drinkmemag_issue06

LIFESTYLE BEYOND THE GLASS

Issue 6 FEB/MAR 2010

[BLOOD, SEX, SUGAR & MAGIC]

July 21 – 25, 2010 This summer the international cocktail community will converge on a city where spirits live 24/7. Shaken from their slumber within the bottle, the spirits will take on a life of their own in New Orleans at Tales of the Cocktail 2010. For more information and to sign up for email updates on this summer’s events, visit TalesoftheCocktail.com

our generous annual partners:

Ingredients

ISSUE 6

3 4

Note from the Editor Design: Labels

San Francisco Beer Week Special Section 6

BLOOD 10 A Beer For Every Attraction

By Brian Yeager

12

Blood Thirsty

16

By Kara Newman Carnivorous cocktails

Bars of Burning Man

By Daniel Yaffe Drinking and experimenting in Black Rock City

20 New

Booze

By Dominic Venegas Folk Roots

SUGAR 28 Something About Mary

By Kathleen Neves Reminiscing about the bloodies

32

Long May You Rum

By Ed Hamilton From the sugar fields to Trader Vic’s

MAGIC

34 Magic

Of Fermentation

By Brian Yeager Into the cauldron of witches’ brew

36 Libation

Laureate

By Ale Gasso

38 It’s The Sparkle That Makes It Shine

By Rod Byers The accidental magic of champagne

44 Recipes

SEX 22

Stimulus Package

By Aja Jones Aguirre

Ingredients to anoint your lover 24 Aphrondiasic Elements

31

Websites to Drink to drink me 1

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

contributOrs: Rod Byers, Robert Debusshere (Cover Art), Craig Lee craigleephoto.com Ale Gasso, Donald Gruener donaldgruener.com, Ed Hamilton, Lance Jackson lancejackson.net, Nicholas Liebrecht (Martinicorn art), Kara Newman, Kathleen Neves, Bill Russell billustration.com, Brian Yeager

Thank you: Laurice Der Bedrossian, Sangita Devaskar, Sacha Ferguson, Erin Hunt, Bernard La Borie, Sitar Mody, Janell Moore, Michael Moskowitz, Skylar Werde,

Advisory Board: Jeremy Cowan, H. Ehrmann, Hondo Lewis, David Nepove, Debbie Rizzo, Genevieve Robertson, Carrie Steinberg, Gus Vahlkamp, Dominic Venegas

Publisher: Open Content

www.opencontent.tv Eriq Wities & Daniel Yaffe

ADVERTISING INQUIRIES: ads@drinkmemag.com

Because it’s better than Mother’s Milk...

Twitter: drinkmemagazine Check out our facebook page, too!

The entire contents of Drink Me magazine are © 2010 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% 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.

www.drinkmemag.com

Note from the Editor

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his issue marks our first birthday! We want to thank you for your enthusiasm, dedication, and interest in what we’re doing. We’ve grown a lot in the last year, and we’re looking forward to a wonderful year ahead.

We have a lot happening over here at Drink Me. We are welcoming the new decade by increasing the number of pages and we’re working hard to bring the magazine to you in more bars around the Bay Area. And we’re celebrating our anniversary with a theme reminiscent of one the best rock albums of all time: the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik. We felt it captured everything we were feeling in this new year, and encompassed everything we are excited about. We’re celebrating Valentine’s Day – what better way to recognize Cupid’s holiday this year than with drinks that will get you into the mood? In this issue we’re bringing you a spread on aphrodisiacs and ideas for your own lustful cocktail creations. We’re bringing you a taste of the magic of Burning Man and the “witchcraft” of brewing. We offer you blood in the form of carnivorous cocktails, and of course sugar in its purest form of rums and cachaça.

What better way to commemorate our first birthday than with Tim Burton’s new Alice in Wonderland movie?

Pick up the bottle and Drink Me. A very merry Unbirthday to you, To you, A very merry Unbirthday to you, To you, It’s great to Drink to someone , And I guess that You will do, A very merry Unbirthday to you!

Please drink responsibly

Madame, Monsieur...

THIS is Triple Sec.

The First, The Best, The All-Natural,

COMBIER www.combierusa.com

Design: labels

Pulp Fiction

Lustful images by Some Young Punks Some Young Punks boasts 750ml of pleasure on the eye-catching label of their 2007 Cabernet / Shiraz, a succulent red hailing from South Australia. A voluptuous blonde with bedroom eyes and a mostly unbuttoned shirt graces the bottle from head to toe, making sense of the wine’s pulp fiction feel: Passion Has Red Lips. “This is Passion,” Some Young Punks writes across the back label, “a monster bigger than the three of us that leads to soapbox, grandstand and sometimes having to sleep on the couch.”

Let’s hope not! We’re also big fans of The Squid’s Fist (a 2008 Sangiovese / Shiraz) and Naked On Roller Skates NV (a deliciously filthy sparkling Shiraz). http://www.someyoungpunks.com.au/

A Very Fine Line

by Southern Gothic

Go Southern Gothic with The Poor Thing Grenache 2006 wine series. Three sets of mystical triptychs were created by James Jean, a Taiwanese-American artist and illustrator working out of Los Angeles, for one of The Grateful Palate’s wineries, R Wines (also out of Australia). Poor Thing is our favorite because it manages to be whimsical, macabre and romantic all at once. All sets are beautifully packaged and complement classic Southern fare nicely.

drink me

Getchusome at vinquire.com!

