Alcademics.com

The History of the Ice Trade

I recently finished reading The Frozen Water Trade: A True Story by Gavin Weightman. The book is the story of Frederic Tudor, whose wacky idea of cutting ice in winter from ponds in Massachusetts and selling it to people in warmer climates in the summer turned into a 100 year industry until refrigerated ice became readily available. Tudor's ice was shipped as far as Martinique, India, San Francisco (around the tip of South America where there was plenty of ice already), New Orleans, and throughout the American South.

Of course, my interest in the book was purely cocktail-related. The sale of ice was directly responsible for the creation of drink categories including juleps, cobblers, and smashes, and created the need for cocktail shakers as well as straws. Iced drinks became popular with Englishmen in India, but didn't catch on in England (not for lack of trying to sell it there). American cocktails stood out from English and other ones in their need for ice (as evidenced by books like Recipes of American and Other Iced Drinks), and grew in format and in number because of this ingredient.

As we know the cocktail was an American invention and probably its first native cuisine, we can probably chalk up a lot of the credit for America's famous drinks and bartenders (pre-Prohibition) to this one guy who created a world-wide industry out of nothing but freebies- frozen lakes, sawdust to keep it cold through the summer, and room in ships' holds as ballast on trading routes.

The book itself isn't the "page-turner" as described on the cover, nor does it delve too deeply into the discussion of the impact on cocktails, but with an understanding of what came later in American cocktail history, it's fascinating for its implications. 

Count the Rings

I recently read A Ramble Round the Globe Revisited , thinking I was buying the original A Ramble Round The Globe from 1894 by Tommy Dewar of Dewar's Whisky. This version, by Malcolm Greenwood, didn't add any value to the original journal that was mixed in with his commentary on how things had changed since then.

But it had one ridiculous- and naively offensive- quote from the original journal by Tommy Dewar that is too funny not to share. This was Dewar's observation in Shanghai.

By the way, a wholesale wine merchant in the English settlement told me that a Chinaman made the best of all warehousemen in a wine merchant's establishment, not only because they did not drink very much, but that if they did, anyone could always tell, for half a glass of wine, or anything intoxicating, caused a large red ring to appear round his eyes, and by looking at him and counting the rings, it was possible to find out just exactly how much he had imbibed. Very ingenious this! I had never heard of it before; but I suppose it's true. I know that the age of a tree or a cow can be told by looking at the rings of the trunk or the horn, but this way of telling how much a man has had to drink was quite new to me. It would be a good thing sometimes if this were the case with Englishmen, and would assist most materially in 'drunk and disorderly' cases. Imagine a man denying before a magistrate at Bow Street that he had been drunk; how easy it would be for His Worship to say, 'Constable, did you examine his eyes?' 'Yes, your wusship; but the rings all round each eye were so mixed up over 'is nose, and went right under the 'air of 'is 'ead, we couldn't count how many there really was!' 'Ten shillings or seven days!' Why the whole thing would be as easy as ABC.

The Searchable Savoy

Conventional cocktail book indexes are poor substitutions for databases, because in very of few of them can you look up a drink by ingredient. And when you can, it's only by base ingredient- gin, vodka, etc., instead of the mixer or modifier. I often want to look up drinks with ingredients like grapefruit juice or Creme Yvette, so this doesn't help.

Most online drink databases, on the other hand, are easily searchable but have too many drinks and no credits attached to the recipes. So you get 300 versions of the drink but don't know if someone just made it up or if it comes from a reliable source.

In one case, anyway, there is a good solution. All the recipes from the Savoy Cocktail Book can be found in a very simple searchable database here. We owe this to the efforts of Jimmy Patrick- bartender, blogger, and apparently secret programmer, and to Erik Ellestad who scanned in the whole book in order to work on his Savoy Cocktail Project.

