It's decorative gourd-flavored beer season, motherf**ckers. But pumpkin beers are a divisive drink, so we've just included two of them here amidst a variety of seasonal brews. Harvest them on tap and in bottles across the Bay Area, a region where the seasons can blend together, perhaps making them best demarcated by what beer you've got in hand.

Treble Hook, Fort Point Beer Company
Treble Hook, a rye pale ale, is Fort Point's toast to rich, malty flavors. Pilsner, Maris Otter and Rye malts make for a spicy, earthy grain bill, and Polaris, Hallertau Blanc, and Ella hops provide a floral finish. Check online for a distribution list — you're looking for a place with a keg, as Fort Point doesn't bottle their beers.

Triple Voodoo King Leo

Drake's Dealership via Facebook

Cellarmaker via Facebook

Anchor Big Leaf Maple

Fernando, Woods Beer Co.
In a bit of a departure from their peers, Will Bostwick of Woods writes, "Come autumn's chill, others mull their nogs and ciders. Not us. SF's spice-stuffed booze of choice is Fernet." He's got a point! Thus, Fernando, a beer brewed with some of the same exotic herbs and spices as the digestif, like kola nut, cinchona bark, saffron, chamomile, myrrh, and gentian. Herbaceous beers are often Woods' best, and this one is sure to be a novelty.

Good drinks tell a story... and this is the story of those drinks. Each week, we'll be serving up a remedial cocktail lesson for bartending beginners to help you get the most out of your glass, with recipes, interviews, and histories coming right up.

Lesson 4: Bitter Medicine

Many a recreational opiate is born as "medicine," and that's the story with lots of booze and yes, bitters. For basics, the substance is alcohol used as a solvent and preservative for botanicals. That's macerated matter like aromatic herbs, barks, roots, and fruits or fruit peels sitting in high-proof stuff.

The ancient Egyptians had something like bitters in their jars of wine infused with medicinal herbs. More highly concentrated "bitters" arrived in the Middle Ages as distilling and plant-based medicine improved. And, according to the labels on some current bitters brands, their modern-day bitters are a reflection of Renaissance pharmacopeia.

Bitters as we know them today were eventually stirred into the cocktail tradition of the British colonies as a founding ingredient. As early as 1806, American publications made reference to the popularity of a new preparation called a "cocktail," which was the combination of “a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters."

With that, bitters coalesced and were commercialized. Angostura bitters, for example, were a defining product of the period, developed in 1824 by a German physician as a cure-all for sea sickness and other maladies. These don't, as is commonly thought, contain angostura bark. Peychaud's Bitters were another 19th century creation, this time of New Orleans. Orange bitters, an ingredient that dates cocktail recipes as older, were wildly popular at the time and are seeing a resurgence today.

Todd Smith is rightly proud of his take on those, an orange fennel bitters, even offering them as an at-home recipe below. He tends bar at the Mission District's ABV and before that did so at Bourbon & Branch and Hideout. Smith wouldn't, however, divulge his celery bitters recipe when we spoke, because according to him "they're the best out there." They are pretty spectacular.

It's what was "out there" generally that set Smith out to make his own bitters (ABV uses mostly his own creations). "Especially 8 or 10 years ago, there wasn't a lot of options other than Fee Brothers, Angostura, Peychaud's. We just didn't think they had enough punch to them."

From Smith, some of the most interesting bitters I sampled from were smoked bitters: coffee beans that had sat on ABVs smoker, or pears that had done the same to great effect. At ABV there's always one smoked fruit bitters option on the menu, and you'll also always find the celery bitters. When I asked Smith what drinks shouldn't get bitters added, he had very few answers. "Maybe a gin and tonic?" he suggested.

But what do great bitters do for great drinks, anyway? Other than curing sea sickness, that is, or making a cocktail a cocktail. "Bitters," says Smith cracking a smile, "just make drinks better."

ABV’s Orange Fennel Bitters (home version)
per Todd Smith

1 bottle of El Dorado over proof 151 rum or Everclear 151 Grain alcohol
¼ cup ried orange peel
Orange peel with pith from 1 orange
1 tsp. Gentian root (bitter)
1 tsp. Grains of paradise (aromatic)
½ tsp. Fennel seeds toasted (aromatic)
Combine ingredients in a jar with tight fitting lid.
Shake everyday or so for 2-3 weeks
Strain and bottle

These are great and mix well with pretty much any spirit.

