Drink Me Magazine Issue 03

LIFESTYLE BEYOND THE GLASS

Issue drink 3 me July / Aug 2009

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Features

Issue 3

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Notes from the editor

8 The New Face of American Brewing

By Brian Yaeger The great American brewing pot and how we are setting the bar for craft beer.

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Bourbon, Made in America

By Jon Santer Everything you need to know to be a good citizen and enjoy your national drink.

16 The Bitter Connection to New Orleans

By Peter Schaf How bitters made their way to New Orleans and into the Sazerac Cocktail.

Including Jenn Farrington's Photo Essay The Face of New Orleans.

24 United States of Wine: Tennessee and Kentucky

By Gus Vahlkamp How I learned to love the Scuppernong.

28 Bourbon that Survived Prohibition, and Two World Wars Wiping the dust off of a 97-year-old bottle.

recipes

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Issue 3 Editor In Chief: Daniel Yaffe Assistant Managing Editor: Ali LaRaia Designer: Tia Hopkins Assistant Designer: Grace Li Web Developer: Aman Ahuja Copy Editor: Sam Devine Director of Operations: Pablo Perez Market Development: Travis Valenzuela Market Research: Ian Boldon Assistant: Donald Shield contributers: Brian Yeager Jenn Farrington Jon Santer Donald Gruener Gus Vahlkamp Stephanie Yim Peter Schaf Meg Shoemaker Aja Jones Aguirre Publisher: Open Content www.opencontent.tv Eriq Wities & Daniel Yaffe Thank You: Michael Moskowitz, Janell Moore, David Slade, Sitar Mody, Erin Hunt, Sangita Devaskar, Sacha Ferguson, Skylar Werde Advisory Board: David Nepove, Gus Vahlkamp, H Ehrmann, Hondo Lewis, Carrie Steinberg, Jeremy Cowan, Genevieve Robertson, Dominic Venegas, Debbie Rizzo Thank you to the countless others who continue to support Drink Me and make our dream possible.

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Note from the Editor We are a nation born with a bottle by its side.

We always have been. George Washington was a distiller, and Johnny Appleseed planted his ambrosial seeds for cider. Even our national anthem is sung to the tune of an old British drinking song called, “The Anacreontic Song.” We carry on the tradition with flying colors.

The theme of this third issue of Drink Me is Americana, a conscious attempt to celebrate our nation’s Independence Day and the 7th annual Tales of the Cocktail Festival in New Orleans – the zenith of American cocktail culture. We’re joining the hundreds of other mixologists, bartenders, and distillers as their great minds come together to taste and reinvent the “new American cocktail.”

This month, Drink Me explores some of the most prominent new trends, destination drinking spots, and novel recipes that define the mixology movement on our own soil.

Craft Beer Tavern

• 24 Taps & 100 Bottles • Hand Crafted Beers • Great Wines • Kitchen Open ‘til 1 am • Gourmet Pub Fare with Beer Pairings

With the rise of the Slow Food movement, just as consumers want to know where food is grown and how much land their meat has to walk on, we are now asking how our wines are grown, and where, precisely, the corn for our whiskey comes from.

Terroir now means a great deal more than it ever has in the world of craft beers and spirits. American bartenders, brewers and winemakers are pushing forward new trends through culinary innovation, knowledge and appreciation for classics recipes, and the creative ability to infuse both. And we’re right here with them.

Cheers!

ADVERTISING INQUIRIES: ads@drinkmemag.com Please drink responsibly The entire contents of drink me magazine are © 2009 and may not be reproduced or transmitted in any manner without written permission. All rights reserved.

Because Columbus brought sherry to the New World…

recycle me Drink Me magazine is printed on 20% recycled (10% post-consumer waste) paper using only soy based inks. Our printer meets or exceeds all Federal Resource Conservation Act (RCRA) standards and is a certified member of the Forest Stewardship Council.

3141 16th St., at the corner of Albion, San Francisco, CA between Valencia & Guerrero www.monkskettle.com

Design: labels You can’t judge a bottle by its label but a cool design goes a long way. To one extent or another, label design is just as much an art as creating the liquid inside.

Here are a couple that stand out with flying colors:

Petite Petit Designed by artist Ben Moreno for the Michael~David Winery, this whimsical label was conceptualized to be a play on words of their 2007 “Petite Petit.” It is complete with mice running across the label and an almost hidden book of Grapes of Wrath sitting in the corner. It’s a blend of 85 per cent Petite Sirah and 15 per cent Petit Verdot.

