Funky Pot Still Jamaican Rum

By Confucius' pointy beard, I love this bottle!

About a year ago I think, the intrepid Mr. Seed pulled a couple of rum samples of his legendary black bag (seriously, anyone who knows the man respects the hell out of that bag.) They were Jamaican pot still spirits that I had never heard of, each was pretty out-there. Full of tropical fruits and odd spices and above all else, funky. I really wasn't quite sure what to make of them. A few months later, on another visit, Mr. Seed , M. Cate and myself met for dinner and a new sample came out of the black bag of myth and fables, this time it was a blend and it blew us away.

We didn't have enough to make a drink, but we both saw and smelled truth in that little bottle. Well I just got a chance to make a drink with it tonight...and wow. I simple rum sidecar with it yielded incredible tropical fruits like mango, papaya and pineapple with hints of cinnamon and nutmeg. The three of us that were tending bar were stunned.

GO GET A BOTTLE NOW.

Dealing with the Angostura shortage.

How a certain whiskey bar in San Francisco is dealing with the Angostura shortage.

Angostura Bitters Shortage

I have been off the blog for way too long as a result of some travel and a tech meltdown. Rather than try to catch up all at once, I am going to ease back into it at the regular pace.

So for today, lets talk Angostura bitters. I am quite surprised there is so little chatter about the what is going on in Trinidad and how it is effecting us. The short version is that the global financial crisis forced Trinidad & Tobago to bail out CL Financial, the parent company of Angostura, and it's bank in January of this year. This is after a few years of some aggressive dealing including the investment in the company that owns Appleton in Jamaica and a defunct distillery in Kentucky. My understanding is that the company was spending money it planned on making before the economy lowed and credit dried up. Apparently the books were so bad that the company had to be pulled from the stock market and has been in limbo.

What this means to us is that the one ingredient that is present in every bar that mixes drinks, Angostura bitters, has not been in production for almost a year. This clearly a very selfish view of things and in realty, I am pretty disgusted that the worker class folk that are responsible for our beloved cocktail bitters are suffering because of greed and mismanagement. The good news is that we might be moving towards resolution. An article last week in Newsday Trinidad says things might get straightened out soon.

This is a good thing. Major distributors on both costs have been out for awhile now and bartenders have been cleaning out corner liquor stores to keep the Manhattans flowing. Cocktail Kingdom has secured a good supply and I have it on good authority that BevMo (in California at least) has a solid source for the 4 oz. size as well. I believe I have about a year's worth stashed, but am still feeling a little nervous about it so I started a huge batch of homemade just in case. Here is the recipe that I based it on.

Islay Gears up to use Local Barley

The Laddie Blog based out of Bruichladdich shared some of their strategy for the future today. I have talked before about the importance they place on keeping every stage of the production on Islay (they are the only Islay distiller that bottles on the island and will remain so until Kilchomen comes on-line.) While it is undeniably cool, it is actually an important and integral part of their mission. It is important to me because their world view as it pertains to spirit jives right along with mine as it pertains to bar. When one talks to Mark Reynier, Jim McEwan or Duncan McGillvray, the team that heads production at Bruichladdich, about their whisky, you always end up talking about Islay. Just as when I talk about drinks, I focus on the people behind the spirits. They understand that they are creating more than bottles of booze, but that they are bottling the essence of their home for the world to share. The water (most bottles are 53% water), the air (as the spirit ages it takes on elements of the atmosphere), and now the earth are in there. For those skeptics and naysayers out there, just think about wine. Could you imagine a Burgundy wine-house buying it's grapes from Greece? Sure they could make wine out of those grapes, and probably some interesting stuff at that, but it certainly wouldn't be Burgundy. Well, most of the Scotch industry rely on foreign grain for their production. I find this a little disturbing when considering how much they charge for some of their juice.

But is it Good for The Vegans?

There was a question on Jeopardy last night about weasel processed coffee beans. My girl B did some research and came up with this.

Nope, no thank you.

Make-Your-Own-Old-Fashioned Bar

I participated again last in SFChefs.Food.Wine in Union Square where I set up an Old-Fashioned bar. Rather than committing to one spirit, I decided to call upon my favorite producers and gather as big an array of whisk(e)y as the bar could hold. In the end I had a full 30 brands.