I get my herbs from the sites below also there is a link to a specialty bottle site:
Penn Herb Company
Whole Spice
Specialty Bottle

See all installments of Learning to Drink.

Good drinks tell a story... and this is the story of those drinks. Each week, we'll be serving up a remedial cocktail lesson for bartending beginners to help you get the most out of your glass, with recipes, interviews, and histories coming right up.

Lesson 3: Sparkling Wines and Champagne

“Come quickly, I am tasting the stars!” is something the French Benedictine Monk Dom Pérignon probably never said about Champagne, which he also did not invent.

Instead, during Pérignon's lifetime (1638-1715) he made important contributions to sparkling wine including the replacement of wood with cork. Thanks, Dom.

Sparkling wine actually made its first appearance in the mid-1500s, its bubbly effects originally and perhaps accidentally achieved by bottling wines before an initial fermentation had concluded. That meant further fermentation occurred in bottles, producing the carbon dioxide we've come to love for its mouthfeel and signature "pop." Eventually the technique was refined and became known as the méthode Champenoise. Following primary fermentation and bottling, sugar and yeast are added in a second fermentation within the bottle, and voila!

Yes, there are long associations of Champagne and celebration, with many of them marketing campaigns. But you can't write better copy than the sound of a cork popping... which is really the sound of a bottle being improperly opened. When you hear that sound, though, this New Year's Eve, more often than not it won't be "Champagne" that's poppin' off.

As your pedantic friends are likely to point out to you once again this year: Champagne is an appellation controlled by a French trade commission which has developed a comprehensive set of rules and regulations for all wine produced in the region, not least in order to protect its economic interests.

That's where Liz Rubin, a cheese and wine specialist at San Francisco's Bi-Rite Market, begins with her customers who go in for bubbly. "I would ask do you want a proper Champagne, or are you just interested in sparkling wine?" But that's not just for stylistic reasons: "Since proper Champagne can only be certain grapes — only seven are possible, — proper Champagne is usually more musky, more masculine. It's different: It has some texture to it, some people say its toasty."

That said, many of Rubin's favorite sparkling wines are made elsewhere. "My personal favorite is a Vin de Savoie, which is in Northeastern France." The bottle reads "Ayse Brut, Domaine Belluard et Fils." Says Rubin: "With this one the grape is actually endangered, the producer, Belluard, is keeping it alive. Its just so delicious, it has some nice body to it, it's not completely dry. It has wildflowers and herb flavors, and it's just amazing." Reader: I bought it and can corroborate. Brut, by the way, refers to the driest of the dry sparkling wines. The other terms are, in ascending order of sweetness, extra dry (or extra sec), sec, demi-sec, and doux.

How else to select your bubbly? "It's about tasting notes, how you want the body to be," says Rubin. "If you want it to be texturally different, then there are a lot of sparkling wines that still have the lees, or some of the yeast, in the bottle." The results? "Thats going to give you more of a cidery or a saison sort of feel. It wont be as clean but it will be really cool and interesting. There's also the concept of 'dosage' to pay attention to. That's the little bit of sugar that's added in the secondary fermentation. You've got wines that are no dosage or low dosage, for example." For dosage, check the bottle because they're often labeled.

The biggest question this season, according to Rubin, is also the easiest: Magnum, or no magnum. Yep, that just means it's in a big 'ol bottle. And the answer is magnum.

How to store and open Champagne and sparkling wine:

Refrigerate about an hour before serving. Storing Champagne or sparkling wine on ice, according to some experts, isn't necessary (but it sure looks good). And many say not to worry about flutes or glasses designed for Champagne. Instead, ordinary white wine glasses will do.

Opening: Says Rubin, "you may have heard of a nun sighing, referring to the ideal sound you want when you uncork the bottle." Since that's not a nun clucking and vomiting, be careful.

Begin by untwisting the wire cage, keeping a finger or your whole hand firmly over the cork. Next, drape a towel over the bottle's cork and neck, adding protection and looking professional. No need to twist the cork at all: instead, keeping a good grip on the cork and the bottle at a 45-degree angle, twist the bottom of the bottle as you pull the bottle down.

Then, say Happy New Year! And try to drink some more Champagne or sparkling wine this year, because it's great with food and doesn't need a special occasion.

