Leblon is a cachaca (Brazilian sugar-cane-based rum) that’s aged 3-6 months in used cognac barrels in France. The last part has always been a confusing point to cachaca consumers. Or at least to me. If it’s aged in France, how can it be called cachaca?

Last night I had dinner at Jardiniere with Gerry Schweitzer, COO of Leblon. He explained that the regulations on cachaca state that in order to be called cachaca it must be grown and distilled in Brazil, but can then be bottled elsewhere. (Among other rules.) This is also the case with many French wines, but in contrast to tequila for example, which in order to be called 100% de agave must be produced and bottled in the region of origin.

Finally, an answer to that nagging question. But why?

Schweitzer explained that it was less expensive to do it this way than to age and bottle it in Brazil, due (largely) to taxes on importing the empty bottles into the country to be filled. Brazil wants Brazilian bottles used and these are protective tariffs.

That said, Leblon is now moving over to aging some of the product in Brazil as well as in France, and I believe they’ll eventually be doing it all in Brazil.

Labels: cachaca

By me, in today’s San Francisco Chronicle:

Jammin’ cocktails
Camper English
Friday, August 3, 2007

With mixologists around town focusing on farmers’ market fruits and fresh herbs, we wouldn’t have guessed the hot new cocktail ingredients would be marmalade and jam. But we don’t make the trends, just report on them.

— Bar Drake, the new lobby bar in the Sir Francis Drake hotel that opened last month, serves the Tommy Gun with Tullamore Dew Irish whiskey, Grand Marnier, apricot jam, lemon juice and fresh ginger, and the Breakfast at Tiffany’s cocktail with Ketel One Citroen, orange marmalade, orange bitters, fresh lime juice and ginger beer. And since the bar opens at 11 a.m., you can actually have it for breakfast. 450 Powell St. (at Sutter), San Francisco; (415) 392-7755, Ext. 226, bardrake.com.

— Cantina serves a Marmalade Cooler that sounds like a Latin version of the Breakfast at Tiffany’s, with Appleton rum, Bonne Maman orange marmalade, lemon and California ginger brew. Since these venues are close to each other, it only makes sense to visit both and compare. 580 Sutter St. (at Mason), San Francisco; (415) 398-0195, cantinasf.com.

— The Marmalade Whiskey Sour has been on the menu at Bourbon & Branch since it opened last year, and the bar is only a few blocks from these other two venues should you feel motivated to go on a marmalade bar crawl. The drink is made with bourbon, lemon, orange marmalade and orange bitters. 501 Jones St. (at O’Farrell), San Francisco; bourbonandbranch.com.

— Sino Restaurant at Santana Row currently offers two unusual drinks with their house ginger marmalade in the mix. One is Seduction, with Smirnoff vodka, Vermeer chocolate liqueur and ginger marmalade, and the other is the Sinodriver, with Wasabe vodka, orange juice and ginger marmalade. The drink menu is scheduled to change soon and we don’t know if these drinks will still be on the new list, so get them while they’re hot. 377 Santana Row, Suite 1000, San Jose; (408) 247-8880, www.sinorestaurant.com.

Labels: camper_clips, cocktails, SanFrancisco, trends

It’s hard for me to leave downtown without stopping into one of my favorite watering holes. And it’s hard for me to leave one of my favorite downtown watering holes without stumbling into one of my other favorite watering holes nearby.

Yesterday I hit Bourbon & Branch for some investigative drinking. (The management is not so good at returning email or phone calls so I had to go to the source. ) The Rouge No. 10 (black pepper-infused gin and strawberries) is still on the menu temporarily, as is another farmer’s market drink with peaches and the pepper gin. I’m all about the pepper so I had the peach drink as a change, which was good but the Rouge is better. I’m going back on Monday and they better still have it or I’m going to voice a strong objection. Fear my wrath!

I left with good intentions of going to the library afterwards but somehow I never made it there and stopped into Cantina instead. I’d missed the pisco party they held the previous Saturday, but Aaron was nice enough to make me one of the drinks from the special menu they served. Okay, two drinks. The Galapagos had peppercorn-infused syrup in it so you know I wanted that. The Blushing Lima had Cherry Heering in it, which I never knew actually tasted like cherries as it’s usually used in small amount in classic cocktails. But in this drink it was alive. Alive!

