Wine vs. Beer

Great story on Slate.com today about the dominance of wine over beer in America. Must of it the author attributes to an easier and less class-based language about wine, along with the idyllic pastoral image of wine as opposed to the industrial image and mass-production of beer.

He doesn't mention, and I don't have the numbers to back this up but pretty sure I've seen them, that the sales of microbrews are way up while the overall sales of beer are flat. He does point to an example of Bistro 8, an upscale beer produced by Budweiser that was a total flop- and implies that quality beer just doesn't sell to the American public. These two things seem contradictory. I think people just don't believe in quality beer from Budweiser and maybe the company should not have branded it as such.

Maybe part of the problem isn't that beer is industrial and wine is agricultural, but that when you think of wine, all the brands seem small- even Gallo and Two-Buck Chuck. Beer, on the other hand, seems nearly monolithic: Your choices are Bud or Miller, a cheap variation thereof (Milwaukee's Best, Genesee Cream Ale), or a microbrew at twice the price. In comparison to beer, all wine seems snooty and hand-made and that's what's selling.

Maybe beer companies, many of which own a lot of smaller brands, should put their marketing push towards those smaller brands and brews and the overall industry would benefit from connoisseurship of the consumers like wine. Because when it comes time to grab a 12-pack for the tailgate party, you're still going to buy Bud.

Tonic, Part I of XXIVIXDMXIV

I'm doing the tonic water research that everyone else is doing right now, and as part of the experiment I decided to make my own. I followed the recipe from Kevin Ludwig from Park Kitchen in Portland as published in Imbibe Magazine.Luckily, my bag of powdered cinchona bark did not break open like it did for "Food Dude", nor did I spill syrup all over my kitchen. Nor did I cut myself while chopping lemongrass nor burn myself on the oven. So all in all, it was a better cooking experience than when I do it with food.
I also followed suggestions in the comments for that article: allowing the mixture to sit overnight before filtering out the cinchona bark, and not adding the sugar until after the filtering.


But how does it taste? Just okay, I'd say. The initial sip is terrific, with a good balance of sweetness and bitter quinine with a little lingering sharpness. However it doesn't linger for as long as I want it to, and after the second sip my tongue feels like it's coated with bark dust. This "barky tongue" then dominates the flavor in subsequent sips with or without added gin.


I think I'm going to try to filter it a second time and see if it improves but that's going to be harder now with the sugar in it.Quest for tonic continues!

Show us the love

Right now all the food bloggers are doing this exhibitionist meme where they display the unedited contents of their refrigerators. I thought it would be fun to join in to show how the other half lives. Anyone viewing this could tell that I'm
a) single
b) male
since my refrigerator contains almost nothing but condiments and mixers. Then you look in the door and it appears I'm a drag queen.

Here's the breakdown:

Main Door:

• Two jars of raspberry preserves
• soda water
• soy milk
• iced tea (behind)
• homemade lemonade in pitcher
• pasta sauce
• sparkling apple cider
• (next level) Parmesan cheese
• gourmet mustard (one of 9 kinds currently in fridge)
• relish
• tofu dogs
• eggs
• (bottom level) homemade tonic water syrup
• chocolate sauce (nearly 10 years old)
• orange flower water
• Xuxu vodka/strawberry (behind)
  
• apple sauce
• more homemade tonic in jar
• salsa (behind)
  
• more iced tea
• salad dressing
• simple syrup

Door of refrigerator:

• nail polish (from dot-com era when it was hip for about 3 weeks for dudes match their shiny shirts with nail polish. I guess I should throw this out since it's all 9 years old and I can't envision an occasion calling for nail polish in the near future)
• condiments
• grenadine, red vermouth, dry vermouth

So basically, your tofu dog omelet can come with anything you want on it, but instead how about a drink?

Wine Crime

There's a cool wine crime story in today's SF Chronicle:

Many in Sausalito still can't believe who is at the center of the tale -- a man so woven into the civic fabric that he called himself "Joe Sausalito" in his slice-of-Marin-life newspaper column. He was a gregarious city commissioner with influential friends, and an oenophile who belonged to the local wine society -- that is, until the society's 1959 Chateau Lafite-Rothschild vanished.

Police say Mark Anderson abused the trust he built, starting a wine storage firm for collectors and then selling 8,000 bottles out the back door to fund a lavish lifestyle. Facing embezzlement charges, police say, Anderson kept right on selling -- then really fouled things up when he tried to cover his tracks.

