Category: recipes

  • Summer Cooler Cocktails to Enjoy in 1967

    My friend gifted me a 1967 "Friendly Host" calendar from a liquor store in upstate New York. On the backs of the calendar months are helpful advice for cocktailing and hosting.

    The dates from 1967 align with this year, though the drinks are a little bit different to what we enjoy now…. or are they? (Yeah, for the most part they are.)

    This page is for Summer Coolers. I'm not sure I would categorize a Jack Rose or this "Five-Legged Mule" as summer drinks, but hey I'm just a guy living in 2017. 

     

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    Plus as a bonus, here's the calendar's Party Preparation Guide. The Tips for "Good Mixing" start out well and then…. you'll see. 

     

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  • Oxymel: The Other Vinegar Drink

    I've reported on shrubs (vinegar-based fruit syrups) for years, and only a couple years ago learned about switchels. Now I've just learned about Oxymel.

    A while back I posted on the difference between a shrub and a switchel, thanks to Brandon Wise of Imperial in Portland, OR.

    Recently, Humberto Marques, Owner/manager of Curfew Cocktail Bar in Copenhagen, sent me a recipe with oxymel in it. I needed to know more.

    2-2

     

    51g9Iz9dbKLA quick internet search reveals this definition from Emily Han, author of the book Wild Drinks & Cocktails: Handcrafted Squashes, Shrubs, Switchels, Tonics, and Infusions to Mix at Home:

    DRINKING VINEGARS AT A GLANCE:

    • SHRUB = VINEGAR + SWEETENER + FRUIT … AND SOMETIMES HERBS AND SPICES

    • SWITCHEL = VINEGAR + SWEETENER + GINGER … AND SOMETIMES RUM

    • OXYMEL = VINEGAR + HONEY + HERBS

     

    Darcy O'Neil also has a good post about oxymel and other vinegar drinks.

     

     

    Marques repeated some info he posted at Liquor.com here, plus shared a recipe.

    Here is is:

    Scarborough Fair by Simon & Garfunkel (by Humberto Marques of Curfew Cocktail Bar)

    3cl Parsley, sage , rosemary and thyme Oxymel
    5cl Tanqueray gin
    3cl apple& rosehip marmalade
    4cl lemon juice
    1,5cl frangelico

    Shake all the ingredients and strain into a cocktail glass
    Garnish: hazelnut powder floating

    Herbs oxymel- 1 liter
    in a blender:
    2- sprig of parsley, sage , rosemary and thyme
    1 litter of acacia honey
    280ml apple cider vinegar

    Liquidise in the blender , strain and filter , keep refrigerated.

     

    Thanks Humberto!

     

     

  • Milk Punch: Science and Practice

    My first story for Cook's Science is online and boy is it a doozy! I spoke with more than a dozen bartenders to find out how they made their Milk Punch – and it turns out there are a lot of variations and contrasting opinions on how to to do. Hot or cold milk? How much acid is needed? What is the best way to strain it? Is high-fat milk better than low fat? 

     

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    Milk Punch, as you may know, is a method of clarifying and preserving a punch by curdling it with milk and stringing the curds, so that it's shelf-stable in a cool environment. 

    They way Cook's Science works is that I did the initial research – talking to all the bartenders – and then their test kitchen tests the theories and tries to figure out the best practical way to achieve great drinks in as much of a controlled environment as they can make. They came up with some interesting confirmations and refutations of bartender Milk Punch lore. 

    Trying to write about the actual science of it was really challenging, and for that I relied heavy on Dave Arnold's Liquid Intelligence and Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking. I think I understand why milk punch is a clarification method well enough, but honestly I'd love to narrow down why exactly it preserves citrus too. 

    Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story. It was a big effort and a delight to write. 

     

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    Read the story here.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Sherry, As Simply as I can Describe It

    I was asked recently about sherry and it reminded me of a story I wrote one hundred million years ago in 2011 for the Los Angeles Times Magazine. The publication has since closed (not the LA Times, just the magazine) and the story is no longer online, but I scooped it from the Internet Wayback Machine so I could share it again here. (As far as I know the information is still current.) 

    I think it offers a concise overview of the sherry category. And after you read it, check out this set of cool charts on sherry I made here, as it displays the information in easy visual form. I know you people hate reading. 

