberto keeps it nicely in check with its light, soft texture. The reposado is aged for 6 months in new American oak barrels and the anejo for 18 months, lending buttery notes with some nice herbaceousness coming on in the anejo.
We were also treated to four of Merino's cocktails: a Sangrita and three refreshing, fruit-forward drinks. As usual with Merino, they were all delicious. My favorite of the bunch was the Guadalajara Silver.
Guadalajara Silver
by Junior Merino for Don Roberto Tequila
1 1/2 ounce Don Roberto Plata
1/4 ounce agave nectar
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce fresh pink grapefruit juice
3/4 ounce ginger liqueur
1/2 ounce fresh Granny Smith apple juice
Rim a glass with sugar and cinnamon. Pour all of hte ingredients into a shaker, shake and pour into a rimmed rocks glass filled with ice.
In an ongoing set of experiments I've been trying to make clear ice at home. I've tried:
With some success on the last one. While what would be ideal would be to produce one giant solid block of perfectly clear ice, I haven't figured that out yet. However if the ice is going to be used to shake with or for cooling individual beverages, you don't need a giant block- just big chunks.
There is a way to accomplish this by cutting corners. And tops and bottoms. We've seen how the air bubble makes the cloudiest part of the ice in the center in vertically-frozen water, and mostly along the bottom of horizontally-frozen water.
And I've also found that horizontally-frozen water usually has an edge of very clear ice.
So with my ice pick, I just cut off the clear edges separated the top from the cloudy bottom
of the pan ice (easier than you'd expect, as the cloudy ice breaks off easily), and cut around the cloudy middle of vertically-frozen water to end up with a big bowl of clear ice.
Conclusions: You can make clear ice by cutting around cloudy ice frozen in large blocks. However, you waste about 85% of your ice, and a lot of time.
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