Federal prosecutors recently accused Anderson of setting an October 2005 fire at a warehouse in Vallejo where he rented space for the wine. The flames spread through the building, consuming 6 million bottles owned by 92 Napa Valley wineries and 43 collectors. Their value: $250 million.

Read the story here.

Pisco Punch Me

Go read Robert Hess' history of the Pisco and the Pisco Punch. Thanks.

Line Tapping Scandal!

Wis. Bar Owner Gets Ticket for Tap

(05-24) 14:19 PDT Port Washington, Wis. (AP) --

A bar owner's attempt to avoid wasting leftover beer got him a sharp reprimand and a $172 ticket. Ray Wendt used a Miller Lite tap to serve Coors Light. He said he told customers they were drinking Colorado beer, not that from nearby Milwaukee.

"I didn't think nothing was tragic about it," Wendt said.

But police and state inspectors disagreed, fining him and sending him a letter that called the mislabeling "a major violation."

Wendt's American Legion bar normally serves Miller Lite.

But a wedding party asked for Coors Light for their reception earlier this month. Wendt ordered it, then found the tap handle he was given didn't fit his dispenser. He substituted a Miller Lite handle.

"It's not like I was pouring different liquor into a bottle," he said. "The Coors and Miller Lite cost the same."

The next morning, he served leftover Coors Light to his regulars.

"I said it was Coors Light, not Miller," he said. "I didn't lie to nobody."

He took a few days off and returned to work May 8, when two representatives from the state Department of Revenue and a Port Washington police officer conducted the annual inspection of his bar. They found the Miller Lite handle still connected to the Coors Light barrel.

State and city laws prohibit bar owners from dispensing beer from another brand's tap. The police officer ticketed Wendt, and the state sent him a warning.

Port Washington Police Chief Richard Thomas said Wendt has a well-run bar, but "the statute is pretty clear. You can't do this."

"It was an honest mistake," protested Wendt, who plans to fight the ticket.

Once in a Blue Moon...you get a cheap drink at Tres Agaves

If the alcoholic product you’re promoting doesn't have a built-in annual event associated with it like the Kentucky Derby or New Years Eve, you might consider pulling a Hallmark and inventing your own drinking holiday. And since we’re in San Francisco, why not make it a tie-in to the lunar cycle?

Tres Agaves is promoting a one-day special coinciding with the blue moon May 31, during which they’ll be offering their Luna Azul cocktail (“valued at $18”) for the bargain price of seven bucks. I think one-day-only promoted cocktails are awesome, though I'm not sure why I think that. Anyway, here is the press release.

Tres Agaves To Celebrate Blue Moon With Rare Cocktail
“Luna Azul” cocktail to be offered once in a blue moon

SAN FRANCISCO — May 22, 2007 — According to modern folklore, a Blue Moon is the second full moon in a calendar month. Usually months have only one full moon, but very rarely a second one sneaks in. In the spirit of this rare occasion comes a rare cocktail created by Tres Agaves Mexican Kitchen and Tequila Lounge, which sold more Tequila than any other single restaurant in the country in its first year of operation and will be offered only once in a blue moon – or Thursday, May 31st, 2007.

Tres Agaves, winner of Sante Magazine’s highest award (Grand Award) for the best spirits program in the country (2006), has created the “Luna Azul,” or the Blue Moon cocktail. The Luna Azul is made with Penca Azul Tequila, which is named for the blue leaves of the agave plant. Penca Azul is very unique; only one batch is made per year, and all bottles are labeled with the year of production, making it a vintage-dated distilled spirit. It comes in a hand-blown glass bottle with a blue glass agave plant in the bottom of each bottle.

The Luna Azul, valued at $18 will be sold at the house margarita price of only $7 for this special evening.

Luna Azul - $7
=======
1 1/2 oz. Penca Azul reposado
2 oz. blueberry nectar
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
1/4 oz. agave nectar

Located at 130 Townsend Street (at 2nd St.) San Francisco, CA 94107 (one block from AT&T Ball Park), Tres Agaves serves lunch, dinner and Tequila daily. Brunch service is offered on the weekends. Ample street parking is available on non-game days, as well as a convenient garage right around the next store. All major credit cards accepted, and walk-ins are always appreciated. For reservations, call 415.227.0500 or http://www.tresagaves.com

Open Source Soda

Color me clueless- I didn't know about OpenCola, a copyright-free recipe for Coke or Pepsi-like soda. Here's the recipe.

