Alcademics.com

Trying Two Hangover Helpers

I advocate and try to practice drinking in moderation as the best way to avoid a hangover. That's why I nearly never write about hangover prevention/cures. 

Recently though I had two hangover prevention products arrive in the mail. Normally they'd just sit there but I was going on a bar-hopping vacation to New Orleans where I knew these might actually come in handy. So I brought them along for the test. 

First I tried Rebootizer, which is a "detox shaker" with tons of anti-oxidant ingredients. It is a water pouch with a separate compartment for a powder. You squeeze the pouch to release the powder into the water, and shake it so it mixes. Then you drink it- no glass needed.

"In addition to long-term effects, temporary oxidative stress generated by junk food, alcohol, caffeine and smoking also has harmful short-term effects. The morning after price of this imbalance can include a pounding headache, fatigue, cotton mouth, queasy stomach and a weakened immune system. By drinking at bedtime, Rebootizer’s powerful antioxidants and digestive properties can support your body to fight oxidative stress by helping to clean toxins accumulated through excesses, before they become harmful. "

The ingredients it contains are dandelion, licorice, angelica, artichoke, lemon balm, lemon, acerola, sucrose, maltodextrin, and water. 

This product is designed for more than just hangovers, but if that's what you're trying to prevent you drink it at night before bed after consuming. So that's what I did.

The next day, I felt a bit hungover anyway, perhaps with less of a headache than might otherwise be the case. 

 The next night I tried Bytox, which is a patch like a smoking patch, loaded with a bunch of vitamins. 

 

"The specially-formulated Bytox hangover remedy patch effectively replenishes the vital levels of vitamins and nutrients your body loses when you consume alcohol. By enhancing and restoring these levels, Bytox reduces the physical side effects of alcohol consumption. Use the patch before during or after your night out for maximum relief from hangovers. The patch is 100% safe and really works!* Bytox has zero calories and won’t irritate your stomach, so you can party in style."

 

Amount Per Serving	 % Daily Value
Acai Berry – 20 mg.	 †
Vitamin A – 1    mg	 100%
Vitamin B12 – 1000 mcg.	4160%
Vitamin B2 - 1.7 mg	 130%
Vitamin B3 – 19mg	 119%
Pantothenic Acid - 5 mg	 100%
Vitamin B6 – 2 mg	 150%
Folic Acid – 4000 mcg	 100%
Vitamin D – 5 mcg	 100%
Vitamin E - 10 mg	 100%
Vitamin K - 80 mcg	 100%
Thiamin B1 - 150 mg.	 10000%
† Daily Value Not Established 

 You put on the patch while drinking and keep it on for eight hours afterward. So that's what I did. The next day I woke up completely stinking of vitamins, like the smell of your pee after you take some jumbo multivitamin. It was disgusting. 

As far as the hangover that I had probably earned: I still felt drained and slow, but didn't have much of a headache and that "If I open my eyes the pain will start" feeling, or any stomach sickness (that I don't usually get anyway). So perhaps it helped.

 Conclusions

In my experience it's hard to predict exactly the level of hangover you're going to have, so it's even more difficult to say how effective a prevention method is. Both of these products may have helped a bit. That's about as much as I can say. 

A Look at The Ice Cream Bar in San Francisco

The Ice Cream Bar opens Saturday, January 21 in San Francisco. I popped in last night for a preview. 

A bunch of jerks! (Soda jerks, that is.)

The beverage program is run by Russell Davis, formerly of Bourbon & Branch, and the program is based around Fix the Pumps, the recent book on soda fountains by Darcy O'Neil. 

The menu is split into Frappes & Floats, Crushes, Malts & Milkshakes, Phosphates, Panacea (a tonic), Lactarts, and Classics. There is also a list of fountain syrups and house-made extracts to flavor sodas. 

 

The physical soda fountain is from the 1930s and Davis says he had to tune it to get it working right. The soda water dispenser releases cooled soda water at a specific temperature, and has two settings for fine or course streams. The fine stream is used to froth the soda at the end of the pour. 

