digital absinthe

Slate has a video on absinthe, from someone who doesn't know anything about it.

Itemizing

I just learned that my 2,000 word story on scotch due next Monday was actually due yesterday, so posting may be a bit light for the rest of the week. Here are some things that caught my eye. - San Francisco Brewcraft solves the lack-of-hops problem by introducing a Burningman Hopless Absinthe Ale brewing kit complete with wormwood, lavender, and anise. (What, no fennel?) - Though they're advertising it as a beer pong ice rack, there is no need to limit its use to the "sport." Fill it with water and freeze it to keep ten plastic cups cold on the tray. - Jay from Oh Gosh! tasted 23 orange liqueurs and has now summarized his findings into awards. I think he deserves an award for the effort. - Seamus of Bunnyhugs lists some old-school genever cocktails to try out with the new genevers on the market. - Imbibe Magazine (sorry I'm late with that scotch story!) lists some cocktailian uses for home-grown herbs.

Absinthe in Men's Book

Speaking of absinthe, I just noticed that the story I wrote on the subject (or as I call it, the subject that keeps on paying) for Men's Book San Francisco is online. Go here and forward to page 80.

All about absinthe

Bourbon & Branch's Beverage Academy has a few spots open for tomorrow's absinthe class with Lance Winters. Lance makes St. George Spirit's Absinthe Vert, and is a fun speaker to boot. Backing him up is Todd Smith who will be making absinthe cocktails during the event. If you can't make it tomorrow, the next one is July 29th. The Beverage Academy has also started teaching Cocktails 101, also lead by Todd Smith, who will teach you how to get the most out of making drinks at home. Get tickets here.

American absinthe part II: Sirene Absinthe Verte

North Shore Distillery in Chicago is launching an American absinthe verte (green) this week. I believe this will be the second American absinthe on the market. The initial distribution will be just Chicago, then spreading around Illinois in the near future. Hooray!

Cachaca at Pampas

Dominic Venegas of FAMILY Spirits Counseling put together a list of mostly cachaca drinks (with a couple of other favorites you'll recognize from some of his SF projects) for the new Palo Alto restaurant Pampas, opening Tuesday. (The website isn't up yet, click here for the address.) I got a sneak preview of the cocktail menu on Friday and I've been salivating all weekend. (I guess you didn't need that mental image- sorry.) Here are some of the drinks from Pampas' menu:

Beleza Hemingway- Beleza Pura cachaça, Luxardo Maraschino liqueur, fresh-squeezed grapefruit Green Fairy Mojito- Beleza Pura cachaça, Absinto Camargo, mint, fresh-squeezed lime Rochina Sazerac-Rochina 5-year single-barrel cachaça, Absinto Camargo, Fee’s orange and Peychauds bitters Sgt. Pepper’s Strawberry Field- Red and black peppercorn-infused Ypioca cachaça, muddled fresh strawberries, basil and lime Alma- Sagatiba Pura cachaça, muddled fresh strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, fresh-squeezed lime, agave nectar Gaucho- Sagatiba cachaça, Canton ginger liqueur, mango, lime, spice

Rumor has it they'll carry 15-20 cachacas initially, with plans to build up the collection in the future. I like how this list isn't totally dedicated to one brand, as many cachaca lists are. You've got the funky aged Rochina, older brand Ypioca (don't know if it's an aged or young expression), and new-school-styled Sagatiba and Beleza Pura. Additionally, this is the first place I've seen using the Absinto Camargo, the Brazilian absinthe that is imported by the same folks as Beleza Pura. Oh yeah, Pampas is a Brazilian Churrascaria restaurant, which may be of interest to those of you who eat.

The Fee is free

Another absinthe will soon be hitting the US market- La Fee Parisienne Absinthe just got their TTB approval. Some facts about the product stolen from the press release:

• Launched in France in July 2000
• La Fée is the top-selling Absinthe in Europe (it accounts for 70% of the market), and is available in more than 16 countries.
• Should be available by the end of April
• 136 proof
• www.lafee.com

Absinthe: Hot or not?

In today's SF Chronicle Stacy Finz has a story on absinthe- will it outlive it's 15 minutes of fame? In it she lists some of the others coming to market.

