Alcademics.com

Fun with Sugarcane

Sugarcane grows in California, so it's not uncommon to see short stalks of it for sale at farmer's markets and in Latin grocery stores. I was at one of these farmer's markets recently looking for un-cured olives that I didn't find, so I picked up a three-foot long sugar cane segment for two bucks. 

Sugarcane is a type of grass that was transported to the New World by Columbus on his second journey. Once the stalks are cut, the sweet juice contained within the blade begins to oxidize- sort of like how an apple turns brown as soon as you cut it- which is why we don't see sugar cane juice for sale in bottles. So when sugar cane is harvested it is transported to the factory for processing immediately. I have no idea how old the stalk I bought was.

Sugar cane juice is directly fermented and distilled to make rhum agricole (from French islands like Martinique) and cachaca (from Brazil), or it is processed to make sugar. The byproduct of sugar production is molasses, which can be fermented and distilled to make all other rum.

Seeing as how I don't have a still at home (yet), I just wanted to play with the sugar cane juice. I found the stalk to be far heavier than I expected, but as it's mostly liquid I shouldn't have been surprised. Sugarcane is very fibrous, which makes it hard to cut and squeeze out the juice. Sugar cane refineries use huge roller mills that squish the sugar cane stalks and shred the fibers.

I cut a section of stalk and sucked on one of the pieces. I expected it to taste like sweetened water, but that wasn't at all the case- sugar cane juice has a bright, delicious raw vanilla flavor. (I've identified this as "Mexican vanilla" and "Lik-M-Aid/Fun Dip stick vanilla'" in tasting notes but maybe "sugar cane vanilla" is a better descriptor.) I haven't had the pleasure of visiting Brazil where they crush sugar cane to make juices on the beach (yet), but I completely get how refreshing this juice can be now. 

Having sucked the juice out of pieces of sugar cane, I wanted to see how hard it would be to extract the juice from sugarcane at home. It was hard.

You certainly can't just wring it out. I cut the sugar cane into small chunks and tried muddling. I couldn't muddle more than one or two tiny pieces at once, so this was a slow process that produced very little juice.

Then I tried using a rolling pin (in reality, an empty bottle of Purista Mojito Mix, which is surprisingly delicious) to roll over longer pieces of sugarcane and squish out the juice that way. It worked a little. 

I poured the juice into a glass with soda water, and found it to be far less tasty than the juice on its own. Oh well.

So anyway, now that I've determined that sugarcane is really hard to get any juice out of, I need to figure out other ways to extract the liquid (Anyone know where I can buy an affordable sugar cane press?) or other uses for raw sugarcane. Since they sell it in stores around here, people must use it for something...

Why Can't I Get a McDonald's Hamburger at Chez Panisse?

In response to my recent story in the San Francisco Chronicle on high-end bars becoming more accommodating to patrons' requests, many people wrote into the comments about how snooty bartenders are who won't give you the drinks that you want.

The Chronicle's commenters are a notoriously (and often hilariously) opinionated bunch, so I don't take offense to anything they say. By and large, they were all terribly upset with Erick Castro of Rickhouse's quote:

"Three years ago it was OK to be rude. It used to be 'I'm not making a cosmo and you're a horrible person.' Now we say, 'I'm not making a cosmo, but I'm making you something better than a cosmo.' And if they like (the drink) they trust you for the whole night."

Commenters were offended that a bartender is so arrogant as to think he knows better than the customer, and offended that a bartender wouldn't make the customer what he wants.

I know that in the case of Rickhouse they don't carry cranberry juice, so they actually can't make a Cosmo. I believe all of the other drinks cited by commenters cannot be made at Rickhouse either- drinks with Midori, 7UP, Malibu, etc. They do not carry these products on principle, and thus cannot make drinks with them.

So Rickhouse can't/won't make a Cosmo, and that makes people mad. But does it also infuriate them that Chez Panisse (probably) can't make a McDonald's hamburger?

Would you be surprised at Chez Panisse if you asked your waiter for a McDonald's hamburger and they steered your toward something similar and better, like a grass-fed, free-range beef burger on a fresh-baked bread roll with organic ketchup? Would you consider them arrogant? Call for the waiter to lose their job?

Only if you can't see the difference between McDonald's and Chez Panisse; between fast food and fine dining. And that is the image problem that cocktail bars have. Many people still think every bar is a McDonalds, when most bars that make the news are evolving toward something better. 

