LIFESTYLE BEYOND THE GLASS
[HOlidays on Ice]
Issue 5 Nov/Dec 2009
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Ingredients
ISSUE 5
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Note from the Editor 4 Design: Cold Stones & Icy Jackets 6 Winter Cheers for Holiday Beers
By Brian Yaeger Seasonal beers to keep you warm
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Hiya Sake
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By Jonathan Yaffe Drink it cold: temperatures of sake
Everything on the Rocks
The international phenomenon of ice bars
Iceland 101
By Livia Woods. Drinking the way the Vikings taught us
Websites to drink to 22 Catching Cold
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Eiswein by any other word
25 The Cocktail’s Precious Gem
By Kaye Nagle-Wood Ice: beyond frozen water
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Recipes
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Photo by Liza Gershman
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LIFESTYLE BEYOND THE GLASS Editor In Chief: Daniel Yaffe Senior Editor & Events: Aja Jones Aguirre ASSt. Managing Editor: Ali LaRaia TRAVEL Editor: Paul Ross Art DIrector: Lance Jackson Web Developer: Aman Ahuja Copy Editor: Sam Devine Director of Operations: Pablo Perez Assistant: Donald Shields INTERN: Michael Pasaoa contributOrs: Brian Yeager, Jonathan Yaffe, Livia Woods, Kaye Nagle-Wood, Kristin Lerner, Liza Gershman, www.lizagershmanphoto.com (Cover Photo), Lance Jackson www.lancejackson.net (Graphics) 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 Publisher: Open Content www.opencontent.tv Eriq Wities & Daniel Yaffe
ADVERTISING INQUIRIES: ads@drinkmemag.com Revision: In Issue 4, Drink Me inadvertently attributed the article entitled “Macgyver Would Have Been a Brewer” to Brian Hunt. The article was written by Sayre Piotrkowski. Drink Me regrets this mistake.
Because Jack Frost needs to stay warm…
Thirsty for more?
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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.
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Drink Me magazine is printed on 20% recycled (10% postconsumer 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.
Note from the Editor
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t’s often said that Eskimos have many words for “snow” because it’s quintessential to their society. Although the exact number of names can be debated, it’s amazing when you start to think of all the words we have for drinking, swilling, imbibing, tippling, and swigging. In this issue we look to bring the Inuits’ necessities to ours.
Ice is cool and we want to celebrate it. In addition to bringing in the winter with goblets full of eggnog and warm spiced wine, we’re raising our glass to everything “ice.” For the “Holidays on Ice” issue, Drink Me brings you icewine, ice bars, and Iceland. From useful to kitschy, and everywhere in between, ice is king this season – even as everyone is trying to stay warm. We wish you and yours a happy winter season and a wonderful new year. We hope you find adventures in alcohol traditions, new tastes, and new experiences with frozen water. Celebrate safely. Celebrate well.
Lance Jackson
Cheers! —Daniel Yaffe
Please drink responsibly
Design: Ice
Stone Cold
Whiskey Lovers’ Set by Teroforma Have you ever wanted to chill your favorite scotch without watering it down? Teroforma’s whisky stones do exactly that. Built specifically to knock ice off its high horse, you can coolly sip a single malt scotch with these reusable sandstone cubes (which hail from an old Scandanavian tradition), and never have to worry about water diluting your drink again. They are easy to rinse, freeze and repeat, which means you might want to have a backup bottle of Lagavulin waiting for you, just in case. www.teroforma.com
The Ice Jacket A liquor sheath by Ice Jacket
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What if you could swaddle your precious bottles of booze in a perfectly even 5/8” layer of ice, like frosty little babies? Now you can. Why would you? Well...because you can! The Ice Jacket is a newfangled device that encases your 750 ml bottle of liquor in a sheath of ice in a few hours’ time. All you have to do is place a bottle on the base, fill with warm water, seal and wait while the water freezes around your bottle. When ready, unfasten the clips, take the frozen bottle out and enjoy. The contents of the bottle will be long gone by the time the ice coating melts away. Just don’t say we didn’t tell you not to lick it. Haven’t you seen A Christmas Story?
