With tonic makers like Q and Fever Tree, there is no need for home-brew quinine. These brands are authentic and delicious. I believe that Schweppes and Canada Dry use almost zero quinine, and mostly use artificial quinine flavoring.
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Thank you for the enlightenment. The old idea that something 'natural' is good and perhaps even curative, especially if one thinks that great grandmothers were blessed with some supernatural ability to sense goodness in plants (avoid the mushrooms, please) and concoct all of these curative brews.
As was said in the last paragraph, it seems as if the majority of the modern bartender is out to find something that tastes good enough someone might name their mixture after them or some other cutsey approach. So many people have been drinking so many kinds of alcohol mixed in infinite ways, that to think you'll find something new is nearly absurd.
Please, just learn how to mix the standards very well, and leave it at that.
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While the article cites an old tiki mug with ceramic glaze as a source of lead poisoning, most modern day ceramic mugs are full of lead and made in other countries. Check out your own coffee mug. Also, lead in heirloom as well as new crystal, such as goblets, is a lead hazard. But according to international lead expert, Dr. Howard Mielke, there's a window in the first 45 minutes after wine is poured into the goblet before it begins leaching, so maybe one can still use crystal and just drink fast!
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@BB Where did you get the information about coffee mugs...and how am I supposed to "check out [my] own coffee mug"?
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@Mitch4949 you can buy a lead test kit on Amazon pretty cheaply and test your mug. It's non-destructive: you just swab the mug and use the swab for the test.
I mean Jagermeister is bad, but it’s not THAT bad?!
Just bought myself a Hine XO. Slow enjoyment.
I still go back to the classic Rye Manhattan
Always better than any of these new concoctions
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I’ll stick with a double Jameson straight up.
I think you mean “black currAnts”—the dark fruit—and not “black currEnts” which happens to evoke the classical Greek wine-dark sea, but is really just a spelling mistake.
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Wow, is this ever a first world problem...
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Did you just lede this story with the premise that a sugar-bomb smoothie is “harmless”?
“Black currents”?
Really, NYT!?
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For the fad drinkers that order these ridiculous concoctions consider what they will taste like when they make the return trip while you're hugging the toilet.
Why does the NY Times select only certain article for comments, and why such a trivial one as this and not something of importance? It's an insult to readers.
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@Grittenhouse I always thought this too. Could be a staff issue of not enough hands on deck :)
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Sorry, but it’s all poison. Alcohol is the sh$t from the yeast organism. They eat sugar and sh?t alcohol. Drink water.
@HairBrainman I guess you don't eat bread either?
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This is the dumbest article I have ever read in the nytimes
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@JB I enjoyed it.
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I stick with wine.
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One of the biggest cocktail dangers is the amount of alcohol in a single drink. Especially critcal if you are driving. Last year the NYT pulished a recipe from Florence Fabricant that contained 4 oz of whiskey in a single serving. When I called this to your attention I was told that my comments would not be accepted because I had not tried the recipe. Restaurants have been found liable for accidents in which a patron could prove they had only purchased a single cocktail but were found to have been over the limit.
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@Lupi Robinson Honestly curious, what’s your point? A recipe can be used anywhere, especially in the home, where 4oz of alcohol used by responsible adults shouldn’t be an issue. Do you think any article about alcohol should have an aside about the dangers associated with it especially drunk driving? Surprised at the amount of teetotalers here.
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The Three Stooges could mix a lethal cocktail, but no one ever died. Who needs a safety guide, anyhow?
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Wow. I think I'll stick to the boring long island tea, margarita, bloody mary or scotch and 7up when I want to order a drink at a bar. No fancy-schmancy 'signature' drinks for me.
The liquid nitrogen thing is horrific. LN2 has no business in food products, and I'd be interested to see if these kitchens that use it are storing and using it up to OSHA standards, and have oxygen sensors in the kitchens, storage closets, etc. We use it regularly in physics laboratory settings, and it is extremely dangerous. A few ounces of LN2 expands to many hundreds of times the volume when it turns to a gas (which would happen almost instantly in a warm human). The woman is luck her entire side didn't blow out.