I'm not a fan of traditional sodas, but maybe you crafty barfolk can add this to your DIY selection of bar ingredients along with grenadine, bitters, tonic water, and limoncello.

Also on WikiHow, they have recipes for cherry soda, ginger ale, and root beer.

Angel of the Morning

A couple of years ago, I wrote that the Michelada was going to be the hot new beverage of the summer. In reality, not so much. But increased chatter about the drink lately by the likes of Jordan Mackay and The Spirit World and others makes me think its got a chance.

I make it like this:

Michelada
Salt the rim of a pint glass. Fill with ice, add the juice of half a lime, a few dashes of Tabasco sauce, one dash of Worcestershire sauce, and fill with Mexican beer such as Tecate.

I wrote about the drink again recently as something that should be served at brunch. Beer and juice over ice means that it's extremely low in alcohol so you can drink them early and often, and when I have a six-pack laying around I tend to go through about half of it making Micheladas instead of just one.

The reason I post this is to encourage people to try the drink at home and to request it at bars. It's a light and simple drink that deserves to be popular.

I have Stuff in Stuff

Run screaming to your local newsstand and pick up the June issue of Stuff Magazine. You'll know it because of the scantily clad woman on the cover. Rip out all the pages until 56, where you'll see the latest riveting piece of cocktail journalism by Camper English. Now, you won't see the name Camper English anywhere on the page because they're not about bylines (just tan lines), but that's me all right.

The "article" is Yoga Pose, Drink, or Sex Position? Play along at home, but you'll have to buy the magazine (or, you know, discuss in the comments) to find the answers.

Yoga Pose, Drink Name, or Sex Position?

1. Zombie
2. Corpse
3. Downward-Facing Dog
4. Suffering Bastard
5. Throat Swab
6. Mudslide
7. Thunderbolt
8. Reverse Cowgirl
9. Wheelbarrow
10. Sleeping Beauty
11. Warrior
12. Bulldog

What I like to do for fun, since I know all the answers (not that I do yoga- I looked it up) is try to imagine what the drink recipe would be if it had one of the sex or yoga names. (Maybe the Reverse Cowgirl would be a Coors Light followed by a shot of bourbon.)

But you probably shouldn't play the game in the other direction unless you want to imagine a sex position called the Mudslide...

Non-Threatening Chatter

Are you a gay or just want to surf the internet like one? Then you should really join my groups on the website GLEE.com. It's a social networking site that's an acronym for Gays, Lesbians, and Everyone Else. I'm working with them to bring more people to the site and am in charge of the Cocktail Chatter and Wine, Beer, and Sake groups. So go sign up and say howdy (it's free, of course) and then not only will I look better to the boss-man, I won't be having conversations with myself on the bulletin boards anymore. I hate to be (typing about) drinking alone.

On Writing (About Drinking)

Last night I was speaking with Duggan McDonnell of Cantina, where I was drinking for the third time before it officially opens on Thursday. It turns out that in addition to opening a culinary cocktail bar, Duggan is also getting his MFA in creative writing in his spare time. He was asking me about the world of booze writing, as it would make sense to combine his two passions.

Though I had no practical advice, what I should have said is, "Don't quit your night job." Writing is a terrible way to pay the rent, and even dive bar bartenders make twice the salary in half the time that I do. But it did stimulate some thinking: What are the ways that people write about cocktails and drinking?

• Recipe writing. Some people, many of them coming from the bartending world, write recipes and fill in the space around them with information. I do this for Frontiers Magazine, and Gary Regan does this in his column in the SF Chronicle.
• Technique writing. Shake or stir? Proper muddling, not-so simple syrups. There is more and more of this writing as people become interested in home mixology. Imbibe Magazine specializes in it, and many magazines have DIY advice as part of stories.
• History. People like Ted Haigh and Eric Felten of the Wall Street Journal will track every reference of a drink to find its origin, creator, and cultural popularity. This makes great bar conversation topics for the rest of us after they do all the hard work.
  
• Industry. Both the liquor industry and the service industry have trade publications following them and educating one another on what the competition is doing. Magazines like Bartender, Sante, and formerly Patterson's Beverage Journal cover these topics.
  
• Reviews. In the Web 2.0 world, bar reviews aren't as important as they once were, but the public still needs to know which bars are where and what they're like.
  
