Recent Posts

Soda

SF Jerk Off – Details

Everything has been finalized for the San Francisco Jerk Off, the first ever soda jerk competition. The competition is being held on September 23rd starting at 9:00PM at The Tempest in San Francisco and is the closing event at SF Cocktail week, so expect it to be great. The winner of the Jerk Off will get $500 plus the title […]

Travel

Tales 2012

the drinks business July means Tales of the Cocktail. This is my sixth year at Tales and to say things have changed over the years would be an understatement. Back in 2007 Tales was a relatively small gather of like minded cocktail geeks. The Monteleone hotel lobby was usually empty and you could usually find a seat at the Carousel […]

Blog Post

Announcing the “Jerk Off”

It is with great pleasure that I announce the first ever “Jerk Off” which will be held during San Francisco Cocktail Week (Sept. 17th to 23rd). If you’ve read my book, Fix the Pumps, you might understand why this competition is called the Jerk Off, and if not let me explain. A few months ago drinks genius Russell Davis emailed […]

Blog Post

Why Prohibition Didn’t Work

It’s one of those often repeated debates that goes nowhere: Why didn’t prohibition work? Both sides of the debate ante up and henceforth argue ad nausea. So with the help of Google’s Ngram Viewer, I’m going to provide a simple, visual explanation of human nature and why prohibition failed. If this doesn’t explain it, nothing will. Google’s Ngram Viewer is […]

Bitters

Abbott’s Bitters Quest

Tasting history is one of the more enjoyable aspects of classic cocktails, however many of those original ingredients have been lost to time. Abbott’s bitters is one of those ingredients, and without it we really don’t know how the original Manhattan tasted. Sure, there are those rare vintage bottles of Abbott’s bitters floating around on eBay, but those bottles are […]

Cocktails

Light Green Fizz

So there I was, lying on the Chesterfield in an unambitious state, on a Sunday afternoon, thinking I should be doing something other than vegetating and watching TV. Mixology Monday, being hosted by the Liquid Muse, was on my mind because I had yet to come up with a good food and cocktail pairing. True to form though, I always […]

Blog Post

Beverages De Luxe (1914)

Just prior to prohibition, a great little booklet was put out by The Wine and Spirit Bulletin called Beverages De Luxe. It is a collection of articles, and recipes, written by owners of distilleries and others in the business. Some of the contributors include George Brown (Brown and Foreman) and A.M. Hanauer (Hamburger Distillery, Pittsburgh, PA) among many others. Hanauer […]

Cocktails

Bourbon & Birch

Another Mixology Monday is upon us, with the topic being Bourbon and our host being Scofflaw’s Den. When I think of bourbon, I sometimes reminisce about the perception it has compared to Canadian whiskies. Bourbon is bold, fiery and strong; Canadian whiskies are light, easy going and smooth. Obviously this isn’t going to apply to all whiskies from either category, […]

Blog Post

Layman’s Guide to the 100 Point Wine Scale

When I was at the Moscow Barshow (September 2011) I had the opportunity to judge the cocktail competition that pitted the best bartenders in Russia against one another. Robert “Drinkboy” Hess was also one of the judges and afterwards, we had a discussion on the best way to rate cocktails in a competition. The discussion is ongoing and at some […]

Science

High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) Part I

High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is all the rage these days. Actually, its more likely to cause opinionated rage, at least on the Internet. In the summer of 2006, I was going to discuss this topic but got distracted by all the boozy goodness. Then Scott, at Scott’s Rum Pages, brought up the point about HFCS in the Rum and […]

Science

High Fructose Corn Syrup Pt. II

What is it about High Fructose Corn Syrup that makes it different from other sugars, like common table sugar? Obviously, the sugars come from two different plants corn and sugar cane/sugar beets. But the key factor and the one that causes the most discussion is that the sugars produced from corn are products of a multi-stage enzymatic process that breaks […]

bar

Bartending Pet Peeve Number One

When you work behind a bar, there are many things that the customers / guest don’t get to see or don’t understand. Sometimes we don’t want you to see things, it is part of the magic, other times we would like to let you know about something. Here’s one of those things that everyone should know. When you come to […]