Unlike most drink books, the Savoy has wonderful illustrations throughout the text that make it a must-own for all serious cocktailians. I don't feel guilty sharing it, as this database is more of a searchable accompaniment to the beautiful hard copy, which you can find in reprint.

What would be cool for modern cocktail books is if they had online searchable databases that didn't necessarily return the whole recipe, but told us the page number that the drinks were on so we could look them up in our hard copy. That would combine the convenience of a database without any income loss for the author. Hmmm, project!

Seasonal Cocktail Book Showdown!

Two seasonal cocktail books were released this fall: Artisanal Cocktails: Drinks Inspired by the Seasons from the Bar at Cyrus by Scott Beattie and Market-Fresh Mixology: Cocktails for Every Season by Bridget Albert with Mary Barranco. Excited for a showdown, I made this nifty banner with the seasons slightly out of order.

But then I read each of them, and it turns out the books don't have all that much in common. They're completely different approaches to fresh ingredientmixology.

Beattie's book focuses largely on fresh herbs and spices like edible flowers, fennel, mint, and star anise. Albert's focuses on fresh fruit and vegetables like carrots, beets, zucchini, plums, and figs. Beattie also includes some stranger things like pickled hearts of palm, Fresno chiles, and pickled daikon.

Albert's drinks are relatively simple (though creative), with many of them spin-offs of drinks like the Mojito, Mint Julep, French 75, and Margarita. Beattie's recipes do include some simple drinks like the Dark and Stormy, Gin and Tonic, and Negroni, but they seem more like filler around his complicated creations that call for touches like five-spice syrup and candied citrus peel.

 Beattie teaches techniques like how to toast spices, make foams, and salt/sugar rims. Albert has a section on seasonal infusions and making homemade cocktail onions and an apple serving glass.

I think this can all be boiled down to a basic difference: Bridget Albert's drinks come from the farm. Scott Beattie's drinks come from the garden.

Great Cocktails, Not-So-Great Title

Robert Hess is a drink nerd, founder of DrinkBoy.com (that has now morphed into the Chanticleer Society), and host of the video show The Cocktail Spirit with Robert Hess.

The first recipe in The Essential Bartender's Guide by Robert Hess doesn't come until page 99. There is a lot of information in those first pages on cocktail history, bartending basics, and definitions of base spirits.

I suppose those pages are why this book is called the Essential Bartender's Guide, but honestly I find all the value in this book on the pages that follow.

The recipes there are a mix of new and old drinks, many created by the author but others created by modern mixologists like Jamie Boudreau, Jim Meehan, David Nepove, Ryan Magarian, Francesco Lafranconi, Gary Regan, and the like. Most drinks have four or less ingredients and are heavy on the Chartreuse, Benedictine, maraschino liqueur, and Campari. Yum, yum, yum, and yum.

Of the modern recipe books, this one has the most new recipes that appeal to me right off the bat. I am also more likely to make these than many of the complicated drinks in other books requiring you to create syrups and bitters and reductions in advance. Usually when I pick up a cocktail book it's because I'm thirsty, not because I want a drink a month from now. But that's just me.

I would not call this the essential bartender's guide, but I would call it a great modern recipe book that is likely to see a lot of use in my house. It is available from Amazon or the Cocktail Kingdom website, and currently it's only $12.95.

Fizzy Reading: 101 Champagne Cocktails

Kim Haasarud has authored 101 Sangrias and Pitcher Drinks, 101 Margaritas, and 101 Martinis. Now she adds 101 Champagne Cocktails to the list.

The book, as the title suggests, lists 101 champagne cocktails. Most of them can be grouped into a few categories- tropical, floral, fruity, and sorbet-based, with many variations on champagne classics such as the Mimosa, Champagne Cocktail, French 75, and Bellini. There are also bubbly versions of non-sparkling cocktails like the Mojito, Margarita, Old Fahioned, Daiquiri, and Mint Julep.

