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Rum Is Seriously Hot For The Springtime

Or… consider Rum when drinking late Spring cocktails…  But first what is Rum?

I think a better example is what Rum is and is not.

Warren Bobrow
Warren Bobrow

• Rum is not made of grain. It is derived from sugarcane.  Most Rum on the market is distilled from Molasses. Molasses is the stuff that is left after making sugar. It’s not pretty- you probably have a bottle of Blackstrap Molasses in your pantry. Same thing.

• Rum can be made with freshly crushed sugar cane juice- That style tends to be what we call Agricole or Agricultural. If the juice is not tanked within a day or so, it goes bad.

• Most Rum is aged in used American Bourbon oak barrels. Just like your Tequila and your Scotch and sometimes your beer. If you like Rum, you will probably be a whiskey drinker too.

 • Most Rum contains Caramel Coloring.  This is the market forces at work.  The consumer assumes that a dark rum means an old rum.  Untrue.  Like Whiskey, and their Scottish cousin Whisky, these liquids grow lighter in color with age.  Not darker in color like the bottles on the shelf would suggest with vastly inflated prices- because the rum just LOOKS old.  Bad form in my opinion.

• Most Rum contains the chemical known as glycerin for the creamy and richly textured “mouth-feel”… When distilleries and rectifiers (those who buy their distillate and say they make their own stuff-when they don’t, but there are no rules- so…) often add adjuncts and flavorings to the rum.  (Bad news in my opinion)

Please, read further at https://totalfood.com/rum-seriously-hot-springtime/

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Articles Recipes Reviews

Why Cannabis Cocktails Get A Bad Rap When They Are So Wonderful

And a gorgeous recipe for a Louis Armstrong’s Way cannabis fizzy.

I’ve made my living for the better part of seven years in the liquor space. With that said, I’ve noticed some real changes in that traditional world of intoxicants over the past year or so. After being tolerated for a few years, the large liquor companies are having serious misgivings about being too friendly with the cannabis family. Perhaps this is because the ongoing stigma that hovers just over the periphery in every illicit transaction outside of the “three tier system.” You see, the liquor industry has been permitted to print their own tickets since Prohibition, under the watchful gaze of the government. Taxation is a powerful determinate with broad reaching implications.

Read More athttps://thefreshtoast.com/drink/why-cannabis-cocktails-get-a-bad-rap-when-they-are-so-wonderful/

Louis Armstrong’s Way Fizzy

(makes 2 drinks and a bit more)

4 oz. Clement Rhum Agricole “Canne Bleue”
½ oz. Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
1 oz. Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice
1 oz. Fruitations Soda and Cocktail Syrup- Tangerine
½ lime cut into chunks
4 oz. Ginger Beer Soda (sugar cane based, never corn syrup based)
Angostura
To a Boston Shaker: Fill ¾ with ice. Add the Rhum Agricole and the Fresh juices. Add the Fruitations Syrup. Cap and shake hard until frosty. Muddle the lime in a rocks glass or two. Add a couple cubes of ice. Pour over the contents of the Boston Shaker. Finish with about 2 oz. of the Ginger Beer Soda over the top of each glass. Stir. Dot with Angostura. Serve.

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Books Events

An Evening of Mezes and Music at The Farm Cooking School

Author Series-Tree of Life: Turkish Home Cooking 

An Evening of Mezes and Music at The Farm Cooking School, Titusville, New Jersey – May 9 – 6-8 pm with Author Joy Stocke and Friends

Tree of Life: Turkish Home Cooking

“The “aliveness” of the very freshest vegetables in your own garden or farmer’s market deserves a cookbook that honors not only nutritional vitality, but also the hundreds of generations of great cooks who have refined Turkey’s favorite recipes into a kaleidoscopic whirl of tastes, aromas, colors and textures. Stocke and Brenner celebrate the cuisine of a culinary-crossroads country in ways that are truly mouth-watering.”  Deborah Szekely, Founder Rancho La Puerta and the Golden Door Spa

Join Farm Cooking School frind and author Joy Stocke for an evening of mezes, conversation and music as we celebrate the publication of Tree of Life: Turkish Home Cooking (Quarto/Burgess Lea Press) by Joy E. Stocke & Angie Brenner.  Photographs by Jason Varney.