The better cocktail bars are not actually suffering from this lack of understanding- there's a huge demand for them, in fact, and in my experience the places selling $10 cocktails are affected less in this recession than places selling $6 ones. So despite complaints, better cocktail bars are safe, for now.

The funny thing is that speakeasy bars were originally a theme concept, but evolved into a practical concept: hiding the bars from people who don't yet know that not every bar serves Bud and has sports on TV.

Some people worry that the perceived arrogance of the bartenders in these places will make this better-drinking era a trend rather than an ongoing movement. I think that's a valid concern, as fine cocktails are very trendy right now. I'd hate to see this movement lose momentum as there is so, so much further to go with it.

As was the point in my original article, bartenders are learning how to talk to patrons in a nicer way to steer them away from lesser-quality or marketing-driven drink choices and into better ones. But is there more that can be done- in the media or by bartenders/bar owners- to make a clearer break between the fast food version of bars and the ones more like fine dining?

Clear Ice Blocks at Home in an Igloo Cooler

This is another in an ongoing set of experiments trying to make big, clear ice cubes at home.

Early experiments were:

• Distilled vs. Tap Water
• Melting and refreezing water
• Hot Water vs. Cold Water
• Carbonated Water vs. Still Water
• Horizontal vs. Vertical Container Shapes
• Freezing water in Layers

And I had success with:

• Releasing Air Trapped in Ice
• Cutting Corners to Make Clear Ice
• Freezing Water in a Cooler to Imitate an Ice Pond

I also learned some ways to cut ice into big chunks.

Now I am trying to refine what I call the Pond Method, the concept that if we freeze water from the top down only (and not outside-in), all the trapped air that makes cloudy ice will be the last to freeze on the bottom of the container, rather than in the middle.

In the last attempt I used a collapsible beer cooler. I had good success in getting clear ice, but found it really hard to get the ice out of a cooler. 

This time I tried freezing water in a hard-sided plastic Igloo cooler. Initially I left the cover closed, but after two days it had only barely started to freeze (a good sign for its insulating abilities) so then propped the cover open.

After a few days when the water looked almost completely frozen and I could see some cloudiness forming at the bottom, I removed the cooler from the freezer. I turned the cooler upside-down and waited for the ice block to drop out of the cooler. Presto! It was ready.

There was a little unfrozen water at the bottom of the block (with only about a centimeter of ice covering it). This was easy to drain.

Then I just cut off the bottom cloudy part and had a big chunk. Easy!

Once again, the secret to cutting ice is to score it about a centimeter with a knife or saw, then chip it away with an ice pick and hammer.

Conclusions:

• I'm really surprised the cooler didn't crack after the ice expanded, but maybe it didn't because there was a little unfrozen water remaining.
• This Igloo cooler is a totally workable vessel for making clear ice blocks in my home freezer. Hooray! Luckily it is of a shape that allows for easy removal of the ice block.

Future experiments:

• In this first experiment with the cooler I set the freezer temperature on the lowest setting. I'll see if this matters for clarity or if I can use the high setting for faster freezing.
• I also want to try a disposable Styrofoam cooler (if I can find one this winter) just because there is no worry if it cracks, and this is the most reproducible vessel for other people to try at home.
• I should attempt to find a flexible insulating material that can be made into other shapes, such as a tall and skinny shape (thermos?) that would more easily fit in the freezer and can make smaller cubes.

User-Generated Cocktails

Here is my latest story in the San Francisco Chronicle, December 27th 2009 edition.

Bartenders shift from lecture to nurture

Camper English, Special to The Chronicle

Friday, December 25, 2009

A common sight in the nation's speakeasy-themed bars is a list of rules about what one can and cannot do - and can and cannot order. But among a newer batch of bars, the trendiest design feature is dialogue.

"Three years ago it was OK to be rude. It used to be 'I'm not making a cosmo and you're a horrible person.' Now we say, 'I'm not making a cosmo, but I'm making you something better than a cosmo.' And if they like (the drink) they trust you for the whole night," says Erick Castro, general manager at Rickhouse in San Francisco's Financial District.

Bartenders at top cocktail spots have shifted from a lecturing mode into more of a nurturing one, and Castro says the strategy has paid off.

