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Alan Kropf and Matthew Noel made a short film about Japanese bartending in which they interviewed knowledgeable US bartenders, filmed working Japanese bartenders, and also had me say a few things. I sound smart, so you know the editing was great 🙂

But seriously they did a great job on the 17-minute featurette and I think it summarizes the uniqueness of the Japanese bartending style, technique, service, and of course, ice-handling. 

Check it out here:

I'm researching potatoes in a project with Karlsson's Vodka. 

In Sweden, vodka was originally made from grapes and grains. Then the potato took over as did a government monopoly on production (except for a little export product called Absolut). But when the country joined the European Union, that all changed. 

Sweden has a strange relationship with potatoes and vodka. 

According to Nicholas Faith and Ian Wisniewski in their 1997 book Classic Vodka, distillation had reached Sweden by the 14th century, though this was used to make medicines. In the 16th century spirits became a luxury beverage, and in the 17th century they became a popular recreational drink for all classes. 

Vodka in Sweden was likely made from grapes, then grain. It became a bit too popular as soon as the price came down. In 1775 a law was passed forming a state monopoly on spirits production, but this was abandoned soon after. It would come again later. 

According to the book The Vodka Companion: A Connoisseur's Guide by Desmond Begg, "Potatoes, a cheaper raw material than wheat at the time, were first used in distillation in the 1790s."

 With the invention of the continuous still and other technological advances, potatoes became easier to use as raw material in the early-to-mid 1800s.

The Swedish Temperance Society was founded in 1837. In 1860 home distillation was forbidden in Sweden. Throughout the mid-1800s, different cities granted exclusive rights to sell vodka to certain groups of tavern keepers. These taverns closed early at night to prevent excessive consumption, and vodka was only served with meals. Profits collected from vodka sales were reinvested in the local community, and in Vodka Politics by Mark Lawrence Schrad, the author asserts that this system was responsible for curtailing excessive consumption throughout the country. 

These local city-wide companies were eventually merged into the national retailing monopoly, the Systembolaget, which is still in place today. Vodka rationing – limiting individuals to a maximum amount- continued into the 1950s. 

In 1917 Vin & Sprit was formed when the state liquor company purchased the largest rectifying company, giving it a monopoly on manufacture, retail, and importation of all alcohlic beverages. This monopoly lasted until around 1995 when Sweden joined the European Union. They kept control of retailing (Systembolaget) but sold off state-owned production. 

Peter Ekelund, the main creator of Karlsson's vodka, says that under V&S control all spirits were supposed to be made from potatoes as (it more like a compuslary agreement than a law). It was a farm subsidy agreement probably dating back to post-WWII. But these were  ‘starch potatoes’ that had no real flavor. 

That is, all vodka was made from potatoes,  with one notable exception. 

Absolut History

Absolut vodka was a brand dating to 1879, named for being "absolutely pure." The brand was resurected  by Vin & Sprit for its centennial anniversary, and in 1979 was made from grains rather than potatoes. 

According to Peter Ekelund, this was allowed because Absolut was solely an export product.  

Obviously, Absolut was a huge success and in 1985 it was the largest-selling imported vodka in the USA. 

But when Sweden joined the European Union they sold off V&S. Vin & Sprit was bought by Pernod-Ricard in 2008 for 5.69 billion euros.

Return to Potatoes (The Karlsson's Team)

When Absolut was created, this was a government product, so the people who created, blended, and exported the brand didn't take home a chunk of its enormous profits. But many of the same people who helped create it came back together to create Karlsson's, an heirloom potato vodka. 

The vodka is named for Börje Karlsson. He is the blender of Karlsson's and was the Head of Laboratory and Product Development of V&S Group during the development of Absolut.

The founder of the brand is Peter Ekelund, who had helped lead the launch of Absolut Vodka in North America.

The bottle designer is Hans Brindfors, the former Art Director of Carlsson & Broman who designed the Absolut bottle.

And they also reunited with Olof Tranvik, who introduced Absolut to Andy Warhol back in the day.

It's pretty cool that some of the same team who helped create the vodka that broke the mold of what Swedish vodka could be gathered to break it again in a return to potato vodka. 

When they started making Karlssons a lot had changed since 1979: There were no distilleries left in Sweden that could distill from potatoes anymore. 

