Alcademics.com

Good Booze, Bad Booze: Vodka, The Thinking Man's Drink

 
One day science says drinking will make you live forever. The next day science says it will kill you tomorrow. Good Booze, Bad Booze is an Alcademics category where I put all these stories together. 

2/15/12:  Vodka can boost problem solving and creativity, finds study [link] 

From the New Jersey Newsroom: "Scientists from the University of Chicago concluded in a recent study that men who are under the influence, but also not legally drunk, were faster and more creative in solving word association problems than men who were sober."

 

Previous Good Booze, Bad Booze

2/6/12:  Two glasses of wine a day 'triples mouth cancer risk' [link] 

2/1/12:  Daily glass of red wine might not be good for you [link] 

1/19/12:  Science Proves that Alcohol is Fun [link] 

1/19/12:  The Personality Trait Linking Alcohol to Aggression [link] 

1/19/12:  10 Surprising Health Benefits of Beer [link] 

 12/27/11:  Prevention: Beer and Martinis: As Healthy as Wine? [link] 

 12/6/11:  A Sobering Look at Alcohol: 10-Year Study Finds High Death Rate [link] 

12/6/11:  Is a Daily Glass of Red Wine Good For Your Heart? Maybe Not [link] 

 12/3/11:  Moderate Alcohol Intake Linked To Lower Female Diabetes Risk[link] 

 11/16/11:  Wine is no Better Than Beer in Benefits [link]

 11/4/11:  Substance in red wine shows promise in first human study [link] 

 11/1/11:  Raising the Chance of Some Cancers With Two Drinks a Day [link] 

10/28/11:  Alcohol linked to better survival after heart attack [link] 

 

 

see plenty more news stories after the jump...

Every Drink I Had at Tales of the Cocktail 2011

Below are the tweets sent out as I was recording every drink I had at Tales of the Cocktail for the second year in a row. 

The totals are: 

Wednesday: 18

Thursday: 41

Friday: 28

Saturnday: 19

 Compared to last year, this looks like a ton more drinks. But really I kept it to small sips and tastes for the most part. I came home feeling less poluted than usual, so don't let the numbers terrify you. Tales is for amateurs too!

Thursday was the big day again, due to the Diageo happy hour event. I had the same number as last year, 25, but it looks like more drinks before and afterward. 

Below are the individual drinks from my Twitter feed, many with pictures. Note they're in reverse order. 

Every Drink I Had at Tales of the Cocktail

I just returned from New Orleans for Tales of the Cocktail, a cocktail convention attended by many of the world's top bartenders, drink writers, PR representatives, and superenthusiasts. I think this was my favorite year of the convention to date. 

I tweeted every cocktail I had over the week. Let's see how messy that looks added up!

Tuesday July 20, starting at 5PM

• Vieux Carre and an 
• Abita beer @ Monteleone Bar
• Another Abita beer at Carousel Bar at Monteleone
• makers mark on the rocks out of a plastic cup at acme oyster house
• Sazerac at Carousel Bar
• Vieux Carre at Carousel Bar
• Vieux Carre
• Giant Bud Light with some awful Pizza somewhere on Bourbon Street.

Wednesday July 21

• Coffee with Kahlua to start the day!
• Gold kiwifruit St Germain Splash
• kiwifruit cucumber reviver
• not sure what it's called but kiwi yummers
• Shot of rum before my seminar begins
• Three drinks at my seminar- rear admirals grog
• perudriver
• margarita
• Firefly bourbon in hotel room
• another sweet tea bourbon
• a shot of dubonnet cocktail out of a flask
• 3 glasses of Veuve Cliquot at dinner at Arnauds
• Shot of bourbon 
• bourbon cocktail
• miller lite
• orgeat drink
• 2 shots of Stock Fernet
• Ocho tequila
• Miller lite
• stock fernet

Thursday, July 22

• Cat Daddy Moonshine coffee drink at breakfast
• Drinks of Asia seminar cocktail: unkown cocktail with some herb that tastes like fuzzy lemon dandelion leaves
• cognac old fashioned
• Self Publishing seminar- an amaretto and gin cocktail
• Ron Abuelo juicy drink at Carousel Bar
• nutmeg drink at Consulting seminar 
• firefly bourbon
• Diageo Happy Hour drinks:

