Alcademics.com

Top Misspellings on Cocktail Menus

I see certain words misspelled over and over on cocktail menus. Most of them are brand names in conflict with spellcheck. 

 

1.  St. Germaine
2. Liqueur vs. Liquor
3. Domain de Canton
4. Absolute Vodka
5. Hanger One Vodka
6. Caiparinha 
7. Lavendar 
8. Chartreuce 

Nickt-pickers: what else am I missing? 

A Homemade Giant, Crystal Clear Ice Cube Tray

As you're probably aware, I've been dabbling in experiments making clear ice at home. The way I've found that works best is to freeze ice in an Igloo cooler with the top off. (Please read the post before you tell me to boil the water in the comments- it doesn't work.)

This is now how I make all my ice at home- I haven't used trays in months.

Now I am working on ways to best carve ice and also trying to create an ice cube tray that will work in this directional freezing system. I found a method that works that I need to perfect.

Here's what I've done.

I went down to The Container Store and purchased these plastic gift boxes. They're 2 inches by 2 inches wide (4.5 centimeters) and around 5 inches tall (11.5 cm) with the tops off.

These I put in my Igloo cooler. I've done it with the open top of the container facing up, and also facing down. Facing down works better, actually, because the air in the rectangles gets pushed out the bottom. Facing up, you get a 1cm cloudy patch at the top of the cubes. No big whoop.

Then I fill the cooler with water and freeze it. It comes out as a block of ice with the cubes stuck in it.

These separate surprisingly easily from the block.

Also surprisingly easy is how the ice pops out of these plastic containers. I just leave them upside-down for a couple minutes and the ice cubes slice right out.

As you can see in the above picture, there is a little bit of cloudiness when the trays are left with the open part facing up. I repeated this experiment with the open part facing down and there was less cloudiness. Either way, there isn't much to worry about as it can be cut off when cutting these big long cubes down to 2 inch by 2 inch by 2 inch ones.

Conclusions:

• These ice cubes are fricking awesome.
• I need to try it with cutting off the bottom of the containers so that they're a rectangular tube rather than a box. 
• I think this is actually scalable to make an ice cube tray with some tweaking. 
• Hooray!

San Francisco Cocktail Week September 21-27, 2010

Finally! We have the details of San Francisco Cocktail Week 2010. Events are listed below but check the website for updates.

 

San Francisco Cocktail Week 2010
Schedule of Events

Tuesday, September 21
 
Inauguration of the Boothby Center
6 to 8 p.m.
Celebrating the debut of the "Cocktail Bill" Boothby Center for the Beverage Arts: the new community center, conference room, event space and "beverage lab" with a fully functional bar. "Cocktail Bill" Boothby was a turn-of-the-century San Franciscan barman, author, philanthropist and civic leader who connected the fabric of the City with his wits, his grit, and his cocktails. The Barbary Coast Conservancy of the American Cocktail dedicates their home office as an homage to this historic San Franciscan and all those alive today who honor his work. Highlights of the evening include a silent auction and presentation by co-founders of the Barbary Coast Conservancy of the American Cocktail (BCCAC), H. Joseph Ehrmann (Elixir), Jeff Hollinger (Comstock Saloon), Duggan McDonnell (Cantina).
$25 per person (Ticket includes cocktails and hors d'oeuvres.)
Address: 1161 Mission Street, Suite 120, San Francisco
 
Wednesday, September 22
 
Farmer's Market Happy Hour
6 to 8 p.m.
The country's first market-inspired happy hour is back at the Ferry Building! Featuring the City's best farm-to-table bars, the evening benefits the BCCAC and Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA). Enjoy bites from six San Francisco restaurants, creations by 12 talented bartenders and tunes by DJ B Love.
$40 per person (Ticket includes cocktail tastes and hors d'oeuvres.)
Address: CUESA Kitchen at the Ferry Building Marketplace, San Francisco
 
Thursday, September 23
 
Ragtag Rabble Gaming Soirée
Co-Presented by Cocktail Lab
8 p.m. to 12 a.m.
Games of chance such as craps, blackjack, roulette and poker played out by dealers dressed in ye olde Barbary Coast-era attire! Join us in the Burritt Room as it's littered with bars and ragtag tables along with Cocktail Lab's signature innovations of classic, turn-of-the-century cocktails, live music, and a buy-in cocktail mixoff. Festive attire encouraged.
$60 per person (Ticket includes cocktails and hors d'oeuvres)
Address: Burritt Room, Crescent Hotel, 417 Stockton St. (at Sutter) San Francisco
 
