Camper English's Blog, page 61

New Business Models for Large Format Cocktail Ice Providers

Large format cocktail ice providers have been around for a while, but now big cube/sphere/spear providers are branching out into new shapes, sizes, making machines, and pushing into retail. 

In a story for SevenFifty Daily, based in part on my talk at Tales of the Cocktail, I wrote about what several companies are doing to bring more larger clear ice to more people. 

 

A Nine-Cocktail Lunch at Mourad in San Francisco

 Y'all are going to feel super duper sorry for me, but I had to go to a nine-cocktail, three and a half hour lunch at Mourad, the very fancy Downtown SF Moroccan restaurant last week. This was for a press event so I'm sorry to report that you can't just go in and order it.  

The purpose of the lunch was to introduce the new cocktail menu developed by new bar manager JP Smith. Smith was most recently at Pagan Idol and Bourbon & Branch, and various bars in Denver previous to that, before taking over for Anthony Parks at Mourad.  

The lucky assembled members of the press were treated to lunch to soak up all the booze, but you don't read this website to hear about food. The drinks were all served sample-sized (with a display drink put out for photography) so the images below are some final-drink-size and some small size. In other words, don't worry: The drinks are all big enough when you order them. 

They're now making most cocktail ingredients in-house, so there are a number of bright and creative tinctures, gastriques, syrups, and bitters in the drinks.

Long story short: Here are the drinks and what I think of them: 

 

 NORTHERN FOG: krogstad aquavit . leblon verde cachaça . pecan orgeat . vanilla passion fruit . lime . grapefruit . amontillado sherry float

Probably my favorite drink of the lunch came out first. This Fog Cutter variation (it's a varies pretty far from the original recipe) was topped with a big pour of delicious sherry. The sherry was good enough that I wanted a side of it on its own, but then I remembered I had another eight drinks coming so I exercised a rare bit of restraint. 

THE TRAVELER: golden moon gin . kummel caraway liqueur . anise liqueur . apple & celery juice . lemon . honey . tonic . preserved lemon fennel salt

Delicious, refreshing, savory, crushable Gin and Tonic variation. Sorry for the garbage picture that makes it look disgusting. This one is fine with food pairing (even though I think it's weird to have salt drinks with food) or on its own. 

ANTARTIQUE: avua prata cachaça . st. germain elderflower liqueur . sweet vermouth . amaro . pineapple juice . rhubarb walnut bitters . quail egg

This one has a lot of stuff in it and also a quail egg. 

 

THE SECRET COCKTAIL: hangar one vodka . arkansas black applejack brandy . lemon . grapefruit . pomegranate raspberry syrup . thyme & flower scented aloe water . egg white

Hey, it's a White Lady variation served in a flute-style glass with flowers spiraling down the stem and it's a safe guess that they sell forty million of this drink every day. 

QUINA CRUSTA: tempus fugit quinquina . bonal . campari . luxardo maraschino liqueur . lemon . bilberry ginger tincture.

Dear nerds: Here is a drink for you. It has all the things you like except mezcal, but you don't need to put that in everything. Plus it's got crusta cred. Yes it's very very good. 

 

RISK, REBELLION, PASSION, & MYSTERY: drambuie blended scotch liqueur . lime juice . fresh mint . egg white . whisky barrel aged bitters . mint bitters

Smith says one of his favorite things to do is make cocktails with unappreciated ingredients. In this drink he's using Drambuie (that fits the bill) as the base spirit for an egg white cocktail. This is a drink I would never have considered ordering (Drambuie and mint? What are you smoking?) but it was a great surprise and unexpected flavor combination that works. We had it as a dessert cocktail. 

 

DAYDREAMS: cocchi americano . appleton jamaican signature rum . tyrconnell single malt whisky . apple cardamom gastrique . chili almond oil

Despite the hearty rum and whisky, this is more of an appetizer with the body of a boozier drink, thanks to the aperitif wine. Yes to this also.

REAPING REWARD: casa dragones blanco tequila . ancho reyes verde chile liqueur . mezcal . kumquat cinnamon marmalade . grapefruit . smoked salt

So I guess making cocktails with Casa Dragones is a thing now? Sure. This drink fills that request for "something like a Margarita" and "something spicy" but overall it's pretty mild in flavor and gorgeously presented. 

 

LOUISVILLE: michter’s american whiskey . sweet vermouth . crème de cacao . lemon verbena syrup . five-spice tincture . flamed orange oil

It's sorta kinda like a Manhattan or Vieux Carre sorta. 