     

    Sherry in LA Times Magazine
     

     

    FEBRUARY 2011
    Los Angeles Times Magazine

    Sherry, Reconsidered
    Camper English

    As a wine category, sherry has practically everything going for it: a tremendous range of flavors, a rich history dating at least as far back as the Romans, the ability to pair magnificently well with food and an increasingly hip status as a cocktail ingredient used by top bartenders.

    Most people, when they think of sherry at all, consider it an ingredient their grandmothers cooked with rather than something ripe for sipping on its own. Sherry is about due for a comeback, but it’s so unfamiliar to us now that it really needs a thorough reintroduction.

    SPANISH BODEGAS
    In the three main cities of the delimited sherry region in the southern corner of Spain next to the Atlantic—inland Jerez de la Frontera, coastal El Puerto de Santa María and Sanlúcar de Barrameda—sherry remains both big business and a tourist attraction. More than 230,000 people visit the González Byass each year to ride the miniature train around the bodegas. At Grupo Estévez, visitors browse a gallery filled with Picasso sketches. At Williams & Humbert, they sit for a horse show inside a bodega so large you can’t see one end from the other.

    Unlike the vineyard-adjacent grand mansions of California’s wine-tasting rooms, sherry bodegas are usually urban warehouses that may or may not be attached to a visitor’s center. Inside, hundreds to tens of thousands of barrels, usually no more than four high, are stacked on their sides beneath vaulted cathedral ceilings that help stabilize the temperature. The wines will be transferred over the years from the top-row barrels down to the ground-level ones, blending with the wine in each lower barrel in a method known as the solera system.

    THE SOLERA SYSTEM
    Like port and Madeira, sherry is a fortified wine—meaning distilled spirits are added. Historically, these coastal wines were largely produced for export and needed extra alcohol to survive the sea voyages to Holland, England and America without spoiling. (Christopher Columbus and Magellan both loaded up on sherry before setting sail; Sir Francis Drake allegedly sacked Jerez to get it.)

    Until the early 1800s, sherry was heavily fortified and unaged. But around that time, wine traders began experimenting with methods of aging and edification that resulted in the solera system, which is still in use.

    Through blending and aging that’s designed to produce a consistent product with characteristics of older wine, the system is almost mathematic. Consider a barrel of three-year-old wine that is ready to be bottled. Instead of emptying the barrel into bottles, only a third of the liquid is used, and the barrel is then filled with wine from a two-year-old barrel; the space in the barrel of two-year-old wine is filled with wine from a one-year barrel; and to the empty space in the one-year-old barrel, new wine is added.

    The next year, when the wine is ready for bottling, two-thirds of the barrel will be four years old and a third of it will be three. The following year, after one third of that barrel is removed and refilled as before, there will be three-, four- and five-year-old wine in the barrel—and in the bottle. Run this system for 100 years or so, and some tiny portion of very old wine will be sharing space in the bottle with three-year-old juice.

    Because of this (admittedly highly simplified in this description) continuous blending system, sherry should not vary wildly from year to year, and there can be no vintage solera sherry, because it is always a blend of years (though there is a small category of vintage-dated sherries aged outside of the solera system called añadas). Even the newly approved age-dated sherry (VOS, VORS) of 20 and 30 years are average ages based on a complicated algorithm.

    THE MAGIC OF AIR AND YEAST
    Sherry is made in three styles: dry, sweet and blended. The sweet wines are made from Pedro Ximénez—often known as PX—and muscatel grapes. The grapes are left out in the sun after harvest to further concentrate their sugar, and their fermentation process is halted early to ensure the resulting wines are sweet. The wines are then fortified and aged in the solera system.

    These naturally sweet wines can be blended with the five types of dry sherry (fino, manzanilla, palo cortado, amontillado and oloroso) to make wines classified as medium (the brand Dry Sack is a medium sherry) or cream (like Harveys Bristol Cream, the top-selling sherry in America). Yet another type of blended sherry is pale cream, which is fino or manzanilla sweetened with concentrated rectified grape must instead of other sweet wines.

    Then there are the dry sherries. The five types mentioned above are all made from palomino grapes (since recovering from a phylloxera infestation in the early 1900s) and aged in barrels by the solera through radically different methods: under air so the wine oxidizes, under a layer of yeast called flor or a combination of the two.