Friday, September 24
 
Second Annual Epic Happy Hour
5 to 8 p.m.
Friday Sunshine along the Bay: the perfect way to start the weekend. This Second Annual Happy Hour at Epic Restaurant's Outdoor Patio features tunes by DJ B Love, hearty hors d'oeuvres from Executive Chef Jan Birnbaum of Epic Roasthouse and culinary cocktails from such all-star bars as Rickhouse, Comstock Saloon, Cantina, Rye and 15 Romolo.
$45 per person (Ticket includes cocktail tastes and hors d'oeuvres.)
Address: Epic Roasthouse, 369 The Embarcadero (at Folsom), San Francisco
 
Saturday, September 25
 
Cocktail Carnival Gala
Co-Presented by The Bon Vivants
9 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Location, guest chefs and details to be announced.
$95 per person (Ticket includes punch and hors d'oeuvres.)
 
Sunday, September 26
 
Cocktail Cookout on the Island
12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Bay Area bartenders and chefs team up for a meaty, boozy outdoor festival, pairing barbecue with tableside bars under the sun at the Distillery in Alameda.
$50 per person (Ticket includes plate of barbeque, cocktails and other beverages.)
Address: St. George Spirits Distillery (AKA Hangar One), 2601 Monarch Street (on the former Naval Base), Alameda
 
Please stay tuned for further release of information regarding the Cocktail Carnival Gala, daily Cocktail Colleges, nightly After-Parties, Saturday Symposium schedule, Karaoke Gong Show and the Barbary Coast Bar Crawl.
 
All events are ticketed and attendees must be 21 years of age to participate. ID will be checked at the door.
 
For tickets, additional information and updates, please visit www.sfcocktailweek.com. Advance purchase is recommended. Many San Francisco Cocktail Week events sell out and there are often limited tickets available at the event.
 
Net proceeds from all San Francisco Cocktail Week events benefit the Barbary Coast Conservancy of the American Cocktail.

The Children's Wine List

I was researching some cocktail bars and came across the website for Scoma's, an old San Francisco seafood restaurant near Fisherman's Wharf. Looking for the cocktail menu I found the page below (click to enlarge).

 

And I saw the Children's Wine List. 

"CHILDREN'S WINE LIST? THAT'S FANTASTIC!" I said to myself. (I always talk to myself in capslock.)

But it turns out that those are two different links for the children's menu and the wine list. Oh well. 

Still I love the idea of having a children's wine list (purple grape juice, white grape juice), a kids' beer list (root beer, ginger beer), or a children's cocktail menu with pictures and descriptions of non-alcoholic juice and fizzy drinks served in wacky vessels with elaborate garnishes.

It would be a bit like the Friendly's sundae menu or a tiki bar menu. Or it could even work as a modern day soda fountain. 

But for now we should start with a children's drink menu at a kid-friendly restaurant. Who's in? 

Airbooze: Alcohol Selection on Airplanes

Because I am a geek who feels the need to categorize everything, I try to track which airlines carry which spirits. 

I started a page to share this, located at this link: Airline Drink Menus. 

I'll keep filling it out over the coming months, but should you feel like enabling my geekery you can help: snap a picture of the spirits and cocktail selection of your next flight (usually in the airline magazine) and email it to me. Make sure to let me know which airline, domestic or international, and what month you flew so I can categorize it correctly. 

Looking at the menus I have there already there are some interesting choices. As usual, Virgin is doing cool things. On Virgin America, they have craft beer: Black Star Beer, Gordon Biersch Mãrzen, 21st Amendment Brew Free or Die! IPA. On Virgin Atlantic, they have a guest spirit as a promotion: Akvinta vodka. 

I wish more airlines were more adventurous with their spirits selection- Virgin Upperclass has an actual bar with barstools where you can sit, but then the spirit selection is mostly well liquor. They should have rows of single-malt scotch and other high-end brands to try. They've got a captive audience of high income-earners (except when I'm on the plane) who can spend the money on bottle of the spirit when they land. 

In the meantime, let's keep watching to see where things stand.

Blue Bottles Abound

This past April at the WSWA convention in Las Vegas, I noticed a naming trend of putting the word "blue" in beverage titles.

This has been an ongoing naming convention. One brand owner told me this was due in part to Johnny Walker Blue. 

