BAT Chat

We've Moved!

2011-01-24T07:39:00.001-05:00

OK, I finally got religion and moved to a Wordpress platform. The news site URL is www.BATchat.net. See you there!

Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time...

2010-11-26T18:47:00.001-05:00

So what did we find out? We did in fact prove that copper makes better egg white foam in a Pisco Sour...when you make it without the lime. We also find out that contrary to what we had read, Lime doesn't help , in fact just the opposite. Here's the process we used...the recipe was of 2 ounces of Pisco Porton (from my private stash handcrafted by the inimitable Johnny Schuler), 1 ounce of

Optimizing Egg White Foam in a Pisco Sour

2010-11-26T09:46:00.000-05:00

The idea occurred to my daughter Lindsay and me when she was making a birthday cake for my wife. Why do cooks whip egg whites in copper pots? My first stop was a query to Darcy O'Neil, of Art of Drink fame, drink chemistry guru and author of the definitive book on soda fountains titled Fix the Pumps. His answers combined with a little digging in the literature surfaced the chemistry behind it.

You Want Me to Do WHAT????

2010-10-27T06:36:00.003-04:00

David Honig of Palate Press and my fellow bloggers, I feel your pain. As authors of six blogs, some for the company, some for clients and some just for fun, we see our fair share of outrageous PR pitches. So I thought I’d post a few excerpts of some of the more egregious examples and share some yuks. I welcome my fellow bloggers to add their contributions to the PR Pitch Hall of Shame. 1.

Notes from the EWBC, PR folks, Please Get a Clue!

2010-10-26T07:29:00.027-04:00

One interesting event occurred was a criticism leveled at “whoever keeps flooding my office with unsolicited samples of wines.” That was a quote from David Honig of Palate Press. It was a comment during a session on “generic promotion” (new title to me for country trade associations) featuring panelists Willi Klinger, MD of the Austrian Wine Marketing Board and Michael Cox who heads of up

European Wine Bloggers Conference

2010-10-24T18:28:00.003-04:00

I'm in Vienna this week at the European Wine Bloggers Conference hosted by our client the Austrian Wine Marketing Board. Kudos to Robert McIntosh, Gabriella and Ryan Opaz who organized the conference and did a fabulous job. The venue was pretty outstanding too…the Orangerie at the Shönbrunn Palace, home to the Hapsburg emperors. 17 Students from the Burgundy School of Business attended the

US Drinks Conference Distributor Panel

2010-10-19T17:31:00.003-04:00

One of the highlights of the U.S. Drinks Conference was the distributor panel moderated by Ted Roman, EVP of William Grant, with panelists Kevin Fennessey, CMO of Southern Wine and Spirits; Efren Puente, VP of Marketing at Charmer Sunbelt; Bob Hendrickson, President of RNDC, and Jeffrey Altschuler, President of Allied Beverages. Here are the key takeaways: · There was general agreement and

US Drinks Conference

2010-10-16T10:04:00.002-04:00

I'll be making a series of posts on the USDC, but thought I'd get some of the early pix up in the meantime. A big shout out of thanks to Denise Menefee for being the unrelenting driving force that made the conference a success. She's pictured here with husband Jeff who managed all the graphics for us. Me and daughter Lindsay Raye Carter Reum of VeeV Acai Spirit Colleen Graham of

USDC on CNBC

2010-10-12T06:23:00.000-04:00

The U.S. Drinks Conference 2010 kicks off today. We're at a bigger venue this year but still will pack the room with an SRO crowd of 200+ from 14 countries. We're especially pleased that CNBC will be covering the conference this year with a film crew working with business reporter Brian Schactman. I spoke with Gary Vaynerchuk yesterday and he's pumped for his presentation at 9:30. It will

A Dutch Point of View

2010-09-26T17:59:00.000-04:00