TCGP S2 E18 - The Positive Drinker with Claire Warner

00:00:00
            

Cocktail. Welcome to the Cocktail Guru podcast. A show about food, drink and entertainment. With a tight focus on the good. Life and all things delicious, luxurious and fun.        

00:00:14
            

I'm Jonathan Pogash, bartender, author, TV personality and founder of The Cocktail Guru. And I'm Jeffrey Pogash, wine and spirits, professional author, insatiable, collector of culinary and so people tell me, an engaging and my dad.        

00:00:32
            

Good morning, dad, how are you? Good, John. Good morning to you. You're looking well and fit and bright and chipper. Thanks.        

00:00:41
            

On this beautiful day. Yeah, we were just talking earlier about your TikTok venture, which sounds really strange and if people heard it, they would. Think that we were kidding. It's not strange because when I was with a company called Moette Hennessy USA, which we will get into later, I did a campaign of champagne and hot dogs. A campaign of champagne with hot dogs and then another campaign of champagne with hamburgers.        

00:01:16
            

So it's not new. It is right up my alley and it's something I wanted to pursue after leaving, after retiring from the company, which I started to do. Hence the TikTok videos. TikTok. And I only drink champagne, true champagne from France, from the province and eat the finest hot dogs that I can find around the country.        

00:01:41
             

This is why you're an icon, Jeff. Well, thank you, Claire. Thank you very much.        

00:01:49
            

This is a first. The guest who gets involved in our banter, which is good because I want Claire involved because she knows what I did at Mohai Hannity. Yes, please. But you need to do your amazing, very well written intro. Yes, I do, but it's funny.        

00:02:10
            

Other than hot dogs, I was going to talk about something else, but I think I will skip that and we'll do that at another time. Skip it because it's food. I wanted to focus do something on food in this video at the very beginning. And we did, we did hot dogs. We've covered that.        

00:02:25
            

And now I can go on to introduce this very special guest. You know how excited I get when we do a special interview. And this is not just special, it's also very personal because the person that we're going to interview was a colleague of mine at a company called Moette Hennessey USA. And Claire and I worked in the same office and she came from the UK to New York and she was she had held several titles. She was chief mixologist, she was product development director, director of education, all of that for Belvedere Vodka, which was part of the Mount Hennessey USA spirits portfolio.        

00:03:12
            

She held those positions for, if I'm not mistaken, 15 years. I was in the communications department, had the pleasure of working closely with this lovely young lady, Claire Warner. Today, Ms. Claire Warner, who happens to be our special guest, is with us. She is the co founder of Acorn Apparetif, a selection of three alcohol free drinks that are guaranteed to open your appetite and marry well with food because they are flavorful and well balanced, just like a spirit would be if it had alcohol.        

00:03:50
            

But this is nonalcoholic and the balance is there nonetheless. And the marriage of Visa Perry Teeth with food works just as well as it would with spirits, either with food or without food. If I may, we are going to bring on our guests right now, but we're going to take a quick break and be right back. There's nothing better than the smell of coffee in the morning. What if you could enjoy a coffee subscription of fresh roasted specialty coffee while making a difference in the lives of farmers that grew up with?        

00:04:27
            

What if you also had access to a virtual coffee community of other coffee lovers and the coffee farmer and roaster? That's all part of the farm to cup coffee club subscription at Unleashed Coffee subscribe today. Unleashedcoffee.com. And now we're back. Let's bring her on.        

00:04:51
            

She's already been chatting with us before and in our conversation earlier, Claire Warner, how are you? I'm great. Thank you so much for having me. It's such a pleasure to see you both. It's so wonderful to see you.        

00:05:08
            

Thank you for taking the time to join us. And not only will we discuss the acorn line of non alcoholic epilities, but I'm sure this discussion will lead us into other topics as well, like health, well being and mindfulness, which I know are topics that are important to Claire. And also, before we get started, Claire, we always ask our guests, what is your preferred desert island drink? Stranded on a desert island.        