"The same people who used to complain that we didn't have Bud Light and Grey Goose are now our biggest customers, coming in three times a week and ordering rye Manhattans," he says.

Photo: Michael Macor / The Chronicle

Read the rest of the story here. The story centers on how bartenders are trusting consumers to trust them more, instead of focusing on lists of rules of behavior. The story namechecks Heaven's Dog, Bourbon & Branch, Rickhouse, The Alembic in San Francisco, Copa d'Oro in Santa Monica, Drink in Boston, Klee in Singapore, and door74 in Amsterdam.

Yeah, I get around.

Energy Drinks and Alcopops

I enjoyed reading this long article on alcoholic energy drinks, written by Kit Stolz for the Ventura County Reporter.

After reading the long report about the sales, marketing, and consumer base of "alcopops" - caffeinated energy drinks- it seems to me that these are more like modern-day wine coolers, in a modern day world where young people probably consume five times as much caffeine as they did in the 1980's when wine coolers were all the rage. I'm not so sure that people who were sneaking Bartles & James peach coolers in high school should be rallying to ban Rockstar 21.

Here are some really great quotes from the story.

A counselor in San Diego gave a presentation to some teachers at a middle school, and went out at lunchtime and counted 12 students with alcoholic energy drinks. They didn’t need to conceal it because the adults didn’t even know these drinks existed.”

I think this is a very valid argument for better labeling of energy drinks- a big fat government warning sticker "Contains Alcohol" on these drinks wouldn't be such a bad thing, and would help adults and store owners better identify which items contain alcohol and which do not.

Now, about making them illegal entirely:

Under federal law, manufacturers must show that any substance deliberately added to a food or beverage sold in the United States must be “generally recognized as safe” (a standard known as GRAS). Mosher doubts that alcoholic energy drink manufacturers will be able to meet that test.

 “Under FDA rules, manufacturers have to establish before they put additives in any food or beverage that the products are safe,” he said, “But all the scientific studies we have seen say that it’s not safe.”

Mosher points to a study published last year by a doctor at Wake Forest, Mary O’Brien, which showed that college students who consumed alcoholic energy drinks had “a significantly higher prevalence of being taken advantage of sexually, taking advantage of someone else sexually, riding with a drunken driver, or being physically injured,” even in comparison to those who drank alcohol, but without caffeine.

I think this argument is weak and wrong. Separately alcohol and caffeine are regulated and approved, so is adding one to the other an unsafe additive? I think not. Nobody (yet) is advocating banning the combination of Red Bull and Vodka (or the Irish Coffee for that matter) when mixed together from separate containers. Putting them together in one drink seems efficient, if often a bad idea.

This I didn't know:

In a 2007 report for the Marin Institute, he and a co-author revealed that alcoholic energy drinks such as Tilt, Rockstar 21, and Sparks cost about 25 percent less than comparable nonalcoholic energy drinks such as Rockstar Juiced, Lost Energy and SoBe Adrenaline Rush.

But seems to support my existing belief that energy drinks are horrendously overpriced.

I think I am coming to the conclusion that more dramatic warning labels may be needed for alcopops, but I don't support a ban on them. The idea that these products are marketed to "children" I think is off-base. Can you say that extreme sports are marketed to children, or are they an adult activity that's exciting to younger people? Energy drinks in general take their marketing cues from extreme sports (heck, even Gatorade does) and so I think it's not exactly fair to claim that they're going for underage drinkers specifically. Maybe if there was an alcoholic energy drink that was labeled "Extreme Algebra" my opinion would change.

Overall you don't need to tempt underage people to try alcohol; they'll go out of their way to find it for themselves. The reasons for that have nothing to do with the existence of alcopops.

What do other people think? Are alcopops really a problem at all? Should we change the labeling, tax them as spirits (as a lot of legislation proposes), ban them outright?

Herbsaint Original Recipe

Herbsaint is an absinthe substitute introduced after Prohibition. It was important in the Sazerac and other cocktails until absinthe was re-legalized in the US in 2007.

Sazerac Co. reintroduces the original recipe for Herbsaint

By Todd A. Price
December 19, 2009, 3:00PM

A new bottle that looks antique will appear on liquor store shelves this week. In honor of the 75th anniversary of Herbsaint, the local Sazerac Company dug into its archives for the original recipe and recreated the absinthe substitute first sold in 1934.