 

FIELDS OF GOLD: capurro acholado pisco . st. george spiced pear liqueur . saffron liqueur . lemon . basil eau de vie . agave syrup

It's a pisco and Strega drink with lots of saffron and it looks like it could be too simple but no; it's delicious and my second favorite drink on this menu and you can wear the flowers home in your hair. 

 

 

Also I just realized they snuck an extra drink in there so we had ten. No wonder I didn't get anything done the rest of the day. 

 

 

A Look at Cold Drinks, the New Bar Inside China Live in SF

China Live is sorta kinda a Chinese Eataly; a food court/restaurant and shopping mall combo. There isn't a ton of shopping but there are a few bars and restaurants and more on the way - a fine dining restaurant, banquet hall, and nightclub-type venue will be opening in coming months.

Downstairs is a restaurant open all day along with the shopping area and central bar. The cocktails there are meant to be light and food-friendly, but also in colorful glassware/format and mainstream-consumer friendly. 

 

 

Upstairs is Cold Drinks, which is in soft opening mode in that they don't have their menus printed yet. It's a hidden bar in that there is no information on the website (they do have an Instagram account), and you follow the bat symbols upstairs and enter the door with a bat on it. It opens at 5. 

Inside is a gorgeous bar with brown, grey, and gold colors, overlooking Columbus Ave. Apparently the view is even better at night when the neon glows.

 

While I don't have the full menu yet, the cocktails are themed around scotch whisky. (Unlike every other new cocktail bar in America that is themed on Japanese whisky....)

Their take on the spirit, lead by Beverage Director Duggan McDonnell (the former owner of Cantina), is not to just take regular cocktails and shove scotch into them, but to use scotch in unique ways as an accent flavor. Or, as McDonnell described the concept, "smart people fucking around" with scotch.  

Of the drinks I sampled, I'm not sure that any of them had scotch as the base spirit; all or nearly all were split-base drinks with another spirit in equal or greater parts. And the drinks are great. 

I didn't try Sometimes Old Fashioned, because it has scotch fat-washed with duck fat, then equal parts rye whiskey plus teapot bitters. I did try the Gold Coin, made with scotch whisky, Madeira wine, Ancho Reyes, orange bitters, coconut syrup, and chocolate stout. The drink is fantastic with that orange-chocolate-hot pepper combo. 

 

 

Another drink on the (forthcoming) menu is the Rule Breaker, made with blanco tequila, Benromach scotch, brandy de Jerez, coconut syrup, orange bitters, and chocolate bitters. Despite the ingredients it plays along similar flavor notes as the Gold Coin, and the two cocktails pair well with each other. I'd recommend ordering these two drinks at the same time and going back and forth.

 

 

The Sword Swallower comes in a ceramic tiki glass but has the unique combination of Gewurztraminer, mezcal, grapefruit soda, scotch whisky, black tea syrup, allspice, and Angostura bitters. It's terrifically flavorful and weird, but also delicious and easy-drinking. 

 

We also tried the Long Islay Iced Tea, a play on the famous 80s garbage drink made with Islay scotch whiskey. The drink has cola and bright citrus in it; I'm not sure what else but one could pound a bunch of them in a row.

 

 

Shots are served in soup spoons, so we kinda had to have one. Cheers. 

 

 

So, So Many Cocktail Menu Launches in San Francisco

If you're the sort of (messed-up) person who likes to feel up-to-date on the cocktails at bars San Francisco, you've got your work cut out for you this month. I'm counting at least eight bars that have changed over their menus recently. A brief summary:

 

PCH launched their new menu on July 28th.   It's not on the website yet, so here it is as a PDF file.  PCH_Summer Menu 2017

The Alembic's new summer cocktail menu online appears to be online and you can find it here. 

The Loews Regency Hotel in SF (which used to be the Mandarin Oriental) is now doing a happy hour on the 40th floor, Thursday - Saturday: 4:30 – 8:00 PM as part of a Spirits in the Sky program. I'm going to check it out soon - follow the Alcademics Instagram account for pics. 

Trick Dog launched their latest menu with the usual fanfare. This one is a rhyming menu shaped like an illustrated children's book. 

Cold Drinks is a new "hidden" bar that seats 50 people inside China Live. I'm also checking out this bar this week. 

Mourad has released a new menu of drinks by new bar manager JP Smith. I'm also checking out this bar this week, so yeah, pray for my liver. 

Barcino is the Spanish restaurant run by the Absinthe Group in the space that was the Boxing Room. So basically it's Bellota-light. The drink menu doesn't appear to be online but you can download it here as a PDF  Barcino_BarBook

ABV has changed up the concept of Overproof , the tasting menu of cocktails and food. It was previously a whiskey concept, but now it will be gin, sherry, and Iberian food. 

