Last week, I did my first-ever TV appearance, on San Francisco’s View From The Bay show (click here to watch the segment, on festive drinks for the holidays). Here are three lessons I learned, which might be helpful for anyone else promoting a book or demonstrating how to make drinks or food on TV for other reasons:
1. Be flexible. VFTB runs on the local ABC affiliate, which is owned by…Disney. That means family-friendly up the wazoo, which translates into NO BOOZE for the TV host. Yes, showing bottles of tequila is allowed, but I was discouraged from making cocktails for the segment. I’m sure you can see where this would be problematic for someone promoting a book on cocktails.
The solution: mocktails.
“Mocktails?!?” Can you hear my incredulous, frustrated tone? After all the time creating and testing (and discarding) cockails to fill out the book with the best possible cocktails, I was expected to make no-booze variations? After I passed through the classic stages of grief (denial, anger, acceptance) I set out to create mocktails that would represent the “Spice & Ice” flavor profile and — to be perfectly blunt — that wouldn’t suck. After all, someone was going to be drinking these!
I took some inspiration from Natalie Bovis-Nielsen’s book Preggatinis (literally, an entire book of mocktails that do not suck. Yes, that’s an extreme understatement – I’ve only tried a couple of drinks from the book but they were quite lovely), and created mocktail versions of the Dragonfire, the Sparkling Ginger Daisy (recipe below), and the Jalapeno Mojito.
2. Be creative. You need some weird stuff for mocktails — white grape juice, bitter lemon soda (surprisingly hard to find in the Bay area!), lots of citrus to approximate the bite of alcohol. Instead of Domaine de Canton in the Sparkling Ginger Daisy, I relied on spicy ginger beer. But sometimes they can be insipid, so when I shopped for ingredients at Whole Foods (4th St & Mission), I asked one of the clerks which one was spiciest.
“I don’t know,” he replied, “let’s try them and find out!” He fetched a bottle opener and some small plastic cups, and together we sampled four different brands, right off the shelf. People in New York are never that accommodating!
PS, the spicy ginger beer taste-off winner was Fentimans, by a wide margin, trailed by Ginger People and GUS brands.
3. Be fast! Despite all the prep time needed to make drinks on live TV, the air time goes by in a flash. The producer wisely recommended that I prepare one of each drink to completion ahead of time. It was a good thing I did; apparently something went wrong with the “robo-camera” (whatever that is) back at the studio, and that meant the segment wrapped up rather abruptly, and I was rushed through the last two drinks. I give the host, Lisa Quinn, a lot of credit; I don’t think I would have maintained composure with someone yelling “wrap it up! wrap it up!” in my earpiece.
Sparkling Ginger Daisy (Mocktail Version)
Adapted from Spice & Ice – 60 tongue-tingling cocktails, by Kara Newman (Chronicle Books, 2009)
Sparkle sugar, to rim the glass
Lemon slice, to rim the glass
2 coin-sized rounds of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
2 oz pomegranate juice
2 oz white grape juice
3 oz spicy ginger beer
Moisten the rim of the glass with lemon and rim a champagne flute with sparkle sugar. Set aside.
In the bottom of a mixing glass, muddle the fresh ginger. Add pomegranate, white grape juice, and ice. Shake vigorously and strain into champagne flute. Top with ginger ale.
Tipple Sheet 