Alcademics

Tag: cocktails

  • In Which I Blather On About…

    …cocktail snobs versus geeks, micro and macro trends in cocktails, what drinks win cocktail contests, why I'm not sick of speakeasies, and much, much more.

    Read this interview with me on Mix Pour Sip.

    Camper english mix pour sipS

  • Good on Toast, Great in Drinks

    Balsamic2
    (Photo courtesy of That's My Jamm)

    David Ruiz of Mr. Smith's makes jams and preserves just for cocktails. I wrote about it with a quick note about jam in cocktails historically, and in which bar you can find a mezcal drink with strawberry-raspberry-jabanero jam. Yumz.

    Read about That's My Jamm on Tasting Table. The story is here.

     

  • It’s Easter Egg (Ice) Time Again

    Here's the Easter Ice project from a couple years ago that I'm reposting. Go here to learn how to make it.

    Easterice1
    Easterice2

  • Working With Beverage Bloggers: DOs and DON’Ts

    The other day I gave a talk on social media at the WSWA convention in Orlando. The audience was mostly distributors, brand owners, and PR professionals.

    We had five people on the panel and just an hour to to talk, so naturally I was the last one to speak and we were already over our allotted time in the room. I had to make it fast so I condensed a ten-minute talk into about three minutes, which is longer than it will take you to read the rough outline of my talk below.

    Working With Cocktail Bloggers: DOs and DON'Ts

    DON'Ts

    1. Don't call, unless you are asked to call. 
    2. Don't send packages without your information or sell sheet. Mystery booze is nice but won't help you get press.
    3. Don't treat every blogger the same. The National Enquirer isn’t the same as Cat Fancy; it's the same way with blogs. Different bloggers publish different sorts of content- one person may review your blueberry vodka, another may publish recipes with it, and another might write an industry trend piece about the rise in berry flavors. Familiarize yourself with the top blogs and pitch accordingly.
    4. Don't think a blogger is obligated to write about your product just because you sent a sample or a recipe. Instead of following-up with “When will you be posting?”  try: “I hope you enjoyed the sample. Is there anything I can provide you with?” (Also, bloggers aren't obliged to respond to emails- we're busy too.)
    5. Don't block access to information. If a blogger has a question that only the master distiller can answer, do your best to get that answer. Be a conduit for information, not a roadblock.

    DOs

    1. Do create shareable content and shareable media, and give it away. Shareable content includes brand histories, tasting notes, distillery profile, and especially recipes. (And hire somebody to create good new recipes.) Shareable media includes photos (bottle shots, cocktail pictures, party shots from events, cell phone snaps from bar visits), videos (How-to-make cocktail videos, distillery virtual tour, live tasting with distiller), and projects (send out tools to help bloggers build their own content: a comparative tasting kit, home blending exercise, cocktail ingredients, bar tools,  punch bowls, etc.)
    2. Do Provide Incentives and Rewards. These include Samples: send large size ones and send them often. Someone reviewed your product positively? Send even more! Admission: to press events, parties, out for drinks with the brand ambassador, etc. Bloggers don't get as much love as traditional journalists, so a little bit of love goes a long way. Money: Some blogs charge for spirit reviews, recipe development, and of course ads, but you can also hire bloggers to cover events, to photograph cocktails, or to be the party photographer. Fame: If a blogger posts something about your brand, use your own social media tools to retweet, post on Facebook. etc. to drive traffic to the blog. The blogger gets more hits and the brand gets more attention. It's a win-win. 

    I focused on just my top tips. I welcome your additional suggestions in the comments.

    To see the slides from all speakers for this presentation, follow this link. Mine are last.

  • The Missing Caipirinha

    Leblon-caipirinhaM_lg I've been writing for Fine Cooking magazine's website for several months now, and realized they don't have a recipe for the Caipirinha online. Shameful. So in my latest post I wrote about the drink, the base spirit cachaca, and some variations. Check it out.

  • Cocktail Snobs

    Cocktailsnob In the March issue of 7×7 Magazine, I have a story about Cocktail Snobs.

    Now that customers know so much more about cocktails some us are becoming fussy about them, never ordering from the menu but insisting on on-the-spot creations,  trying to stump or school the bartender with obscure drink requests, and trainspotting mixology by parking in front of the bartender's station and asking questions about every drink being made. 

    Note: I've been guilty of all these offenses at one time or another.

