Alcademics.com

Edible Cocktails from The Liquid Muse

In my latest post over at FineCooking.com, I review and share a recipe from the new book Edible Cocktails by my pal Natalie Bovis, aka The Liquid Muse.

The new book Edible Cocktails by Natalie Bovis (known in the cocktail blog world as The Liquid Muse) is a recipe book that builds drinks around fresh ingredients. 

The book doesn't merely call for fresh juices and herbs, it instructs readers on how to use fresh ingredients to make jams, jellies, syrups, infusions, liqueurs, and other mixers, and then use them in fresh-forward cocktails.

Most drink recipes in the book include sub-recipes for homemade ingredients from items found in the garden or farmer's market. To crafty Fine Cooking readers with experience making all sorts of preserves the book will guide with recipes in which to use them, and for cooking-challenged mixologists (self included) the book is full of ideas on how to turn all those fresh fruits and herbs into drinkable liquid ingredients. I think it's the best garden-to-glass cocktail book out there and I'm looking forward to working my way through all the drinks.

The book looks awesome. For now, I have posted a recipe from the book for the Brazilian Breakfast, which was created by Jacob Briars. It's a take on Salvatore Calabrese's Breakfast Martini, but made with cachaca.

You'll have to check out FineCooking.com for the recipe.

I am Guest Bartending May 23rd at Jardiniere

Can I get you a drink? I am guest bartending at Jardiniere in San Francisco on Wednesday May 23 from 6-8 PM.

I'll be making the Golden Gate 75 cocktail, a drink I created to celebrate the bridge's birthday. I wrote about that and shared the recipe here.

All the money for the drink goes to charity - in this case to my volunteer group Hands On Bay Area.

Please pop on by and see what I look like on the other side of a bar.

Jardiniere is located at 300 Grove Street (at Franklin) in San Francisco. I hope to see you on Wednesday.

Cocktail Menu: Demi Monde in New York

Demi Monde, a new bar project in New York's Financial District from Dave Kaplan and Alex Day, has opened. Eater has some great pictures of the inside.

I see: lots of fizz, lots of brandy, and other French ingredients. Between this, the New York oufit of the Experimental Cocktail Club and Pour Vous in Los Angeles, I guess French cocktail bars are a thing now- at least in America.

HEADS UP
WATERMELON BLANC, APEROL, FIZZ 14

MISTER SPARKLE
GIN, SHERRY, LEMON, BITTERS, ORANGE CREAM FIZZ 14

BILLY GOAT
GRAPPA , C A LVADOS, CINNAMON, LIME, GRAPEFRUIT, FIZZ 14

EL CID
TEQUILA, AMONTILL A D O , G I N G E R , L I M E , F I Z Z 14

MAXX & LUCY
GIN, APEROL, RASPBERRY, LEMON, SPARKLING WINE 16

JEWEL BOX
LILLET, RUM, GENTIAN APERITIF, PEAR CIDER 16

WHISPER CAMPAIGN
CALVADOS, CHAMOMILE, CHARTREUSE, LEMON, SPARKLING WINE 16

FIELD MARSHAL
ARMAGNAC , R OYAL COMBIER, BITTERS, SPARKLING WINE 16

CHECK YOUR HEAD
BOURBON, CURAÇAO, LEMON, PEAC H , M I N T 14

PROSPERITIVO
AQUAVIT, GIN, COCONIB CAMPARI , GRAPEFRUIT, LEMON 14

SECOND WIND
COGNAC , P I N E AU DES CHARENTES, VERJUS BLA N C , B I T T E R S 14

BENJAMIN THOMAS
SCOTCH, LEMON, CHERRIES, BITTERS 14

GUN METAL
GIN, WATERMELON BLANC, BITTERS, ABSINTHE MIST 14

WOLF TONE
PISCO, GRAPPA, ELDERFLOWER, EUCALY P T U S , B I T T E R S 14

CUT & PASTE
EAU DE VIE DE POMME, IRISH WHISKEY, HONEY, BITTERS, ABSINTHE MIST 14

LADY JAMES
RYE WHISKEY, VERMOUTH, FRAMBOISE, BITTERS 14

HOUSE SODAS
CELERY SODA 6
WITH GIN OR VODKA 14
STRAWBERRY TARRAGON SODA 6
WITH GIN, VODKA, RUM OR TEQUILA 14
GRAPEFRUIT SODA 6
WITH GIN, VODKA, BOURBON OR TEQUILA 14
PINEAPPLE COCONUT EGG CREAM 6
WITH GIN, VODKA, RUM OR TEQUILA 14

A Blackberry and Beer Cocktail from A New Book

In last week's FineCooking.com post, I put up a recipe from the new book  Beer Cocktails, by Howard & Ashley Stelzer. 

