Dr. Nicola Nice is the author of The Cocktail Parlor: How Women Brought the Cocktail Home . This book helped me think about cocktails and entertaining more holistically. Clubs, bars, hotels, and restaurants may be where many drinks originally came to life, but women are the ones responsible for bringing them into the home. The book has a nice forward by Robert Simonson , who Dr. Nicola says encouraged her to write the book, after she showcased to him how many women are overlooked in the history ...
Jul 08, 2025•58 min
Colin Asare-Appiah ( Instagram ) is the trade director of multicultural and LGBTQ advocacy at Bacardi and the co-founder of the AJABU Festival ( Instagram , website ), a platform for the African hospitality industry. See highlights from the first year below. Know someone who might enjoy this? Share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingcocktails.substack.com...
Jun 12, 2025•51 min
After roughly 18 years with William Grant & Sons in a wide array of positions, including Global Head of Brand Ambassadors, Charlotte Voisey is now serving in the newly created role of Executive Director for Tales of the Cocktail . Having been to Tales three times, and preparing for my fourth, it was a delight to chat with Charlotte. Her enthusiasm for the organization and its work psyched me up for this year’s week-long adventure in the beautiful city of New Orleans. Enjoy this conversation....
May 29, 2025•40 min
Matt Foster ( Instagram ) is the founder of Sol Luna | Coffee Whiskey ( website , Instagram ). With a background as a barista, bartender, and the 2019 winner of the Coffee in Good Spirits Competition , Matt says you should think of Sol Luna as a blend of aged bourbon and fresh cold brew that is barista tested and bartender approved. There are already plenty of coffee flavored products out there, so why did Matt create this one? As he puts it, many, but not all of the coffee flavored products out...
Mar 11, 2025•1 hr 3 min
Back in November, I was invited to take part in an entrepreneur-centric event in my city called STL Startup Week . I knew I’d talk about how I ended up running a cocktail business and what all that entails, but it also felt important to cover how hard and emotionally draining it is. To that end, I felt it was important to talk about the “fuel” I’ve found that sustains me when the going gets tough. When we start a business, I think it’s also important to ask, “Why am I even doing this?” Is this f...
Jan 29, 2025•57 min
Zack Abbott is the co-founder and the inventor of the proprietary technology behind ZBiotics . This product is built upon the idea that we have been attempting to tackle those rough mornings after drinking alcohol incorrectly for decades, if not longer. Long-standing research shows that neither dehydration nor electrolyte imbalance is what causes that next-day misery. 😲 Getting into the science , when the body begins to break down alcohol, one of the bi-products that is created is called “aceta...
Dec 11, 2024•53 min
Alexandre Gabriel ( Instagram ) is the owner of Maison Ferrand , which produces products like Citadelle Gin, Ferrand Cognac, and Planteray Rum (formerly Plantation Rum). Several years ago, among many conversations about rum, Alexandre realized that no one could tell him with great clarity about the rules and history of Navy Rum. He decided to get to the bottom of things and commissioned the author and enthusiast Matt Pietrek to get to the bottom of things. Matt spent time in England researching ...
Nov 12, 2024•1 hr 8 min
Molly Horn is the Cocktail Strategy Manager for Total Wine & More , the country’s largest retailer of wine and spirits ( Forbes ). Molly’s responsibilities include tasting, recruiting, branding, and marketing new first-to-market spirits, as well as educating sales floor team members on spirits and mixology. Before the pandemic, spirit sales accounted for ~27% of Total Wine’s sales. As a result of the pandemic and a growing national interest in spirits and cocktails, in some stores, spirits n...
Oct 08, 2024•1 hr 6 min
Natasha Bahrami, aka “The Gin Girl” ( Instagram ) fell in love with the spirit of gin after an eye-opening experience with a dirty gin martini in her early years as a restaurateur. Since then, she has worked to expand the knowledge, experience, access, and appreciation of the gin spectrum with her guests and the world. Elevation of the spirit of gin is her priority. Natasha is the proprietor of The Gin Room and Salve Osteria ( Instagram , website ) in St. Louis, MO, boasting hundreds of fine gin...
Sep 17, 2024•1 hr 2 min
Dr. Kevin Peterson ( Instagram ) is one of the driving forces behind the perfumery Sfumato Fragrances ( website , Instagram ) and Castalia Cocktails ( website , Instagram ) in Detroit. Kevin landed on my radar because of his book, Cocktail Theory - A Sensory Approach to Transcendent Drinks . In addition to calling on his background in perfumery as a study of flavor, one of the things in particular that Kevin investigates is how to extend the lifetime of a drink, which involves working against th...