See all installments of Learning To Drink.

Good drinks tell a story... and this is the story of those drinks. Each week, we'll be serving up a remedial cocktail lesson for bartending beginners to help you get the most out of your glass, with recipes, interviews, and histories coming right up.

Lesson 2: Punch

Like too many others, I made the acquaintance of punch in its basest form. I'm speaking of the aberration known as jungle juice, which is usually served in an actual trash can to indicate that it is indeed actual trash.

Yep, punch gone wrong can be... a bad punch line. But the concept of a long (large volume) and strong (high proof) bowl of booze was the starting point for many a beloved cocktail. And executed nicely, punches are perfect for entertaining since all the work's done ahead of time.

For my re-education on the subject of punches I went to see Daniel Godinez at 15 Romolo, the dark, handsome North Beach watering hole within the Basque Hotel. His punches have been celebrated in competitions like Cochon 555 Punch Kings and are presented at the bar's weekend brunches.

The word punch comes from the sanskrit word five, referring to the ingredients Godinez walked me through. "You're just mixing your spirit, your citrus, sugar, bitters, and something to lengthen it all so you're not drinking just a bunch of booze. There, tea is very common in historic punches, as are bubbles: champagne, Prosecco, soda water. You're trying to make a lot of something you can enjoy throughout the evening."

Tea ought to be your tip off as to the origins of punch. "Punch really started during the Indian spice trade. British sailors were given a ration of lime, sugar, and booze, so to make it last longer, they'd lengthen it." It's said that between the 1670s and the 1850s punches reigned supreme, popularized by these English sailors and travelers to India.

Godinez recommends you start on your punch sooner rather than later, first by making some ice in a tupperware. "Ice is a big component. You want a big block so dilution can take its time. Usually you want to let your ice block sit for over 2 days." Also, ahead of time Godinez advises you to make an oleo-saccharum, meaning oily sugar. "You're getting a bunch of lemons and oranges, peeling them, and macerating them and covering them in sugar. The oils will come out if you do it a day to a couple days ahead, and it'll be very bright and citrusy."

Other tips for punch newbies? "The biggest, most basic thing I tell my friends is it's all about proportions: 1 bottle, 750 milliliters of booze, cut with at least a quarter of that volume in citrus, and maybe 8 oz of sweetener. And then the thing you want to do most is to lengthen it well. For this season I'd recommend a nicely spiced tea, maybe something with cardamom."

Unfortunately for ornate punch bowls everywhere, punch's popularity declined sharply after the 1850s, first as temperance movements took hold and later as improvements in distilling were made. And, in particular, aging liquors for better flavors meant not as much work needed to be done in order to actually drink them, so punches weren't as necessary.

Last, ideas of democracy and individuality entered the bar, with gentlemen preferring their own drinks to a large shared bowl. But the holidays are about sharing and traditions, so revive some punch this year with this recipe:

Whiskey Punch
(adapted from David Wondrich)

4 lemons
5 to 6 oz. lemon juice (to taste)
1 cup Demerara or Turbinado sugar
1 750ml bottle bourbon (or more, to taste)
32 oz. of water, divided

Grate the zest of four lemons into a bowl filled with the sugar, and mash and stir to combine. Let sit for an hour so that citrus oil absorbs into sugar.

Add 16 oz. boiling water, stir to dissolve all the sugar. Add lemon juice and strain through a fine mesh sieve and add 16oz. more cold water. This can then be set aside as punch base and added to make smaller or larger batches of punch. (It can also be scaled up to make more batches of punch for a party, adding whiskey and water for subsequent batches.) This is called a shrub and can be stored for a few days.

In a punch bowl or pitcher add bottle of decent bourbon to the shrub (amount can vary to taste, Bulleit and Jim Beam work well) along with another 16oz of water and more lemon juice (also, to taste — add less water if using block ice, and even less if using cube ice in a bowl that will dissolve faster). Ideally it should be equal parts sweet, tart, and potent, but more drinkable and less boozy than a highball cocktail. Optional: Add 5-6 dashes of Angostura or plum bitters.

Serve over ice.

See all installments of Learning To Drink.

Good drinks tell a story... and this is the story of those drinks. Each week, we'll be serving up a remedial cocktail lesson for bartending beginners to help you get the most out of your glass, with recipes, interviews, and histories coming right up.