The story says that the proof will be raised back to 50% ABV and that instead of using extracts in neutral alcohol, they will dip herbs into alcohol like a big tea bag.

Absinthe (good absinthe, anyway) is made by adding the flavoring herbs into the still and redistilling alcohol. Then most absinthes (verte, or the green ones) have additional herbs added after distillation, which gives them their green color. 

Some bartenders say that they still prefer Herbsaint to absinthe in a Sazerac,so we'll see what they think about the new bottle. Herbsaint does have one large advantage over absinthe- the price. It comes in at around $20/bottle as opposed to $50 or so for absinthe, but as you use only a dash or two that may not matter too much in the long run. The new Herbsaint Original is set to retail for $34.99 according to the story.

SF New Bar: Delarosa

I recently visited Delarosa, the new restaurant in San Francisco's Marina District by the owners of Beretta and Starbelly. The Beretta connection is crucial, because this new venue seems like an expansion of the other. I'm surprised they didn't call it Beretta North.

(Lane Ford at Delarosa. Photo courtesy of Delarosa.)

Most of the pizzas offered are the same as at Beretta, including the Margherita with Burrata that I always get. Some of the appetizers are also similar, but at Delarosa they've added a fried food section (at least I think that's what "fritti" means), a panini section, and spiedini (skewers) section. 

But you don't come to Alcademics to read about food. The drink menu is a mostly-different-from-Beretta selection of cocktails, but again very much in the same style as Beretta. (They also have a few of Beretta's current and former bartenders on staff.) They have refined classics like the Floridita Daiquiri, Pegu Club, Salty Dog, Satan's Whiskers, etc. Added to that are some lesser-known drinks like the Presidente (rhum agricole, dry vermouth, curacao, grenadine) and The Monarch (gin, lemon, elderflower, mint).

But don't order any of those until you have the Swedish Punsch. It is made with rum, brandy, Batavia arrack, pineapple juice, lemon juice, black tea, and prosecco. For all the ingredients, it is refreshing, light, balanced, simple-seeming, and tasty. One could easily drink of vat of it in a single sitting.They should go down to Crate & Barrel and buy some serving vats.

I should also add that they have a great beer menu, with 14 microbrews on tap, many of which I've not seen before.

Ultimately, Delarosa is a great spot in the style of Beretta, so you may as well go to whichever one is closer. That is, after you come to Delarosa the first time for the Swedish Punsch.

The Naked Pint Book Review

The Naked Pint: An Unadulterated Guide to Craft Beer by Christina Perozzi and Hallie Beaune is a new book on beer that I think is terrific. I started reading the book as pretty much a beer novice and finished it really thirsty and ready to make an organized attempt at trying many different beer styles. I accidentally gave myself a lot of homework.

The book begins, as it should, describing how beer is made, and more importantly how each element in beer influences the taste. From that point on in the book the authors talk not just about what a beer style usually tastes like, but also why. Then they tackle how to taste beer, describe what makes a particular beer great, and list several examples of beers from around the world they consider the most balanced, quintessential to a category, unique, iconic, and rare.

Most of the meat of the book is dedicated to explaining the differences between and giving recommendations for the many different craft beer categories. These are organized by least to most challenging flavored beers, starting with pilsners and finishing with hoppy beers and American strong ales. You could, as I did, go through the book and mark categories and particular beers you want to try. I may very likely carry this book with me when I go to my local craft beer bar to look up menu selections before ordering.

The descriptions in the book are usually quite clear as to how a beer style will taste, the alcohol content, color, and other descriptors. They're also entertainingly written, as is the whole book- I laughed out loud in many places. This topic could be so very dry if it were penned by other writers, and this was one of its strongest factors- it was a pleasure to read what is essentially an encyclopedia.

Each beer category is described in detail and also succinctly, such as:

Spirit of the Saison. This Beer's For You If You Like: Seasons, pepper. citrus. balance. smelling freshly cut grass. classy drinks. the French countryside.

The last section of the book has information on beer glassware, home storage, beer tasting parties, and other practical matters.

Then there are many recipes for cooking with beer, and a whole section on home brewing with home brew recipes. This last bit I think was a little unnecessary or off-topic, as there are plenty of other books on home brewing whereas this feels at its heart a craft beer style guide and practical tasting and drinking guide. But too much information in a book is better than too little, and The Naked Pint felt like it had the right amount about what I wanted to know. Overall I learned a ton from this book and can't wait to put it to good use.