To compliment all the spirits, I went a little over on the bitters and sugar. In addition to Angostura, Peychaud's and Regan's, I brought 8 homemade bitters and tinctures. For sugar I had traditional cubes, Muscavodo, Rapadura, Agave Nectar, Lavender Honey and beautiful Japanese sugar that was light like confectioners sugar but tasted like cane.

I had this selection out front so guests would come up, I would hand them a glass and muddle and coach them through making and old-fashioned. We talked about the options and then I would cut ice chunks while they muddled and mixed. I went over pretty well if i do say so myself.

Keep Walking...

Rowley's Whisky Forge pointed me to a extremely well done short on the history of Johnnie Walker. The style is undeniably perfect as an ad, but I think it is more than a little ironic that Robert Carlyle seems to be walking out in the middle of nowhere at the end, much like the 400 former Johnnie Walker employee who were just laid off from the historic facility in Kilmarnock where the brand began.

Martin Muthagrabbin Cate!

I found the following in my inbox this morning. I hope this tingly feeling lasts all day.


SAN FRANCISCO, CA- Smuggler’s Cove, San Francisco’s forthcoming destination for rum and exotic cocktails, proudly announces Eurydice, a new rum crafted exclusively for Smuggler’s Cove. Handcrafted by the artisan distillers of St. George Spirits in consultation with Smuggler’s Cove owner Martin Cate, Eurydice (yur-id-ih-see) is a completely unique rum. Eurydice starts with the fresh-pressed cane juice of 100% California-grown sugar cane. The cane, grown in Southern California, is harvested and crushed at St George Spirits’ Alameda facility where it is fermented with two strains of wine yeast designed to accent the fruit and floral notes of the cane. Eurydice is then distilled in an alembic pot still and aged in two different barrels: a re-toasted French wine cask, followed by a used bourbon barrel to develop subtle vanilla, brown sugar, and butter notes. The final product marries these characteristics to the light, dry, floral qualities of an agricole-style rhum for a unique rum experience.

Eurydice is a 100% California grown and produced artisan product. The name derives from Zerene Eurydice, the California state butterfly. Eurydice was produced in extremely limited quantities and will be available exclusively at Smuggler’s Cove when it opens to the public this fall.

SFChefs.Food.Wine or What 4 Gallons of Shrub Looks Like

San Francisco is throwing quite a party this weekend and I am tending bar 2 or the 3 nights. I figured since I have been evangelizing the beauty of Shrub so much recently (the house the vinegar built?) that I had to bring some sweet, sweet burn.

What you are looking at is what happens when the forces of nature get busy with:
2 flats of beautiful Strawberries from Capay (I mean friggen BEAUTIFUL)
5 pounds of evaporated cane sugar
1 pound rapadura sugar (funky!)
2 gallons cider vinegar
black pepper
white pepper
cloves
Jamaican Sarsaparilla
ginger
salt

New-Make

I have been having a little bout of fascination with an oddball bottle recently. Death's Door came to my market with their white whisky. My feeling is that this started as a lark. They were putting spirit in barrel, but wanted to see if they could sell some in the new-state (immediate gratification through immediate compensation.) I kind of like this lark though.

This bottle has caused quite a bit of confusion amongst my staff and guests which I really don't understand. When I introduce it, I say that it is whisky that has never gone into a barrel. Invariably the response I get back is, "Oh, like moonshine." For the life of me, I cannot see why unaged spirit is immediately associated with back-country contraband, but there you have it.

Here is the long story:

It is incredibly expensive to start a whiskey operation in America. Say you are really well organized and have a solid design and building team, it will take you a year to build facility. Say you are a genius and experienced at distilling and it only takes you 6 months to get consistent spirit flowing. Say now, you want to be traditional with your aging and release a very young expression at just 2 years old (which is generally not the best use of spirit). That's 3 and 1/2 years of spending money before you can even taste you stuff, let alone sell any. A tough business model by most standards. Even tougher when you consider that the US government essentially taxes the juice as it comes off the still.

So there are 2 routes the new American distiller can go to be viable. They can work out some way to speed up aging, like Tuthiltown (small barrels and sound waves) and Wasmund's (fruitwood chips.) Or they can sell unaged spirit in some form while their whisky ages. Until now this has given us just a wide selection of vodkas (yawn) and gins (yippee.) Death's Door has opened up what I think might be a new, emerging category.