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www.icejacket.com
pure. clear. elegant.
taste your drink again for the first time.
www.glaceluxuryice.com include the code ‘DRINKME’ when confirming your delivery address and GLI will double your order” – an exclusive offer for DRINK ME readers.
Uniquely San Francisco
Winter Cheers to Holiday Beers
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Photo by Liza Gershman
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By Brian Yaeger
These days, most craft breweries are releasing a “winter warmer” - malty ales that pack added alcohol to ward off Jack Frost. Take the case of San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing Company. In 1965, Fritz Maytag bought the sputtering, 69-year-old company and transformed it into a profitable and creative business: instead of brewing one, contaminated style of beer, it brewed several consistent ales. A decade later, Anchor released three new beers. The first, Liberty Ale (considered an IPA), celebrated the bicentennial of Paul Revere’s ride. The second, Old Foghorn, reintroduced America to barleywine, a strong ale made from an abundant grail bill of an all-malt mash. Finally, of particular note, Maytag alchemized herbs, spices, and “botanical mysteries” into “Our Special Ale,” commonly known as Christmas Ale, in 1983. Anchor tweaks the recipe every year and Maytag insists that, despite the frequent presumption that there are cloves in it, it has never contained cloves. Many people stash bottles of the Christmas Ale to hold vertical tastings, comparing the new batch to previous ones. Incidentally, Maytag told me that Liberty Ale became the way it is today back in 1984. It was the Christmas Ale of ’83. “We liked it so much we said, ‘Let’s do it on a regular basis.’”
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From the Romans gorging themselves on strong brews during Saturnalia to the Vikings drinking themselves blotto during Yule, pre-Christians took their winter intoxication seriously — in order to commune with deities and supernatural spirits.
Christmas beers have been around since before Christmas. While the guests of honor at this annual feast have morphed from the god Saturn, to Nordic Asa gods, to a jolly fat man who delivers gifts to boys and girls, the communal beverage of good cheer remains. British winter warmers such as Samuel Smith’s Winter Welcome are generally rich in malts. Though the Germans perfected crisp, light lagers, they also popularized wassail ales — from the Middle
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ut Anchor Brewing didn’t invent the Christmas Ale — far from it. Christmas beers have been around since before Christmas. Who better an authority to declare this than Christmas Beer author Don “Joe Sixpack” Russell. In his book, he explains that, for millennia, agrarians celebrated the
winter solstice by brewing beers made heavier with extra grains as well as fruits and spices.
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Photo by David Lillo
English “wæs hæil” (“Be healthy”).
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amichlaus, today produced by the Austrian brewery Eggenberg, is brewed once a year and spends a full year maturing before it is released the following December. For a while, it was listed in the Guinness Book of Re-
cords as the strongest beer in the world (14% — which is still pretty punchy). Of course, let’s not forget the Belgians who offer various Noel beers. Though not concocted by pious monks, perhaps the best-looking one for bringing to a holiday party is Brasserie d’Achouffe’s
To familiarize yourself with the vast array of winter warmers, two San Francisco establishments become beer-drenched winter wonderlands:
The Jug Shop and the Toronado.
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The Jug Shop will be hosting three nights of holiday beers this year, each will overflow with 12 beers of Christmas. One night will be exclusively Belgian ales, and another night will be devoted to sampling American craft beers. www.thejugshop.com
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As for the Toronado every year they welcome the onset of winter with mostly holiday ales on tap ranging from Anderson Valley Brewing Co.’s
Winter Solstice, tingling with spices to various Noels from Belgium. www.toronado.com Then again, between the Bay Area and the North Pole lies Portland, a.k.a. Beervana, home to the Holiday Ale Festival held Dec. 2-6 in Pioneer Square. Chilly nights, friendly faces, and almost fifty winter warmers. It really is the most wonderful, beer-ful time of the year. www.holidayale.com
N’ice Chouffe. The bottle is decorated with festive gnomes who rather resemble elves, and filled with a strong, dark ale given a spicy kick of thyme and bitter curaçao orange peel. Another way to impress at winter festivities is to pick up a bottle of Scaldis Prestige. Forget holidays on ice, this beer needs to be served between cellar and room temperature to bring out the piny notes underneath loads of Belgian candi sugar. The beer is cloyingly sweet unlike its price tag — around fifty bucks a bottle!