1. Joaquin riff on seelbach cocktail
2. Wayne Curtis drink with Oronoco rum and fernet
3. Singapore sling punch
4. Aviation from Simon Difford
5. Daiquiri from bill Norris
6. rosy sinclair by Jason Bram
7. Valentinos Denise by Jim rondall
8. Bryan Dayton serves a Mary Pickford
9. Phillip Duff makes a Clubland
10. Tequila negroni from Ricky gomez
11. Brian miller makes drink with tanqueray dolin chartreuse cocchi
12. Misty Kalkoffen drink 
13. John Lermayer drink
14. Lynette Manero makes a drink
15. Tommy klus Serves a Mexican firing squad
16. Pisco drink from Aisha Sharpe
17. Ed Hamilton actually makes a cocktail!! With Zacapa
18. Jim meehan with a Cuervo drink
19. Spicy drink from Wondrich
20. Sean Muldoon serves a trader Vic drink
21. Andrew Friedman serving a sagatiba drink
22. Cable Car from Tony Abou Ganim
23. Chad and Christie drink
24. Francesco Lafranconi drink
25. Josh Durr drink

• Cure bar daiquiri
• Another daiquiri at Cure
• Dubonnet cocktail In hotel room

Friday, July 23

• a sip of Ron Abuelo rum at breakfast
• 2 Disarono cocktails at my Social Media seminar
• A Glenfiddich drink from Jon Santer
• Bourbon carbonated grapes that taste like a Mint Julep at the Bax vs. Clift seminar
• Sazerac with absinthe fog
• Molecular michelada
• apple sous vide infused calvados. 
• Dehydrated fruit cereal with champagne
• Old fashioned with orange peel smoke served in a jar
• Quick bourbon in the room before a meeting
• 2 Abita Amber and a veggie mufalatta at Cage Maspero
• Pimms Cup at Napoleon House
• Abita Amber at Napoleon House
• glass of bourbon
• Hilo Hai cocktail with Teader Tiki Syrups!
• Stella Artois.
• nip of Ron Abuelo

Saturday, July 24

• a spicy Hendricks cocktail 
• Mount Gay Rum punch.
• Wet Grave cocktail in Darcy Oneils fascinating Soda seminar- bourbon, acid phosphate, bitters, vermouth, claret syrup
• Soda seminar drink with Root beer, gentian, bourbon, acid phosphate
• 10cane rum drink in the Subconscious Drinks seminar
• a sip of Geranium Gin
• Brandy Milk Punch in the Caousel Bar
• 2 rum drinks in hotel room followed 
• 2 martinis at Tales of the Cocktail awards
• Glenlivet Nadurra 16 
• Another gin martini at Tales awards 
• Many swigs of Jameson 18
• a beer with my slice of awful but sobering pizza on bourbon street

Sunday, July 25th

• A morning Akvinta vodka cocktail.
• Stella Artois at breakast
• A Dalmore cocktail at the Keeping Ahead in an Online World seminar
• second Dalmore cocktail
• A final vieux carre at carousel bar.
• One last beer at the airport 

Apparently I had 35 drinks on Thursday. That would be terrifying but do keep in mind that for the vast majority of these drinks I had only a sip out of a glass that only held an ounce or so at maximum. 

Still, my liver will be getting a much-earned rest for a while now that I'm home. 

The Safety of Milk Thistle

A few months ago, founder Mike McAdams of Drinkwel reached out to me. This product is meant to be a vitamin for drinkers rather than just a hangover cure.

I told them that I was unsure about one of the ingredients in the mixture, milk thistle, as I'd heard reports that rather than being good for the liver it may actually cause harm.  

This caused a conversation that I thought I'd share. McAdams replied:

It's also funny you mention milk thistle because that was really our only ingredient that had an interaction paper on it. I've taken it on and off for a couple years but make sure my dosages are not too high. 

In case you're interested, here is what our doctor who helped formulate had to say (unfiltered): 

Milk thistle is probably the most well known liver protectant on the market. As far as alcohol intake, new studies have shown that milk thistle has both liver toxicity protection from ethanol [18] and protects against liver fibrosis in non-human primates [19]. 

Safety

There is the possibility of an adverse reaction with milk thistle (possible Pk interactions regarding the decrease of CYP, UGT, and P-Gp activity) [20]. These decreases seem limited so should not be a concern. Therefore, I believe this drug to be a safe and positive addition to the formulation.

and:

The biggest concern would be Milk thistle with only one interaction paper. I think for the most part its use in this formulation would be fine. It has been used for this type of treatment for numerous years without a major side effect case report being brought to light.

