Heidrum Meadery

When we went to Marin County to buy oysters last month, it was a beautiful day and we felt like making another fun visit so decided to drop by a meadery on the way back home.

Heidrum Meadery has been making mead, a honey wine, first as a small enterprise since 1997 then moved to the current gorgeous location in Point Reyes in 2012.

They offer a tasting flight as well as mead by the glass, and you can stroll in the garden with a glass of mead in your hand.

California Sage Blossom
Aromas of melon and passion fruit.
Sweet molt-like flavor with soft bubble.
It tasted good with bitter chocolate.


Sonoma Mountain Apiary
Fresh aromas of white flowers like jasmine and thyme.
This mead tasted good with nuts.


Madras Carrot Blossom
Aromas and flavors of honey, Rice Krispie and fennel.
Fresh mouth feel.

California Orange Blossom
Honey and orange blossom with a bitterness of citrus skin. 

There is a slight sweetness in the after taste. Easy to drink.


Hawaiian Macadamia Blossom
Pineapple skin, hibiscus, pear and sweet passion fruit.
Aromas are sweet but there is a savoriness which makes this good with food.

Oregon radish Blossom
Complex aromas of daikon, yomogi, ginger and a slight funkiness.

Good pairing with semi sweet chocolate.



When you hear “honey wine” you expect something sweet but their meads were more savory than sweet and good drink with food.

They have picnic tables in the backyard so I strongly recommend to bring some snack and taste their meads with food.

L'Arack de Musar

Chateau Musar in Lebanon is known for producing great wines, but they also make Arak.
Arak is a grape-base distilled spirit with anise flavor from Eastern Mediterranean.

L'Arack de Musar

... Please excuse my cat.
Chateau Musar's L'Arack de Musar is distilled four times and it is distilled with anise seeds at the 4th time.

Distinct but not overwhelming aromas and flavor of anise seeds and underlaid dark chocolate.

Very smooth and clean mouthfeel.
It is not necessarily sweet, but its creamy texture gives the perception of subtle sweetness. 

It is a strong spirit and traditionally mixed with water to drink.
When water is added it becomes hazy with white color. 
This means that the Arak is made by distilling with real anise seeds, not by simply adding extracts to alcohol. 

We tried several ratio, and liked 1 : 3 ratio (Arac : water) with ice the best. 

Angel's Temptation

When I drink Japanese alcoholic beverages I usually choose sake.

While I enjoy sake most of the time, shochu, the distilled spirit from the southern part of Japan, can be a hit-and-miss drink for me in terms of my personal preference.

This shochu, a gift from a friend, was a big hit!

Tenshi no Yuwaku (meaning "Angel’s Temptation") is shochu from Kagoshima. 

It's made with sweet potato and aged for 8 years in barrel.

Texture is smooth and aftertaste is clean.
Richness and subtle sweetness of dried fruit, vanilla whipped cream and honeysuckle.

The flavor and depth reminds me of whisky, which I usually don’t expect from shochu.

If it's taste like whisky, then it should taste good as a highball, so JC made it.

We were right, it was good as a highball, too.

It was easy to drink, good with food and even with sweets, and still flavorful after the dilution with the club soda.

When we realized, half of the bottle was gone.

I'd never drunk a drink with 40% abv. at this speed. 

It is delicious and dangerous spirit!

Twinbird Ice Crusher

JC loves cocktail.
He loves to drink them but I think he loves to make them more.
Crushed ice is the integral part of cocktail making and he'd been making crushed ice by hitting a bag full of ice with my rolling pin. It caused huge noise and of course my rolling pin was destroyed.

Last summer, I couldn't stand the noise and the sight of damaged rolling pin anymore and got this for JC: Twinbird Ice Crusher.

Just throw the ice from top of the machine and turn the handle. It still makes some noise but my rolling pin is safe now and the ice seems much nicer. They are crushed into evenly smaller pieces.

Cocktail made with the ice from this machine melt gradually and does not dilute the flavor.
I can't explain scientifically but it does taste different.

When I was looking for the ice crusher, the biggest concern was durability.
Twinbird is a company in Tsubame city, Niigata.
This city is known for its metalworking therefore I assumed that the metal part of the machine would be durable.
We've been using this for a year, probably once a week on average.
It's still working fine.

