Camper English's Blog, page 55

A Very Stupid Eco-Luxe Cocktail Suggestion That You're Free to Use

You know how some (usually hotel or Vegas or London) bars offer a ridiculously priced cocktail in order to gain press? 

Like a Sidecar with pre-phylloxera cognac and Grand Marnier Quintessence?

Or a champagne cocktail with a diamond ring in the glass?

Or a Mint Julep in a real silver cup?

Or some other cocktail with $400 of edible gold and truffles on top? And sometimes they vie for the title of the World's Most Expensive Cocktail? 

Well how about this, since straws are so newsy right now: Sell your drink as an ecological awareness luxury cocktail and include one of these Tiffany rose gold vermeil bendy straws ($350) for the well-healed environmentalist to take home as a souvenir. Donate like ten bucks from the price of the drink to the jungle or something. 

 

 

YOU'RE WELCOME.

 

Twelve New Drink Books for Late Summer 2018, Plus a Fall Book Preview

Yikes, I'm never going to get any of my own writing done with all of these excellent-looking drink books hitting the market. We've got books on vermouth, coffee cocktails, whiskey, batching, women's history, dessert cocktails, astrological mixology, two updated classics, two on bar management, and a book on tabletop distilling. 

Plus! Scroll to the end for a quick listing of books coming out in October and November. I'll do a full listing of those in the fall. 

As usual, the descriptions below are from the authors or publishers, and are not reviews by me. Links are to Amazon. 

 

 

The Book of Vermouth: A Bartender and a Winemaker Celebrate the World's Greatest Aperitif by Shaun Byrne and Gilles Lapalus

The Book of Vermouth is a celebration of the greatest cocktail staple – a mixer that is riding a growing wave of popularity around the world. It includes up to 100 modern and classical cocktail recipes – but is more than a cocktail book too, offering history and insight to botanicals, and the perspective of key chefs who like to cook with vermouth as much as they like to drink it.

The authors – one a winemaker, the other a bartender – bring personality to the book via their distinct takes on what makes vermouth so special.

The book includes two main sections: Vermouth Basics and How to Drink. Vermouth Basics will give a comprehensive guide to the essentials of vermouth – grape varieties, production, varieties, botanicals, spirit and sugar, and go into great detail about the history of Australian vermouth in particular. It will include botanical profiles of both indigenous and traditional plants from Tim Entwistle, botanist at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Melbourne. It will cover all aspects of wormwood: the key ingredient in making vermouth, including medicinal and historical uses, where it is found and its botanical significance. How to Drink will cover the many different ways to serve, drink and store vermouth.

Chapters will cover Vermouth Neat, Vermouth in Spring, Vermouth in Summer, Vermouth in Autumn and Vermouth in Winter, as well as Bitter Edge of Vermouth, Stirred & Up, Vermouth Party and After Dinner. These chapters will be more recipe-focused, and include 10–15 recipes per chapter, drawing from each season's specific botanicals and how these work with different vermouths. Each season will also include a related food recipe.

 

Batched & Bottled by Max Venning

Sick of standing in the corner making cocktails while everyone else is having fun? Fed up of having to buy loads of expensive spirits and bitters? Just want to pour a delicious cocktail any time, any place? Batched & Bottled features 50 of the best recipes for batched and bottled cocktails – cocktails you can pre-make and bottle, and either pour straight over ice or leave to mature for an hour, a month or even a year. You'll have cocktails you can drink when you get in from work, or bottles you can crack open come Christmas/summer/birthday/Friday.

From negronis and manhattans to more complex concoctions you can infuse with botanicals or fermented ingredients, the recipes follow the seasons and range from simple, stir-through mixes, to more elaborate drinks that require kitchen prep.

 

 

 

 

 

The Art & Craft of Coffee Cocktails: Over 80 recipes for mixing coffee and liquor by Jason Clark

Enjoy two of life’s greatest pleasures – coffee and alcohol – with this comprehensive guide to mixing perfect coffee cocktails. World-class mixologist Jason Clark will inspire, excite and educate you by taking you behind the bar for a masterclass in creating coffee-based cocktails.

Enjoy two of life’s greatest pleasures – coffee and alcohol – with this comprehensive guide to mixing perfect coffee cocktails. World-class mixologist Jason Clark will inspire, excite, and educate you by taking you behind the bar for a masterclass in creating coffee-based cocktails.

First take a journey into the history and craft of coffee, the world's most popular beverage, from crop to cup. Next follow his expert mixing tips aimed at everyone from keen beginners to bartenders working in the world’s best bars.