The Swiss Kubler and French Lucid brands began distribution in the United States shortly after the absinthe ban was lifted last year. There are at least five more awaiting authorization from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau including Trillium, an absinthe being made in Portland, Ore. Gwydion Stone, an absinthe expert who founded the Wormwood Society, a nationwide club for lovers of the spirit, has teamed up with Portland's House Spirits distillery to make Marteau Verte Classique. The absinthe is awaiting federal approval.

Goth rocker Marilyn Manson is also jumping on the absinthe bandwagon, producing his own version in Switzerland. The aptly named Mansinthe hasn't yet received the proper licensing to be sold here. But the reviews, so far, have not been favorable. The Web site Epicurious compared Mansinthe's aroma to "sewage water or swamp mud."

Also in the story is a recipe for Jonny Raglin's Sacred Heart cocktail with pomegranate tequila, absinthe, and limoncello. Mmm.

Another absinthe cocktail

At the bottom of this absinthe story is a recipe for Neptune's Wrath from the Violet Hour in Chicago, containing gin, egg whites, lemon juice, absinthe, and flaming green Chartreuse. Sounds like my kind of drink.

Absinthe about town

Since absinthe became available on the market again, many restaurants are serving it in traditional cocktails like the Sazerac. At the restaurant Absinthe, they've also rediscovered a classic cocktail called the Lawhill. Farallon offers the Sazerac, Corpse Reviver #3, and the Waldorff cocktail. For a while, Yankee Pier restaurant on Santana Row in San Jose was serving oysters Rockerfeller with absinthe, as the original recipe called for it. Who knew? Other venues are experimenting with new uses for absinthe. At the lobby bar and Ame restaurant in the St. Regis, they're serving an Ame Tremor, made with Armagnac, sweet vermouth, absinthe, and a dash of bitters. At the launch party for Right Gin at bacar, they served a gin and absinthe drink that wasn't going to be on the permanent menu, but maybe if you go on Friday night Carlos will make you one. Sens restaurant offers a Raspberry-Absinthe Press, made with absinthe, framboise liqueur, and sparkling water with a lemon twist. I've tried it and it's pretty darn tasty- and you can make it at home! I've also had a touch of absinthe in A Touch of Evil at Orson that was amazing. It has bourbon, mint, lemon juice, absinthe, and rhubarb syrup. (And by the way, Orson's cocktail list is now online here.) At Conduit, a new restaurant a block from my house that I have yet to visit, they're serving a drink called The Hub with reposado tequila, absinthe, and bitters. I need to get in there and drink my way through the menu. And these are just the drinks in San Francisco. It's fun when a new ingredient hits the market and everyone uses it in different ways. St. Germain had the same effect last year. What might be the next hot spirit? I'll place my bets on Square One Vodka's cucumber flavor whenever it finally comes out (you guys know there is another cuke vodka hitting the market, right? hurry up!), and I bet we'll be seeing a lot of Veloce. But more on that later.

Absinthe on film

Chow.com has one of their Obsessives series on Lance Winters and St. George Spirits absinthe. While sporting a sassy urban lumberjack look, Winters talks about facts and fantasies of absinthe, and says of the good products, "You want to drink the shit out of these things."

Abinthe in the Apple

Lance Winters of St. George Spirits will be giving a talk on absinthe at the Astor Center on March 12th. Details are here.

Absinthe updates

The second batch of St. George Spirits Absinthe Verte goes on sale this Superbowl Sunday. They made a lot more this time so you may actually be able to get some. The first batch went so fast that when I wrote an article about it for Men's Book, they had to borrow my bottle to take to a bar and photograph. Anyway, they've also put up a nice informative video on the website about the absinthe, its ingredients, and its history. Check it out.

Absinthe education has a little ways to go

Eww. How you'd like your absinthe with an extra-high thujone content and a giant dead bug inside? That would be EXTREME (-ly stupid).

Absinthe sets

Someone wrote me:

I scored a couple bottles of the local Absinthe at Swirl on Castro (cute little wine bar where the help will swill with you – great fun). I haven't cracked it open yet because I feel like really doing it justice and serving the classic way. Any advice on where to find the necessary gear?

