Camper English's Blog, page 53

Obispo in San Francisco May Open as Soon as Monday

Last night I attended the launch of Copalli Rum at Obispo, the forthcoming bar from Thad Vogler of Bar Agricole and True Normand.

Vogler said the bar may open as soon as this coming Monday, after much delay.

Obispo is located right near the 24th Street BART station at 3266 24th Street. From the amount of people trying to peek in on their way back home from work last night, there's a ready clientele. 

The space is a long rectangular room with bar in the middle section and restaurant style tables and chairs in the back. The space was undecorated during my visit, in need of some art, a splash of color, and maybe some soundproofing.

Otherwise it seems like a pretty minimalistically/stoically designed space (unsurprising given the other venues) with most of the furniture in place.

 

Above: The central bar. 

 

 Above: Looking from the bar into the dining room. 

Above: Looking from the end of the bar back toward the entrance. 

 

More details here as I get them! 

The Word Commonly Called Vulgar

It took me forever to figure out the word "vulgar" in the original definition of the word "cocktail" doesn't mean tacky and offensive, but "common." 

The word "vulgar" comes up a lot in old texts - and in Latin plant and animal taxonomy- so I thought I'd share this simple bit of info in case it's helpful. 

The 1806 first printed definition of a cocktail is, 

"Cock tail, then in a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water and bitters it is vulgarly called a bittered sling, and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion inasmuch as it renders the heart stout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head."

"Vulgarly" means "commonly."

 

And in yesterday's post about artemisia species, we learned that mugwort's Latin botanical name is Artemisia Vulgaris.

Translation: Common Wormwood. 

 

So I hope that comes in as useful for you as it did for me when I finally figured it out a few years back.  For me, it's come up a lot. 

Below see the "dated" definition. 

Genepy Liqueur Versus Artemisia Genepi

When I was studying the various types of wormwood used in spirits earlier this year, I got a bit confused about Genepy/Genepi. All wormwood is a member of the artemisia genus. 

Artemisia Absinthium = Grand Wormwood; used in absinthe

Artemisia Pontica = Roman Wormwood; small absinthe; often used in vermouths

Artemisia Vulgaris = Common Wormwood; mugwort; used in Herbsaint, vermouth, and other products

Artemisia Genepi = Genepi, used in Genepy liqueurs

After laying that out, I came to learn that there is a difference between artemisia genepi and genepy liqueurs, thanks in large part to Stephen Gould of Golden Moon Distillery. He makes a genepi called Ex Gratia. 

According to Gould and supporting evidence from elsewhere on the internet, Genepy liqueurs can be made from not just artemisia genepi, but basically any artemisia that's not grand wormwood; often several of them mixed together. Gould clarified a working definition of genepy liqueur for me in email:

Any liquor/liqueur made with any member of the artemisia family, except artemisia ab. (Grand wormwood) would be considered a Genepi ... the exception being Amaros where the various types of wormwoods are a supporting flavor.

Gould also wrote a profile of artemisia species for a 2014 edition of Distiller magazine. It no longer appears to be online (I think they're working on getting the archives up in a readable format so maybe it will return in the future), but he wrote:

Genepi
Genepi (or Genepy) are liqueurs typically made using “lesser”
wormwoods (such as petite/roman wormwood, sea
wormwood, black wormwood or rock wormwood), either
alone or in combination with other spices and botanicals.
These liqueurs are produced throughout the alpine areas of
Europe and are referred to by a variety of names. They are
commonly referred to as genepi in the Alps and Pyrenees
mountains. The word genepi is often also used to refer to
various wormwood plants as well, especially in France and
the French-speaking cantons of Switzerland.

 

 

Some of the "lesser" wormwoods include Sea Wormwood - Artemesia Meritima; Rock Wormwood - Artemesia Rupestris; Yellow Genepi –
Artemisia Umbelliformis; plus the Artemesia Genepi itself.

Gould also included a recipe for a Genepi from a handwritten distiller's note circa 1800 [excerpt]: 

Genepi des Alps
Take of the common and sea wormwood, dried, of each ten
pounds; of sage, mint, and balm, dried, of each twenty handfuls;
of the roots of galangal, ginger, calamus aromaticusm and
elecampane, of the seeds of sweet fennel and coriander, of each
three ounces; of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmegs, the lesser cardamoms
and cubebs, of each two ounces. 

 

The reason that this came up is there is a second American-made genepy coming out. As I posted in New Booze yesterday, the Bittercube folks are releasing a genepy liqueur to the Midwest US this year with a larger launch in 2019. They describe the new product as:

Heirloom Genepy was developed in the Bittercube apothecary and gathers inspiration from a variety of Artemitis plants, while bridging the gap between robust varieties and more subtle variations. With respect for the category, this modern Genepy was formulated with bright alpine botanicals, and mellowed with honey. 

