Finland recap

I filed my write-up of my trip to Finland with Finlandia Vodka in my personal blog, as there isn't too much information about vodka in it beyond the ridiculous amounts of it that were consumed while there. But if you're interested, you can read part 1, part 2, and part 3.

Imbibe Me

The new issue of Imbibe is out, and it's wonderful as always. There are stories on lemonade, a rare amaro, rose wines, a channel knife test, tea cocktails, seltzer water, vintage cocktail ingredients, Peru and pisco, wine-collecting obsessives, beer for BBQ, coffee roasting, how to throw a spirit tasting party (written by me!), sangria, and mead. Mead!

Go. Subscribe. Now.

Bitter Summer in San Francisco

I wrote a piece for the July issue of San Francisco Magazine about the city's summer love for Italian bitter aperitifs and digestifs that you can find here, though in the print edition it's in groovy chart format and they didn't omit the Aperol row.

I also wrote about our two San Francisco-distilled gins in the Best of the Bay section. Check me out!

New Infusions

In today's Chronicle, I have a short trendicle about the new infusions. It's no longer about infusing one ingredient in vodka. Now to impress bar patrons you either need to infuse the modifying ingredient like the vermouth, infuse an unusual spirit like cachaca, or add a whole salad's worth of ingredients to your infusion jar.

Infusions 2.0

Remember when a jar full of vodka with lemons floating in it was enough to make you ooh and aah? These days, bartenders have reclaimed their counter space for commercially flavored vodkas, but that doesn't mean that infused liquor has gone away. Homemade infusions, though often kept out of sight, are now more complex and subtle than the old ones.

-- At Etiquette, bartenders infuse bourbon with vanilla and spices in the Manhattan, cachaca with pineapple in the Brazilian Tease, and sun-dried tomatoes, three kinds of peppercorns and celery in the Garden Vodka, which is then poured into a dirty Garden of Etiquette Martini with a salt and pepper rim. 1108 Market St., San Francisco, (415) 869-8779.

-- The signature Americano cocktail at Americano restaurant calls for chai-infused sweet vermouth along with Campari, soda water and an orange slice. 8 Mission St., San Francisco. (415) 278-3777; www.americanorestaurant.com.

-- The Mission's Elixir uses rose hip-infused vodka, along with elderflower liqueur, Cointreau and lime juice in the delightfully dry Eldersour. 3200 16th St., San Francisco, (415) 552-1633; www.elixirsf.com.

-- Vegetarian temple Millennium recently infused bourbon with peach for use in an old-fashioned. They'll also be using cherries in that drink, as well as infusing them into a cherry brandy. And there's also a a chocolate mint-infused vodka that is mixed with a vegan version of Bailey's. 580 Geary St., San Francisco, (415) 345-3900; www.millenniumrestaurant.com.

-- Camper English

Party at the Hangar Distillery July 14th

I'm going.

St. George Spirits Summer Open House

Take a spirited retreat this summer to a sunny island –one that won’t break the bank or use up vacation time- to St. George Spirits/ Hangar One Distillery on Saturday July 14th from 1pm-6pm in Alameda.

The hangar doors will be open, spectacular spirits will be flowing, and the stills will be running, allowing a rare opportunity to get up close and personal with the distillation process. Music and hors d'oeuvres will be supplied throughout the day to keep everyone upright.

Have a summer fling with the Aqua Perfecta Basil eau-de-vie available for the first time on July 14th. A rare and distinctive unaged brandy made from several varieties of basil, including Sweet and Thai, perfect for summer cocktails.

Also showcased will be renowned local artisans June Taylor Jams and Recchiuti Confections who will be sampling their transcendent chocolate truffles and other goodies.

Shuttle service will be provided between the West Oakland BART station and the Alameda Main Street ferry to and from the distillery on the legendary Mexican Bus from 1pm to 6pm. Flash your admission ticket to get on the bus.

Tickets will be available in the distillery store and by phone starting Wednesday June 20th (with a $1.50 service charge per order) for $25. If event tickets are not sold out admission will be $30 at the door.