Fortunately, the wine has a nice dry finish—a bit dryer than its label.

For more check out www.lodivinyards.com (complete with a video of the bottling process of the 2007 Petite Petit).

Woody Creek White

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Flying Dog Brewery has a way with their art. Artist Ralph Steadman, who is well known for his raw, uncensored, and imaginative work with author Hunter S. Thompson, has been working with Flying Dog brewery to create labels that reflect the brewery’s “purposeful, provocative irreverence.” The “gonzo” Brewery’s Woody Creek White caught our eye. It’s a Belgian-style Wit Beer, brewed with orange peel and coriander, and wrapped in this unabashed imagery. It’s a tasty beer that is self proclaimed as a perfect drink for the “dog daze of summer.”

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Poke your way through www.flyingdogales.com for more provocative irreverence.

La Pinta is a Pomegranate Infused Tequila that is a derivative of “Ponche de Granada” which is a very traditional drink in Jalisco, MX. La Pinta is delicious on its own and is super versatile in a myriad of cocktails!

Try the “Sacred Heart”

By Jonny Raglin Absinthe Brasserie and Bar, San Francisco 1 ½ oz La Pinta Pomegranate Tequila ¾ oz Absinthe ½ oz Limoncello ¼ oz Fresh Lemon Juice Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass filled ⅔ with ice. Shake vigorously for 10 to 15 seconds until cold. Pour through a fine mesh strainer into a chilled cocltail glass. Garnish with a Lemon Twist.

The New Face of American Brewing

By Brian Yaeger

The Pilgrims intended to dock in Jamestown in 1620. But they dropped anchor at Plymouth Rock because, according to the journal of a shipmate, the British separatists had run out of “victuals.” What’s a victual? Well, beer for one. The seafaring Puritans, it is believed, likely had barrels of ale low enough in alcohol because it replaced water, yet hoppy enough to prevent spoilage—think British mild bitter beer. Really, there’s no point in settling a new world if there’s no brew.

Fast-forward a couple centuries, and the New World began looking, and tasting, less like a British colony and more like the a sampler pack we cherish it as today.

From waves of German, Irish, Italian immigration, to Cretans and Czechs alike, America has always had a way of adopting the cultures, including cuisines, of its émigrés.

The same holds true, historically, for American beer.

Wherever large populations of a particular nationality settled, the brewhouses reflected those tastes.

It’s why New England sprouted public houses offering British style ales and the Midwest, where larger waves of Germans and Austrians settled, became the brewing capital once Americans developed a preference for German style lagers. Pabst, Best, Miller, Schlitz, Blatz were all founded by German immigrants in Milwaukee in the midnineteenth century.

The tradition of heritage affecting a region’s cuisine is as true today as it was when this country was still getting its footing. You want the best Mexican food, go to California, or New Mexico.

And the best kolaches (sweet, Czech dumplings) are still found in small Texan towns like Shiner, which, not coincidentally, is still heavily populated

by Bohemian and Bavarian stock. It’s also home to the Spoetzl Brewery, maker of Shiner Bock.

Wherever large populations of a particular nationality settled, the brewhouses reflected those tastes.

Similarly, flavored beers — regarded more for specialty adjuncts such as fruits, vegetables, or nuts rather than the hops that traditionally flavor suds — are delicacies hailing from crop-specific regions. By employing over a pound of Door County cherries from within Wisconsin, New Glarus Brewing makes its Belgian Cherry Red one of the most popular and highly rated beers. Adding to its sense of place, New Glarus’s beers can only be bought in state.

In the Northeast, where blueberries grow wild, beers made with wild, Maine blueberries result in a beer that California’s lab-made blueberry extracts can only dream of. Visitors to Mississippi that can find Lazy Magnolia’s Southern Pecan are in for a treat that drinkers of other nut brown ales won’t discover.

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Cut to contemporary America where the art of craft brewing is ushering in a new era of American beers. Terroir, the concept that geography imparts a unique quality to a product — most

commonly associated with wine — is factoring into brewing as well. In this fashion, the Pacific Northwest, a fertile hop-growing region, is renowned for its uber-hoppy pale ales. In the Southeast, where no hops are grown due to its inhospitable climate, you’d have a hard time wet-hopping a beer (embellishing the flavor and aroma with fresh hops that processed pellets or even dried hop cones can’t deliver).