Good question. I imagine there is a total run on absinthe fountains right about now. I don't know offhand anyone selling them in San Francisco- please write in the comments if you do. But one store that sells them online is Bar Keeper in Los Angeles. Follow this link to the absinthe section. If you don't want to shell out $200 for the small fountain, you can make due without one. The absinthe spoons are nice, but you can probably use a slotted spoon or tea strainer to the same effect. The way I've enjoyed it most is to make an absinthe frappe. Use 1 1/2 ounces of absinthe and 1/2 ounce of simple syrup and pour it over cracked ice. Then swirl and swirl until much of it melts. I found that the Lucid and St. George absinthes needed more sugar (and water) than the Kubler. Enjoy!

Free crazy juice

Neyah of NOPA found this on Craigslist in the 'collectibles' section:

FREE St. George Absinthe Verte

---

Reply to: sale-518688964@craigslist.org Date: 2007-12-24, 1:40PM PST I waited in front of the door to St. George Distillery at the defunct Alameda Naval Station for 4 (count 'em F-O-U-R) days in the freezing wind and cold, waiting for the HISTORIC moment to arrive: the first U.S. distilled absinthe since 1912 available for legal purchase. Alas, the much awaited 11:00AM hour tolled on the 21st of December of the year 2007. The distillery doors flung open, smashing my frozen nose, but I was not deterred! My frost bitten fingers were shaking as I handed over my plastic currency and stuttered "T t t twelve b b b bottles p p p please". At $75.00 USD a pop I could hardly afford this expenditure on my part-time clown income, but I was determined to chase the green fairy until I found doG, or, at least got laid. I hobbled through the warm tasting room past professional drinkers parading themselves as Grey Uniformed Green Fairy Guardians. Bursting through the back door I elbowed my way through throngs of green eyed monkeys hungrily eyeing my clinking cache of TRUTH ELIXER. Out on the desolate, weed choked former jet fighter runway I slammed the trunk of my convertible Falcon Futura closed on 11 bottles. Looking across the bay at the almost sinister skyline of Little Gotham West I slither into the back seat, frozen limbs tingling, heart audibly pounding my rib cage. I pop the cork and release the green fairy. Eschewing proper absinthe preparation I tip my head back and gulp straight from the bottle. Pungent aromas of anise and fennel assault my nostrils as the holy green liquid tumbles down my throat. I feel like I am simultaneously ascending and descending as distilled wormwood wriggles into my brain. I returned to this body 48 hours later and there are no words to explain that I now understand everything. You cannot revisit the revelation, thus I have no need to imbibe the remaining liquid doorway. I am dispensing the opened bottle to strangers, and have randomly scattered the remaining 11 bottles near fairy symbols throughout the Bay Area.

It's a treasure hunt! But seeking fairies in San Francisco is going to be like looking for hay in a haystack.

Last-minute shopping

Holy moly! This was the line outside the St. George Spirits distillery yesterday, where people waited for two hours in line to buy absinthe. Methinks it's long sold out by now. More pictures here.

It'll hurt if I swallow

Rather than waiting for a tasting sample to be mailed to me, or going all the way to Alameda to buy it from the distillery, I decided to buy a bottle of St. George Absinthe Verte on its launch day. (*update- It's 8:30 PM, and I just figured out today isn't Friday, the official launch day. I just got lucky that I found a bottle a day early.) I went to D&M Wine and Liquors and plopped down my credit card without asking the price. (I thought it was $75 like it as at the distillery, or less.) I paid $97.64 including tax, which made it about $86 before tax. Ouch. In the spirit of investigative journalism I decided to make some phone calls to all the places that are supposed to be selling it. At the distillery, they're charging $75 for it. They have 1600 bottles. No real limits on purchase amounts. (D&M had a one bottle per person limit.) K&L Wine Merchants are sold out. They pre-sold all their supply. The Jug Shop is sold out. (They were charging $69.99.) Hi-Time wines aren't selling it until Friday. The phone person didn't know the price. It's not currently on their website. (I think they'll have 100 bottles to sell but I could be wrong on that.) Wally's Wines (in LA) said they have 6 bottles left. Long story short- if you want one from this batch, you had better go to the distillery Friday or Saturday.