Joy E. Stocke & Angie Brenner

From her first visit to Anatolia, Joy was captivated by the traditional meze table, an array of small plates and savory snacks. Sample Gougères a la Turka, a twist on the traditional recipe featuring feta cheese and garnished with Aleppo pepper or Nigella seeds; Olives with Garlic and Preserved Lemon, Savory Spiced Chickpeas, Baked Hummus with Pine Nuts, and mini shish kebabs.

Mezes are often accompanied by a cool glass of wine, anise-flavored raki, or a cocktail such as the Bosporus Fizz – a beguiling mix of fresh carrot juice, a dash of turmeric and rosewater, raki and club soda.   Cocktail expert, author, and the creator of the Bosporus Fizz, Warren Bobrow, will join Joy and mix the drinks. In addition, he will prepare a second drink, Persephone’s Revenge – an elegant composition of pomegranate juice, raki and ice. Non-alcoholic versions will be available as well.

Guitarist Bruce Fredericks of the duo JB Rocks will play themed surprises (Did anyone say, “Istanbul, Not Constantinople?”) as well as a wide variety of music. JB Rocks entertains audiences from Docs in Burlington, NJ to Freddie’s in Ewing, NJ and the Dubliner in New Hope, PA. www.jbrocks.com

Summer Johnson, owner of Zach & Zoe’s Sweet Bee Farm will be on hand to share samples of her fabulous raw honey.  Joy has created a dish for Summer – Zach & Zoe’s Anatolian Roasted Carrots with Raw Beet Honey – which you’ll also be able to sample.  Honey will be available for purchase.

Admission is $20.00. Registration appreciated, or email Joy, so we can get a head count.  Books will be available for purchase – cash or check only.  All after-tax profits benefit Wholesome Wave empowering under-served consumers to make better food choices by increasing affordable access to healthy produce.

Farm Cooking School

The Farm Cooking School, owned and operated by Ian Knauer and Shelley Wiseman, is located at Gravity Hill Farm and is part of Roots to River Farm – a certified organic vegetable farm – 67 Pleasant Valley Rd, Titusville, NJ 08560. The Farm Cooking School is a space where cooks of all levels can come together to learn about and enjoy great food and real community.

To register visit the Farm Cooking School website – www.thefarmcookingschool.com – or click here: http://thefarmcookingschool.com/shopthefarm/author-series-tree-of-life-turkish-home-cooking-with-joy-stocke-may-9th-6pm   For more information, call: 609-213-6580

Tree of Life: Turkish Home Cooking

Quarto/Burgess Lea Press

www.anatoliankitchentreeoflife.com

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Books Events

The Savoy Taproom!

Let’s give a big welcome to Warren Bobrow author of Apothecary Cocktails, Cannabis Cocktails, Bitters and Shrub Syrup Cocktails, and Whiskey Cocktails! This will be a great opportunity to pick the brain of one of the greatest minds cocktail culture has come to know. There will also be a special happy hour featuring cocktails from Warren’s books!

I’ll be signing books at the lovely Savoy Taproom, 301 Lark Street – Albany NY – 12210 3:00 – 6:00 pm Today, Sunday April 30!

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Articles Interviews Reviews

What, Exactly, Is the Difference Between Sativa and Indica Strains of Weed?

From Men’s Journal; by

Cannabis is a bit like wine: there are different species, dozens of hybrids, and a world of marketing that makes buying the right kind seriously confusing. For the average customer, the differences between Orange Kush or Blueberry Lamsbread are likely no more clear than the nuances that differentiate a Tavel from a Mouvédre Rosé. Fortunately, there’s really only one thing the average pot smokers needs to know to get by — whether they’re an indica or sativa kind of smoker.

READ MORE AT

http://www.mensjournal.com/food-drink/articles/what-exactly-is-the-difference-between-sativa-and-indica-strains-of-weed-w479335?utm_source=email

 

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Books Events

I’ll be at the Bookworm!

