Rachel Halpren

How to Taste Coffee Like a Pro

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We recently attended our first coffee cupping sponsored by Kahlúa. We didn’t know what cupping meant. But, from what we can tell (and what we were told by the expert), it basically means tasting. It was interesting to me that there was actually a slice of the beverage world more pretentious than the wine world. I don’t mean to slam the whole wine world but they do make it pretty intimidating for beginners—the lingo, the … Read more

St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur Review

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I will freely admit that I am a St. Germain addict and, thanks to St. Germain, an elderflower addict too. Since my discovery of this delightful liqueur a few years ago, I have bought a number of bottles and literally added it to everything. It brightens a Champagne cocktail, makes gin sing and is a potent addition to any punch bowl. So you can only imagine our excitement when a bottle magically arrived in the … Read more

The Innate Coolness of Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum

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This week is Fleet Week in San Francisco. For those of you unfamiliar with Fleet Week, basically San Francisco is invaded by a part of the US Navy and Marines. There are sailors everywhere. The Blue Angels fly around town. The bay is stocked with submarines and other aquatic vessels. And it’s pretty cool!

Fleet Week brought to mind our recent infatuation with Sailor Jerry since the man behind the rum was an actual Naval … Read more

Ron Zacapa 23-Year-Old Rum Review

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It’s not often that we run across women distillers. In the case of Zacapa Rum, the master distiller is a wonderful woman named Lorraina. Believe us, Lorraina makes some mean rum.

An aged rum named after the town of Zacapa, Guatemala., which combines the best of low and high altitudes. Zacapa is a combination of sugar cane honey extracted from sugar cane grown near sea level, fermented with yeast extracted from pineapples and then slow … Read more

Excelsior 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon – Wine Wednesday

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As you know, we try to make Wine Wednesday’s fun and bring you interesting-yet-affordable wines for $10 and under. Our assignment is often challenging; it isn’t always easy to find wine at the $10 and under price point and end up drinking a fair amount of wine to bring you 52 Wine Wednesdays a year. This week’s pick is a familiar varietal from a relatively unfamiliar region.

This week’s Wine Wednesday is a Cabernet Sauvignon … Read more

Gitane – A Sherry Spectacular

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It’s not often that we offer a restaurant review on DOTW but this really isn’t a restaurant review, it’s more of a booze rave. We recently headed to Gitane in San Francisco to experience their cocktail menu. I have recently become interested in wine-based cocktails (and DOTW plans to bring you a new series on wine based cocktails soon) and we went out on a scouting mission. It’s actually not that easy to find cocktail … Read more

Fearing French Wine

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I will admit that French wine scares me. Even after all the wine classes I have taken, France remains the great unknown and it seems unknowable. But I also realize that if I am going to be remotely close to becoming a wine goddess, I will need to know France. I will have to embrace France.

It is this realization that spurs me to take two actions. First, I need to figure out my issues … Read more

Prohibition on PBS

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Ken Burns, the amazing documentarian who brings American history alive in his documentaries on such diverse subjects as the Statute of Liberty, the Civil War, baseball, jazz and the national parks, tackles Prohibition. In our opinion, Prohibition was one of the darkest periods in American history when patronizing moralists outlawed alcohol in a backlash against immigrants and the working class. The 18th amendment was only the second amendment that stripped Americans of their rights (I … Read more

Effen’s Art of Design SF Cocktail Contest

We recently attended Effen Vodka‘s Art of Design Cocktail Contest in SF and our very own Jonas Halpren was one of the three judges, along with USBG President, Dave Nepove, and Wine Fashoinista, Mary Orlin.

In a very cool space at the Terra Gallery in SOMA, Effen gathered 10 Bay Area mixologists from near and far. The mixologists were then paired into teams of two (not quite sure how the pairing occurred—secretly planned twosomes or … Read more

Wild Turkey 101 Proof Bourbon Review

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It’s the granddaddy of the Wild Turkeys, the Wild Turkey 101! Its big, bold and badass. When fern bars reigned supreme during the 1970s and 1980s, Wild Turkey was one of the few distilleries to continue bottling at 101 Proof. It refused to compromise and continued its proud tradition of making Bourbon for Bourbon aficionados. For some reason, I don’t see Wild Turkey being popular in fern bars anyway; it clashes with the white wine … Read more