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Uniquely San Francisco

[Special SF Beer Week Section]

[Special SF Beer Week Section]

Sugar: Brown Shugga, why do you

Blood:

taste so good? That’s for Lagunitas from Petaluma to know and you to find out. Already a malt-forward strong ale, the heaping amounts of brown sugar are fully fermentable, thus, counter intuitively lightening the beer by leaving less residual sugars but keeping the wintry sweet taste.

Beyond the traditional ingredients, brewers are said to pour in their blood, sweat, and tears. In the case of Monk’s Blood from San Francisco’s 21st Amendment Brewery, additional ingredients actually include cinnamon, vanilla bean, dried figs and oak chips. The result is that this Belgian-style strong dark ale is not just hearty, it’s made with heart.

By Brian Yaeger

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Sex: Though it’s a

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well-documented fact that many a beer has led to much sex, rare is the beer that puts its sex-appeal in the title.

So here’s a tie: Sexual Chocolate from Foothills Brewing in Winston-Salem, NC produces this seasonal imperial stout fortified with real cocoa. At almost ten percent ABV, this is as close to a liquid skor bar as you can get. There’s also the Great Sex Brewing Co somewhere in Northern California. If you can find it, they make an “ale” that online reviews don’t seem to rave about.

Magic: This one’s

really what it’s all about, yeah? The magic of fermentation. What brewery better to represent this than Vermont’s Magic Hat? Though they no longer brew the wheat beer Hocus Pocus, their flagship #9, a fruited Pale Ale, keeps fans enchanted. #9 is available in SoCal and look for it on draft in NorCal soon. In fact, now that Magic Hat owns Pyramid Brewing, it wouldn’t be so mysterious if they started brewing it in Berkeley or Walnut Creek soon.

because gold just wasn’t good enough 2009 Double Gold winner at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.

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Blood Thirsty:

Carnivorous Cocktails

Photograph by Craig Lee

By Kara Newman

We nearly died for our bacon. At least, that’s the story I’m sticking to. At the 2008 Tales of the Cocktail, the annual booze bacchanal held in New Orleans, mixologist Don Lee, demonstrated how to make bacon-infused bourbon at a seminar on “How To Make Your Own Cocktail Ingredients.”

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t wasn’t part of the scheduled proceedings, and he’d only brought a small jug to sample.

Seated in the back of the room, a nasty rumor began to circulate….there might not be enough bacon bourbon to go around!

The crowd started to murmur, some threatened to stampede, others began to sidle toward the front of the room, snatching cups off of trays headed to luckier others. Bacon bourbon! Get outta the way!

And then, whew. There was enough to go around after all. But just imagine the potential fatalities, the imminent bloodshed. Mmm, bacon bourbon.

Don’t Blame Escoffier

Today, forward-thinking bartenders across the country are drawing inspiration from carnivorous concepts. A year ago, all we heard about was the “fatwashing” technique. Simplified, this means infusing liquor with something that has fat in it – such as bacon. Once infused, the liquor is then popped in the freezer. While the liquor doesn’t freeze, the fat particles do, allowing them to be easily skimmed from the liquor. After a quick strain – voila, bacon-infused and fat-free booze.

Like so many other wonderful epicurean atrocities, French chef Auguste Escoffier is getting the credit and heat for the current bumper crop of bacon-addled, blood-soaked, toothsome carnivorous cocktails. Yes, he’s on record with the first “fat-washing.” At the turn of the last century, Escoffier poached foie gras in Armagnac, piling decadence upon decadence, using the fat-washed spirit to flavor sauces.

But consider also “Cock Ale.” Dating back to the late 1600s, basically, it consists of soaking an old rooster in alcohol for some time (and throwing away the rooster) - and it was supposed to have restorative powers. Voila – early infusion therapy. Mom always said that chicken soup could cure everything.

The ancient Mongolians drank meatenriched spirits too, specifically lamb.

According to A Soup for the Qan, by Paul Buell & Eugene Anderson, in 1330, Hu presented the Mongol emperor Wenzong, the great-grandson of Kublai Khan, with an enormous dietary manual, Proper and Essential Things for the Emperor’s Food and Drink. Buell and Anderson translated this book into English, including a recipe for lamb stew-infused vodka. Lamb-tinis, anyone?

drink me

But we didn’t invent the carnivorous cocktail. We’re just the latest in a long,

long line of meat-eaters to discover it and play with it.

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Bar Chef and Beyond

Cut to present day: we can’t seem to get enough of salt and sugar, spice and smoke and meat bundled together.

We’re wild about “umami,” the fabled fifth taste that reads as rich, mushroom-y, and meaty.

Mixologists are going further, brewing up meaty demi-glace bitters, infusing cognac with Iberico ham and using Del Maguey Mezcal Pechuga, a smoky mezcal notorious for its filtration through chicken breast. The term “bar chef ” has taken on new, literal meaning.

A step beyond the “seasonal produce” discussion, a small group of devoted “farmer-bartenders” are known to debate which artisanal hogs yield the best pork for cocktail infusions.

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odd Thrasher, of Restaurant PX in Alexandria, VA, read the account of Escoffier’s adventures in Armagnac, and immediately began to visualize meaty cocktails. Perhaps this should be unsurprising coming from the man who also thinks tobacco is a fine cocktail ingredient.

drink me

In 2005, Thrasher conceived a drink called The Pear of Desire, which used foie gras as garnish.

