Blog

  • Alcademics Alert: Website Extreme Maintenance

    I have recently moved Alcademics.com and my other sites to a new web hosting service, so you should expect to see more broken links/images than usual! 

    Feel free to contact me and drop me a note about any- particularly after mid-October 2025 after I’ve cleaned up most of the site. 

    CocktailSafe.org is hosted at a new temporary domain and should be working, but will likely move again soon. 

    CocktailGreen.org is down and may or may not come back! 

    Thanks for understanding and pardon my mess going forward!

    Camper English 

  • San Francisco Cocktail History Tour Dates for August and September

    I’ve added more dates to the calendar for my SF Bar and Cocktail History Tours. I’m doing the tour every Saturday. 

    Can’t make a Saturday afternoon? I can do private tours most anytime- reach out. 

    On the tour, which begins in San Francisco’s Financial District and end in North Beach, you’ll learn: 

    Learn about shanghaiing, sailors, bars inside boats, Emperor Norton and Barbary Coast saloons, the Bank Exchange and the Pisco Punch, earthquake whiskey and drag royalty, the influence of vermouth and grand hotel bars, Cocktail Bill Boothby and the House of Shields, The So Different and “pretty waiter girls,” slummers’ tours and tropical drinks. The tour ends at a 1907 saloon that upholds the traditions and décor of an earlier era of cocktails in San Francisco – and we’ll share a drink together there!

    Information and tickets are here.

    Cocktail History Tour SF Flyer aug sept

  • September 2025 Drink Book Releases

    Here are new cocktails and spirits books being released in September 2025.

    To see all the New Drink Books of 2025, visit this link

    September 2025 drink books

    • Savory and Sweet Shrubs: Tart Mixers for Delicious Cocktails and Mocktails
    • American Whiskey Master Class: The Ultimate Guide to Understanding Bourbon, Rye, and Other American Whiskeys

     

    • The Whiskey Bible: A Complete Guide to the World's Greatest Spirit

     

    • Get Lit: Cocktails That Bring Your Favorite Books to Life

     

     

    • Tequila, Mezcal & More: Discover, Sip & Mix the Best Agave Spirits
    • The Mixology Way: Classic cocktail recipes to master the art of mixology

     

    • The Japanese Way of Whisky: Japan's Whiskies and how to Enjoy them

     

    • Both Sides of the Glass: Paired Cocktails and Mocktails to Toast Any Taste

     

    • The Comic Book History of the Cocktail: Five Centuries of Mixing Drinks and Carrying On

     

    • The Whisky World Tour: A curated guide to unforgettable distilleries and their whiskies

     

    • Booze & Vinyl Country: 100+ Spirited Music-and-Drink Pairings

     

     

  • Glow in the Dark Ants in Ice Cubes

    I was trolling the dollar store for things to freeze into ice cubes, as I do, and found these large fluorescent ants. 

    I froze them into ice cubes using my Clearly Frozen tray. Then I shined a blacklight on them. They look awesome, even better in a glass with a drink. 

    There is a video of that here on my YouTube channel. 

    For more fun tips, check out The Ice Book

     

    Ants glow in the dark in ice cubes21

    Ants glow in the dark in ice cubes16 Ants glow in the dark in ice cubes18

  • Bartender’s Ketchup is Back on the Menu in SF

    Bartenders ketcup

     

    I wrote a story for the SFStandard about elderflower liqueur making a huge comeback. It was so popular when the brand St. Germain first launched in 2007 that it was given the nickname “bartender’s ketchup.”  

    It’s so back, but now bartenders are using a wide range of products. Read the story here. 

     

    IMG_5857

  • Put a Ring In It: Ring Inside a Clear Ice Cube

    I was browsing in the dollar store for stuff to freeze into ice cubes, as I do, and found a bag of party favor rings. They’re made for kids and so can only fit about halfway up my pinky finger, but it’s proof of concept.

    To freeze the rings into ice, I used my IceOlogy clear cube tray, which has an open top. I simply put a piece of bamboo skewer across the top of the opening, hanging the ring in the top part of the water. 

    They came out great. One of the rings was a little deeper into the ice than the other (making it really hard to wear), but that can easily be controlled. 

    Here are some pics. 

    For more information about clear ice and my book The Ice Book, check out this page

     

    Ring inside ice cube21
    Ring inside ice cube16

    Ring inside ice cube24
    Ring inside ice cube17
    Ring inside ice cube17

  • When Fizzy Water Was Medicine

    My fellow drink writer Liza Weisstuch wrote a story about seltzer and the specific affinity that the jewish people of NYC have for it. 

    The story includes some quotes from me, as I covered the medicinal history of spas and the soda fountain in my book Doctors and Distillers

    Screenshot 2025-06-13 at 2.12.56 PM

     

    The story is very fun and super interesting – read the whole thing here

     

    Screenshot 2025-06-13 at 2.11.19 PM

  • 50 Year Time Capsule from the Transamerica Pyramid

    There’s a new exhibit at the Transamerica Pyramid from a time capsule buried 50 years ago. I checked it out. 

    The building was completed in 1972- the time capsule is from 1974. Before that, from 1853-1959, it was the Montgomery Block that hosted the Bank Exchange Saloon. The Bank Exchange was the home of the Pisco Punch, the most famous cocktail in SF from roughly 1870-1920. Duncan Nicol, mentioned in the pictures, was the proprietor of the Bank Exchange in its later decades, and the person who popularized the Pisco Punch. He took his secret recipe to his grave.  

    I’ve left these images purposefully crappy to encourage you to go see it yourself! 

    Transamerica time capsule 1974 - 2025_1

    Transamerica time capsule 1974 - 2025_1 Transamerica time capsule 1974 - 2025_4

    Transamerica time capsule 1974 - 2025_5
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    Transamerica time capsule 1974 - 2025_10
    Transamerica time capsule 1974 - 2025_11 Transamerica time capsule 1974 - 2025_13

  • Bottled Water Went Viral 125 Years Ago

    My latest piece for Food & Wine is "How a Bottled Water Goes Social Media Viral and the Real Differences Between Them"

    Read it here.

    Screenshot 2025-05-24 at 6.21.35 PM

     

  • Super Juice Explainer

    My latest story for Food & Wine is an explainer about “super juice.” Read it here.

     

    Screenshot 2025-05-23 at 12.43.28 PM

agave alcademics Angostura bartenders bitters bodega bourbon bowmore Campari Camper English chartreuse clear clear ice cocktail cocktail powder cocktails cognac curacao curing olives dehydrated dehydrated liqueurs dehydration directional freezing distillery distillery tour distillery visit fernet france freezing objects in ice hakushu harvest history how to make clear ice ice ice balls ice carving ice cubes ice experiments jerez karlsson's liqueur makepage making clear ice mexico midori orange orange liqueur pisco potato powder production recipe Recipes rum san francisco scotch scotch whisky sherry spain spirits sugar sugarcane sweden tales of the cocktail tequila tiki tour triple sec visit vodka whisky