00:05:45
            

You'Re on a desert island. There's not much else to do if you're on your own. You're not really worried about who's looking at you, what you're drinking, and no one's judging. There's no judgment. So for me, it's a pina colada every time.        

00:06:03
            

I know that it's a classic. It's a beach classic for a reason and it's one of my favorite cocktails and I love it to death. And so that would be my desert island drink, I think, and it's great. Even if you're not wearing clothes on that desert. Exactly.        

00:06:21
            

Better without.        

00:06:27
            

To think about that right now, but all right. Claire. So, Claire, I met you, Claire, when dad was working at Moy Hennessey and you were working on Belvedere. Had you just come over from the UK. At that point.        

00:06:44
            

How did you get into hospitality? So I was a bartender throughout university. I was studying law and I really didn't know what I wanted to do once I graduated. I knew that it wasn't law. I knew it wasn't to be a barrister or solicitor because I learned through being at university how social I was and how committed to nocturnal studies, let's just say.        

00:07:17
            

So I bartended through university and then graduated and then stayed in hospitality. One of the best ways I found to progress in the world of drinks was to compete in cocktail competitions, bearing in mind this is going back to 2000, 2001, so long time ago now, craft cocktails were just emerging in the UK. A lot of bartenders sort of teaching themselves. So I entered a bunch of cocktail competitions, did pretty well, was brought to the attention of Belvedere. Belvedere had just been introduced into the UK in sort of 2001, 2002, and they needed a brand ambassador.        

00:08:03
            

So after a very rigorous interview process, I think I had about eight interviews for the job. Also at that time, there weren't a lot of ambassadors. So I think for a company that's really rooted in tradition and safar fair, that is mo at Hennessy, taking a risk on a young bartender who was besotted by vodka and cocktails was a little risky for them, actually. So I think going through this very thorough interview process was what they needed. And I joined Belvedere as the brand ambassador, the UK brand ambassador in 2003.        

00:08:44
            

So my remit was to bring the wonderful world of cocktails, mixed drinks mixology into Merrick Hennessy, a company that was very much devoted to grapes, so, champagne, cognac, those two categories not so well known when it comes to cocktails and mixology. So there was a lot of internal education to do, which I was really happy to do, but also a lot of brand building for Belvedere because that was a new brand. Really brought a lot of mixology and a lot of cocktail making know how into the business, but also took my love of Belvedere and vodka out into the world. And Belvedere was a great spirit to enable me to kind of talk about the wonder of Polish vodka, the flexibility of that spirit, and then eventually within moat. Hennessy, each brand has what's known as a maison, it's like a house.        

00:09:51
            

And the house of Belvedere, or the maison of Belvedere, was relocated to New York to really capitalize on the US consumer, sort of back in 2008. And at that time, I was the global ambassador, so I kind of went with the maison and that's where I met your dad in the UK, us.        

00:10:18
            

I was going to say, unfortunately, you were traveling all the time, so I didn't get to see each other that often. Because you were the global brand ambassador, you were literally all over the world. Yeah, I mean, it's a great brand and there was lots to talk about and there was lots to do. So I was fortunate enough to travel the world and do what I love, which is to talk about great spirits, great drinks, but we had some good times in New York as well. Jeff, I think you might be the first person to take me to the St Regis and talk about Bloody Mary's.        

00:10:51
            

The King Cole bar. Yeah. And the Bloody Mary. Yes. Well, I'm happy that I could do that.        

00:10:59
            

Glad you introduce you to the Bloody. Well, I didn't introduce you to the Bloody Mary because you then went on and created a Belvedere Bloody Mary bottling. Yes, that was one of our innovations back in the day. Absolutely. And so, as global brand ambassador, that is a huge deal.        

00:11:25
            

And I don't know if there were many other global brand ambassadors at that time. We had Simon Ford on the show a couple of episodes ago, and I feel like it's kind of a similar trajectory coming from the UK and working as a brand ambassador. And I know you guys know each other and have 100% crossed paths many, many times, but what was that transition like coming from the UK to the US? Had you ever been here before? Was there a culture shock?        

00:11:59
            

What was that all like? Yeah, I'd done some work in the US. In and out of New York, in and out of Miami, a little bit of stuff in La.        