• Trends. A combination of industry news (three more organic vodkas launched) and reviews (three more bars serving flavored mojitos launched), trend writing is really my bread and butter.
  

Anything I missed?

Recipe by Request

By Cior's request in the Bacardi post comments, here is a recipe that I think allows the flavors in the rum to shine through.

Generally, the lime juice + sugar+ booze recipe should do this also, whether that's in a gimlet (gin) or daiquiri (rum) or margarita (tequila), but I don't actually like gimlets or daiquiris. These recipes all add a touch of sweetness, fruit, and volume to dilute the spirit but shouldn't overwhelm it. Basically, they're filler. So is the Rucopi, a drink which must exist somewhere under another name but here's what I came up with:

Rucopi (RUm COconut PIneapple)
1 1/2 ounces rum (especially dark rum)
1 ounce coconut water (not coconut milk; available in Latino groceries and health food stores)
1/2 ounce pineapple juice
Shake all ingredients over ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Week-end

Last night was the closing celebration for SF Cocktail Week. The party was held at Absinthe with booze and snacks for all. It was a delightful clusterfuck of San Francisco's finest bartenders and a lot of cocktail writers too. Around 8:30PM, people started asking, "Where are you going after this?" It hadn't occurred to me to go out afterwards, but Monday is industry night so the rest of the crowd was raring. Some people went for dinner, but more or less everyone ended up back at Elixir for the after-party.

I stopped by my house to drop off my coat, and noticed that all the other bars were empty on this Monday night. But Elixir was banging. Inside it was all shots and drinks and loudness and celebration and then it was 2AM and last call and lost jackets and cell phones. What? I was on my way out the door several times but then got called back into the fray.

Now it's Tuesday and I'm a little bit slow but not so hungover, and even though I didn't hit nearly as many bars for Cocktail Week as I had intended, last night's finale was a great end to a brand new tradition in San Francisco. So, what are we doing next year?

In defense of Bacardi

Much like Smirnoff, the well vodka so maligned that even after the NY Times blind tasted it as superior to expensive brands it still doesn't get much respect socially, Bacardi rum gets no props.

I was at a barbecue yesterday at which I served my Summer Strawberry Wave cocktail of strawberry-infused rum, lemon iced tea, and ginger ale. It was well-received all around, as usual. (Honestly, it's a fricking fantastic daytime drink). Someone new came in as I was offering up another round and I described the drink.

"What kind of rum is in it?" asked the person pondering it.

Bacardi, I said, though this should have been obvious due to the Bacardi bottle I was holding.

"Oh, well, then no thanks. Bacardi is gross."

I resisted the urge to smack her. Clearly she wasn't a rum expert dissing Bacardi in comparison to better brands; she was dissing it because she had gotten too drunk on Bacardi and Whatevers in college and thinks of it as overly sweet, syrupy rum when that's the mixer she's actually remembering.

"Take a sip of it then tell me it sucks," I said, but she wouldn't. Typical.

A few weeks ago, a couple of friends were over for a mojito-making training session (by the way, I'm available to do mojito-making training sessions for groups and business networking events- email me). After we went through the basics of preparation, I suggested we then try different rums and make mojitos with them.

My friends were hesitant when it came to sampling the Bacardi we had already been mixing with, but then they tried it. "Wow! Who knew?" they said. ("It's probably best to suggest trying it after a few drinks," one added, acknowledging her prejudices.)

I think more than commonly consumed average-quality whiskies or vodkas or certainly tequilas, Bacardi is the most underrated yet popular spirit brand out there. For something that so many people buy and consume, most people think of it as a crap product.

If that's you, I want you to take a sip from the bottle in your cabinet right now. It won't taste how you think it does- unless you think it tastes like more like chocolate and coffee than syrup and candy. These flavors aren't overwhelmingly intense- that's why you've never noticed them before in a soup of pineapple juice and Coke- but they're there and worth knowing about.

Though I primarily use Bacardi as a mixing rum at home, like Julia Child with the cooking sherry, I'll have a little sip before I add it to the mixing glass, because it's fine and tasty on its own.

Like Falcon Crest, but with rum

Coming to ABC this fall- Cane: The nighttime soap opera about two rival Cuban families in the sugar and rum business. It stars practically every big name Latino actor you've heard of. I would probably Tivo it, if I had a Tivo or a functioning television.