“At the beginning it wasn’t so well-received,” he admits, “but a week into it a buzz started happening and everyone started ordering it.”

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Thrasher now receives acclaim for his luscious McGriddle cocktail (baconinfused vodka, egg whites, maple syrup). In Chicago, we have Adam Seger’s Ham and Cheese cocktail (a

sweet and savory mix of Iberico haminfused cognac, passion fruit puree, garnished with a Manchego cheese tuile).

And New York restaurant Please Don’t Tell continues to feature the stampedeworthy bacon-infused bourbon in their riff on a classic Old-Fashioned.

And don’t forget the garnishes. Bacon still seems to be the garnish du jour, whether it’s glazed in maple syrup, dipped in dark chocolate, or pulverized into smithereens to rim a glass, Margarita-salt style. But sing also of speared mole salami laid across the top of martini glasses, skewers of olives interspersed with pepperoni rounds, and Bacon Bloody Marys, practically a meal in a glass thanks to assorted garnishes piled high.

Weenie-Tinis

But don’t let the mixologists of the world take all the credit. Home bartenders are having just as much fun. I still fondly remember an eGullet. com beverages thread with the header “The birth of weeniecello,” chronicling one enthusiast’s personal endeavor to create hot-dog-infused vodka.

This was 2003 and well before the trend of meat infusions took off in the mainstream. So the road to Weenie-cello “was a long and arduous one,” born of a desire to avoid putting down one’s drink in order to consume a big, dripping hamburger. “So while I’m getting fatter, I’m not getting any drunker.” The only sane solution: combine the two tastes.

The post was soon greeted with replies like “Is this a joke?” and “You have way too much time on your hands.” But

eventually, a recipe for the Weenie-tini and the shot-glass-sized Eenie-weenietini materialized.

Of course, it was promptly followed by requests for a Spam-hattan, while another wise guy suggested mixing the Weenie-cello with the rye-inflected liqueur Kummel: “It tastes just like rye bread. You could make the first corned beef and rye cocktail. Rim it with coarse mustard seed and you’ve got a cocktail fit for my grandpa.”

To be honest, I was a little sad when I heard about the recent release of Bakon vodka, the first commercial spirit to incorporate meaty flavors. Did this mean that amateur and professional bartenders would stop having fun at the expense of bacon? Had the era of meat mania finally drawn to a close? And then I learned a dirty little secret: it’s a

vegan product. That’s right, not a shred of actual porcine goodness in the bottle.

We may still have a bacon-bourbonfueled stampede ahead of us yet. Get outta the way!

“To make Cock-Ale” Take eight gallons of Ale, take a Cock and boil him well; then take four pounds of Raisins of the Sun well stoned, two or three Nutmegs, three or four flakes of Mace, half a pound of Dates; beat these all in a Mortar, and put to them two quarts of the best Sack: and when the Ale hath done working, put these in, and stop it close six or seven days, and then bottle it, and a month after you may drink it.

- from “The Closet Of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelm Digby Opened, 1677”

inside is the new outside

Enjoy Ploom Pods™ in six tobacco and herbal blends.

Ploom Inc. San Francisco, CA. Warning: Tobacco use may pose health risks.

rocket café noir orchard gold kick-ass mint blue tea ploom.com

Bars of Burning Man Article & photographs by Daniel Yaffe

Somewhere between the thirty-foot shopping cart and the flaming dendrite, a unicorn made me a pickle-tini. Although the annual arts festival of Burning Man is often a fertile training ground for artistic expression, sexual exploration and for some [drug induced] visual stimulation, it also happens to be a test tube for all forms of drinking.

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tarted on Baker Beach in San Francisco in 1986, and later moved to the Black Rock Desert north of Reno, Nevada, Burning Man has been a week-long haven for a free and alternative lifestyle for thousands of revelers worldwide. The entire city, which becomes the second largest in Nevada for the last week of August, is comprised of thousands of camps – many with themes from kitchy to the completely absurd. Most of the bars play up their pun-chy names like “Zanzibar,” “Hoppy Hour,” (where you have to be dressed like a bunny to get in), “Garden of Heden,” and “Cocktails at the Casbahr.” Many camps also develop an alcohol menu inspired by their theme. “The Elders” serve boxed wine and brie appetizers, “Burning Mary” served up spicy Bloody Marys and “Ab-

stininthe” poured homemade absinthes.

A gang from a camp called “ ’Lil Crack Whores” gifted us several cans of Budweiser to drink on our way back to our camp.

Did I mention that everything is free?

After the entrance fee is paid, the gifting economy lets presents (and booze) flow freely. The forty-thousand-person city becomes a week-long, twenty-four-hour open bar. There’s only one rule: BYOC…

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Bring Your Own Cup. I don’t mean to convey that the entire week is all about alcohol. But it could be.

One of the first things anyone learns about the event is that ice is one of the only goods sold on site at Burning Man. The blistering heat lends itself well to trying anything on the rocks. When the scorching 105-degree weather mixes with the blinding dust storms, an icy pineapple, vodka, wine, and coca cola concoction starts to sound pretty tasty.

The extreme nature of the event lends itself well to creative concoctions. When our 15-liter box of wine got too hot in the sun, we poured in cinnamon and cloves and handed out the best spiced wine on the playa. When you are two hours from nearest liquor store, you’ll use what you can find and what your neighbors spontaneously donate to you. Why wouldn’t you try mixing homemade schnapps with soju and that fresh starfruit that the naked

clown (wearing only one sock - not on his foot) gave you?