Lesson 1: Shaken or Stirred?
For our first lesson we figured we'd start with something, shall we say, low-proof: When to shake and when to stir your drink.

If the name's Bond, you've got a license to break the rules. But otherwise it's pretty cut and dry when it comes to stirring or shaking a cocktail, so don't mess with the method.

Joey Picchi of SRO, the bar within a bar at San Francisco's Oddjob we highlighted in our Best New Bars list, didn't mince words on the subject. "If it's a spirit-forward cocktail like bourbon or gin or scotch, or even sometimes rum, all of that should be stirred," says Picchi.

But the why and wherefore? "Because you want to be able to control the dilution, how much water is going into the spirit. And you're also chilling the product, which is going to make it easier to analyze over your palette." Manhattans, Martinis, any cocktail that contains only spirits is going to get stirred.

By contrast, "Anything shaken is going to have some kind of mixer in it, syrup, bitters, lemon juice, egg white, it's a mixed cocktail that you want to shake to completely combine and blend." No need to go overboard, says Picchi: "The dry shake [that would be a pre-shake for egg whites before adding ice] should be 15 seconds, but that's coming from behind the bar."

Last, when a cocktail has some carbonated ingredient like soda, it gets "built" in the glass, since obviously a shake is out of the question. Building is the term for making a drink in the glass it'll be served in, and pertains to drinks like a Dark and Stormy or an Old Fashioned.

Looking back on our lesson, you can see where Bond got it wrong: "shaken, not stirred?" A Martini? What's to shake? There's no lemon, no egg white. What's really happening, according to Gizmodo, who investigated, is you (or Bond, who maybe wanted to keep his wits about him) are losing a lot of booze in the process. That's because shaking with ice dilutes your drink, of course, and also chills it much more than stirring would, sometimes to the point where you probably can't taste it. It also, as they say, "bruises" the spirit, leaving little shards of ice in the mix that technically should be strained out.

Now that you've got that down pat, it's time to stir a drink:

Coat of Arms
per Joey Picchi

2 oz. small batch bourbon
1 oz. cranberry liqueur
2 Dashes of aromatic Bitters
Stir then serve up in a coupe. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Or another...

Periled Love

1 1/2 oz. Old Tom gin
1/2 oz Grand Classico
1 oz. lime juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup
1 oz. egg white
3 sprigs of thyme

Muddle thyme sprigs in a shaker, then combine rest of ingredients. Dry shake for 15 seconds. Then shake with ice for another 15 seconds. Double strain — which means use both the mixing glass strainer as well as a fine sieve, to strain out any pulp or ice shards — into a coupe/cocktail glass and garnish with small sprig of thyme.

Imbibe Magazine has christened this week as National Negroni Week. Similar to a bullcrap holiday invented by the fat cats at Hallmark Card Inc., this week-long celebration is far better since it does not involve snail mail or stamps, but instead a delicious drink that you can savor yourself.

For those who don't know, a classic Negroni is made with a 1:1:1 ratio of sweet vermouth, Campari, and gin. It's the Cosmopolitan of today, let's say, with scads of foodies and chefs consuming the beverage regularly. And we secretly hope that the next season of Girls -- a wonderful show, by the way, haters -- shows Lena Dunham drinking the noted cocktail with abandon. Preferably while naked in a tub. It would really bring the Sex and the City/Girls comparison full circle.

Anyway, adding a bit of heart to go with your liver damage this week are several bars using National Negroni Week to raise funds for the victims of the tornados in Oklahoma. Participating bars will donate $1.00 of every Negroni sold to the Oklahoma chapter of the American Red Cross.

Current participating bars include:

A-16 Rockridge
Absinthe Brasserie
Acme Bar (Berkeley)
Alchemist
The Alembic
A.Q.
Bar Agricole
Beretta
Blackbird
Bourbon & Branch
Churchill
Elixir
Local Edition
Lolinda
Mission Bowling Club
Momo's
Prizefighter
Rickhouse
Rockbar
15 Romolo
Rye
Tradition
Cantina
The Burritt Room

On Sunday, June 2, there will also be a Negroni-themed Oklahoma fundraiser at Local Edition. You can find out more details here.

Also, our sister site Chicagoist has two choice recipes if you want to make your own Negronis at home. Delightful.