More than 80 recipes follow, covering all styles of cocktails from stirred and shaken through to blended and blazed. Learn how to perfect simple classics such as Espresso Martini and Irish coffee or try your hand at technical modern marvels Golden Velvet and Death By Caffeine. With The Art and Craft of Coffee Cocktails in hand your daily grind will never be the same!

 

 

From Dram to Manhattan: Around the world in 40 whisky cocktails from Scotch to Bourbon by Jesse Estes

Shake, stir, and mix your way to whiskey and bourbon connoisseur status with award-winning bartender Jesse Estes as he demonstrates how to tame these fiery spirits in 40 delicious cocktail recipes.

Shake, stir, and mix your way to whiskey and bourbon connoisseur status with award-winning bartender Jesse Estes as he demonstrates how to tame these fiery spirits in 40 delicious cocktail recipes.

Master classy classic cocktails such as the Old Fashioned, Manhattan, Mint Julep, and Whiskey Sour, plus learn new creative variations that are bound to impress.

Whether you prefer a bourbon with notes of caramel, a spicy rye whiskey, a classic sturdy Scotch, or a distinctly innovative Japanese Nikka, the recipe selection includes a wide range of whiskies from around the world.

This is the perfect book for any dedicated whiskey-lover or keen home bartender to add to their collection.

 

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

Drinking Like Ladies is dedicated to the proposition that a woman’s place is behind the bar. . . or in front of it. . . or really any place she pleases.

Acclaimed bartenders Kirsten Amann and Misty Kalkofen have scoured the globe collecting recipes--often from equally acclaimed female bartenders--pairing each tipple with a toast to a trailblazing lady. From gin to whiskey, tequila to punch, Drinking Like Ladies has a twist and a toast for every tippler, whatever your base spirit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Mixology of Astrology: Cosmic Cocktail Recipes for Every Sign by Aliza Kelly Faragher

Don’t wait for the stars to align—find the perfect drink for your astrological sign with the Mixology of Astrology, by Allure magazine’s go-to astrologer, Aliza Kelly Faragher.

True love is just one martini away…if you’re a Leo, that is.

Meet your perfect (cocktail) match with Mixology of Astrology. No matter your sign, here you’ll find the best drinks for every occasion.

Demystify both the stars and the drink menu with these simple guidelines. Try a French 75 for balanced Libra, suggest something adventurous for carefree Sagittarius, or stick to a classic with an Old Fashioned for Capricorn. When your friends wonder how you always know their perfect drink, you can just tell them it was written in the stars...

 

 

 

 

Delicious Dessert Cocktails by Barbara Scott-Goodman

Take a break from your typical cocktail party and have some fun with this delicious collection of recipes that will introduce you to a whole new side of cocktails—a significantly sweeter side.

Delicious Dessert Cocktails features over 70 recipes for traditional, as well as new and inventive libations to savor at the end of a meal. From classic cocktails to sip on after dinner, to fresh and fruity concoctions that serve as dessert and an after-dinner drink, to cups of spiked hot chocolate, toddies, and coffee to savor at the end of a holiday meal, this book will deliver spirited dessert drinks that are decadent, luxurious, and delicious. In addition, there are recipes for light and sumptuous dessert bites such as Lemon Wafers, Chocolate Meringues, Strawberries & Cream, and Grilled Peaches with Ice Cream & Prosecco that are easy, elegant, and fun to serve.

 

 

 

The American Bar: The Artistry of Mixing Drinks by Charles Schumann

The classic bar guide that launched a generation of cocktail lovers is back—completely updated.

With its cloth binding evoking a Jazz Age guide to speakeasies and its charming illustrations that could have come from a period magazine, this most influential cocktail book is reissued in a newly updated edition. Spanning the cocktail spectrum from classic to contemporary, it includes all the information the cocktail lover or mixologist needs to create the perfect drink in a stylishly retro package, making it an elegant, sophisticated gift as well as an indispensable companion for home or professional entertaining.

With 500 recipes and an easy-to-use index arranged by drink categories, this bar book is replete with fascinating stories behind the genesis of each cocktail, its creators, and component liquors—as well as a guide to bartending equipment and a glossary of bar terms and measurements.

Charles Schumann, whose appreciation of design and drinks is legendary, is the ideal guide to the perfect drink. Based on the menus at his iconic establishments—Harry’s New York Bar, then Schumann’s American Bar, which later became simply Schumann’sBar—each recipe focuses on quality and balance.

 

 

And a Bottle of Rum, Revised and Updated: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails  by Wayne Curtis 

Now revised, updated, and with new recipes, And a Bottle of Rum tells the raucously entertaining story of this most American of liquors

From the grog sailors drank on the high seas in the 1700s to the mojitos of Havana bar hoppers, spirits and cocktail columnist Wayne Curtis offers a history of rum and the Americas alike, revealing that the homely spirit once distilled from the industrial waste of the booming sugar trade has managed to infiltrate every stratum of New World society.

