Bibulo.us - We plead the 21st.

It ain't the size of the ship...

We here at Bibulo.us frequently lament the movement toward excessively large cocktails. By the time one gets to the bottom of one of these nine-ounce monsters, the drink has inevitably reached room temperature and the drinker's blood alcohol content has inevitably reached "slushy."

And so it warmed our hearts to see that someone had supported our observations with data. A study to be published in September in a the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research shows that the total ethanol content of the average Northern California cocktail is 42% greater than a "standard drink".  (A "standard drink" is defined as 0.6 ounces of pure ethanol, which is found in about 1.5 ounces of spirits.)  The paper itself is hidden behind a pay wall, but a little math shows that the average cocktail has about 2.13 oz of 80-proof spirit in it -- so once you add that lemon juice to your lemon drop (doubling the volume) and shake it with ice (adding 25%), we're looking at almost five and a half ounces of liquid. So the average cocktail in the Bay Area must be served in a seven-ounce glass (so it doesn't slop over the side).

This finding jibes with our anecdotal evidence. While there are outliers on the properly-sized side (we've often had outstanding 3.5-oz drinks at Absinthe or Bix) and on the vat-of-booze side (but we go to Martuni's anyway), most drinks are, well, just a little bit too big.

As the study's authors point out, The Incredible Expanding Cocktail has more serious effects than inflicting lukewarm cocktails on an unsuspecting public. People have a hard time knowing how much they've had to drink when "a cocktail" at one establishment equals three cocktails at another. So if you don't regularly bring a graduated cylinder and a hydrometer along with you to the bar, take our advice: have another cocktail, and take the subway home.

Cocktails

This application is reason enough to choose an iPhone over its competitors. Over 1500 recipes in your pocket, from printed sources, with the sources cited, and variant recipes ordered by year (with age nicely indicated by the background color).

Cocktails is from the fine folks who brought us cocktaildb.com and takes that prodigious work in the direction it has been needing to go in order to be considered an authoritative reference.

If they had just taken their database and added the origin of each recipe, this application would definitely be worth $10, but they brought the design and functionality to a level far above the cocktaildb.com we're all familiar with and, indeed, above the average iPhone app.

If this is 1.0, we can't wait to see where they go with it next.

Key features: multiple ways to search (recipe name, ingredient, type, flavor, and a relatively small number of tags such as "apertif" or "egg"), the ability to mark favorites (which can then be searched separately), an elegant navigation mechanism, and a beautiful look & feel.

This would be great enough, but they've also added two ideal export functions which couldn't be better chosen: email this recipe and Twitter about this recipe.

If we'd been asked to describe our ideal cocktail-related application, they'd probably have hit in this initial release 80% of what would be on our high-priority list.

Recommended. You can get Cocktails for iPhone in the iTunes store. View a demo here.

(Screenshot borrowed from Jamie Boudreau who also praised this application highly).

Jacqueline Patterson

Here's a great cocktail pairing: Jacqueline Patterson's inventive sensibilities behind the bar and Elizabeth Falkner's creative kitchen.

Jackie comes to the role of bar manager and mixologist at Orson from Le Colonial where she had already begun earning a reputation for creative new drinks.

She is also giving back to the profession by serving as secretary to the United States Bartender’s Guild's San Francisco Chapter.

Update 1: As of September 4, 2008, Jackie is off their website and appears to have left Orson. We have no doubt she'll make a safe landing somewhere and we hope to find ourselves at the bar with her again soon.

Update 2: As of early 2009, Jackie can be found at Heaven's Dog, making heavenly drinks. (She had a stint at Zinnia in between and we apologize for not updating her Bibulo.us entry - feel free to leave a comment or email us any time you've got bio updates!)

April 2009: Jackie's won another contest, this time for her beautiful drink with Cherry Heering, the Star-Crossed Lovers. It's a delicious drink and was selected as the winner for the U.S. portion of the Cherry Heering Accessorize 2009 contest. She's heading off to Singapore for the worldwide portion at the Raffles Hotel this June.

February 2009: Here's a great little video of Jackie teaching two sparkling wine cocktails on The View From The Bay.

Best days to catch Jackie at Heaven's Dog were Tuesday, Friday and Sunday as of April 2009). She's now also at Smuggler's Cove, so we'll have to get an update on her schedule.

Jonny Raglin

Jonny Raglin is a San Francisco bartender affiliated with Absinthe Brasserie and also may be found consulting in the guise of Proper Potion Consulting.

Prior to coming to Absinthe in 2004, he was mentored by Dan McCracken at Stars, as well as working at B-44 and Incanto. In 2007, he was selected as a Rising Star Bar Chef by StarChefs. As of 2010 he and Jeff Hollinger are the saloon keepers of the Comstock Saloon

The Clerkenwell

What happens when a bunch of cocktail geeks get together? Well, apart from a lot of photography of their concoctions, peculiar inventing sometimes takes place.

I mentioned a friend from Britain bringing me gifts including the real version of Worcestershire sauce, which uses malt vinegar and does not contain high fructose corn syrup.

Someone, maybe ol' lazybones on the right there, said "Why aren't there any drinks that use Worcestershire sauce?"

That's all it takes with this bunch.

A short discussion of flavor profiles took place and without further ado, a winning drink was created on the first try.

Ladies and gentlemen, we give you what the world has been waiting for, named for the famous Italian neighborhood in London, please enjoy The Clerkenwell cocktail.

2 oz Rittenhouse rye
1 oz Punt e Mes
2 dashes Worcestershire sauce (English variety!)

Stir on ice and strain into cocktail glass.
Ideally garnish with an orange twist so you get the orange oils over the top. (Those out of oranges, should use a nice bright orange bitters like Angostura Orange or Fee Brothers' Orange. If you've got a frozen orange slice, drop that in as garnish).