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hat’s not to say that people don’t bring out all the right ingredients to the most remote party on the planet. Wandering around the clock-shaped city, you can easily find refreshing Mimosas and Bloody Marys in the morning, creative cocktails and home-brews throughout the day, and warm, Hot Toddy-inspired drinks to get you through the night (or at least until you need extra shots of tequila and Red Bull to hold you over until the featured DJ comes on at 5 a.m.). There are potluck-style single malt tastings, fresh Margaritas and buckets full of fruit-infused sangria. Ashram Galactica, the self-named “finest luxury resort in Black Rock City” hosts “the Gilded Lily Bar,” a full bar in a beautiful Moroccan tent with nightly cocktail specials that compliment

their five-star restaurant (which is a lottery giveaway and also completely free).

The alkali nature of the ground and inevitable “playa� dust make acidic drinks advantageous to optimal health. Just as vinegar on your feet promotes healthy skin at Burning Man, citrus-y, acidic cocktails and juices are the best relief for a dry throat. One camp took the acidic cocktails to a new level with their incredible pickle-tini. Using the acidic vinegar brine from fresh pickles, they created one of my most memorable cocktails of the year. It was spicy, vinegary, extremely smooth and tasty, and a great cocktail to kick off the day at 9 a.m.

Burning Man is not exactly the lawless, crazed party that many think it is. On the contrary, it is patrolled by several law agencies – and in both state and local laws, it is illegal for minors to possess alcohol. Rumor has it that 2009 was the first year on record that agents actually busted a few Burning Man bars for not carding undercover decoys. Although Burning Man needs to remain a safe and legitimate community, many fear that this is unfairly punishing participants.

Legally, all camps that serve alcohol are supposed to card drinkers. Good luck getting that naked clown to stick his ID down his sock.

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New Booze: Root

Folk Roots

drink me

By Dominic Venegas

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Every once in a while a new spirit will come around that gets people talking, especially when it comes from one of the best drinks of all time: root beer.

Art in the Age’s ROOT is a new, 100 per cent certified organic, 80 proof spirit produced by Modern Spirits and possibly the first truly American liqueur in nearly one hundred years. It is inspired by an eighteenth century Pennsylvania folk recipe for root tea, which eventually evolved into birch or root beer.

Root tea, a concoction of sarsaparilla, birch and other roots, dates back to the 1700s, when Native Americans taught the recipe to settlers. Over generations, root tea grew in potency, particularly in Pennsylvania, where the ingredients grew in abundance. During the Temperance Movement, a Philadelphia pharmacist removed the alcohol and ironically rechristened it root beer.

Since it is 80 proof, ROOT can be used as a base spirit in cocktails. Not only can it be used in an alcohol based root beer float, but ROOT also mixes well with bourbon and aged rums. It has flavors of allspice, cinnamon, anise, and nutmeg, as well as hints of tobacco and vanilla. You’ll find that these characteristics work well with many spirits. It can also be enjoyed alone as a digestif.

The sky’s the limit with this great new product!

Here are two drinks that I enjoy mixing with ROOT

ROOTS/ROCK

Ginger ROOT

1 oz Appleton Extra 12 yr.

1 oz ROOT 3/4 oz Averna dash of Angosturra bitters

4 oz Ginger Beer (fever tree) 2 oz ROOT spirit 1/2 oz lime juice

- stir in mixing glass with ice - strain into chilled cocktail glass - garnish with orange peel.

- fill Collins glass with ice - pour in ginger beer and lime juice - Top with ROOT - garnish with lime wedge.

DONALD GRUENER COMMERCIAL PHOTOGR APHER Wine Industry Specialist Product Photography • Fine Art Prints

541 337 2239

www.donaldgruener.com

Stimulus Package In the spirit of the centerfold

For thousands of years, mankind has sought ways to improve luck in love, and while modern western medicine offers alternatives in pill form, there’s nothing quite like playing behind the bar to sweeten the mood with the apple of your eye.

Photography by Craig Lee

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Aphrodiasic Elements S

By Aja Jones Aquirre

hakespeare wrote of herbs and flowers in his plays, wives in twelfth century Germany would lie face-down and have bread prepared upon their bottoms - once the bread was baked and eaten, of course, their unsuspecting husbands would find them newly riveting (or so the story goes).

This is nothing compared to what unmarried English girls did in the seventeenth century: kneaded dough was to be pressed against the nether regions before baking and being fed to the object of their affections - a practice that would make even the lewdest ladies on The Bachelor blush. Legend says that China’s “Yellow Emperor” mounted 1200 women and achieved immortality through a special blend of twenty two powdered ingredients (flowers, seeds, roots and minerals) mixed with wine.

Cleopatra took an elixir of dissolved pearls in vinegar. At one point the Catholic Church sanctioned aphrodisiacs to assist with fervent reproduction, and the Kama Sutra goes into great depth on Hindu love potions and exotic Eastern recipes. The list is endless and nearly anything and everything drinkable has been on it at one point or another.

pomegranate

tomato

Sometimes it’s as simple as peppermint tea.

The further back into the past you reach, the more repugnant and bizarre the ingredients seem (take the rhino’s near extinction due to its fabled horn’s ability to stimulate, a sad practice which persists even today, or Ancient Greece’s appetite for sparrow brains, now fortunately out of fashion).