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Not a Christmasy type? Shmalz Brewing has a winter warmer for the Chosen People.
nd let’s not forget home, sweet home. American craft brewers essentially take everything from dimensions of both space and time and give beer lovers the world over cause to rejoice. From long-term Christmas ales such as Full Sail’s Wassail to not-so-new-anymore ones such as Anderson Valley’s Winter Solstice, to recent smashes including AleSmith’s YuleSmith, domestic brewers offer a variety of tasty ways to ring in the season. Not a Christmasy type? Shmalz Brewing has a winter warmer for the Chosen People. Jewbelation, going on its 13th anniversary (which means it’s finally Bar Mitzvah time) and celebrating brewberty by packing in 13 malts, 13 hops, and 13 per cent alcohol. Who needs Rudolph when you’ve got this beer to get you lit?
As craft brewing gains momentum around the world and creativity in the brewing arts reaches higher peaks, seasonal beers allow brewers to constantly expand their creative palette (or at least hone in quarterly). And while sales have shown that it is actually autumnal ales that are leading the way (likely taking advantage of freshly harvested hops from places such as Munich and Washington’s Yakima Valley above the 45th Parallel), it is the winter beers that span the arc from really sweet to brutally bitter, aiming for flavors from candied yams to candy canes.
Craft Beer Tavern • 24 Taps & 150+ Bottles • Hand Crafted Beers • Great Wines • Kitchen Open ‘til 1 am • Gourmet Pub Fare with Beer Pairings
3141 16th St., at the corner of Albion, San Francisco, CA between Valencia & Guerrero www.monkskettle.com
Featured Art: Alice in Winterland
Drawing by Kristin Lerner www.kristinlerner.com
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.
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By Jonathan Yaffe
One cannot imagine the reaction of the ojiisan ( Japanese grandfathers) when a group of fresh-off-the-boat American fraternity brothers on vacation proposed teaching the octogenarian regulars in the tiny bar in Fukuoka how to properly do a sake bomb.
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Even coming from San Francisco, one of the few, true worldly cities, where most people know what pisco and mezcal are, I didn’t even know the difference between a nigorizake (濁り酒 - thick white unfiltered sake) and a junmaishu (純米酒 sake made from rice, water and kōji, with no additives). I also thought that all sake was meant to be served warm; this is precisely the biggest obstacle keeping Japanese sakes from becoming truly appreciated in the states.
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Nomenclature Firstly, even the word sake is a misnomer and anyone who goes to Japan will feel lost in translation while ordering sake (酒), which is Japanese for alcohol. Instead, get used to ordering nihonshu
Photo by Lukasz Krzyzanowski
n the Japanese world of alcoholic tradition, there is very little room for supplementing historical continuity with modern novelties. The imbibing of sake, for example, is surrounded by certain procedural expectations: never pour your own cup; sip – don’t shoot – out of a small glass or ceramic cup; kanpai before drinking; and drink at the correct temperature.
Hiya Sake (日本酒, literally Japanese sake). Secondly, while sake is often described as rice wine, in reality the brewing (rather than just fermenting) process is closer to that of beer. Although, during sake’s brewing process, the starch turns to sugar at the same time that the sugar ferments to alcohol, rather than in two separate steps. By keeping the temperature low, fermentation is slowed down to between two and six weeks. Hot or Cold hile in many restaurants, sakes have a standard temperature, some allow patrons to specify the temperature they’d like to drink at. I cringed last week as I watched a British tourist in one of my favorite restaurants in Tokyo order a superb daiginjo (nihonshu made by milling away at least 50% of the rice grain), a premium sake from Niigata. He ordered it hot. I almost cried. It was the middle of the summer. As if he were just sent into the restaurant only to provoke me, he downed the entire glass in one shot. I shuddered.