00:12:12
            

My impression of moving to the country was obviously super excited, and I just assumed, because we speak the same language, that there wouldn't necessarily be any culture shock. But I was surprised by a lot of the differences that I experienced. I you know, the the expertise and the passion, the devotion to cocktail culture in the US was so much more advanced in many ways and very different from what I'd experienced in the UK. So there was a lot to learn and a lot to take on board. I'd also spent a long time traveling the world and talking about Belvedere, where Belvedere perhaps was only one of very few luxury vodkas.        

00:13:01
            

But I was coming into the US where that category really exploded. So it was a lot about, how can we make Belvedere distinctive and differentiated in amongst the sort of crowded category, whereas outside of the US, there was a lot less competition. So I think it was, in many ways, a little bit more challenging. Yeah, I was certainly, like, one of very few global ambassadors. Charlote Boise and I have known each other since before she came to the US.        

00:13:31
            

So she was obviously a true great supporter, great friend. Simon, I think, was the OG.        

00:13:42
            

He really sort of set the benchmark, and every time my expenses bill came in, my boss would want to have a conversation about that. I would just, you know, point out that Simon Ford set the benchmark. So, you know, we had to really follow what those other sort of iconic brand ambassadors are doing. And and I think, you know, it was it was really it was a very exciting time. There was lots of interest around what we were doing, a real thirst for education.        

00:14:14
            

And those brands, those are very iconic brands that everybody wanted to know about, and so, fortunately, I was able to share a lot of my love for those brands. But how, Claire, did you slide? Did you make this transition from the world of spirits vodka in particular to these three lovely acorn apparatif, which are non alcoholic beverages. So part of moving to the US was really positive for me, very exciting. But I'll be honest, I burnt myself out.        

00:15:00
            

I was very tired, very worn out by the travel, worn out by the sort of drinking. I wanted to find balance in my life and at that time, sort of 20 10 20 08 20 10 there wasn't a lot of conversation around moderation in our industry. There was a lot of conversation around how late are you staying out? How hard are you working? How many shots are you doing?        

00:15:31
            

That was our way of making fast friendships, is to stay out late, drink a lot and do it all over again the next day. And for me, I found that to be pretty exhausting. I really loved my job and I wanted to stay in the industry, but I was just burnt out by some of the elements of it. And so I sort of took it upon myself, worked with somebody that I was living with at the time, Georgia Van Tiel. I wanted to get fitter, get healthier.        

00:16:02
            

And through that journey, through learning about my own ways to manage my own moderation, ways to manage my own health, I felt that more of that education was needed in our business. So Georgia and I created a platform called Drink Heat Live. We did a lot of conversations, lot of education, lots of seminars. At Tails, we started talking about sugar in cocktails, reducing how much sugar we're consuming, trying to talk about how physical our job is in the industry. And so how can we manage our physical health, what are some of our coping strategies?        

00:16:41
            

And so it's not rocket science. I wasn't sort of trying to change the world in any sort of huge way. But for me, and for a lot of people at the same time, I found it really helpful that if we prioritize our health, if we drank less, if we consume less sugar, if we moved a bit more, then all of a sudden it was actually easier and more pleasurable to do our job. And so that really started me on a sort of journey towards exploring lower ABV drinking, exploring ways to use sugar in a different way. How can we live in this world of alcoholic beverages and still have permission to be healthy and well?        

00:17:29
            

And I talked a lot about nature, a lot about exposure to nature. The relationship to Belvedere was that because we used a lot of fresh ingredients in Belvedere, there was no sugar in Belvedere. That gave me a platform to talk about naturalness and sugar free and little bit lower ABV drinking. Lighter, fresher, brighter drinks and all of that work sort of brought me to the attention of a guy called Ben Branson, who's obviously the founder of Seedlip. Ben originally came into Belvedere to pitch for the design work because we were going to be changing some of the packaging and to really reinforce the nature communication on Pack.        