Thankfully, it’s 2010 and we have far more palatable (if slightly less reliable) concoctions to work with. The most dependable among them also happens to be the easiest to mix up with your favorite cocktails.

cardamon

bourbon

nuts

carrot

strawberry

garlic

chocolate

mango

"It increases the desire but it takes away the performance." —MacDuff

truffles ginger

Featured Art: Martinicorn

By Nicholas Liebrecht

Wine with Nirvino

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ine cocktails were what we drank backpacking across Europe at 19 - before we knew better. No longer relegated to bottomless Bellini brunch specials and champagne cocktails served to octogenarian knitting circles, cocktails made with wine are making a resurgence on the American bar scene.

The tradition reaches back centuries, as recorded in the wine punch recipes of 17th century British sailors, and many genesis stories of “the cocktail” are rooted in first meaning a mix of wine and spirits. One dates back to the Revolutionary War, when American and French officers would pour between glasses to show solidarity, mixing the wine preferred by the French with the gin and whiskey of locals. When a rooster was stolen from a Tory and its feathers used to adorn drinks, they toasted, “vive le cocktail!”

As pre-prohibition cocktails have been coming back into vogue, cocktails with wine are appearing on menus across the country. Death in the Afternoon, Ernest Hemingway’s absinthe and champagne drink, has become a standard, French 75 is a perennial classic, and creative twists on the classics have popped up, like the Lavender French 75 at Midi in Ssan Francisco and the NY Sour at Schiller’s Liquor Bar.

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parkling wines add effervescence without diluting, while dessert wines, and fortified wines like sherry, port and vermouth are most commonly used in cocktails, offering potency rivaling liqueurs and adding complexity to a drink.

In creating wine cocktails, balance is key, requiring careful measurement. For contriving your own wine cocktails, start with your favorite cocktail recipes and, tablespoon at a time, substitute wine for one ingredient, or add it to a cocktail.

Tip: like crafty 19th century bartenders, you can make the most of wine past its prime by cooking a wine syrup just like simple syrup. Combine equal parts leftover wine and sugar in a saucepan. Over medium heat, bring to a boil just long enough to dissolve the sugar. Try substituting this for a fortified wine or liqueur in a favorite cocktail recipe.

drink me

Advertisement

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1.

All of the ingredients

3.

Add fresh basil (2-3 leaves), capers (bar spoonful) and Crystal hot sauce (2-3 dashes)

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6.

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Add 1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice

Add fresh tomatoes (2 slices)

4.

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Add fresh cucumbers (1-2 slices)

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Add 1/2 oz. olive juice & 1/2 oz. Add salt and pepper Worcestershire sauce

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Muddle all of the ingredients together in a glass

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Add vodka, ice, shake and strain into a chilled martini glass

mary

Something about

By Kathleen Neves

The Bloody Mary could be called the “meatloaf” of classic cocktails. The more ingredients added to a Bloody Mary, the better it seems to taste. A typical Bloody Mary consists of vodka, tomato juice, fresh lemon juice, black pepper, salt, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce. And it’s always served on the rocks. But these ingredients are only a starting point.

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artenders have their own “special” ingredient that makes their Bloody Mary recipe unique.

Special ingredients can consist of different types of hot sauce, fresh horseradish, a shot of Guinness, a shot of red wine, or a super secret mysterious spicy concoction kept in a jar behind the bar, all of which add the bartender’s signature touch to the drink.

Not only can the basic ingredients in a Bloody Mary vary, but so can the garnishes for the drink. When it comes to garnishing a Bloody Mary, anything is fair game: lemon and lime wedges a celery stalk, green olives, pickles, asparagus, peppers, cocktail onions, or even slices of bacon.

The exact history of the classic cocktail intended to cure hangovers is unclear. No one knows for sure when and where the Bloody Mary originally came from. Some believe that the cocktail was originally concocted by a bartender named Fer-

nand “Pete” Petiot at Harry’s Bar in Paris around 1920. Then there is the theory that the drink was originally referred to as a “Bloody Meyer” and was developed during Prohibition in a New York speakeasy. Then there is the story about a waitress named Mary who worked in a Chicago bar called the “Bucket of Blood.”

With a Bloody Mary, anything goes as long as the drink recipe consists of the main ingredients: vodka, tomato juice, citrus juice, and spice. In my own creation, the “Everything But the Kitchen Sink”, fresh tomatoes, cucumber, and basil are combined with essential Bloody Mary ingredients such as Worcestershire sauce, fresh lemon juice, Crystal hot sauce, salt and pepper. I also add capers and olive juice. Instead of serving this drink on the rocks like a typical Bloody Mary, all of the ingredients are muddled together, shaken on ice with vodka and served up in a chilled martini glass.

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Craving a Bloody Mary that will kick you in the pants with spice? Try a pint-sized one at Zeitgeist (199 Valencia Street) any day of the week. Elixir also crafts up a meaty and savory Bloody Mary, and offers a Build-Your-Own-Bloody-Mary bar during their Sunday brunch. Also check out the Bloody Mary Bar at Home on Market Street in San Francisco.

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vergewine.com

Websites to Drink to

G

ary Vaynerchuk consistently pushes back on the wine world’s worst clichés on his down-to-earth, ultra-prolific video blog at Wine Library TV. He may be wellknown for making stars like Conan O’Brien or Ellen DeGeneres lick salt rocks or eat dirt (literally), but we love him for the enthused and thorough way he educates his audience and makes the world of wine so accessible.