 

Long story short: artemesia genepi may or may not be in genepy liqueurs, which are flavored with non-absinthium artemisia species. It would be fun to compare various genepy liqueurs to see how they're interpreted by these different distillers. 

 

What is Alchermes Liqueur?

As I covered on this New Booze blog post, the folks at Bittercube bitters have launched a new line of liqueurs, and one of them is an alchermes. So you may be asking yourself, what the heck is alchermes? 

Alchermes is an ancient red-colored liqueur with its color derived from kermes insects. The insects are scale insects that eat oak trees. Modern alchermes liqueurs no longer use the kermes insects but the red liqueur is still used to make zuppa inglese and other desserts. 

I wrote about alchermes for a story I wrote on cochineal (which replaced kermes as the preferred red coloring) for SevenFifty Daily:

Cochineal is a product of the Americas, but a different set of insects was used to dye fabric as well as one notable drink long before Columbus. Kermes is a coloring that was made from the crushed scale insect Kermes vermilio (and a couple of related bugs), which feeds on the sap of Mediterranean oak trees. The dye was used to color silk, and that silk was infused into a liqueur called alkermes (or alchermes), along with apple juice, rose water, ambergris, gold flakes, crushed pearls, aloe, and other ingredients. This liqueur recipe dates back to at least 800 A.D. when liqueurs and medicine were one and the same.

Today, versions of alkermes liqueur are still produced, specifically to make the traditional Italian red dessert zuppa inglese. These liqueurs are no longer colored with kermes bugs: Some makers use cochineal; others use artificial coloring. It’s doubtful that any still include crushed pearls and gold flakes. And few, if any, are imported into the U.S.

So there you have it. I'm not sure if there are any other US-made alchermes liqueurs on the market. As mentioned in the New Booze post, the new Heirloom liqueurs line launches outside of the midwest in 2019. 

 

 

Goth Tiki is the Bar Theme of the Moment

Earlier this summer San Francisco saw the opening of Last Rites, a "Polynesian Noir" tiki-esque bar themed like a plane crashed into a cannibal tribal ground in the jungle. 

A few months later, the Future Bars group (Bourbon & Branch, Pagan Idol, etc.) announced they too were doing tiki-but-scary with their concept Zombie Village in the former Tradition spot. Eater reported that the bar would be, "channeling Caribbean island culture with a very tropical interior, and hints of Haitian voodoo."

Today I read about not a dark tiki bar, but a haunted mansion themed bar from the owners of a tiki bar; Shameful Tiki in Vancouver.

It will be called The Dark Manor Inn and the images look like you took the patterned wallpaper and pressed tin ceilings of a speakeasy bar and added Victorian portraits, skulls, and religious artifacts to it. 

As someone who believes that Halloween is the best holiday, I am all for this trend, as long as the drinks are still good. 

Female-Forward Fall Drink Books

There are so, so, so many new drink books coming out this fall (a longer list will follow in another post), but I noticed that three of them are women-centric. Three makes a trend, y'all.

Below are the new books, with a few older ones mentioned below. As usual, the descriptions are from the publishers and are not reviews. Links are to Amazon. 

 

 

Liberated Spirits: Two Women Who Battled Over Prohibition by Hugh Ambrose with John Schuttler 

A provocative new take on the women behind a perennially fascinating subject--Prohibition--by bestselling author and historian Hugh Ambrose.

The passage of the 18th Amendment (banning the sale of alcohol) and the 19th (women's suffrage) in the same year is no coincidence. These two Constitutional Amendments enabled women to redefine themselves and their place in society in a way historians have neglected to explore. Liberated Spirits describes how the fight both to pass and later to repeal Prohibition was driven by women, as exemplified by two remarkable women in particular.

With fierce drive and acumen, Mabel Willebrandt transcended the tremendous hurdles facing women lawyers and was appointed Assistant Attorney General. Though never a Prohibition campaigner, once in office she zealously pursued enforcement despite a corrupt and ineffectual agency.

Wealthy Pauline Sabin had no formal education in law or government but she too fought entrenched discrimination to rise in the ranks of the Republican Party. While Prohibition meant little to her personally--aristocrats never lost access to booze--she seized the fight to repeal it as a platform to bring newly enfranchised women into the political process and compete on an equal footing with men.

Along with a colorful cast of supporting characters, from rumrunners and Prohibition agents on the take to senators and feuding society matrons, Liberated Spirits brings the Roaring Twenties to life in a brand new way.

