May and June's Goings On

Not only was June a good month for my bar (see previous post), it was good for a multitude of other reasons as well. May had quite a few good memories as well! Here's a rundown of some of the major points:

1) Boston Trip: The trip up to Boston was wonderful. I was able to interview 16 different fund managers to get some insight into their funds and the markets, which gave me some great talking points. After the conference, I met up with Scuto and RJordan from the Wormwood Society and Fee Verte so we could head to 'Drink' for a few cocktails.

The bar was fantastic, with great atmosphere, fantastic mixologists, and unbelievable drinks. We had one cocktail newb, and one non-drinker in the party (I was neither), so it was a interesting group for a cocktail bar. We were lucky enough to pair up with Misty Kalkofen, mixologist extraordinaire and founder of LUPEC Boston, who got right down to asking us what types of drinks we liked, then began her art of drink construction from there. Over the course of the next few hours, she made for me multiple cocktails with Rye and Absinthe as a base, and branching out into Chartreuse amongst other things. Of those I took note, I had a Diamond Back, a Sazerac, a Vieux Carre and a Lawhill. We also got to sample some of their tasty Hibiscus Punch. Scuto got some of those, but other goodies as well. I was happy to see how his experience totally blew away his expectations! I think we've got a convert.

I highly recommend you seek out Drink and Misty if you're ever in Boston.


2) The long awaited Absinthe article I'd been working on for Mutineer Magazine was published last week! I pulled Gwydion Stone from Marteau Absinthe and the WS as well as Ted Breaux of the Jade and Lucid brands to help put together a kind of Absinthe 101. Lots of history and information, but high level enough that it could hold anyone's attention. It's a fantastic magazine anyway, so I suggest EVERYONE buys a subscription. It's so cheap, and it's totally worth it.

3) Monteleone Cocktail Competition - For the 60th Anniversary of the Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone, the hotel, in conjunction with the organizers of the Tales of the Cocktail, held a contest to create the new Monteleone Cocktail. Entries came in from around the world, from some of the best mixologists. The entries were pared down to 5 finalists based on ingredients, ease of preparation, taste and relation to New Orleands. Those 5 cocktails were judged by the finalists of last year's Top Chef competition.

According to the organizers, my cocktail was the overwhelming favorite! So now my cocktail will be a feature on the cocktail menu at the Carousel Bar and I'll also get a 4 night stay for free at the hotel during the TotC! Here's a picture of the Top Chef crowd with my cocktail and following that is the recipe:

2 oz Sazerac Rye
1 1/2 oz St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur
1/2 oz Domaine De Canton Ginger Liqueur
2 dashes Fee Brothers Orange Bitters
Splash of Ginger Ale

Shake ingredients and strain into a julep cup or cocktail glass with crushed ice. Garnish with orange slice.

4) Lastly the Wormwood Society is now on Twitter and also on Facebook. We will be doing Top Ten lists and plenty of other cool information about absinthe each week. Make sure to follow us!

June Bar Update

June was a busy, busy month for me, both professionally and also outside of work. Several business trips allowed me to seek out some great liquor stores in my free time so I was able to find some things I can't normally get in the DC area. I got some goodies this month!

Stirrings Simple Syrup
Stirrings Grenadine (Imbibe magazine's top Grenadine)
Fentiman's Fermented Tonic Water (AWESOME!!)
Carpano Antica Vermouth
Delaware Phoenix Walton Waters Absinthe
Delaware Phoenix Meadow of Love Absinthe
Del Maguey Pechuga Mezcal
Del Maguey Chichicapa Mezcal
Del Maguey Tobala Mezcal
Del Maguey Crema de Mezcal (Mezcal with Agave syrup)
Corzo Plata tequila
Centenario Hibiscus tequila
Hudson Valley Rye
Spirit of the Hudson Apple vodka
Absinth Supreme
Voyager Gin
Compass Box Asyla Whisky
Compass Box Oak Cross Whisky
Clear Creek Eau de Vie Limosine Cask aged
Nonino Chestnut Honey distillate (distilled honey taken from bees who only foraged on chestnut trees)
Nonino Citrus Tree Honey distillate (same as above, only with citrus trees)

Pretty good month!

Off to Boston!

Tomorrow I leave for a quicky trip to Boston to grill some fund managers. When I return, I plan to add a few new posts, including one on what is apparently the best cocktail bar in Boston: 'Drink'. We'll see. *Devil Grin*

Absinthe Tasting with Gary Vaynerchuck

So, here it is! After working on this for close to a year, we finally found a date that would work for both of us. Click below to be taken to the WS site where you can view the video (30 min.).






Here's the back story:

I've been watching Gary do wine tastings on his site, WineLibraryTV.com for quite a while now. I've always enjoyed his high energy, no pretense approach to wine. It brings it out of the stuffy shadows and snobbery that a lot of people equate with wine specialists. If you didn't know, his show is available on iTunes, so it can be automatically downloaded each day.

Anyway, back in July of last year, I was surprised to see an episode of Scotch pop up, and I got to thinking: if he is branching out and doing other things, he'd probably be interested in trying an absinthe episode.

I emailed him the next day, explaining to him who I am and a little about absinthe. I told him that in many ways, I liken absinthe to wine, in that after it's properly diluted, it has the same relative strength, and just as much depth of flavor.

I heard back within the day, with Gary saying he loved the idea! Planning the date proved to be harder than anticipated, but we finally nailed it down about two months ago.

All in all, it was a great experience. My only disapointment was that we were forced to cut out one of the brands I brought due to time constraints. Sorry to Marc Bernhard and his wonderful absinthe, Pacifique. I didn't have a choice in the matter.