See for yourself at http://tv.winelibrary.com/

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.....walks into a bar 365 bras walk into a bar. The Bartender

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For more information 415.362.1116 www.sfbartending.com

Long May You Rum

By Ed Hamilton, Mininstry of Rum.com

Photograph by Daniel Yaffe

In 1947, Victor Bergeron wrote that rum was the most undervalued and under-appreciated spirit behind his bar. In the years that followed Vic opened the eponymous “Trader Vic’s” bars and restaurants and gained international recognition as one of the fathers of the tiki bar. More than sixty years later, rum is still gaining respect, albeit slowly.

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um carries the baggage of a storied past that includes unsavory pirates, smugglers and more than a few politicians. But despite its renegade reputation, rum-producing regulations are more rigid than most imbibers recognize. Unlike vodka, which can be made from any combination of fermentable raw materials, rum can only be made from the sweet member of the grass family, saccharum officinarum, more commonly known as sugar cane. And sugar cane is the most available natural source of fermentable sugar. In order to ferment grains, they must be cooked with enzymes in order

to convert the starches and carbohydrates to fermentable sugar. But whether made from molasses - the byproduct of cane sugar production - or sugar cane juice, the high volume of available sucrose sets sugar cane apart from other fermentable raw materials.

Sugar cane grows in tropical regions around the world. Originally from Papau New Guinea, the sweet grass was carried to Asia, where the fermented sugar cane juice drink, brum, was consumed. From Southeast Asia, traders took sugar cane west to India, on to North Africa and the Middle East. In

The first commercial sugar cane spirits in the New World were produced in Brazil in the first quarter of the sixteenth century. But it was the popularity of sugar in seventeenth-century Europe which led to rum becoming the spirit of the Caribbean, a moniker it has proudly worn for more than 350 years.

In the early days of sugar’s rise to stardom in the Caribbean, England, Spain and other European countries forbade the importation of sugar cane spirits in order to protect their established domestic gin, brandy and whisky industries. In the Carribean, plantation managers sold rum to the navy ships stationed there to protect their valuable sugar industry and the mother country’s financial interest in the New World. The tradition of rum and the sea was consecrated in 1687 when the British Parliament made rum part of a sailor’s daily ration in the Royal Navy.

Today rum is made around the world and has evolved to be the only distilled spirit to be consumed as clear, dark or colored spirit though only a small part of the clear rum consumed today is actually bottled straight from the still. Just as the people’s language, food and dress reflect their country of origin, so does their drink. And for millions of people around the world, sugar cane spirits are the drink of choice.

Most other distillers make rum from fermented molasses and, after distilling their spirit to remove the residual sulfur found in molasses, age the fresh distillate in used, oak whisky barrels. By blending the aged product, a plethora of rums are produced that range from those best suited to cocktails to supreme sipping spirits that rival fine cognacs or whiskies.

To the inexperienced eye, it is easy to be seduced by rums with age statements of fifteenn, twenty-one or twenty-three years. But, like in life itself, quality and maturity are much more important than age. Some rums were made to be consumed after resting only a few months, others are best enjoyed after being aged five, eight, ten or more years. My first drink of the day is a young, clear rum with a little sugar cane syrup and a small bit of lime to compliment the rum. After dinner I gravitate toward an older, aged rum to sip before bed.

San Francisco is blessed with a plethora of bartenders whose passion for spirits is unsurpassed anywhere. To learn more about my favorite spirit get to know the people behind your favorite bar. When you’re ready to explore the world of rum, if I can’t join you in person just tell the bartender, “Make me what you’d serve Ed.”

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Walk into a West Indian rum shop and you’ll be served a glass of clear liquid, which is probably fresh, overproof rum.

Rum Agricole in the French Caribbean Islands as well as Brazilian Cachaça are made from fresh sugar cane juice and

distilled to capture the essence of the fresh sugar cane. In Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands the white spirit in your glass will only be about 80 proof and has been aged at least a year, then carbonfiltered to remove the color acquired during aging.

Photograph courtesy of Leblon Cachaça

1493, on his second voyage to the West Indies, Christopher Columbus stopped in the Canary Islands where he took sugar cane shoots on board to be planted in the Caribbean as part of a failed attempt to establish a Spanish base in Hispaniola.

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Magic By Brian Yaeger

of Fermentation

Before there were braumeisters or brewmasters, people made beer quite by accident. As legend has it (legend being “anthropology”), some ancient Sumerian left his bread out in the rain and, not being a wasteful fellow, ate or drank from the resulting pudding and immediately was a hit at the Sumerian frat parties.

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he bread’s grains, combined with water, somehow mysteriously turned into a beverage that packed a wallop. Before long, anthropologically speaking, Sumerians had their first beer goddess, Ninkasi. They didn’t know it at the time, but it was thanks to the magic of fermentation.

That was six thousand years ago. And from that time up through the Common Era, who was responsible for baking bread? Women! So it stands to reason they were also the ones converting grains and flavorings such as roots, herbs, and spices into beer. As society advanced, people excelled in their trades. Women who plied the craft of brewing were known as brewsters. To be recognized, they began to wear tall, pointy hats so even the shortest among them could be spotted in town. They posted mash paddles—implements still in use today for stirring the cereals that go into brewing—above their doors so that people would identify where these women lived and worked (What good would posting a brewery sign be if nearly everyone was illiterate?). Of course, these paddles resembled brooms.

