Here's a story Inedible Cocktail Garnishes Need To Be Kicked Off The Menu
Video cocktail educator Kevin Kos made a short video with information from CocktailSafe.
Here is the blog entry that includes the video.
Here's a story Inedible Cocktail Garnishes Need To Be Kicked Off The Menu
In the book Botany at the Bar: The Art and Science of Making Bitters by Selena Ahmed, Rachel Meyer, and Ashley DuVal, the authors list some ingredients that they recommend against using. The authors work in sustainable food systems, conservation genomics, and plant genetics in university settings, so they're qualified to comment on this important topic.
"We do not use the following botanicals commonly used in traditional home remedies for preparing alcoholic bitters."
The list is:
While these ingredients probably deserve a more thorough write-up as to why they are specifically disrecommended in alcoholic infusions, for now this page will serve as a placeholder and warning.
Tara Fougner of Thirsty wrote a story on some potentially dangerous drink ingredients and techniques specific to Halloween shenanigans - black cocktails, liquid nitrogen, and the like. Check it out here!
This Wednesday I'll be doing a live Facebook chat with Tracy Stuckrath of thrive! meetings & events.
Stuckrath has a history as an event planner now with a specialty in allergen and food sensitivity awareness, working as a consultant and speaker and continuing to assist with events.
It should be an interesting talk as I don't know much about food allergies outside of cocktail ingredients, and with an increasing demand for specialty cocktails at events such as those she and I both assist with, we need to translate that awareness into cocktail allergen labeling - tricky when liquor brands legally don't have to disclose their ingredients!
Please join us for the chat if you can.
Join the chat on the Thrive Facebook page on Wednesday May 27th at 9AM Pacific/noon Eastern.
In a story on infusions for The Manual, Tyler Zielinski mentions CocktailSafe as a resource for checking safety first.
For example, the pits of peaches, and other stone fruit, contain a compound called amygdalin which breaks down into hydrogen cyanide when ingested. If this ingredient were to find its way into a spirit, the consequences could be lethal. Refer to cocktailsafe.org before you go infusing away with various ingredients, and make sure to do your homework.
Inspired mostly by the recent attention to quinine due to COVID-19 and how people were potentially misusing it, writer Jason Horn wrote a story on homemade tonic and other potentially unsafe ingredients on CocktailSafe.org.
CocktailSafe.org founder Camper English was a guest on the Shift Drink podcast. The interview took place at the fabulous Inferno Room in Indianapolis.
To listen to the podcast, follow this link to the ShiftDrink website.
In preparation for a talk at the 2019 Bar Convent Berlin where Camper English spoke on CocktailSafe topics, several pages of this website were updated with information on legal limits for several ingredients.
These include:
For Halloween, the US FDA issued a video about the dangers of too much black licorice due to its glycyrrhizin. Licorice root is sometimes added to gins and other alcoholic beverages and the quantities of glycyrrhizin are regulated as discussed here on CocktailSafe.
Watch above or follow the link to the video here.