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I think I’m a rare person that made it through all of Tales of the Cocktail without a hangover. But then I drank a lot on the plane and have one today back in San Francisco. Still, the conference was exhausting and I was starting to feel it on Saturday. At the Cocktails and the…

By me in today’s SF Chronicle: St. George Spirits, the Alameda distillers behind Hangar One Vodka and several eaux-de-vie, liqueurs and one whiskey, have launched another small bottling with big flavor. Aqua Perfecta Basil Eau de Vie is made with Thai and other varieties of basil, soaked in unaged California grape brandy and redistilled. The…

Day 3 Recap: On Thursday I attended a lot more seminars: Organic and local cocktails- Alison Evanow of Square One organic vodka says, “Vodka is like butter.” There are some really interesting non-profit healthy food programs happening in New Orleans post-Katrina. The future of mixology, with bar stars Todd Thrasher, James Meehan, and John Kinder.…

It’s day two of Tales of the Cocktail and I’m still going strong. Currently I’m skipping the “spirited dinners” drinks-and-food pairing dinners happening all over town because as a vegetarian they don’t make these things for me. (“Can you pair this vermouth with a salad?”) So I had my own beer and pizza pairing at…

Yes, that’s four shirts, 5 muddlers, several pieces of glassware, uncountable pens, and more. Good thing I brought an extra bag to carry it all home. Labels: tales_of_the_cocktail

Finally my tonic water story came out in today’s SF Chronicle: The Evolution of Tonic Water In the quest to make better cocktails, today’s bartenders rethink each ingredient in a drink and try to improve it — from the cheap, mass-produced version, to a higher-quality version, to the artisan version, to the locally made artisan…

Another piece by me in today’s Chronicle: Bourbon with a Chardonnay chaser Over in Scotland, wood-finished whiskies are all the rage. Most Scotch ages for years in barrels that previously held bourbon or sherry, and recently several distillers have been transferring the whisky in its final years to barrels that held Port, Madeira or Burgundy,…