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Many of the top beer-producing countries are playing catch-up with the American craft brewing revolution, but as is often the case, they are following the game plan put forth by domestic pioneers. Brew Dog from Scotland makes a beer called Storm that is an IPA aged in Islay Scotch barrels. I question if a highly bitter beer imparted with smoky, peaty flavors from their local whiskey is a style anyone will emulate. In Denmark, world-class brewery Mikkeller’s most vaunted beer is called Beer Geek Brunch-Weasel, which is an imperial oatmeal coffee stout brewed with Kopi Luwak, the world’s rarest coffee beans which pass through the digestive system of civets, which are actual cats, not weasels. An awesome beer, to be sure, but it’s unclear

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how a Southeast Asian coffee adds to a Scandinavian beer’s terroir.

Ultimately, we are a migratory culture; moving from one town’s tavern to another town’s taproom. As such, you probably can find semi-decent Mexican food in the Midwest or okay Chinese grub in New England. And you can definitely find good beer throughout the country, be it Belgian-style farmhouse ales in Michigan to the exotic Asianinfluenced Laughing Buddha beers from Seattle, Washington. No longer are American beers marked by brewers’ nationality or heritage but by their pioneering spirit.

Johnny Appleseed wasn’t planting seeds to make American Apple Pie … he

was planting trees to make good ole’ American cider, which was the most popular beverage in America, replacing beer, wine, coffee and even water.

Brian Yaeger is the author of Red, White, and Brew: An American Beer Odyssey (St. Martin’s Press, 2008).

When not blogging at BeerOdyssey.com, he can be found exploring Bay Area pubs, one pint at a time.

Photo by Donald Gruener

Bourbon,

Strictly speaking, bourbon is a spirit distilled in the United States from a mash of at least 51per cent corn, aged in a new white American oak barrel for no less than two years and then bottled without any flavorings or color added. There are a couple other laws that have to do with proof of the still and the barrel but, without getting too technical, there you have it.

Let’s break that down:

requirements 99 distilled in the US 99 made from a mash of 51 per cent corn 99 aged in new, white American oak barrels 99 aged for a minimum of 2 years

Distilled in the United States: Notice it’s not just in Kentucky. Nope, as it turns out one can make bourbon anywhere in the U.S. as long as you abide by the other rules.

by Jon Santer

Bourbon, with few exceptions, is delicious. Like the United States, it was born of revolution and then made official by an act of Congress. The former was an offspring of the Whiskey Rebellion and the 88th Congress; the latter of the Revolutionary War and the First Continental Congress. As a distinctive product of the United States, bourbon is secure in it’s place among blue jeans, jazz, rock and roll, BBQ, hip hop, cocktails, and all the other cultural gifts our country has bestowed upon the world.

Made from a mash of at least 51 per cent corn: Eating and drinking things from industrially farmed monocultures — especially using genetically modified organisms and modified corn in particular — is fraught with political, ethical, and moral implications. And the vast majority of bourbon is made from exactly that type of corn. The only major bourbon producer I know of to come out and say they would use only non-GMO corn is Maker’s Mark, and they’ve done so quietly. But at least bourbon can’t be entirely corn; whiskeys made from more than 80 percent corn must be labeled as “corn whiskey.”

Aged in new white American oak barrels: This is a law undoubtedly lobbied for and passed by either the miller’s union, the cooper’s union, the land barons who owned the oak forests or any combined effort by all three to ensure they stayed gainfully employed as long as people continued to

All students and grads seeking employment may attend our Employment Workshop Tuesdays 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm.

No pre-registration required. Please bring a hard copy of your resume.

For more information: 415.362.1116 www.sfbartending.com

Aged for a minimum of 2 years: Few, if any bourbons are aged for less than 4 years, or twice the minimum required by law.

No color or flavor added!

This is where bourbon shines brightest. Scotch can’t claim that, nor can cognac, rum, or even tequila. Indeed coloring and flavoring is so prevalent in modern Scotch production the people who don’t do it now make it known on their labels.

They take an extra step and a whole lot of verbiage to tell you what bourbon tells you by name alone.

By the way: older does not equal better. In fact it’s often just the opposite with bourbon. If the bourbon you’re drinking was bottled at barrel strength, add some water so you can taste it.