00:18:11
            

And Ben and I just sort of hid it off, talked about nature. He lent me a book about biomimicry, which is an extraordinary book, and I took that book and applied it to a lot of work that I was still doing for Belvedere, again, really talking up nature and well being. And then a few years later, he approached me to ask if I would help him create the second brand to Seed lip. Now, I think I'm maybe one of the first people in the world to have told Ben Branson that he was nuts and that nobody would ever go for seed lip and how wrong it was. And I was delighted to be super wrong.        

00:18:52
            

But he really articulated that dilemma that I think we were all facing and I was trying to also struggle with in this business, like, what do we drink when we're not drinking? And he went on to take inspiration from nature to create seed lip. And I joined him in 2018 to create the sister brand to Seedlip, which was acorn and range of apparativo. And if you think about seed lip as the white spirit, then what I wanted to create are the modifiers to complement the white spirit of seed lip and thinking about how that's used in drinks and not only to be able to be enjoyed neat on the rocks as a cocktail modifier, but also as something that can help lower the ABV of your classic full strength, full ABV cocktails. So we don't have anything that's full flavored enough to really help reduce the ABV of a cocktail, but still maintain the flavor profile.        

00:19:53
            

So using lots of kind of extracts and flavors, using acorns as a very traditional bittering agent, all for me were ways to kind of honor what we do in the world of cocktails without compromising on flavor and complexity and taste and then still give people lots of choice for when they're drinking and being able to have something delicious when they're moderating. So it was kind of like a long circuitous journey, but really came from my desire to find ways to be more mindful and to be to really prioritize my own health and well being in the industry and utilizing all of the things I know and I love and particularly focusing on ways of using nature to get to some really delicious drinks. We have to take a quick break and we're going to be right back.        

00:20:48
            

Hey, everyone, Jonathan here. If you're into swag as much as we are, then look no further than our cocktail guru shop. The items in our store have been personally chosen handpicked with care by me. I'm Jonathan, and my team of cocktail gurus. A water bottle with a stainless steel straw.        

00:21:04
            

Yep. T shirts, hoodies, snapback hats, signed copies of Mr. Boston Bartender's Guide, cocktail Box Kits bar tools and more. You betcha. We've even managed to create a onesie for that mocktail lover in your family.        

00:21:20
            

So head on over to Shop the Cocktailguru.com and use Code Guru 23 for 10% off your first order. Great deal, that's. Shop the cocktailguru.com, 10% off with Code Guru 23. Cheers. And now we're back.        

00:21:37
            

Dad. Yeah. This seems to be a common thread, this mindfulness, this desire to get away from high alcoholic beverages and into something that is much healthier and better for one's well being. We've had other bartenders on the show who have stated the same thing. We had Derek Brown not too long.        

00:22:03
            

Ago, derek Brown talking about mindfulness. And this fits right into that same theme. You use not just acorns, but valju as the basis for the formula. Yes. So, again, taking inspiration from the classic European tradition of vermouth, we start with a grape base.        

00:22:30
            

So rather than de alkalize, we start with something that's already nonalcoholic and full of flavor, which is vergux. So vergu green juice is the juice of grapes that are so they're unripe grapes, so they're very green, very tart, very complex, very acidic.        

00:22:53
            

They're normally the result of an early harvesting. So when you want to concentrate all of the energy from the sun into the grapes that you will eventually go and harvest to produce wine, your focus is really to increase the amount of sugar in those grapes. And so by thinning the vines, then you get much more energy going into those grapes and a lot more sugar going into them, ultimately to be fermented. So those sacrificial grapes that are taken early in the harvesting, we would press, and that would be the juice that we would use as the basis. Super tanic, super acidic, lots of complexity, really beautiful base.        

00:23:37
            

Really great on its own, actually, as an ingredient to be used in cooking or as a basis for nonalcoholic cocktails. And we aromatize that version with lots of extracts, flavors, a little bit of sugar as well. And the idea is to create three expressions, one dry, one sweet and one bitter. That would not mimic I don't want to say mimic, because some of the flavors are kind of new to world, but would enable them to be used in the way that you would use a dry vermouth, a sweet vermouth or an amaro. And those are called acorn dry, acorn aromatic and acorn bitter.        