Warren Bobrow will be here on Sat. April 29, Independent Bookstore Day,  3-5 PM, mixing cocktails and signing his new  book  Cocktail Compendium.

99 Claremont Road Bernardsville, NJ 07924 (908) 766-4599

http://www.bookwormbernardsville.com/

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Books Events

Tree of Life – Turkish Hope Cooking at Labyrinth Books

Join Wild River Review co-founder Joy E. Stocke and West Coast Editor Angie Brenner for mezes and conversation to celebrate the publication of their cultural and culinary cookbook, Tree of Life. Stocke and Brenner will be joined by Cocktail Whisperer Warren Bobrow who will make and serve Bosporus Fizzes, which he created for Tree of Life. Poet and Translator Edmund Keeley will be reading his poem Moussaka, which asks the question: To use Béchamel sauce or no? The cookbook’s Spice Route Moussaka recipe has one answer.

http://www.labyrinthbooks.com/events_detail.aspx?evtid=969&loc

Today April 27, 2017 at 6 PM – 8 PM
Labrynth Books 122 Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ 
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Articles Books Interviews

Pot and Cocktails: The Next Frontier With Prop 64?

http://www.playboy.com/articles/recreational-weed-pot-and-cocktails

Gracias Madre

Voters in nine states got to make their opinions known on marijuana last November, and they spoke loudly in favor of it. Eight of the nine ballot initiatives to legalize or deregulate pot passed, officially making cannabis legal for medical use in 28 states and legal for recreational use in nine states, including in our own capitol.

This was far from the first time issues on weed have appeared on ballots, but voters managed to pass a symbolic milestone in 2017. California passed Proposition 64, legalizing the ability for individuals over 21 to use (and grow) marijuana for personal use. Recreational marijuana is now allowed for about 20 percent of the U.S. population, and about three-fifths—nearly 200 million people—have access to legal medical marijuana.

Despite still being banned on a federal level, marijuana is on an inevitable march toward wider societal acceptance and availability via edibles and other weed-based products. And who better to talk to about its growing acceptance than with bartenders, the people who specialize in coming up with clever ways to utilize a different illicit, psychoactive substance? We first covered the question of “where are all of the weed cocktails?” in April of last year, and now that recreational use of pot is inevitable, we’re back to wondering where the two substances together are heading.

So what is exactly happening, if anything at all?


The first crucial thing to note about combining marijuana and alcohol is that not unsurprisingly, it’s very illegal to do so commercially. This includes even in states where both substances are legal separately. In Oregon, weed has been fully legalized for a year and a half, but you still absolutely may not consume it in a public place, especially if that place holds a liquor license. “It’s a huge no-no,” says Chris Churilla, lead bartender at popular Portland cocktail joint Bit House Saloon. “We as a bar take a very aggressive stance toward smoking pot anywhere on the premises. I have physically removed people from the premises and threatened to call the police. If I lose my license or furthermore am imprisoned…that is a risk I will never take, nor will I allow someone else to compromise.”

Even those who advocate mixing weed and drinks acknowledge the need to be careful. Warren Bobrow, the longtime drinks writer behind Cannabis Cocktails, perhaps the world’s first book on the topic, advocates what he calls the Thai food principle: “The first time you take someone out for Thai food, you don’t order the five-star spicy dish. You start small and work your way up” he says. “Any idiot can get everyone wasted, but I don’t recommend that.”

That’s the same advice Ry Prichard provides as well. A Denver-based writer, photographer and “cannabusiness” consultant, Prichard has been working in the legal-marijuana industry since 2010 and serves as co-host and resident weed expert for Bong Appetit, a new show on cannabis food and drinks that premiered last month on Viceland. He’s seen folks overdo it, especially if they’ve already been drinking before they consume any marijuana.

The truth is that, like combining any two drugs, mixing alcohol and marijuana can have a synergistic effect and hit drinkers harder than either substance would by itself. But because this is such a new field (and because federal law limits much research on cannabis), there’s not the same level of understanding of how weed affects the body like you have with alcohol. “There’s not an easy answer. It’s just a body chemistry thing,” Prichard says. “There’s not a good test of how impaired someone is by cannabis, and it’s gonna be a big mess trying to figure this out.”


