Category: fun

Blue Cocktails on Details.com
I attended an awesome seminar on blue drinks at Tales of the Cocktail this weekend, lead by Sebastian Reaburn, Jacob Briars, and Phil Duff.

Then I wrote a piece about it for Details.com, the website of Details magazine. It's my first story for the website.

I learned a lot more in the seminar than is in the story, which is more of a trend piece.

Fun facts:
- Phil Duff worked at the same bar Tom Cruise trained at to prepare for the movie Cocktail (not at the same time)
- The first known blue drink was a non-alcoholic soda called Soyer's Nectar, from 1851. It was created by Alexis Soyer, the first celebrity chef.
- Blue cocktails were futuristic. "In the 1860s people were excited about the future; now we're merely afraid," said Jacob Briars.
- The first known blue cocktail was from 1908.
- Modern blue cocktails may start with the Blue Hawaiian from 1957 – at the end of the classic rum-heavy tiki drinks at the beginning of the silly ones.
- Blue cocktails are popular in countries that either never had a super serious classic cocktail phase (Asia) or in places and with people that have gotten beyond it, like New Zealand and the top cocktail bars mentioned in the story.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story on Details.com!
July 31, 2012
Dehydrated Liqueur Flavor Pills and Champagne Cocktails

As an ongoing part of my Solid Liquids Project, I have dehydrated various liqueurs into flavored powders and am now experimenting with new ways to use them.

In yesterday's post I described how I bought a pill press to make tablets out of the liqueurs.

I started with Angostura bitters, but then made additional "flavor pills" out of Campari, Midori, and Aperol.

I was thinking that these would be fun flavor enhancers for drinks, especially champagne drinks.

A cool presentation might be to give a guest a glass of champagne and a variety of flavor enhancers from which to choose. To make it extra fun, I put some in a pill box.

Then you pick your pill and add it to the sparkling wine. It fizzes up nicely.

And eventually it breaks down and colors and flavors the drink.

It does take several minutes for the flavor to become noticeable in the champagne. I tried to speed up the process by experimenting with adding baking powder to the mix, but this affected the flavor of the drink.

Thus this works best with the most strongly flavored liqueurs, and using rather large sized flavor pill tablets. It could also be a fun addition to hot tea.

Sometime soon I'll do some experimenting (I've run out of sparkling wine for now) to see which flavors work best in this format.

I hope this inspires some fun experimenting!

April 18, 2012
A Brilliant Idea That Didn’t Quite Work

You'll remember I spent a few months figuring out the best way to dehydrate liqueurs into flavored sugars.

Now I'm finding new ways to use those liqueur-flavored sugars.

Typically bartenders who use these dehydrated liqueurs sprinkle some on top of an egg white foam or use them as a rimming sugar on a cocktail glass. But I had the idea to use them as an optional flavor enhancer to cocktails – give the customer a drink and some powdered liqueur and let them add it if desired. (Some bars do this with bitters and tinctures.)

So I bought some vegetarian capsules and filled them with dehydrated liqueurs.

They look awesome, right?

But unfortunately, they didn't perform as expected. When adding them to a cocktail the capsules didn't dissolve. I tried a boozy cocktail, a fizzy cocktail, and an acidic cocktail in the hopes that these would help speed up the process. I even tried a hot cocktail to see if that worked.

In all forms, the capsules dissolved eventually, but if you want to wait 20+ minutes for that to happen you're a more patient drinker than I.

Ah well, it was a cool idea that didn't work out.

But in tomorrow's post, I'll talk about a technique that actually worked…

Read more about the Solid Liquids Project and how to deyhydrate liqueurs here.

April 16, 2012
An Amusingly Disgusting Way to Drink Vodka in Sweden

While I was in Sweden with Karlsson's Gold vodka, we learned a traditional way to drink vodka. It is called Kaffegök, and it is gross.

You take a cup and put a coin in the bottom.

Then you fill it with coffee until you can't see the coin anymore.

Then you add vodka until you can see the coin again. That's how you know you have enough vodka in there.

Then you drink it. Damnnnn that's some kinda breakfast.

September 23, 2011
How NOT to Dehydrate Campari

I figure, why not try the method that looks easiest first, even if it seems doomed to fail?

That's what I decided to do as an experiment in dehydrating liqueurs down to sugar: to see what happens when you cook Campari the fastest way possible to get all the liquid out.

I put two ounces of Campari in a silicone cupcake cup and tossed it in the microwave. After 30 seconds it boiled over. First it came to a rapid boil, then turned to a real frothy boil.

After the liquid evaporated more, the boil turned more gentle; around three and a half minutes in. But soon enough, at four minutes, came the smell of caramelizing/burning sugar.

At five minutes most of the liquid was gone, and then the sugar started blackening. The Campari turned black, puffed up, and started smoking. I had to open all the windows in my apartment to keep the fire alarm from going off.

A black crust formed where the red sugar was. After removing it from the microwave, it cooled quickly then I tried it. Surprisingly, it tastes just like a burnt marshmallow; just a little more molasses-y. There was no Campari taste to it at all.

In conclusion: That Didn't Work.

The Solid Liquids Project index is at this link.

August 11, 2011
Camper English: Penthouse Model

In the June issue of Penthouse, I have a travel story about my trip with Dos Equis to Playa Del Carmen. You can read the original posts here on Alcademics in part one, part two, and part three.

I've written for Penthouse previously, but this is the first time I've appeared in its pages as a super sexy model. Check me out!

Hot stuff, right?

June 21, 2011
A Thousand Year Old Drunken Regret Letter

For my book club I read the book Foreign Devils on the Silk Road by Peter Hopkirk. It's about European explorers finding and raiding the artwork of abandonded and sand-buried cities along the silk road.

In a chapter on finding a hidden library of ancient scrolls at Tun-huang, the author notes (page 175) that they found "a thousand-year-old 'model' letter of apology in Chinese designed for inebriated guests to send to their hosts."

I think you'll find it's still useful today.

Here's the translation:

'Yesterday, having drunk too much, I was so intoxicated as to pass all bounds; but none of the rude and coarse language I used was uttered in a conscious state. The next morning, after hearing others speak on the subject, I realized what had happened, whereupon I was overwhelmed with confusion and ready to sink into the ground with shame…'

The letter adds that the writer will soon come to apologize in person for his transgression. A suitable reply for the outraged hosted is suggested, which Giles translates thus:

'Yesterday, Sir, while in your cups, you so far overstepped the observances of polite society as to forfeit the name of gentleman, and made me wish to have nothing more to do with you. But since you now express your shame and regret for what has occured, I would suggest that we meet again for a friendly talk…'

Sounds like something I've heard from a bartender or two in this millennium.

May 23, 2011
A Better Use for Peeps Than Eating Them

A couple years ago I made Peep straws. Here's the original post.

April 23, 2011
It’s Easter Egg (Ice) Time Again

Here's the Easter Ice project from a couple years ago that I'm reposting. Go here to learn how to make it.

April 22, 2011
Is This The Best Blue Cocktail Ever?

April 6, 2011