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Berlin Cocktail Snake

I'm in Berlin, Germany blogging for the bar show Bar Convent Berlin. I had a few extra hours today, so I decided to see some of the city. I visited a remaining portion of the Berlin Wall, passed by some sausage stands, had a beer, and saw the sign for the famous cocktail snakes.

The cocktail snakes have a rich history dating back to Second Reich, but were largely unknown outside of the Eastern part of Berlin until after Reunification in 1957.

Today they are some of the most popular tourist destinations in all of Germany, with signs on many street corners directing enthusiasts to the nearest snake bar, known as Snackbarleichten. (American tourists are often confused by the name, expecting to find a snack bar but receiving a poisonous bite instead. Because of the resulting lawsuits, German parliament passed a resolution in 2003 requiring all snake bars to stock plenty of antidote and have nurses on staff.)

In the traditional Snackbarleichten, the snakes are kept in a glass aquarium with an open top at the same level as the bar counter. The bartender ("snackfrau") pours cocktails in oversized glasses; typically a blend of the local schnapps with sugar and a drop of fresh mouse blood. She puts the drink on the bar and then the wait begins.

Eventually one of the snakes will coil itself around the cocktail glass and reach its forked tongue in for a sip of the drink. The snake will take only a few slurps, becoming instantly intoxicated and passing out coiled around the stem of the glass. (Cold-blooded animals have no livers, so alcohol goes directly to the brain.) Only after the snake has fallen asleep do you get your turn to drink- with a straw so you don't wake the snake.

Recently some modern snake bars have opened to cater to the younger generation. These venues (called "ultrasnackbarleichten") house only specially-bred albino snakes that glow in the nightclub-style black light. There, the mouse blood is replaced with Red Bull and the snakes do not sleep, but jitter in a rhythmic motion to the industrial dance music piped in over loudspeakers.

Anyway, that's what I was imagining on my walk following the cocktail snake sign to see what could possibly be at the end of it. Turns out, it's a pharmacy.

I didn't ask if they carried anti-venom kits.

October 2, 2010
Intro to Negroni, over at FineCooking.com

My weekly recipe is up on FineCooking.com, a quick introduction to the Negroni cocktail. Perhaps you have heard of such a thing?

Check it out, and if you have a preferred way of making the Negroni different that the typical equal parts, stirried, up method, feel free to comment over there on FineCooking. Comments make me look good, like a deliciously sticky Negroni.

October 2, 2010
Freezing Objects in Ice

As you know I've been making clear ice at home. I've got a lot more experimenting to do, but for now I thought I'd try freezing a bottle inside a block.

I started with a mini bottle of Chambord, since it's the flashiest one I own. I tied a piece of fishing line around the neck of the bottle and suspended it in my ice-making cooler. I tied the top around a ruler to hold it above the cooler.

Happily it stayed in place while freezing. I popped out the block.

This block was cloudier than usual. I'm not sure if that's because of the object in the ice or not.

It looks a little better close up, so I cut the ice closer to the bottle.

It's not perfect, but it would make a great chunk of ice for a punch bowl.

An index of all of the ice experiments on Alcademics can be found here.

September 28, 2010
How Long Does Sherry Last?

Sherry is a wine, albeit a fortified one, that does spoil after a certain time being open. It also typically doesn't improve once it is put into the bottle so here's how long to keep it around.

According to the Consejo Regulador of Sherry, the wine should be stored for the following times:

Fino or Manzanilla: in a sealed bottle it will last for 12 to 18 months. If the bottle is opened and stored in the refrigerator, it will last one week.

Amontillado and Medium Sweet Sherries in a sealed bottle will last for 18 to 36 months. If the bottle is open they will last 2 -3 weeks.

Oloroso and Cream Sherries in a sealed bottle will last for 24 to 36 months. If the bottle is open they will last 4 -6 weeks.

Pedro Ximenez in a sealed bottle will last for 24 to 48 months. If the bottle is open it will last 1 -2 months.

September 27, 2010
Sherry is Not Just for Sipping

In the new issue of Fine Cooking Magazine, Tara Q. Thomas has a story on sherry with food pairings (preview mode so far- full story should appear at the link later). To pair with the feature on the FineCooking.com drink blog, I list a simple recipe for the Sherry Cobbler.

Should you want more complicated recipes, I recommend stopping off at the Secret Sherry Society website for drinks from the likes of Charles Joly, Erick Castro, Danny Valdez, Thomas Waugh, and Phil Ward.