Labels: cocktails, SanFrancisco

I received the latest copy of San Francisco Magazine in the mail today, in which I have a story on the latest trend in nightlife- retro-opulent design bars with demoted dancefloors. In San Francisco, some of the hot new spots opened recently are:

• Harlot (Bordello theme)
• Slide (Speakeasy theme)
• Etiquette (Victorian-bondage theme)
• Ambassador (Rat Pack theme)

Another interesting note is venues that are more crowded and clubby, such as Harlot and Etiquette, have a specialty cocktail menu at happy hour that they then hide at night when there isn’t time for muddling and squeezing fresh juice.

Labels: bars, camper_clips, SanFrancisco

Bay Area bartenders earn toasts at New Orleans cocktail event
Camper English, Special to The Chronicle
Friday, July 27, 2007

We like to think our bartenders and their drink creations are extraordinary here in the Bay Area. Last weekend at the Tales of the Cocktail event held in New Orleans, we found validation that it’s not just too many Negronis triggering our hometown pride — the Bay Area’s bartenders are finally getting respect at the national level.

In its fifth year, the Tales of the Cocktail conference celebrates the history of cocktails in New Orleans and the practice of making them around the world. Though open to the public, the event is heavily attended by people in the beverage industry, from small-city bartenders on up to major spirits distributors. Approximately 12,000 people were at the event July 18 to 22.

Esquire magazine cocktail correspondent and historian David Wondrich, who gave several talks at Tales of the Cocktail, said: “In San Francisco (the bars) tend to have that neighborhoody feel but they specialize much more in cocktails. It’s like cocktail culture never went away.”

Read it here.

Labels: bartending, camper_clips, SanFrancisco, tales_of_the_cocktail

It became clear at Tales of the Cocktail that the amount of swag was going to be unmanageable, so I started declining freebies unless I was prepared to lug them home. Not everything made it (hope the hotel maid likes vodka!) and I still had two additional pieces of luggage on the way back.

My end tally was 9 pens, 6 keychains, 4 bottle openers, 2 shaker sets, 11 pieces of glassware, 4 DVDs, 4 CDs, 5 mini-bottles, 7 muddlers, 4 books, and a heck of a lot of miscellaneous. And I now present:

The Tales of the Cocktail Swag Awards

• Most over-gifted swag category: muddler
• Best muddler: Plymouth Gin’s long unfinished wood mallet
• Most unnecessary swag category: keychains
• Most unexpected item: Twelve ounces of Dancing Goats coffee, not ground
• Best item for brownosing journalists (tie): Bombay Sapphire reporter’s notebook and Ciroc light-up pen
• Most practical item I didn’t already own: jigger (unbranded, donated by Barsol Pisco)
• Biggest missed branding opportunity: see above
• Most practical item I didn’t know I wanted: Rums of Puerto Rico cocktail apron
• Most expensive swag: set of 9 Riedel spirits tasting glasses
• Most unwieldy swag: full-sized bottle of Absolut New Orleans vodka
• Best use of brand name in swag item: Rain Vodka umbrella

Labels: swag, tales_of_the_cocktail

I think I’m a rare person that made it through all of Tales of the Cocktail without a hangover. But then I drank a lot on the plane and have one today back in San Francisco. Still, the conference was exhausting and I was starting to feel it on Saturday.

At the Cocktails and the Blogosphere talk, they touched on a few interesting things:

• Blogs’ strong points are they’re both updated regularly and interactive, and can reach a lot of people fast.
• They have the ability to spread the word about great recipes (for drinks or drink ingredients) and products, and effect cocktail menus and consumption on a pretty large scale.
• PR people haven’t been so good at paying attention to blogs and pitching the appropriate ones.

The vermouth section was pretty advanced so I’m going to need to parse through the handouts to get up to speed.

The Riedel spirits glassware tasting was terrific. In three different types of glasses we had three different wood-aged spirits and we tasted through to find the glass that brought out the best aspects of the spirit, while minimizing the alcohol burn. While tasting the Islay scotch, one glass made the nose smoke first, then fruit behind it while another glass achieved the opposite. It makes me want to re-taste everything in my liquor cabinet in different glasses!