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Centuries ago, sake was made and stored in cedar casks, giving sake a distinct woody flavor. That’s probably the origin of warming sake. It’s a way to drink the unrefined beverage and still mask the woodiness and impurities. As a general rule of thumb, these days, sake is brewed to convey subtle tastes rather than the earthy boldness of centuries ago. Thus, most high-grade sakes are best slightly cooled (hiyazake or reishu). Ginjo sakes (high-grade premium sakes in which at least the outer fifty per cent of the rice kernel is milled away) best show their complex tastes chilled to about 50°F, often referred to as hana-hie (flower cool). Any colder and one really doesn’t taste the true essence of the drink. Junmai, which is often more earthy and full-bodied, with a slightly higher acidity, is often served at room temperature or just cooled slightly.
The Times, They Are a-Changing These days, in a Japan in which futuristic innovation competes with tradition, there are bars that sell individual cups of “frozen sake” which are kept in the freezer and then shaken vigorously to create a sake slushy. In the winter, convenience stores sell self-heating cans of sake in which you simply press a button on the bottom, invert the can a few times, and enjoy your steaming nihonshu.
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till though, tradition is not lost. Many restaurants still have staff that are sake experts, who take great care to serve each nihonshu at the temperature that perfectly brings out its true flavor. Even if the drone next to you is doing sake bombs with a perfectly aged ginjo, do your part to appreciate the nuance, and order your “sake hiya” (chilled).
Sake temperatures ˚F 131 - over Tobikiri-kan Very Hot
+
122 - 131
Atsu-kan
113 - 122
Jyoh-kan
104 - 113
Nuru-kan
95 - 104
Hitohada-kan
86 - 95
Hinata-kan
50 - 59
Suzu-hie
41 - 50
Hana-hie
32 - 41
Yuki-hie
Hot
Warm
Lukewarm BodyTemperature Sunlight Warm Cool
Slightly Chilled Very Cold
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Do Unto Your Sake As You Would Do Unto Your Wine You wouldn’t throw a bottle of rare Château Margaux into a warm saucepan with cloves and cinnamon. Please treat your sake just as well. Because heating sake often covers its true flavor, the sake we get served hot, or atsu-kan, is normally lower-grade nihonshu, in which not very much of the outer husks of the rice kernels are milled away. Like mulled wine in the West, hot sake is a beautiful thing on frigid winter nights, though it should be reserved for warming cold fingers rather than tasting brewed genius. If you really must warm your sake, make sure to warm it by first pouring it into a small decanter called a tokkuri and then placing the tokkuri in a bowl of hot water, not heating it beyond about 130°F, at which point it loses most of its intended flavor. Warm sake is best at about 115°F. Japanese companies are even experimenting with using RFID tags which continuously report the
temperature of sake bottles wirelessly back to the sake manufacturers; this way customers can receive a report proving that the sake was never damaged by heat during transport or storage.
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sually, when you stop in for a “cold one,” you don’t expect that to become a description of yourself. But at the increasingly-popular phenomenon of ice bars, where everything from the drinking “glasses” to the furniture, to the internal building structure itself is made of ice held at sub-zero temperatures, freezing is pleasing.
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Right now, there are fewer than a dozen such establishments in the world. Their range and locations are surprising and stretch from Scandinavian climes (ex-
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pected) to Las Vegas, Nevada (in the desert). Absolut Vodka operates two in Sweden and another in London. You also can get a drink and chill at similar
Everything on the Rocks
by Paul Ross
The ice bar concept started logically enough as an extension of temporary ice
hotels which were constructed during various winter festivals held in northern latitudes where they were easily the most popular aspect of the seasonal experience.
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he closest ice bar to the Bay Area is in Las Vegas at Mandalay Place, adjacent to the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino complex. The minus5 Ice Lounge is a New Zealand-based chain whose corporate
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Photos by photobigben.com
establishments in Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, Milan, Quebec City and the following countries: Russia, China, Thailand, South Africa and, of course that “we’ve got it all” place, Dubai. There are ice bars on a couple of Norwegian Cruise Line ships, although some folks remain dubious about combining massive sea-going passenger boats with ice.
