Author: Camper English
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Speaking at the Museum of the Eye Dec 28
I’ll be giving a short talk at the event “Celebratory Bubbles, Not Eye Troubles” at the Museum of the Eye in San Francisco on December 28th. It’s an annual New Year event. My talk (probably a short one of 20ish minutes) is “Eye-Openers, Corpse Revivers, and Anti-Fogmatics: The Medicinal Morning Cocktail.” It’s based on stuff…
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Splitting Up My Instagram Account
My Alcademics Instagram account is looking a bit… scattered between my personal posts, promoting my cocktail history tours, books I’m reading, and stuff that comes in the mail. So I’ve decided to split it up: @Alcademics is my business account where you’ll hear news and updates about my talks, tours, classes, books, and writing. @Camper.English…
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How the Quest for Quinine Led to the Creation of Chemotherapy
My latest for AlcoholProfessor.com is the story of how the scientific quest to produce artificial quinine led to the invention of chemotherapy. It’s a cool story IMO. Read it here.
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Did the Original Cocktail Sauce Contain Angostura Bitters?
I am researching Prohibition and a search for “cocktails” in the San Francisco Chronicle turned up a story from 1920 on the origin of the “oyster cocktail” that I think is what today we call “cocktail sauce” that is used more on the shrimp cocktail. (I am a 30+ year vegetarian so I could be…
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A Good Bar Needs Good Ice
I gave some quotes about ice for a story on the website Shortlist. They also interviewed other people who are correct in saying that better ice makes a better drink, and that attention to quality of ice signifies attention to quality of cocktails. I have the final quote in the story, in response to the…
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November and December 2025 Drink Books
Below are new cocktails and spirits books coming out in the last months of 2025. To see all the drink books that have come out in 2025, click on over to this post.
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Camper English on the Curious Bartender Podcast
I was a guest on Tristan Stephenson’s The Curious Bartender Podcast last week, talking for nearly two hours about.. a lot of stuff. You can find the podcast on your favorite service from The Curious Bartender website, or to go directly to the YouTube video of it click here.
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From Blocks to Rocks: How Fancy Ice Cubes Get Made
In my latest story for Food & Wine, I tell how those big clear ice cubes you find in cocktail bars are made. They don’t just pop out of a machine – every big clear cube you’ve had has been hand-harvested or hand-cut. Check out the story at this link.
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David Wondrich & Me Nov 12 in SF
Cocktail historian David Wondrich’s latest book is the terrific Comic Book History of the Cocktail. He’ll be in SF on Nov 12, in conversation with me at Omnivore Books on Food. Here are the details of the event. It’s free to attend. If you haven’t picked up a copy of the book yet, order one…