Alcademics

Category: camper_clips

  • Tiki Drinks in Fine Cooking Magazine

    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. 

    Liftoff 
    Chi chi pache 
    Barbaryswizzle 

     
     
    Not only does it contain thrilling information on tiki, it has recipes from three people you may have heard of:

  • Latin, Packing, Pisco: A Few Articles I’ve Written Lately

    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. 

    Executivetravelmaycover  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. 

  • That Ice Story is Online

    The short piece on making crystal clear ice at home I wrote for Wired Magazine is now online. Check it out!

  • Coffee liqueurs make a splash in cocktails

    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. 

    Coffee liqueurs by Camper English in the San Francisco Chronicle

    Mike Kepka / The Chronicle

    Reza Esmaili at Smuggler's Cove makes a Rear Admiral's Swizzle with Firelit coffee liqueur.

     

  • Making Crystal Clear Ice in Wired Magazine

    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. 

     
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     Update: The article is online here. 

  • Home Bar Recommendations: One of Each

    OneofeachWhen Jonny Raglin and Jeff Hollinger were looking to open Comstock Saloon (hopefully this month), they had a big limitation to work with: the size of the back bar. It only has room for one or two types of each base spirit. This is a challenge for Raglin in particular as between his former post as Bar Manager at Absinthe and his consultant gig at Dosa on Fillmore he was working with probably 30 different types of gin alone. 

    This inspired a story I wrote for the April edition of 7×7 magazine. I also spoke with Martin Cate of Forbidden Island who had the luxury of choosing over 200 rums for the bar, but that didn't leave room for much else. Before opening he sent out an email requesting advice on one of each tequila (blanco, reposado, anejo) for the bar. I also spoke with Marcovaldo Dionysos, who was very selective when choosing the bottles for Clock Bar. He said he had to balance familiar brands that consumers know with less-recognized spirits he'd prefer to work with. 

    In the story I asked each of Raglin, Cate, and Dionysos to pick one of
    each- vodka, tequila, rum, whisky, and gin- that would work the best in
    the most cocktails, while also being good enough for sipping. The
    results should point home mixologists who may also not have room for 30 brands of gin toward the one bottle to buy.

    The Ultimate Five-Bottle Bar, Perfect for Apartment Dwelling

    by Camper English

    What happens when the city’s top bartenders are forced to choose? Introducing the ultimate five-bottle bar, perfectly sized for apartment dwelling. 

    Click the link above to read the story. In the print edition there are also recommendations for one each of sweet and dry vermouth and an orange liqueur/triple sec.

  • The New Sweet

    Sweet-cocktails_ld The story on cocktail sweeteners I wrote for the April/May issue of Fine Cooking magazine is now online. 

    You can read it here. 

  • Fine Cocktails in Fine Cooking Magazine

    I have a story in the new March/April issue of Fine Cooking magazine. It's about the variety of ways to sweeten cocktails with raw sugars, maple syrup, agave, honey, etc.

    FineCookingMarchAprilCover

    Pick up a copy to find a Mamie Taylor variation with evaporated organic cane sugar by Thad Vogler of Bar Agricole in San Francisco, an agave-sweetened refresher from Ted Kilgore of Taste by Niche in St. Louis, and a honey champagne bittered mojito variation from yours truly.  

    I hope to blog some more information on various types of raw sugars I learned about while researching the story, as it might be useful. I was on the phone to sugar scientists conducting interviews for a couple hours and it turns out it's pretty hard to describe exact differences in any meaningful way. But I'll try when I get the chance.

    In the meantime, run screaming to your local newsstand to pick up the new copy of Fine Cooking!

  • Better Cocktails Creep Into the Castro

    My first story written for 7×7 Magazine is now online. 

    Castro's Last Stand

    Long a bastion of bad drinks and a good time, the city’s biggest party neighborhood is slowly but surely learning how to wield a muddler.

    by Camper English

    Badlands
    While the Tenderloin, Mission and Haight are reveling in white whiskeys and raw sugars, in the Castro, bartenders are still called bartenders, and the drink of choice is more likely to be an appletini than something made with absinthe. From Martuni’s to Moby Dick, drinks in the gay sector are still mixed with vanilla vodka, Long Island Iced Teas make up the happy-hour specials, and mojitos come in more than one flavor. Popular venues, like Toad Hall and Badlands, skip the cocktail menu altogether.

    As of late, however, there have been a few glimmers of change. 

    Read the rest on the 7X7 website. 

  • Bars Inside Other Bars

    In my latest story for San Francisco Magazine, I talk about bars opening inside other bars.

    The-Hideout-4778.full

    Photograph by Chris Brennan

    Make it a double

    These bars within bars offer patrons a choice of drinking styles.
    By Camper English

    The hottest haute cocktails require a range of syrups, bitters, fresh herbs, several types of gin, a lot of storage space, and extra time to make every drink. One way in which bar owners are handling the demand is by dividing and conquering, opening two bars in a single venue—one to promote quick service, the other for slow sipping.

    Until recently, the back room at Dalva was a barren spot more suited for storage than for socializing, and it was often used by customers sneaking illegal indoor cigarettes. But with a fresh coat of paint and a bit of remodeling, including a custom-made bar and wrought-iron accents, this area has been rebranded as a boutique interior cocktail lounge called the Hideout. 

    Continue reading the story at the San Francisco Magazine website.