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The dominant light rays traveling through ice are the short ones, so everything can tend to look a little bluish. website lays claim to the following history: “At the end of the nineteenth century, explorer Buck Rockwell set out on a daring one-man expedition to circumnavigate the North Pole.” His ship got trapped in Arctic pack ice, forcing him to winter-over in a remote whaling village, where he developed a taste for ice cold vodka. This (mis)adventure engendered a legacy which, as the story goes, culminated in his great-grandson, Craig Ling, “creating the world’s first sub-zero vodka bar in 2003.”
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he Vegas branch is created from 18 tons of Canadian glacial water which all needs to be refreshed every 6 to 8 weeks. Even though patrons are provided with coldweather gear (hats, gloves and coats), all customers are limited to a maximum of 30 minutes and 3 drinks. Extremely low temperatures are similar to high altitude - both maximize the influence of alcohol and multiply its effects. The vodka-only cocktails are served in ice
containers fashioned from New Zealand artesian water and the management promises that the no-humidity environment means no “lip-stick.” As for furniture, it has interstitial layers of fur or faux to insulate your bottom from freezer burn. The “Sin City” minus5 even has a sort of family happy hour as the place is kidfriendly during the early evening hours and serves non-alcoholic “mocktails.” The lounge is so successful that there are plans for further US minus5s.
because gold just wasn’t good enough 2009 Double Gold winner at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
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I celand 101
by Livia Woods
Photo by Torsten Ståhlberg
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celanders drink like there’s no tomorrow. And in the darkest depth of winter or the inescapable light of summer, it often feels as though there isn’t. In fact, drinking culture in Iceland is located somewhere between today and tomorrow, in the surreal midnight hours, backlit by a pinkish dawn half the year or by the green hints of northern lights the other. Head out to a popular bar at 10pm, and you will find it mostly empty, but by one o’clock anticipate a line of tall blondes at the door, looking unfazed by the arctic wind rushing down the Reykjavik streets.
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t latitude 64°08’ N, Reykjavik is the northernmost capital in the world; an overgrown fishing-village with a strange and constant current of energy, art, and extreme behavior. Now home to almost two thirds of the Icelandic population, the greater Reykjavik area still boasts just over 200,000 citizens. The main road, Laugavegur, and it’s tiny offshoots contain everything you can want in the way of alcohol within a few-mile
radius. Don’t be deterred by the cold: walk around this hub of activity and debauchery at night, stopping in wherever strikes your fancy for some alcoholtinted glimpses into Icelandic life. Start at Kaffi-Barinn, arguably Iceland’s most famous bar (and café during the day – Icelandic cafés almost always serve alcohol). If you want an idea of what you’re getting into, check out the movie that immortalized this hipsterhangout: Baltasar Kormákur’s 2000 film, 101 Reykjavik. Based on a novel by Hallgrimur Helgason, and named for Iceland’s most cosmopolitan zip code, 101 Reykjavik follows Hlynur through his own aimless – and often drunken
– walking-tour of Reykjavik. Some preparatory hints for those, unlike Hlynur, not familiar with Icelandic customs: Icelanders have a kill-or-be-killed approach to queues and a favorite method for making one’s way up to the bar is to administer a sharp elbow jab or two along the way. Also, while a few glasses of wine on a weekday night are not encouraged, full-scale drunkenness on the weekends is par for the course and you can expect to see the fruits of this labor prominently displayed on your walk home at 5am. Don’t be surprised that the icy streets take on the feel of a fullscale bacchanal.
Once you’re out of the cold, and have managed to push your way to the bar, you can expect to pay a lot for the privilege of drinking in what Icelanders whole-heartedly believe is greatest nation on earth. The exchange rate fluctuates (especially in light of Iceland’s current financial woes), but at the height of the economic boom in 2007 a cheap beer would run no less than $10, and a basic drink about $20. Prices have dropped somewhat since then, but many predict that once severe inflation sets it, they’ll inch right back up.