Curtis takes us from the taverns of the American colonies, where rum delivered both a cheap wallop and cash for the Revolution; to the plundering pirate ships off the coast of Central America; to the watering holes of pre-Castro Cuba; and to the kitsch-laden tiki bars of 1950s America. Here are sugar barons and their armies conquering the Caribbean, Paul Revere stopping for a nip during his famous ride, Prohibitionists marching against "demon rum," Hemingway fattening his liver with Havana daiquiris, and today's bartenders reviving old favorites like Planter's Punch.

In an age of microbrewed beer and single-malt whiskeys, rum--once the swill of the common man--has found its way into the tasting rooms of the most discriminating drinkers. Complete with cocktail recipes for would-be epicurean time-travelers, this is history at its most intoxicating.

 

 

The Cocktail Bar: Notes for an Owner & Operator by Chall Gray

In the first book of its kind, award-winning bar operator Chall Gray leads readers through an overview of the complicated world that is bar ownership. The Cocktail Bar: Notes for an Owner & Operator covers everything from conceiving an initial idea for a bar to managing a successful and profitable operation. "A much needed book," according to cocktail and bar industry legend Dale Degroff, this accessible guide is a must read for any aspiring bar owner or restaurateur.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Straight Up: Real World Secrets to Running a Killer Bar  by Ramona Pettygrave Shah

A fresh take on bar management from a veteran behind the stick and the manager’s desk!
In this compulsively readable guide to running a successful bar, Ramona Pettygrave Shah draws on over a decade of experience at the speed rail to dispense wisdom with a dash of wit. Delving into topics from time management to team cultivation to finances, she speaks with authority and clarity about the issues real-world bar managers and other employees face in a business with little room for error and lots of pitfalls to be avoided.
From the simplest neighborhood dive to the ritziest cocktail bar, from virgin barback to restaurant owner, there’s no one who wouldn’t benefit from Ramona’s sound advice. And while that advice is sometimes served with a twist of sarcasm, there’s always a no-nonsense straight-talk chaser.

By turns irreverent and profound, Straight Up: Real World Secrets to Running a Killer Bar is your guide to the attitude, organization, and teamwork necessary to absolutely crush it in the world of bartending and bar management.

Bonus: Straight Up features a can't-miss collection of carefully curated infusion, cocktail, juice & syrup recipes and accompanying mixology tips designed to help you raise the bar and set a new standard for drink design.

 

 

Tabletop Distilling: How to Make Spirits, Essences, and Essential Oils with Small Stills by Kai Möller

With a small, 0.5-liter distiller, you can easily create fine brandies, whiskies, and even essential oils in your own kitchen. In this detailed how-to book, learn the tools, techniques, and safe procedures to distill raw natural materials for a variety of applications. Also included is a useful guide that explains what plants to use for different purposes; a look at the various types of stills; and a detailed, step-by-step treatment of mashing, fermenting, distilling, and refining spirits. Complete with a guide to distilling essential oils and their benefits and tips and tricks for troubleshooting and avoiding common pitfalls, this is the ideal companion for the home distiller.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plus: Stay tuned for more books this fall, including:

Hungover by Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall

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

Cocktail Codex: Fundamentals, Formulas, Evolutions by Alex Day and Nick Fauchald

The Dead Rabbit Mixology & Mayhem: The Story of John Morrissey and the World's Best Cocktail Menu by Sean Muldoon and Jack McGarry

The Craft Beer Dictionary: An A–Z of craft beer, from hop to glass by Richard Croasdale

Ciderology by Gabe Cook

Nightcap: More than 40 Cocktails to Close Out Any Evening by Kara Newman

Are You There God? It's Me, Margarita: More Cocktails with a Literary Twist 
by Tim Federle

Moonshine: A Celebration of America's Original Rebel Spirit by John Schlimm

Be Your Own Bartender: A Surefire Guide to Finding (and Making) Your Perfect Cocktail by Carey Jones and John McCarthy

A Little Overkill at my Tales of the Cocktail Seminar on Bitter Flavors

This year as usual I gave a seminar at Tales of the Cocktail (well this year I gave one myself and then was on a panel for another one; this post is about the one I gave solo). This one was called Bitter Flavors: Taste the Rainbow. 