18.       Song, Z., et al., Silymarin protects against acute ethanol-induced hepatotoxicity in mice. Alcohol Clin Exp Res, 2006. 30(3): p. 407-13.

19.       Lieber, C.S., et al., Silymarin retards the progression of alcohol-induced hepatic fibrosis in baboons. J Clin Gastroenterol, 2003. 37(4): p. 336-9.

20.       Wu, J.W., L.C. Lin, and T.H. Tsai, Drug-drug interactions of silymarin on the perspective of pharmacokinetics. J Ethnopharmacol, 2009. 121(2): p. 185-93.

I followed up with McAdams and he send some more information. Then I followed up with the National Institutes of Health. This is all below the jump. 

Camper Turns the Big 5-0 in Scotland

No, I'm not 50 years old, but I visited my 50th distillery/blending house here in Scotland at the Isle of Jura distillery. I'm lucky to have seen so many places around the world and look forward to seeing many more. 

I'll post more information about the trip later, but here's the glamour (note European spelling) shot.

 

Another Ice Banner Attempt

You may think all I do is futz around with ice all day, and you'd be mostly correct. I attempted to make another site banner today using a clear piece of ice stamped with ALCADEMICS, but I think I like the orange peel one (too big as it is) better.

Click it to see it bigger if you're interested.

An Icy Weekend in Monterey

This past weekend I spent about 12 hours cutting ice and it was awesome! As part of a bartender catering gig with Rye on the Road I worked a wedding and rehearsal dinner in Monterey. With a trusty ice saw and my new ice pick from Cocktail Kingdom I went to town on those blocks of ice, chopping out fat cubes, attempting to carve spheres, and even making a heart to show the ice how much I love it.

Despite how it looks in this picture I didn't have my hand replaced with an ice saw, but now I'm thinking about it.
   

The Dry Spell

In the booze biz, it's pretty common for people to take sabbaticals from drinking alcohol. I know dozens of writers, PR people, liquor store workers, distributor sales reps, and bartenders who've taken anywhere from two weeks to six months off from the sauce.

Finally, it was my turn. I just finished a two-week break from booze. I liked it.

It is hard for me to schedule breaks like this because my typical work week involves no less than three drinking engagements, but usually a lot more. Heck, many days I have three booze-related events back-to-back. So when I saw that I had almost no events on my calendar for the weeks of Christmas and New Year's I knew it would be perfect. 

A break from booze allows you to detox, confirm that you're not an alcoholic, consume a few less calories, and just step off the party train to collect your thoughts.

So here are my thoughts.

• It wasn't nearly as hard as I had imagined. I didn't tell too many people (or blog) that I was taking a break because I was afraid I would fall off the wagon. Luckily that wasn't even close to happening.
• My biggest concern with alcohol is that I have sleep issues, and with a buzz on I can fall asleep without a problem. Without one, my mind won't stop racing. So on this break I'd typically stay up until 3AM instead of midnight, just waiting to fall asleep for the last three hours of the day. That was annoying.
• I think I am going to institute a policy that a nightcap doesn't count as a drink.
• You can totally get a hangover without booze. I think it's salt late at night that does it for me. I made a lot of soft pretzels (one of three things I can bake) and the next mornings my head would hurt. 
• A lot of time I wanted festive drinks- not an alcohol substitute, but something a bit more nuanced and food-like than water. I drank gallons and gallons of soda water (thanks, sodaclub!).
• Angostura Orange makes the best bitters-and-soda. I know because I tried them all.
• Regular Angostura bitters and a splash of agave syrup makes a lovely hot water drink
• Come to think of it, I was cold a lot. Weird.
• I missed the refreshing aspects of drinking the most; the "ahhhh" of the first sip of a cold Martini. I missed beer just as much as hard alcohol for the same reason. That's a bit odd because I don't often drink beer at home.
• I most crave drinks as little celebrations- the end of the workday, arriving home from an event, getting good news or a check in the mail. As these things happen all the time, I may try to replace a few of them with celebratory non-alcoholic drinks instead. It's not about the booze, it's about the celebration.
• By the end of the break I wasn't sick of not drinking, I was sick of not having a drink when I wanted one.

So, now that the Dry Spell is over, what shall I have to celebrate?

*Update* I advanced blogged this so I already had my celebratory drink: The Saratoga Cocktail (Saratoga Cocktail recipe). I can't say that it tasted better than it usually does. Luckily, it usually tastes pretty darn delicious.