Honey Wine

I'm a conservative shopper. When I buy something, I tend to stick to what I already know such as books from my favorite authors, shirts with my favorite color, or wines from my favorite producers.
On the other hand, JC enjoys unexpected encounter.
He is curious, especially when it comes to food & drink.

The other day we happened to find a tasting booth at Whole Foods (organic super market).
I usually just pass by these events, but JC wanted to try, especially when he saw it was a little unexpected drink. It was mead.

Mead is an alcoholic drink made by fermenting honey. It is not a very popular drink now, but has very long history.
I didn't expected a lot from this ancient honey wine, but it was surprisingly good!
It was dry but had the flavour of honey without stickiness.

Meadery Forest Flower
Honey, caramel, dried fruit, herb and rancio-like quality, which reminds me of the oxidized wine from south France, or even Koshu (aged sake).
It feels rich but smooth,

Another good thing is that it would last for a month in a fridge after opening the bottle, in case if you want to enjoy this slowly.

Rum Festival in San Francisco

Rum Festival is an annual event held in San Francisco.
This event includes tasting of rums from all over the world, cocktail competition and seminars.

The winner!

For people, especially for those whose first encounter with rum was Rum and Coke, rum can mean cheap, mediocre spirit (in Rum and Coke, flavor of coke is overpowering so low-quality rum can be used).
However, the quality of rum has been improved recent years and there are more and more premium products, and I got to taste some of them at this event.

Rum is a versatile drink which can be made into a craft spirit by choosing the ingredients, condition of maturation or material of container carefully.
Many small producers are focusing only on these premium rum.


My favorites were Diplomatico and Plantation.
I also found a unique producer who is relatively new to the spirit world.

John Drew Brand is a producer from Florida.
Jonathan Drew is a founder of renown cigar company Drew Estate.
After selling the company, John Drew Brand, new business focusing on craft spirits, was established in 2015.

Dove Tale Florida Rum
This rum is made with Florida sugarcane molasses, distilled and matured in Bourbon barrel for 2 to 4 years in Florida.
Sweetness of caramel, butter and vanilla.
JC thinks this would make good Hot Buttered Rum.

Dove Tale Puerto Rico Rum
This is made with the same molasses as Florida rum, but distilled and matured in Puerto Rico. Believe it or not, it's cooler in Puerto Rico than Florida, therefore the spirit is aged longer, 4 to 6 years.
It has more fruit and spice than Florida Rum.
It's interesting to compare these two rums which are made with the same ingredient and matured differently.

Rum is a spirit usually used in cocktails, but these premium rums can be enjoyed as straight.

St. George Spirits Tour

We went for the distillery tour and tasting of St. George Spirits which is a distillery in Alameda.
Alameda is the island across from San Francisco, and the view of San Francisco can be enjoyed from the parking lot.

The range of products of St. George includes vodka, gin, whiskey, absinthe, liqueur and even shochu!
They are also known for once accidentally creating mustard gas during the production of Wasabi Vodka!

St. George Spirits was established in 1982.
This is their first still.

I love the look of the copper still.
Copper is the preferred material for stills since it reacts with sulfurs and removes them.

They do experimental ageing with different barrels such as maturing whiskey in umeshu (Japanese plum liqueur) barrels.

After the tour, we had a tasting.

Flavored vodkas and gins were fun to try.
All purpose vodka is our staple for cocktail making.

This is the shochu. The label says ramen shop shochu because this is inspired by Ramen Shop in Oakland.
Made with California rice.
I love the label design with the bear saying "roars of bear". It's somehow very funny.

Baller Single Malt Whiskey.
Made with 100% American barley. Aged in casks, charcoal filtered, then matured in barrels which held umeshu prior to this process.
There was a touch of sweetness. Probably from umashu?

Informative tour, delicious drinks and gorgeous view. The guide was friendly and professional.
If you are interested, parking is easy and the distillery can be reached by the ferry from San Francisco.

Sight Glass

Sight Glass is a coffee shop near Civic Center Station.

Inside the shop is spacious and you can see coffee beans being processed from roasting to brewing.
This is their philosophy: customers should be able to see what's inside the cup.

This is in the middle of the shop!

There was a coffee class at this shop, and it was a good opportunity for me to learn about coffee since I don't usually drink coffee.