“Small batch” means blended in small batches, not distilled or aged in small batches. Knowing your towns in Kentucky is the only way to know who’s making your bourbon – with the exception of Jimmy Russell who puts a turkey or his name on everything he produces. Now whether or not you’re visiting Bourbon County, Kentucky, grab a glass, put your feet up and enjoy a bit of our national spirit.

Painting by Stephanie Yim

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drink. Besides the job security, this rule ensures the richness, deep color and intense flavor we’ve come to expect from bourbon. Bourbon goes into these newly milled, coopered, and charred barrels clear or “white” (they call the liquid off the still “white dog” in Kentucky). After leaching that char and wood sugar into itself through the magic of expansion, contraction, and evaporation for a fair amount of time, it comes out as the liquor we all know and love. This law also helps provide us with Scotch and a fair amount of tequila. Once they are used, bourbon barrels get sold to Scotch and tequila producers. About 85 percent of all scotch is aged in used bourbon barrels, as is a good amount of aged tequila. Sometimes barrels make the full circuit of bourbon-Scotch-tequila.

A little over 200 years ago, George Washington, built a large whiskey distillery on the banks of Dogue Creek on his land at Mt. Vernon. The enterprise later became one of the largest whiskey distilleries in early America.

The Bitter Connection to New Orleans

By Peter Schaf

The first known published definition of a “cocktail,” from the 1806 edition of the Hudson, New York journal Balance and Columbian Repository, reads: “Cocktail is a stimulating liquor composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters…”

While ratios of ingredients were not prescribed, the famous cocktail of New Orleans, the original Sazerac, followed the above definition exactly.

The Sazerac has for some time also used bitters and absinthe in dashes and rinse respectively, although absinthe appears to have been a later addition to the original recipe.

While all would agree that a bitter ingredient is necessary to create the perfect Sazerac, few consider the historical origins of bitters and how the French-European connection to New Orleans helped unite bitters to the Sazerac and even possibly spawned the first pre-mixed Sazerac cocktail in a bottle.

The typical protocol used by pharmacies and country doctors alike to make bitters usually involved a cold “infusion” of plants in alcohol with sugar, honey, or sweet wine added to make the mixture palatable. Similarly, Absinthe also had its origins in medicinal preparations.

Absinthe was traditionally a distilled maceration of plants, a procedure that minimized its bitter qualities.

Because of their complex aromas and flavors, bitters and absinthe both rose above their medicinal beginnings and gained popularity as aperitifs, especially in France. Bitters and absinthe were often ordered on their own in French cafés and were not typically served as

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Photo Essay by Jenn Farrington

The French influence upon New Orleans brought with it, among other vices, the taste for wine, cognac, vermouth, bitters and absinthe.

Historically, bitters were created in Europe as “country cures,” and typically contained bitter herbs such as gentian root, bitter orange peel, hops, wormwood and other medicinal plants.

During the early 1800s Creole apothecary Antoine Amadie Peychaud moved to New Orleans from the West Indies and opened up Pharmacie Peychaud on Royal Street. True to the European bitters model, he dispensed a proprietary mix of aromatic bitters to relieve the ails of his clients. This medicinal preparation soon became the famed Peychaud’s Bitters.

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mere dashes in a drink. This notion of drinking bitters as an apéritif soon made its way across the ocean.

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In the United States, bitters were similar to their European counterparts, but took a different marketing path. Due to a heavy tax on spirits and exemptions for “medicines” during the Civil War period, unscrupulous businessmen recreated themselves as doctors and offered bitters as tonic “cure-alls” at up to 100 proof.

These so-called “Western bitters” were essentially tax-free booze disguised as medicines and were especially popular wherever and whenever alcohol was frowned upon. While their medicinal powers were dubious at best, the U.S. versions often contained the same mix as their European cousins.

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American bitters were often whiskey based, utilized locally grown crops,

and were sold in spirit-sized bottles, and marketed directly to consumers.

They were drunk straight from short “medicinal” dose glasses (think NyQuil), which appear to be the ancestors of the shot glass.

Around 1870, Tom H. Handy, took over the Sazerac Coffeehouse in New Orleans. He had previously created a formulation that he named Sazerac Bitters, which was said to be a recipe “based on boiled herbs.” During this same period, the primary ingredient in the Sazerac cocktail was said to have changed from cognac to rye whiskey to improve the American appeal and due to difficulties in getting French Sazerac de Forge et fils cognac.