 

The idea was to give everyone information and tasting on individual bitter flavors- particularly the major ones of quinine/cinchona, wormwood, gentian, and rhubarb- because so often they're mixed together in amari and bitters. I chose for my tasting spirits that I thought were most indicative of the bitter flavors:

Rhubarb: Zucca (they sponsored the seminar)

Wormwood: Amaro Alta Verde 

Gentian: Saler's Gentiane

Cinchona: Kina Aero d'Or

Plus Zucca wanted to feature a couple of cocktails, so at just 1 sample of each type of bitters I was worried that I wouldn't be able to ensure everyone could really isolate each type of bitter flavor. 

So, as is my way, I panicked and went way overboard on homemade samples. By the end, everyone at their seat had 2 cocktails, 4 bitter beverages, 10 microtubes of bitter tasting samples, and 5 bitter solids. 

 

The preparation took me (along with help from my pal Maria) dozens of hours. I made infusions of various bitter flavors in alcohol, then diluted those down with water so they were essentially non-alcoholic. Then we put them all in microtubes and the solids in little baggies (luckily I live near a bong store), labelled them all, and then made an index and assembled ziplocks of everything. 

 

Oh, and I also created a print-out of most popular vermouth and amaro brands, and what the known and suspected bittering agents are in each. That project took me another 20 hours or so. Sometimes I think I might go too far.

So during the seminar we now had plenty to taste and in the case of those big four bitter flavors, a finished product to confirm that taste in a product they could find on the shelf. The seminar seemed to go really well (we'll see when I get the reviews back) and I certainly felt everyone got their money's worth- a big fear of mine when I'm presenting. 

(photo stolen from Maggie Campbell)

I'm not sure that I'll ever do this seminar again in this format, but I may put together an ebook of some sort with the information from the seminar in it. 

 

 

 

Drinking the Drinks at Last Rites in San Francisco

The other week I snuck in to Last Rites a little before opening. The bar, on the site of former The Residence (and Zodiac!) on 14th Street near Church and Market, is notoriously dark and hard to photograph. Luckily my timing was good - the San Francisco Chronicle photographer was there at the same time taking pictures of drinks to accompany Maggie Hoffman's write-up , and they had lighting set up that allowed me to get in some snaps. 

The bar is designed as a plane crash on a haunted tropical island: The back bar is made from the inside of a plane shell, the bar stools are plane seats, and some of the other furniture is made from bits and pieces of planes. This is in a setting with tons of tropical plastic plants (I feel sorry for whoever is in charge of dusting) and giant skulls in the back of the room. 

 

They call the design "Polynesian noir," but I like to think of it as "goth tiki." 

Here are some of the drinks I tried. The Last Rites is the house cocktail, served in a beer can-shaped logo glass that can be purchased. (Co-owner Ian Scalzo said he purposefully avoided a ceramic tiki mug - they know they're bordering on tiki but didn't really want to be full tiki.) The drink has three kinds of rum, passion fruit, molasses, and spice mix. It's super drinkable. 

 

 

Next up was the  Avian Evolution, made with rums, pineapple rum, schisandra infused Campari, pineapple, lime, and molasses. The drink is a riff on the classic Jungle Bird with the pineapple-Campari combo. 

The Kali Maa's Doom was a delightful combination of gin, pisco, grapefruit, sauvignon blanc melon syrup, vanilla cream, and watermelon. It's garnished with watermelon slices and a flamed marshmallow. Sure to be a big seller, I also really enjoyed this one- creamy and easy and the pisco shined through. 

 

The Valley of the Shadow is a Manhattan-style cocktail with rum, bourbon, amaro, yerba mate honey, and cacao nib infused Angostura. It hits the spot for the style of drink- a good blend of the classic made in the house style.

 

The Jet Pilot is one of my favorite tiki drinks - usually it's done with a ton of teeth-scraping citrus and light rums, but in this interpretation it's got all the citrus but with sweet dark rum that you can let dilute into the drink naturally from the mini bottle, or dump it all in at once (as I did). It was a sweeter, richer interpretation of the drink. 

Their interpretation of a Mai Tai - with cashew orgeat and a combination of agricole and Jamaican rum, also strays from my interpretation of the drink in that its emphasis is on lighter bright rums whereas I tend to make the drink super rich with more aged rum in the mix. It still drinks pretty good though :)

A favorite on the menu, which is something I rarely say about a mezcal drink, was the Jock Lindsey. It seems fairly low in alcohol though so perhaps that's why. It's got mezcal, tequila, amaro, absinthe, celery, lime, coconut cream, and bitter lemon soda. Dangerously easy to drink; highly recommended. 

There were a few other drinks I tried but at this point the doors were open and none of the pictures came out. That's what happens here.

So if you go to Last Rites, I guess you'll just have to drink the exotic drinks in a funky looking bar without being able to Instagram your visit. You'll be okay. 

Here is the drink menu. 