First, we learned how coffee beans are processed.
Coffee trees can grow huge, but are usually trimmed to 10-12 feet. Unlike wine grapes, the age of the tree doesn't affect the flavor of coffee.
Harvest is done when the ripeness is right. Overripe fruit creates fermented flavor and under ripe fruit has peanut flavor.
After fermentation, beans are washed and dried.
This drying process is critical for the flavor and how the beans age.

Then we got to smell the different aromas of four coffee:

Esperanza from Honduras (citrus and nuts aromas)
Psasje from Colombia (grapefruit and brown sugar aromas)
Yetatebe from Ethiopia (complex aromas of incense, spice and cream)
Gachika from Kenya (floral aroma, tobacco and tropical fruit)

The first two (from Latin America) had woody character and the latter two (from Africa) had spice character. It was interesting to find that there was distinctive character difference depending on which continent the coffee was from.

Aromas of some coffee, especially cheep coffee, somehow give me headaches, but these coffee had beautiful aromas and I enjoyed them a lot.

Manhattan

Manhattan is a cocktail made with whiskey, vermouth and bitters.
JC made one using bourbon (corn whiskey), and Lillet instead of vermouth.

George T. Stagg Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky has subtle and decent sweetness, and it shows in this cocktail.

Christmas cocktail at P.C.H

During the holiday season, Union Square in downtown San Francisco is decorated with big Christmas tree and cheerful illuminations of nearby buildings.
I'm not Christian but appreciate the festive feel.

To savor this festive feel fully, we went to P.C.H, a bar run by the talented bartender Kevin Diedrich.
The bar opens at 5:00. We got there at 5:10 and the place was already packed!

Inside the bar was already Christmas and the cocktail menu was Christmas special too.

I ordered Jingle Ball Nog, which is Egg Nog P.C.H. version.
Green color is probably because of Pandan (plant used for cooking in southeast Asia).

JC ordered Yuppie Ki Yay Mother Fxxxxr!
Rum based cocktail.

The seasonal special products could sometimes become unbalanced because of the limited conditions, but these cocktails were well-balanced, fun yet sophisticated.
There were 10 Christmas special cocktails, and I wish I could have tried all of them!

Urakasumi, Karakuchi

Urakasumi Honjozo Karakuchi

The aromas and flavors of melon, watermelon and caramel.
It was off-dry and the acid gives refreshing feel.
The alcohol felt a little too sharp, but it was softened when I had this sake with food.

The otsumami was Bell pepper Miso.
This recipe is from a book "Sosyoku no Susume Natsu."

Chop bell pepper and green shiso leaves.
Remove seeds from chili pepper.
Cook sesame oil and chili pepper, then add miso and mirin.
Add bell pepper, cook, and add shiso before finis cooking.

Delicious to eat with rice!

Martini with fresh garnish

Season of harvest for cheery tomato.
There are more than we can eat and I can't eat them everyday, but the most of our neighbours grow cherry tomatoes and I can't give away, so I usually make tomato sauce.

However, they are so fresh and I want to enjoy the freshness too.
To answer to my request, JC made a cocktail using the fresh tomato.

Martini with Cherry tomato.
Not just garnish, there is another "vegetable" in this cocktail.
There is Celery Bitters in it.
I thought he was joking when he said this would have a taste of celery, but it really tasted celery!
It was a fun drink with a little twist.

Cocktail at 54 Mint

54 Mint is an Italian restaurant in San Francisco.
Chef is Italian. Servers are Italian. Guests are Italian. Conversation is in Italian (of course they speak in English if you are not Italian).

It's very Italian restaurant which means that their food is great.
However, this day, we came here to have cocktail.

Both of them were their original.
Mine was called Love Affair: brandy, ginger beer, chartreuse, pineapple juice.
Herb and sweetness with a kick of ginger. Great cocktail!
I liked the presentation, too.
Serving white color cocktail in a black cup... cocktail doesn't need to be served in a glass.

JC ordered whiskey-base cocktail.
I had a sip and it was delicious cocktail with a depth of flavor.

Potato chips were home-made.
Crispy and with real potato flavor.
Delicious!

This is a good Italian restaurant, but great place to visit for cocktail, too!

Bourbon Watermelon Smash

It's a season of watermelon.

