Alcademics

Category: projects

  • Sugar Spirit: What is Sugarcane?

    SugarSpiritLogoSquare1 In the Sugar Spirit project, we're going to look at sugar's history and production, but first we should establish what sugar and sugarcane are. 

    Sugar and Sucrose

    When we talk about sugar, we mean table sugar, or sucrose. 

    To chemists, sugar refers to a class of 'edible crystalline carbohydrates' that also includes fructose and lactose. But most of us aren't chemists so we won't use the word 'sucrose' so much as just 'sugar.'

    Except for now: Sucrose occurs in all green plants. It is a plant food manufactured photosynthetically from carbon dioxide and water.

    For table sugar, the plants harvested to make it are sugarcane and sugar beets. We'll get to sugar beets later.

    Zacapa sugar cane field harvest demo
    (Sugarcane harvest demo in Guatemala.)

    Sugarcane

    Sugarcane is a large grass of the family Gramineae. There are six known species. 

    The most widely grown is saccharum officinarum, which depending on your source is called “noble cane” or “sugar of the apothecaries.” Its stalks that grow as thick as two inches, and 12-15 feet high.

    Sugarcane is a subtropical and tropical crop requiring large amount of water and labor. In farming, it is propagated asexually from cuttings of the stem. It becomes ripe in the dry season after anywhere from 6 to 18 months depending on the climate. 

    In the next post, we'll begin to look at the spread of sugarcane from the Indian Subcontinent to the rest of the world. 

     

    The Sugar Spirit Project is sponsored by Bacardi Rum. Content created and owned by Camper English for Alcademics. For the project index, click on the logo above or follow this link. 

     

  • Announcing the Sugar Spirit Project

    SugarSpiritLogoSquare1 Today marks the launch of the second Sponsored Project on Alcademics: The Sugar Spirit. The Sugar Spirit Project is sponsored by Bacardi Rum. 

    Rum is made from any sugarcane derivative and is the real sugar spirit, but in this research project I'll primarily be studying sugar itself.

    In writing about cocktails, we often come across recipes calling for different forms of sugar: demerara, muscovado, evaporated organic cane, superfine, etc. I've wanted to study the differences in those sugars for quite a while now so I'm thankful to Bacardi Rum for giving me the support to do so. 

    Along the way, I'll be looking at the history of sugarcane, its byproducts (including molasses, of course), modern and historical production methods, forms and uses, and much more. 

    I've put up an outline of future topics for discussion and experimentation. The outline is on the project index page, which can be reached by following this link or clicking the Sugar Spirit project logo above from any blog page you see it on. 

    This is going to get pretty nerdy, and I know that's how you like it. 

     

    The Sugar Spirit Project is sponsored by Bacardi Rum. Content created and owned by Camper English for Alcademics. For the project index, click on the logo above or follow this link. 

  • Solid Liquids: Techniques

    SolidLiquidsProjectSquareLogoThe next step in the Solid Liquids project is to look at the various methods people are using to dehydrate liqueurs down to sugars. After searching the interwebz, here are some techniques I found. 

    I don't think the original DrinkBoy forums are online anymore- at least I can't find them- but that's where this technique first came to my attention several years ago. Bartenders in Australia were dehydrating Campari and other liqueurs and making powders out of them.  

    Oven Baking

    Pour the liqueur on a baking pan, perhaps with a silicone matt on it (for easier removal of solids) and bake at a low temperature overnight. Damon Dyer wrote that his initial method (copied from the Australians) was:

    "The process as I learned it was to pour the Campari into a shallow baking sheet, then slowly bake in the oven at low, low, low heat. The Campari eventually loses its water and alcohol, and solidifies. Then it's simply a matter of scraping the solid Campari "brick" off the baking sheet, crushing it into a powder, and enjoying a cocktail.

    "However, the revised process that Donbert came up with [see below] is much more efficient."

    Microwaving

    Way back in 2007, Don Lee took up the issue (in this thread on eGullet), and remembering a tip from the French Laundry Cookbook, he dried out liqueurs in the microwave. He was able to boil Campari down to a sludge in about 4 minutes, then further pulverize this into a poweer.

    On refining the technique, his observations were:

    • In the initial cooking stage, the alcohol is boiling off so the boiling is quite violent. Use short heating bursts during this stage.
    • Also use short bursts of heat at the end, because then the thick sugary liquid can caramelize if you're not careful. 
    • "For Maraschino (Luxardo) I had to use 20 sec intervals for the first 1.5 minutes, then could let it go for 3 mins straight before going back to 20 sec intervals until 303.5F was reached. The result when cooled is an easily removable "puck" of Maraschino." 
    • Using this method, Damon Dyer said he had success dehydrating Torani Amer, Yellow Chartreuse, Peychaud's, Herbsaint, Maraschino, and Canton Ginger.

    Liquid Nitrogen

    Douglas Williams of Liquid Alchemy consulting used liquid nitrogen to make solid Campari. This is really frozen Campari, and thus will melt again. So it's not a useful technique for my purposes.

    But in any case, check out this video of it happening:

     Williams told me about some other ways to get alcohol into solid form – sometimes without burning off the booze. I am not completely clear on how it works, but apparently you can use tapioca malodextrin and that will bond with anything fatty. This technique can apparently be used to trap booze into a solid form. 

    I doubt I'll have time to get into the molecular mixology stuff during the duration of this project, but it would be fun to try. 

    The Solid Liquids Project index is at this link. 

  • Solid Liquids: Dehydrated Liqueurs on Cocktail Menus

    SolidLiquidsProjectSquareLogoI've spent some time researching powdered/dehydrated liqueurs online to see where and how they've been used. Turns out: all around the world. Below are the few I found. 

    It seems that for the most part these dehydrated liqueurs are used as a powdered rims on cocktail glasses, as garnishes sprinkled on top of egg white drinks, and in one case as  a popcorn flavoring. 

    • Araka in Clayton, Missouri uses Campari powder to rim glasses. 
    • The bar Mea Culpa in Ponsonby, New Zealand, had the following drink on their menu: ANGEL DUST - Cherry & orange macerated Rittenhouse Rye, Liquore Strega, White creme de cacao, Benedictine foam, Campari powder
    • This drink from Josh Pape of Chambar Belgian Restaurant in Vancouver, BC contains toasted cashews, gin, pink grapefruit cordial, sherry, apple juice, egg white, and has Campari powder on the rim. 
    • Eau de Vie in Sydney offered, according to this post, "The Countessa, a reimagined Negroni with Aperol, served up in an exquisite coupe, on the side a half time slice of orange, dusted with Campari powder and caramelized with a blowtorch behind the bar. "
    • Val Stefanov of Ontario, Canada used dehydrated Campari to make Campari cotton candy. 
    • Tom Noviss of Brighton made a Campari powder-rimmed drink with 42BELOW Feijoa vodka, Xante Pear, Avocado, and other ingredients. 
    • Anvil in Texas used dehydrated Campari and Chartreuse crystals. They also used some on popcorn!
    • Callooh Callay in London was using dehydrated Campari in  a version of the Negroni. 
    • Der Raum in Melbourne used it on a tasting menu. 
    • At Elements in Princeton, New Jersey, they make The Skål! Cocktail with akvavit, Pedro Ximénez sherry, dry vermouth, lemon juice, and lingonberry preserves.  Garnished with a rim of dehydrated Chartreuse.

    What other drinks have you seen? Any other liqueurs besides Chartreuse and Campari? 

     For the Solid Liquids Project project index, click on the logo above or follow this link.