Alcademics.com

Take Me to Saratoga

In my latest post for FineCooking.com, I discuss the Saratoga; a cocktail with two base liquors and one of my all-time favorites. 

I'm trying to warm up the Fine Cooking audience to understanding cocktail classification. 

Cocktails fall into many families and formats: sours, fizzes, flips, rickeys, and so on. With this nomenclature we can describe a drink without listing all the ingredients and quantities, no matter what someone has chosen to name it. For example, a Moscow Mule is just a vodka buck, and an Agricole Mule is a rhum agricole buck with mint. 

The basic recipe is

The Saratoga

1 fl. oz. Rye Whiskey 
1 fl. oz. VSOP Cognac
1 fl. oz. Sweet Vermouth
2-3 dashes Angostura Bitters

Stir all ingredients over ice. Strain into a cocktail glass.

Read the rest of the story here. 

On FineCooking.com: Homemade Grenadine and the Jack Rose Cocktail

Please check out my latest blog entry on FineCooking.com. It's about making your own grenadine and the Jack Rose cocktail. 

Read it here, and feel free to comment (over there) on your own grenadine or Jack Rose recipe improvements. 

Coffee liqueurs make a splash in cocktails

Here's my new story in the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, June 30.

Coffee liqueurs make a splash in cocktails

by Camper English

The craze for organic, shade-grown, micro-roasted slow-drip coffee has percolated into the cocktail world. Bartenders are improving classic coffee drinks, finding ways to harness the beans' bitter, aromatic qualities rather than just the caffeine kick.

Most cold coffee cocktails served in the past 20 or so years have been variations of the vodka espresso (better known as the espresso martini) credited to British bartender Dick Bradsell and made with vodka, espresso and Kahlua and Tia Maria coffee liqueurs. Nopa bar manager Neyah White updated this drink about three years ago, creating the Blue Bottle martini with Blue Bottle espresso, vodka and Araku coffee liqueur. It was, and is, "a ridiculously big seller," White says.

Coffee liqueur got a good bit more serious with the April release of Firelit Spirits Coffee Liqueur, made with coffee from Oakland's Blue Bottle coffee roasters and brandy from distiller Dave Smith of St. George Spirits in Alameda.

Continue reading the story here. 

Mike Kepka / The Chronicle

Reza Esmaili at Smuggler's Cove makes a Rear Admiral's Swizzle with Firelit coffee liqueur.

 

Reading material: post-European edition

You may not have noticed thanks to the incredible blog technology that allows me to write posts in advance, but I was out of the country all last week. Here are some things that have stuck in my brain as I catch up on my reading:

Eric Felten (I pretty much link to his column every week) writes about the Sherry Cobbler, and how it popularized both the cocktail shaker and the straw. 

Then he wrote about Georgian (not the US one) brandy.

W. Blake Gray says that "Nigori is the White Zinfandel of sake," but found one he actually likes.

Partying like it's 1905, towns in New Zealand move to ban absinthe. 

They're dropping like flies in SF! Thomas Waugh left The Alembic for the shores of NYC, and Jacqueline Patterson is no longer managing the bar at Orson but is still in town. Unconfirmed rumor is that Carlos Yturria is no longer at Grand Pu Bah and is now bar manager at Bacar.

Heaven Hill is releasing a Tabasco-branded tequila. Now that's a spicy margarita!