    After fermentation, the winemaker decides the aging method for the sherry. The juice destined for aging under air—to become oloroso—is fortified to around 18 percent alcohol as it enters its solera cycle. The barrels, which rest on their sides, are not completely filled, to increase air contact with the wine and change its flavor over time. As it ages, oloroso becomes darker and woodier, with walnut and autumn-leaf flavors.

    While oxidative—or air—aging is the muscle that directs the flavor of some sherries, flor is the magic. Flor is a living layer of yeast in the barrel that floats on top of the wine and consumes nutrients within it. (Wine destined for aging under flor is fortified to only about 15 percent alcohol, which permits the flor, but not other organisms, to live.) Not only does this impart pungent, doughy flavors to the wine, the layer of flor prevents the wine from oxidizing like an oloroso.

    Wines that age entirely under flor are classified as fino or manzanilla sherries. These differ not just in flavor but in where they are aged: Manzanilla comes from the ocean-adjacent Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where salty ocean air affects the aging environment of the barrels and the makeup of the naturally occurring flor. It cannot be replicated elsewhere. The top-selling finosherry brand in the U.S. is Tio Pepe, and among the top manzanilla brands is La Gitana.

    These sherries, aged entirely under flor, taste nothing like oloroso sherries that are aged entirely under air. Except for the solera system binding them together, these sherries are as distinct as red and white wine. Following this analogy, the two remaining dry-sherry categories are analogous to rosé wines, with production and flavor characteristics of the other two styles. Amontillado sherries are aged under flor for at least three years (often several more), then the flor either dies naturally or is eliminated, and the wine continues aging through oxidation.

    Palo cortado sherry spends less time under flor and is redirected to oxidative aging earlier on. Traditionally, these wines were oddball finos salvaged by redirecting them toward olorosos, but with better technology, this method is deliberate and no longer a happy accident. Each bodega interprets palo cortado differently, putting their house signature on the style. Palo cortado is often the focus for sherry obsessives.

    MIXING IT UP
    Adventurous cocktailians in the States use any type of sherry at their disposal—and have been doing so pretty much for more than 200 hundred years—while in Jerez, about the only cocktail you’ll find with sherry is the rebujito, a mixture of fino or manzanilla sherry with Sprite.

    Classic sherry drinks include the Sherry Cobbler (sherry with sugar and muddled fruit and berries), the Adonis (with sweet vermouth and bitters), Bamboo (with dry vermouth and bitters) and Coronation (a Bamboo with maraschino liqueur). Not only does sherry pair with vermouth in low-alcohol cocktails as above, it can sub in for either dry (fino/amontillado) or sweet (oloroso) vermouth in drinks like the martini and Manhattan.

    These classics pop up on cocktail menus from time to time, as do new creations like the Dolly Dagger at the Varnish (dry sherry, rum, lime juice, sugar-cane syrup, vanilla syrup) and the Bomb at Seattle’s Zig Zag Café (amontillado sherry, triple sec, orange juice, bitters).

    For those who want their sherry unadorned, serving directions are simple. No need for the special sherry copita; a white-wine glass will do nicely. Chill the fino and amontillado down to slightly above refrigerator temperature, and serve the others at slightly below room temperature. In Spain, a grand meal often begins with a subtle fino, moves into oloroso to pair with the main course and ends with sweet, rich Pedro Ximénez with (or for) dessert. ¡Salud!

    Should you choose to serve sherry in cocktail form—perhaps one of the sherry drinks featured in these pages, which were developed by top bartenders from around the country—you’ll find them as diverse as the flavors in sherry itself. Maybe sherry skipped a generation, but now you and your grandparents have something in common.

     

    Recipes

    THE BOMB
    by Murray Stenson
    Zig Zag Café, Seattle

    “From the 1977 Jones’ Complete Bar Guide, by Stan Jones. It’s on our current drink menu and is unique and delicious.”

    • 1 1/2 ounces amontillado sherry
    • 1/2 ounce Cointreau
    • 3/4 ounce orange juice
    • 1 dash orange bitters
    • 1 dash St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram

    Combine ingredients in mixer with ice and shake. Strain into cocktail glass. Serve without garnish.

    PÉTANQUE
    by Andrew Bohrer
    Mistral Kitchen, Seattle

    “I like to make delicate flavor balances tailored especially for mood and food. it would be perfect with a charcuterie plate. This was created to show the adaptability of sherry.”