00:24:22
            

Correct, yes. And they sound yummy. The acorn dry is floral and crisp and you use black tea, chamomile, nettle and oak in that. Yes, exactly. And all of them have acorns.         

00:24:39
            

So the reason it's called acorn is that we discovered a recipe from the 16th century that was used really as a digestive aid that featured acorns. And acorns are super bitter, very tannic. They do a great job in awakening the appetite. And in the UK, we don't have a lot of those very bitter roots and herbs that you tend to find in Europe where a lot of amaros or vermouths come from. So to be able to fall back on a classic English traditional bittering agent was really important to us.        

00:25:16
            

And then we use a variety of herbs and extracts to again reinforce the sort of vermouth cues or the aromatized wine cues, but they're all delicious with food and designed to, as you mentioned, Jeff, awaken the appetite, because that's essentially what parities do. They set us up for food and fun and friendship. And you have colonut in the acorn, aromatic and cherry wood and vanilla. It sounds yummy. Sounds almost like dessert.        

00:25:50
            

It's like a grown up Coca Cola. I would say like really bitter. Lots of cherry cola. Vanilla characteristics. Yeah, fantastic.        

00:26:01
            

You could pour that over ice cream if you want. Absolutely. I knew you were going to say that. Or as I would do in the morning, over pancakes. Yes, absolutely.        

00:26:13
            

So delicious. Quick question, Claire, for those folks out there who may not know the process behind making nonalcoholic spirits like this, aside from The Verge process for your products, and I know that it varies, but essentially it's potentially the same for most non alcoholic products. What is that process? De alcohol and all of that? Well, there's lots of different ways to make something nonalcoholic.        

00:26:41
            

Nonalcoholic drinks aren't necessarily a new invention. Seed Lips take was an inspired take by distilling or using the distillation process in the same way that we might distill botanicals to make gin, ben used copper pot stills to distill botanicals with alcohol, but some of the alcohol was later removed to get a really great extraction process. There are ways to use vinegars in the form of shrubs or switchels. Vinegar is a really great base for a lot of nonalcoholic drinks. Lots of complexity, lots of tannin, lots of acidity, and it also can extract flavors.        

00:27:26
            

For acorn, like I said, we started with this virgil base because it was very full of flavor, and texturally was really delicious as well. I think a lot of times nonalcoholic drinks suffer from lack of texture, lack of body, lack of complexity. And so for us, it was important that we started with something that already had similar textural qualities to wine or vermouth. And then we would simply aromatize. So we would take botanicals from all over the world.        

00:28:01
            

Some of them were macerated, some of them were extracted using supercritical CO2. Some of them were simply steeped, created a concentrate and then blended that with our virgu and then balanced with some sugar and some preservatives. And that really followed many of the ways that vermouth or amaros are made. I think the only difference is that for some amaros, those botanicals might be steeped in alcohol and then blended. But because there's no alcohol in acorn, there's not a lot of point in macerating or steeping.        

00:28:42
            

So it was a process that we tried to stay as close to the traditional processes as possible, but making some adjustments based on the fact that we're not extracting using alcohol. And then obviously today you've got other products that will start with wine and de alcoholize, so using various processes to take the alcohol out. So spinning cone technology or reverse osmosis, and then we'll use that sort of like de alcoholized, wine as a basis. So lots of different techniques. I think one of the things that a lot of people don't realize about non alcoholic is really that it's still a brand new category and it's a pioneering category, and the drinks are only as good as the technology will allow.        

00:29:37
            

So as the technology improves and progresses and as we learn more about how to keep these products consistently tasty and stable, I think the quality and the quality and the range of nonalcoholics will continue to grow. And is the acorn line available in all markets of the US. So acorn and seedlet were acquired by Diageo back in 2019, so they now sit within that portfolio. So that means they're available nationwide. Pretty much.        

00:30:16
            

Pretty much, yeah. Everywhere. Yeah. And so another quick question before we wrap up. We've got a couple of minutes left.        