September 25, 2010
The Historically Inaccurate Gimlet

My second piece on the FineCooking.com cocktail blog is up. It is a rather simple fresh lime Gimlet recipe. I know that the Rose's lime cordial Gimlet is historically accurate, but I mean seriously, yuck.

September 19, 2010
Less Alcohol, More Trendy

My new story for the San Francisco Chronicle is online.

Latest cocktail trend is low-alcohol drinks

Camper English, Special to The Chronicle
Friday, September 17, 2010

Like a food menu, a proper cocktail list reflects a chosen theme while catering to a variety of diners. The low-alcohol drinks now showing up around San Francisco are designed to satisfy cocktail flexitarians who aren't avoiding alcohol but who don't want the calories, the rapid buzz or that full feeling.

For some drinkers, it's like small-plates dining.

"I like cocktails so much that sometimes I wish all booze was lower in proof because I want to drink more and not feel (the) effects as intensely," says Brooke Arthur, who placed two low-alcohol cocktails on the bar menu she developed for Prospect restaurant.

Go here to read the whole thing and learn about the forthcoming cocktail from Comstock Saloon that sounds ins-a-a-a-ane.

(Photos by Michael Macor / The Chronicle)

September 18, 2010
A Homemade Giant, Crystal Clear Ice Cube Tray
As you're probably aware, I've been dabbling in experiments making clear ice at home. [update: An organized index of ice experiments on Alcademics can be found here.] The way I've found that works best is to freeze ice in an Igloo cooler with the top off. (Please read the post before you tell me to boil the water in the comments- it doesn't work.)

This is now how I make all my ice at home- I haven't used trays in months.

Now I am working on ways to best carve ice and also trying to create an ice cube tray that will work in this directional freezing system. I found a method that works that I need to perfect.

Here's what I've done.

I went down to The Container Store and purchased these plastic gift boxes. They're 2 inches by 2 inches wide (4.5 centimeters) and around 5 inches tall (11.5 cm) with the tops off.

These I put in my Igloo cooler. I've done it with the open top of the container facing up, and also facing down. Facing down works better, actually, because the air in the rectangles gets pushed out the bottom. Facing up, you get a 1cm cloudy patch at the top of the cubes. No big whoop.

Then I fill the cooler with water and freeze it. It comes out as a block of ice with the cubes stuck in it.

These separate surprisingly easily from the block.

Also surprisingly easy is how the ice pops out of these plastic containers. I just leave them upside-down for a couple minutes and the ice cubes slice right out.

As you can see in the above picture, there is a little bit of cloudiness when the trays are left with the open part facing up. I repeated this experiment with the open part facing down and there was less cloudiness. Either way, there isn't much to worry about as it can be cut off when cutting these big long cubes down to 2 inch by 2 inch by 2 inch ones.

Conclusions:
- These ice cubes are fricking awesome.
- I need to try it with cutting off the bottom of the containers so that they're a rectangular tube rather than a box.
- I think this is actually scalable to make an ice cube tray with some tweaking.
- Hooray!
An index of ice experiments on Alcademics can be found here.
August 27, 2010
Ice Meets Chainsaw

Ice nerds got a real treat this Tuesday, for Andrew Bohrer from Seattle was guest bartending in San Francisco along with Amanda Womack from Cask.

He brought chainsaw Thursday to the city in order to chop up giant blocks of clear ice from an industrial ice maker into big cubes that could be further cut into ice balls.

Keep scrolling for videos of hand ice carving… or click here for an index of all of the ice experiments on Alcademics.

First they cut slices off the big blocks, then cut those into long rectangles. Then they cut those into cubes.

Click below for the videos.

(more…)

August 12, 2010
The Bar Agricole Bar Staff
This coming week is the pre-opening of Bar Agricole, the big big big restaurant/bar project from Thad Vogler about which I am very excited. Bar Agricole opens on August 16th (15th according to the SF Chronicle).

I asked Vogler about his bar staff- and got a surprise. All the bartenders will work full-time at Bar Agricole. I know three of the crew pretty well already, and have a feeling I'll get to know the two others soon enough.

The Bar Agricole Bar Staff:
- Ben Krupp (Camino, Slanted Door)
- Rosa Lynley (Farallon, Slanted Door)
- Eric Johnson (Eastside West, Bourbon & Branch, Delarosa, Beretta, Heaven's Dog)
- Craig Lane (Farallon, Heaven's Dog, Slanted Door)
- Thad Vogler (Slanted Door, Bourbon & Branch, Beretta, Camino, Farallon, Jardiniere, Bardessano, Heaven's Dog)
August 6, 2010