 

 

Cleveland (on the) Rocks: A Drink-Driven Visit

A few weeks ago I flew in to Cleveland, Ohio for the first time on a super quick visit to give a talk on the Gin & Tonic and see some bars and the city. My trip was co-sponsored by Destination Cleveland, The Spotted Owl bar, and my G&T talk was sponsored by Watershed Distillery out of Columbus.

Friday Night: A Walk, a Meal, and Three Bars

I got in on Friday evening and stayed at the lovely Kimpton Schofield Hotel right in Downtown. It's about a block from Progressive Field, home of the Cleveland Indians, which is right on the edge of Downtown so many of the bars and restaurants there are big group-accommodating venues. I didn't spend too much time in the area, but could have walked to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum or (more likely) the Great Lakes Science Center. I like science.

I walked from Downtown over the Carnegie Bridge, which has a lovely view of the city's tall buildings and about a billion bridges over the winding Cuyahoga River, into the Ohio City neighborhood. I ended up spending most of my visit in that neighborhood and the adjacent Tremont area. 

I met my host Will Hollingsworth of The Spotted Owl at restaurant the The Black Pig. For a pork-focussed restaurant, Executive Chef David Kocab did a great job serving me all the vegetarian options, only a few of which were on the menu. The cocktail list there is full of herbaceous and bitter, boozy options. We had a cocktail then switched to one of their weirder wines with dinner. 

Then we executed Hollingsworth's plan for my visit- "kidnap" the chef from dinner and go to some of their favorite local/dive bars with them. We went with Kocab to a couple of neighborhood spots. The first stop was the excellently-named Prosperity Social Club. The historic venue is roomy and decorated with vintage signs for P.O.C. beer, but I had an O.K. Beer in keeping with Polish traditions of the area (and not needing another cocktail at the minute).

 

Just down the block, we stopped into the lively Hotz Cafe, a baseball-centric, family-run (you could tell by the banners that said so) tavern that was hopping on a Friday night. There were (family members, I assume) older women bartending, which is always a sign you're in a great bar. There we just had a shot of whiskey that I probably should have skipped for reasons of sobriety. 

 

Last stop for the night was The Spotted Owl, but more on that place later. 

 

Saturday: The Greatest Dive, Art Day, and Late Night at Porco

Saturday daytime we ran around town to see some of Cleveland's sights. One sight I didn't see much of is Lake Erie: Though Cleveland is located at the intersection of the Cuyahoga River and the Lake, the city isn't oriented looking out onto it for the most part. We started the day back in Ohio City at the historic and wildly popular West Side Market, a big indoor market (I believe there is an outdoor produce component also) in a tall arch-roofed building selling all sort of meats and regional foods. We had a delicious hangover-killing falafel (and a beer from adjacent Market Garden Brewery). 

From there, we hopped in the car and headed over to the Cleveland Cultural Gardens, a string of green areas and sculptures/gardens/memorials divided into sections dedicated to the many different immigrant communities of the region. 

Next up was the super impressive, massive Cleveland Museum of Art. The whole museum is free - there's not even a ticket counter at the entrance - and huge and spacious, with a pretty incredible collection of classic paintings by many of the well-known masters, a room of armor, and other historic works like a section on ancient Japan. 

Time for lunch: We stopped into the funky Euclid Tavern, aka "The Euc." It's a pub and live music venue, and host to a Happy Dog hot dogs. We ordered up an off-menu veggie version of a Polish Dog, which is a hot dog topped with coleslaw, french fries, and spicy barbecue sauce. It would be fun to see what the place is like at night. 

After a nap, it was time to play "kidnap the chef" again, this time after dinner at The Plum. The popular and hip venue features inventive food by chef Brett Sawyer. We had multi-layered veggie dishes that included touches like mezcal-infused strawberries, grilled rose petals, and Amaro Montenegro pudding. Fantasty.

Sawyer then took us to the Tarrymore Inn, an absolutely spectacular dive bar in the Lakewood neighborhood. The tap beer options are Budweiser and Genesse, available in $1, $1.50, and $2 pours - and the two-buck option is about 22 ounces. It's a cash-only venue and I felt like a king throwing down a ten dollar bill paying for entire rounds of drinks. Beyond the absurdly cheap prices, the venue has a long bar with large booths facing it, a back patio of several sections cobbled together, and this sign: 

 

The thirty dollar soup is a local bar joke - Ohio liquor license laws require a hot soup option: "The premises must be equipped to prepare and serve the minimum food required by the Division including: hot soup, sandwiches, and a hot and a cold non-alcoholic beverage." So every bar in town has a microwave and a can of soup on premises in case of inspection. 