Related articles

The Potato, Explained

When Vodka Was Made From Potatoes

Which Countries Grow the Most Potatoes?

 

After reviewing the literature of grenadine in cocktails, I have a few observations. 

Grenadine Use Was Probably Influenced by Europe

 We know that pomegranates had been grown in the US since the 1700s, and that they were grown commercially before 1917. But as far as I can see, grenadine as a cocktail ingredient really came from Europe. They were certainly more familiar with it there (and we'll see in a future post how this figured into an important court case about whether grenadine needed to contain pomegranate at all). 

From a journal called The Chautauquan, a monthly magazine in 1894, we read about grenadine in Paris. 

"But on the other hand numbers of perfectly respectable ladies bourgeoises and mothers of families are seen at the little tables drinking and thoroughly enjoying the hours of interlude between work and dinner.

Sometimes they bring their children with them and meet the father at some cafe on his way home and the little ones climb over the chairs and sip grenadine (pomegranate) or currant juice while the elders will take their bitters or absinthe. The latter is the customary drink before dinner of fully one third of the adult population of Paris."

Of course, France and London are a lot closer to the Middle East where pomegranates were first found. 

The French cocktail book Barianna (1896) is where we see a spike in grenadine drinks, including the Bosom Caresser with grenadine instead of raspberry syrup. 

We also see the Pousse Cafe (French Style) in one book from 1895 that includes grenadine, while the "American" and "New Orleans" style of the drink includes raspberry syrup. 

The Monkey Gland we first see published in a London cocktail book, and then it is posted as being "The new cocktail in Paris" in 1923. 

This being said, we'll see in a future post that someone was making grenadine in New York in the late 1800s. So American bartenders may have been using a local or an imported version of grenadine. 

Some Cocktails Evolved from Using Other Syrup to Grenadine

•  The Bosom Caresser began with raspberry syrup and changed to grenadine. 
• The Clover Club and Clover Leaf began with raspberry syrup but quickly evolved to "raspberry or grenadine".
• The Knickerbocker, onthe other hand, retained raspberry syrup throughout recipes. 
• Daisies, originally sours with orange cordial added to them, became drinks made with grenadine. Looking through these books that seemed to happen around 1910 when grenadine became popular. 

The First Popular Drinks to be Made with Grenadine

Seem to be the:

• Jack Rose, probably from New York
• Monkey Gland from London 
• Ward Eight from Boston

For the month of December I'll be looking at the pomegranate and its use in cocktails, including in grenadine and in PAMA pomegranate liqueur, the sponsor of the project. Check out the information developed just for bartenders at PamaPros.com.

Today we visited the distillery Pedro Domecq, where they make Tezon, Olmeca Altos, and Olmeca tequilas. I wrote about this distillery before on Alcademics. The post is here.

Tezon is made from 100 percent tahona-milled agave. It is no longer on the US market. Olmeca Altos is a blend of tahona-milled agave and rollermill agave. Olmeca is a mixto and that’s not on the US market.

Yesterday we visited the agave fields to see the harvest. The fields here in the Highland area around Arandas are about 2300 feet above sea level. The agaves are harvested and then brought to the distillery. they then go into either steam ovens (for the 100% agave products) or cooked in an autoclave for mixto.

The agave is cooked for 48 hours, then it is shredded, either by a tahona or by a rollermill. This exposes the sugars in the agave so that they can be fermented.

The tahona is a big stone wheel traditionally used to crush agave. Here they use a mechanized version, which spins the wheel in a circle, while a man follows the wheel raking up the fibers to expose them to further crushing. Then they transfer the wet fibers to the fermentation vats.

The rollermill is a shredding machine that is a bit rougher in its handling of the agave fibers, shredding them into smaller bits so they can get more of the sugars out of the agave. The sugary water from the washed agave fibers from the rollermill is then fermented, as opposed to the tahona agave where the fibers and liquid ferment (and are distilled) together.

The sugary agave water is then fermented, then distilled. The tahona-processed fermented liquid/solids is distilled on one type of still, and the liquids-only rollermill agave is distilled in a more traditional pot still.

For Tezon, the tahona tequila is filtered and bottled. For Olmeca Altos they blend together rollermill and tahona tequila before bottling.

Then it was time for the cocktail contest. We’ll cover that in the next post.