 

 

A Woman's Drink: Bold Recipes for Bold Women by Natalka Burian 

A chic and empowered approach to mixing drinks in style, A Woman's Drink is the ultimate cocktail book for ladies. Filled with gorgeous cocktails and favorite drinks from notable women, this chic package celebrates a new cocktail culture that's distinctly and unapologetically feminine. Inspired by Brooklyn bars Elsa and Ramona, the cocktails here capture the joys and pleasures of making the perfect drink at home. Whether you're drinking solo, drinking with a plus one, or drinking with a crowd, there's a recipe for every occasion. Featuring 50 mixed drinks—including classics like Cosmos and Negronis, as well as new spins like Elderflower Bellinis—the cocktails in this book are strong, spirited, and bold, just like the women who drink them.

The pre-Prohibition-cocktail craze has produced bars, books, articles, and nostalgia for a time when women couldn’t vote or go out alone. This often meticulously copied historical cocktail culture is wildly limiting. Mixing and sharing drinks should be an adaptable, informal, and joyful practice, and not a masculine pastime by default.

A Woman's Drink debunks some of the myths being circulated and encourage you to call anyone out on them, whether it’s a mansplaining suspendered bartender or a pompous uncle. Everyone should feel confident—even powerful—when it comes to serving, sharing, and inventing new drinks for and with their friends and loved ones.

 

 

Movers and Shakers: Women Making Waves in Spirits, Beer & Wine by Hope Ewing

In her travels across the country, Hope Ewing discovers how women are paving the way and creating a more inclusive and sustainable world full of delicious drinks.

A veteran bartender, Ewing had grown impatient with the surprisingly outdated perceptions of women in the alcohol industry. Entrepreneurial and ambitious, often the first in their fields, the women she knew in the business were leaders, mentors, and trailblazers. In Movers and Shakers, Ewing seeks them out, to share their stories as well as valuable business advice and insight into a constantly evolving industry.

Hope Ewing grew up in a haunted house surrounded by forest and sheep pastures in western New York State. After a decade raising money for New York City arts organizations, she received an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University and promptly moved to Los Angeles, where she finally became serious about bartending. Combining the twin passions of writing and drinking, she seeks to illuminate how intoxication and culture intersect, for better and for worse. Her work appears in PUNCH, Serious Eats, and other fine publications. She lives in LA with her partner and step-chihuahua, and her favorite drink is all of them.

 

 

 

Putting together a gift package? Maybe round it out with these two books:

Drinking Like Ladies: 75 modern cocktails from the world's leading female bartenders; Includes toasts to extraordinary women in history by Misty Kalkofen and Kirsten Amann 
Whiskey Women: The Untold Story of How Women Saved Bourbon, Scotch, and Irish Whiskey by Fred Minnick

 

 

 

 

Pics and Thoughts from Bar Convent Berlin

I'm recently back from Bar Convent Berlin and thought I'd type up some quick thoughts and observations. 

Gin: There was so much gin at BCB, with every booth having about 6 flavors, that I was overwhelmed and didn't try very many. While the pink (colored) gin trend is just getting to the US, it's going full bore in Europe. I think there are a several rhubarb gins now, like the below. There were also even more tonic water brands than usual.  

 

 

The Zwack booth was cool. 

 

We're going to be so sick of "non-alcoholic spirits" soon. I only saw this one this year, but every liquor company and small distiller is probably in the process of developing one now in the wake of Seedlip.

 

Rum from Madeira? Cool. 

 

Vermouth: I thought I was going to see a ton of rose' vermouth but as usual I'm too far ahead of the trends :) Drapo was one. 

 

The base wine for Maidenii is made like port, where you stop fermentation by adding alcohol so that there is residual sweetness in the wine. It is not sweetened further.

A Greek vermouth brand, Vermood, is sweetened with Greek Honey. 

 

Like fortified wines with quinine, gentian, and/or wormwood, this brand Junique is a fortified wine with juniper. Interesting. 

 

Ice balls from Boilerman Bar in Hamburg. I think these are made with a Hoshizaki machine that I've heard is not legal in the US due to it not being energy efficient compliant. 

 

I went to a low versus high alcohol seminar starring Simone Caporale, formerly of Artesian. It's interesting when you do the math how much alcohol drinks really have. The Long Island Iced Tea has less alcohol than a Negroni! 

 

An excellent math shortcut of sorts to calculate ABV in cocktails from the same seminar. 

 

I went to a great water seminar by Claire Sprouse and Chad Arnholdt of Tin Roof Drink Community. It was about thinking of all the places where we use water behind the bar and where the most waste is. They say they'll share their presentation online soon. 