    Kindly read the story first, but one aspect I didn't get room to touch on much was that snobs in bars are hardly a new thing; cocktail snobs are just a new species thereof. There are still and will always be people who get angry that a bar doesn't carry what they percieve to be the best brand of vodka/tequila, snap their fingers at the bartender and treat them like servants, and exhibit other forms of bad behavior.

    At least, I hope, the new breed of snobs are cocktail snobs because they care about good cocktails.

     

  • Sherry is to Tequila as Vermouth is to Whiskey

    Sherry and tequila are showing up together on more and more cocktail menus. I wrote a story about that in the Sunday, February 20th San Francisco Chronicle. 

    Del rio
    (Del Rio cocktail by Josh Harris of the Bon Vivants. Photo: Craig Lee)

    More drinks including Tequila and Sherry
    Camper English, Special to The Chronicle

    Sherry and Tequila are having a love affair. Bartenders are using more of each ingredient lately, but increasingly you'll see the two sneaking off in a drink together, canoodling in a corner of the cocktail menu.

    One of the first outward signs of this attraction came in the form of La Perla, a drink created several years ago by beverage consultant Jacques Bezuidenhout, which is still on the menu at Bourbon & Branch. The cocktail contains reposado (lightly aged) Tequila, manzanilla Sherry and pear liqueur.

    A not-too dissimilar flavor combination has popped up recently. At the Hideout at Dalva, a tiny backroom cocktail bar in the Mission District, Josh Harris serves the Del Rio. The drink is made with blanco, or unaged, Tequila, fino Sherry, St. Germain elderflower liqueur, plus a dash of orange bitters and a grapefruit zest.

    At Gitane, the Sherry-centric Claude Lane restaurant, bar manager Alex Smith and two other bartenders collaborated on a drink called the Flor Delice, made with reposado, manzanilla, St. Germain and orange bitters, plus maraschino liqueur.

    In New York, this combination shows up yet again on the menu at Mayahuel, a bar dedicated to Tequila and mezcal. The Suro-Mago uses blanco, manzanilla, elderflower and orange bitters, and adds a rinse of mezcal to give it a smoky touch.

     Read the rest of the story and get the recipe for the Del Rio, a simple and delicious drink.

  • Sherry, Reconsidered in the Los Angeles Times Magazine

    **Update: This story is no longer on the LA Times Magazine website, so I have pasted it here.

     

    In yesterday's LA Times Magazine I have a huge feature on sherry.

    Sherry2 (photographs by Nigel Cox)

    As a wine category, sherry has practically everything going for it: a tremendous range of flavors, a rich history dating at least as far back as the Romans, the ability to pair magnificently well with food and an increasingly hip status as a cocktail ingredient used by top bartenders.

    Most people, when they think of sherry at all, consider it an ingredient their grandmothers cooked with rather than something ripe for sipping on its own. Sherry is about due for a comeback, but it’s so unfamiliar to us now that it really needs a thorough reintroduction.

    The story features eight drink recipes from the lofty likes of Murray Stenson, Andrew Bohrer, Alex Day, Zahra Bates, Kenta Goto and Audrey Saunders, Brian Miller, Neyah White, and Kevin Deidrich.

    Go read the story, and then go make the drinks!

    Sherry3 (photographs by Nigel Cox)

  • The Martini Does Not Exist

    The word 'Martini' has very little meaning.

    Two versions of the cocktail may have completely different ingredients and be served in different formats: A bone-dry-and-dirty Grey Goose Martini on the rocks with extra olives has nothing in common with a Fifty-Fifty gin Martini with orange bitters and a twist. They're not even close to the same drink – in ingredients, in format, or in purpose.

    Martinilatimes

    More than that, the Martini no longer exists even as a drink concept. It means different things to different people: strength, dryness, elegance, simplicity, an aperitif, glassware, crispness, an era in time, an intellectual challenge, etc.. Some of its concepts are mutually exclusive.

    This conundrum surfaced when in New Zealand last year for the 42Below Vodka Cocktail World Cup, in which they had a Modern Martini challenge. The problem was that nobody agreed on what the Martini was, so everyone updated it in a different way.  Most of those ways differed from the judges' concept of the drink.

    The Martini is as amorphous a concept as morality.

    In this Sunday's Los Angeles Times Magazine, I wrote a story about how the Martini Does Not Exist, except in the mind of the individual.

    I'm pretty happy with how it came out. After going through the issues involved with the concept of the drink (and revealing how that cocktail contest turned out), the story lists the Martini recipe as a moving target throughout the years.

    Please give it a read.

  • 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