    • 2 ounces fino sherry (Toro Albalá Fino Eléctrico)
    • 1 ounce Luxardo Amaretto di Saschiro liqueur
    • 2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
    • Luxardo Maraschino cherry for garnish

    Combine ingredients in a mixing glass, stir with ice and strain into grappa glass. Garnish with cherry.

    SHERRY SHRUB
    by Neyah White
    Nopa, San Francisco

    White, currently brand ambassador for Suntory Yamazaki whisky, created this drink, which won the prestigious Vinos de Jerez Cocktail Competition in 2008. It has been influential as bartenders have begun making their own shrub syrups with local produce. Shrub syrup is a colonial-era preservative (a liquid jam, in a way) that’s drinkable with soda water or used in cocktails in place of the acid ingredient. “The beauty of this cocktail,” White says, “is seasonality and custom flavors; it should be made with whatever produce is peaking that week. The base recipe is equal parts sugar, vinegar and cut fruit. The sugar-to-acid ratio varies by the sugar of the fruit.” White has made this with plums, peaches, apples, pears, strawberries, grapes, rhubarb, quinces, persimmons and beets. “I never use melons, citrus or pineapples, as there are some sanitation issues with aging those fruits.”

    • 3⁄4 ounce shrub syrup*
    • 2 ounces Bodegas Hidalgo La Gitana manzanilla sherry
    • Lemon twist for garnish

    Combine sherry and syrup, stir with ice and strain into small sherry glass. Garnish with lemon twist.

    *Shrub Syrup

    • 1 quart fresh elderberries, trimmed from stems
    • 1 cup fresh huckleberries
    • 5 cups evaporated cane sugar (available at Whole Foods)
    • 1 quart cider vinegar
    • 1 ounce kosher salt
    • 5 brown cardamom pods
    • 1 ounce white peppercorns

    In a large bowl, gently press fruit with the bottom of a metal shaker, until every berry is at least bruised. In mixing glass, muddle spices until all pods are cracked and add to berry mixture. Add sugar, cover and let stand five hours in a cool place—refrigerate if preferred—until a syrup has formed. Add salt and vinegar and stir until salt has dissolved. Cover and return to cool storage. Let age for at least a week. To remove seeds, filter successively through a chinois (china cap) and then through cheesecloth. Bottle in sterile glass containers, leaving a few inches of air. It is now ready to use, but another week of aging allows for a more lingering flavor.

    SMOKED PEACH
    by Kevin Diedrich
    Burritt Room, San Francisco

    “I chose sherry for this drink because it gives it a nice nutty flavor—kind of a stone-fruit aspect. Also, it dries out the sweetness of the honey and peaches. The cocktail is in balance, matching scotch and honey, sherry and scotch and peaches and honey. I almost didn’t have to do any work with this—it just came together naturally!”

    • 1 1/2 ounces Dry Sack Medium sherry
    • 1 ounce Glenfiddich 12-year-old scotch
    • 1/2 ounce honey syrup*
    • 3/4 ounce lemon juice
    • 4 thin peach slices, plus extra slices for garnish

    Muddle sliced peaches into mixing glass. Add liquid ingredients and shake with ice. Strain into rocks glass with ice. Garnish with peaches presented in a fan shape.

    *Honey Syrup
    Dilute one part honey with half part of hot or boiling water. Store in capped bottle in the refrigerator.

    O.G. (ORIGINAL GIN)
    by Zahra Bates
    Providence, Los Angeles

    “I roast red grapes that I then add to the sherry to evoke a mulled-wine flavor. Sherry is a great way to add warmth to a cocktail without creating a cloying, sweet taste.”

    • 2 ounces Bols Genever
    • 1 ounce red-grape sherry reduction*
    • 1 ounce Lillet Blanc
    • 1 dash anise bitters or 1⁄2 teaspoon Pernod
    • Orange peel for garnish

    Combine liquid ingredients in an ice-filled mixing glass and stir until well chilled. Garnish with flamed orange oil: Hold quarter-size orange peel in your fingers and squeeze it with peel side facing cocktail about six inches from glass, with lit match in front of the peel.

    *Red-Grape Sherry Reduction

    • 1 pound red grape, preferable Kyoho
    • 1/3 bottle dry sherry

    On baking sheet, roast grapes at 350 degrees with a bit of salt and no oil or grease of any kind for 11–15 minutes. Grapes are done when they split and juices start running out. Muddle grapes in saucepan and add sherry. Bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer until reduced to about half the volume. Strain out the solids and let liquid cool. Store in refrigerator.

