The Modern Bar Cart Podcast

In Part 1 of this mind-bending conversation with distiller, blender, and synesthete Anna Mantheakis (@anna.distills), some of the topics we discuss include:
A working definition of synesthesia, for those of us who don't experience sensory spill-over in any given perceptual domain

The story of how Anna first realized that sound impacted her experience of flavor, featuring a 5-star restaurant brunch shift, a kitchen fan, and a batch of whipped cream

How synesthesia impacted Anna's journey as a wine and spirits professional, really challenging her to come up with creative ways to maintain consistency without completely dulling her sensitivity to certain tastes and aromas.

We also explore how she has worked auditory cues into her distilling and blending practices in order to enhance sensitivity and focus when tasting for specific compounds or flavor attributes.

Thankfully, these are just audio files, and this is a podcast! So you'll actually get to hear the sounds that Anna uses when running stills or evaluating barrels for blends.

Along the way, we muse on questions like: "what if the flavors I'm tasting aren't actually there?" "What if you could hook your nose up to a Gas Chromatograph?", "would you eat a taco with crickets on it?", and much, much more.

This is a live recording of a seminar I presented at the Rum Summit about a month ago at the American Distilling Institute conference and trade show in Miami.
The title of the presentation is S.C.U.B.A (Submerging Casks Under Bodies Aquatic) and it's my somewhat maximalist attempt to survey the wet, weird subject of underwater cask maturation in the spirits and (surprisingly) cocktail space. Our last interview with the gents from Reef Rum Supply obviously plays heavily into this topic, so if you haven't tuned into that, I'd recommend it, but there's also quite a bit of new info in this talk, as well.
You can watch this whole presentation, including the slides and my smiling face up on stage, over on The Modern Bar Cart YouTube channel. The video is already up, and I highly recommend subscribing to the channel if you're a YouTube kinda person. 
Also on the YouTube Channel, you can check out a 20-minute process video where I take a cask out to the ocean, submerge it in salt water, then conduct a salt cured rum experiment, which was a lot of fun. So, plenty of great reasons to join me on the video side of this podcast.

In this aquatic maturation deep-dive with Danny and Billy Dalla Polla, Eddie Odabachian, and Nick Carmer of Reef Rum Supply Co., creators of the Seagroni, some of the topics we discuss include:
The genesis story of the project, starting with the question: "what if there was sunken treasure in this reef?," and culminating in a fateful Negroni week experiment that changed everything.
What happens to spirits and cocktails when they're barrel aged under water, as compared to the conditions and results you might expect from standard, terrestrial warehouse conditions.
How consumers have been reacting to the Seagroni at tropical bars across the country and at a recent Bar Convent Brooklyn event, where bartenders tasted their first sample of an experimental spirit called "Sea Wray."
We also discuss some of the "associative terroir" that comes from sinking barrels 30 feet into the ocean and what it feels like to be a body (or a barrel, for that matter) hugged by the ocean as currents wash through the aquatic barrel cellar.
Along the way, we cover the specific flavors and textures that the Reef Rum Supply team are chasing as they experiment with each new barrel drop, advice for perfecting your cocktail game when paddling in a sea kayak, the scariest things the team have seen while diving on a full moon, and much, much more.

This time around, we explore the fascinating flavors of different Drambuie releases. If you haven't heard of it, it's a honey and whiskey liqueur made in Scotland, and if you have heard of it…well, you know that you can't make a Rusty Nail cocktail without it.
In this episode, the bottles we taste through include:
Today's Drambuie base expression
A bottle from maybe 4 or 5 years ago…just to see if it's the same juice
A vintage bottle from the '70s or '80s
A 1980s-era Drambuie decanter special release
Drambuie 15-year old (made, of course, with 15-year-old whiskey)
And we wrap things up with the ready-to-serve Drambuie Hot Apple Toddy
Watch this entire tasting on YouTube: https://youtu.be/LkJlnIWTEFs
Thanks to David T. Smith for providing the wonderful rare and vintage Drambuie expressions we taste through in this episode. Thanks also to Eric Zandona, Joe Barber, and Erik Owens for joining in the fun and providing their expert palates and feedback.

In this Down Under conversation with James Young of Old Young's Distillery, some of the topics we discuss include:
The influence and defining characteristics of the Australian cocktail scene, which differs starkly from what you might find when you travel to Europe and is responsible for such mixological gifts as Mr. Black Coffee liqueur and the butterfly pea coloring craze.
How to plan your travel itinerary around tasting delicious spirits in every state in Australia, including whisky in Tasmania, Gin & Brandy in Western Australia, and rum up in Queensland and Kununurra.
The growing interest in distilling brandy using Australian grapes and aging it in local casks. This leads us down a number of interesting rabbit holes concerning grape varietals, process and maturation requirements, and even the importance of Australian dessert and fortified wines.
Through this entire conversation, you'll be able to trace an underlying thread of quality, which seems to be a cultural hallmark that unifies the diverse flavors and landscapes that you encounter in the agriculture, spirits, and cocktails of Australia.
Along the way, we muse on antipodean oddities like: why all white rum in Australia is technically cristallino, what the brandy distillers of the world could learn from Pisco, why you should be drinking gingin gin with Jim, and much, much more
Chapters
(00:00) Introduction
(04:45) Australian Cocktail Trends
(07:23) Distillery Destinations in Australia
(13:47) The Rise of Australian Brandy
(18:00) The Story of Gingin Gin
(19:51) Standards of Identity through Production Rules
(25:15) Australia as a Culture of Quality
(27:59) Australian Brandy Grape Varietals
(32:07) Conclusion