Author: Camper English

So Lance Winters of St. George Spirits let the cat out of the bag that his absinthe was approved at the end of last week. Well, local booze news doesn’t get any bigger than that so I told my editors at the Chronicle it shouldn’t wait until Friday’s Wine Section and they agreed. Stacy Finz wrote the story with my contributions mushed in here are there (it was my scoop though- just saying). We were in a race to at least tie with the NYTimes story that also came out today.

But in any case, by all accounts the St. George Absinthe Verte rocks. But cool your jets for a minute. The stuff written about in the stories is not even in bottles yet, people. The labels will be made the end of next week (Lance said he bribed the label people with booze to do a rush order.)

I don’t know if either story mentioned it, but it should be on sale beginning Friday Dec 21rst at the distillery in Alameda. The distillery will be open at least regular hours 12-7 Friday and Saturday and 12-6 Sunday. I think initially you’ll only be able to buy it at the source until its distributed.

Field trip, anyone?

Labels: absinthe, camper_clips

Great NYTimes article on bourbon, with ratings of their top pics. I tend to agree with the reviews (though I haven’t tried all the brands), though I might switch the Knob Creek and Woodford Reserve (two of the most available at bars) ratings. Woodford Reserve has become my airline liquor of choice- usually available, great on the rocks (it tastes like straw to me), and the little mini bottle is so damn cute.

Labels: bourbon

The SF Chronicle’s Wine Section comes out with the now-annual gift guide today. To read the intro and all of the items, start here, then follow the links in the box on the right.

I listed some suggestions for gift books (Felten, Wondrich, In the Land of Cocktails), Gary Regan tells us must-have bottles of each kind of booze for your liquor cabinet, Jay Brooks tells us his ideal beer imports, I give a list of essential glassware for the home bar, and in this list of miscellany I pick some whiskies and a calendar.

Labels: books, camper_clips, glassware, whisky

Hey look, I wrote a little thing in Time magazine’s Style and Design issue on hidden cocktail bars as a national trend. Here it is online, and here is the scan.

Labels: bars, camper_clips

By me, in Friday’s SF Chronicle:

A new Web site by the Brewers Association wants you to pass on the wine this Turkey Day and pop open a craft beer instead. BeerAndTurkey.org offers suggestions for beer pairings with a range of holiday meals, including roasted, smoked and Cajun-style turkey, ham, goose, salmon and lamb. They also pair beer with side dishes and seasonings, like amber ale with sage dishes and all-malt pilsner, dark lager or red ale to go with buttery mashed potatoes and creamed corn. The site also lists a few serving suggestions (large bottles for easy sharing, multiple glasses for multiple beers), but not all segments of the population will be served by the Web site: There are no pairing notes for Tofurky.

Labels: beer, camper_clips, food

By me, in today’s SF Chronicle:

New books dedicated to old drinks
Camper English

Many drink books published today are the “Behind the Music” of cocktails, telling the stories of the book authors and recipe histories rather than inventing a slew of new libations.

In the past few years we’ve seen titles including “Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails: From the Alamagoozulum Cocktail to the Zombie,” “Straight Up or On the Rocks: The Story of the American Cocktail,” “Sippin’ Safari: In Search of the Great “Lost” Tropical Drink Recipes… And the People Behind Them,” and “And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails.” This fall, two more titles make that list.

“Imbibe!” by Esquire writer David Wondrich (Perigee Trade, $24) is an investigation into the first known cocktail recipe book, Jerry Thomas’ “How to Mix Drinks” from 1862.

The majority of the text is a deconstruction of about 100 recipes from or inspired by “How to Mix Drinks.” Wondrich translates the recipes into current measurement sizes, suggests substitutions and deletions of specific ingredients, and recommends specific brands to give the drinks authentic (or better tasting) flavor. But this is not just an updated recipe book: While each recipe may consist of only a few lines, Wondrich’s historical analysis of the drink’s origin, comparison with recipes from other texts, and suggested alterations and spin-offs can go on for several pages each. (And in a few places he refers to how much material he left out to save space.) Wondrich uncovered many new bits of information and has answered several lingering cocktail origin questions in the book. Cocktail connoisseurs and history buffs will find this book an essential addition to their reference libraries.

Eric Felten’s “How’s Your Drink? Cocktails, Culture, and the Art of Drinking Well” (Agate Surrey, $20; release date Nov. 28) is written in the breezy tone that defines his James Beard Award-winning column of the same name in the Wall Street Journal. The book consists of short essays on classic and modern cocktails with recipes at the end of each, grouped into chapters on ice drinks, holiday drinks, war drinks and the like. Though Felten also traces cocktail origins, he references fewer cocktail books and more literary sources like Broadway plays, novels and newspaper stories. It is a cultural study rather than a technical one, packed with great trivia and hilarious observations like calling gargantuan martinis “hazing, not hospitality.” The best description of the book, and the study of cocktail history in general, comes from the conclusion. “If there is anything to be serious about in the way of drinks it is this only: that one’s drink be delicious. If it can add to our pleasure by having a good story to tell, then all the better.”