    EAST INDIA TRADING COMPANY
    by Brian Miller
    Death + Company, New York

    “I was playing around with making some classic cocktails with rum. I got inspired by the Boulevardier and the Negroni, and this establishment was a nice little twist on it. I won the NYC semifinal for the AppletonReserve Remixology contest with this one, and it’s still on the Death + Company menu.” Miller recently left the bar and is currently consulting.

    • 2 ounces Appleton Estate Reserve rum
    • 3/4 ounce Lustau East India Solera sherry
    • 1/2 ounce Ramazzotti
    • 2 dashes Bittermens Xocolatl Mole Bittersh

    Combine all ingredients, stir with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass. No garnish.

    RED BAMBOO
    by Kenta Gogo
    Pegu Club, New York

    “This is my way to reintroduce the Bamboo, a clean, dry aperitif cocktail—the first cocktail created in Japan. It sometimes is nice to step away from hard liquor. I was picking apples somewhere in Hudson Valley on my birthday last year, and everything just came into my mind—add fall essence to give the drink a whole brand-new face without losing the fundamental structure. A modern twist on classic.”

    • 2 ounces Eve Apple vermouth*
    • 1 ounce Harveys Bristol Cream
    • 1⁄2 teaspoon Drambuie
    • 3 dashes absinthe
    • 1 dash Angostura bitters
    • Apple slices for garnish

    Combine all ingredients and stir with ice until well chilled. Strain into a small chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with apples presented in a fan shape.

    *Eve Apple Vermouth
    by Audrey Saunders
    Pegu Club, New York

    • 1 liter Dolin dry vermouth
    • 8 McIntosh apples

    In a nonreactive container, slice apples deli thin and add vermouth. Cover and chill 5 days. Strain and store in refrigerator.

    DOLLY DAGGER
    by Alex Day
    The Varnish, Los Angeles

    “I started playing around using sherry as a base and other spirits as modifiers, inverting the ratio that most people use in cocktails. I made it into a swizzle, because I felt Smith & Cross was so aggressive that using crushed ice and getting it super cold had the ability to round out the flavor better. I also like using mint only as an aromatic component of a drink.”.

    • 1 1⁄2 ounces Dry Sack sherry
    • 1 ounce Smith & Cross rum
    • 3⁄4 ounce lime juice
    • 1⁄2 ounce sugar cane syrup
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla syrup (homemade or Trader Tiki’s)
    • Mint sprig for garnish

    Combine ingredients in cocktail shaker and shake without ice. Pour into pilsner glass filled with crushed ice. Swizzle until outside of glass is frosted. Garnish with mint sprig.

     

  • (Almost) All the Cocktails & Spirits Books Published in 2015, For Reading or Gifting

    Throughout the year I post new drink books to Alcademics, because I love drinking and books. Below is all of them put together so that you can make your holiday wish list for yourself or see them all together to pick presents for friends and family.

    Know of a book I missed? Let me know and I'll add it.

     

    Culture and Fun

    Party-like-a-president-2d-high-resjpg-f9aeaf69d8544ad7You Suck At Drinking: Being a Complete Guide to Drinking for Any and All Situations in Your Life, Including But Not Limited to Office Holiday Parties, Weddings, Breakups and Other Sad Times, Outdoor Chores Like Deck-building, and While in Public, Legally and Illegally  By Matthew Latkiewicz

    Toasts: The Perfect Words to Celebrate Every Occasion By June Cotner and Nancy Tupper Ling

    Party Like A President: True Tales of Inebriation, Lechery, and Mischief from the Oval Office By Brian Abrams

    The Field Guide to Drinking in America By Niki Ganong 

    You Deserve a Drink: Boozy Misadventures and Tales of Debauchery by Mamrie Hart

    A Visual Guide to Drink by Pop Chart Lab: Ben Gibson, Patrick Mulligan

     

    Vintage Reprints

    ImgresHoffman House Bartender's Guide By Charley Mahoney

    The Ideal Bartender By Tom Bullock

    W. C. Whitfield's Mixed Drinks and Cocktails: An Illustrated, Old-School Bartender's Guide by W. C. Whitfield (Author), Tad Shell (Illustrator), Joaquín Simó (Foreword)

    Shaking Up Prohibition in New Orleans: Authentic Vintage Cocktails from A to Z
    By Olive Leonhardt and Hilda Phelps Hammond