We sprinkle a pinch of salt on a slice of watermelon in Japan. This way, watermelon tastes sweeter, but this must sound weird to people outside Japan.
JC was so surprised when he saw me eating watermelon with salt, then he tried too and admitted that the pinch of salt enhanced the sweetness, but he never tried again.

Although salt makes watermelon sweet,  if it is too green, even a pinch of salt can't save it.
When this happens, JC makes cocktail.

Bourbon Watermelon Smash

Ingredients are:
Watermelon syrup (juice and sugar ratio 50:50)
Bourbon
Lemon
Mint

He didn't want to have cooked flavor, so made watermelon syrup uncooked.

Summer cocktail, flavor-wise and visual-wise.
This is a simple cocktail so the balance is the key.

Fukuju Green label

Fukuju Junmai Mikagego Green Label

Refreshing green and tropical fruit, and subtle umami flavor.
It wasn't as sharp as Ginjo, of course, but had clean finish.

This would be a good food sake, so had to have with otsumami.

Teriyaki Daikon
Cut daikon into thick slices and boil them.
Pan fry and flavor with soy sauce and mirin.
It tasted a little bland so JC made a topping with mayonnaise and tonkatsu sauce.

Daikon mochi
Grate daikon. Squeeze a little and save water.
Add dried shrimp, chopped green onion, pinch of salt and mix.
Add flour and starch. Mix well.
Make them into round shape.
Add water saved from daikon, or a little dashi if there is not enough liquid.
Pan fry until they become brown on both sides.
Eat with ponzu (soy sauce flavored vinegar).

The out of season daikon was a little bitter so I used mayonnaise instead of ponzu.
It worked and soften the bitterness; however, mayonnaise and Fukuju wasn't a perfect combination.

Mourad in SF

Sawanoi Kuramori Junmai Ginjo

Aged sake (Koshu) from Tokyo.
This sake was made in 2000.
We bought this in 2013 when we visited the brewery and had been waiting for a good timing to open this since.

Aged sake has distinct aromas and flavors such as nuts, caramel and mushrooms.
It has deep flavor of umami, and unlike Ginjo-style sake, usually goes good with strong flavored food.

We brought this Koshu for dinner with friends at  Mourad in San Francisco.

This restaurant offers Morocco - meets - California cuisine.
Their dishes are beautiful, innovative and delicious.
Inside is spacious and has retro/exotic feel.

We had the Koshu with appetizers.

Caviar on top of pomegranate molasses, potato  and poached egg yolk.
This combination was like a dream!

Eggplant in three ways: grilled, pureed and marmalade.

Octopus was poached in olive oil then grilled.
The cream color line was pureed cauliflower. Good flavor accent.

Foie Gras wrapped in plum jelly.
At first I thought they brought cherry tomatoes.
This idea was genius and tasted impeccable!

Appetizers were like little jewelries, and the pairing with Koshu was successful.
One of the friends wasn't a big fan of  sake but she loved this.

Then we moved to the main course.

Lamb Loin with lentil and pickled Matsutake.

Roasted Snapper stuffed with mushroom and onion.
Visually dynamic, but pure flavor of the fish stood out among the dramatic setting.

Wine for the main dished was chosen by the sommelier.

Domaine Anne et Herve Sigaut Chambolle-Musigny 2009

Red wine from Burgundy.
A lot of flower and elegance.

Great wine by itself, but it played good supporting role here.





Dessert was Almond Merengue Cookies.

All the plates are made by an artist from Seattle, Akiko's Pottery, which were chosen by the chef.
They installed a special dish washer which cleans and sanitizes dishes without soap to protect the handmade plates.
The restaurant goes that far to provide a perfect setting for the dining experience.

Green Tea Rickey

Cold Mugicha (barley tea) is a summer staple in Japan.
I don't know anybody in Japan who doesn't drink this in summer.
I, of course, keep a pot of mugicha in a fridge every summer.

The other day, I run out of Mugicha and made a pot of cold green tea instead (add green tea leaves in a pot of water, let it sit over night, drain and keep it in a fridge).

JC was somehow inspired by it and made a cocktail from it.

Green Tea Rickey

Ingredients are:
green tea
gin
lime
sugar
green tea powder as garnish

The combination of the bitterness and the slight sweetness made this cocktail refreshing and addictive!