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Most of the "dangerous" things listed in this article seem like poppycock. I suspect Mr. English has little in the way of a science background, and yet less background in applied toxicology. The warnings are lacking important relevant context, and the concept of "the dose makes the poison" gets scant mention. I say this having worked in human toxicology for 20 years.
@JF Oh, you’d be surprised how easy it is to poison yourself. You can order the chips of bark to make tonic online from many different sources. There are several different species used and their strength and toxicity varies. Best to leave quinine to the likes of Schweppes. Even Canada Dry won’t kill you, even if it tastes like it might.
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Good--and timely--warnings here! No adult ever needs more than a good quality gin and dry vermouth or single malt whiskey. Bourbon is probably okay too, so long as it's not one that tastes like maple syrup.
The High Priest of adult beverages was Bernard DeVoto and his bible is called "The Hour."
In this beautiful little book, DeVoto writes: "An ice cream soda can set a child's feet in the path that ends in grenadine, and when you see someone drinking drambuie, creme de menthe, Old Tom gin, or all three stirred together and topped with a maraschino cherry, you must remember that he got that way from pineapple milkshakes long ago....if the Republic ever comes crashing down, the ruin will have been wrought by this lust for sweet drinks."
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Oh no, I just made fat washed bourbon and drank it last night using Don Lees recipe for his Benton’s old fashioned from PDT. Botulism!!!
Now I have to throw out the entire bottle of 4 roses bourbon.
I also make my own tonic syrup with cinchona bark.
Amazing I am still breathing.
Thanks for this article.
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I have a bag of cinchona bark sitting in my pantry. Meant to make my own tonic syrup but as I started to do some research, I decided nope. I am glad your bark yielded a safe beverage. But it can be risky. There’s a danger of poisoning and also litigation!
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As someone who has 1) made a really strong batch of home made tonic 2) driven his wife blue lipped and weak to the ER
THANK YOU!
She's fully recovered, but the episode was no joke.
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A good wine, a great beer, a delicious rum/whiskey/gin/vodka.
All good choices. If you need flavorings then maybe you don't really like the taste of alcohol and only want it as a mind-altering substance. I recommend fruit juice and rum. Made from sugar cane, Rum is least likely to cause an allergic reaction. Simple: no risk. Best rum is Mount Gay!!! Enjoy one drink. More is not recommended.
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@memosyne
Hah! Rum is the only spirit I'm allergic to.
Even straight spirits can be harmful if they’ve been stored long enough in a lead crystal decanter.
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You should try my miso ramen martini with a single noodle to slurp at the bottom. Perfectly safe!
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What is the Bar Safety website? I have been encouraged to get into more obscure mixology at the bar I manage and some of them seem questionable and more like a cheap gimmick. Having this info will help a great deal!
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@Jax
It was in the second paragraph:
CocktailSafe.org
@Jax its linked in the 2nd paragraph, https://www.cocktailsafe.org/
This is a great article and a big help for those who drink “mocktails”. As more bartenders create drinks with an eye towards providing more sophisticated experiences than a Shirley Temple, the use of unusual ingredients and techniques increases. Hopefully they will consult this site as part of their recipe development process.
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Scientists agree that alcohol is a Group 1 carcinogen. There is no safe cocktail.
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@JO - No they don't. The effects are quantity- dependent.
In large quantities, yes, it leads to cirrhosis (the major risk factor for liver cancer, as for Mickey Mantle), and gulping numerous shots of concentrated alcohol straight (vs. sipping it slowly so that the saliva dilutes it) is a risk factor for Ca of the esophagus.
However, In quantities not exceeding 1 drink a day (for women, 2 for men - -a drink being one that does not exceed 15 ml pure ethanol), it appears to be beneficial as far as cardiovascular health goes.
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Alcohol is a poison. Three drinks a week increase the risk of breast cancer in women.
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There’s the wet blanket alluded to in the article!