New History on the Pisco Sour

 Guillermo Toro-Lira is probably the US's leading pisco historian, devoting years' worth of study to drinks such as the Pisco Punch and Pisco Sour. The latter drink was created by Victor Morris, an American who moved to Peru with the mining trade and opened a bar. Toro-Lira got hold of the register of Morris' bar, and this revealed many truths about the history of the Pisco Sour.

For background, the Pisco Sour is a simple sour, made with pisco, lemon or lime, sugar, and often an egg white and bitters. It is no revelation, based on the traditional sour recipe, but in this case we have a good idea of its origin. Pisco is a grape brandy from Peru and traditionally distilled in pot stills and unaged, as opposed to Chilean pisco that is a latecomer, usually distilled in column stills and sometimes briefly aged.

To read Toro-Lira's recent discoveries and theories based on Morris' bar register, check out the article here.

Montego Bay, By Way of Heaven's Dog

I can't stop thinking about the delicious drink I had during Tiki Week at Heaven's Dog. So I asked bar/general manger Erik Adkins for the recipe and he was nice enough to share.

"The Montego Bay is listed in Beachbum Berry's 'Intoxica'.  He says that it is a Don the Beachcomber Drink from the Hotel Sahara in Las Vegas 1940's."

The version they made at Heaven's Dog is this:

Montego Bay

(adapted from Beachbum Berry's Intoxica by Erik Adkins of Heaven's Dog)
1/2 oz lime
1/2 oz grapefruit
1 oz honey syrup (1 to 1 dilution with water)
2 dashes Angostura bitters
4 dashes absinthe
1/4 oz all spice dram
11/2 oz Smith & Cross Jamaican rum

Shake all ingredients and strain over crushed ice.

This is one of those drinks where Smith & Cross completely makes the drink. So funky.

SF Event: San Francisco Beer Week February 5-14, 2010

Beer lovers should go ahead and block out the week of February 5-14, 2010 for about twelve zillion beer events in San Francisco. Events include:

• Beer dinners at The Republic, Beretta, and Monk's Kettle, Cafe Biere, and The Boilerhouse
• A beer brunch at Barclay's
• The Beer-Chef's beer and chocolate dinner on Treasure Island
• A opportunity to Meet the Brewer: Russian River Brewing Co. Brewmaster Vinnie Cilurzo is doing a doubleheader at Toronado followed by Pi Bar.
• Tastings of Italian beer at Delarosa, cheese and beer at Rogue Public House, sour beer and bitter chocolate at City Beer Store, Spanish cheese and cask-conditioned beer at ThirstyBear
• A brewery Tour at Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing Co.
• A homebrewing demonstration at Jack's Brewing Co.
• A beer-cocktail party at 15 Romolo

And they've just announced an official beer for the week:

The beer is a collaborative brew from the SF Brewers Guild. Yesterday morning, we mashed in at 6 AM at Speakeasy Ales & Lagers, and by the end of the day, 30 barrels of Imperial Common had been brewed. A lager fermented at SF's ambient temperature, it's going to be a beautiful, copper-colored, 10% abv beer aged in St. George Spirits whiskey barrels. A little juniper might sneak into the barrels, too. There'll be a tapping ceremony at the SF Brewers Guild Opening Gala on February 5th, and the beer will be on tap during SF Beer Week at great beer bars and restaurants throughout the Bay Area. Get thirsty.

For more information, check out the website for San Francisco Beer Week 2010.

Winning with Sherry

The Vinos de Jerez cocktail competition is one of the most prestigious mixology contests in the nation, luring many of the country's the top bartenders who no longer usually compete in these things to try their hand at the prizes- trips to Jerez and scholarships to the B.A.R. course.

This year's winner was Charles Joly of Chicago, who is winning everything lately. Runners up were Todd Thrasher and Phil Ward. The other finalists read like a who's-who of American mixology.

Here is Charles Joly's winning cocktail:

 
Bread & Wine by Charles Joly
1 oz Lustau “Don Nuño” Dry Oloroso
1 ½ oz Balvenie Scotch Doublewood 12 year
5 dashes Absinthe (preferably Sirene Absinthe)
½ oz fresh lemon juice
¼-1/3 oz maple syrup (depending on tartness of lemons)

Fill Old Fashioned glass with ice, dash with absinthe and set aside to season.
Combine Sherry, Balvenie, lemon juice and maple syrup in mixing glass.  Add ice and shake well. Empty Old Fashioned glass, coating sides with absinthe. Add Kold Draft or large pieces of ice. Strain cocktail into glass. Cut a strip of orange zest using a vegetable peeler.  Mist top of glass with orange oil, rub rim and place decoratively in glass. No straws please.

