Now that's what I call garnish!

Check out this awesome garnish from Victoria Damato-Moran at the 42 Below vodka competition:

The Tales end

I'm home from Tales of the Cocktail, the annual cocktail convention in New Orleans. This year was fast and confusing and pretty great, and I think it will take me a few days to process it all. I don't really go for the partying that happens at night, as I can do that every day in San Francisco, but for the lectures during the day. Some of the talk highlights for me were:

• The Sagatiba cachaca tasting room session by Jared Brown and Anistasia Miller, in which they talked about several of their new incredibly exciting (you know, to drink nerds) findings on cachaca history and how it predates rum. I think the information in their new Sagatiba-sponsored book will fuel many cachaca stories for the next year.
• Martin Cate's talk on Cocktail Garnish, which was so much fun and had great visuals in the presentation.
• St John Frizell's talk on Charles H. Baker, Jr. Not only was it fascinating to learn more about Baker- a well-read drink writer but largely unknown person- St. John's lecture was hilarious. Did you know he made the first literary reference to the word "Ho"?

For those who attended- what were your favorite talks?

The coming anti-garnish movement

The Wall Street Journal's Eric Felten is all up in the Bay Area's business lately. Last week he wrote about Eric Ellestad's Savoy Project. This week he tackles the heavy issue of garnish and quotes Greg Lindgren from Rye on some of the sillier garnishes he's seen in their monthly cocktail competitions. Personally, I fall into the pro-garnish camp, with some reservations. I am fine with purely ornamental garnish as long as it:

1. Doesn't get in the way. I hate it when garnish pokes you in the mouth or prevents the flow of booze into my gullet. Edible flowers and many orange/lemon/lime slices are too big to stick in a martini glass.
2. Doesn't take up space. I like olives more than the average person, but not three of them displacing the liquor that would be there otherwise and making making my gin all salty.

(Another pro-garnish person is Martin Cate of Forbidden Island, who is giving a talk on the subject at Tales of the Cocktail.) Despite my decorative preferences, I fully support the goals of the anti-garnish movement, and hope to see anti-garnish websites and protests outside of tiki bars in the near future. Because conflict is the garnish of reality.

No-No-Jito

Mojito cocktail garnish is recalled

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- The Food and Drug Administration announced the recall of approximately 5,000 cases of Rimmer Mojito Cocktail Garnish due to possible contamination.

Stirrings LLC of Fall River, Mass., initiated the voluntary nationwide recall of the 3.5-ounce packages because they might be contaminated with salmonella bacteria.

When I read the headline, I thought, WHY DON'T THEY JUST CALL IT 'MINT'? (I always talk to myself in capslock.) But it turns out that Stirrings' version of mojito garnish is lime flavored sugar. Is it wrong that I thought IF YOU GARNISH YOUR MOJITO WITH LIME SUGAR YOU DESERVE TO BE POISONED?

It's Pimm's Season

Wimbledon starts June 25th, and that means it time to start drinking Pimm's No. 1 Cups. I wrote about them for the Chronicle in the fall, but it's time to refresh your memory and start planning. At San Francisco's Slanted Door restaurant, they make a Pimm's cup without Pimm's that's an approximation from the old Cocktails of the Ritz Paris book. According to Wikipedia, "A close approximation to Pimm's №1 can be prepared by mixing one measure of gin with one Orange Curacao and one red Vermouth." I've had the Pimm's at Slanted Door and can testify to it's deliciousness. It would be especially nice on a day like today, when San Francisco is having a "heat wave" of temperatures in excess of 80 degrees! (You have to live here to appreciate the rarity of that.) But this year someone upped the Pimm's Cup ante. At Alameda's Forbidden Island tiki bar, Martin Cate decided to make his Pimm's as an approximation as well. But he's adding extra-special garnish. The traditional Pimm's as it was served in England was garnished with borage leaves. When they made a big push to promote the drink in America (I can't remember when- 1950's?) they sold the bottles with packets of borage seeds, since nobody here knows what the heck borage is. This picture from Wikipedia shows it's a big ugly weed. Anyway, borage didn't exactly catch on here but it turns out that cucumber has a similar flavor to borage leaves. So that's why you get them in your Pimm's. Diageo even changed the label on the bottle to reflect this and now recommend garnishing it with cucumber and even strawberries. Some people are not happy about this, and have started an internet petition to strip such blasphemy from the label. (Read the site for a ton of Pimm's info- good stuff.) You can find borage leaves in dishes in some fancy restaurants, an internet search revealed. So Martin at Forbidden Island sent his minions in search of borage leaves. He tells me they ended up going to 11 different garden stores (note: not grocery stores) to find borage to serve in his Pimm's Cups. He also bought some borage seeds to plant outside the bar in the hopes they won't have to drive all over town in the future. That's some serious dedication to a drink. And is anybody else really fricking thirsty right now?