Just one week after the makers of Monster Beverage sued San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera, the D.A. has struck back. Today, Herrera filed the People of the State of California v. Monster Beverage Corporation, a lawsuit challenging the "unfair, deceptive, and unlawful business practices" of the company.

The lawsuit argues that Monster's marketing practices reach children and teens in disregard for health threats suggested by researchers, including "significant morbidity in adolescents, elevated blood pressure, brain seizures, and severe cardiac events". These findings have prompted a separate FDA investigation.

From the lawsuit:

MONSTER aggressively markets its products to children and teenagers by sponsoering youth sports tournaments and prominently featuring profiles of youth ranging in age from 6 to 17 on its Monster Army website. MONSTER also targets children and teenagers by promoting a "lifestyle" that features extreme sports, music, gaming, military themes, and the scantily-clad "Monster Girls."

Herrera also takes issue with Monster's "unsubstantiated claims about the purported special benefits of its 'killer' ingredients and 'energy blend' that 'unleash the beast'" Although we might consider ourselves lucky that this particular beast, whatever it is, remains leashed.

Herrera says that the lawsuit is not a retaliation for last week's suit filed against him by Monster claiming that they were being unfairly singled out by the D.A. Herrera says the company is the biggest offender in a host of energy drink slingers that includes Red Bull, 5-Hour Energy and PepsiCo's Amp.

Previously: Monster Energy Drink is Suing S.F. for Being Totally Lame
[S.F. City Attorney's Office]
[L.A. Times]
[SJ Mercury]

Herrera photo credit: shawncalhoun

In semi-self-serving news, your SFist editor (that's me!) will kick off a new guest-bartending series at Gitane on Monday, May 6th. It goes to benefit La Cocina.

Monday night’s specialty libation, christened the Brocktail (ahem), is basically a twist on the Vesper (made with vodka, gin and Cocchi Americano Rosso in lieu of Lillet). And $2 dollars from every cocktail will go to La Cocina, San Francisco's incubator designed to help budding entrepreneurs (primarily women) to create successful and sustainable small businesses.

If you've always wanted to meet or roll your eyes at the SFist Editor (again, that's me!), now is the time. Come on down to Gitane (recently added to Michael Bauer's Top 100 list!) after work (or what have you) from 6pm-8pm.

Gitane: 6 Claude Lane (at Kearny), S.F., 415-788-6686

On Monday night, Jasper's Corner Tap & Kitchen's bartender/spiritual advisor Kevin Diedrich held a class teaching newbies how to make choice cocktails. We went. We learned how to make good drinks. And you know what? Making good booze-laced beverages is hard. Lots of measuring and specificities; it's the baking of boozing. Far different than pouring a little of this and a lot of that into a glass, as we're accustomed to doing.

A very patient Diedrich schooled us on the art of making the following wonderful concoctions as well as dolling out tips (e.g., fresh juice is a must, and taking a blowtorch to a sprig of rosemary does wonders/looks boss). We came away from the night not only a touch over tipsy, but well educated. Specifically, we learned how to make three fancy drinks. And now, on this Valentine's Day, we will tell you how to make them so that, hopefully, you and your significant other can wake up tomorrow in consensual post-coital bliss.

First up was Dancing with the Devil. It involves three of our favorite things: rosemary, hibiscus, and getting lit.

1.5 oz Espolon Blanco Tequila
.5 oz Flor de Cana Rum
1 oz Hibiscus water
.5 oz Lime
.5 oz Falernum
2 dash Peychauds

Pour it all into a mixing glass (not onto your classmate's jacket, like we accidentally did) and then shake with a bunch of ice and strain into a chilled coupe. For a radical twist, add the aforementioned sprig of rosemary and char lightly with your nearest blowtorch.

Next up was a Champagne Cocktail, which was our favorite because we're classy.

.5 oz choice of modifier
Top with champagne or sparkling wine

Outside of English class, we had no idea what a modifier was in the bartending world. In this case it's a liqueur that you want to pair with your champagne. We're a sucker for creme de violette (because: classy), but this time we used St. Germain Elderflower liqueur. It proved to make for a super bright cocktail, but not at all overpowering. Also, be sure to add a garnish of lemon for extra sass.

And finally, The Jackelope. Boasting rye and and an orange hue, it's the perfect cocktail for breakfast. Or not. But it's mighty damn fine. Also of note: it involves the use of TWO bitters. Crazy world.