Beyond the legal issues and the Wild West feel of the whole field, a cannabis cocktail culture is starting to come together. And one of the pioneers is Jason Eisner, beverage director for a restaurant group that operates several vegan restaurants in California, including Gracias Madre in Los Angeles. Gracias Madre’s menu includes a trio of cocktails that incorporate cannabidol (CBD), the chemical component of marijuana responsible for many of its anti-anxiety and anti-inflammatory effects, which might make him the first American bartender to ever sell a cannabis cocktail in a licensed bar. “I found a loophole,” Eisner says. He’s currently using a CBD extract called CW Hemp that’s made from hemp—basically the stems but not the flowers and leaves of the cannabis plant—and is perfectly legal in all 5o states. No, really: There are many brands available on Amazon.

Eisner’s been a bartender since the late ‘90s, working everywhere from New York to Malibu, and he launched his CBD cocktails about seven months ago. He tried pot as a teenager, but didn’t really like it until a few years ago when he tried some medical-grade stuff a friend had smuggled in from California. Since then, he’s become an evangelist for pot’s beneficial effects. “With CBD, I still have my wits about me. I can go about my day,” he says. “I started putting it in cocktails because I wanted other people like me to get it too. The people hanging blacklight Cypress Hill posters in their bedrooms don’t need me to introduce them to cannabis.”

The truth is that, like combining any two drugs, mixing alcohol and marijuana can have a synergistic effect and hit drinkers harder than either substance would by itself.

But it’s not just non-psychoactive CBD that’s the subject of drinks experiments. Plenty of folks are also incorporating THC, the chemical in weed that actually gets you high. “Cannabis and alcohol went into everything back in the apothecary days,” Bobrow says. In a previous book, Apothecary Cocktails, he featured recipes for old-timey medicinal tinctures, bitters and cocktails calling for a variety of botanical ingredients, but his publisher wouldn’t let him include marijuana—that was part of the impetus for Cannabis Cocktails. Bobrow likes to take advantage of the savory and citrusy notes pot can bring to drinks, especially those on the more savory side of the spectrum.

Different strains of weed can contribute different flavors: Bobrow says indicas have a “dank, dark” flavor that goes will with brown spirits, while sativas tend to be “light, aromatic and crisp” and go well with lighter-bodied spirits like gin, tequila or mezcal. (Eisner agrees, saying his favorite spirit with CBD oil are agave spirits, which he says also improve mood: “You can’t be sad drinking a Margarita.”)

“In my personal experience, I really like the mix of marijuana and alcohol—not just the physical effects but also the flavor,” Prichard says. “Cannabis by its nature plays toward aromas that pair well with food and drinks.” He’s a fan of using terpenes to incorporate marijuana flavors in drinks without psychoactive effects. Terpenes are aromatic compounds found in a wide range of fruits, flowers and plants, including in high quantities in marijuana. Several companies sell bottled terpenes extracted from different strains of cannabis—basically essential oils—and Prichard frequently uses them on Bong Appetit. (One of his favorites comes from a strain called Lemon Haze, which has a sweet and tangy note he says works well in tiki drinks.) In theory, the terpenes do not have any physical or psychoactive effect on the human body, but on the other hand, Prichard says, “the whole field of aromatherapy is predicated on the idea that these kinds of chemicals can heal.”

Terpenes helped convert Devon Tarby to the marijuana-cocktail cause as well. A bartender in Southern California for nearly a decade, she’s now a partner in and in charge of menu development for Proprietors LLC, which runs several of the country’s top bars, including Death & Co. in New York and The Walker Inn in L.A. She’s also a self-described “mostly daily” cannabis user, but she’d never combined marijuana and alcohol until she got a call from Bong Appetit’s producers to help create cocktails for an episode. “The coolest thing was being introduced to terpenes,” she says. “As soon as I figure out where to get them, I want to have them on hand at my bars.” On the show, she created an aperitif cocktail using the bitter gentian liqueur Suze, floral St-Germain and sparkling wine with an oil extracted from a pot strain that smells of fresh pine and lemon.


