In my latest story for Details.com (upgraded to a feature!) I wrote about pechuga-style mezcals.
These are mezcal redistilled with seasonal fruits and nuts, plus a chicken or turkey (or deer or rabbit or pig) hanging in the still.
I thought there were only a couple on the market, but there are at least 8 different brands available in the US. I looked into the origins/history of pechuga and how a few of them differ from each other.
Plus: 26 different bars in which to drink it.
I've been bursting waiting for the Saveur 100 issue to come out so I could write more about Gamsei, a bar I visited in Munich this fall and included in the January issue of the magazine.
The story is now online at Saveur.com, with a lot more info below.
Gamsei comes from Matt Bax, the founder/co-founder of Der Raum and Bar Americano in Melbourne and Tippling Club in Singapore.
From the write-ups of Gamsei, it sounded like a place with a lot of rules (you have to wear slippers inside, no sugar in the drinks, no photos allowed) but much of that was either incorrect or more like a general policy than a rule.
The seating in Gamsei is on bleacher-style steps on either side of the central "bar", which is more of a low counter like you'd find in a science lab. Those slippers are for people who sit on the upper levels, so their muddy/wet shoes won't drip on the people below them.
I had also heard all about the hyper-local vision of the bar but not about the high-tech aspect of it. I was expecting a simplistic Japanese take on in-season cocktails, so the rotovap and liquid nitrogen came as a pleasant surprise.
Really, what Bax has done is just taken the idea of preserving local bounty and given it an exciting update. The bartenders forage in the forests (he said he checks with a plant expert to make sure certain things aren't poison before using them) and buy stuff at farmers' markets in season and use them fresh or preserve them using old-world techniques like fermentation, syrup-making, kombuchas, drying, etc. as well as new-world techniques like running infusions through the Rotavap so that they never spoil and flash-freezing other ingredients with liquid nitrogen.
As mentioned in the story, my favorite drink was the Lindenbluten, a local "lime blossom" (not the citrus tree) leaf and flowers frozen into an ice cube, and that ice cube used to chill and flavor house-carbonated local vermouth. Simple, elegant, beautiful. (But a terrible picture, sorry.)
At service, you get a mix of simple-looking drinks as well as some of the tricks you might expect from Bax – liquid nitrogen, beer foam, a drink in a flask. I had one that came with a a puff of cotton candy ("candy floss" to our European friends) that you use to sweeten a cocktail made with caraway liqueur, brandy, and riesling.
All-in-all, the philosophy isn't that complicated and the rules aren't that strict. It's a unique set-up for a cool bar concept. Absolutely worth a visit when you find yourself in Munich. (And Munich is pretty darn worth a visit on its own- I've gotta get back there soon.)
Here's the menu from that day:
If you hadn't heard, your host Camper English is the Contributing Drinks Editor at Saveur Magazine now. Hooray!
The current January issue is the annual Saveur 100: "Our favorite places, tools, ingredients, cookbooks, recipes, restaurants, and more."
I have two small bits in the magazine. The first is on Amari (plural of Amaro) and cocktails to use them in.
Read the story with tasting notes here and the cocktail recipes are in slideshow format here.
For the cocktail recipes, I sourced them from:
Thanks fellas.
For the website WorldsBestBars.com I write up new (good) bars opening in San Francisco. For November I covered:
Check out the write-ups here.
Have you looked through your December magazines yet? In just about every one that I get (and I get a lot of them), there is a recommendation for a specialty cocktail syrup of one flavor or another as a suggestion for gifting.
By the time I noticed this, I'd already written my latest story for Details.com, which we ended up calling Syrups are the New Bitters. It's not to say that you no longer need bitters now that there are more syrups on the market, but rather where once there was a lack of variety of bitters on the market and bartenders turned into entrepreneurs to develop their own brands, now syrups are at that same place.
I mentioned many brands specializing in syrups dedicated to particular cocktails, seasonal syrups, and a whole section on tonic syrups.
In a slideshow for Popular Science, I wrote about ten pieces of bar equipment you not know about as they're hidden behind the scenes.
The story includes equipment used by some of the world's most innovate bartenders and includes equipment including rotovaps, machine-engraved ice, sous-vide cooking, and many others.
Hey, I wrote up a gift guide of spirits for Details.com.
It includes rum, tequila, gin, vodka, scotch and other whiskies, brandy, and a liqueur. Go get it.
In my latest post for Details.com, I took a look at the multitude of ways that people are using breakfast cereal in cocktails.
Initially I thought I'd only find it in a few places but I think there are more than a dozen mentioned in the story and they're located everwhere from London to Bordeaux to Miami to San Diego. Some folks are serving them up in bowls with a spoon, while others are infusing cereal into milk or directly into liquor.
Check it out over at Details.com.
My first story for PopularScience.com is a report on the bartenders from BarBot, held this past weekend in San Franicso.
Go here to read the story!
It's mostly a slideshow with videos as well.
I have a story in the new Fall 2013 issue of Whisky Advocate magazine that's not online. In it I compared a range of devices meant to chill down whisky.
So, which one is best? I guess you'll have to pick up a copy of the magazine to know.
If the story goes online, I'll share the link here.