Link via: Dowd's Spirits Journal

It's official: TOTC

I was granted my media credentials today and I'll be heading to Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans July 18-22. Hooray!

Anyone else going? I'll be the dude too old to be wearing high-tops, running back to the hotel to eat Ramen Noodles in between sessions.

SF Cocktail Week Kickoff

Last night a group of bartenders escorted a group of journalists to several drinking venues in the city for a kick-off of San Francisco Cocktail Week. As each bar is doing one classic and one modern cocktail for the week, we had two drinks at each bar. Plus two bottles of tequila on the bus. Plus more drinks at the 209 Gin Distillery. That would have been about 12 drinks each if everyone had made it to the final bar.

We started at Elixir, where the Corpse Reviver #2, a hangover helper, made for a nice start. We then had their Eldersour, which had a terrific dry finish that I really enjoy in a sour drink.

Next up, we boarded the bus and headed to the 209 Distillery, where we had a tour of the place (and drinks). The distillery isn't open to the public so many of the writers saw it for the first time.

The next stop was The Alembic, where we started with a mint julep (served out of real julep cups!) and then had the Vow of Silence, a wonderful drink with bourbon and benedictine. This is where we lost our first writer- Marcia of Tablehopper had to head home to finish her story that came out today.

Next up was Cantina, where they've put up artwork since the last time I was there and the place looks even better. We had a Pisco Punch and were supposed to have a Marmalade Cooler but I don't think that's what was served (it was small and not a rocks drink). Whatever it was, it was my favorite drink of the night.

We stayed there for quite a while (methinks the organizers were as drunk as the writers) and a bunch of people disappeared. I think we lost two people from the Chronicle, the SF Weekly peeps, the Examiner/CHOW.com writer, the 7x7 writer, and even the publicists for the event. Actually, if memory serves me right (and there's no reason to think it should), there were only three writers left for the last two bars. Luckily though, we kept picking up more bartenders along the way so we still had quite the crowd.

At Rye, we had the Rye Manhattan that I always love at the venue, followed by The Dogpatch. The Dogpatch is a drink co-owner Greg Lindgren told me was built around Old Potrero Rye, but then Old Potrero ran out so they had to switch to another brand. Oops!

At this point, people were plenty tipsy so we stumbled down to Bourbon & Branch for our last cocktails. We were supposed to arrive there at 10PM, but it turns out we were nearly three hours late. Oops! The drinks they were serving were the 1896 Martini and Todd's Smoked Olive Martini. I don't think I wound up having either drink (I had the smoked martini before, and that olive is tasty), which was smart for me because I was ever-so-slightly intoxicated. Only myself, the Zagat's editor, and a Guardian writer were left out of all the writers. Still, I have a feeling that the people who left two bars earlier will have a better overall memory of what happened that evening than those of us to stayed. Some of the bartenders were getting rowdy and starting to talk after-hours, but in a rare moment of good decision making I chose to take my drunk ass home.

I encourage people to get out and try some of the 22 venues doing SF Cocktail Week. I guess I have 17 bars left to visit but after Monday night, I'm going to take Tuesday off.

The Bar Coat Hook Hall of Shame

(I'll move this post to the top each time I update it.)

Come on people- send in your nominations!

Every bar top should have coat hooks beneath it. That way you don't have to try to hang your jacket off your bar stool under your butt, having it slip off half the time and getting dirty when you put your feet up.

Bar hooks seem like such a simple and necessary thing like toilet paper in the bathrooms or lemons in the garnish tray, yet there are many places that have not installed them. I'm constantly running my hands along the underside of bars feeling for the hooks and getting nothing but gum and boogers. This has to end!

It is up to us to shame these establishments into installing coat hooks. Together we can make a difference! Thus I present to you:

The Bar Hook Hall of Shame
(add your nominees in the comments and I'll expand the list here)

• The Transfer
  
• The Pilsner Inn
• Colibri Mexican Bistro
• The Element Lounge
• Etiquette

9/25/06 Congratulations to Bourbon & Branch, the first bar to be removed from the Bar Coat Hook Hall of Shame by finally installing their hooks.

5/1/07 I went to check out Etiquette Lounge where they had no coat hooks, and they admitted to not having them at their other venue Element Lounge either.

5/15/07 Congratulations to Rye, where they finally installed coat hooks and made the bar a more comfortable experience for us all.

