My latest story in the San Francisco Chronicle (from Sunday's paper) went online today. Read it here.
Camper English, Special to The Chronicle
Friday, July 24, 2009
When ginger ale or beer is mixed with citrus in a drink, it is – or more accurately, was – known as a buck.
Early cocktail books list recipes for the gin buck or London buck cocktail, and variations of rum bucks were called the Shanghai buck, Jamaica buck or Barbados buck, depending on the type of rum used. If you squeeze your lime garnish into a Dark 'n' Stormy, you've got a rum buck.
"The buck is one of those cocktails that works with every base spirit," says Erick Castro, beverage director at Rickhouse, the new Financial District bar. "Most cocktails don't work with gin and scotch and vodka and rum."
Read more about bucks and mules and get the recipe for Erick Castro's Kentucky Buck here.