There are just a few completely unexpected touches, like egg white drinks, but there isn't anything that looks too outrageous. Though most of the drinks in the book are of the same format of classics with slightly different ingredients, that doesn't mean that the drinks are obvious variations- I kept finding myself thinking, "Now that's a good idea!"

I think the conclusion here is that if you like champagne drinks, you'll like the book.

The New DeGroff

The Craft of the Cocktail by Dale DeGroff is one of my go-to books for drink recipes. Come to think of it, for actual drinks I'm going to make around the house, it's probably the first place I look.

Now he's released a second book, called The Essential Cocktail: The Art of Mixing Perfect Drinks. While Craft has 500 recipes, this book has 100 recipes, plus 100 variations on each. I attended Dale's book launch party in San Francisco at Level III, and asked him a few questions.

What's the difference between this book at Craft of the Cocktail?
A lot fewer recipes, number one. Craft is more of a master’s class. This is more recipe, story, and artwork. But within the classics for example I'm not just talking about the Martini but I'm giving some variation. Within each of the classic categories I’m also giving a spin or two as well. (There are also) new drinks I think will last quite a bit longer, like the Cosmopolitan and the Long Island Iced Tea. They are part of an era and are still very much ordered around the world.

And the artwork is so much a bigger part of this book. I found a young digital photographer who I think is spectacular. I heard from a lot of people, especially home bartenders, said that they wanted to see (the drinks)!  My favorites are Page 92 the Monkey Gland and Page 23- the Champagne Cocktail.

Who is the book written for?
The bartender and the home bartender. Same as Craft.

Did any of the recipes change between this book and the last one?
Yes.  Always! I change them from week to week, are you kidding me? The recipe is driven by the size of the glass, the classic original recipe, and the customer in front of you. You can’t be anal about recipes.

Buy the book on Amazon here. 

Glossy Booze: November Edition

Glossy Booze is a round-up of cocktails and spirits stories in magazines.

Men's Journal has this story on the increasing popularity and price of bourbon, along with some recommendations by Wayne Curtis, a few recommended brands of merlot, and a review of The Wettest County in the World.

The December issue of Men's Journal is also out, and has a recipe for the Midnight Manhattan,  a mention of Palo Santo Marron as a good winter brew, an endorsement of Three Thieves Bandit wine in the box as "adventure-ready wine," and a list of "Top Shelf Hooch" including Bluecoat Gin, Vodka 14, Nouvelle-Orleans Absinthe, and Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey.

In San Francisco's 7x7 Magazine, Jordan Mackay lists some steak-pairing red wines, and feature's Jennifer Colliau's Small Hand Foods, her vintage syrup business.

In Details, Rob Willey has a story on eggnog, with some recommended products to put in it- Remy Martin CROP cognac, Old Forrester Signature 100-proof bourbon, Brugal Anejo rum, and El Dorado 15-year-old rum.

Esquire is also on the rum kick, with David Wondrich telling us about how rum ages faster in the hot environments, and recommends a few to try: Clement Cuvee Homere, Angostura 1824, and English Harbour 10-year-old Reserve.

And finally, Bon Appetit has a slew of stories: A recipe for the Algonquin Bar Punch, some suggested champagnes, a fun list on what drinks cost around the world, a recipe for Christmas Caipirinhas (with ginger, ginger beer, and mint added to the usual mix), and a whole vintage cocktail party feature with food and old-style drinks.

Also from the Bon Appetit website, check out these pictures of bartenders in New York making the Blue Blazer.

Cocktails for Catfish

Scott Beattie's media onslaught continues! The Wall Street Journal's Eric Felten calls some of the drinks  in Beattie's book Artisanal Cocktails "cocktails for catfish" because there is so much food on the bottom of the glass. Ha! (Read the story here. )

Though Beattie's drinks do include tons and tons of herbs, spices, flowers and other pretty garnish, Felten doesn't mention that they actually do contribute significantly to the flavor of the drink. Beattie takes largely simple base ingredients like vodka and unaged rum and builds complex drinks using fresh herbs and spices rather than using complex spirits and simple garnish. In the same way an east coast bartender might reach for the bottles of creme de violette and rose flower water, Beattie would reach for the hedge clippers.

