Ending my Lunar New Year Party with Bitter Orange Jello Shots was a hit, so I will pass along this simple recipe. Bitter Orange Jello Slices 6 oranges 2 cups boiling water 6 oz. package of orange Jello 3/4 cup cold water 1 1/4 cups chilled vodka 1/4 cup orange bitters (I used Angostura brand) […]
Category Archives: Spirits
Have you Heard About HeardAbout?
I’ve been writing about my favorite dishes around San Francisco on HeardAbout.com for a while, and while hanging out with the founder and editor one afternoon, I persuaded them that cocktails would be a great addition to their culinary site, so you can check my out some of my favorite San Francisco cocktails on my […]
St. George’s New Gins (& The Best Place To Taste Them)
My favorite mad scientists, the fine distillers at St. George Spirits have just released their first gin… and their second… and their third. This delectable trio of new gins is incredibly diverse and unique. When I mentioned the endeavor in an article earlier this year, master distiller Lance Winters only described what would become the […]
Bitter Last Words
A friend recently mentioned how one crafty bartender had treated her to his bitter variation of the Last Word, swapping Angostura for gin in the traditional recipe. I had to give it a try, and found it biting and aggressive in the nicest way, so I figure it’s worth passing along. Bitter Last Words 3/4 […]
Gunpowder Test
In the 18th and 19th centuries, when the British Royal Navy rationed rum to mariners, it wasn’t Bacardi Gold. This stuff had to be fiery enough to fend off the elements, so to ensure their booze wasn’t being watered down, seamen would perform the gunpowder test by dousing a pile of gunpowder with rum, touching […]
Why Connoisseur Is A French Word
I was treated to lunch by two fine, upstanding gentlemen from France (no, that’s not an oxymoron), and we tasted through a couple of great Cognac cocktails from Michael Mina and then four of their fine brandies1, but the highlight of their selection was a pair of vintage cognacs about to come to market in […]
History of Craft Cocktails
My latest article for DrinkMe Magazine just rolled off the presses, but if you can’t pick up a copy, here’s the piece I wrote, accompanied by some great photos by my dear friend Liza. Click the image to link to the article on the DrinkMe site, or read it less prettily formatted below. Cheers, Quinn […]
BarSmarts Wired Is Free!
I’ve mentioned BarSmarts, but didn’t go into detail, however I have completed the course and found it enlightening. BarSmarts Wired is an online cocktail and spirits education program created by some of the biggest names in the business, and it is incredibly thorough, with superb content, expert-led videos, tests and a printable pdf manual that […]
The Cheery Herring
I had forgotten all about this recipe, which I posted on nermo.com before I wrote (or knew) much about cocktails, until I got an email today from a gal at Al Gore’s office asking if he could use my red herring Illustration in some of his presentations on the environment. Permission granted and recipe reposted. […]
Aromatic Garnish
Last week I attended a tasting for Bloom Gin, a floral London Dry from the world’s only female master gin distiller (update: or so they claim. See Chad’s comment below), which is about to launch in the US. Among a flight of cocktails, there was something simple yet remarkable. The Bloom G+T was garnished with […]