St. George Spirits, artisan distillers of Hangar One Vodka, Aqua Perfecta eaux-de-vie and liqueurs, and St. George Single Malt Whiskey.

Saturday, July 14th, 2007 from 1pm to 6pm
St. George Spirits/Hangar One Distillery
2601 Monarch St, Alameda CA 94501
Map/directions available at: http://www.stgeorgespirits.com/pdf/stgeorge-directions.pdf

Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door.
$1.50 service charge added to all phone orders.
No phone orders taken after July 8th.
This is a 21 and over event. Please bring your picture ID!

For more information contact Lou Bustamante, Spirit Guide, 510.769.1601, tastingroom@stgeorgespirits.com

St. George Spirits: : http://www.stgeorgespirits.com
Michael Recchiuti Confections: http://www.recchiuticonfections.com
June Taylor: http://www.junetaylorjams.com/
Mexican Bus: http://www.mexicanbus.com/
Alameda Ferry: http://www.eastbayferry.com/

More Pisco Recipes

The problem with Pisco and Cachaca is that people haven't been very good at promoting recipes other than the pisco sour and caipirinha. Anyway, I found a few more pisco recipes in July's Food and Wine Magazine here.

More Bitter

Rob Willey did a story for the New York Times on the bitters craze. It focuses mainly on people trying to recreate Abbott's Bitters or making other complicated bitters that require aging, but is a good round up of the brands on the market and who's doing what in terms of making their own.

All about Pisco

There was another wonderful Wall Street Journal booze article by Eric Felten on Pisco Sours this weekend. It's about the difference between the Chilean and Peruvian versions of the drink.

Chileans, you see, also claim the Pisco Sour as their national drink, though they construct it rather differently from their neighbors. In Peru, a Sour is made with pisco, lime juice, sugar, egg white and a few drops of Angostura bitters. In Chile, they use lemon juice instead of lime, often omit the egg white, and almost always abjure the bitters --though some top the drink with a dash of whiskey.

PERUVIAN PISCO SOUR

2 oz pisco
1 oz fresh lime juice
¾ oz simple (i.e., sugar) syrup (to taste)
1 fresh egg white (or 2 tbsp pasteurized egg whites)
1 dash Angostura bitters

Shake all but the Angostura vigorously with ice. Don't stop shaking -- the egg whites need to get nice and frothy. Strain into a short glass and garnish the foamy top with a few drops of Angostura.

CHILEAN PISCO SOUR

2 oz pisco
1 oz fresh lemon juice
¾ oz simple syrup (to taste)

Shake with ice and strain into a short glass.

Booze News

I checked the booze news for the past week while I was traveling. It was a good week.

Tennessee is set to become the first state in the nation to require carding of anyone, without exception, who buys beer for off-premises consumption. Now underage drinkers will have to resort to asking older people outside the store to buy them booze, just like they always have.

A study shows that gastric bypass surgery turns formerly hefty people into alcoholic lightweights.

The EU voted that legally-termed vodka can be made from things other than cereals and potatoes (such as grapes and maple sap) as long as its labeled accordingly on the bottle. But as far as I know, every vodka that isn't made from corn proudly labels the bottle as such anyway.

A manufacturer invents a "cocktail condom" that you use to cover your drink while you leave it so that you can be sure nobody drops date-rape drugs in it while you're not looking. So it's kind of like the don't-drink-my-drink coaster, but with glue.

Someone created a pizza-flavored beer. Great idea, combining things that are commonly consumed at the same time into one tasty treat. I always pour a half gallon of milk into my cereal box and keep it in the refrigerator for the month.

It turns out that most organic certified beer isn't totally organic- most hops aren't, but you only need 95% of organic ingredients to be USDA certified. In the wake of the bad press, one hopes more hops will go orgo.

Heineken launches a new skinny, taller can for its light beer- sort of like the Virginia Slims model of package design. But wait Heineken light? Does it taste like water, with extra-extra water flavor?