Get out there and get drinking people. 

 

 

 

Some Summer Sippers For Your Personal Refreshment

In a recipe story I wrote for Long Island Pulse magazine, I gathered up some tasty drink recipes from: 

The Clocktower at The New York EDITION, Manhattan

Diamond Reef, Brooklyn

The Bennett, Manhattan

FLAGSHIP, Montauk

Le Boudoir, Brooklyn

I sent in a couple others that they'll publish later. All of these cocktails I want to drink, but honestly I'm too lazy to make them so I'll just fly to NYC instead.

Check out the recipes here.

 

Copyright, Trademark, and Patents for Bars, Brands, and Booze Recipes

My second story for the new industry-facing site Daily.SevenFifty.com is up! 

For this one, I covered a Tales of the Cocktail seminar called Intellectual Property Law Issues in Cocktail Land. It was lead by Trademark Attorney and Hemingway enthusiast Philip Greene, along with John Mason, a lawyer with Copyright Counselors,  Steffin Oghene of Absolut Elyx, and Andrew Friedman of Liberty in Seattle. 

It clarified the basic definitions of copyright, trademark, and patents, and there were tons of interesting examples - including the Curious Case of the Copper Pineapple!

 

Check it out here. 

 

The seminar description was:

If I make a Dark ‘n’ Stormy, do I have to use Gosling’s Black Seal Rum? What about the Painkiller, will Pusser’s Rum sue me if I use another brand? What about those iconic (and sometimes poorly made) New Orleans classics, the Sazerac, Hurricane and the Hand Grenade, will I get a cease and desist letter from anyone if I make them at my bar claiming trademark infringement? I keep hearing about Havana Club becoming available again from Cuba, but didn’t I also hear that Bacardi is planning to market their own Havana Club? What’s up with that? And speaking of Bacardi, didn’t they sue bars and restaurants back in the 1930s because those establishments failed to use Bacardi Rum in the drink? Is that true, and how did that turn out? Did I hear correctly that Peychaud's Bitters was the center of a trademark dispute way back in the 1890s, with the same family that founded Commander's Palace? And if I create a great drink and give it an awesome name, can I patent or copyright the recipe, and trademark the name? What if I get hired by a bar or restaurant to develop their beverage program, will they own the rights to the drinks that I invented or can I retain ownership rights in the recipes and names? Join the one veteran Tales presenter who is uniquely qualified to moderate this topic, Philip Greene, intellectual property and Internet attorney by day Trademark Counsel for the U.S. Marine Corps) and cocktail historian on the side (co-founder of the Museum of the American Cocktail and author of two cocktail books, To Have and Have Another: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion and The Manhattan: The Story of the First Modern Cocktail, in an in-depth, informative and fun seminar, and learn how to make (and enjoy samples of) some of these contentious classics while discussing this highly intellectual topic!

 

 

Science of Spirits Aging on the new SevenFifty Daily

I'm contributing to a new website called SevenFifty Daily. It's an offshoot of SevenFifty, a site/tool to make ordering alcohol for bars from distributors easier. 

Thus, the site's content is positioned mostly for the industry- bartenders, managers, distributors, and brands. My first assignment (out of four!) was to cover a seminar at Tales of the Cocktail called Better Drinking Through Chemistry. 

 

 

The topic was the science of barrel aging spirits - what we know about, and how brands use that information to develop topics with specific flavor profiles. 

The seminar was pretty geeky, but the hardest part was getting up the next morning at 7AM to write it up after a full day at Tales. (If you've been, I'm sure you can sympathize.)

Anyway, please give the story a read and check out the other content on Daily SevenFifty as they've already got quite a bit of good stuff.

 

Join the (Future) Alcademics Email List

I have a number of upcoming projects to announce, including books based on my recent talks on Bug & Booze and Ice Innovations. I realized I should start collecting emails so I can let irregular readers of Alcademics know about them when they happen. 

While I haven't gone through the trouble of finding an email list provider yet, the rough plan is to send out occasional emails with round-ups of posts and larger announcements. You'll probably not receive anything until August 2017. 

If instead you'd like to get notices through rss or email when new each new blog post goes up, sign up for that here. 

 

 

If the embedded form below isn't working well for you, you can do it directly at this link. 

 

 

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Thanks!

 

New Booze Books July/August: Mezcal, Monsters, Gin Tonics, Popsicles

Here are the new drink books that have come across my desk and mailbox, out this July and August 2017. The text below is the publisher's information, not reviews by me, though I'm looking forward to reading them all. Links are to Amazon for purchasing. 

