Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Pick Your Poison


I just read this article by Deborah Blum in Slate:

The U.S. Treasury Department, charged with overseeing alcohol enforcement, estimated that by the mid-1920s, some 60 million gallons of industrial alcohol were stolen annually to supply the country's drinkers. In response, in 1926, President Calvin Coolidge's government decided to turn to chemistry as an enforcement tool. Some 70 denaturing formulas existed by the 1920s. Most simply added poisonous methyl alcohol into the mix. Others used bitter-tasting compounds that were less lethal, designed to make the alcohol taste so awful that it became undrinkable [...] By mid-1927, the new denaturing formulas included some notable poisons — kerosene and brucine (a plant alkaloid closely related to strychnine), gasoline, benzene, cadmium, iodine, zinc, mercury salts, nicotine, ether, formaldehyde, chloroform, camphor, carbolic acid, quinine, and acetone. The Treasury Department also demanded more methyl alcohol be added — up to 10 percent of total product. It was the last that proved most deadly.
Amazing stuff.  Is this where the phrase "pick your poison" comes from?  I dunno.  But I do know that I almost completely agree with the analysis by Megan McArdle from The Atlantic.  Her blog entry in Asymmetrical Information reads: 
I wish I could say I found it surprising, but it seem to me to be of a piece with too many other brutalities in American law.  We pass a law with the best of intentions, and find it doesn't work, and so we pass new regulations and policies designed to crack down on non-compliance, until we are brutalizing the population all out of proportion to the original good we were pursuing.  Consider the way we have cracked down on pain medications, impeding the effectiveness of pain control for people in chronic agony out of the fear that somewhere, someone might be getting high.
This unfortunate story, if you think about it, is an ancestor to so many things that are currently going on.  I think just like anything else it's important to note a few things.  First, it's really not astonishing to me that our government did something as brutal as this.  It's more important to me that we learn something from it and ensure our government knows it's pretty much unacceptable to start putting incrementally poisonous doses of formaldehyde in junk food.  There are better ways of curbing the appetite of Bebe's kids in America. 

Furthermore, I think we all can think of other activities that are currently illegal but seem pretty pointless to prosecute.  Dare I say, pointless to the level that prosecution produces no greater good to the society than other more progressive alternatives? 

I digress...

The reason this story relates so closely to this blog and cocktail making in 2010 is crystal clear.  For starters, the application of science and the principles of chemistry in cocktails have become more frequent (albeit less for the reason of outright poisoning people).  Now, I don't know very much about chemistry so this thought may seem a little ridiculous.  But I am curious to know if any of the same principles and/or processes that were used by bootleggers (and, consequently, U.S. Treasury Department chemists) are used by anyone for today's alcohol experimentations in any capacity.  Now be easy.  I'm pretty sure Todd Thrasher from PX isn't playing with strychnine in his cocktails.  I'm also not trying to take mixology to a whole new level or anything.  Maybe this is over-simplifying the science here, but it is the poisonous properties of alcohol that makes us loopy after all. 

It would just be a fascinating topic to explore.    


Anyway, this sinister application of chemistry juxtaposed against the scientific renaissance in bartending we've seen in the past decade also kind of imparts some signal that our society has progressed.  It may seem like a stretch but many times it feels like our society often flips aspects of its shadowy past around into a light-hearted, powerful or poignant symbol.  In turn, as a relic, it helps to enrich the culture even more moving forward.  Ok, so maybe I got too deep there... 

Anyway, I think it should also be noted that the scientific approach to hooch has developed an aura of professionalism in cocktail-making for some parts of the industry.  Maybe its a prestige that is long overdue.  The once comical scientific-sounding term "mixology" or the professional-scientist-sounding "mixologist" somehow gained some degree of legitimacy. 

The prohibition history of this story also relates more obviously in the speakeasy-style bar concepts have sprung up in cities like Washington D.C. (Have they peaked?  Read Derek Brown's entry regarding Gossip Girl).