We were having so much fun we almost didn't make it to our final stop in time: Porco Lounge and Tiki Room. (That wasn't supposed to be our last stop either - I never made it to the other top cocktail bar in town, the Velvet Tango Room.) 

Porco has, shall we say, a bit of a reputation. The drink menu is focussed on tiki classics, which are typically very boozy. That, combined with a lively atmosphere and wild batch of bartenders, makes for an environment in which people get just a touch tipsy. Other bartenders talking around town would say things like "they just came from Porco's" or "but we were at Porco's first, so..." as shorthand for a people on a wild ride. 

 

At the time we were there, they'd already started cleaning up for the night but were fantastic hosts nonetheless- making the last cocktails for the night (I had a Mai Tai and a Test Pilot... and maybe a shot or two), messing with the soundtrack, jabbering on the bar microphone, and dancing around the room. It was so much fun even though we were the only customers in the place. 

Given Saturday night, Sunday morning began Sunday afternoon. I just cleaned myself up and headed over to The Spotted Owl for my talk.  Watershed sponsored a make-your-own Gin & Tonic bar with their Four Peel Gin for industry and consumers and I blabbed on for about 45 minutes about malaria, cats, syphilis, and bubonic plague. Good times! Great audience!

While I didn't expect to play another round of kidnap the chef that night, it sort of happened anyway. A group of folks walked over to Ushabu for the Sunday night  kaiseki dinner. The dinner was overwhelming - mine was about a billion mushrooms, while everyone filled their bowls with pea-fed lamb and drunken wagu. We shared several bottles of sake chosen by chef Matthew Spinner - and with him- as he hung out at our table drinking when he wasn't in the kitchen. It was a mild version of kidnapping in that our victim never had to leave the house. After a final glass of Hakushu 12 (RIP) whisky, I returned to the Spotted Owl. 

 

Spotlight on The Spotted Owl 

I've been in touch with Owl owner Will Hollingsworth for several years, and have included the bar in some stories such as one on using isolated acids in cocktails (I don't think the final version is online anymore). The bar has the sorts of bells and whistles I like: big clear ice and a centrifuge. 

 The space itself is like a lounge in an old church basement- dark brick walls, thick wooden beams, and most of the light from shining stained glass windows behind the bar. It's a gorgeous space. If I lived in Cleveland I'd have to make the kind of friends who'd go there a lot. 

But how about the drinks? Oh yeah, they're swell too: I had a few highlights that included their savory and dark Sesame Bamboo, and their very special Banana Daiquiri (banana cane syrup, Giffard banana liqueur, lime, Rhum JM, Bacardi 8 centrifuged with black banana) that had layers of banana flavor from candy to natural. 

And then there are the menus! The current one is a sort of choose-your-own adventure menu in the form of a wheel of moods and flavors. A previous one was an all-pisco menu.

 

 

But then there is the Origami menu, with all Japanese flavors that folds out twice. Awesome! Adorable!

 

And finally, the Education of Cyrus Menu. This thing is a masterpiece. The design is cool, and easier to navigate then these pictures might look. But the concept is based on an ancient book and introduced as such: 

 

 

 The story is "a largely fictional biography of Cyrus the Great the founder of Achaemenid Empire, the first Persian Empire.... a political romance, describing the education of the ideal ruler, trained to rule as a benevolent despot over his admiring and willing subjects," according to Wikipedia. 

Here's just one page of the book that tells about the global rhubarb trading route (!?!?!) in the history of Cyrus, with a drink built around rhubarb sherbet. Extraordinary. 

 

 

And here's another page based on the theme of saffron and the death of Cyrus. 

 

 

I love a high-concept drink menu. So yeah, cool bar, great space/vibe/menus/people.  

 

THANK YOU CLEVELAND! 

 

Tales of the Cocktail 2018: A Step Back and a Leap Forward

This year’s Tales of the Cocktail conference, the first one under its new now-for-real non-profit leadership, seemed a smaller affair than usual, but more purposeful. The seminars, my main focus at Tales, only took place in the Hotel Monteleone this year, when in the past they’ve also included some large rooms at the nearby Royal Sonesta. The seminars that took place seemed as well-attended as usual, in that they were mostly sold out and the seats were mostly full. (There tends to be some no-shows due to New Orleans-related morning issues.)

The quality of content too was equal to that of past years, as the complex and often frustrating process of applying for and giving a seminar did not change from years past, and this process ensures (most) seminar moderators are not merely phoning in the work.

The lobby of the Monteleone can often feel as crowded as a nightclub during Tales, impossible to walk across without difficulty and never in a straight line. This wasn’t the case this year, and while the lobby was busy it wasn’t usually packed. That was as huge relief and a thing nearly everyone I spoke with commented on. 