 

Gin Tonica: 40 recipes for Spanish-style gin and tonic cocktails by David T Smith 

Spaniards love their gin and tonics. In Spain, the bartender doesn’t ask you what you want to drink, he asks you how you want your gin and tonic prepared. This simplest of drinks—just gin, tonic, ice and a garnish—is now considered the national drink of Spain.

The trend started in the north of Spain, in Basque country, where you can walk into a bar and upon ordering you are presented with a cart teeming with gin and tonic options to create your very own bespoke drink. A beautiful cocktail with a variety of herb and flower garnishes, a Spanish-style gin and tonic or "gin tonica", is made with a premium gin and the best quality tonic water, combined with bitters and various herbs, spices, flowers, and fruits that will complement the botanicals of a specific gin. It is served over ice in an oversized balloon glass—the idea being that the shape enables the drinker to enjoy all the lovely aromas their drink gives off.

For a cocktail with only two ingredients, the flavor potential is staggering! Making a gin tonica is an intricate process, sometimes taking a barman as long as 15 minutes to deliver the ideal drink. The ice has to be dense so that it melts slowly, the glass might be spritzed with a fine layer of citrus oil, chilled to perfection, with the tonic poured in delicately. No detail is ignored, the wait is part of the experience, and the result is absolutely delicious. Attention to detail and respect for the classic is what truly elevates the Spanish gin tonica above all others. With more gin brands and styles of tonic available than ever before, and 40 inspired recipes here to try at home, there has never been a better time to discover the joy of the gin tonica—saludos!

 

Mezcal: The History, Craft & Cocktails of the World's Ultimate Artisanal Spirit by Emma Janzen 

Produced in Mexico for centuries but little known elsewhere until recent years, mezcal has captured the imagination of spirits enthusiasts with its astonishing complexities. And while big liquor is beginning to jump aboard the bandwagon, most mezcal is still artisanal in nature, produced using small-batch techniques handed down for generations, often with agave plants harvested in the wild.

Join author Emma Janzen as she presents an engaging primer on all things mezcal: its long history, the craft of distilling it, and a thorough guide to many of the most common agaves used in production and how they shape the resulting spirit. In addition, top mezcal bars across the United States and Mexico contribute a selection of nearly fifty cocktails that accentuate its distinguishing qualities. Beautifully produced and authoritatively written, this is the definitive guide to exploring and unraveling the mysteries of this extraordinary handcrafted spirit.

 

 

Let's Get Monster Smashed: Horror Movie Drinks for a Killer Time by Jon Chaiet and Marc Chaiet 

 

Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., would like to introduce you a horror movie-themed cocktail book with gross-looking, but delicious party drink, all wrapped up in an awesome '80s VHS package! Inside, you'll find 55 recipes inspired by classic pulp horror movies of the 80s and 90s. Play the Puppet Master Game and murder your way through ten movies, and unique cocktails, or shoot The Silver Bullet while enjoying American Werewolf in London; either way you slice it, murderously mouthwatering movie mixers await you in Let's Get Monster Smashed!

There are 55 recipes spread across 5 chapters (shots, gelatin, punches, special fx, and non-alcoholic) inspired by classic pulp horror movies of the '80s and '90s, complete with viewing recommendations. The movies may be weird, the drinks may look gross, but the elevated drink making techniques and unusually tasty recipes keep readers and their guests interested and coming back for more. Great for theme parties, Halloween festivals, movie fans, and retro enthusiasts.

 

 

The Poptail Manual: Over 90 Delicious Frozen Cocktails by Kathy Kordalis

Love cocktails? How about popsicles? Enter poptails, the icy cool alcoholic beverage you can enjoy on a stick! The Poptail Manual is packed with over 90 recipes, including all your favorite cocktails from the Pina Colada to the Mojito, plus more exciting and indulgent flavor combinations such as Tiramisu, Amaretto Sour, and Strawberry and Black Pepper Sambuca poptail.

All recipes use premium alcohol, fresh fruits, and natural ingredients only. The book also includes ideas for making your own popsicle molds.

 

 

Books on Related Topics:

 

The Dirty Guide to Wine: Following Flavor from Ground to Glass by Alice Feiring 

Still drinking Cabernet after that one bottle you liked five years ago? It can be overwhelming if not intimidating to branch out from your go-to grape, but everyone wants their next wine to be new and exciting. How to choose the right one? Award-winning wine critic Alice Feiring presents an all-new way to look at the world of wine. While grape variety is important, a lot can be learned about wine by looking at the source: the ground in which it grows. A surprising amount of information about a wine’s flavor and composition can be gleaned from a region’s soil, and this guide makes it simple to find the wines you’ll love.

