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.
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.
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)
I have a great-looking four-page story in the August Eat + Drink issue of 7×7 Magazine.
The story splits up old bars and new bars inspired by old bars into five types/eras: Barbary Coast, Speakeasy, Martini Bar, Tiki Bar, and Fern Bar. In each category I list some identifying factors and a few era-appropriate drinks.
There are also tons of great pictures by photographer Erin Kunkel, including these yanked from the 7×7 website.
Read the story online here or pick up the magazine on the newsstand for even more pictures than on the website.
(Craig Lee / Special to The Chronicle)
My latest story from this Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle is now online.
Quest for best orange liqueur comes full circle
Camper English, Special to The Chronicle
Friday, July 9, 2010
When a critic complained that the orange liqueur in the margarita at Tacolicious had an "off flavor," owner Joe Hargrave decided to do something about it. The margarita is the Marina district restaurant's top-selling cocktail.
"After I was finished being (ticked) off, I decided we should see if this has merit," he said. Hargrave arranged a blind tasting of margaritas with different orange liqueurs to find the best replacement for the bargain-priced Bols triple sec he was using.
With a flood of new orange liqueurs on the market, picking a reasonable number for the tasting was no easy task.
My story about all the new orange liqueurs on the market– and the thrilling result of the orange liqueur taste test at Tacolicious- can be found by following the link.
There's also a recipe for a drink (see picture above) from Kevin Diedrich of the Burritt Room.
For more information on the history and differences between triple sec and curacao, this discussion has some good information. And for the biggest orange liqueur comparison on the internet, see Jay Hepburn's blog posts.
Oh hey, my latest story for Fine Cooking magazine is online already.
Tiki Time
Showstopping tiki drinks are back on the menu, and they’re causing quite a stir. Here’s how to create these tasty cocktails at home—don’t forget the swizzle sticks and umbrellas.
by Camper English
Sipping from opposite sides of a cocktail served in a hollowed-out pineapple, a young couple poses for a photo by a waterfall. This isn’t a scene from a Hawaiian vacation in the 1960s, but one I observed earlier this year at Smuggler’s Cove, a buzzing new San Francisco bar. This establishment, and the many others just like it springing up across the country, is a tiki lounge, serving classic Polynesian-themed cocktails. These once-out-of-favor joints and their kitschy cocktails, like the mai tai, zombie, and planter’s punch, are making quite a comeback.
So what makes a cocktail a tiki cocktail? These drinks have several common characteristics….
Read the rest of my feature on the return of tiki.
Not only does it contain thrilling information on tiki, it has recipes from three people you may have heard of:
I've had several stories come out recently, so I thought I'd share them here. This blog is also my resume, after all.
Friday I wrote about my recent piece in the daily email Tasting Table San Francisco. This one is about Encanto Pisco, brought to us by a bartender, a sommelier, and a distiller.
Attention people attending Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans this July: My story about what to pack for the week (for media, speakers, bartenders, PR, and brand reps) in the June issue of Tasting Panel Magazine is now online.
In the July issue of Executive Travel Magazine I have a story on the Latin libations that are hot and the ones that soon will be.
I have recently become a regular contributor to SilverKris, the in-flight magazine for Singapore Airlines. Unfortunately the magazine is not online. Recent stories have focused on new classic cocktails, the return of absinthe, and where to drink in Wellington, New Zealand.
The short piece on making crystal clear ice at home I wrote for Wired Magazine is now online. Check it out!
Here's my new story in the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday, June 30.
Coffee liqueurs make a splash in cocktails
by Camper English
The craze for organic, shade-grown, micro-roasted slow-drip coffee has percolated into the cocktail world. Bartenders are improving classic coffee drinks, finding ways to harness the beans' bitter, aromatic qualities rather than just the caffeine kick.
Most cold coffee cocktails served in the past 20 or so years have been variations of the vodka espresso (better known as the espresso martini) credited to British bartender Dick Bradsell and made with vodka, espresso and Kahlua and Tia Maria coffee liqueurs. Nopa bar manager Neyah White updated this drink about three years ago, creating the Blue Bottle martini with Blue Bottle espresso, vodka and Araku coffee liqueur. It was, and is, "a ridiculously big seller," White says.
Coffee liqueur got a good bit more serious with the April release of Firelit Spirits Coffee Liqueur, made with coffee from Oakland's Blue Bottle coffee roasters and brandy from distiller Dave Smith of St. George Spirits in Alameda.
Continue reading the story here.
Mike Kepka / The Chronicle
Reza Esmaili at Smuggler's Cove makes a Rear Admiral's Swizzle with Firelit coffee liqueur.
Run screaming to the newsstand to pick up the June issue of Wired magazine, because there is a story by me in it. Sure it's only 100 words long and it's about how to make clear ice, something you may have read about here, but you can consider it a collector's item.
Update: The article is online here.