Beer [was] illegal in Iceland until 1989 because it was believed to encourage alcoholism.
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celand imports plenty of wine, which is easily available in restaurants and bars. Iceland’s own climate, however, is much too cold for grapes. There is one native wine, Kvoldsol (“Evening Sun”), produced in the north of the country from crowberries, rhubarb, blueberries, and Icelandic herbs. But it’s not widely available and you’re unlikely to come across it most bars, restaurants, or liquor stores. For something you can actually get your hands on, try a shot of Opal or Topas liqueur, inspired by popular Icelandic anise candies of the same names. Iceland also produces its own readily available vodkas. Most Icelanders will get together before hitting the bars, so if you make any local friends on a Friday night out, try to wrangle an invitation for Saturday. Some words of caution: do not leave your boozy-purchases until the last minute. In Iceland, as in most Nordic nations, the government has a monopoly on the sale of alcohol. Government-run stores (called Vinbud) can have challenging opening hours. A few of the most centrally located stores in Reykjavik are open between 9 am and 8 pm on weekdays and 11 am and 6 pm on Saturdays, but most other locations, especially outside of the capitol, close by 6pm. You will never find a liquor store, or much of anything, open on a Sunday. Everyone’s recovering.
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Beer – illegal in Iceland until 1989 because it was believed to encourage alcoholism – is always your most economical bet, and Iceland boasts enough breweries to offer a selection of native lagers. Egils (Egill Skallagrimsson Brewery), Thule (Vifilfell Brewery), and Viking (Vifilfell Brewery) are the most ubiquitous of these, the first named for the violent Icelandic poet Egill Skallagrimsson, who pillaged and composed on the
island over 1000 years ago. These beers generally share a sort of easy-drinking personality – nothing too distinctive. But certain brews, like Egils and Viking Sterkur (“strong”) do boast an alcohol content approaching seven per cent. Egils also produces a more distinctive malt beer that is much darker brown and sweet with a hint of licorice, which is a popular flavor in the Icelandic palate. Viking also makes a licorice-y stout.
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Photo by Justin Moodie
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ut if you really came to Iceland looking for hard-core alcohol, then leave the hotel rooms and bars and get yourself to a restaurant that serves some of the more traditional, national fare. Sometimes called “Black Death,” Brennivin is an Icelandic schnapps not unlike Scandinavian Aquavit – a very strong spirit often flavored with herbs and meant to be sipped from a shot glass. Made from potatoes – one of Iceland’s few reliable crops – Brennivin means “wine that burns.” And it does. Brennivin isn’t designed for bars. Brennivin is designed to help you stomach
Icelandic delicacies like rotten shark (often preserved in urine), rotten skate (a type of ray-finned fish preserved in plenty of its own natural ammonia), or more palatable meals of pickled fish. If a night out on the town in Reykjavik doesn’t challenge your constitution, a meal of traditional Icelandic food certainly will. The brave of heart will find these dishes better with a bit of Brennivin (or a bunch). And the arctic barcrawlers, navigating their way through crowds of Vikings, will feel the windchill and the elbows a little less after a few drinks.
Websites to Drink to
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ur lives now feel complete after stumbling upon one of the internet’s most awesome drinking delights: Mixilator: The David Embury Random Cocktail Generator Project at cocktaildb.com. Now on all those nights when you’re stuck at home furrowing your brows over something new to make, you can turn to your trusty laptop and let the soothing female automaton voice (which calls you Master, by the way) make one gentle suggestion after another. http://www.cocktaildb.com/mixilator
Get your certificate in just 2 weeks! Free Intro Classes Free Refresher Classes Free Job Placement Assistance Financing Available
.....walks into a bar A snowman walks into a bar. The bartender says “Hey, you can’t come in here.” The snowman says, “Why not? I’m an .”
ice guy
This is a QR code. You can scan it with your smart phone and link directly to us. Want to find out more? Check out www.tigtags.com/ getqr
For more information 415.362.1116 www.sfbartending.com
Catching Photos by Donald Gruener
Cold by Paul Ross
In a moment that brings both anticipation and anxiety, the call comes. And it always seems to happen after midnight. Then the crew quickly dons protective gear and hurries out into the freezing night with only hours to complete their race against time before daybreak. These “emergency” workers are not firefighters but grape-pickers and the reason for their chaotic deadline is icewine.