Featuring a foreword by Master Sommelier Pascaline Lepeltier, who contributed her vast knowledge throughout the book, The Dirty Guide to Wine organizes wines not by grape, not by region, not by New or Old World, but by soil. If you enjoy a Chardonnay from Burgundy, you might find the same winning qualities in a deep, red Rioja. Feiring also provides a clarifying account of the traditions and techniques of wine-tasting, demystifying the practice and introducing a whole new way to enjoy wine to sommeliers and novice drinkers alike.

 

What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women and the Food That Tells Their Stories by Laura Shapiro 

Everyone eats, and food touches on every aspect of our lives—social and cultural, personal and political. Yet most biographers pay little attention to people’s attitudes toward food, as if the great and notable never bothered to think about what was on the plate in front of them. Once we ask how somebody relates to food, we find a whole world of different and provocative ways to understand her. Food stories can be as intimate and revealing as stories of love, work, or coming-of-age. Each of the six women in this entertaining group portrait was famous in her time, and most are still famous in ours; but until now, nobody has told their lives from the point of view of the kitchen and the table.

It’s a lively and unpredictable array of women; what they have in common with one another (and us) is a powerful relationship with food. They include Dorothy Wordsworth, whose food story transforms our picture of the life she shared with her famous poet brother; Rosa Lewis, the Edwardian-era Cockney caterer who cooked her way up the social ladder; Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady and rigorous protector of the worst cook in White House history; Eva Braun, Hitler’s mistress, who challenges our warm associations of food, family, and table; Barbara Pym, whose witty books upend a host of stereotypes about postwar British cuisine; and Helen Gurley Brown, the editor of Cosmopolitan, whose commitment to “having it all” meant having almost nothing on the plate except a supersized portion of diet gelatin.

 

 

 

Robot Bartenders in the News

While robots will eventually make all our jobs obsolete, they seem to be coming for bartenders first. Three robot bartender happenings have popped up on my radar recently. 

 

Battling Cocktail Robots

San Francisco's DNA Lounge is hosting their annual Cocktail Robotics Grand Challenge. Actually it just happened on July 16th.

image from Cocktail Robotics

I wasn't able to attend but it promised judging based on:

Style and Grace: How clever, how dapper is that robot of yours?

Efficiency of Intoxication: Are the drinks it makes good?

Full-Assery: The opposite of halfassery. Does the infernal device actually work, or do you have to stand there tweaking it constantly?

This Will End Badly: Extra consideration will be given for terrible ideas and Mad Science.

Check their Facebook page for more info and future events. 

 

Robot-Staffed Bar Opens in Vegas

Tipsy Robot is a new bar in Las Vegas where the robots make the drinks for you. 

The press release promises:

A one-of-a-kind destination attraction that merges craftsmanship and high-tech innovation, Tipsy Robot features two cocktail-shaking robots that interact with customers in a social, digital environment. Customers can order one of Tipsy Robot’s 18 signature cocktails — or create a custom cocktail — through one of the bar’s 33 tablets.

The robots mirror the actions of human bartenders. They mix, shake, pour, slice fruit and even dance to the latest Top 40 and EDM hits. Each beverage takes 60-90 seconds (or less) from order to completion.

 

Robot-Made Gin Coming Soon

At the annual Tales of the Cocktail convention in New Orleans on July 21, there is a seminar called, "Bartending Robots: Friend or Foe?"

The seminar will talk about the future of cocktail robotics, as well as introduce a forthcoming robot-made gin that will be blended a la minute at The Long Now Foundation's bar The Interval. Can't wait to try it. 

The seminar description promises:

What of a bartender’s skill can a machine replace? And what is it likely to replace? While people are (usually) much nicer than robots, our mechanical counterparts have been growing in speed, accuracy and number. Before you deride robotics as technology that denigrates the noble bartender’s position, let’s explore the ongoing evolution of bartending machines and how we can use them to further the craft. Taking a cue from European flavor houses that make bespoke gin for brands and bars, Jennifer Colliau, Beverage Director of The Interval in San Francisco, worked with St. George Spirits to make single-aromatic distillations that are combined via robotics to whatever specifications a guest would like. Jennifer is joined by Dave Smith, Head Distiller of St. George Spirits and the manufacturer of the single-aromatic distillates, Pierre Michael, owner of Party Robotics and the builder of The Interval's Gin Robot, and Alexander Rose, futurist and Executive Director of The Interval at Long Now. Join them for a discussion of the future of robotics and automation and how they can impact the bar, for better and for worse. During this seminar, you will taste finished St. George gins, investigate styles and recipes, then use the individual aromatic distillations to mix your own gin.