Clean planes and dirty martinis

Delta is advertising seat-side cocktail preparation including mojitos, martinis and virgin cocktails. They put the menu online so you can make first-class cocktails at home. They have a bourbon/apple drink, a passion fruit mojito, and a vodka Fresca drink. Most are made with Stirrings drink mixers, which makes a lot of sense. Can you imagine your flight attendant trying to muddle in the middle of the aisle?

Another surge we don't want

Check this out: Guinness has released this new thing The Surger, which is an ultrasonic pulsing plate onto which you put a pint of Guinness so that it will create a foamy head just like real Guinness draft. Of course, to have this wonderful machine you need to buy it as part of a kit, and oh yeah the beer you use in it is different (in what way they don't say) from regular Guinness so you need to buy the special refills.

Couldn't you get the same effect by pouring a can into the glass normally?

Whiskey is Out

In the June issue of Out Magazine (I don't know why it hits newsstands 3 weeks early) I have a story on whiskey. It's sort of about how to use whiskey in drinks, pairing it with food, and tasting notes on wood-finished whiskies. Those include the Glenmorangie Burgundy, Bushmill's Single Malt 16 year, Compass Box Oak Cross, Balvenie Doublewood, and Macallan Fine Oak 17. (Note: all yummy.) It also has the recipe for Nihon's Apple Mack. Pick it up!

Bar Burglar Binges on Burgers, Beer

(05-11) 13:37 PDT Upper Darby, Pa. (AP) --

A man broke into a bar, grilled some hamburgers and then had a few beers to go with them, police said.

Joseph Michael McDevit, 48, was arrested Tuesday trying to break back into Clarkie's Goal Post while investigators were inside searching for fingerprints from the previous night's break-in, Det. Daniel Oliveri said in an affidavit.

Police said McDevit, who is homeless, acknowledged entering the bar after hours, frying hamburgers, drinking beer and taking a nap. Police said they recovered a cell phone from him that belonged to the bar's owner.

McDevit was arraigned on charges of burglary, criminal trespass, theft and receiving stolen property. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney.

Cantina Bebidas

Cantina, the long-awaited bar by Duggan McDonnell, is hosting a slew of pre-opening events. I've been invited to three parties in the next week and it doesn't open to the public until May 24. But I'm writing not to brag about being there early but to point out that the menu is now online.

You may begin salivating. They have pitchers of caipirinhas (that fill about 4 glasses, according to our experiments last night), two kinds of sangria, two margaritas, pisco punch, and a bunch of other culinary cocktails that I can't wait to try. The preview drinks were lively and tasty and the rest of the menu looks farmer's market fresh.

The space is the old Lucid Gallery on Sutter at Mason, made pretty with a rusty color scheme and comfy with seating and whiskey barrels to set your drinks on. And now with Rye, Bourbon & Branch, and Cantina in close proximity, it'll be hard to leave downtown sober or unhappy.

Cocktail Sushi

The Liquid Muse posted a picture of Cameron Bogue's molecular cocktail sushi on her site and I'm stealing it. I talked about Cameron here. Click the picture to expand it- the rice, the seaweed, the ginger, the wasabi- all molecular mixology tricks. So cool.

Cups and Their Customs

George Sinclair of Thinking Bartender has posted the contents of Cups and Their Customs, a cocktail book from 1863, online here. Thanks George!

Ramost

I recently completed an article for Out Magazine in which I was naming new brunch cocktails that are in vogue or at least should be. When I was pondering what to include, the Ramos Gin Fizz sort of popped onto my radar.

In the next two weeks, the drink came up in conversation randomly or at the mention of brunch six different times. Everywhere I looked I'd see it, sort of like when you learn a new word then start hearing that word all the time used by strangers on the bus. So I decided it needed to be included.

When looking for a recipe for the drink to include, I researched newly-released cocktail books to quote from (this is called a "news hook" in the magazine world). The one that popped out is Southern Cocktails by Denise Gee. But her recipe is definitely not standard. She calls for a full ounce of orange flower water in the drink, whereas most other recipes call for two or three drops. She also only uses lemon juice, as opposed to both lemon and lime. She serves the drink over ice, which some people do but most I've seen don't.

So in the end I went with Dale DeGroff's version from The Craft of the Cocktail. But then in the final version of the story the drink and recipe got cut out! All that work for nothing. Except inspiration- I'm going out brunching at The Alembic this weekend just to get one.