     

    Historical Books

    Cocktail Noir: From Gangsters and Gin Joints to Gumshoes and Gimlets by Scott Deitche

    UrlLost Recipes of Prohibition: Notes from a Bootlegger’s Manual by Matthew Rowley

    To Have and Have Another Revised Edition: A Hemingway Cocktail Companion by Philip Greene

    Gone with the Gin: Cocktails with a Hollywood Twist by Tim Federle

    Cocktails of the Movies: An Illustrated Guide to Cinematic Mixology by Will Francis , Stacey Marsh

    Imbibe! From Absinthe Cocktail to Whiskey Smash, a Salute in Stories and Drinks to “Professor” Jerry Thomas, Pioneer of the American Bar (Updated and Revised Edition)
    By David Wondrich

    Contraband Cocktails: How America Drank When It Wasn't Supposed To by Paul Dickson 

     

    UrlNarrative Cocktail Books

    The Cocktail Chronicles: Navigating the Cocktail Renaissance with Jigger, Shaker & Glass by Paul Clarke  

    Drinking the Devil's Acre: A Love Letter from San Francisco and her Cocktails by Duggan McDonnell

    Ten Cocktails: The Art of Convivial Drinking by Alice Lascelles 

     

    Cocktails from Specific Bars

    6a00e553b3da20883401b8d17a925a970cThe Dead Rabbit Drinks Manual: Secret Recipes and Barroom Tales from Two Belfast Boys Who Conquered the Cocktail World by Sean Muldoon, Jack McGarry, Ben Schaffer

    Experimental Cocktail Club: Paris, London & New York by Romée de Goriainoff, Pierre-Charles Cros, Olivier Bon, Xavier Padavoni 

    Cuban Cocktails: 100 Classic and Modern Drinks by Ravi DeRossi, Jane Danger, Alla Lapushchik 

    Tujague's Cookbook: Creole Recipes and Lore in the New Orleans Grand Tradition by Poppy Tooker 

    Cocktails for Dingdongs Vol. 1. by Dustin Drankiewicz and Alexandra Ensign

     

    Themed Cocktail Books

    51bB5UXlUyL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_Summer Cocktails: Margaritas, Mint Juleps, Punches, Party Snacks, and More! By MarТa del Mar Sacasa and Tara Striano

    The Negroni: Drinking to La Dolce Vita, with Recipes & Lore  By Gary Regan

    Cocktails on Tap: The Art of Mixing Spirits and Beer By Jacob Grier

    The Tippling Bros. A Lime and a Shaker: Discovering Mexican-Inspired Cocktails by by Tad Carducci & Paul Tanguay with Alia Akkam

    Classic Cocktails by Salvatore Calabrese

    Tea Cocktails: A Mixologist's Guide to Legendary Tea-Infused Cocktails by Abigail R. Gehring

    The Mason Jar Cocktail Companion by Shane Carley

    Tiki Drinks: Tropical Cocktails for the Modern Bar  by Robert Sharp and Nicole Weston 

    The Manhattan Cocktail: A Modern Guide to the Whiskey Classic by Albert W. A. Schmid

    Paris Cocktails: An Elegant Collection of Over 100 Recipes Inspired by the City of Light  by Doni Belau 

    Wild Drinks & Cocktails: Handcrafted Squashes, Shrubs, Switchels, Tonics, and Infusions to Mix at Home by Emily Han

    The Periodic Table of COCKTAILS by Emma Stokes 

    Forager's Cocktails: Botanical Mixology with Fresh, Natural Ingredients by Amy Zavatto

    Bitters and Shrub Syrup Cocktails: Restorative Vintage Cocktails, Mocktails, and Elixirs by Warren Bobrow

    The Essential New York Times Book of Cocktails  by Steve Reddicliffe 

    Good Things to Drink with Mr Lyan and Friends by Ryan Chetiyawardana

    The Craft Cocktail Party: Delicious Drinks for Every Occasion by Julie Reiner

     

    Whisky and Whiskey

    51YffZpl9ML._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_Whiskey: What to Drink Next: Craft Whiskeys, Classic Flavors, New Distilleries, Future Trends By Dominic Roskrow 