Labels: books, camper_clips

By me, in today’s SF Chronicle:

Bartenders shake and stir their way through cocktail history
Camper English, Special to the Chronicle

Because of their proximity to sticky liquids, well-used cocktail books often don’t hold up over time, which may be why vintage cocktail books from the 1860s through the 1940s are rare and highly collectible.

These books hold more value than the recipes inside or their resale value, however. Modern cocktail enthusiasts use them to rediscover how and what people were drinking when the books were written, what bar life was like in the beginning of the last century, and the history of bartending as a profession.

Josey Packard, a bartender at Alembic in the Upper Haight who also studies recipe history, earned her master’s degree in editorial studies at Boston University, during which she became interested in books about classic cocktails. She initially made drinks that she read about in newspapers, including the mojito and cosmopolitan, which lead her to try more gin-based and other complex drinks like the Corpse Reviver, Mary Pickford and Gansevoort fizz not widely made in bars at the time. “There was a point at which I realized I was more disappointed than delighted when going out for cocktails,” she says. And thus began her career as a bartender.

Keep reading here.

Labels: books, camper_clips

By me, in today’s SF Chronicle:

Modern Spirits Vodka, the small brand that creates infusions like celery peppercorn and chocolate orange, has released its first seasonal flavor: pumpkin pie. (They’ll be launching a rose infusion for Valentine’s Day next.) The vodka was infused with pumpkin puree and spices like cinnamon and nutmeg and retains a slight orange-yellow color, but isn’t so bold as to taste like a pie put into a blender. It’s fine served cold as a sipping vodka (a nice digestif after a big turkey meal), or in one of several recipes found on the Web site ModernSpiritsVodka.com. The Everything Nice cocktail could be served in place of dessert: 2 ounces pumpkin pie vodka, 1 ounce heavy cream, 2 tablespoons maple syrup and a splash of orange liqueur served in a graham cracker-rimmed martini glass.

Labels: camper_clips, vodka

By me, in today’s SF Chronicle:

Next Thursday though Sunday is the seventh annual San Francisco Bay Area Tiki Crawl. That the event is spread out over four days and three geographic regions is an indicator that we have a heck of a lot of tiki bars in this part of the world. (Take that, Hawaii!) On South Bay Thursday, the hordes descend upon Smoke Tiki, the Palo Alto Trader Vic’s and Martini Monkey in the San Jose airport (pending approval). Friday night, city tiki-hoppers stop by Trad’r Sam, the Tonga Room, Bamboo Hut and the San Francisco Trader Vic’s. On Saturday, it’s time to hit Trader Vic’s in Emeryville, Forbidden Island in Alameda, and the Conga Lounge and Kona Club in Oakland. The tour ends on Sunday with a leisurely revisit of Forbidden Island. There is no bus between venues unlike past years, so drivers are encouraged to find safe carpool situations rather than anger the great gods of common sense. Specific times and addresses, as well as an e-mail information list can be found on TikiCrawl.com.

Labels: camper_clips, events, SanFrancisco, tropical

Last night I went to Absinthe for a dinner with Mike Miyamoto of Yamazaki Whisky. They brought along David Wondrich, whose new book I reviewed for the Chronicle (review coming out November 9th).

We tasted the 12 and 18 year whiskies, as well as a 25-year-old not available in the US. What’s unique about these whiskies is the Japanese oak used to age some of it (they use five types of barrels- three American oak new or used bourbon, one Spanish oak sherry casks, and one Japanese oak), which impart an incense-spice flavor to the whisky.

Until I could identify the flavor on its own, I thought of it as very fine ground green and red pepper confetti, whereas American oak is a more coarse confetti. This is how my tongue identifies oak until my brain catches up.

Somewhere during the dinner the conversation took a turn to Britney Spears ( I blame Wondrich), though it didn’t linger there too long after I started mocking them.

Miyamoto has worked on different production aspects of whisky in the US, Japan, and Scotland. The company has been making whisky in Japan since 1923, and studying it scientifically to try to achieve the best product. When he went to Scotland (after Suntory purchased a distillery there) to see what the Scots could teach them about making whisky, he says they were just coasting on their laurels and following tradition instead of studying and innovating.

Also unique about Yamazaki is that the product is changing. They are trying to make better product so they try to improve the equipment and processes rather than aim for consistency. They reduced the size of their stills to make a better whisky a couple of years ago, so we won’t see how that tastes for another ten years. Miyamoto said, “If there is something you don’t like about the whisky let us know and we’ll change it.”

They sure don’t talk like that in Scotland.

Labels: whisky