The runner-up recipes will be online at the Secret Sherry Society website.

New Booze: Antiguo Tequila from Herradura

Herradura has launched a new line of 100% agave tequila, Antiguo. They already have the high-end Herradura line and the more price-friendly El Jimador line that is the top-selling tequila in Mexico. It looks like Antiguo falls in the middle, as the suggested retail price for the blanco tequilas are $19.99 for el Jimador, $29.99 for Antiguo and $39.99 for Herradura. 

I pestered their kind PR guy, David Page, about the differences in production and he replied with this very informative chart. I would love to know if there are any production differences in the selection/handling/baking of agave, but can't really complain about the level of information provided.

You'll notice that while Herradura and El Jimador are twice pot distilled, they're keeping quiet on the distillation of Antiguo. I'd guess that means a column still is involved. 

Some newer low-cost brands are using column distillation or a blend of pot and column-distilled tequila. Personally, I'd rather have column distilled 100% agave tequila than pot-distilled mixto tequila (mixto is a mix of fermented agave sugar and "other" sugars). If producers can get 100% agave prices down to near mixto level, I say we start seriously petitioning to phase out mixto entirely. You with me?

(Click the image to enlarge to a readable size.)

(Click the image to enlarge to a readable size.)

As far as the taste of Antiguo, I have tried the line and pronounce it good enough.The blanco is creamy and fruity like pear custard on the nose, followed by more pear fruitiness on the palate, but is less tropical than other brands- less of that mango pineapple aspect. Black pepper notes begin to come out in the reposado along with some of the tropical tree fruit like bananas and that mango. The anejo has a more baked aroma, like dried banana chips with a hint of brown butter, and this is consistent on the palate.

Overall, this tequila was designed to be lighter on the palate and it very much is. The flavors are pleasing but not terribly deep, and the texture seems much thinner than the Herradura line. There is nothing that I dislike about this tequila, but there is nothing that I love about it either. Frankly, I'd pay the extra $10-$20 per bottle to upgrade to Herradura for sipping. This will probably make for a very unobtrusive mixing tequila, though, and hopefully bring some tequila-shy drinkers into the fold. 

A Treasure Trove of Todd Thrasher Recipes

Todd Thrasher of PX in Alexandria, VA is known for making all of his bar's mixers, from sodas to tonic water to bitters and tinctures.

In a story this week in the Washington Post, Jason Wilson gathered up many of Thrasher's recipes. I can't wait to try the cranberry juice, which is so simple it's embarrassing.

The story is here.

Recipes:

My Tahitian Dream

Winter Tonic Water

Jack Mauve

Provincial

Homemade Cranberry Juice

Cold Buttered Rum

Spiced Rum

Homemade Grenadine

Candied Key Limes & Lime Syrup

Hibiscus-Vanilla Liqueur

Tequila Cocktail Fun Fact

From the Mixellany newsletter:

Do you know there are 14 tequila cocktail recipes in the rare 1937 British cocktail tome The Cafe Royal Cocktail Book. Only 1000 copies were ever published. It was UKBG president WJ Tarling's rebuttal to former UKBG president Harry Craddock's publication of the Savoy Cocktail Book.

The list includes: Picador, Mexican Eagle, Mexico, Metexa, Matador, Jalisco, Toreador, Tia Juano, Tequardo, Sombrero, Senorita, Rio Grande, and Pinequila. Quite impressive considering the date of publication and country of origin.

We got permission from the UKBG to republish the book in 2008. A portion of the net proceeds go to The Wine and Spirit Trades' Benevolent Society in the UK (www.thebenevolent.org.uk). The Benevolent was founded in 1886 to make a real difference to the daily lives of those who have worked in the drinks industry and now need help. Today, The Benevolent houses more than 500 people, providing one off or regular financial grants, sheltered accommodation, care home facilities, advice, support and friendship.

Cool, I had no idea. You can buy the book from Mixellany here or from Amazon.com here: Café Royal Cocktail Book