    Bourbon Curious: A Simple Tasting Guide for the Savvy Drinker by Fred Minnick

    Bourbon Empire: The Past and Future of America’s Whiskey by Reid Mitenbuler 

    Spirit of Place: Scotland's Great Whisky Distilleries by Charles MacLean 

    The Essential Scratch & Sniff Guide to Becoming a Whiskey Know-It-All: Know Your Booze Before You Choose  by Richard Betts

    The Birth of Bourbon: A Photographic Tour of Early Distilleries by Carol Peachee

    American Whiskey, Bourbon & Rye (New Edition): A Guide to the Nation's Favorite Spirit by Clay Risen

     

    Other Spirits

    51VHrm7ytCL._SX359_BO1,204,203,200_Bitterman's Field Guide to Bitters & Amari: 500 Bitters; 50 Amari; 123 Recipes for Cocktails, Food & Homemade Bitters  by Mark Bitterman

     

    How the Gringos Stole Tequila: The Modern Age of Mexico's Most Traditional Spirit By Chantal Martineau

    Divided Spirits: Tequila, Mezcal, and the Politics of Production  by Sarah Bowen

    Gin: The Manual by Dave Broom 

    Vermouth: The Revival of the Spirit That Created America’s Cocktail Culture by Adam Ford

    Branca: A Spirited Italian Icon by Niccolo Branca di Romanico

     

    Science-Minded

    Cognitive Cooking with Chef Watson: Recipes for Innovation from IBM & the Institute of Culinary Education

    Hidden Scents: The Language of Smell in the Age of Approximation by Allen Barkkume 

     

    Miscellany

    51u5h1zPGDL._SX258_BO1,204,203,200_Fika: The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break with Recipes for Pastries, Breads, and other Treats By Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall

    The River Cottage Booze Handbook by John Wright

    The Beer Bible by Jeff Alworth

    Cider Made Simple: All About Your New Favorite Drink  by Jeff Alworth

    Discovering the New York Craft Spirits Boom by Heather D. Dolland

    Branding: Distilled by Cynthia Sterling

     

     

  • International Eggnog: The History of the Drink and Variations Around the Globe

    Way back in 2010, I wrote a story for Mixology Magazine about Eggnog. The story was published in German (I wrote it in English and they translated) but this year they put the English version of the story online. 

    Screen Shot 2014-12-22 at 9.52.12 PM

    It covers what I could learn about eggnog at the time (keep in mind this is 4 years ago), including the history of the drink and its possible relation to British egg drinks like posset and wassail, along with other American drinks like Grog and the Tom & Jerry.

    It also covers international egg drinks, including:

    •  Eierpunsch – Germany
    • Lait de Poule – France, Canada
    • Coquito – Puerto Rico
    • Rompope – Mexico
    • Biblia Con Pisco – Peru
    • Sabajón of Colombia
    • Advocaat from Holland

    The story also includes a few eggnog recipes. Check it out here. 

     

  • A Nine-Page Feature on Trick Dog’s Caitlin Laman

    The fine folks at the Bay Area Newsgroup, which includes newspapers the San Jose Mercury, Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times, and others, asked me to write a long profile of Trick Dog's Caitlin Laman, so that's what I did. 

    Screen Shot 2014-11-29 at 10.36.38 AM

    The story comes out in this Sunday's Eat Magazine, an insert into all those papers. I'm not sure if it's going online in traditional format, but here it is in Issu, the online magazine format. If it comes out as traditional text I'll share the link. 

    They did a nice job! Lots of photos and a lovely layout. 

    The article also includes illustrated recipes by 8 Bay Area bartenders:

    • Caitlin Laman of Trick Dog
    • Suzanne Long of Longitude
    • Nick Kosevich for Mortar and Pestle
    • Antoine Nixon of Jack's Oyster Bar and Fish House
    • Russ Stanley of Jack Rose Libation House
    • Jimmy Marino of The Lexington House
    • Brandon Clements of The Village Pub
    • Andrew Majoulet of Rich Table

    They asked for ten but chose eight – sorry if yours was one of the ones left out. 

    Screen Shot 2014-11-29 at 10.48.06 AM

    Go read the story here!

    Screen Shot 2014-11-29 at 10.36.55 AM

     

  • Ginger Beer Cocktails in Saveur’s June Drink Insert

    Saveur magazine has an insert in the June/July issue that is a mini-magazine called Drink. I wrote a handful of stories for it.

