We have measured force vs displacement profiles between hydrophobic silica surfaces at contact in the presence of a liquid meniscus, We show that the recent generalized theory of the adhesive contact by Maugis (J. Colloid Interface Sci, 150, 243 (1992)) aptly describes the full force curve, yielding accurate values of the adhesion energy. We outline the improvements that one can expect from this technique in the characterization of the contact between solids in the presence of adsorbed liquid.