So where is this all headed? As a society, we’ve had centuries to build up all the rituals and norms associated with drinking in bars, but there’s really no equivalent for marijuana. “In just a few years, we’ve gone from Cheech & Chong to cancer patients or a stressed-out mom with a vape pen,” Prichard says. “But it’s still gonna be a while, if ever, until you can have a beer and smoke a joint at the same bar.”

He cites Initiative 300, passed by voters in the city of Denver in November, which establishes licenses that allow public consumption of cannabis in places like coffee shops, yoga studios and cafes—but, thanks to adjustments to the law quickly adopted by the city, absolutely not anywhere with a liquor license. “We may see the first legal cannabis clubs in America in the next six months,” he says. In the future, Prichard envisions “places separate from the bar scene but with a similar feel to a bar.”

As a society, we’ve had centuries to build up all the rituals and norms associated with drinking in bars, but there’s really no equivalent for marijuana.

If that sounds similar to the “coffee shops” that sell marijuana in Amsterdam, you’re not wrong. That’s the model Tarby thinks will develop in America as well, but she worries the fledgling industry is on unsteady ground. “Everyone is still just scratching the surface,” she says. “The last thing anybody wants is to have people who don’t know how to properly serve cannabis and ruin it for everybody.”

Eisner, for his part, is totally on board with the marijuana revolution. He’s working on a non-alcoholic canned “cocktail” made with CBD called Dope Cannabis Cocktails that he hopes to have on sale by the end of the year, as well as a cannabis cafe concept modeled on Amsterdam coffee houses in California. “This is just the beginning. We’ll even see full-on cannabis restaurants,” he says. “The next generation has made their voices heard on this issue. The federal government won’t be able to continue suppressing cannabis for very long.”

For now, most experiments in combining pot and cocktails remain hidden underground, but we’re witnessing the birth of something brand-new that’s going to change the way we get our mind-altering chemicals. “It’s already a multi-billion-dollar business,” Prichard says. “And it’s definitely not going away.”

 

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MEET WARREN BOBROW, THE EX-BANKER TURNED CANNABIS COCKTAIL KING


Meet Warren Bobrow, The Ex-Banker Turned Cannabis Cocktail King
Warren Bobrow

 You’d be hard pressed to find an authority figure when it comes to cannabis cocktails. But Warren Bobrow, the author of Cannabis Cocktails, Mocktails and Tonics, doesn’t think that’s because the combination is a bad idea. He should know — he literally wrote the book on the subject. He’s a strong believer in a good cannabis cocktail. It’s just that everyone else (other than a few brave bar owners) is too scared to tackle the subject.

“I don’t think anyone has had the nerve to do it, nor have they found a publisher to take that type of risk,” Bobrow tells me over the phone, chuckling. “This is not a big lucrative project. I wish it was, but there’s so much preconceived stuff about it.”

There’s that, and the fact that making cannabis cocktails the right way — in a safe way that actually tastes good — is a lot harder than just throwing a couple nugs into a cocktail shaker. Luckily, Bobrow has it mastered, and it all started with a dream and a passion for quality cocktails and cannabis.

Bobrow didn’t recently jump on the cannabis trend. He says he’s been enjoying marijuana since he was 13 years old, and has experimented with putting marijuana in food. He was a banker for 20 years, but has since become a notable person in the cocktail world with four books about cocktails. Then in 2012 he read about a cannabis-infused dinner at Robertas in New York City. He noticed something curious in the story: The food had cannabis in it, but no one touched the drinks.

“So I wanted to change the world in my own way and offer something people hadn’t done before,” Bobrow says. “So I made all of my own drinks.”

Today, you don’t know cannabis cocktails if you don’t know Bobrow’s book. But for starters, here are some of the most important things to know before experimenting with cannabis cocktails.

IT’S SCIENTIFIC

“It’s not just stuffing a bunch of weed into vodka and hoping for the best,” Bobrow says. “That gives you green chlorophyll garbage that doesn’t get you stoned, it just gives you a headache.”