Sep 03, 2024•1 hr 5 min
Charles Joly ( website , Instagram ) is a renowned mixologist, media personality, and innovative bartending entrepreneur. We met to discuss his latest collaborative venture The Riff Raff Club ( website , Instagram ) with Virgin Hotels. Do you know someone who might like this? Feel free to share it. Charles says if you want to see more pictures of his dog Jackson, follow him on Instagram. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus epi...
Aug 20, 2024•26 min
Joe and MariElena Raya launched are the driving force behind Bittermilk Bottling Co . They produce an array of cocktail/mocktail mixers and syrups as well as ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails. They met at the Culinary Institute of America , and when they decided to return to Charleston, MariElena’s hometown, they took over a space her family had run for years and opened The Gin Joint , which is considered to be one of the city’s original cocktail bars of the modern era. Know someone who might enjoy...
Aug 06, 2024•56 min
Allen Katz ( Instagram ) founded the New York Distilling Company ( website , Instagram ) in 2011. He was in the industry for many years before this and during a trip to the town of Plymouth, England to visit the Plymouth Gin Distillery, Allen was overcome by the urban location of the distillery. Many historic distilleries were often located in the countryside to be near the produce when it was harvested from farms. As a proud resident of New York City, this left him wondering if this might be po...
Jul 09, 2024•48 min
Marshall Minaya ( Instagram ) is the beverage manager of Valerie , Madame George , and Lolita in Midtown Manhattan. The work of running three programs aside, we sat down to discuss his newest “project”, being a father to Florence, and how he is attempting to balance it with work. Do you know someone who might like this? Please share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit decodingcocktails.substack.com...
Jun 25, 2024•41 min
Today’s conversation is about the upcoming book The Bartender’s Pantry ( website , Instagram ), which was written by Jim Meehan ( Instagram ), Bart Sasso ( Instagram ), and ( Instagram ). This multi-year project was catalyzed when Jim began to wonder if the teachings he’d learned about drink mixers and garnishes hadn’t reached the next generation of bartenders. At the same time, he reflected on some of the things he believed about them that he’d never investigated and verified. In the book, you’...
Jun 04, 2024•1 hr 12 min
Ben Branson ( @Seedlip_Ben ) launched Seedlip , the world’s first non-alcoholic spirit in 2015. Today it is available in roughly 25 countries and because it carries the designation non-alcoholic, it can be easily shipped to your door in the mail. Do you know someone who might enjoy this? Please share it. Seedlip has four products, with its most recent launch being Notas de Agave , which is only sold in the US. They have an AI tool named Elli, which can help you decide what to buy and how to use ...
May 21, 2024•1 hr 10 min
Kip Moffitt ( @kipmoffitt ) is the head bartender of Superbueno ( website , Instagram ). A Mexican-American bar that opened for just over a year in Manhattan’s East Village and was just awarded the #2 spot on North America’s 50 Best Bars list. The genesis of the bar came from Ignacio “Nacho” Jimenez ( @hopignacio ) and explores the intersections he has experienced as a resident of New York who is from Mexico. Kip and I talked about Mexican brandies coming on the market, particularly one he likes...
May 07, 2024•42 min
Jeremy Wochnick and Erin Nysse work for The Barrel Mill ( website , Instagram ), a barrel cooperage in Minnesota. We met when they were exhibiting at the American Craft Spirits Association’s conference in Denver this year and had a great conversation. They agreed to sit down to talk all things barrels, infusion spirals , sustainability, and more. Do you know someone who might enjoy this? Please share it. While I am pretty darn educated on spirits and cocktails, I am a geek for unaged spirits, so...
Apr 16, 2024•52 min
Last week Mexican authorities raided the home and office of Tequila Matchmaker (TM), also known as the Additive Free Alliance. For many years, their forum has been a place for agave distillate fanatics to visit along with their work to certify tequilas that are free of approved additives that are not required to be listed on a bottle’s label. Their work has begun to affect sales of major brands that are not shown to be additive-free. One agave influencer, @tequilajaybaer, cited 9 and 14 percent ...
Apr 02, 2024•20 min
André Darlington ( website , Instagram ) is the author of 12 books, including the one we discussed, Cowboy Cocktails . In 2020, André became the first cocktail writer to circumnavigate the globe since Charles H. Baker a hundred years ago. A record of his journey became Booze Cruise: A Tour of the World’s Essential Mixed Drinks . A few things worth noting that I found fun from our conversation • There was heavy Spanish and Mexican influence in cowboy culture . For example, the term I’ve always he...
