Slurps

Where to find wine-based fruit vinegars

Most fruit vinegars on store shelves are infused or flavored, which gives them pretty colors but a rather insipid taste. The following vinegars, mostly available online, are made from fruit juice fermented into wine and offer a rich intensity of flavor.

via www.washingtonpost.com

Black Tot rare reserve rum to debut on Black Tot Day

Black Tot rare reserve rum to debut on Black Tot Day

via www.examiner.com

Employees Only Bottles Cocktail Mixers

The folks at Employees Only have been working to improve your cocktail hour, at home and at the restaurant. The nonalcoholic syrups that Dushan Zaric and Jason Kosmas, the mixologists, are making for some cocktails are now sold retail. There’s a suitably tart lime cordial, a mix of lime juice, kaffir lime leaf and agave nectar for gimlets and lime rickeys. Their grenadine, used in a drink called the Billionaire, is dark and intense.

via www.nytimes.com

Bartenders raise a glass to booze-free drinks

At Hibiscus in Oakland, executive chef Sarah Kirnon features a cooler made from sorrel - the term for a species of hibiscus popular in Jamaica - seasoned with mace, cumin, cinnamon, bay leaf and habanero powder to show off its Caribbean roots.

via www.sfgate.com

Brian MacGregor, bartender at Jardiniere

"I try to keep our drinks simple, but with a sense of elegance and a great flavor complexity," he says. "When you take the first sip and you're looking over the menu, hopefully you'll think it's a great drink and a nice atmosphere, and it's a great way to start your meal."

via www.sfgate.com

Scott Baird and Josh Harris

"We have the same sensibility about a cocktail," Baird says.

That sensibility includes the hunt for "a mouthful of flavor" - intense layers, often with a distinct bitter component or a wine element like vermouth or sherry.

via www.sfgate.com

Jose Zepeda of RN74

Chardon

Makes 1 drink

From Jose Zepeda of RN74 in San Francisco.

• 1 1/2 ounces Beefeater 24 gin
• 1/2 ounce Cynar
• 1/2 ounce (1 tablespoon) fresh lemon juice
• 3/4 ounce rhubarb syrup (see instructions)
• -- Lemon twist, for garnish

Instructions: Place all ingredients, except garnish, in a cocktail shaker. Add ice. Shake and double-strain into a cocktail glass. Add garnish.

Note: To make the rhubarb syrup, combine in a saucepan: 3 cups of chopped rhubarb, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 3 cups water, the juice of 1 lemon and a dash of salt. Bring to a boil, then lower the temperature and cook, stirring occasionally, until reduced to a syrup. Strain through a fine mesh sieve and chill.

via www.sfgate.com

Is Tonga Room tiki bar in S.F. worth saving?

The future grew a bit dimmer for the Fairmont Hotel's landmark Tonga Room Wednesday as members of San Francisco's Historic Preservation Commission couldn't agree on whether the aging tiki bar was worth saving.

via www.sfgate.com

Bar Stars 2010: trend spotting

What's likely to shape cocktails in the coming year? We checked our notes and polled some of our new and former Bar Stars

via www.sfgate.com

Whisky bosses hit out after US TV show Family Guy sparks row - The Daily Record

Peter McCann, chairman of private alcohol treatment hospital Castle Craig, near Peebles, said: "I'm absolutely flabbergasted that programme-makers could find anything remotely funny orfrivolous about this.

"These images portray entirely  the wrong message to young people, who are not only the target audience, but those most at risk from alcohol abuse in this country today."

Jim Murray, author of the Whisky Bible and Family Man fan, said: "Brian, though just a mutt, is the most sensible and intelligent character on the show so absolute proof that Glenfiddich isn't going to the dogs.

via www.dailyrecord.co.uk

Jim Murray kills in this story with his end quotes.

Journalists ‘trying their best’

It’s not so much that the answer to the question “why oh why can’t we have a better press corps” is “because no one will pay for one.” I’d say that the question should be “why oh why can’t we have better reporting”, and the answer is “because no one will pay for it”.

via trueslant.com

Nopalito's Agave-Steeped Cocktail Program Goes Live Today - San Francisco Restaurants and Dining - SFoodie

White is also in the process of assembling the largest collection of mezcal "this side of Mayahuel,"

via blogs.sfweekly.com

People of class drink alcohol | Gene Expression | Discover Magazine

That is, that the more intelligent, who scored high on a vocabulary test, would drink more than the dumb, who scored low.

via blogs.discovermagazine.com

Beer: Anchors away

Two weeks ago, the beer world was jolted by the announcement that Fritz Maytag had sold the Anchor Brewing Co., in San Francisco to the Griffin Group, an investment and consulting company best known for growing Skyy Vodka into a multibillion-dollar brand.

via voices.washingtonpost.com

The Chuck Cowdery Blog: The Truth About Water and Ice.

So if you're tasting, stay at room temperature. If you're drinking, do whatever you like. If someone looks askance at it, remember they are the ignorant ones.

via chuckcowdery.blogspot.com

SF Chron Tequila Tasting

As Tequila takes on the trappings - and price tag - of a fancy liquor, it was a relief to see that we could still drink well without crossing the $30 barrier.

via www.sfgate.com

Betty White drinking game for SNL

In honor of the fact that an 88-year-old Golden Girl may very likely draw SNL's biggest audience since Tina Fey donned her Sara Palin wig, we've developed a drinking game and Betty Bingo card for the event.

via www.examiner.com

Restaurant Chains See Customers Returning - WSJ.com

Restaurants haven't been able to raise prices. Instead, they have developed new, lower-cost items or reduced costs by substituting lower-priced ingredients in their recipes.

via online.wsj.com

High-Alcohol Beer Coming to Stores in Calif., NYC

The beer being shipped to the U.S. market, called Tactical Nuclear Penguin, contains 32 percent alcohol by volume, more than six times what is found in typical domestic beers.

via www.jointogether.org

Aperitifs, once only found in Europe, make their way to U.S.

Within the next few weeks, Cocchi Aperitivo Americano also will be available.

via www.washingtonpost.com