Month: April 2020

Those are the topics of my two most recent articles. First, the coffee. I spoke with Peter Giuliano of the Specialty Coffee Association about making better coffee at home:

“In our research we’ve been quantifying how much different interventions affect the quality of the beverage,” he says. “What’s really clear is that the biggest impact is the coffee itself. There’s nothing that you can do that will have as big an effect as the quality of the coffee in the first place.”

Then at Slate, I look into the current state of the science on smoking, vaping, and COVID-19:

Are smokers and vapers more likely to die of COVID-19? To judge by news coverage of the topic, the answer is an unequivocal yes. The New York Times, Wired, CNN, Bloomberg, and numerous other publications have run stories warning that smokers and vapers are at higher risk. Anti-tobacco groups are using the pandemic as an opportunity to push for new restrictions on nicotine, ranging from bans on vapor products to the complete prohibition of cigarettes. At least one senator, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, is citing the disease as justification for a national ban on flavored e-cigarettes, while House Democrats are urging the FDA to temporarily ban e-cigarettes entirely. Amid all this alarm, one complication has received relatively little notice: Emerging evidence on the risk factors for COVID-19 is ambiguous with regard to smoking and virtually nonexistent for its relationship to vaping.

Lastly, I moved my newsletter over to Substack. If you’d like to subscribe, click on over here.

The past month has been extremely disruptive to my normal work, but one positive outcome is that I’ve had much more time for writing. I’ve also joined the trend, a few years late, of writers starting newsletters. The Liquidity Preference newsletter is going out 1-2 times a week with links to my work, discussion of COVID-19 and its economics fall out, and tips for making social distancing a little more tolerable. You can subscribe here or check out the archives for a taste of what to expect.

For the Neoliberal Project’s Exponents magazine, I took a look at the decades long campaign to stigmatize smokers via the dubious science of thirdhand smoke:

Now that we are all compelled to practice social distancing, we know too well what it’s like to live in a world where the air itself is suspect, where valued social spaces have been closed off to us, and where every brief encounter with another person requires undertaking a wary risk assessment. Despite the real effects of stigma experienced by smokers, it would be too much to suggest that they live in that world all the time. This is to the credit of ordinary people whose common sense leads them to ignore alarmist claims about thirdhand smoke; it’s certainly not for lack of trying on the part of anti-smoking activists or the journalists who uncritically amplify their fear-mongering.

The weblog is Truth on the Market is hosting a symposium on “The Law, Economics, and Policy of the COVID-19 Pandemic.” They invited me to contribute a post on how FDA regulations are preventing small distilleries from producing hand sanitizer:

In general, the redirection of craft distilleries to producing hand sanitizer is an example of private businesses responding to market signals and the evident challenges of the health crisis to produce much-needed goods; in some cases, sanitizer represents one of their only sources of revenue during the shutdown, providing a lifeline for small businesses. The Distilled Spirits Council currently lists nearly 600 distilleries making sanitizer in the United States.

There is one significant obstacle that has hindered the production of sanitizer, however: an FDA requirement that distilleries obtain extra ingredients to denature their alcohol.

I’ve also begun writing for the website Inside Hook. My first article advises what to make with some of the dusty bottles that may be taking up space in your liquor cabinet: Galliano, Drambuie, Jagermeister, and more. My second piece details my experiments making infinity bottles, including my 50+ ingredient Infinite Negroni:

As I write this, I’m sipping on a rum that’s not quite like any other I’ve had before. It’s funky and tropical on the nose, with notes of banana bread and fermented fruit. The palate is slightly sweet with vanilla, but also hot and high-proof, and hints of cinnamon and spice linger on the finish. If you’d like to try it, I’m afraid you’re out of luck: this rum exists only in my apartment, and it will taste different the next time I sample it, too.

The rum was poured from my favorite of my “infinity bottles.” The infinity bottle is a trend that has taken hold among spirits nerds as a way of creating a unique blend at home. The idea is pretty simple: You take an empty bottle and start creating your own personal blend of a chosen spirit, typically a whiskey. Then you keep adding to it over time. If you have an infinity bottle of bourbons, for example, you might drink some of it one night and then top it off with something new, creating a blend that continually evolves in the bottle.

Lastly, I’ve finally made The Rediscovery of Tobacco available on Apple books, so if you prefer reading on an Apple device, you’re out of excuses for not ordering it! I’ve also made the introduction available for free online.