History is pretty crazy when you get down into it.  And there's a great deal of history in the bar/booze industry.  I guess you can tell I'll take any chance I get to learn and talk about it.  If you'd like to expand on any of these ideas feel free to comment.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

The Rusty Root

So I brought my bottle of ROOT liqueur to Tonic with me.  I've been playing with a concoction quite a bit by now (as you can see from a few posts ago) so I had a drink ready for people to try.  Lucky for me, a bunch of my friends made it to the bar to booze it up. 


The drink was a hit.  It was limited only by the fact that we only had enough in the bottle to make approximately 8 drinks.  Here's the recipe for it.  I'm not totally sure someone hasn't already come up with this.  My inspiration was Dark & Stormies.  I call this the Rusty Root.

The Rusty Root

2 oz ROOT liqueur
Gosling's Ginger Beer
2 limes wedges

Glassware: pint glass

Squeeze one lime wedge into a pint glass and drop in.  Fill the glass with ice.  Pour 2 oz of ROOT liqueur into the glass.  Pour Gosling's Ginger Beer on top.  Squeeze the other lime on top and mix.  Enjoy.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Vegan Beer, Wine and Liquor Guide

The good folks at Barnivore have put together a beer, wine and liquor guide for vegans.  I took particular interest in the Barnivore beer guide.  There were some brewing companies that I wasn't really surprised to see as vegan friendly (Anchor Brewing Company, Rogue Ales, etc).  Then there were the brewing companies I was surprised about (Mickey's?  Who knew).  Anyway, anybody who knows me knows that I am certainly not a vegan.  But I thought the guide was interesting and maybe even helpful to those of you in the other Green Revolution.  Sláinte!

Monday, February 15, 2010

Art in the Age - ROOT Liqueur

I love moments like this... meandering your way through experimentation until a solid cocktail is found. I got a bottle of ROOT liqueur from my good friend Virginia Lee for Christmas last year. I brought the bottle to Tonic with three ROOT cocktail recipes ready to test out.  My guinea pigs? Tonic employees who were going to be sitting down to have their shift drink anyway.


I first undertook the Rootini. While the name itself sends shivers down my spine (see Derek Brown’s Goodbye to '80s Bartending Trends entry #1) I decided to give it whirl. Here’s the ingredients:

The Rootini

2 oz ROOT liqueur
½ oz Navan
Splash of heavy cream
Granulated sugar

Glassware: chilled martini glass

Begin chilling down a martini glass. In a shaker, add ice and 2 oz of ROOT liqueur. Add ½ oz of Navan and a splash of heavy cream. Rim the chilled martini glass with the granulated sugar. Shake the ingredients vigorously in the shaker and pour straight up into the martini glass.


So this cocktail received a mixed response. Some people hated it. Some people didn’t mind it. Those two reactions told me it wasn’t quite ready for prime time. OR this cocktail will need time for a little more experimentation to hit the right flavors.

I worked on this particular drink throughout the evening when I could. Then, as things began to wind down, I thought about the ROOT and ginger beer cocktail I’d seen. So I decided to start off simply putting ROOT with Gosling’s Ginger Beer. The result was great and it got a good reception from everybody. My bar manager, Doug, called it "a great summer drink." So keep this in mind when the warm weather comes back to DC.  I'll keep experimenting. 

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Next Song for the Jukebox

Anchor Bar for Superbowl XLIV

For Superbowl XLIV, Nicole took me to Anchor Bar, home of the original Buffalo wing. We found ourselves a seat close to the bar. Nicole and I got a couple of Labatt’s, a beef on weck, and a plate of Buffalo wings. And yes the Buffalo wings kicked ass. They were crispy and sloppy.







Jim's SteakOut - Buffalo, New York

Nicole has been begging me to come to Buffalo, New York ever since we met. It’s her hometown. Most of all, she wanted me to have her favorite "junk food" - a Chicken Finger Sub from Jim’s SteakOut. She’s obsessed with it. So we went to Buffalo just as Washington DC was being consumed by a record-breaking blizzard (ironically, Buffalo was forecast to get no significant snow accumulation).

We made our way to Elmwood Avenue to the Jim’s SteakOut location of Nicole’s childhood. We ordered. And I am happy to report that the Chicken Finger Sub lives up to the hype. If you happen to be in Buffalo, New York stop by Jim’s SteakOut and grab one. Then grab another for the road.







Note: This post has been revised since its original publication