Many old-school regulars who attend Tales every year decided to take this year off, which didn’t make for a dearth of knowledge or talent, but seemed to open up the opportunity for new voices. I met more young touring bartenders than I have in the past- just in line for events and walking around- as well as more highly engaged enthusiasts. Rather than just trying to push through the crowds from one place to the next, you could actually chat with people as you walk. 

Tales added new health and wellness programming programming this year, including seminars and special events focused on mental health, inclusivity, and free testing for Hepatitis and HIV. (Physical exercise programs and ergonomics have been added to programming a few years back.)

Those seminars/sessions, along with the alcohol-free party thrown by William Grant this year, had some industry veterans saying the programming looked a bit “preachy,” but there was no obligation to attend these events and there are plenty of alternative events and venues in which to get tipsy. As a journalist and educator with my own specialty topics of interest, I didn’t attend any of these events but they didn’t impact my experience. I'm glad they're there even if I didn't take advantage of them. I hope other people did. 

Furthermore, the new organization’s good faith move of giving away $250,000 worth of grants (disclaimer: I got one) plus a $10,000 gift to the son of recently-departed bartender John Lermayer (so recently after purchasing Tales and without taking in money yet as far as I know) makes a strong statement that they’re in it for right reasons and for the long haul.

While we can’t count on the event continuing to be as compact and breezy as it was in this important transitional year, it does seem like the new Tales management is thoughtfully and carefully steering the event in the right direction. Well done. 

 

Bitter Ingredient Flavors and Use from Martini Vermouth Masters

At this year's Bar Convent Brooklyn, I had the opportunity to sit down with Ivano Tonutti, Master Herbalist for Martini & Rossi (and Bacardi products generally) and Giuseppe "Beppe" Musso, Master Blender of Martini & Rossi.

The timing was excellent, as I am preparing to give a talk on bitter ingredients for Tales of the Cocktail, and they were in town promoting the newish Martini & Rossi Riserva Speciale Bitter Liqueur. 

The Bitter is part of the new premium Riserva line, along with Rubino (red) and Ambratto (white) vermouths. We spoke primarily about the new Bitter and and plants used in the Riserva line; but in some cases we were generalizing beyond that. So please consider this general information rather than super specific to any one product. 

 

General Stuff

The goal in using different bittering agents is to create a rounded bitter experience with multiple parallel bitters rather than a single-note bitter. 

Speaking of single-note bitter, they indicated quinine/cinchona bark pretty much gives that. 

When speaking about how different bittering agents impact the flavor, Tonutti would intuitively point to certain parts of his face, indicating where the individual bitter most impacts the palate - for example cinchona is a singular bitterness felt most in the far back of the mouth, different artemisia species were more forward. Gentian and rhubarb root impact the middle of the mouth more. It's interesting to see as we know the "tongue map" is false but yet we feel the impact of different bitter flavors in different parts of the mouth.

They use all dried herbs, rather than fresh, for all the many Bacardi products (including things like Bombay, etc.) with the exception of some fresh citrus peels in Oxley gin. Dried herbs are used to ensure consistency and can be more easily measured for water content, etc. 

All these bitter agents are infused rather than distilled into products (we're talking about the Riserva line). 

They use only yellow gentian root - not the blue stemless gentian that a few producers use. They prefer French gentian as it's particularly bitter and more aromatic than from other places. They say the blue gentian is not super bitter, and it can be thought of more like an herb with root rather than just the root. 

Holy thistle is used in salads. In their products, it's used to impart mouthfeel, not bitterness. It is used in most of Martini's products. 

Dandelion - Leaves, not roots, are used. In production, leaves must be dried immediately after picking. 

Roman Chamomile - The bitterness of it depends on the extraction technique (lower ABV extraction is better for bitterness in general, they say) and the concentration. (I asked about this as I've made chamomile infusions in the past and none were bitter.) 

Artemisia

Between the Rubino and Ambratto there are different ratios of the three artemisia plants used - absinthia, pontica, and vulgaris. (grand/common, lesser/small, mugwort)

Absinthium - boldest, bitterest, with a delicate herbal flavor

Pontica - herbal and floral, a signature note of Martini vermouth, top note

Vulgaris (aka mugwort) - aromatic, with a different and milder expression of bitterness. 

Barks

As noted, Cinchona bark gives a back-palate discreet bitterness.

Columba bark is an aromatic bitter with mid-palate bitterness.

Angostura bark is between cinchona and columba in its bitterness. 

Red cinchona (succirubra) is more bitter than yellow, with higher amounts of quinine, but they describe the flavor as more boring.

