My latest story for Details.com is up! It started as a story about how cocktails in Lincoln's day were different from what they are today, but then I realized that many of the drinks are trendy again.
Drinkin' Like Lincoln: : 19th-Century Cocktail Trends That Are Trendy Again
Daniel Day-Lewis wasn't sucking back any mai tais in Lincoln, so if you want to coordinate your Oscar-party cocktail menu with this Best Picture nominee, you'll have to think historically.
When our country's very first bartender's guide, How to Mix Drinks, was published the year after Abraham Lincoln took office in 1861, America entered a golden age of cocktails. As it turns out, a lot of what was available to drink back in the 16th president's day has now come back in fashion. (Today: cocktails. Tomorrow: top hats?)
I was interviewed recently for a story in a magazine for the iPad/iPhone called The Magazine.
During the interview we were joking that I'm the Ice King of the Internet. The quote didn't make it into the story, but I've adopted that as an official title. Hail your new king!
In the story, writer Alison Hallet covers the history of ice in drinks, current ice machines, how bars are using big ice, and how to make big ice at home (with my cooler strategy). I get too much credit for bringing an iceberg from Newfoundland to last year's seminar at the Manhattan Cocktail Classic (that honor belongs to Wayne Curtis), but as long as my glory is increased it is for the greater good.
A preview of the story is here, but you'll have to subscribe ($1.99) to get the whole thing. Or sign up for a free 7-day trial, read everything, then decide whether or not to cancel before the week is up. Looks like they have a good amount of booze coverage.
He's been quietly doing pretty cool stuff over there. He implemented one of the first cocktail herb gardens, has barrel aged cocktails that he is able to sell commercially, and now features the "Cocktails Sur Lie" program.
Cocktail ingredients (minus the base spirit) are fermented like wine, then put into champagne bottles and fermented a second time like champagne. Then they pop off the caps to get rid of the yeast and add base spirit in the 'dosage' step.
As he partnered with a winery production center, he now has the winery do the production work after he develops the recipes, which not only ensures consistency in the bottled beverages, but they can legally sell them at retail.
A truly clever part of this system is that the hotel does tons of events, and having these fancy bottled cocktails that pop open like champagne allows them to serve the same quality cocktails as you'd find in the bar at the events- just pop off the cork.
By looking over the camper_clips tag on Alcademics for 2012, I picked out a few of my favorite stories (on other websites) that I wrote over that last year. They are below.
In my latest piece for Details.com, I round up some eggnogs that look weird enough to be interesting, including aged eggnog, smoky eggnog, one that sounds like you'd eat it at brunch, a super boozy one, and one made with two kinds of mushroom.
Ones that didn't make the cut (yet sound delicious) are Ian Cargill's Carbonated Eggnog from Vessel in Seattle, and Cynar Eggnog from The Passenger in Washington, DC.
Camper English is a cocktails and spirits writer for publications including the SF Chronicle, Details.com, Fine Cooking, CLASS Magazine, and many more. Learn about Camper and Alcademics, or read clips of his published work.
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