Expired Link

Here's something small I wrote for Friday's SF Chronicle, so most of it has already happened.

Tips for tipplers on surviving Pride weekend

1. He who stays out too late on Pink Saturday won't wake up in time to do her makeup on Pride Sunday.

2. The Civic Center celebration is a perfect venue for food and drink pairing if you remember this simple advice: Beer in a plastic cup always goes with food on a stick.

3. Like parades but don't feel like marching? Grab an outdoor seat at Ti Couz or another restaurant on 16th Street and enjoy a cocktail as the Dyke March goes by sometime after 7 p.m. Saturday.

4. Appletini, way out. Pomegranate, in. Try a splash of pomegranate juice or liqueur in Champagne at your pre-Pride party brunch.

5. The Trans March is on Friday. Celebrate with beer before liquor or liquor before beer. It's all good.

6. Money spent on beer at Pride booths goes back into the community. So drink responsibly but tip wildly.

7. Especially if they're hot.

-- Camper English

Land of the Hangover

Hey y'all- I'm in Finland right now courtesy of the people at Finlandia vodka and Brown-Forman, whose products I drank way too much of last night. I'll post a more complete entry later, but here are my thoughts so far:

• If the luggage loader breaks and they can't load half the luggage on the plane, why not wait until it's fixed before sending the plane off? My comfy airplane t-shirt did not make a great urban exploration t-shirt for the additional 24 hours I was forced to wear it (so far).
  
• Finn Air's wine and spirits selection in business class was delightful. The veggie meals? Not so much.
  
• Monday night and we went bar-hopping to four venues. I think we got back sometime after 3:30AM. I like this place.
  

Thursday update-I'm back from a night of partying in Lapland, where the sun is shining 24 hours a day now. I am absolutely polluted with vodka that at some point of the night we stopped drinking in cocktails and began chugging out of the bottle. Boy do I ever need a shower.

Sunday update- I'm back in SF now. Pictures are here. More details after I'm back from my next trip.

And for the new father...

Another small thing by me in today's Chronicle:

Father's little helper

Fatherhood is a lot of work. First you have to help make the baby, then you have to sit around and wait for nine months until it's ready to play with. After all that effort, new dads deserve a refreshing cocktail, and since there are extra hands around the house, it's about time baby started pitching in. "Baby Mix Me a Drink" ($9; McSweeney's), a 12-page board book from San Francisco resident Lisa Brown, will help Baby start to identify shapes and colors such as olives and red vermouth. Good baby!

-- C.E.

For the Father With (Almost) Everything

Small piece I have in today's Chronicle:

For the dad who has almost everything

It's a touch pricey for a Hallmark holiday gift, but consider this: Father's Day is on Sunday and National Martini Day is on Tuesday. That's two birds you can kill with one stone, and by stone we mean a $440 silver-plated cocktail shaker set packaged in baby blue Tiffany's-esque boxes. The Ercuis brand two-piece shakers and Hawthorne strainers were imported from Vienna by former Enrico's bartender David Nepove, a.k.a. Mr. Mojito, who now sells them online at MisterMojito.com. Unfortunately the shakers do not come with the magic power to transform every drink made in them to the finest cocktail in the world, so we recommend you also send Dad's butler a gift certificate for bartending school.

-- Camper English

Craptails

CHOW.com has a pretty funny piece up on bad drinks. Like some of the commenters, I agree that there are plenty of bad drinks to write about without needing to make them up, but it's hard not to love the Salmon Colada and Hot "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter"ed Rum.

My Cachaca Drink

My article on new brunch cocktails in the July issue of Out Magazine just came out. Pick it up! (And if you like it, feel free to write a letter to the editor as they kicked me to the curb.)

In the article I mention that the average Bloody Mary usually disappoints- not because it's a bad drink, but because it's hard to get right. Then I suggest a few alternatives. The Michelada is one, the Spanish Coffee, which is huge in Portland, Oregon, is another, and the third is a cocktail called the Mellow A.M..

