Alcademics

Tag: Camper English

  • Winter Drinking Guide in 7×7 Magazine

    Oh hello, giant sexy four-page spread in the December issue of 7×7 Magazine written by Camper English!

    7x7december2010

    Run screaming to your local newsstand to pick up the latest issue with a guide to winter drinking. In it you'll learn:

    • Where to get your fancy on in a hotel bar
    • The best hot drinks in SF
    • Bars with rooms for rent
    • The bar with 1200 Santa Claus dolls on display
    • How I worked the phrase "plaid-slathered" into a bar review
    • Gift ideas from local liquor stores
    • The best bar for hungover bartender spotting 

  • Turkey Cocktail

    OldFashionedMedRes_lg In my latest post on FineCooking.com, I tell the tale of a recent Thanksgiving tradition: drinking Wild Turkey. 

    I also link to my experiments with Wild Tofurkey and share a new-fangled Old Fashioned recipe from the brand.

    Check it out 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.

  • Beer in the Penthouse

    Penthouse Magazine December 2010 Beer Story Finally, I'm appearing in the pages of Penthouse magazine. Oddly, they didn't ask me to model. That's not me on the cover. 

    In the December issue of Penthouse magazine,  I have a two-page spread on "Advanced Level Beer Gear," including some gift items like a homebrew kit, kegerator, and a dog collar that holds a bottle opener. 

    So now you bartenders have an excuse to buy Penthouse and write it off as a work expense.

    You're welcome.

  • Cognac Cocktails in the Los Angeles Times Magazine

    My first story for the LA Times Magazine is now online. It is in the Sunday, December 7, 2010 print edition. 

    Cognac cocktails la times(Photo by Bartholomew Cooke)

    The story is a brief airing of a pet peeve: Why are there so few cognac cocktails being served when we're supposedly in the midst of a classic cocktail renaissance? 

    The article also includes four recipes from Damian Windsor of the Roger Room. 

    Read and enjoy!

  • Sherry is Not Just for Sipping

    In the new issue of Fine Cooking Magazine, Tara Q. Thomas has a story on sherry with food pairings (preview mode so far- full story should appear at the link later). To pair with the feature on the FineCooking.com drink blog, I list a simple recipe for the Sherry Cobbler.

    Sherry cobbler2_tn

     

    Should you want more complicated recipes, I recommend stopping off at the  Secret Sherry Society website for drinks from the likes of Charles Joly, Erick Castro, Danny Valdez, Thomas Waugh, and Phil Ward. 

  • The Historically Inaccurate Gimlet

    My second piece on the FineCooking.com cocktail blog is up.  It is a rather simple fresh lime Gimlet recipe. I know that the Rose's lime cordial Gimlet is historically accurate, but I mean seriously, yuck. 

     
    Fine cooking camper english second blog
     

  • Fine Cocktails in Fine Cooking Magazine

    I have a story in the new March/April issue of Fine Cooking magazine. It's about the variety of ways to sweeten cocktails with raw sugars, maple syrup, agave, honey, etc.

    FineCookingMarchAprilCover

    Pick up a copy to find a Mamie Taylor variation with evaporated organic cane sugar by Thad Vogler of Bar Agricole in San Francisco, an agave-sweetened refresher from Ted Kilgore of Taste by Niche in St. Louis, and a honey champagne bittered mojito variation from yours truly.  

    I hope to blog some more information on various types of raw sugars I learned about while researching the story, as it might be useful. I was on the phone to sugar scientists conducting interviews for a couple hours and it turns out it's pretty hard to describe exact differences in any meaningful way. But I'll try when I get the chance.

    In the meantime, run screaming to your local newsstand to pick up the new copy of Fine Cooking!

  • Better Cocktails Creep Into the Castro

    My first story written for 7×7 Magazine is now online. 

    Castro's Last Stand

    Long a bastion of bad drinks and a good time, the city’s biggest party neighborhood is slowly but surely learning how to wield a muddler.

    by Camper English

    Badlands
    While the Tenderloin, Mission and Haight are reveling in white whiskeys and raw sugars, in the Castro, bartenders are still called bartenders, and the drink of choice is more likely to be an appletini than something made with absinthe. From Martuni’s to Moby Dick, drinks in the gay sector are still mixed with vanilla vodka, Long Island Iced Teas make up the happy-hour specials, and mojitos come in more than one flavor. Popular venues, like Toad Hall and Badlands, skip the cocktail menu altogether.

    As of late, however, there have been a few glimmers of change. 

    Read the rest on the 7X7 website. 

  • Up in your Internet

    Oh hai. I've been writing a lot of stuff lately on this new fangled thing called the internet.

    Tt.logo.image.1 I did a few things for Tasting Table, like this piece on bartenders swapping out whisky in drinks for mezcal and this other one on where to get a good cocktail during the day in San Francisco. 

    For the national edition of Tasting Table I wrote about where you can buy a whole barrel of booze. There are a whole lot more places to buy a whole barrel listed at this Liquor.com article that came out a few days earlier. I didn't write that one (great minds drink alike), but I did write this other one on bitters for the same site a while back.  

    For CitySearch I wrote about single-spirit specialty bars, which is supposed to also include this review of Smuggler's Cove but doesn't, because the internet is full of bugs.