Bobrow’s preferred method of extracting THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, is through a process called decarboxylation, or simply decarb. Decarboxylation turns THCA, a non-psychoactive compound found on live marijuana plants, into THC. To decarb, you heat the cannabis at 240 degrees for an hour (Bobrow uses a decarboxylation tool from Ardent that is microprocessor controlled).

THE QUALITY OF LIQUOR MATTERS

“Use the very best liquor you can use, no skimping,” Bobrow says. “It’s the same realm that I use in my craft cocktails. I only use small-producer craft spirits because I know that the quality is high.”

You get out what you put in. So put in the good stuff.

“All of my craft cocktails and mocktails and tonics and things that I use in the book include the use of the highest-quality craft spirits someone can buy,” Bobrow says.

DON’T OVERDO IT

“It’s very important to understand this is a psychoactive drug and too much can render the user impossibly couch-locked like I found myself once or twice,” Bobrow says.

Luckily, Bobrow has done all the experimenting so you don’t have to.

“The best advice I can give is balance,” Bobrow says, because everyone’s body chemistry is different. The results can be unpredictable, as a VinePair writer who drank weed wine found out.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO GET CRAZY FOR A GOOD COCKTAIL

“My drinks are not sweet,” Bobrow says. “They’re really dry, aromatic, savory, with great balance. And they’re cocktails that anyone can make with very limited time: simple, classic, crisp, beautiful.”

Bobrow’s cocktails utilize cannabis-infused bitters, cannabis cherries that he calls “greenish cherries,” and infused liquors. You don’t need 20 ingredients to make a good cannabis cocktail. Stick with the basics and infuse cannabis for the ideal cocktail.

IF YOU TRY ONE CANNABIS COCKTAIL, TRY THIS ONE

Bobrow is inspired by history. One person in particular stuck out to him: Milton Mezzrow, a jazz musician in the 1920s who sold weed to Louis Armstrong. He named a cocktail after him, the Mezzrow Cocktail. The cocktail is a mix of cannabis infused vermouth, 1 ounce of bourbon, aromatic bitters, and greenish cherries in a glass with crushed ice.

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Articles Books

Apothecary Cocktails: Restorative Drinks from Yesterday and Today by Warren Bobrow

 

From ancient times until the early twentieth century, cocktails were the domain of healers, pharmacists, and apothecaries. Tinctures, bitters, elixirs, and tonics were created from herbs, flowers, fruit, vegetables, and alcohol to cure stomach ailments, respiratory troubles, and more. Warren Bobrow’s Apothecary Cocktails draws on this rich and delicious tradition so you can make your own restorative drinks at home.

Quick Facts

Who wrote it: Warren Bobrow

Who published it: Fair Winds Press

Number of recipes: 75

Recipes for right now: Fernet Branca with English Breakfast Tea and Raw Honey, Roasted Beet Borscht with Sour Cream and Vodka, Hot Buttered Rum: The Sailor’s Cure-All, The Painkiller Prescriptive, Herbal Sleep Punch, Chartreuse Curative

Other highlights: Apothecary Cocktails is a fun and informative book for anyone who’s interested in cocktail history, herbal medicine, or who simply wants a good excuse to imbibe. Like a handbook for every season and mood, it’s organized into chapters for Digestives and Other Curatives, Winter Warmers, Hot Weather Refreshers, Restoratives, Relaxants and Toddies, Painkilling Libations, and Mood Enhancers.

Warren Bobrow includes classic cocktails, variations, and unique creations with in-depth recipe headnotes that delve into the history and health benefits of ingredients. Beyond bitters, botanical gin, absinthe, and other liquors, the recipes will have you reaching beyond the liquor cabinet for kitchen ingredients like teas, fresh fruits and herbs, and spices.

Who would enjoy this book? Home mixologists, people interested in herbal remedies, cocktail history buffs

Find the book at your local library, independent bookstore, or Amazon:Apothecary Cocktails: Restorative Drinks from Yesterday and Today by Warren Bobrow

http://www.thekitchn.com/apothecary-cocktails-restorative-drinks-from-yesterday-and-today-by-warren-bobrow-new-cookbook-196567