    Saveur Drink Cover

     

    I'll post them as they show up online (get excited, ice fans!), but the first to appear is a story on ginger beer. It's a bit of history, a bit about the difference between ginger ale and beer, and several recipes for drinks that show how it goes with everything:

    • Audrey Saunder's Gin-Gin Mule (gin)
    • Erick Castro's Kentucky Buck (bourbon)
    • Horse's Neck (cognac) 
    • Dark 'N' Stormy (rum)
    • El Diablo (tequila)

    Kentucky buck

    I'm not sure if the Chilcano (pisco) will appear anywhere, but that's a pretty easy one to figure out. 

    The main story with fun illustrated recipes as above is here.

    Or to see the recipes written in normal format, you can follow this link

     

  • A Wide Range Of Amari & Cocktails In Which To Use Them in Saveur Magazine

    Saveur 100 cover officialIf you hadn't heard, your host Camper English is the Contributing Drinks Editor at Saveur Magazine now. Hooray!

    The current January issue is the annual Saveur 100: "Our favorite places, tools, ingredients, cookbooks, recipes, restaurants, and more."

    I have two small bits in the magazine. The first is on Amari (plural of Amaro) and cocktails to use them in.

     

    Amari online

    Read the story with tasting notes here and the cocktail recipes are in slideshow format here.

    For the cocktail recipes, I sourced them from:

    • Max Grecco of Vasco in Sydney, Australia
    • Renato “Tato” Giovannoni of Florerèa Atlántico in Buenos Aires
    • Jackson Cannon of Island Creek Oyster Bar in Boston
    • Patrick Poelvoorde of San Francisco's Park Tavern

    Thanks fellas. 

     

  • Paloma Recipe Round-Up: 20+ Paloma Variations

    In my research on the Paloma I have come across many variations on the drink, so I thought I'd link to them here.

    Paloma3Typically the Paloma is made with tequila (always use 100% agave!), grapefruit soda such as Squirt or Jarritos, a squeeze of a lime wedge and a pinch of salt. Esquire's standard recipe is here. A version using fresh grapefruit and soda water is here.

    Here are some Paloma variations from around the internet. 

    Blood Orange and Thyme Paloma by Airda Molenkamp [recipe]

    Nuestra Paloma by Thad Vogler of Beretta, SF. It contains St. Germain, bitters, Cointreau, and grapefruit juice. [recipe]

    The Charred Grapefruit Paloma by Warren Bobrow [recipe]

    Paloma, Mi Amante by Paul Clarke – A Paloma using strawberry-infused tequila. [recipe]

    Paloma Variation – A Paloma using IPA beer, plus tequila, grapefruit cordial, and lime. [mentioned here; no recipe]

    Palomita – A Paloma without tequila; just using Coinreau, lime, and grapefruit. [recipe]

    Green Palomarita – Mezcal, lime, grapefruit, Chartreuse [recipe]

    Dove & Daisy – Tequila, lime, Aperol, orange liqueur, salt, soda water. [recipe]

    La Paloma – Grapefruit liqueur, tequila, grapefruit juice, lime, soda. [recipe]

    Cantarito – A Paloma variation using lemon, lime, and orange juices in place of the lime squeeze. [recipe]

    Paloma Brava by Dushan Zaric – Contains tequila, lime, orange, grapefruit, grapefruit soda, agave nectar, and salt. [recipe]

    La Canterita by Ashley Miller – Tequila, triple sec, agave nectar, grapefruit, lemon, lime, orange. [recipe]

    Strawberry Paloma with strawberry-infused tequila, honey, lime, and grapefruit. [recipe]

    Reunion Cooler by Jennifer Colliau- Tequila, peppercorns, pineapple, grapefruit peel, lime. [recipe]

    The 212 by Aisha Sharpe and Willy Shine – Tequila, Aperol, grapefruit [recipe]

    Siesta by Katie Stipe – Tequila, Campari, lime, grapefruit, simple syrup [recipe]

    Acapulco by Salvatore Calabrese – Tequila, rum, grapefruit, pineapple. [recipe]

    Cardarita by Ago Perrone – Tequila, almond-cardamom sugar, grapefruit, Galliano, ginger ale [recipe]

    Salty Chihuahua – Tequila, grapefruit juice, salt [recipe]

    Ginger Paloma – Ginger-grapefruit syrup, tequila, lime, club soda [recipe]

    Tequila Fresa Punch – Starwberry-infused tequila, triple sec, orange, lime, grapefruit soda, orange bitters [recipe]