And to keep the grains free of mice and pests, they kept cats.

Illustrations by Bill Russell

Through the Middle Ages when monks took over brewing duties, brewing became much more scientific. Dozens of styles of beer had been created depending on the grains and herbs used, the quantities added, and the duration and temperature of the boil. Bittering with hops became prevalent and they discovered that hops are a natural preservative, thus prolonging the “best before date.”

Monks even discovered that they yielded better results if they took the remnants of the previous batch and poured it into the next one. They didn’t know it at the time, but it was thanks to the magic of fermentation.

Enter Louis Pasteur. Merely a century and a half ago, this savvy chemist and biologist unlocked the mystery to what makes alcohol, well, alcoholic. Pasteur discovered that it was this newfound microorganism called yeast that converts sugar into ethanol and carbon dioxide.

In other words, thanks to all these critters invisible to the human eye, you can take grains and water (and of course hops), just introduce yeast and you’ve got a beverage carbonated enough to enable you to burp the alphabet and be drunk enough to proudly do it in front of others. What Pasteur discovered at that time (1857) is that we can make beer thanks to the magic of fermentation.

He even went on to pen the rather brilliant Études sur la Bière (Studies on Beer) in 1876. And to think, some people today believe that all we have to

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So, these women with pointy hats, brooms, and cats toiled over boiling cauldrons and made magic potions using not eye of newt but heather, or mandrake, or, if they could find them, hops. When they brewed a new batch, they would take the mash paddle down from the wall and stir it up, unwittingly reintroducing elements from the last batch and, in doing so, kick-starting the

process that made the elixir alcoholic.

Truly, the first craft brewers were witchcraft brewsters thanks to the magic of fermentation.

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thank him for is inventing pasteurization to stave off spoiled milk.

The science of fermentation is known as zymology, better known as zymurgy. The fact that it’s an –ology, that it is the subject of studies and ensuing knowledge, may seem to repudiate that there is any magic remaining in it. Hogwash!

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hat we have gastronomic wonderments of life ranging from yogurt to bread to kimchi to bleu cheese to, of course, wine and beer, is all thanks to these tiny little dudes that gorge on sugars and pass it out as all of these extraordinary delicacies.

Additionally, yeast is a major contributor to the flavor itself. An American ale yeast top ferments and results in fruitier, tarter beer (perhaps an American IPA) while a pilsner lager yeast bottom ferments yielding drier, crisper, maltier beers (such as a Czech pilsener).

Then, of course, there are the exotic Bavarian and Belgian strains that are responsible for flavors and aromas spanning from bananas to bubblegum, from cherry pie to Christmas itself. And lastly, there are the increasingly popular “bugs” such as Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus, and Pediococcus that each impart unique, sour flavors. And yeasts can be combined to create beers with complex flavors, such as Russian River’s Consecration. Take a sip and tell me that’s not magical.

Brewmasters today don’t don pointy hats (though this is my guess for where the Vermont brewery Magic Hat derived its name and certainly its Hocus Pocus Wheat Ale). Homebrewing is increasingly popular because people have discovered it’s simpler to perform than wizardry. And brewsters are no longer burned at the stake for performing witchcraft. But take a tour of your local brewery and prepare to be impressed by their gleaming stainless steel mash tuns. But when the tour guide (often an assistant brewer) points out the fermentation tanks, believe it when he or says, “This is where the magic happens.”

Brian Yaeger is the author of Red, White, and Brew: An American Beer Odyssey. He lives and homebrews in San Francisco where he explores Bay Area pubs, one pint at a time. Contact him at brian@beerodyssey.com.

Libation Laureate

After Hours

by Ale Gasso

The comedian and his drink dark and smiling collaborate at the bar– rings around an improvised joke those ever-steadying hands half-closed eyes that crooked smile.

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

It’s The Sparkle That Makes It Shine

By Rod Byers

“I am drinking stars!” are perhaps the most famous words in the history of wine that were never actually spoken. They were not spoken by the monk Dom Pérignon, who is generally credited, in a blinding light bulb moment, with the invention of champagne. From 1668 to 1715, Dom Pérignon was in charge of winemaking at the Abbey of Hautvillers in the Champagne district of France, but he was hardly the first to recognize the wine’s unusual properties.

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irst of all champagne was not invented. Champagne happened.

There are references to wines with fizz as far back as Roman times.

Benedictine monks in Limoux in the south of France had been producing a sparkling wine since 1531, a century and a half earlier. So how did Pierre Pérignon get all the credit and did he deserve any of it? It is even more curious considering he devoted himself to keeping the bubbles out of the wine. Author Hugh Johnson writes is his book, Vintage, The History Of Wine, “It was his life work to prevent champagne having bubbles.”

Photographs by Donald Gruener

Given Champagne’s relative proximity to Burgundy, it is not surprising the region adopted Pinot Noir as it’s primary red grape. But because of its more northern latitude, Champagne could not match the richness or depth of flavor that the Pinot’s of Burgundy offered. It was Dom Pérignon who realized that instead of matching Burgundy’s quality of red wines he would make a superior white wine while still using the darkskinned Pinot Noir grape. And in that process he set down the production guidelines for sparkling wines that are still in use today, with one small exception. He tried to eliminate the bubbles, not capture them.He focused his attention on Pinot Noir because he was less pleased with wines produced from white grapes. The white wines were not as aromatic, tended to darken in color quickly and were, he thought, especially more likely to re-ferment in the spring, causing the bubbles he was trying to avoid.