2 oz Wild Turkey 81 Rye
1 oz Mandarian juice
.5 oz Cinnamon infused Galliano
.25 oz Lemon juice
.25 oz Demerara syrup
2 dashes Peychaud's bitters

Shake and strain into a chilled coupe, Garnish with a sliced mandarin,
1 dash Angostura bitters

Friday, January 11, is National Hot Toddy Day. What with glacial temperatures blanketing the Bay Area, tomorrow will be the perfect evening in which to enjoy warm boozy beverages. A hot toddy is typically a mix drink made of liquor and water with sugar and spices and served hot. Best of all, many of them involve tea!

For example. if you can't bear the thought of heading to a bar or restaurant to enjoy a hot beverage, Punchbowl has a divine looking recipe here.

For those of you looking to head outside someplace warm to celebrate, check out the following list:

- Redwood Room at CLIFT: The Spiced Toddy is a warm mixture of Bacardi Oakheart, Chai bitters, hot water and honey served with a clove studded lemon twist.

- Presidio Social Club: The PSC Hot Buttered Rum, features top shelf rum infused with a Brown Sugar Toffee Sauce made of butter, brown sugar, cream and whole nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves.

- Top of the Mark: The Mark Hopkins Toddy boasts spiced rum, peppermint schnapps, and hot tea.

- Bar 888: The Wrap Your Hands Around This cocktail is a combination of ginger and vanilla hot buttered rum.

- Restaurant 1833: Hot Buttered Rum served tableside from Michael Lay features Meyer's Platinum Rum, Lemon Hart Demerara 151 Rum, and house-spiced butter.

* Updated to reflect correct date.

by Summer Sewell

By virtue of you reading this, the Mayans were wrong. They predicted, way back before they could check their logic against the Internet, that the whole world would succumb to an apocalyptic force and we’d all be goners as of today. As the prophecy got closer, some people actually got anxious. NASA even had to make a video to debunk the Mayan myth and soothe thousands of people calling them, worried that we were all about to explode.

There, there, everyone - today’s a good day to be alive. In lieu of the world going ka-boom, here are cocktails at three local bars made in honor of the "end of the world" to blow your mind. Celebrate life! Black out!

E+O Asian Kitchen - Thank you, E+O for bringing what would have been the Mayan’s spirit of choice (we think), mezcal, AKA tequila’s drunk grandfather, to the party. The Long Goodbye (pictured) features La Vida mezcal, blood orange juice, lemon, Luxardo cherry liquor and sparkling wine.

Jasper’s Corner Tap - It’s always/never a good idea when one drink has four different liquors in it. But we trust that the bartenders at Jasper’s know what they’re up to blending a double shot of Espolon tequila, Solerno blood orange liqueur, Amontillado sherry and benedictine together in The Final Countdown.

The Mortimer - The Mayan Summer features some fancy ingredients, like fever-tree ginger beer, and habanero-infused blue agave. But deep down, it’s our trusty friend, tequila (Casa Noble Reposado), mixed with fresh cilantro and lime.

The City Attorney office's most pressing issue this week is Monster Energy drinks. Of course. (If Dennis Herrera gets bored, SFist would gladly hand him a list of SF ordinance violators he could be suing!) On Wednesday, Herrera sent a stern letter to Monster Beverage, demanding that the company substantiate its worrisome claim that drinking mass quantities of their awful beverage (which is pretty much bad cocaine in a can) is safe for adolescents and adults.

The popular drink, whose main market consists of sleepy teens and Axe Body Spray wearers, also claims that its users "can never get too much of a good thing!' -- see cocaine comment above -- which is also a point of contention with Mr. Herrera.

According to the New York Times, "Mr. Herrera cited a section of a California state law that makes it illegal for a company to make false or misleading advertising claims that purport to be based on fact or clinical data." Herrera accuses Monster of being "unsafe and irresponsible consumption of its products." This comes on the heels of two Democratic lawmakers, Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut who recently urged the FDA to ban energy drinks.

NYT goes on to report that "[t]he F.D.A. has suggested that 400 milligrams of caffeine a day from all sources is safe for adults, although many medical experts believe that adults can safely consume more." (Damn right we can.) Data on teens and caffeine, however, is far less.

