Author: Camper English

  • Modern Day Pond and Lake Ice Harvests in America

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    Camper English
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    I got it into my head that I want to see a pond or lake ice harvest, despite my contempt for winter.  Commercial ice harvests changed the cocktail landscape in America in the early-mid 1800s, allowing for the creation of juleps and cobblers and the popularization of the drinking straw and the cocktail shaker.  Today…

  • How Machine Ice Is Made

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    Camper English
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    These are a few ways that ice was and is made, which I learned from the awesome book Ice: The Nature, the History, and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance by Mariana Gosnell. Slushie Method The first way is just like making ice cream the old-fashioned way: snow or cold water mixed with salt can become…

  • Carbonation Science

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    Camper English
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    I was lucky enough to get a sample of the Perlini cocktail carbonating system, but before I even got around to using it I was fascinated by carbonation information the instruction manual.  Note: Yes, I read the instruction manuals.  Pretty much always.  The Perlini is basically a cocktail shaker than you fill with carbon dioxide…

  • How Water Freezes

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    This post is about how a lake freezes, but it should be more or less the same for how an insulated container freezes in a freezer. The information is from the excellent book, Ice: The Nature, the History, and the Uses of an Astonishing Substance by Mariana Gosnell.  Turnover As temperatures lower, the water in a lake…

  • 2011: My Year in Cocktail Writing

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    Looking over the year (read: sending invoices) for 2011, it turns out that I managed to get a lot of work done in between all the trips. This year I contributed to: FineCooking.com as the weekly cocktail blogger Mixology Magazine in Germany The LA Times Magazine Caviar Affair Magazine SilverKris (Singapore Airlines) Penthouse Magazine The…

  • 2011: A Year of Spirituous Travel

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    In 2011, I traveled to 12 foreign countries not counting repeats on 22 different trips, flying 156,000 miles to do so. I had a mere 80 nights in hotel rooms and one or two hangovers. My trips this year were:  Vino 2011 in NYC Jameson Irish Whiskey in Ireland Casa Noble Tequila in Mexico Angostura…

  • Instant Infusions in Tasting Panel Magazine

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    I have a short piece in Tasting Panel Magazine about the instant infusion method – using a whipped cream charger filled with nitrous oxide to infuse flavors in spirits – and Purity Vodka's promotion of the technique.  The story is at this link, which opens a digital magazine reader.  By the way, the original Dave…

  • Trends in Craft Beer in SilverKris Magazine

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    My editor at SilverKris, the inflight magazine for Singapore Airlines, emailed me something like, "I hear craft beer is becoming popular. Can you do a story on that?" "Sure," I said, knowing that boiling down everything going on with craft beer into even a feature-length story was going to be incredibly difficult.  The story kind…

  • New Fernets in the San Francisco Chronicle

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    In the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, December 18th, I have a story on the category of fernet. Leopold Brothers has a modern formulation of fernet that should be hitting story shelves this Wednesday afternoon, and Tempus Fugit Spirits has a vintage recreation of fernet coming in the new year. (Photo by John Storey) From…

  • Japanese Bartending Story

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    I have a short piece in the new issue of Caviar Affair magazine describing the influence of Japanese bartending on the rest of the world.  The magazine also has lots of pricey booze recomendations, stories about port and cognac, and a few bartenders you may know.  The digital version of the magazine is at this…