At this point the perfect storm of ingredients struck the Southern territories in the form of the popularity cont. on pg 21

These so-called “Western bitters” were essentially tax-free booze disguised as medicines

'Big easy' Cocktails New Orleans is the birthplace of the Cocktail. We’re offering up something old and something new. Here’s a recipe for the original cocktail, conceived in New Orleans, in addition to a new creation which has been crowned the official libation of the Tales of the Cocktail festival this year.

Creole Julep

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Though much is discussed and lauded about Peychaud’s Bitters (which was originally called Peychaud’s American Aromatic Bitter Cordial), very little is known about Sazerac Aromatic Bitters, besides the elegant “lady’s leg” shaped bottles, a style that existed from about 1860 to 1880. The bottle size was similar to that of a whiskey and not of a condiment.

The style and age of the Sazerac Aromatic Bitters bottle suggests a true

Western bitters concoction rather than a flavoring agent. The Sazerac Aromatic Bitters may have used rye whisky as an alcohol base, along with a Peychaudstyle bitters mixture, perhaps a little absinthe and finally a light sweetener.

In other words: they were creating pre-mixed Sazerac cocktail in a bottle!

If not identical in flavor to a pre-mixed Sazerac, the Sazerac Aromatic Bitters was certainly an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of the Sazerac name in the guise of a tax dodging medicinal preparation. One can easily imagine the most prudish of gentile New Orleans society enjoying a Sazerac. But with the Sazerac Aromatic Bitters, it could be done in the pursuit of good health, while still maintaining the claim of temperance.

Photo Essay by Jenn Farrington For more visit www.jennfarrington.com

The revolving Carousel Bar in the Monteleone Hotel in New Orleans is immortalized in Ernest Hemingway's writing and serves as the meeting spot during Tales of the Cocktail.

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The Official Cocktail of Tales of the Cocktail Created by Maksym Pazuniak Cure/Rambla 2 1/4 oz. Cruzan Single Barrel Estate Rum Sazerac 1/2 oz. Clement Creole Shrubb The Official Cocktail of New Orleans 3 oz rye whiskey (originally cognac) 1/4 oz. Captain Morgan 100 3/4 oz simple syrup 2 dashes Fee Bros. Peach bitters Peychaud bitters to taste 2 dashes angostura bitters absinthe or absinthe substitute 8-10 mint leaves lemon twist for garnish 1 Demerara Sugar Cube

of the Sazerac cocktail, the emerging popularity of American Western bitters and the Creole/French European affinity for medicinal bitters. It is theorized that this combination of popular interests gave birth to “Sazerac Aromatic Bitters.”

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United States of Wine: Tennessee and Kentucky

By Gus Vahlkamp

In 1976, Steven Spurrier staged what’s come to be known as the Judgment of Paris wine tasting, the results of which begat the fame of Napa Valley, which begat the Californian Wine Country Experience: golf trips, shopping junkets, 9-star hotels and restaurants, wine-therapy spas, train rides, swimming pools, movie stars, hot-air balloon rides—oh, and wine, too.

The best in the world, at least for a couple of hours, thirtythree years ago.

Which is not to say that California’s position in the global wine economy is undeserved, only over-pimped. Certainly some very good wines are made there but Americans have been making, selling, and drinking wine since before we called ourselves Americans. So, in the dual service of historical exploration and good clean fun, I embarked on a series of expeditions in search of interesting wine made by knowledgeable people in places other than California.

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Photo by Donald Gruener

Sumner Crest (“Tennessee’s Most Unique Winery”) in Portland, Tennessee, is about an hour north of Nashville. The winery has only been in operation since 1997, but the fruit for

Of the sixteen products that were poured for us, the least remarkable were the Washington wines, which were also the only vintage-dated bottles. The other thirteen, some labeled by their varietals (Seyval, Steuben, Niagara), others proprietarily (Pioneer Blush, Orlinda Gold, Sumner Queen), offered us a fine study of the character of their respective fruit.

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I first headed east to learn what wine making in the South is all about.

its wines is sourced from old-growth acreage within five miles of the facility.

Eighty-five percent of Sumner Crest’s wine is made from estate-grown fruit; the more common varieties (Chardonnay, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon) come from Washington.

All of it is crushed, fermented, and bottled at the winery.