Bring on the New Make Spirits! Christian Krogstad of House Spirits (one of the most knowledgeable distillers we have and an all-around nice guy) gifted me with some of his un-cut 'barley eau de vie' along with a smaller sample of some very young aged stuff a few months ago. The new-make is as grassy as it is grainy and reminds me quite a bit of Rhum Agricole. The slightly-aged is, well, pretty much the same with some color and and vanilla starting to show. Rick Wasmund has started selling his new-make Rye Spirit and even has a DIY age-at-home scheme which is pretty outstanding. There are also a few unaged corn-whiskies out there as well which tend to lean a little more towards the moonshine side of things than the eau de vie of grain side that these rest on. Sounds almost like a 'movement' doesn't it.

As I was writing this, I started to think about Scotland and the Bruichladdich X4. My week at the now-defunct Whisky Academy on Islay revolved around the somewhat dodgy quadruple distillation of this spirit and my class each went home with a flask of it (same sort of grassiness as the House Spirits flask.) I have seen that they are selling the X4 both as new make and as a very young spirit (not old enough to be called Single Malt Whisky yet) in Europe. As it turns out, their neighbors at the new distillery Kilchomen are starting to sell some new make as well. as well Glenglassaugh and Abhainn Dearg.

So now that's 4 from Scotland and 3 from the US with more definitely on the way. I am gonna go ahead and call it, the New-Make category is born.

OBC: Other Blog's Content

This is the best Bottle Review I have read this year.

Sloshed just kills me sometimes.

Great Peruvian Pisco Ads.

The Pisco industry is poised to break bad in the US in the coming years. Here are some pretty great ads. Scroll down to the 'Not for Beginners' parts.

Expertvillage and ehow have done some stunningly bad work in reference to drinks in the past. I recently came upon a new series with a bartender named Micah. While he clearly in over his head in most of the segments (holding up a bottle of Jack Daniels while talking about Bourbon for instance) this one drives me absolutely nuts. Mostly because he is right.

Battle!

I can't tell if they are going to kiss or fist-fight. Either way, this is a great video set that brings up some some important ideas.

The Master, Colin Field, makes a point at 3:35 on part 1 that makes my heart sing. Then he just plain crushes me at 2:20 on part 2.

Scoop...from Lenell Herself.

The following was forwarded to me from Mr. Ellestad... then found again in my spambox.

It's kind of like the first time I had the Hirsch 16. I am sad knowing it will end, excited to have experienced it and hopeful something like it will happen again.

Date: Wed, Jul 22, 2009 at 6:53 PM
Subject: The Scoop from LeNell

First of all, I want to apologize to any of you on my store email listwho had to read my latest news first on some blog or internet gossipsite. Without getting on a LeNell rant here, all I will say isbloggers should show some good Southern manners and use “May I?”before videotaping someone. To then post that video on their web sitewithout asking me just seems like there should be some sort of“etiquette” established. Everyone’s out for the news that gets theclicks. I’m just sayin’ shame, shame on you, Joshua Hoffman, for yoursecret video moves. I hope you show more respect next time.

Just so you know, I was composing an announcement to this email listwhen this blog silliness started. I was hurt that I didn’t even get achance to send my email to you first, but here goes now, a bitpremature, but at least from me instead of a blogger.

After searching for a new store home for quite some time, I’m officially giving up the hunt. Without boring you with details ofsituations considered, just know that I feel like I have doneeverything I could to secure a home that made good business sense.When I opened my shop, I never dreamed of it as a “flash in the pan”kind of business. I had hopes that it would become a legacy, alifetime work. I was hoping for the kind of biz that my kids wouldgrow up in and run someday should they want to. I say that to let youknow I was always shooting for hope that in a certain number of years,I would own my own space.

Several times I’ve considered just signing a lease to be in businessout of desperation. However, my goal has always been to find a homethat offered an opportunity for long term growth of the store, though.I didn’t need it to be a franchise in every state or a store that hadshopping carts with wheels. I am “mom and pop” kinda material thatneeds hope that the “family farm” ain’t walking away with the firststorm. Done a whole lot of soul searching about what I want out of allof this.

Basically I’m tired of the real estate rat race of NY, and it’s time to move on. Sometimes it takes more strength to move on than to hangon. I ain’t got nothin’ to prove to anybody any more, includingmyself. And that feels so good.

