Category: cocktails
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2026 New Drink Books
Here are new rocktails and spirits (and a few other) books out or coming out in 2026.
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Using Vinegar in Cocktails
I wrote a story for VinegarProfessor, sister site to AlcoholProfessor, about using vinegar in cocktails. It contains some very good advice from several bartenders. You can read it here.
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The Old Fashioned and the Champagne Cocktail are the Same Drink
Well, more or less. In my latest for Food & Wine, I trace the origin of both drinks and how they each deviated from the original Cocktail. Read it here.
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How To Highball
For Men’s Journal, I wrote about the choice of sparkling water for your whiskey highball. Read it here.
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Did the Original Cocktail Sauce Contain Angostura Bitters?
I am researching Prohibition and a search for “cocktails” in the San Francisco Chronicle turned up a story from 1920 on the origin of the “oyster cocktail” that I think is what today we call “cocktail sauce” that is used more on the shrimp cocktail. (I am a 30+ year vegetarian so I could be…
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September 2025 Drink Book Releases
Here are new cocktails and spirits books being released in September 2025. To see all the New Drink Books of 2025, visit this link. Savory and Sweet Shrubs: Tart Mixers for Delicious Cocktails and Mocktails Amazon Bookshop American Whiskey Master Class: The Ultimate Guide to Understanding Bourbon, Rye, and Other American Whiskeys Amazon Bookshop The…
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Bartender’s Ketchup is Back on the Menu in SF
I wrote a story for the SFStandard about elderflower liqueur making a huge comeback. It was so popular when the brand St. Germain first launched in 2007 that it was given the nickname “bartender’s ketchup.” It’s so back, but now bartenders are using a wide range of products. Read the story here.
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All of the Olives’ Brine Time to Shine
My latest story for the San Francisco Chronicle is about all the ways bartenders are liquifying olives in their Martinis – in the vermouth, gin, vodka, brine, leaf tinctures, oil-washing everything, and even an “olive turducken.” Here’s a gift link so you can read it.
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How to Stretch a Lime – My Story in the SF Chronicle
I wrote about oleo citrate and super juice for the San Francisco Chronicle. These are techniques for increasing the yield from citrus fruits by eight times or so, using a touch of citric and malic acid powder in a specific way to bump up the flavor and texture of citrus to extend it over a…