They neglected to include that I invented the drink (at least I think I did- it's so hard to know if someone else invented the same drink independently), but that's okay because I get to share it with you all.

The Mellow AM
1 ounce Cachaca such as Boca Loca or Pirrasununga 51 (I tried other brands and these two were my favorites)
1 ounce Cranberry Juice
1 ounce Papaya Nectar
1 1/2 ounce Ginger Ale

Build in a tall glass over ice and serve with a straw.

The thing is, I've made the drink at home a zillion times and think it's fan-freeking-tastic, but I don't know of anyone else who has tried it. So if you happen to come across the ingredients, why don't you give it a shot and let me know what you think.

Nice package!

I get a lot of booze and booze-related swag in the mail, which is nice since I'm always writing about it. Generally speaking, the more expensive the product the fancier the packaging and press kit that it comes with. I have to say I enjoy a good press kit (as long as they're not unwieldy- 10 Cane you're pushing it) since I keep them around for future reference, but usually the box the booze comes in just takes up space and I need to throw it away.

The St. Germain elderflower liqueur that arrived in the mail today sells for under 40 bucks, but totally wins the prize for impressive packaging. Given that most everybody is raving about how good the stuff is they could have sent it in a brown paper bag with "Yer Booze" written on it, but they decided to go all-out. The case is a faux cloth-covered box like you might have around a collector's set of books, with a leather pull-tab at the end. Inside the bottle rests on a satiny pillow like... I don't know, a fancy tea set you get as a wedding gift? (I tend not to own breakable things so I don't have much experience here. Also note if I ever get married I don't want a fancy tea set.)

Anyway, the press kit is nice too, so I'm happy about that. The box, as lovely as it is, isn't really convenient to keep around. I searched the house for something large and tubular it might hold, but it's too small for the Dust Buster and too big for the cordless phone.

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?

Nectarini

I decided to make myself an early afternoon cocktail, just because I can. And it turns out I made one that was actually good. Naturally, the photo turned out bad, but here it is anyway.

I had a nectarine that I was going to eat, but then I figured, why not drink it instead? I muddled it up as best I could (it was juicy but didn't produce a whole lot of juice so much as mush), added the juice of half a lime, an ounce and a half or so of gin, and a splash of simple syrup.

The drink is fantastic. Not cloying and sweet, but not too juice+boozy either. Do try this at home.

Unfortunately now I'm out of nectarines and I'm not in the mood for a leftover-Indian-foodtini so I guess I'll get back to work.

I made a drink

...with my limoncello.

But it wasn't very good. The picture is better than the taste.

Homemade limoncello

I have a lemon tree in my front yard, so I decided to put it to good use (okay it gets used for juice and garnish all the time) and make limoncello. I used the recipe that was recently printed in the Wall Street Journal:

If you'd like to try your hand at the homemade sort, it's easy enough to do. Peel fine shavings from the skins of a dozen lemons; avoid cutting into the bitter white pith, so that the peelings are pure yellow. Pile the peel into a glass container, and pour in a bottle of vodka. Let it steep for about a week, or until the peels have lost all their color, before straining out the lemon peels. Dissolve two cups of sugar in three cups of water on a medium stove, and let it cool. Add the sugar syrup to the lemon-infused vodka, to taste. Bottle your limoncello, and keep it chilled.

You can make a similar liqueur using oranges instead of lemons -- or just about any citrus at all. But whether you're pouring your own house limoncello or one of the burgeoning number of commercial brands, just remember that it is best after a meal, and that one small glass is plenty.

So that's what I did. I scraped some lemons and let the scrapings soak for two weeks (the color never went away). And added the sugar syrup. I only used about a cup's worth before I thought it was way too sweet.

Anyway, I now have homemade limoncello and that's awesome!

I would love to make my own triple sec, but it will be a huge compromise. I'd actually have to go further for the ingredients than my own front yard.

Who's that girl?

I was perusing my ever-increasing list of booze blogs and saw Rick Dobbs' mention of Google's trend tracker and how you can use it to track wine trends. I went to try it out for liquor, my one and only love. I randomly put in "bitters" and it appears that my story in the SF Chronicle on homemade bitters was the sixth highest ranked bitters news story (and one of them was a sports story so that makes mine fifth) on Google over the past few years.