 

It takes between .9L and 2L of water to make a Margarita at a bar, not including the water used in production and delivery of the ingredients. 

 

Is your Mai Tai killing the earth? Kinda! 

 

I also attended a social media (Instagram, really) seminar by Beautiful Booze. They know what they're talking about, and you should probably hire them to train your brand ambassadors. 

 

Well, that's it for my report, beyond the report of all the talks I did. Have a super day. 

 

A First Look Inside Bon Voyage, the new Safari Bar from the Bon Vivants

Bon Voyage, a new cocktail bar from the Bon Vivants, opened at 2PM on October 15, and I was in line to snag some snaps of the venue. 

The space is the former Slanted Door/Wo Hing Lounge/Urchin Bistro on Valencia Street. They made it look like a classy disco safari, with less disco than I was expecting. 

Co-owner Josh Harris sourced much of the decor from the Alameda Flea Market.

 

Upstairs, there is a balcony view and a second smaller bar. The upstairs lounge won't open until 5PM daily, which seems pretty reasonable. 

The disco ball is much larger than it looks - it used to be inside the nightclub Ruby Skye!

For the cocktail menu that starts with a page of slings, Eater San Francisco has the scoop.

The bar opens at 2PM, so along with Trick Dog and ABV in the same neighborhood you can be like me and start your drinking early. 

 

 

Four Talks, Three Topics, Two Cities, One Week

I'm freshly home from fall cocktail season travels and wouldn't mind not being on a plane for a few weeks. I just gave four talks in six days in Berlin and Indianapolis. I love making people to listen to me, so this is the work I enjoy the most!

I attended Bar Convent Berlin once again and gave a talk sponsored by Disaronno called The Mixing Star Talks: Become a Liqueur Connoisseur. In this talk I discussed new ways of thinking about liqueurs and using them. This included the history of liqueurs as preservatives and as medicines, and fun things to do with dehydrated liqueurs including many experiments previously conducted as part of the Solid Liquids Project. 

The talk took place in a small room with a good crowd who asked great questions... not that I could answer all of them. 

 

Camper English with Disaronno brand ambassador Alex Room at Bar Convent Berlin 2018

My next two talks were offsite during Bar Convent Berlin. I was a guest of the Hubertus Circle, an international bartender network and educational platform run by Jagermeister. They brought together a bunch of bartenders from many countries to experience BCB and the offsite talks by myself and a coffee cocktail master. 

My talk was called The Bitter Talk, and was about understanding individual bitter flavor elements used in combination in commercial products like Jagermeister and other amari. 

They created a funky environment from a nightclub/art gallery/bierhall and decorated my room with giant letters spelling "BITTER," which seems appropriate for a talk staring me :) And despite all the bartenders having attended a huge Jager party the previous night and some of them up past 5AM, the audience was super engaged and attentive. 

 

 

On Thursday I flew back home to San Francisco from Berlin, only to turn around and fly Friday morning to Indianapolis, where I was giving the final talk for the Indy chapter of the United States Bartenders Guild's Education Week. The talk was supported by Tanqueray. 

My talk was on Dangerous Drinks - safety issues in the cocktail bar including illegal and/or unsafe ingredients bartenders are sometimes using (tobacco, activated charcoal), and techniques (liquid nitrogen, fat-washing) that require some education to use properly. 

It was a small but super fun group of bartenders (Saturday at noon is an interesting time for an industry talk- surprised people showed up at all!). Then afterward a few of us went out for lunch to a divey pinball bar for fake meat chicken wings,  erotically named doughnuts, and pull-tab scratcher lottery tickets. We were having so much fun I barely made it to my flight back to San Francisco that afternoon! 

 

 

What a week! Thanks to all my hosts and seminar attendees. Y'all make it fun. 

 

 

 

A Guide to Botanicals Used in Cocchi Aromatized Wines & Vermouths

I had the pleasure of visiting the winery and distillery for Cocchi in Piedmont, Italy. More on the visit in a later post, but for now I wanted to share a bunch of images I took of botanicals used in the production of their products. 

 

 

American readers will be familiar with Cocchi Americano, Cocchi Vermouth di Torino, and their Barolo Chinato. 

I've been studying a lot of these botanicals lately, and found the write-ups on these from the tasting room to be very good. So I'll just post them here for future reference (yours and mine). Note that there is some good information on a few of these at the Cocchi website. 

You might also check out this similar guide I did from a visit to Martini vermouths: A Visual Guide to Herbs Used to Make Vermouth.  

All of the below images were taken at the Cocchi winery in Italy.