Month: October 2008

  • Hotel Wine MacGuyver

    —

    by

    Camper English
    in ,

    Say you find yourself in a hotel room on a cold London night, caught in a bout of sleep-free jetlag, but prepared to take the edge off with a bottle of wine. Unfortunately, you forget to bring a corkscrew. You don't have any cash to tip room service for bringing one up. What do you…

  • Clearly a Failure

    —

    by

    Camper English
    in

    There are various methods people use to make the clearer ice. To remove the air bubbles that make ice cloudy, people suggest boiling or refreezing the water. I decided to give a few options a try to see what worked best. But as we'll see, my results are less than conclusive. Using individual sized apple…

  • A day with Charbay

    —

    by

    Camper English
    in , , , ,

    The other week I sat down on the patio behind Swirl on Castro with Marko Karakasevic and Jenni soon-to-be Karakasevic of Charbay and tasted through their line of products. Charbay is a family-run winery and distillery in Napa Valley. And boy do these people like to play with the still- in addition to wine, they…

  • Icefusions

    —

    by

    Camper English
    in

    Gourmet.com has a story about a bartender making ice infused with herbs and spices like dried cherry, cardamom, and clove, which open up in cocktails and add new flavors to the drink as they melt. I've had ice made from coconut water and bitters-infused ice before, but this is a new idea to me. Think…

  • Look at me, err, at what I wrote

    —

    by

    Camper English
    in , ,

    I have a story in the latest issue of Malt Advocate– my first one for them. Hooray! It's a round-up of whisky events at Tales of the Cocktail and the increased presence of whisky at the event in general. Run screaming to your local newsstand and read it. You'll find my story right beneath the…

  • The Gentleman’s Companion’s Companion

    —

    by

    Camper English
    in

    The Gentleman's Companion by Charles H. Baker is one of the most entertaining historical cocktail books, if not always the most useful. It contains cocktail recipes gathered from Baker's travels around the world, but the best parts are the drink introductions and settings. Like this one: THE JAMAICAN BLACK STRIPE, another Heartener from that Tropical…

  • Maker’s Mark Distillery Visit

    —

    by

    Camper English
    in , ,

    As part of a visit to the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, I visited the Jim Beam and Maker's Mark distilleries in September. Today I'll talk about visiting Maker's Mark. The distillery has been around since 1805, but was purchased by Mr. Samuels, founder of Maker's Mark, in the early 1950's. This distillery will receive 70,000 visitors…

  • Oh, Sherry!

    —

    by

    Camper English
    in , ,

    I haven't seen the print edition yet, but the digital edition of my story in Men's Book (by San Francisco Magazine) is viewable online here. The story is about sherry in cocktails. The story mentions drinks on the menu at 15 Romolo, NOPA, and the forthcoming Gitane, but since I wrote it, sherry drinks have…

  • A visit to the Jim Beam distillery

    —

    by

    Camper English
    in , ,

    In September I visited the Jim Beam and Maker's Mark distilleries as part of the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. For all the distilleries I've been to in 10 different countries, I'd never seen a bourbon distillery. The Claremont Jim Beam distillery is a huge facility, and one of two where the product is distilled. They receive…