The glasses for the sodas have to be cold, as otherwise it kills the bubbles. Thus they won't be able to serve these drinks to go. (I forsee long lines here.) They serve drinks without straws for the most part, as these affect the flavor of the drink. 

I started with a root beer soda that was heavenly. It's made with real sassafras tincture. 

Then I had a chocolate phosphate, which tastes like carbonated chocolate milk. 

 

 Then I had the best Root Beer Float evarrr.

 

Other diners had the Pistachio Milkshake. Milkshakes and Malts here are hand-shaken in a cocktail shaker with milk, eggs, and hand-carved ice.

 

Fun Fact: Maria Hunt's mother used to work at a soda fountain.

 And they'll be serving ice cream, and hot dogs and such from another counter. 

There are plans in the future (if/when they get their beer/wine licensce) to serve Angostura Phosphates, plus custom mineral waters. 

This place is awesome. Join their Facebook group here.

 

New Cocktail Program at Sherry-Centric Gitane in SF

Gitane restaurant has a lovely bar with a sherry-centric cocktail program. It was originally designed by Dominic Venegas and later handled by Alex Smith, who recently left to open Honor Bar in Emeryville. 

The new and slightly simplified menu is the work of lead barman Ramon Garcia, with some aid from Neyah White (formerly of NOPA).

Vinegar lovers should be thrilled to see the Sherry Shrub back on a menu. 

SHERRY SHRUB
barbadillo manzanilla sherry,seasonal house shrub, lemon peel 

BOOTHBY
cava, bourbon, sweet vermouth,angostura bitters 

LA PERLA
reposado tequila, manzanilla sherry,pear liqueur 

SMOKED PALOMINO
crema de mezcal,amontillado sherry, grapefruit & lime, soda water

DOBLÓN
yamazaki 12 yr, fino sherry, fresh lemon,honey syrup

JENIBRE SMASH
dry sack sherry, canton liqueur,lemon juice, mint 

MARTINEZ gin, sweet vermouth, maraschino liqueur, orange bitters 

CAIPIRINHA CON MORAS
cachaca, dash px sherry, berries, fresh lime, sugar, nutmeg 

BAMBOO COCKTAIL
amontilladio sherry, dry vermouth, angostura bitters

SEASONAL SANGRIA
red wine, assorted fruits,orange liqueur, apple juice, cinnamon

SAFFRA
gin, saffron, honey syrup, lemon, thyme,orange blossom water

LA RENZA
vodka, elderflower & pear liqueur,maraschino, lemon, peychauds bitters

 

Modern Day Pond and Lake Ice Harvests in America

I got it into my head that I want to see a pond or lake ice harvest, despite my contempt for winter. 

Commercial ice harvests changed the cocktail landscape in America in the early-mid 1800s, allowing for the creation of juleps and cobblers and the popularization of the drinking straw and the cocktail shaker. 

Today there is still ice harvesting on many American lakes and ponds. As far as I can tell it's more historic reenactment more than practical, with most of the places that have an ice harvest limited to a single day of the year. 

Most places bring out the old tools - the long saws and the hooks - and allow people to cut up pre-scored sections of ice. Then they float it to the collection point on the lake, grab it with a hook, and slide it on a series of ramps (or sometimes pull it with a horse or tractor) into an ice house, where the blocks of ice are stacked with layers of sawdust in between.

I was looking for one that I might visit and came up with several places, so I thought I'd share them with you in case you live nearby. 

Modern Ice Harvests

- Tobyhanna ice harvest - Near the Steamtown National Historic Site near Scranton, Pennsylvania. They run a train to the ice harvest. A write-up on the harvest is here.

- Howell Living History Farm - in Lambertville, New Jersey. I believe the ice harvest date is January 28th. In addition to harvesting, you can make ice cream with the ice. Information from last year is here.

- Curran Homestead - Located near Bangor, Maine. The next Ice harvest is on February 11, 2012. 