As I said in the post I really like the book and the recipes are very original.

"The drinks are divided into recipe categories by beer type: lagers, Belgian/trappist ales, stouts and porters, and other dark beers. They include ingredients like root beer liqueur, mezcal, and pistachio liqueur to go along with the brews, plus lots of fresh ingredients like herbs and berries. Many beer cocktails feel a bit forced, but these flavor combinations are pretty fun and I look forward to trying more of them out."

The recipe over on FineCoking is for the Sloe Work Day, a drink with IPA, blackberry puree, sloe gin, St. Germain, and other ingredients. Go Get Some!

The Sangria Spectrum in Fine Cooking Magazine

In the June/July issue of Fine Cooking magazine I have a story about sangria.

We kind of rewrote it a bunch of times and now it's mostly a list of tips on how to make a good sangria, but here is the intro.

Traditional sangria is delicious, but it can also be a bit predictable: a pitcher of red wine with orange liqueur or brandy, slices of citrus, and sometimes a splash of soda for fizz. Recently, though, sangria has been showing up to the party dressed in new shades—pink, white, and even yellow—thanks to a base of rosé, white, or sparkling wine. The fruit accessories have diversified, too. Some recipes call for vibrant peaches or pastel pears, and others boast a rainbow of kiwi, pineapple, strawberries, and blueberries. With so many options, today’s sangria is practically a year-round drink, changing to suit the season and the occasion.

There are also two sangria recipes. The first is from Kathy Casey, a strawberry-melon sangria in a deep red color.

The second is by Kim Haasarud, author of 101 Sangrias. It is a yellowish pineapple-orange sangria with peach vodka and Riesling. 

The pictures are better in the print magazine, I promise. 

We Have Ice, And We Have Backup Ice

It turns out that Wayne Curtis has a lot of connections in the iceberg business.

Wayne and I are co-leading a talk about Exotic Ice at the Manhattan Cocktail Classic on Monday, May 14th and we thought it would be cool to get some iceberg ice for it.

Because the rate of precipitation in the Arctic is actually pretty low, it's not that hard to get some ice that is 10,000 or so years old. The air trapped between the thin layers of snow compresses as layers add on top of it, so when you pour a drink over iceberg ice it can crackle and pop like Rice Krispies and you can breathe in 10,000 year-old air.

So anyway, Wayne put himself in charge of getting someone to mail us a glacier.

Along the way, he spoke with folks in Alaska, other people in Greenland, and the Newfoundland Tourism Board. Like I said, Wayne Curtis knows a lot of people in the iceberg business.

The "easiest" plan was to get a chunk of iceberg and have someone put it in a cooler in their luggage when they flew to New York. But alas the timing didn't work out. So now he had a fisherman (fisherperson?) snag part of an iceberg to mail via FedEx to New York.

But first it had to get special approval from NAFTA and the FDA, and then it has to get through US Customs. Then it makes its way to New York and hopefully it won't be fully melted by the time it gets there.

And if it doesn't make here as a solid block, we might still have time to resort to our backup ice.

Yes, we have backup ice. Because Wayne Curtis also knows people in the pond ice business.

 

More information about the seminar is here and on Alcademics here.

Cocktail Menu: Midnight Cowboy Modeling in Austin, Texas

The new bar Midnight Cowboy has opened on the sight of Midnight Cowboy Oriental Modeling, basically a brothel, in Austin. The bar opened at the end of February. Below is the menu and below that, a press release about the bar. 

I see: Celery Julep! Josh Harris' Del Rio! Vinegar!

One For the Road

I found the cocktail for last week's FineCooking.com column from the blog of Dylan Regan, who is riding a motorcycle across the country on his way to the Manhattan Cocktail Classic. 

The cocktail is from Bryan Dayton of Oak at Fourteenth in Boulder, CO. It contains Hendrick's gin, Pimm's, lemon and orange juices, honey syrup, and bitters. 

Photo by Dylan Regan

The recipe is here.

Or you can find this and other great recipes from Regan's road trip on his blog over on TastingPanelMag.com.