Yellow cinchona (calisaya) they get from Ecuador. It is slightly aromatic, but there is less of it available on the market. This is used in Ambratto and probably other products. 

Safety Stuff

The amount of thujone in artemisia and quinine in cinchona bark are regulated. They say that their approach to this is to get as far under the legal limits of the active substances as possible. For example, their artemisia providers grow a strains of the plants with super low thujone content, and though they may be plants like grand wormwood that supposedly have a lot of it, they use varieties that don't. Thus if the legal limits of thujone were ever lowered, or as in the case of the US where the legal limit is lower than in the EU, they don't have to worry as they're not close to the limits.

For quinine, there is a legal limit of 83 ppm allowed. That is just for quinine, not for quinidine and the other (two, I believe) active alkaloids present in cinchona bark. Tonutti said that rather than counting just the quinine, they keep the total number of all the alkaloids under the 83 ppm limit.  

Calamus is banned in the US and in Australia by name, meaning you cannot use it in a product's formulation at all, while in Europe and other countries, you may use the plant as long as the beta asarone levels are kept below a certain amount. [They noted the nonsensical nature of this, as if the problem with calamus is beta asarone, they why not limit the beta asarone?] Thus there are formula differences in some of their products in different countries. They also keep the beta asarone way below the legal limits in Europe anyway. 

 

This may all seem like random stuff to you, but it was extremely helpful for the talk I'm preparing!

 

For those of you new to these products, here's the basic info from the brand:

RISERVA SPECIALE BITTER

The new Bitter joins the Riserva Speciale Rubino and Riserva Speciale Ambrato as part of a dedicated craft of exceptional Italian Aperitivi for bartenders and drinks enthusiasts. To develop the new Riserva Bitter, MARTINI & ROSSI used 100% natural ingredients and the original 1872 recipe, created by MARTINI & ROSSI founder Luigi Rossi, as their inspiration. MARTINI & ROSSI Master Herbalist, Ivano Tonutti, has carefully selected three rare botanicals (Saffron, Angostura and Columba), to deliver a unique richness and complexity to its taste profile through different dimensions of bitterness. The Bitter is also rested in the same Tino cask that is used for MARTINI & ROSSI Riserva Speciale Vermouth di Torino extracts and shares the vermouth’s common botanical, Italian Artemisia, allowing its unique complex bitter taste to perfectly complement it. ($26.99)

RISERVA SPECIALE RUBINO

The small parcels for full-bodied Langhe DOC Nebbiolo wines used to create MARTINI & ROSSI RISERVA SPECIALE RUBINO are blended with extracts of Italian Holy Thistle and Red Sandalwood from Central Africa to deliver a bright ruby red vermouth, which inspired the name of the expression. The delicate balance of botanicals creates a full-bodied herbal and complex style of Vermouth di Torino with a long aftertaste. ($14.99)

Ambrato packshotRISERVA SPECIALE AMBRATO

The floral and aromatic blend of small parcels of Moscato d’Asti DOCG wines, used to create MARTINI & ROSSI RISERVA SPECIALE AMBRATO, produces a beautifully honeyed Vermouth di Torino. The yellow Cinchona bark from Ecuador and Chinese Rhubarb create a light bitter taste profile that aromatizes and elevates the flavors of the wines. ($14.99)

 

Three East Bay Drinking Itineraries in the July Issue of San Francisco Magazine

For my latest story in San Francisco Magazine, I wrote about three drinking itineraries in the East Bay. The five-page story is called The New Beverage Belt and it involves three tours:

Cocktail bars in Uptown Oakland, including the just-opened Hello Stranger and forthcoming Here's How. 

Tasting Rooms of Alameda, with seven stops including the Hangar One and St. George Spirits distilleries.

Day Drinking in Jack London Square, which was 100% an excuse to write about Heinold's First and Last Chance Saloon - and happily they took the photos of the bar to accompany the story. 

I did a lot of drinking as research for the story, so out of respect for my liver go out and pick up a copy of the magazine or read it online!

More Ice Ball Shenanigans

If you're not following alcademics on Instagram... well you really should be. I've been having some fun over there freezing stuff into ice balls. I'm using the same technique you've seen here on Alcademics before - a thermos and an upside-down ice ball mold. 

Lately I did a couple fun ones with money, which I'd never serve to a real person because money is filthy.

 

 

I did a few with jalapenos for one event, and some with mint for another event. (Also some blue ones for it.) 

 

And for gay pride, I made some ones with rainbow flags. I printed out and laminated some rainbow flags, and then froze those inside the ice spheres. 

If you're looking for more amazing ice projects, check out the Index of Ice Experiments.

 

Any suggestions on other things to freeze inside clear ice balls? 

 

 

 

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