00:30:24
            

It's flown by. It really has. Claire so you are married to another industry person. Mr. Claire Warner?        

00:30:33
            

I am. And part of why I stopped going out late at night and doing all of that stuff was because how are you possibly going to maintain a relationship with anybody when your mind is somewhere else, when your body's, when you're not taking care of your body, your mind, all of that. So for me, a lot of it, and also having kids, that was the impetus behind just trying to be better, be a better person. I assume that maybe the timing did the timing kind of coordinate with that. Along with you and Dan in terms of what?        

00:31:08
            

Of not going out so much and. Not drinking as much alcohol, not drinking. As much, and just trying to be health conscious because now you have someone else in your life.        

00:31:24
            

I think we still go out as much. The answer is no, we still go out as much. But now there's more choice for me to drink or not drink. And that was always the challenge, being out all the time, being with your friends, being with your husband. We live and work in a brilliant industry and you want to be out enjoying it all the time, and for some people that's great, but for me, I just needed to not be drinking so much.        

00:31:51
             

And now I can still go out, I can still have a good time, I can still see my friends hang out with my husband. But crucially, there's much more for me to drink when I don't want to drink, which is all it's ever really been about. You still want to go out and have good times with your friends, but being able to give people more options for when they don't want to drink is crucial to enable people to keep going out and to keep being social. And you live in the UK now? You're back in the UK.        

00:32:18
            

Back in the UK. Yeah. I asked Dan to move to New York, but he said no, so I had to come back here and my reward was to marry him. So it's not a bad reward, but, yeah, we've been back here now since, I think, 2012, and we got married in 2014, so celebrating ten years next year, which I cannot believe. Congratulations.        

00:32:45
            

That's wonderful. Thank you. That's amazing. It's also flown by, that kind of stuff. It's almost like it flies by, but yet, in a way, it doesn't.        

00:32:55
            

Exactly. It's crazy. I've been with my wife, we've been married 17 years and we've been together 23 years. Isn't that nuts? Where's the time go?        

00:33:12
            

I mean, this is this is it. I think it's it's a testament to how much fun we have, because time just seems to fly by and how fun. I don't know if you're a wife in the industry, Jonathan, but I feel very fortunate to have a husband who is in this industry, knows the ins and outs, knows a lot of the same people, and it always feels like fun, it never really feels like work, so I think that's a hallmark of a nice relationship.        

00:33:45
            

One of our mentors, Gas Regan, rest his soul, always said, once you stop having fun, just cut it out. Get it out of your stop doing it. Yeah. It's always got to be fun. And that's why time flies.        

00:34:04
            

What I was going to say is, Jonathan's wife is not in the industry and my wife is not in the industry either, so that does represent certain children. It does work as well. So it can work as well on. The other side, both of our wives definitely take advantage of the fruits of our labor.        

00:34:28
            

Well, my wife loves wine and she loves cocktails, but I have a vast array of things to taste all the time. Yes, you do. And Jeff's wife is drinking champagne and hot dogs all the time, so I'd be delighted by that lifestyle as well. She doesn't like hot dogs quite as much as I do, but she does like champagne. This has been a lovely conversation, Claire.        

00:34:52
            

We really appreciate your time. And, Claire, even though we don't speak the same language, I'm so glad we could communicate for this episode, because what I was going to say at the beginning is I knew that you were studying to be a barrister. Yes. So I don't know how many Americans out there know what a barrister is, but of course it is a lawyer, so we do have somewhat different vocabulary. We do, yeah.        

00:35:19
            

But this was a successful episode. We managed through, we managed to no subtitles needed. No, not at all. Thanks so much, Claire. We'll see you.        

00:35:29
            

Well, I think you tail. We'll see you at tails. See you soon. Okay. Thank you.        

00:35:34
            

Thank you.        

00:35:38
            

Tipple Time is brought to you by the Perfect Puree of Napa Valley and. Loose out another episode of Tipple Time coming at you from my home bar. It's Jonathan. That's me. I wanted to make a special Father's Day cocktail because we are a couple days away from Father's Day, and of course, I need to make a drink for dad using some of Dad's favorite ingredients and some of my favorite ingredients too, because I want to share a cocktail with him.        

