Alcademics

Tag: alcademics

  • Alcademics Wins a Best of the Bay Award

    This is turning into a pretty good month. Alcademics was just given a Best of the Bay Award in the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

     

    Best of the bay 2011 cover

    BEST LIQUOR LOWDOWN

    Why is it that we like to read about food and drink so much on the Web? In no other Internet area, except maybe porn, is the meeting of the weightlessly virtual and the essentially physical so addictively fruitful. And while crackerjack local liquor expert Camper English's Alcademics site doesn't tear off your panties with glossy cocktail shots, his entertainingly detailed descriptions of the latest drool-worthy liquors will have you practically licking your screen. Over the past four years — besides visiting more than 70 distilleries, blending houses, and bodegas in 14 countries — Alcademics has helped refine the Bay Area's cocktail-blogging niche with some much-needed worldliness and a willingness to look deeper at what's in our highball. (English's degree in physics helps here.) Now you can drink to feel smarter!

    www.alcademics.com

     Thanks SFBG! All the awards are here.

  • Fortune Ice: Like A Fortune Cookie But With Ice

    In my latest set of fun experiments with ice, I created fortune ice.  

    Second set_tn

    I'd been meaning to do this for a while, but two things made it actually happen. First, I bought a Tovolo King Cube Ice Cube Tray to make 2-inch cubes. Second, I realized I could use my Label Maker for the fortunes. 

    Still thirsty_tn

    I was thinking that I would have to make fortunes then laminate them, but the label maker spits out labels that are plasticy on both sides. 

    This is one case where I didn't want perfectly clear ice (learn how to make clear ice here) because then you could read the fortunes in the cubes before they melted. 

    It turns out that the cloudiness in water does well to hide the paper in ice. 

    Outdoors1_tn

    Drink close_tn

    I froze the cubes with the fortunes inside, then let them thaw out. When some of the fortune was sticking out from the cube, I could pull it from the end and they slid out: No need to wait until the whole thing melted. 

    Melt2_tn
    No free refills_tn

    I wanted to make sure the paper didn't disintegrate in water, so I left a few fortunes in a glass of water overnight and they showed no signs of deterioration. However I should try this again with alcohol.

    Drink1_tn

    So, that was fun!

    Possible uses for fortune ice could include: 

    • Fortunes, just like fortune cookies.
    • Giveaways/prizes. One fortune contains a coupon for a free drink, door prize, etc. 
    • Cocktail recipes for the drink that you're drinking. 
    • Advertising. "Next time make this drink with our brand of whisky!"
    • The bartender's phone number. "Call me, hot stuff."

    All your ice_tn

     
    An index of all of the ice experiments on Alcademics can be found here.

  • Another Ice Banner Attempt

    You may think all I do is futz around with ice all day, and you'd be mostly correct (for proof, see the index of all of the ice experiments on Alcademics here). I attempted to make another site banner today using a clear piece of ice stamped with ALCADEMICS, but I think I like the orange peel one (too big as it is) better.

    Click it to see it bigger if you're interested.

    Ice banner
     

  • The New Sweet

    Sweet-cocktails_ld The story on cocktail sweeteners I wrote for the April/May issue of Fine Cooking magazine is now online. 

    You can read it here. 

  • SF Cocktail Geography

    Sfist_logo Jay Barmann from SFist.com attended my talk at SF Chefs.Food.Wine and kept the handout. Today he's posted my categorization of nearly every type of cocktail program in the city, which is good, because formatting html is a pain.

    The categories I made up so don't get too hung up on them- it's just how I see them.

    Read it here. 

    I've been thinking of giving that talk again, because PowerPoint is forever. Let me know if you're into it and maybe I can put something together.