In the meantime, will someone please find Jim Ayers a fucking home already?

In what will hopefully be our final World Series-related post (at least for today), we present to you the Scutaro Swizzle. "Is it good," you ask? Good. No, it's not good. It's probably the best thing to drink in San Francisco tonight. It's excellent. [h/t: Dirk Diggler] Fifth Floor bartender Brian Means whipped them up in honor of Marco Scutaro. They will be offered tonight for parade go’ers who need to quench their liver with style.

The Scutaro Swizzle blends Aperol, Cynar, gin and soda water for $13. While you're there, you should get a burger. (Fifth Floor's hamburgers are excellent.)

Fifth Floor: located at the Hotel Palomar, 12 - 4th Street, SF, 415-348-1555

Is nothing sacred? San Jose resident Robert Lewis Lochbridge, 67, sits in the clink today after allegedly spiking his 63-year-old girlfriend's Vitaminwater with chlorine while she was at a nursing home in San Rafael. According to Marin Independent Journal, "Lochbridge was booked into Marin County Jail this weekend and held on $500,000 bail after attendants at the Northgate Care Center...became alarmed at bottles of water he had brought for an ailing woman who resides there."

Nursing home staff said the popular sugary water Lochbridge brought in "didn't smell right" and "smelled like chlorine." Marin IJ has more:

"The preliminary tests indicate a level of chlorine in one bottle that was higher than you find in a swimming pool," [San Rafael police spokeswoman Margo Rohrbacher] said. More tests will be conducted on samples of the water.

"He was telling her it was vitamin and mineral water to make her better," Rohrbacher said, adding the woman was instructed to drink four ounces of the concoction every hour in a routine that apparently started several weeks ago. "He told her it would be good for her."

As we now know, Vitaminwater, a (rather tasty) product of the Coca-Cola Company, is nothing more than Kool-Aid playing dress up. Anyway, Lochbridge was allegedly was trying to control his (ex)girlfriend's finances. He was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, poisoning or adulterating food and drink, and cruelty to a dependent adult.

Lochbridge is due in court on Tuesday at Marin County Superior Court.

[Marin IJ]

Today, February 22, is National Margarita Day, one of the most sacred days for Marina cougars and Jimmy Buffett fanboys living in Sausalito. While San Francisco's artisan bar scene desperately wants to make margaritas the new manhattans (we'll let Regina George tell you how we feel about that), the drink of choice for many a Lake Havasu spring-breaker remains just that: the cocktail of the pedestrian partier. And we wouldn't want it any other way.

From where did Margaritas originate? Well, there are several theories, but our favorite involves legendary chanteuse Peggy Lee. Wikipedia notes:

Another common origin tale begins the cocktail’s history at the legendary Balinese Room in Galveston, Texas where, in 1948, head bartender Santos Cruz created the Margarita for singer Peggy Lee. He supposedly named it after the Spanish version of her name, Margarita, and it’s been a hit ever since.

And on that note, La Condesa Napa Valley's award-winning bartender Nate Wales celebrates the margarita by sharing his special recipe with SFist. Check it:

La Clasica Margarita:
1.5oz El Jimador Blanco
.75oz Patron Citronage Orange Liqueur
1.25oz Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice
.5oz Organic Agave Nectar
.5oz Filtered Water
combine ingredients over ice; shake hard, then pour into a rocks glass rimmed with salt (LCNV makes house-made cactus-lemongrass salt) and garnish with a thin floater of lime.

Mmm.

Nate and his bar crew will make heaps of these special margaritas tonight at La Condesa in Napa Valley (a mere $6 during happy hour from 4-6 p.m.) If you can't make it all the way up to Napa, here are a few of our favorite local places to grab cheap and/or fancy pitchers of margaritas:

- Puerto Alegre, 546 Valencia (at 16th Street)
- Pancho Villa Taqueria, 3071 16th Street (at Valencia)
- Tommy's, 5929 Geary Boulevard (at 23rd Avenue)
- Tres, 130 Townsend (at Second Street)
- Velvet Cantina, 3349 23rd Street (between Mission and Valencia)
- Tia's, 300 19th Avenue (at Geary)

Feel free to tell us where readers can get your favorite margarita. (Extra points if it's blue.)

P.S. Over at Gothamist, they're also celebrating. For you NYCers out there dying of thirst, check out their picks.