Then we went out drinking. I bowed out relatively early but many others saw the sun come up.

The next day I first packed up my swag, which took some time. I had lunch at Riche in the Harrah’s where we were staying, and managed to get to the Tales of the Cocktail Spirit Awards late enough that it was over. Drat! Many people looked like hell at this point and lept out of bed showing up at the awards ceremony in yesterday’s clothes. I guess that’s an appropriate ending to the event.

And I’m definitely planning on going again next year.

Labels: tales_of_the_cocktail

By me in today’s SF Chronicle:

St. George Spirits, the Alameda distillers behind Hangar One Vodka and several eaux-de-vie, liqueurs and one whiskey, have launched another small bottling with big flavor. Aqua Perfecta Basil Eau de Vie is made with Thai and other varieties of basil, soaked in unaged California grape brandy and redistilled. The product, which sells for $50 at the distillery (and in a few other venues soon) was launched July 14 and is a “refined accompaniment to caviar” according to the press release. The bold basil flavor is rather potent right out of the bottle and should make for some savory cocktails like the suggested Thai Fighter with lime juice and ginger simple syrup.

Available at the distillery, 2601 Monarch St. (at Alameda Point, the old Naval Air Station), Alameda; (510) 769-1601, or online at stgeorgespirits.com.

Update from St. George Spirits:

-The $50 price was a promotional thing for the open house, $65 is the regular price.

-For now it will only be available in 6 bars, no liquor stores except ours.

Labels: camper_clips

Day 3 Recap:

On Thursday I attended a lot more seminars:

• Organic and local cocktails- Alison Evanow of Square One organic vodka says, “Vodka is like butter.” There are some really interesting non-profit healthy food programs happening in New Orleans post-Katrina.
• The future of mixology, with bar stars Todd Thrasher, James Meehan, and John Kinder. One of them said, “We’ve all been claiming gin is going to be the next big thing for years now and it just hasn’t happened.”
• The effects of Prohibition on cocktails- This was a casual, hilarious conversation between booze historians. John K. Hall of 40 Creek Whisky was asked why they don’t do a rum. He answered, “We don’t grow any sugarcane in Canada.” David Wondrich replied mocking global warming, “You will soon!” I also learned that prepackaged sour mix was available as early as 1905.

Then I had a fabulous dinner at The Commander’s Palace, a swanky restaurant in the Garden District. The waiters were like ninjas- there were none and then suddenly 8 of them would jump out of the shadows and take care of all of our needs and disappear.

Labels: tales_of_the_cocktail

It’s day two of Tales of the Cocktail and I’m still going strong. Currently I’m skipping the “spirited dinners” drinks-and-food pairing dinners happening all over town because as a vegetarian they don’t make these things for me. (“Can you pair this vermouth with a salad?”) So I had my own beer and pizza pairing at a microbrewery chain. It was good until they brought the “pizza,” which was like a salty Boboli bread with sweet pasta sauce and uncooked tomatoes on top. Yeah, not so great.

So far I’ve attended seminars on:

• Cocktail history (“I didn’t bring any ice tools because they’re really sharp and really hard to get on airplanes” – David Wondrich),
• The history of the Napoleon House cocktail bar (“It’s like a New Orleans day spa” – David Wondrich)
• Ice (“An honest ice cube became impossible to find.”- Sasha Petraske, speaking about ice machines up until a few years ago)
• Rum (so much good information it’s hard to put it down)
• Forgotten and lost cocktail ingredients (Much like the Imbibe article by Paul Clarke of the same name)
• Pisco (my favorite seminar so far- great info and great swag too.)

Pisco is the new gin. I’m just going to call it out. (Take note of the date.)

And I’ve hung out with Paul Clarke, Tony Abou–Ganim, Jamie Boudreau, the Liquid Muse, Stephen Beaumont, Robert Hess, Ted Haigh, Beachbum Berry, and more other people than I can name. And tomorrow at the Cocktails and the Blogosphere event it should be an even more ridiculous clusterf**k. I’m in heaven.

Labels: events, tales_of_the_cocktail