I previously visited the Jim Beam distillery in Kentucky and got a great in-depth tour of the facilities (read about it here), but until recently regular tourists have only had a pretty mediocre visitor's experience. They didn't get to see the actual distillery as it's a very industrial workplace. 

Now they're greatly expanding the visitors' center, with a set of new outdoor displays as to the history and process of making Jim Beam, plus a big new building. Tourists will also take a shuttle and get to go to the bottling line – which I saw and wrote about before and it's pretty amazing, even if you've seen 30 other bottling lines. 

Below are some pictures of the new exhibits.  

The old Jim Beam visitors' center that will become the tasting room

A display of vintage distilling on the new walking path

Future cooperage exhibit at new Jim Beam visitors' center

New Jim Beam visitors' center

Picture of new Jim Beam visitors' center

As ongoing part of the Solid Liquids Project, I decided to make high-proof Aperol. 

I haven't talked about this use of dehydrated liqueurs yet, which is making high-proof spirits with them. Simply add neutral grain spirits plus dehydrated liqueur, plus some of the original liqueur to keep taste consistency. 

First I dehydrated some Aperol (I can't remember if I used the stovetop method or the oven method– they produce the same thing). 

Then I made Extreme Aperol.

Extreme Aperol

2 ounces Aperol
2 ounces Everclear Grain Alcohol
1 ounce (by volume) Dehydrated Aperol

Combine ingredients and shake container until dehydrated Aperol is dissolved. (I had to break out the muddler as I had some big chunks.)

Extreme Aperol, Looking Sexy

Everclear is 75.5 percent alcohol and Aperol is 11 percent alcohol, so by my rough calculations ((.4 x 75) + (.4 x 11)) this comes out to 34.4 percent alcohol.

And the stuff is flipping delicious, like Aperol on steroids.

Then I decided to make a Negroni with it. Many people new to Campari (a Negroni is equal parts Campari, gin, and sweet vermouth) find it too bitter and weird for their taste, so bartenders sometimes substitute the more orangey and less bitter Aperol.

The problem is that Campari is 24 percent alcohol, while Aperol is only 11 percent. I don't think Aperol holds up well in the Negroni. Thus, using Extreme Aperol should keep the same flavor of Aperol but have a higher proof.

To make Extreme Aperol the alcoholic strength as regular Campari I'd need to water it down to 70% Extreme Aperol to 30% water, so in this recipe I just used .75 ounces Aperol instead of the usual ounce. 

No Baloney Negroni

.75 ounces Extreme Aperol
1 ounce Gin
1 ounce Sweet Vermouth

Stir all ingredients over ice and strain over new ice or serve up if you prefer. Consider garnishing with an orange peel.

The No Baloney Negroni. 

This drink has the same syrupy texture as a Negroni, but the orange is more present than in the standard recipe. Awesome!

The No Baloney Negroni, Served Up

This post is part of the ongoing Solid Liquids Project. If you liked it, you may want to read Campari Fruit Roll-Ups, the non-alcoholic Campari & Soda, or the Missing Link Aviation. 

Hooray! I have a story in the San Francisco Chronicle about Irish whiskey. It discusses the popularity of Irish whiskey, some reasons for that popularity, its lack of use in cocktails, a cocktail recipe from Phil Mauro of Rye, and Ireland's three-and-a-half distilleries and their brands.

I was able to get through it without even mentioning St. Patrick's Day. Success! 

Michael Short / Special to the Chronicle

Irish Whiskey Spiking in Popularity
By Camper English 

When Swig opened near Union Square in 2003, its Irish owners carried every brand of Irish whiskey available in the United States. All five of them.

Nine years later, not only do they carry 32 Irish whiskeys, but their customers are also drinking a lot more of them.

"We've seen a very dramatic increase in the consumption of Irish whiskey," says owner Brian Sheehy. "A lot of the crossover has come from blended scotches, and instead of people asking for well whiskey on the rocks, they're calling their brand."

The phenomenon is by no means limited to Swig. Irish whiskey is the fastest-growing spirit category in the United States, with a 23.6 percent increase in volume sales in 2011 alone, according to the Distilled Spirits Council. It now outsells single-malt scotch.

Michael Short / Special to the Chronicle

Read the whole story here.