- Cape Pond Ice - This is not an ice harvesting location, but a modern manufactured ice house in Gloucester, Massachusetts. They offer tours. 

- Thompson Ice House -  Located in South Bristol, Maine, which looks pretty far out there. The ice harvest is in February but the date hasn't been announced yet.

- Hanford Mills Museum -  Not far from Cooperstown or Oneonta, New York. The 2012 ice harvest is on February 4, 2012. Besides the ice harvest there are vintage cooking demonstrations and lots of food for sale.

- Brookfield Ice Harvest - In Brookfield, Vermont, a ways from Burlington. Not sure of the website or the exact date, but last year it was January 29. Call 802-276-3959 for information. Some details here. "Activities include ice cutting and ice boom demonstrations, an ice-hauling contest, a chance to try hand-made snowshoes and view ice sculpting."

 - Longfellow's Wayside Inn - In Sudbury, Massachusetts. Nothing on the calendar yet, but last year they did ice harvesting.

 - Old Sturbridge Village - In central Massachussetts. Had ice harvest demos in the past, I don't see any on the calendar for 2012. 

 - Ice Alaska - This is more of an ice carving celebration/competition near Fairbanks. The park is open February 28 - March 25, 2012. They harvest ice from an on-site pond with a more modern tool that looks like a saw on legs. I don't know if the ice harvest is demonstrated for the public or not. 

- I haven't seen any case where it's a public event, but some Amish people harvest ice. There are some good write-ups online. 

Please let me know in the comments if you find any others. 

How Machine Ice Is Made

These are a few ways that ice was and is made, which I learned from the awesome book Ice: The Nature, the History, and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance by Mariana Gosnell.

Slushie Method

The first way is just like making ice cream the old-fashioned way: snow or cold water mixed with salt can become colder than freezing. So if you put a cup full of water (or ice cream ingredients) and stir the supercooled salt/water mixture around it, the water in the cup can turn to ice.

Expansion of Gases

As vapor and expands into a large space the molecules speed up, and to do so they take heat from the surrounding environment. This is similar to how evaporation of sweat cools you off - the liquid turns to gas and expands into the air.

Early ice machines taking advantage of this property used pistons that compressed air then released the pressure. The air expansion would pull heat from its surroundings - in this case a container of salt water - and that salt water would turn a pan of water into ice. 

The next generation of ice machines used other gases instead of plain air- ether and ammonia for example. They still do. 

Vintage Block Making

The Ice book also described an ice block-making operation from the Millersburg Ice Company in Ohio. They use large metal pans filled with city water that are lowered into a lake of salt water cooled to 12 degrees Fahrenheit. The pans of water then freeze from the outside-in. 

Into the center of each pan they put an air hose to keep the water moving. As ice likes to be a pure crystal, the ice forming first is crystal clear, leaving most of the minerals in the water trapped in the liquid center portion. Before the block of ice fully freezes, they suck out the mineraly water and replace it with more city water. They say it looks less cloudy this way, though the center core is still a bit cloudy. 

Making Ice Cubes - Bag Ice Method

Some commercial ice machines make ice in the following way: Water runs across vertically-positioned, cooled plates. Ice forms on the surface. When it reaches the desired thickness, they poke it with knobs that break it up into cubes. This ice is bagged and sold. 

Making Ice Cubes - Clear Method

Other ice machines make clear cubes in the following way: Regular water is sprayed upwards onto cooled plates. The plates are cooled only to 32 degrees Fahrenheit - freezing temperature. At this temperature water freezes but minerals generally do not, thus the minerals drain off while the ice that freezes is nice and clear. 

Making Flaked Ice

Flaked ice is the kind you see at fish markets- smaller than cubes but less dense than crushed ice. This is made in a machine that sprays water onto a cooled, rotating drum. After just a thin layer of ice forms, the ice falls off the drum and shatters.  

Bar Visit: The Hotsy Totsy Club in Albany, California

Last week I finally made it to the Hotsy Totsy Club in the East Bay. I've been hearing a lot about this bar mostly from its (mostly female) bartenders who've been kicking butt in cocktail competitions in San Francisco. 

