As a bonus supplement to my story in the SF Chronicle on E Clampus Vitus, here are pictures I took of the historic plaques located around SF. I didn't get a picture of the Anchor Brewing or Molloy's Tavern in Colma, but here are the other four.
That date – 1932 in our years – corresponds with the rebirth of an organization commonly called ECV, or the Clampers, whose motto, Credo Quia Absurdum, translates (though not exactly) into "I believe because it is absurd."
Here is the rest of this story I wrote in today's San Francisco Chronicle about E Camplus Vitus, a drinking historical society or a historical drinking society- they can't decide which.
There's a new study released by Sarah Bowen of North Carolina State University in Raleigh and Ana Valenzuela Zapata of Mexico that says the tequila industry is ruining small farms.
I've seen several stories in the media reporting on this and I think many of them are missing a large piece of the puzzle.
Basically, the study asserts that because more tequila brands are taking control of the agave fields, the small agave farmers are suffering. They can't sell their agave to brands as much on the open markets, because the brands now own their own fields. Additionally, the commercial agave farming by the large brands is more pesticide intensive and harmful with water run-off and other typical commercial farming problems.
What is less discussed is that the reason these brands bought agave fields is because small agave farmer's crop quality and availability were too inconsistent. There was a great agave shortage in the 1990's the caused a huge impact on the industry. Some brands raised prices by a large amount to cover the increased cost of agave. Other brands traded down from being 100% agave tequila to mixto tequilas. I think that Herradura's El Jimador brand was in this category. It went from 100% to mixto back to 100%. How are they going to guarantee that it remains a 100% agave product? By buying fields.
But because of the shortage in the 1990's, all the small farmers planted agave instead of other crops. As the crop takes 6-10 years on average to harvest, there is now resulting glut in the agave market, and another expected shortage to begin in the next couple years.
You could understand why a tequila brand wouldn't want to buy agave on the open market when the market is like this. They can't guarantee consistency in their product unless they control the supply of the raw ingredient that can't be corrected in the short term.
Additionally, controlling your own ingredient means that you not only control the amount of it, but also the quality. And there is a definite cachet in having estate-grown agave.
Last week at the launch of the Gran Centenario Rosangel tequila in New York, spirits supertaster Paul Pacult said, "The best tequilas that I know of come from estate-grown agave."
Another factor to keep in mind on this study is that co-author Ana Valenzuela Zapata is an advocate for increasing biodiversity in agave. In a book she co-authored with Gary Paul Nabhan called Tequila: A Natural and Cultural History
This doesn't in any way disqualify the study's argument that small farms are suffering due to large tequila producers buying their own fields, and that industrial farming is worse for the environment. I just think that people should realize it's the inconsistency and often low-quality of small farm agave that caused the major producers to buy their own fields in the first place.
Hey, it's double-bonus tequila Friday here at Alcademics!
I just learned that my Chronicle story on Bay Area distillers and business owners making tequila here or in Mexico went live today. The print story should be out this Sunday, in the newly-merged Food & Wine sections.
Read the story here.
Highlights
Each distiller is taking an entirely different approach to the process.
Go read it, there are some juicy news items in there.
Check out my story in the February issue of San Francisco Magazine. It's about tasting clubs around the city where you earn prizes or a degree by working your way through the menu.
I focus on the Tequila Passport program at Tres Agaves, but also mention programs at Tommy's Mexican Restaurant, Forbidden Island, and Barclay's in Oakland.
Read the story here.
While everyone in their right mind would love one of those fancy giant ice ball makers that go for $1300 and up, they're not the most practical solution for the home mixologist.
[Note: since this post went up we've come up with lots of great solutions for clear ice balls and other ice technology. Check out the Ice Experiments Index Page.]
So I used my superbrain and did all sorts of math with equations and integrals and all, and came up with a way to make these at home:
Wolfgang Weber from the Spume blog and Wine & Spirits Magazine has started a Google map of "classic" (in one way or another) eateries and drinkeries along the Barbary Coast Trail in San Francisco.
I've never walked the trail myself but now that he's turned it into a bar crawl I'm much more likely to give it a try.
The map is editable If you happen to know of any classic spots along the path that aren't labeled yet I think you can add them.
On Monday I had the chance to check out Heaven's Dog, the new Charles Phan (Slanted Door) restaurant and bar opening on in San Francisco on Friday.
On closer inspection, bar and restaurant would be a more adequate description of the place. There's a small noodle bar/kitchen on one side- almost an adjacent business connected by the bathroom hallway, and a section of the larger, L-shaped room for seating. The long part of the "L" is the bar, cut out of a beautiful, curving vertical slice of a tree, and there is so much room behind it there were more than eight bartenders working at the same time on Monday night. The small part of the "L" is the seating for the restaurant.
The cocktail menu consists entirely of Charles H. Baker (author of The Gentleman's Companion) drinks. I forgot to bring home a drink menu but the drinks I tried were largely acidic citrus rather than juicy, and very booze-heavy. One drink is simply dark rum with honey syrup and a twist of lemon stirred over a huge hand-carved chunk of ice. Another drink uses the pineapple gum syrup made by Small Hand Foods for Pisco Punch all over town, but in a different way… that I can't recall exactly but it was my favorite drink of the night.
When I last wrote about this bar, I noted the all-star staff. Well, it got even starrier. Erick Castro of Bourbon & Branch will be joining for a couple days a week. Also working one shift will be Erik Ellestad, the blogger making every cocktail in the Savoy Cocktail Book, whom I wrote about in a Chronicle story a while back.
That also makes it a four-Eric bar. Erik Adkins, Eric Johnson, Erick Castro, and Erik Ellestad. So when you check out the place, make sure to ask for Eri(c)(k).
I was stumbling through the internet the other day and came acrross this vintage story on Pisco Punch, written by Lucius Beebe and published in Gourmet Magazine in 1957.
Some choice quotes:
He meant it, too, about the two drinks to a customer. If a favored
patron like Fire Chief Scannell or James Flood, the Nevada bonanza king
who was himself once a saloonkeeper of note (both of them were known
tosspots), wanted more, he could walk around the block, thus qualifying
as a new customer. When millionaire John Mackay, perhaps the richest
man in America at the time, wanted a third, he like everyone else raked
his silk hat off the stag-horn rack, walked demurely around the block,
and returned to get if. Nobody took liberties with Nicol…
Pisco came into the fullest flowering of its celebrity, became a generic term, and entered the local language. A writer in the California Alta
elegantly referred to a drunken character as “more than piscoed.” Neill
C. Wilson, the western historian, coined the simile “as comfortable as
a Pisco jag.”
If you're a pisco nerd like me, it's a must read.
agave alcademics Angostura bartenders bitters bodega bourbon bowmore Campari Camper English chartreuse clear clear ice cocktail cocktail powder cocktails cognac curacao dehydrated dehydrated liqueurs dehydration directional freezing distillery distillery tour distillery visit france freezing objects in ice hakushu harvest history how to make clear ice ice ice balls ice carving ice cubes ice experiments isle of jura jerez liqueur makepage making clear ice mexico midori molasses orange orange liqueur penthouse pisco potato powder production recipe Recipes rum san francisco scotch scotch whisky sherry spain spirits sugar sugarcane sweden tales of the cocktail tequila tour triple sec visit vodka whiskey whisky