This is:
1) Scary.
2) Freaking awesome!!

I wasn't even surfing for validation today and I found it. Of course, I just got lucky that the bitters event was happening and I reported on it. But still, with all the new blog readers and upcoming trips and high Google ranking I'm starting to feel pretty darn good about what I'm doing here with the booze reporting. It's great that this stuff isn't just interesting to me.

Now I just need to monetize my popularity so I can afford to live the life of excess befitting a person of my stature. The penthouses and fast cars and weekends in exotic drinking locales will surely follow, and I hope to be the first person to have his liver insured for 20 million dollars. But for now I'm focused on slightly less lofty goals: a few more writing gigs and the luxury of health insurance.

Mystery Drink

I think this is awesome.

Singapore beverage company Out of the Box caters to consumers who respond to "What would you like to drink?" with a non-committal "anything" or "whatever". Two weeks ago, the company launched two complementary brands: Anything and Whatever. Anything is fizzy and comes in six flavours (Cola with Lemon, Apple, Fizz Up, Cloudy Lemon and Root Beer) and Whatever is non-carbonated (Ice Lemon Tea, Peach Tea, Jasmine Green Tea, White Grape Tea, Apple Tea, Chrysanthemum Tea).The surprise part? Consumers don't know which flavour they're getting until they take a sip.

The Joy of Drinking

A third news item by me in today's SF Chronicle. This book rocks- there is so much good quotable material it makes for a lifetime of bar trivia and anecdotes. Buy a copy and start annoying your favorite bartender today!

Joy of reading about drinking

Carrie Nation was insane, the lack of a hangover cure can be blamed on the National Institutes of Health, and too much caffeine without booze likely contributes to terrorism, according to the new book "The Joy of Drinking" by Barbara Holland ($14.95; Bloomsbury).

The hilarious and opinionated history shows us all the good that alcohol has done for humanity since the dawn of time. Holland points out that "There are no good milk-drinking songs," but has a particular dislike for coffee culture compared with pub culture. "In the modern coffeehouse your fellow customers, edgy with caffeine, are hyperactive, suspicious by nature, busy with laptops. Avoiding eye contact."

The tiny book even includes a how-to on making your own booze, should you be so inspired after reading it, which you might not want to do down at Starbucks.

Sweetness and Spice

A trend piece by me in today's SF Chroncile:

Sweetness and spice

Cocktails in the city these days will taunt you with hotness then leave you cool -- just like some Internet dates. But at least these chile-spiked drinks give you a good buzz for the bus ride home.

-- Farmer Brown serves up a creamy Mango Margarita Mango with Tequila, mango puree, lime juice, agave nectar and cayenne salt around the rim. Often the bar serves a spicy watermelon variation as well. 25 Mason St., San Francisco; (415) 409-3276, farmerbrownsf.com

-- The base ingredients of the Agua Caliente at Rye (invented by Jackie Patterson of Le Colonial) are also Tequila, mango puree and lime; but this drink has triple sec and a dash of Campari beneath the chile rim. 688 Geary St., San Francisco; (415) 474-4448

-- At Poleng Lounge, hot Thai chile peppers and dry green tea are muddled with cooling cucumber, mint and vodka in the signature Po'my Leng cocktail to make the hot and cold ingredients battle for dominance in your mouth. 1751 Fulton St., San Francisco; (415) 441-1710, polenglounge.com

-- The Gunpowder Cocktail at Presidio Social Club is merely a gin gimlet (gin, lime juice, simple syrup), with a sprinkle of cayenne powder on top, served in a martini glass. Drink it and your date will call you "hot lips." 563 Ruger St., San Francisco; (415) 885-1888, presidiosocialclub.com.