Tequila brands in particular love to use the word "blue" or "azul," but this is also due to the blue Weber agave from which tequila is made. A quick web search reveals the following blue tequila brands:

• Ria Azul
• Clase Azul
• Azul
• Oro Azul
• Penca Azul
• Camp Azul
• Tarantuza Azul
• Siembra Azul
• Sol Azul
• Nobleza Azul
• Zircon Azul
• Tenampa Azul
• Azcona Azul

and probably many others.

At the WSWA convention, which I wrote about here and here, there were a lot more products with blue names:

• Blue Magic
• Blue Coast Chardonnay
• Dragon Bleu Vodka
• Blue Liqueur
• Blue Head Tequila

I guess everybody is feeling blue.

The New Remy V: Unaged Cognac or French Pisco?

I finally got the press release for Remy V, the new product debuting in September in two trial markets- the San Francisco Bay Area and Atlanta. I'd heard the word on the street about this and posted a couple hints to my Twitter feed and Facebook page last and this week, but this was the first I got an actual press release on it. 

 

Remy V is not a cognac because it is unaged- just double-distilled on the lees like cognac, chill-filtered, and rested before bottling. They're releasing the product with cocktail recipes from mixologist Charles Hardwick. 

I guess the proper name for this product would be a grape eau de vie or grape brandy. It's not a cognac since it's not aged long enough. It's not a marc (which is French grappa) because that is made from the leftovers of wine production rather than with the whole grape. 

It might be close to Peruvian pisco in that it is distilled from grapes in pot stills. Pisco comes from Peru or Chile, though (in Chile pisco can be column-distilled and slightly aged), so obviously this product won't be billing itself as a pisco. Furthermore, pisco is distilled only one time in a pot still and it is distilled to proof, meaning no water is added before bottling. Cognac is distilled twice and usually watered to bottling proof. One would expect Remy V to be more neutral and less grapey than pisco, but it's impossible to say at this point. 

So the big question is how the product tastes. I don't know yet, but I can't wait to find out. 

 

The Great Rum Debate That Was More of a Great Rum Panel

Last week after a group of bartenders took a boat ride from San Francisco to Oakland, where we were treated to a rum debate starring:

• Ed Hamilton, founder of the Ministry of Rum. 
• Martin Cate, tiki expert and owner of Smuggler's Cove
• David Cid, Bacardi brand master apprentice
• Gerry Schweitzer, founder of Leblon cachacha

It wasn't nearly as boring as Cate and Cid make it look in the picture below. 

The event was called the Great Rum Debate, but it was more of a nice focus group on what's happening and what should happen with the rum industry. 

Here were some of the topics discussed:

The future of the rum industry

• Schweitzer says that regulation should be coming to Brazil as the country reemerges into the world. He said, "I think we're looking to other sugar cane producing and Caribbean countries for cues."
• Cid says, "What I would like to see is more standard definitions between the major producers."
• This topic came up a few times- there is no standardization of statements on rum- bottles, what 'vieux' means, dark rum vs. aged, etc. Yet nobody seemed to think that the brands would all get together and agree on anything. They all want it to be done to match what each individual brand is already doing, which makes it impossible.

Is the industry prepared for increased rum production as consumers get more turned on to aged rum?

• Hamilton says the rum industry benefited from the price increases of the single malt scotch industry.
• Cid said Bacardi spent over 100 million dollars in the last 10 years increasing production capacity and in environmental improvements. 
• Cate said that the fast aging of rum in the tropics helps, as they don't have to think as far out as the scotch industry does. In terms of where the industry is in improving its image and production, he said, "It feels like rum has been lagging about 10 years behind tequila... and fortunately I think that gap is getting a lot shorter."

The direction of the rum industry

• Schweitzer says, "More education, more communication is needed to break down the pirate thing (image of Captain Morgan and partying associated with rum). With transparency comes knowledge."
• Cid agreed with Schweitzer's last statement. "My position didn't exist three years ago," he said. (More on Bacardi's increased transparency on yesterday's post. ) 
• Cate said the challenge now is to raise rum's credibility, and noted that there is no flavored scotch- the industry prevents it. "If you think it's a big party and this is not a spirit to be taken seriously then it's not good for the industry," he said. 
• Cate and Hamilton also noted how many rums obscure their origins and how hard that makes it to learn about them. Cate said,  "I love a rum that's proud of its country of origin." 

A great panel and lots of good information. Thanks guys!