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If you’ve ever been lucky enough to try homemade Concord jam, tasting the Robertson King becomes a transcendent experience, grapey beyond belief, with shockingly high acidity. Critically speaking, it is Sumner Crest’s highest quality product, though my bottle of choice has to be from the grape cousin, Muscadine, known in some parts as a Scuppernong (after the North Carolina river).

We make wine in all fifty states nowadays, including Hawaii and Alaska Although they share a genus, the Muscadine berry has two more chromosomes than a grape, and is a

is only sold by the drink – and only then in a restaurant with more than a hundred seats. The Brousseaus received a dispensation from the Kentucky Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control because of their estate’s historical significance. Needless to say, Danville is a difficult place to get a drink—legally, at least.

bigger, pulpier fruit. The winery uses Scuppernong juice to flesh out two of its non-grape wines: Orlinda Gold (made from peaches) and its Strawberry Blush, known as “Jacuzzi Juice.” We also tried the Port, their only wine higher than 12 percent alcohol, and boasting their highest price point, just over $20.

By 1870, Kentucky was responsible for over half of the country’s tonnage, the largest wine grape producing state in the union. However, the 18th Amendment dealt the state’s wine business a blow from which it has yet to fully recover. Kentucky is also home to the nation’s first commercial vineyard (planted around 1780) in Danville, near the property of Andre Brousseau of Chateau du Vieux Corbeau winery.

The Brousseau’s winery is actually located in a “moist” county, where booze

Half of the offerings are made from fruit other than grapes, including a delicious off-dry cranberry wine that tasted and smelled like Christmas, and a delicious blackberry wine, spicier and leaner than one we tried in Tennessee, but just as fragrant and heady.

I didn’t love every wine I tried at Sumner Crest and Le Chateau du Vieux Corbeau, but I liked enough of them to get me thinking. Why shouldn’t a wine made from blackberries or peaches or scuppernongs be just as tasty as one made from Vitis vinifera? Last week, I tasted a 2000 Harlan and a 2003 Colgin (two of Napa’s most coveted Cabernets, running between $300-400 a bottle) and found them sadly similar in character: miles wide and inches deep. The Emperor needs new clothes, or at least a tube sock. If you come to my house and try to take my Jacuzzi Juice, I have five words for you: FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS.

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“Top Ranked Nightlife Newcomer” Zagat 2009

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Photo by Donald Gruener

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In 1973, local vinters formed the The Tennessee Viticultural and Oenological Society. Now there are over 30 wineries in the state.

1817 Market @ Octavia 415.874.9951

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Parking @ Buchanan/Market

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or the wedding of my grandfather, his father, Isser Reznik purchased bottles of 1919 American Pride bourbon, made by the American Distilling Company in Pekin, Illinois.

The wooden case with a few bottles of bourbon got stowed in a sub floor at the family business in Manhattan.

The case survived unseen through the prohibition era,

World War II and a number of recessions. It went untouched until my dad sold the building in the 1980s.

One bottle survived the rediscovery process and was handed down to me. Dad says that I used to come home from college and share the then seventy-five-year-old booze with my buddies.

By Jeff Reznik

Recipes The Peated Pig

The “Santa Maria”

Created by Andrew Bohrer Naga Cocktail Lounge, Bellevue, WA

Created by Joselino Solis

1.5 oz Bakon vodka 1/2 oz Amaro Montenegro 2 dashes Laphroaig cask strength single malt Scotch

2 oz 1 oz 1 oz 3/4 oz 1/4 oz

Technique Mix all ingredients, stir, and strain

Technique In a mixing glass add all ingredients with ice, shake and strain into a collins glass with ice

Garnish Orange zest Notes Amaro Montenegro is an Italian bitter made with over 40 herbs, including vanilla and orange peels

La Mar Cebicheria, San Francisco, CA

Garnish

Pisco La Pinta Pomegranate tequila Fresh lemon juice Ginger syrup Simple syrup

Lemon twist

Websites to drink to:

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Photo by Meg Shoemaker

e don’t know which part of the Kaiser Penguin blog we like best: posts with easy-to-follow instructions like How To Make Orgeat Syrup or ones like Cocktail Chill, with tips for getting your favorite cocktail to drop 10 degrees cooler in seconds. Pennsylvania-based Rick Stutz claims to reside in “the Antarctica of the drinking world,” which is how he came up with the clever name for his blog, kaiserpenguin.com. It may also be why the blog has such a warm following. Readers flock in and post comments and about original taste tests designed to save tiki-loving readers the trouble of trial and error.

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