-- Last week, the winning cocktail in Harry Denton's Starlight Room's cocktail contest joined the menu. The Pink Cream Soda (invented by Todd Smith of Bourbon & Branch) tastes like its name, with rosé Champagne, guava, lemon and vanilla syrup, but it's the muddled jalapeno pepper at the bottom that really makes it interesting. Sir Francis Drake Hotel, 450 Powell St., San Francisco; (415) 395-8595, harrydenton.com.

Biofuel Blows Your Drinking Budget

A short piece by me in today's SF Chronicle:

Biofuel blows drink budget

Cleaner-burning biofuels made from agricultural crops may be a more environmentally sound way to deliver energy than fossil fuels, but they may also drive up the price of your favorite adult beverage.

In news stories released last week, we learned of two examples where raw materials for drinkable alcohol are being replaced by crops to produce non-potable ethanol.

The Associated Press reports that in Germany, farmers are abandoning barley in favor of subsidized crops for biofuels. Thus barley prices have doubled in the past two years, and the increased cost of the raw materials is now being passed along to beer drinkers.

In Mexico, Reuters reports a similar phenomenon. A current glut in the agave market has inspired some growers to burn their fields and plant corn to meet U.S. demand for ethanol instead. While it doesn't appear that current Tequila prices have been raised, agave can take up to eight years to mature, so the next decade could see a shortage.

As if you needed another reason to stock up.

Thoughts on Wood

Here's a general article about the Blue Grass Cooperage, the barrel-making company that produces all the barrels for Jack Daniels and other Brown-Forman brands.

Each week, 191 production workers make 10,000 to 11,000 barrels, each holding 53 gallons - amounting to anywhere from 240 to 280 bottles of whiskey. Huge columns of oak strips are stacked in pallets outside the plant. Inside, chugging machinery noisily shapes the wood.

Some 90 percent of barrels are filled with Jack Daniel's, reflecting the brand's robust market share. Case sales of Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey rose 6.6 percent last year to 8.9 million cases, and the brand is sold in 135 countries. The rest of the barrels will hold Brown-Forman's Old Forester and Woodford Reserve bourbons. Case sales for Woodford Reserve, the company's premium, small-batch bourbon, reached 100,000 last year, up 23 percent over 2005.

Dang! That's a lot of barrels. But as we all know, there is much barrel recycling in the world before they become planters and ashtrays outside of old-timey theme restaurants.

One thing I learned when I visited the Canadian Mist distillery earlier this year is that a company like B-F that owns its own cooperage and a lot of brands can save a lot of money. Canadian whisky is aged at least partially in used barrels that previously held Jack Daniels. (It's also flavored with various other spirits from their other brands.) I'll bet their tequila and rum brands use these same barrels too, saving money on that part of the process.

I think wood aging is the most fascinating part of the booze-making for me (though I'm also very interested in distillery waste products for some reason). I hope one of these days to scam a press trip to visit the cooperage- for me that would the equivalent of a kid getting to ride a firetruck.

I'd also like to research one of those long, writerly articles where I track a barrel throughout its creation and life and use and travels oversea and to its final resting place as a trash can outside of Stucky's. It would be all, "It was another damp August morning in the wettest summer anyone around these parts could remember when Bob Jenkins shook the water off the windbreaker his father gave him 30 years ago and fired up the barrel-smoker in Shed B."

After winning the Pulitzer, I'd get started on my great book about fuselage recycling.

Beer causes crime!

Two stories today are making beer drinkers look bad:

Man Accused Of Breaking Into House To Steal Beer, Shirt

DENVER -- A man was charged Tuesday with breaking into a Denver home to drink beer from the refrigerator and to steal a clean shirt in the dryer, the district attorney's office said.

Poisoned beer 'just a mistake'

Husband stands by wife and her 'depression issues'

UNION TWP. - A man whose wife is charged with trying to poison his beer with cleaning fluid said Wednesday it's all just a misunderstanding and they will stay together.

Truesdell became ill after drinking a beer at his home in the 500 block of Lemaster Drive.

His wife admitted to police that she had slipped cleaning fluid into his drink, Gaviglia said.