00:36:05
            

So this drink I call my sherry smash. It is kind of a mashup between a smash cocktail and a Sherry cobbler cocktail. So a cobbler traditionally is Sherry, some kind of citrus, sweetener, mint, sometimes fruit like strawberries. And then a smash is generally whiskey with lemon as the citrus and some kind of sweetener and mint. So we're going to kind of mash those two cocktails together and create this Sherry smash.        

00:36:37
            

So I'm using this loose dow. This is one of my absolute favorite sherries made out there. This happens to be their Palo Cortado, which is really nice. Kind of a blend, a touch of sweetness, a touch of savory, kind of somewhere in between. I love it in cocktails.        

00:36:56
            

I love it on its own. It's got a touch of dryness to it as well, which I really, really like. Works extremely well in various types of cocktails, especially a cobbler. So I'll start off by measuring out 2oz of my Loosau Palo Cortado peninsula Sherry yum into my mixing glass right over here. This is also a lower ABV cocktail or low alcohol cocktail, so dad can have a couple without feeling a little too loopy, if you know what I mean.        

00:37:29
            

No, he never overindulges. And I'm using perfect puree of Napa Valley. They're peach ginger, because dad loves peach and ginger. So do I. And we're going to add just about an ounce into our mixing glass, and I need to balance it out with some fresh citrus.        

00:37:44
            

So I have some freshly squeezed lime juice about an ounce and a half into my mixing glass. And I'm going to shake this cocktail right now. This bottom cocktail shaker part had ice in it already. We'll give it a good solid shake.        

00:38:01
            

There we go. Okay. And I have a nice tin right over here. This is a stainless steel container vessel that I will sip from, and I have ice in here. If you really want to go nuts, you can do crushed ice, which is the traditional ice service for cobblers.        

00:38:23
            

I'm going to strain out into my vessel that has ice in it, and we'll just strain that out. Oh, yeah. Looking good, looking good. Dad's going to like it, and I'm going to like it too. So as a garnish, I have some fresh mint from my garden, which is starting to bud and I'll give it a little bit of a flick.        

00:38:47
            

This releases all of the aromas on the mint sprig. We'll just place that right inside. And a straw. There we go. We'll give it a sip.        

00:38:58
            

You ready? You get the fresh mint, obviously, when you bring it to your nose. I feel the chill in the cup itself. Oh, and the little ice shards. You see that?        

00:39:09
            

Yeah. Okay, hold on.        

00:39:13
            

Oh, my gosh. I could drink several of these. It's so delicious. The peach and the ginger works so incredibly well with the Loose Dow Palo cortado. And I'm so impressed by this sherry.        

00:39:25
             

I'm always impressed by what Loose Dow. Is putting out there, and it just works well with the perfect puree peach ginger. Well, that's another tipple time. Until next week. Cheers, everyone.        

00:39:35
            

Take care. Tipple time is brought to you by Loose Dow and the perfect puree of Napa Valley on Next cocktail Glue Podcast. Should we try some? I don't think you have to ask. Me twice about that.        

00:39:53
            

What? What's? What's your favorite way to drink it? With my mouth.        

00:40:03
            

I thought it was worth it. Come on. I've had a couple. Maybe you're listening to me slurp the very last of my felicima Prosecco Ice. Pop on the next Cocktail Guru podcast.        

00:40:16
            

That does it for today's show. If you enjoy what we do, please rate, review and subscribe to the podcast. You can also support the show with a small monthly donation to help sustain future episodes. Just click on the Donate button at the top of our website and choose your donation amount. To learn more about our guests, visit www.thecocktalgurupodcast.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok.        

00:40:46
            

The Cocktailguru podcast is produced by 1st Reel Entertainment and distributed by Eats Drinks TV, a service of the center for Culinary Culture, home of the Cocktail Collection, and is available via Anchor, Spotify, Apple, Google, Amazon, and wherever you listen to your favorite shows.        

00:41:10
            

Our channel.