Category: safety

  • Grains of Peril: The Frivolous Florida Gin Lawsuit and Adulterant Analysis by Lance Winters

    You may have heard that a lawyer in Miami is suing Bombay Sapphire gin because it includes grains of paradise in the recipe

    DownloadThe suit is due to a 150 year old law meant to prevent potentially dangerous adulteration of alcoholic beverages. Also included in the law were several other "adulterants." As posted to the HoochLaw blog, the law reads

    Whoever adulterates, for the purpose of sale, any liquor, used or intended for drink, with cocculus indicus, vitriol, grains of paradise, opium, alum, capsicum, copperas, laurel water, logwood, brazil wood, cochineal, sugar of lead, or any other substance which is poisonous or injurious to health, and whoever knowingly sells any liquor so adulterated, shall be guilty of a felony of the third degree.

    When I saw this, I realized cochineal, a common red coloring derived from scale insects, would also render many spirits illegal in Florida if grains of paradise are.

    One of those spirits is St. George Spirits' Bruto Americano, an Italian-inspired aperitif liqueur colored with cochineal.

    Lance Winters, President & Master Distiller for St. George Spirits, sent me an email with his (amazing!) analysis of the situation. 

    Winters wrote:

    To adulterate something is to corrupt it, often in an effort to perpetrate fraud by creating a counterfeit of something. In 1860 when this law was written, there were small rectifiers and liquor compounders across the country who would often "create" one spirit out of another.

    For example, a "French brandy" could be made from a mixture of high proof grain spirits, Cognac oil and coloring. Another recipe in Lacour advises on making Cognac: "One barrel of whiskey, say forty gallons, add tincture of grains of paradise, one quart; powdered catechu, three ounces; mucilage of slippery elm bark, two thirds of a pint; oil of lemon, eighty drops; well rubbed in an ounce of dry white or brown sugar, and added to the liquor; then add six ounces of acetic ether".

    As these recipes show, ingredients like those listed in the Florida law were often used to create imitation versions of spirits, hence the use of the term adulteration. Grains of paradise in particular were used for hundreds of years to make a spirit seem stronger than it actually was, allowing an unscrupulous compounder to label a spirit with a higher alcohol content than was actually in the bottle. Capsicum, also listed in the regulation, was often used to give the false sensation of a higher alcohol content.

    The statement that the use of grains of paradise was "unconscionable" relates to [the lawyer's] prior claim of the spice to induce abortion. Grains of paradise are not an abortifacient. Their intense flavor was often used to mask the taste of abortifacients which were administered without the knowledge of the pregnant woman.

    Cocktail Geeks will know that in the back of the original Jerry Thomas' Bar-Tenders Guide was the Guide to Manufacture of Cordials, Liqueurs, etc., which had similar recipes for adulterating neutral spirit to make gin, whiskey, etc.. 

    Lance Winters then went on to describe what the other illegal ingredients were used for in adulteration: 

    Cocculus indicus was added to beer to promote a sense of giddiness. It's now commonly used as a homeopathic remedy for motion induced nausea.

    Vitriol is good old sulfuric acid, used for the "beading" effect in liquor in an effort to further falsify alcohol content. If it's so dangerous, why is there so much food grade sulfuric acid available?

    Grains of paradise were also known as Guinea pepper. In "Lacour, on the Manufacture of Liquor" (1853), an old how-to for both genuine purveyors and shysters, the author states that "Of the different varieties of pepper, none answers for the purpose of giving a false strength to liquors, except Guinea pepper; a tincture prepared from this variety has a taste analogous to alcohol, whereas the taste from the other varieties remains on the palate a considerable length of time after being swallowed."

    Alum was used to intentionally impart roughness to wines, again (I assume) to give the sense of a higher alcohol content. We most often use it in pickles.

    Capsicum was another tool to falsify alcohol content. It's also food. Packed with vitamin C. Say goodbye to pepper flavored vodkas in Florida.

    Copperas is an Old-Timey name for iron II sulfate. Probably used to color spirits that were supposed to have some sort of herb content or to stabilize same. Now found in supplements for people with iron deficiencies.

    Laurel water was distilled from the leaves of the cherry laurel and consisted chiefly of prussic acid. Probably used to give almond notes to artificial kirsch. Totally poisonous. Not going to argue that one.

    Logwood is a dye, brown, red and purple. Not sure about its toxicity, but was probably used to give the impression of barrel aging.

    Brazil wood would have been used in the same way.

    Cochineal, same use, currently used to color foods and cosmetics.

    Sugar of lead? C'mon, that's just silly. And toxic. And already prohibited.

     

    Lacour
    Lacour
    Lacour

    Thanks to Lance Winters for his analysis/rant in the form of detailed information!

    As is probably obvious to all but the lawyer in question, the spirit of the law seems to be to prevent using these ingredients to fool customers into purchasing counterfeit and potentially dangerous alcohol. Most of the ingredients are Generally Recognized as Safe by the US government, so they're permitted in the standard production of food and beverages. 