The bar has been around since 1939 but looks shiny and new with a pressed tin ceiling and great colored lighting. It's just one small room with a bar on one side and tall communal tables in front of it. There's a tabletop shuffleboard game and a jukebox that plays 45s. The selection was pretty random, playing punk rock and disco. 

Of the four bars I visited on a Wednesday after New Years the Hotsy Totsy was by far the busiest. The crowd was young and casual-hip (Fernet hoodies) and I'm glad there are smoking laws as you get the impression that it would be an impenetrable cloud in there. 

The drink program is progressive- they have Kold Draft ice, a bottled cocktail, cinnamon-infused vermouth, and a secret eggnog recipe. 

I'm not sure how it all came together out in the East Bay, but Hotsy Totsy is a special place to make stubborn urbanites like me a *little* bit jealous that we don't live nearby. 

Bar Visit: Prizefighter in Emeryville

East Bay bar week continues! Last week I visited Prizefighter in Emeryville. 

Prizefighter is a clean and casual new bar in Everyville unfortunately not very accessible via public transportation. The space is split into three open areas.

There is the bar area with stools in front (and outlets beneath the bar for you to charge your phone while drinking!):

A middle lounge-type room with some softer seating:

And a larger room that holds a communal table and the tabletop shuffleboard game. 

There's also a small outdoor patio with heat lamps. 

As I wrote before, the main focus of this bar is on "Sessionability: The ability of a beverage to be both delicious and highly drinkable in great quantities while leaving the imbiber lifted but not legless." Thus, many of the drinks are lower in alcohol than at urban speakeasy-type bars. 

There is a section of the menu for "patio drinks" available by the pitcher or as singles, as well as "soda fountain" drinks and a couple of non-alcoholic shrubs, plus punchbowls.

There is also a large selection of mezcal - 16 bottles by my count - and in general the spirits selection is excellent. 

Casual but not dumpy, great drinks whether you want just a Tecate or a fancy cocktail, and it's suitable for groups. Nice. 

A Visit to Honor Bar in Emeryville

Honor Bar opened recently in Emeryville, California, and I stopped in for a visit. 

The space is a square room with an oval bar against the back side, a window into the kitchen on the far left, and seating at both communal and smaller tables. The bar top is high with a deep red surface, the color of red tabletop candles. 

In the room there is a pinball machine and an old Joust arcade game. The small entry room (where you'd expect to find a hostess stand if this was still a restaurant) is also filled with nicknacks.

Not far from the entrace is a large washbucket of beer on ice- this is part of the "honor bar" of the name. You're free to grab a beer and drink it while you wait at the bar to get a cocktail, and pay for it then.  I like this policy. 

We arrived at the bar early in the evening so we didn't have to wait for a seat nor for a drink. At least at that capacity, Honor Bar feels to me more like a tavern than a bar. Food is an important part of the program while the bar dominates the space. It's a chipper venue, and the crowd was post-work people in nice clothes rather than the t-shirt and jeans slacker found in a lot of East Bay bars. 

But onto the drinks: Alex Smith has created a wonderful menu (Honor Bar cocktail menu here) and the execution was perfect in nearly all the drinks we tried. They were all coming out awesome, so we had seven of them. 

The Black Sabbath (laphroaig, averna, absinthe, orange bitters) was a clever mix of flavors I wouldn't have guessed would work together, the Bleeding Monarch (bourbon, passion fruit, orgeat, campari, balsamico amaro) was surprisingly tiki-esque, the Porfiriato (reposado tequila, guajillo-infused mezcal, cocchi di torino, licor 43, cinnamon bitters) had just a subtle heat that came in on the drink's finish, and the Jenkin's Ear (aged rum, oloroso sherry, hum botanical, angostura bitters) had a bright beautiful entry and dark nutty sherry finish. 

The drinks were really great, the space was comfortable, and everyone was nice. If Honor Bar were near my house I'd be there all the time.