I did my duty to shut down the store not owing anybody anything. I did not close down the store with a million dollars in my bankaccount, but, my love tanks are full as I have met some of the mostcaring, gosh dang great people. And this ain’t the end of it.

I’m not giving up the booze business, of course. I’m writing articles, having a blast with the folks at AOL Slashfoodhttp://www.slashfood.com/bloggers/lenell-smothers, as well ascontinuing the research on the history of eggs in drinks for my book.I’m still teaching classes, hosting private events, guest bartending,and leading tastings. If I exist, I will be in this business invarious forms. I love it.

I love this City. We all know if you can make it in NYC, you can makeit anywhere. Coming home to that skyline brings a smile to manyfaces. I recently figured out that happiness can exist beyond thatskyline, though.

Yes, the rumor is true. For years friends have said to me, “Dang,LeNell. I don’t think any man will ever be able to handle you. You’refrightening.” Well, someone stepped up to the plate, and he proved hecan hang. His name is Demian. We’ve weighed options here, there, andeverywhere. Right as my last NY negotiation fell through, we found ahome for sale in Baja California Sur (that’s part of Mexico, by theway). We would like to explore possibilities of opening up a“getaway” place for folks but it’s too early to give too many detailsjust right now. I was waiting to send this email out later this weekas our first offer goes in today but the blog world has “called meout” to speak to you a bit prematurely. Dammit.

I’m still in NY working through the piles of details involved withshutting down a biz (for real) this time and an international move.Ben and I are working on setting up a new website where you can hearall the latest in greater detail. In the meantime, if you aren’talready on my “cocktail of the month” list, subscribe below for thefirst full length write-up that Demian and I worked on together thatwill go out shortly.

Over and over I've been touched by your loving emails, your sweetvoice mail messages, the hand written notes, the hugs, and all othervery real human connections we've made that makes it all worth while.Thank you for it all!

I'm excited to turn the page and start the next chapter. I hope youare somewhere in the story, too.

From the bottom of my sinful heart,LeNell

"To exist is to change; to change is to mature; to mature is to createoneself endlessly." - Henri Bergson

What the What?

I found this piece in the Village Voice today announcing that LeNell Smothers is moving her show to Mexico! Crazy news, if it is true. It does sound like something LeNell would say (if you are not familiar with her, get thee to google) but I really don't see it.

Also, LeNell did not distill her own rye as stated at the end of the article. She bought barrels at KBD and they bottled it under her label.

Johnnie Say It Ain't So

I feel like I have been bashing Diageo a lot lately and I want to assure my small, but no doubt, concerned readership that I do not, in fact, have it out for them. However, I was very disappointed to see the Scotsman report that the industry giant has decided to close the historic Kilmarnock plant. While I have not been a huge Johnnie Walker fan (I have tasted vintage bottles against the modern offerings...shameful), I am a huge fan of the Scotch Whisky industry and many people smarter than myself say moves like this are the beginning of the end.

It sames very odd to me that at a time when the are more Whisky drinkers than ever before and new markets are opening, the two biggest players, Diageo and Pernod Ricard, are consolidating.

Vintage Commercial

Someone calling himself barmanamok sent this gem to me.

Thanks

Home From Tales

It felt like the last day of summer camp yesterday, well all wanted to the the party going, but were also quite ready to get back to our lives...and some more reasonable ambient temperatures. Tales of the Cocktail 2009 was every thing it should be, i.e. a complete mess. The schedules were ambitious at best, the drinks were exactly what most of us spend our days preaching against and brands reared their ugly sides repeatedly. However, going through all this with a couple of hundred of you closest friends is just plain priceless. Like last year, I will just list the highlights.

-Morgenthaler, Thrasher, Alperin (mohawked!), Wondrich, Kalkofen, Gonzalez, Clarke, Gomez and myself on stage.

-Luke, August and Chochon

-Raw tasting room (tremendous!)

-The mighty women of LUPEC (I say gawDAM, I love those girls)

-Beefeater & Hendrick's: Back-to-back great times

-Bee Sweet Cupcakes

-The boys from LA

-The folks from Seatle

-The fools from Portland

-The guys from Chicago

-My friends from New York

-All the people from San Francisco I have to to New Orleans in order to hang out with

-The perpetual meet-and-greet in the Monteleone lobby

-Late night at the Old Absinthe House

-all the stuff I missed but kept hearing about

Everything is soaked with pisco.
- macmoore

Sent using only the power of my mind.