     

     

  • Announcing the Launch of CocktailSafe.org

    Announcing a new website dedicated to safety in cocktail ingredients and techniques, CocktailSafe.org

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    It has been a lot of hard work and there is much more to do, but today we are live! 

     

     

    The site was covered in a story in today's New York Times. 

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  • Bitter Ingredient Flavors and Use from Martini Vermouth Masters

    Bitter martiniAt this year's Bar Convent Brooklyn, I had the opportunity to sit down with Ivano Tonutti, Master Herbalist for Martini & Rossi (and Bacardi products generally) and Giuseppe "Beppe" Musso, Master Blender of Martini & Rossi.

    The timing was excellent, as I am preparing to give a talk on bitter ingredients for Tales of the Cocktail, and they were in town promoting the newish Martini & Rossi Riserva Speciale Bitter Liqueur. 

    The Bitter is part of the new premium Riserva line, along with Rubino (red) and Ambratto (white) vermouths. We spoke primarily about the new Bitter and and plants used in the Riserva line; but in some cases we were generalizing beyond that. So please consider this general information rather than super specific to any one product. 

     

    General Stuff

    • The goal in using different bittering agents is to create a rounded bitter experience with multiple parallel bitters rather than a single-note bitter. 
    • Speaking of single-note bitter, they indicated quinine/cinchona bark pretty much gives that. 
    • When speaking about how different bittering agents impact the flavor, Tonutti would intuitively point to certain parts of his face, indicating where the individual bitter most impacts the palate – for example cinchona is a singular bitterness felt most in the far back of the mouth, different artemisia species were more forward. Gentian and rhubarb root impact the middle of the mouth more. It's interesting to see as we know the "tongue map" is false but yet we feel the impact of different bitter flavors in different parts of the mouth.
    • They use all dried herbs, rather than fresh, for all the many Bacardi products (including things like Bombay, etc.) with the exception of some fresh citrus peels in Oxley gin. Dried herbs are used to ensure consistency and can be more easily measured for water content, etc. 
    • All these bitter agents are infused rather than distilled into products (we're talking about the Riserva line). 
    • They use only yellow gentian root – not the blue stemless gentian that a few producers use. They prefer French gentian as it's particularly bitter and more aromatic than from other places. They say the blue gentian is not super bitter, and it can be thought of more like an herb with root rather than just the root. 
    • Holy thistle is used in salads. In their products, it's used to impart mouthfeel, not bitterness. It is used in most of Martini's products. 
    • Dandelion – Leaves, not roots, are used. In production, leaves must be dried immediately after picking. 
    • Roman Chamomile – The bitterness of it depends on the extraction technique (lower ABV extraction is better for bitterness in general, they say) and the concentration. (I asked about this as I've made chamomile infusions in the past and none were bitter.) 

    Artemisia

    • Between the Rubino and Ambratto there are different ratios of the three artemisia plants used – absinthia, pontica, and vulgaris. (grand/common, lesser/small, mugwort)
    • Absinthium – boldest, bitterest, with a delicate herbal flavor
    • Pontica – herbal and floral, a signature note of Martini vermouth, top note
    • Vulgaris (aka mugwort) – aromatic, with a different and milder expression of bitterness. 

    Barks

    • As noted, Cinchona bark gives a back-palate discreet bitterness.
    • Columba bark is an aromatic bitter with mid-palate bitterness.
    • Angostura bark is between cinchona and columba in its bitterness. 
    • Red cinchona (succirubra) is more bitter than yellow, with higher amounts of quinine, but they describe the flavor as more boring.
    • Yellow cinchona (calisaya) they get from Ecuador. It is slightly aromatic, but there is less of it available on the market. This is used in Ambratto and probably other products. 

    Safety Stuff

    • The amount of thujone in artemisia and quinine in cinchona bark are regulated. They say that their approach to this is to get as far under the legal limits of the active substances as possible. For example, their artemisia providers grow a strains of the plants with super low thujone content, and though they may be plants like grand wormwood that supposedly have a lot of it, they use varieties that don't. Thus if the legal limits of thujone were ever lowered, or as in the case of the US where the legal limit is lower than in the EU, they don't have to worry as they're not close to the limits.
    • For quinine, there is a legal limit of 83 ppm allowed. That is just for quinine, not for quinidine and the other (two, I believe) active alkaloids present in cinchona bark. Tonutti said that rather than counting just the quinine, they keep the total number of all the alkaloids under the 83 ppm limit.  
    • Calamus is banned in the US and in Australia by name, meaning you cannot use it in a product's formulation at all, while in Europe and other countries, you may use the plant as long as the beta asarone levels are kept below a certain amount. [They noted the nonsensical nature of this, as if the problem with calamus is beta asarone, they why not limit the beta asarone?] Thus there are formula differences in some of their products in different countries. They also keep the beta asarone way below the legal limits in Europe anyway. 

     

    This may all seem like random stuff to you, but it was extremely helpful for the talk I'm preparing!

