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

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.

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.

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.

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?

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?

Bitter and Loving It

Last week I attended an event for Averna; yesterday it was a poolside Aperol party. Campari is already an essential ingredient in the Negroni though I'm seeing more people enjoy it with soda lately, and San Francisco sells a ton of Fernet-Branca. These brands are all examples of Italian bitter liqueurs, also known as amaros.

I have a lot to learn about amaros and the difference between them and other herb-heavy spirits like pastis, pernod, and herbsaint.

But I can tell you the marketing push is on for this summer's hot new drink category to be light aperitif cocktails invoking thoughts of holidays on the shores of the Mediterranean. I don't mind that one bit. The thing I do mind is that San Francisco weather doesn't remind one of summer at all.

Let's make this official

The Aviation is the new Negroni.

There, I said it. I am an expert so now it's official.

Negroni
1 ounce gin
1 ounce sweet vermouth
1 ounce Campari

Aviation
gin
lemon juice
maraschino liqueur
(Proportions different everywhere you get it.)

Trendy ingredients

In the March issue of Out Magazine, I have a story on cucumbers in cocktails. I wrote a sidebar to that story that didn't make it into the print edition but is online here.

Five More Trendy Cocktail Ingredients
Vegetables in your cocktails? Flowers? Check out these cutting-edge cocktail components

Our April issue is cool as a cucumber with recipes for the veggie’s use in cocktails. Here we gather five other surprising cocktail components.

1. Elderflower. This trend is largely driven by commercially available elderflower simple syrup that adds a light floral note to vodka and gin drinks. Use elderflower syrup in place of unflavored simple syrup in your next gimlet.

2. Yuzu juice. Yuzu is a sour Asian citrus fruit that makes a heck of a tasty cocktail. Use it in place of lemon juice in a lemon drop.

3. Cayenne and other peppers. Bartenders are combining the hot peppers with cool fruits (like cukes) for an icy hot drink experience. Infuse black peppercorns in vodka for one day and make a spicy cooler using the vodka with lots of lemon or lime juice and soda water.

4. Pomegranate. With a pomegranate liqueur, vodka, tequila, and schnapps on the market it’s easy to add the rich syrupy flavor into your drinks. To equal parts vodka and PAMA pomegranate liqueur, add a splash of Grand Marnier and a lemon garnish for a wonderful pom-tini.

5. Ginger. Whether in juice, simple syrup, infused into booze, or muddled with other ingredients, ginger is turning up in a wide range of drinks. Simmer sliced ginger into simple syrup for half an hour and use it in your next mojito or caipirinha.