Mar 19, 2024•1 hr 12 min
Heyward Gualandi works for Root Shoot Malting ( website , Instagram ), a 5th-generation family farm in Loveland, Colorado. We sat down to talk about their investments that helped them leave the commodity-farming market, which is good for the business but also allows them grow more flavorful crops, which ultimately creates better tasting beer, whiskey, and food. There is a lot of talk these days about the impact of terroir on agave and sugarcane distillates. Root Shoot wants us to know that whisk...
Mar 05, 2024•51 min
Marten Lodewijks is the Director of Consulting for the Americas for IWSR (website) . So what is IWSR? What do they do? As their website says, “For over 50 years, IWSR has been the leading source of data on the global beverage alcohol market.” We discussed the importance of data, analysis, and where the beverage industry might be headed. We also discussed the importance of not allowing data to cause analysis paralysis and the reminder that data is never perfect. We discussed two trends that have ...
Feb 20, 2024•1 hr 7 min
Chris Tunstall co-founded A Bar Above with his wife Julia in 2013. They were early into the online content game with their YouTube channel and broke into the podcast space in 2014, the same year they released the first online Mixology Certification course . They’ve gone on to create several other classes on subjects like batching, syrups, infusions, and more. In 2016, they moved into the barware world , designing and manufacturing tools that looked great and more importantly, didn’t fail (or “su...
Feb 06, 2024•1 hr 5 min
Nicolas Palazzi is an engineer turned spirits importer. Originally from Bordeaux, France, he lives in Brooklyn, where PM Spirits (named for his father, Paul-Marie Spirits) is located. I first became aware of PM via a Roffignac cocktail I had in New Orleans at Peychaud’s Bar . It was PM’s blanche armagnac named COBRAFIRE and a raspberry shrub. It was a stunning drink, and isn’t the branding fantastic?! One thing Nicolas discussed during our conversation that I didn’t probe for more info on is agi...
Jan 23, 2024•1 hr 12 min
Alex Jump ( Instagram ) is a founder and the senior manager of operations for Focus on Health . Prior to this, she led Death & Company’s Denver bar program. I wanted to kick off the year with this conversation with Alex for two reasons. One, many of us use the beginning of the year to reset our lifestyle and dietary goals and the no-and-low segment of the drinks business is thriving. Now more than ever, there are great flavors to take the place of alcohol or many wonderful ways to drink it b...
Jan 02, 2024•57 min
Today you’ll hear from Asali Echols , Alex Nisnevich , and Casey Beck about the documentary they’re currently making about the past and present of tiki culture. Mentioned : Donn Beach , Trader Vic’s , Jeff “Beachbum” Berry , Chockie Tom , Sam Miller of Acme Bar, Smuggler’s Cove Learn more via their website and Instagram pages. You can also visit them directly on their Kickstarter page and see its trailer below Thanks for listening. Feel free to share this. This is a public episode. If you would ...
Dec 19, 2023•1 hr
Things I mentioned * Visiting Demetrius Cain of Nobletons Distillery * Podcasts from the year: My conversation with Banhez about wealth creation in the agave space, Will Elliott about Maison Premiere, Steve Grasse about building a brand, and Kevin Pigott of Tullamore D.E.W. on poetry * What percentage of my inventory is from smaller producers? * The article on the Sherry Renaissance * Books: A Sense of Place by Dave Broom, The Creative Act by Rick Rubin * In 2024 I’m going to be a judge for the ...
Dec 05, 2023•17 min
Do you know someone that might enjoy this? Please share it. Margie Lehrman is the CEO of the American Craft Spirits Association (ACSA). She has led the organization since 2016. So what is a craft distiller? The ACSA defines one as: * A distillery that values the importance of transparency in distilling, and remains forthcoming regarding their use of ingredients, their distilling location and process, bottling location and process, and aging process. * A distillery that produces fewer than 750,00...
Nov 21, 2023•1 hr 10 min
Mike ( @barkeeping_it_real ) and Janell Bass ( @janelllenfertbass ) are the creators of Ponyboy Slings ( @drinkponyboy ). They were encouraged to pursue this avenue as a result of some well-received work they did in their consulting venture, Punchbowl Project . Do you know someone that might enjoy this? Please share it. We met this year at Tales of the Cocktail and had a great afternoon together. As I heard the story about how they met and ultimately, this brand was born, we decided we should re...
Nov 07, 2023•58 min
Daniel Singer ( @filthydaniel ) is the CEO of Filthy ( website , Instagram ) , a company working to change the way people think about things like cocktail garnishes. Not only did I love this conversation, but Daniel’s comments about entrepreneurship requiring a high pain tolerance and his resolve to banish negative thoughts because they are not worth the energy landed heavily on my heart. Mentions : Julia Momosé , Kumiko , Simon Ford , Luxardo cherries , John Lermayer , Joshua Wagner , Colin Asa...
Oct 17, 2023•1 hr 2 min
