Last week I received four new tequila brand press releases and I think only one of them described the tequila. The others focused on the fancy bottles, the superpremium and exclusive nature of the tequila, or they just listed the resumes of the brand owners. Tequila has recently reached the... Read more →
I was preparing for my Tales of the Cocktail presentation and was thinking how unfortunate it is that I won't be able to use any of the information in the Tales session called How to Give Great Presentations for my presentation, as it is the presentation that takes place immediately... Read more →
A reader of Alcademics wrote to ask about getting a bartending job. I'm interested in becoming a bartender, but as someone who doesn't work in the service industry, and never has, I'm unsure where to begin. All the bartenders I speak to say that bartending school is a waste of... Read more →
Here's a cocktail I came up with for Thursday Drink Night at the Mixoloseum. The sponsor was Beefeater Summer Edition Gin, and I never know what to mix with Castries peanut liqueur. It turns out that just the two of them are kind of fun together. The Peychaud's bitters adds... Read more →
I've had several stories come out recently, so I thought I'd share them here. This blog is also my resume, after all. Friday I wrote about my recent piece in the daily email Tasting Table San Francisco. This one is about Encanto Pisco, brought to us by a bartender, a... Read more →
The new Encanto pisco, released in San Francsisco this past weekend, is the collaboration between a distiller, a bartender, and a sommelier: Peruvian distiller Carlos Romero, Cantina owner Duggan McDonnell, and sommelier/importer Walter Moore. This bottling is a blend of three aromatic and non-aromatic grape varieties that give it both... Read more →
I am a big fan of distillery waste. Not bathing in it, but learning about it. In most cases where a grain is distilled into whiskey or vodka, the spent grain (after all the sugar has been removed to be fermented) is sold off as animal feed. In Cognac (at... Read more →
I had an advance look at the cocktail menu for Prospect, the new San Francisco restaurant from Boulevard folks that opens on June 29. The beverage program was designed by Brooke Arthur, the long time bar manager of Range in the Mission. (Brooke Arthur, stirring in her unconventional style.) The... Read more →