     

    For those of you new to these products, here's the basic info from the brand:

    RISERVA SPECIALE BITTER

    The new Bitter joins the Riserva Speciale Rubino and Riserva Speciale Ambrato as part of a dedicated craft of exceptional Italian Aperitivi for bartenders and drinks enthusiasts. To develop the new Riserva Bitter, MARTINI & ROSSI used 100% natural ingredients and the original 1872 recipe, created by MARTINI & ROSSI founder Luigi Rossi, as their inspiration. MARTINI & ROSSI Master Herbalist, Ivano Tonutti, has carefully selected three rare botanicals (Saffron, Angostura and Columba), to deliver a unique richness and complexity to its taste profile through different dimensions of bitterness. The Bitter is also rested in the same Tino cask that is used for MARTINI & ROSSI Riserva Speciale Vermouth di Torino extracts and shares the vermouth’s common botanical, Italian Artemisia, allowing its unique complex bitter taste to perfectly complement it. ($26.99)

    RISERVA SPECIALE RUBINO

    The small parcels for full-bodied Langhe DOC Nebbiolo wines used to create MARTINI & ROSSI RISERVA SPECIALE RUBINO are blended with extracts of Italian Holy Thistle and Red Sandalwood from Central Africa to deliver a bright ruby red vermouth, which inspired the name of the expression. The delicate balance of botanicals creates a full-bodied herbal and complex style of Vermouth di Torino with a long aftertaste. ($14.99)

    Ambrato packshotRISERVA SPECIALE AMBRATO

    The floral and aromatic blend of small parcels of Moscato d’Asti DOCG wines, used to create MARTINI & ROSSI RISERVA SPECIALE AMBRATO, produces a beautifully honeyed Vermouth di Torino. The yellow Cinchona bark from Ecuador and Chinese Rhubarb create a light bitter taste profile that aromatizes and elevates the flavors of the wines. ($14.99)

     

  • Black Cocktail Alternatives to Activated Charcoal

    In my latest story for SevenFifty Daily I wrote about how to turn cocktails black without using activated charcoal

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    While black cocktails may be extremely Instagram-worthy, the activated charcoal often used to give the drinks their inky hue could have serious health consequences. Activated charcoal can adsorb oral medications (and poisons, in the case of drug overdoses, for which it’s commonly used by emergency room doctors) so that the drugs never reach the bloodstream. It’s an uncomfortable fact that the sexy obsidian-colored old-fashioned you serve to a customer may affect the medication that person has taken shortly before, or after, imbibing.

    While one could add a medication-interaction warning about activated charcoal, like an allergen label on a drink menu, there are other ways to color a drink black that don’t require a scary-sounding note. SevenFifty Daily asked bartenders around the country for cocktail-darkening alternatives and learned that black sesame seeds, cuttlefish ink, and black food coloring are among the ingredients being used.

    The full story is here

     

     

  • The Difference Between Bitter Almonds, Sweet Almonds, and Stone Fruit Seeds

    The difference between almonds, bitter almonds, "bitter almonds," and stone fruit pits/seeds like apricot, peach, and cherry can be very confusing. This post will hopefully help sort that out.

    Almond trees come in either sweet or bitter varieties. Sweet almonds are the ones you eat, and considered safe.

    Bitter almonds contain cyanide precursors and are not commercially available in the United States. According to Wikipedia, "Bitter almonds may yield from 4–9 mg of hydrogen cyanide per almond and contain 42 times higher amounts of cyanide than the trace levels found in sweet almonds."

    The FDA requires that bitter almond oils are “free from prussic acid (cyanide).” 

    But bitter almond liqueurs like Disaronno and Luxardo Amaretto contain bitter almonds. Well, yes and not really. These liqueurs contain the oil of "bitter almonds," which is how they refer to the seeds of stonefruit.

    Disaronno only uses apricot pits in their formulation, while Luxardo uses all three of the stone fruits. The stone fruit seeds are crushed and distilled, leaving behind the dangerous parts. The bitter almond oil is collected and used to flavor the liqueurs.

    I bought some almonds, peach seeds, and apricot seeds online. As you can see, the unsafe "bitter almonds" just look like smaller sweet almonds.

     

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    In short:

    • Almonds are sweet almonds.
    • Bitter almonds are a type of high-cyanide-containing almonds, but also:
    • "Bitter almonds" you see for sale/on ingredient lists are usually the seeds of stone fruit like apricots, cherries, and peaches. 

    According to the TTB: "Bitter Almond Oil produced from the pits of Bitter Almond, Peach, Apricot or Cherry must be free from Prussic Acid (FFPA) as determined by the AOAC Method 973.19." So no matter which type of bitter almond one chooses, it must be free of cyanide.

    Another note: There is some confusion (or at least I had some) about whether those stone fruits that resemble almonds are the pits or the seeds of the fruit. Pits are the containers of the seeds, and the seeds are the things that look like tree almonds. So in the picture, you can see that the sweet almonds refers to the seeds, which are surrounded by the pits.

    For practical (rather than botanical) purposes, these seeds can also be called kernels.