Two big nights, two slow days

On Monday I hit up Absinthe to drink some absinthe. Lucid was having a launch party for the Bay Area. A couple of weeks ago there was a launch for Kubler at Bix that I attended, and last week we saw St. George Spirits absinthe get approved. (It's been a big month for faeries.) I can't wait to do a comparison tasting, but for now I'm just trying to get my bearings with the stuff. I tried drinking Lucid the standard way, with the louche, but I didn't put enough water in it. I had it in a cocktail or two as well. But my favorite way was the frappe they did at Absinthe. It seemed to be just absinthe over shaved ice with simple syrup and soda water, but it was really refreshing. Unfortunately the recipe for it isn't on the Lucid website (and unfortunately a recipe for absinthe and Red Bull is) so I'll have to hit up Absinthe for it. After that I hit the town with Eric Seed of Haus Alpenz and Erik Ellestad of the Savoy Project. We popped in to Jardiniere for a a drink, then checked out Marlena's for the annual Santa display. We then thought it would be a good idea to get some food, which lead to us walking all the way to Church and Market to Sparky's, where we had more beer. (My decisions may have been clouded like louched absinthe.) The next day passed very slowly and a bit painfully and I had some french fries then it was time to go out drinking. I met Eric Seed and friend Debbie at NOPA for some cocktails by Neya White. We also got snacks, and they do a mean plate of french fries so that made twice. Then, because I wanted to go home early, we went out drinking. We headed to the Alembic for drinks by Josie Packard. Hooray! They put a few new drinks on the menu there, including the Vieux Carre I was digging in New Orleans this summer. But I loved the Oh Sweet Nothing with rum, Chartreuse, and root beer bitters. And because I had to get home and not be out late, we stayed until closing. Smartly, Debbie ordered a plate of fries, which were the best ones of the day. And that made it a fry-fecta.

Breaking News

So Lance Winters of St. George Spirits let the cat out of the bag that his absinthe was approved at the end of last week. Well, local booze news doesn't get any bigger than that so I told my editors at the Chronicle it shouldn't wait until Friday's Wine Section and they agreed. Stacy Finz wrote the story with my contributions mushed in here are there (it was my scoop though- just saying). We were in a race to at least tie with the NYTimes story that also came out today. But in any case, by all accounts the St. George Absinthe Verte rocks. But cool your jets for a minute. The stuff written about in the stories is not even in bottles yet, people. The labels will be made the end of next week (Lance said he bribed the label people with booze to do a rush order.) I don't know if either story mentioned it, but it should be on sale beginning Friday Dec 21rst at the distillery in Alameda. The distillery will be open at least regular hours 12-7 Friday and Saturday and 12-6 Sunday. I think initially you'll only be able to buy it at the source until its distributed. Field trip, anyone?

Lost ingredients

Here's my big fat lost ingredients cover story in today's SF Chronicle Wine Section.

Resurrecting spirits Camper English, Special to The Chronicle Friday, October 19, 2007 Last year, Erik Ellestad, a cocktail aficionado and systems administrator at UCSF, decided to drink his way through a classic recipe book.

Though he initially considered "The Old Waldorf Astoria Bar Book," he found a cocktail every couple pages that required an obscure or unavailable ingredient, so he chose the easier-seeming "Savoy Cocktail Book" from 1930. On his path to making the book's 750 drinks, he hit his first snag at the second recipe: The namesake spirit in the absinthe cocktail had been banned in the United States since 1912.

"I tried a couple of substitutes (including pastis) that were not very satisfying. Then I received a bonus from work ... so I decided to order some absinthe from London."

Ellestad has plenty of company: Historically accurate cocktails are a growing trend extending from the classic cocktail craze, with an emphasis on finding and tasting the first-known version of a drink. Such cocktails can be a challenge to re-create. Drink recipes from 100 or more years ago require some translation, as they were smaller in size, used measurements such as drachms and gills, and involved processes like clarifying loaf sugar syrup.

But, as Ellestad found, the bigger challenge is that many of the spirits and other ingredients called for in classic recipes are no longer imported, have changed flavor profiles radically, were outlawed or are simply no longer produced.

Hunting down obscure spirits involves time, travel, collaboration and sometimes, reinvention. Nevertheless, dedicated drink historians (and thirsty mixologists) are working together to bring many of these lost cocktail ingredients back onto the market.

(Go read the rest. There's lots of it and I name-checked about half the booze nerds on the planet.)