Eiswein, icewine, and ice wine sound the same but are not in fact (on the other hand, “vin de glacier” is a totally different name, but is the same as the first two). Icewines have a vague history: no fewer than three countries claim to have invented it and its origins may even stretch back to Roman times.
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Basics:
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Icewine is a sweet dessert wine, left very late on the vine – sometimes into the new year – whose sugars are concentrated
by sub-zero temperatures which freeze water inside the grapes and concentrate the solids, thereby condensing the sweet essence of the fruit. A more common, though still labor-intensive method of accomplishing this is dehydration, which is how many Italian sweet wines are created. This is also in contrast to “late harvest” wines which derive their residual sweetness from the fungus botrytis cinerea – bearer of the elevated title “noble rot.”
But grapes left out so long are subject to animal predators, insect pests, diseases and the vagaries of weather. And because they are frequently harvested in a single night by hand and crushed under the same frigid conditions, everything has to be done fast to preserve the qualities it has created. Understandably, icewines can be very expensive. In fact, they just may be the world’s current wine price record-holder with a 2006 Royal DeMaria Chardonnay Icewine half-bottle listed at $30,000. But you can find far less costly brands that utilize a cryoextraction technology that simulates the natural freezing process (Still, be wary of a bottle that is too cheap).
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iswein is the German and European name for the product while icewine is the Canadian and American designation.
The situation will undoubtedly be altered by the recent purchase of a Canadian icewinery by a major Chinese corporation.
What to look for:
Telltale giveaways on the fakes can be: a synthetic sweetness sometimes followed by a biting; metallic acidity that is both industrial and medicinal; misspellings on the label; a burnt color and layered separation; and – this is the big one – sub-basement bargain pricing. The real deal is a balance of sweet and acid and has characteristics derived from its constituent grapes and blends, which can include: Reisling, Vidal, Chardonnay, Muscat, Gewürtraminer, Pinot Blanc, Merlot, Chenin Blanc, Pinot Noir and Pinto Gris. After their initial sweet burst, icewines have a lot of surprising and fun notes in their long finish. Because, in their current form, icewines are a relatively new commodity, experts debate cellaring. Some contest that the sugar-to-acid ratio makes icewines a prime candidate for the ages, while others maintain that it’s just too early to tell. Pour your icewine into a pearshaped glass. Serving is simple: chilled, neat, either with or as a dessert. And as you sip it, take a moment to appreciate the hard labor and bitter cold that produced such a warm, syrupy, sweet pleasure.
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Ice wine (words separated) can be from anywhere, as a Canadian vintner found out when he was knocked-off right down to his label by a Chinese company bottling grape juice with added sugar, acid, color and what they boasted as “pure water.” The frustrated winemaker spent $60,000 in legal fees in the last two years, but his case will not be heard by a Chinese court until 2011. The most surprising fact about the knock-off wine is that, while they have flooded Canada (the largest producer of real icewines) more than half of the product’s consumers are statusseekers in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Shanghai who purchase “bragging rights” when they unknowingly buy an importforged label. Icewines have
not been in the Chinese market long enough to have generally developed an educated following with palates capable of discerning between the imposters and the genuine.
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The Cocktail’s Precious Gem by Kaye Nagle-Wood
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Photo by Liza Gershman
ce plays a crushingly undervalued role in the making of drinks, but we have much to raise a glass to when it comes to frozen water and the craft of building the perfect drink.
Beyond the obvious cooling effect, ice also dilutes the heat and flavor of the alcohol slightly and balances the palate. The goal is to create the drink without washing out the flavor of the base spirit or any of the other ingredients. Using the proper type of freshly made, quality ice can make all the difference in crafting a delicious cocktail rather than a basic well drink.