Casho for Cabo

Sammy Hagar sold 80 percent interest in his Cabo Wabo tequila to Campari, which owns or is owned by Skyy Spirits out of SF (I've heard it either way), for $80 million.

I guess he wasn't exaggerating when he said he's made way more money in the liquor business than he ever did in rock and roll.

Frog-tastic!

Apparently, frog juice is all the rage in Peru.

Celebrity Limoncello

Danny DeVito, who appeared on The View hammered and blamed it on drinking limoncello with George Clooney, has announced that he's launching a brand of limoncello.

It's nice to see celebs expanding their range of vanity liquors from just vodka, wine, and tequila. I do think it would be cooler if it was Danny Aiello though- it would be Lemoncaiello.

Anyway, go to the website and hear the Danny DeVito Lemoncello theme song!!

What I learned this week

I learned that Campari and Aperol are not really amaros, though they, like amaros, are Italian bitter liqueurs. (I wish I had learned this before I sent out a pitch confusing them, but oh well!)

Amaros are in the category of digestifs: after-dinner drinks. Aperol and Campari are aperitifs: appetite-inducing before-dinner drinks. Digestifs are usually heavier, darker, and more alcoholic than aperitifs (and this is certainly the case with Aperol versus Fernet), though there is certainly crossover. For example, sherry is consumed as both.

In any case, all Italian liqueurs are gunning for summer cocktail popularity, no matter what category they're in.

WTV

Formerly subscription-based Singlemalt.tv is now free. Watch and learn about scotch. The shows seem pretty high-quality and informative, so I'll be checking them out too. According to The Scotch Blog they're going to roll out the station on mobile devices, which is a new business model that several online booze tv shows are going with.

SF Cocktail Week

Finally the website for San Francisco Cocktail Week is up and running. The week (May 14-21) is a way to encourage all of us to visit some of the best bars in the city (I didn't need encouragement, but maybe you did) and try their cocktails. Each participating venue will be serving up one classic cocktail and one new cocktail for the week. This is who is participating. Check the website to see what they're serving.

Absinthe Brasserie & Bar
Alembic
Bourbon & Branch
Butterfly, San Francisco
Cantina
Citizen Cake
Coco 500
Cortez
Elixir
Forbidden Island
Garibaldis
Jardinere
Le Colonial
Monaghan's
Nopa
Pesce
Presidio Social Club
Range
Rye
Slanted Door
Solstice
Tres Agaves

That's a lot of venues and a lot of geographic diversity to cover in just a week. Luckily, I've got a head start and have even had some of the new cocktails already. But there are a few venues I've never been to so I'm looking forward to checking them out. All in the line of duty, of course.

More Amaro

Oh look, I was just learning about amaros and starting to pitch them, and Jordan Mackay went and wrote a story about them. Always two steps ahead of me, that guy!

Sample Styles

The New York Times today has a piece on gin tasting, which is unique in that they sampled the gins in martinis rather than straight.

I've always thought that this was a problem with a lot of comparison tastings of spirits- nobody drinks gin or cachaca or pisco or a lot of other spirits on their own. I think the juniper-forward gins that work great in martinis taste far too powerful on their own. As they point out in the Times article, some gins, mostly the newer expressions, though complex and bright and delicious, just don't mix well with vermouth. They singled out 209 Gin and G'Vine as examples that they didn't feel were right in martini form. I completely agree with G'Vine, which is a flower bomb that's really tasty but needs to be tempered with tonic water.

I've also done a vodka sampling at room temperature. Yes, you can taste more nuance at room temperature, and coldness hides impurities, but name a single vodka drink served at room temperature. If the cheap yucky stuff tastes just as good as the expensive fancy stuff when it's served in a cocktail, what does it matter how good it tastes warm?

Anyway, I'm glad to see that someone did a taste test in a real-world environment. Here's to more of that.

New reasons to Imbibe

Hooray! The latest issue of Imbibe Magazine arrived in the mail today. I love this month's issue even more than the last one, because I'm in it. I have two short articles- one on buy-your-own barrel whiskey programs, and another on antique cocktail book collections. Beyond that, this issue has stories on:

• The gin rickey
• Bloody Mary mixes
• Cachaca
• Beachbum Berry
  
• Fresh ingredient cocktails for summer
• The wines (and port) of Portugal
• Happening coffee scenes
• Urban winemaking
• American Lagers
• Public wine storage facilities
• Making your own bitters

Because this wonderful magazine must never, ever go out of existence, please go subscribe to it now.