Monthly update: Latest acquisitions

Welcome to the first monthly bar acquisition update. Each month I'll at least try to remember what I've obtained for my bar. This month, it's pretty easy to remember, since most of it came in recently:

I took a jaunt downtown to visit fellow WS member, Joe Riley at Ace Beverage in NW DC after a meeting. While it's not the biggest store I've seen, as he said, "We make due with what we've got." That he does. They've got an amazing selection of some great liquors and wines that I haven't been able to find anywhere else, including all of the Del Magey Mezcal offerings, Marteau absinthe, the full line of Haus Alpenz offerings and a ton more. I took the opportunity to complete my Haus Alpenz collection as well as pick up some other syrups I'd been meaning to get.

Along with that, I received some nice goody bags throughout the month too.

Added:

Scarlet Ibis bespoke rum
Battavia Arrack
Fee Brothers Orgeat
Agave Syrup
La Fee X.S. (yuck)
Bob's Bitters from the U.K. - Lavender, Cardamom, Coriander, Vanilla, Licorice, Grapefuit, and Ginger






New Totals:
Absinthe (not including vintage): 135
Gin: 16
Rum: 15
Scotch: 57
Tequila/Mezcal: 10
Vodka: 16
Whiskey: 29

Others (cordials, schnapps, etc): 97

Latest Absinthe Tasting

It's been too long since I last updated the blog, but I've been overwhelmed with projects, both in my real job, and outside of it. Since noone here cares about my finance stories, I'll totally skip over that and update you instead on everything else!

1) Big news on the absinthe education front. I've enlisted the help of several Wormwood Society members to contribute to an upcoming absinthe feature in a prominant magazine. It will be both the cover story and also an 8+ page spread. It should be great! I'll hold off on announcing which publication until everything is finalized.

2) I'll be visiting with Gary 'Vay-ner-CHUCK' on WineLibraryTV to go over several brands of absinthe that are now available in the US. We tape on April 8th. I'll post airing info as it becomes available.

3) The latest date for the TasteDC Absinthe Tasting event has been set for May 14th again at the Chi Cha Lounge in NW DC. I believe the house absinthes will still be featured (Kubler, Lucid and Pernod) as well as several others that I've been able to procure, which at this point will probably be Marteau, Leopold Brothers and Obsello with a potential showing of Pacifique. The last event went fabulously, although I did have some trip ups with the history presentation. I'd tried to throw too much into too little time and it got a little sloppy. This time it should go much more smoothly, since I know exactly how much time I have.

4) Posted a point/counterpoint article regarding some new 'absinth' (notice there's no 'e') products coming to the U.S. market over on The Real Absinthe Blog.

Upcoming entries:
1) A post about the last absinthe tasting event
2) Another Scotch tasting event recap
3) A roundup of the WineLibraryTV taping

See you around!

The Durian cometh...

For years, I'd been hearing about a fruit that was so offensive to the olfactory sense, that in some countries, it's against the law to consume it in public, or even carry it on public transportation. Trouble is, until recently, I never had a clue where I could find any.

In the past two years, I've seen many a travel show have a segment or two on the Durian fruit. Andrew Zimmern tried it in three separate episodes, and could never finish more than one or two bites. Here's one of his experiences.

Anthony Bourdain on the other hand, slops it up like the best stinky cheeses.

If two of my favorite food show hosts had such disparate views on it, which side of the coin would I fall on?

First was my quest to find a purveyor. Luckily, the DC area is chock full of Asian markets that sell all sorts of durian comestibles: Fresh, frozen, durian juice, durian ice cream, durian Popsicles, etc. I thought my best bet would be just to go with durian au naturale.

On my way home from the market, I quickly realized that there was no way my wife was going to let me eat this thing in the house. Even in it's partially frozen state, it still stank to high heaven! Think rotten egg, onion and vanilla pudding all mixed up in a big ol' bucket. That's durian aroma for you.

Grabbing a cutting board, I brought it out onto the deck to continue to thaw. It would be mine the following day...

Properly rested and prepared for my culinary journey, I grabbed my trusty cleaver and walked out to meet my new friend.

Now thoroughly thawed, I could tell that I was a very very lucky man to have kept it outside as opposed to in the house overnight. Even with the breeze, the smell permeated everything. It's unmistakable, and unavoidable. And it only gets stronger when you cut into it. As you open it, you do get a bit more of a sweet scent, which makes it a bit more tolerable, but still not a scent that most Americans equate with anything other than spoilage. Something similar to old pumpkin. You know, the smell you get about a week after Halloween, when your carved pumpkins start to get a bit gamey?

I'd heard from several sources that durian is best eaten with your nose plugged, as the smell and taste aren't necessarily linked. I'd beg to differ.

The taste itself is odd. Not totally off-putting, but not totally enjoyable either. It's a combination of custard, papaya, celery, squash, and shallots. The sweetness is what you first taste, then you get the shallot/light sweet onion flavor in the back of the mouth. It's something that brings two distinct emotions, one of wanting to gag, but one wanting to have more. You have to keep reminding yourself that the oniony flavor isn't due to rotting, or going bad, it's just the natural flavor.

The texture is probably the strangest part. The only way to describe it is like very hard scrambled eggs, with a bit of the membraney/stringy type texture of overripe mango. It's tough to get used to.

I think the hardest thing to deal with is the 'recurrences'. Durian seems to fester in your stomach, creating a lot of gasses that you regurgitate for the next several hours, which taste and smell just as strongly as the actual fruit. Definitely keep stocks of breathmints and Beano.

Overall, it's not bad, but you definitely have to have an open mind when you attack it. It's something that, at first taste, I wasn't very fond of, but becomes an acquired taste. Now, I can eat them without a problem. But, as Anthony Bourdain said, durian is definitely best eaten alone.