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There’s ice at the end of the tunnel. Really good ice. Products like the KoldDraft brand ice machine uses circulation technology that eliminates air and flushes away impurities. Other systems filter the water before freezing begins to
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n the late eighteenth century only very wealthy members of society could afford ice, which was harvested in the winter and stored in dry wells during the summer. In the early 1800s Boston’s “Ice King”, Frederic Tudor, was convinced that the world needed ice and that he was the man to bring it to them. In his travels, Tudor encouraged “barkeeps” to offer cold drinks to patrons for the price of regular drinks. By the early twentieth century, bar owners and most families were able to afford iceboxes.
When classic cocktails were developed, ice was often hand-chiseled from fresh blocks to precisely compliment each type of drink, and it was only after technology afforded bars with mass produced ice did consumers and establishments began to take the tasteless, odorless cubes for granted. New ice machines created poor quality cubes that sacrificed purity, composition and clarity for volume. Little thought was given to the flavor of the ice, much less its importance to the type of cocktail it was designed to chill. Ice became the least appreciated piece of a well made drink, and now many commercial machines continue to produce cubes with chemical after-tastes and impurities.
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Blue Angel is the world’s second best vodka.
deliver fresh, pure results. Indeed, most of today’s mixologists go to great lengths to create well-balanced cocktails comprised of premium spirits and fresh purees or syrups, muddled herbs and handmade garnishes, and it’s only fitting that they insist upon top quality ice to perfect them. The main types of ice are cracked, crushed and cubed. Crushed ice is often found in tropical drinks, cracked is good for blending or in drinks with spirit-based structures, like an Old Fashioned, and standard cubes are best when shaking cocktails or in rocks drinks. Bartenders prefer large cubes for shaking, as they melt slower. Conversely, when using smaller cubes or fragments, it’s vital to reduce shaking time to keep from watering down the flavors of your cocktail. Purity and quality are key factors on top of type and size, and many mixologists make their own block ice. The process begins with filtered water that’s boiled, frozen in metal pans then broken up with a hammer and chisel at one’s discretion. All that time and hard labor pays off - a cocktail using this carefully crafted ice is well worth the wait.
T (We’re still looking for the world’s best.)
Visit blueangelvodka.com to learn more. Drink responsibly.
he newest ice trend, however, is spherical ice. The “ice ball” originated in Tokyo, carved with an ice pick from blocks of solid ice or by using a mold. Why a sphere? Their superior surface-area-to-volume ratio melts slower and more evenly than regular ice, allowing impeccable cooling, especially in over-the-rocks drinks. Following in Tudor’s steps are luxury ice companies like Gläce and Névé, shipping products to commercial and home bar owners who thirst for specialty ice. Gläce offers perfect 2½ inch diameter ice spheres made from purified water, while Neve offers drinkspecific varieties in addition to the sphere: Collins/ Hi-Ball Ice (long spears for tall drinks), Shaking Ice (made to blend without diluting or cracking) and Rocks/Old Fashioned Ice (big, rock-shaped pieces for pure spirits). Sculpted ice may be brilliant in both presentation and quality, but looks aren’t always everything. If ice is the cocktail’s most precious gem, sometimes simplicity is best. You don’t have to reinvent the ice cube in order to enjoy a drink on the rocks.
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Recipes
A単ogo (Organico) by H. Ehrmann at Elixir San Francisco
4 Copas Organic A単ejo tequila chilled eggnog organic orange twist matches
Technique: In a bucket style glass combine the tequila and egg nog and stir well. Cut a twist of orange peel just deep enough to not include any pith. Light a match, and hold the twist over the glass with the rind side at the surface of the drink. Place the burning match between the twist and the drink and squeeze, sending the oils through the flame and onto the drink. Drop the twist in the glass and serve.
Vin de Pamplemousse
by Brooke Arthur at Range San Francisco .75 oz .75 oz 1 0z. 1 0z.
fresh grapefruit juice vanilla bean syrup Square One Vodka white wine
Technique: Pour all ingredients into a shaker, shake 20 times, pour over fresh ice into a bucket glass.
Garnish: a grapefruit half moon
Design by Lance Jackson
1.5 oz 4 oz