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We recently went to dinner at a chic eatery. I ordered a vodka soda, with a splash of cranberry, aka a Rose Kennedy.
The mixologist told me that the bar did not serve cranberry juice, since it could not be fresh squeezed on site, and they only served fresh squeezed juices. My response, "Well then you tell me what I should drink". This was a mistake.
They mixed me a special cocktail. I took one sip, and asked does this contain grapefruit juice, because I am allergic to grapefruit. It is my only food sensitivity. I own my error. Ask before you drink.
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@Darrell
In fact, grapefruit juice interacts with common medications many people take on a daily basis, including some statins, which lower cholesterol, as well as a number of drugs used to treat high blood pressure. There are online sites where you can check to see if any of your medications interact with grapefruit juice. If so, avoid eating grapefruit or drinking the juice.
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I would have walked out.
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@Darrell Yeah, a bartender shouldn't have to preemptively give a whole ingredient list, but grapefruit juice is potentially harmful to a lot of people because of prescription medicine interactions!
This is good for people with food allergies and other dietary restrictions to know. Nuts? Sesame seeds? Gluten? No doubt bartenders aren't required to list the source ingredients of their drinks, and no doubt cross contamination is a huge issue (do those glasses get thoroughly washed or just wiped "clean" with the same towel the bartender uses for everything from wiping his/her hands to drying the countertop? I imagine cutting boards and utensils are cross contaminated also.). Thanks for the info.
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@mary I suppose I can't speak for everyone, but I and other bartenders I've worked with take food safety very seriously, using sanitizer and appropriately designated towels.
If you have a food allergy or dietary restriction it is your responsibility to inform your server who should in turn inform the bartender just as they do the kitchen for food orders. I'm constantly shocked at how many people think that menus (drink and food) should be ingredient lists. Your server is there to guide you through the dining experience, and is your best resource. No one wants to pull the wool over your eyes or cause you to get sick.
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@mary Isabelle is correct, inspections include bar area. In my experience aside from pre cut fruit garnish, bartenders for the most part are very clean. Most bartenders and barebacks I knew kept their stations cleaner than a lot of cooks I worked with. I'd be more concerned with the kitchen than the bar.
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Hipsterism gone completely wrong.
This also reminds me of the ancient Roman maxim: When chefs (or in this case bartenders) become celebrities, your civilization is in decline.
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@Paul H S yes, like all those crazy people who swallowed goldfish, crammed into phone booths, sat on top of flag poles, had sit ins, love ins... and other crazy events... part of youth. lucky them.
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“ 'Bartenders believe you’re trying to take this cool thing away from them.' ” Then they're idiots, as are the kids chasing after pointless novelty. There's nothing new under the sun, and that includes whiskey in a glass with an ice cube.
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Weenjoy: The variety of mixed drinks our resident mixologist concocts at our Balanitis Research Commune's lounge. For one, she has blended quinine laced tonic water, calamari essence, our homemade vodka (made from scraps of things from the commune kitchen), pureed domestic mountain oysters, a dash of vermouth and bitters, a dollop of pernod and absinthe, two jiggers of Jack Daniels, and glacier sourced water. Many of us have asked that the absinthe be removed.
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@Drs. Mandrill and Peos Balanitis, founders of the Balanitis Research Commune
Ah, good friends, I have missed your concatenated, concerned and explicit advice. I must try this concoction for myself, but will substitute glacier water for water from an early 18c well deep in the mountains. A report ensues.
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I've been drinking whiskey straight for years. Looks like there's no reason to stop.
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@ Evo Charlotte, NC
Wholly in agreement with you, excerpt for my preference being cognac. In my mind, multi-component cocktails are for the effetes who mistakenly believe that the more ingredients there are, the better is the drink.
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@Tuvw Xyz I don’t think that it’s about thinking one is better than the other, aside from personal taste, but it’s about experiencing different flavors and trying new beverages. If you want to eat steak for every meal or only drink cognac feel free, but don’t knock others for wanting to challenge their palates every once in a while.
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