The Big Easy Book of Cocktails

Simon Difford's latest book is a departure from his previous works, as well as from the current cocktail book trend generally. Instead of the 2500+ recipes in his Difford's Guide books or the sometimes complicated seasonal drinks requiring exotic ingredients, Difford's new book Cocktails Made Easy includes 500 drinks that can be made with only 14 ingredients. That'll save some space in your bar.

"This book does indeed make cocktails very easy - allowing over 500 different cocktails to be made with just 14 Key Ingredients. Within the book there is a step-by-step pictorial guide to making drinks at home, with tried and tested tips to make things even easier. Every style of glass is listed, garnishes are clearly explained plus there is a colour photograph of every cocktail listed so you can see how the finished drink should turn out."

I assume those 14 ingredients are all spirits and don't include the juices and sodas as mixers, but still I think this is a great idea. More information here. 

SF Event: Beattie Book Launch

If you live in SF and are planning on buying Scott Beattie's book, the time and place to do it is November 3 at Cantina. Hopefully the drinks served will be ones from the book, as Beattie cranks out some seriously delicious cocktails.

Artisanal Cocktails: Drinks Inspired by the Seasons from the Bar at Cyrus
by Scott Beattie
$40 admission, includes cocktails and an autographed copy of the book
Monday, November 3rd, 6 - 10pm
Cantina
580 Sutter Street

for more information, please visit:

http://scottbeattiecocktails.com/

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/03/WI6S1385C0.DTL

The Gentleman's Companion's Companion

The Gentleman's Companion by Charles H. Baker is one of the most entertaining historical cocktail books, if not always the most useful. It contains cocktail recipes gathered from Baker's travels around the world, but the best parts are the drink introductions and settings. Like this one:

THE JAMAICAN BLACK STRIPE, another Heartener from that Tropical Paradise, that May Be Served either Hot or Cold
If served cold: work 2 tsp strained honey into 1 tbsp boiling water until well dissolved. Add 1 jigger Jamaica rum, shake with cracked ice, pour into stemmed cocktail glass and dust with nutmeg. Furnished us by Emerson Low, Esq., gentleman, student, Rhodes Scholar, author and delightful dilettante, who, now that he is married and possessed of child and responsibility, is not nearly so diverting, it pains us to say.

It's a cocktail recipe, and a total diss.

Anyway, my pal St. John Frizell has been studying the life of Charles H. Baker. He gave an awesome talk at Tales of the Cocktail this year, and published a long biography in the Oxford American this summer. Now he's posted the story on his website. It's a must-read for all Baker fans.

Beattie Book Month

 On Friday I opened both the San Francisco Chronicle and Sunset Magazine to see Scott Beattie's smiling face amongst the flowers. Both articles are online.

Scott's Book, Artisanal Cocktails: Drinks Inspired by the Seasons from the Bar at Cyrus, is out now and his total media domination will force you to submit to his will. Tear up your garden and grow garnish now! 

Book Review: Liquid Mexico

Liquid Mexico by Becky Younman and Bryan Estep is a book I bought while researching tequila more than a year ago. The book is not a tequila directory by any means. It's a travelogue about a trip to Mexico to learn about different beverages there, from tequila to Corona to mixed drinks like the Margarita and the Michelada.

I can't say I learned much about the Margarita or Michelada or even tequila from reading this book, but that's not to say I didn't learn anything. In fact, I learned more about pulque and mezcal from Liquid Mexico than I had anywhere else.

Beyond that, the book was an engaging read, which each author taking turns writing chapters and them writing about their experiences learning about these beverages more than just reporting the dry facts  after the research was done.  So it's not a great research book beyond pulque and mezcal, but a good overview of Mexican drinks.