But Jonathan Truesdell said his wife didn't mean to poison him.

"It's just something that happened," he said.

From The Onion

Journalism Saves Lives (okay not really)

Right after I blog posting how sloppy cocktail journalism throws mixologists into great fits of confusion, I get an email from Martin of Forbidden Island:

I had a health inspection last week, and the inspector tried to stop me from selling Scorpion Bowls, because he said the backwash was a health hazard! I told him that he should check out Trader Vic's, then, since they've been doing it for 70 years. He didn't believe me (!), so I showed him a copy of your "Love Potions for Two" column from the Chron to convince him that it was everywhere and that did the trick. So thanks for that.

It's good to know that all my hard work cocktail reporting has real-world impact. If I can help one person- just one person- enjoy a tasty Scorpion Bowl then it will have been worth it.

Bartender vs. Mixologist

As I was writing up a story today for a tourist publication, I was reminded that several blogtenders are talking about the distinction between a bartender and a mixologist/bar chef. It seems that most of the bartenders I speak with would qualify as 'bar chefs' under any definition, as they're all doing creative stuff that takes a large amount of product knowledge and cocktail history to do. However, almost all of them feel silly using the term 'mixologist,' as it kind of sounds like when a garbage man calls himself a 'sanitation engineer.' It's not that they're unworthy of a better title; just that they feel a little embarrassed using one. Which is odd, because bartenders are rarely demure.

In any case, the reason this came to mind was because I was working on this story and you only want to use the word 'bartender' so many times in one paragraph. And next thing you know someone is a 'bartender' or 'mixologist' or 'cocktail wizard,' and it all had to do with a need for synonyms rather than anyone's inherent qualifications. (I wasn't writing about any dive bars so nobody got more credit than they were due.) So long story short, I think a lot of the reason anyone cares about who is called what is because people like me throw around terms willy-nilly.

Tonic, Part II of XXIVIXDMXIV

In an effort to improve on the tonic water I made, which was barky, I tried a couple of things. First I re-filtered it through another coffee filter. This didn't seem to make a difference on either the flavor of the tonic or the resulting barky coating of my tongue.

Then, since I had a Britta filter that needed changing anyway, I used it to filter some of my tonic syrup. The resultant liquid was thinner (less syrupy), lighter in quinine taste (in a good way), but also losing most of the citrus flavor and sugar (in a bad way). So that was a failure as well.

Should I try again, I think the recipe could use less powdered cinchona bark, and perhaps I should try making a tea bag with it in the first place rather than putting it in raw. I also think it could use a few other flavors to make it more interesting. I've spoken with the Fever Tree people, the Q Tonic Water people, Todd Smith of Bourbon and Branch, and Jeffrey Morgenthaler about their versions so I have some ideas.

For now I have to go finish my story on what the pros are doing before I continue my amateur experimentation.

Malted Millionaires

Forbes.com has a new one of their slideshows up: The World's Most Expensive Whiskies. Their slideshows are always the world's most expensive somethings: penthouses, cars, hotel rooms, etc. But you can't drink any of those.

Online Bartenders

Probably not news to regular blog readers, but here is a short thing I had in today's Chronicle:

Cocktail experts mix it up online

Most of the bartending videos on sites like YouTube are poorly executed cocktail pouring demonstrations or useless tips like how to mix up a Scotch on the rocks. But in with all the bad advice, you can find a few experts to trust.

Robert Hess of DrinkBoy.com has a show called the Cocktail Spirit airing on SmallScreenNetwork.com that mixes his extensive knowledge of cocktail history with bartending advice, taking eight minutes to make a Champagne cocktail because of all the talking.

And if you've been missing local bartender Alberta Straub after her departure from the Orbit Room, you can find her online at CocktailsOnTheFly.tv. She brings the same kooky attitude and complicated recipes to videos that she did in person behind the bar, so you can watch her demonstrate making the hibiscus-flavored juice she prefers to cranberry, or yelling "There's no such thing as an appletini!" while repeatedly slamming the citrus press against the cutting board.

-- Camper English