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n a red grape the pigment is in the skin while the juice is clear. The principles he established were first to prune the vines severely limiting the size of the crop. Then he harvested carefully, in cool weather, keeping the grape berries intact, rejecting any with bruised or broken skin.

During picking it was imperative not to

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Nonetheless Dom Pérignon truly was the right man in the right place to change history. And in the process he left an indelible footprint that still matters today, 300 years later. The district of Champagne had been a region noted for its non-sparkling wines for several centuries before the arrival of Dom Pérignon. Located in northern France, Champagne is the equivalent latitude of northern North Dakota. It’s not surprising that vintners had a difficult time getting their wine through fermentation before cold winter weather set in, stopping the process. With the return of warmer spring weather, fermentation would restart and with it came the production of carbon dioxide – making the wines fizzy. But the wines were kept barreled and the carbon dioxide would

simply dissipate into the atmosphere, resulting once again in non-fizzy wines.

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problem that was causing his wines to oxidize and lose their unique aromatic qualities. He preferred bottling the young wines, which kept them fresh and clear. But it also trapped any carbon dioxide created by re-fermentation. To counter that he developed an elaborate racking system using bellows to push the wine from one barrel to another, removing the lees (sediment) while keeping oxidation to a minimum. The result was a non-sparkling, very pale-colored wine often referred to as “oeil de perdrix” or “eye of the partridge”.

crush the grapes, which would allow the pigmented skin to darken the juice.

Instead he constructed shallow presses placed near the vineyards that could gently press the whole berries letting the clear juice run free. He monitored the color of the juice using the lightest, clearest juice for the best wines. He also perfected a system of blending grapes from different vineyards creating more complex, balanced wines. All his techniques are still basic standard operating procedures today.

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Glass wine bottles were another invention of that era. Decorative glass bottles and decanters had been in use for centuries but were much too fragile for general wine bottling and certainly too fragile for the extra pressure of sparkling wine. But the English development of a modernized, coal-fired furnace in the early part of the seventeenth century allowed for a much stronger glass bottle.

The reintroduction of corks as stoppers, forgotten since Roman times, provided the perfect closure.

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As part of his cellar work, Dom Pérignon realized that exposure to air was a

Dom Pérignon’s non-sparkling wines were the rage of Paris and the fashionable drink of the royal court. Again, according to Hugh Johnson, “Louis XIV had simply never drunk anything else.”

But that is not exactly the way it was turning out across the English Channel.

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t the end of the seventeenth century it was illegal to sell or transport champagne in anything other that barrels. Bottling was not permitted. Consequently, barrels of champagne would arrive on the docks of England and then be transported directly to English cellars where the wine was bottled in the new, stronger English glass without any of Dom Pérignon’s careful precautions. Any carbon dioxide generated by still-fermenting barrels was captured when bottled. The result was sparkling wine.

The English aristocracy went mad for the fizz, and couldn’t get enough of it.

The French considered the English odd and this new sparkling beverage an aberration. But by the dawn of the eightenth century, fizz was king and the bubbles were here to stay. Even though it became fashionable to leave the bubbles in, then as now, the guiding principles Dom Pérignon laid out for the production of champagne remain true to this day.

Recipes Assal* & Açaí

By Reza Esmaili, San Francisco 2 oz VeeV Açaí Spirit 2 lime wedges 2 lemon wedges 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice 3/4 oz honey syrup (3:1 ratio) Technique: - muddle 2 wedges of lemon, lime, with lemon juice and honey syrup - Add VeeV and shake - Pour all into double rocks glass, top with fresh ice.

Garnish: - garnish with Dukes Hotel style lemon twist.

Blue Steel

By Daniel Hyatt at Alembic San Francisco 2 oz aged Jamaican rum 1/2 oz creme de cassis 2 dashes absinthe 1 dash Angostura bitters Technique: - fill a highball glass, half filled with ice and add ingredients - stir gently a few times.

Garnish: - garnish with lemon zest and a sprig of cilantro.

* translates to honey from Farsi

People’s Choice: We’re starting up our own cocktail contest in each issue!

The ingredient to use in this month’s contest is Combier Liqueur D’Orange, and we want to hear your original recipes!

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Send in your original recipe to recipes@drinkmemag.com and check back on the website to vote for your favorites! The winning cocktail will be featured in the next issue.

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FRIDAY NIGHT OUT Look for special Friday night pricing Harlem & Red Bull

Ambassador 673 Geary St. San Francisco

Svedka & Red Bull

R Bar 1176 Sutter St. San Francisco

Devotion & Red Bull

Pete's Tavern 128 King St. San Francisco

Som 2925 16th St. San Francisco

Lime 2247 Market St. San Francisco

Kelley's Tavern 3231 Fillmore St. San Francisco

Circa 2001 Chestnut St. San Francisco

Bar Adagio 550 Geary St. San Francisco

The Endup 401 6th St. San Francisco

Double Dutch 3192 16th St. San Francisco

Mix & drink responsibly

Zaya encourages you to drink responsibly. • InfiniumSpirits.com • ©2010 Infinium Spirits

ZayaRum.com

Zaya Manhattan 1½ oz. Zaya Gran Reserva ½ oz. Carpano Antica Formula 2 Dashes Aromatic Bitters Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange zest twist.