On the 25th of January every year, Scots and Scotland lovers toast poet extraordinaire Robert Burns “Of Mice and Men” and “My Love is Like a Red Red Rose” fame. I usually skip the haggis and neaps and tatties and go straight to that golden liquid that Robbie called O thou, my Muse! guid auld Scotch drink! and who better to celebrate with than the man formally known as Dr. Whisky. I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life o...
Jan 21, 2020•1 hr•Season 4Ep. 141
It’s no surprise that our guest today still dreams of being the host of the Radio 1 breakfast show one day. He definitely has the gift of the gab.Right now he is using that gift to introduce Four Pillars Gin to everyone he can! I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. As European Trade Relations Manager for Australia's Four Pillars Gin, Joe Worthington would never think ...
Jan 14, 2020•54 min•Season 4Ep. 140
Welcome back to Lush Life! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. We swing back into action with a guest who was always the guy at the office who doing whisky Tastings. I had no idea that position even existed. I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. Whiskey was Thomas Mooney, the co-founder of Westward Whiskey ’s, drink of choice. So much so that he really was the gu...
Jan 07, 2020•51 min•Season 4Ep. 139
If you didn’t listen to last week’s episode, then press stop and go back to that one now! You’ll meet Geoff Speiran, the Global Whiskey Ambassador for The Dublin Liberties Distillery. Once you know all about Geoff, then you are ready to take on our tour. I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. Welcome to Hell! Not your usual greeting except when you are in the Liberties...
Dec 17, 2019•1 hr 5 min•Season 4Ep. 138
Buenos dias! That’s what our guest today would have greeted me with if he had ended up a Spanish teacher. Instead, he greeted me with a dram of Irish Whiskey and I am not complaining. I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. Today Geoff Speiran, Global Whiskey Ambassador at The Dublin Liberties Distillery joins me in an area of Dublin, previously known as Hell, which fee...
Dec 10, 2019•54 min•Season 4Ep. 137
Born and bred on the Scottish Island of Islay, one would assume that whisky was in our guest’s blood, but it took a venture off island to bring him straight back. I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. Adam Hannett thought he was destined for a life of marine biology, but that was not to be. Lucky for the whisky lover in all of us, he found his calling as the Head Dist...
Dec 03, 2019•40 min•Season 4Ep. 136
Jamaican rum is known for its high esters - those are the compounds that give it the heady aromas it has and makes it taste all banana-y, pineapple-y and fruity. Some also call it funk, but our guest calls it magic. I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. Christelle Harris is well versed in esters, muck and funk as she is the granddaughter of the owner of Hampden Estate...
Nov 26, 2019•36 min•Season 4Ep. 135
If you find yourself shuttling from Cincinnati Airport to Lexington Kentucky down Interstate 75, you’ll see the signs directing you to stop at Boone County Distilling Company. Only 6 minutes off the interstate and you can take a tour of the only distillery that says its bourbon is “made by ghosts.” Too far to go, well then, you can sit back and listen to today’s episode and I’ll bring the tour to you. I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are i...
Nov 19, 2019•43 min•Season 4Ep. 134
Convincing people to enjoy a glass of sake while tucking into a pepperoni pizza is going to be a tough job. Our guest today is ready to take on that challenge. I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. I lured Sake Sommelier Satomi Dosseur away from an event we were both attending to give me the lowdown on the liquid that was front and center that evening. The event was b...
Nov 12, 2019•23 min•Season 4Ep. 133
Way up in the mountains, you’d expect to be served a hot chocolate or a hot toddy, but a rum sour? You would think that’s more of a beach cocktail. Thanks to our guest today, you would be wrong. It’s home right here in Crested Butte, Colorado. I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. I’m not sure why anyone would doubt that Karen Hoskin could create a rum distillery in t...
Nov 05, 2019•1 hr 14 min•Season 4Ep. 132
Our guest today is rewriting the English dictionary. No longer will “it’s just small beer” mean something unimportant. From now on, small beer means just that small beer! I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. Felix James, cofounder of Small Beer Brew company here in London gave me a history lesson on Small Beer - A lower ABV version of beer that was drunk by most men ...
Oct 29, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Season 4Ep. 131
Like many others who came before him, our guest today fell in love with Venice at first site. Unlike many others, he brought Venice home with him..in a big way. I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. We’re not talking a t-shirt or gondola-shaped ashtray, Russell Norman brought us Polpo - the restaurant that introduced Cicchetti and, for our purposes here, the Aperol Sp...
Oct 22, 2019•42 min•Season 4Ep. 130
Robert Roy MacGregor, the infamous 17th-century outlaw was Scottish through and through. Most likely, he would have been a little bothered that the classic cocktail named after him was invented in the USA. Well, it doesn't matter really where it was invented. We are still drinking it thanks to our guest today, the National Brand Ambassador of Glenfiddich. I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by ...
Oct 15, 2019•1 hr 8 min•Season 4Ep. 129
Jennings Cox is one of the biggest names in cocktails. History has remembered him as the “inventor” of the daiquiri. But as David Wonrich the famous drinks historian says "The daiquiri represents such an obvious marriage between local, as in Cuban, ingredients—rum, sugar, limes—and American technology—cocktail shaker, ice—that it would take the chowder -headedest duffer who ever buttoned a trouser not to invent it." Whether Cox did or didn’t, it’s a great drink and has remained one of the one of...
Oct 08, 2019•46 min•Season 4Ep. 128
A Negroni is one of the great cocktail classics. In fact, it’s celebrating its 100th birthday this year, when, as legend would have it, Count Camillo Negroni asked his bartender to add a drop of gin to his Americano. Folks are changing up ingredients all the time and the negroni has been tinkered with by creative bartenders trying their hand at redefining the basic recipe of vermouth, campari, and gin. Our guest today knew the native flavors he had in his backyard were crying out for attention a...
Oct 01, 2019•48 min•Season 4Ep. 127
Hello everyone and welcome back for Season 4 of Lush Life - The classic Collection. We’ll be exploring classic cocktails - who drank them, who makes them and a few modern twist on the genre. Things would get so boring if we didn’t change it up a little, so saying that I wanted to let you know the format has been “jujjed” slightly. Don’t be scared - none of the good stuff is gone. You’re still going to hear from the greats of the cocktail world and still going to get your cocktail of the week. Yo...
Sep 24, 2019•24 min•Season 4Ep. 126
September has come ‘round and I am bursting with enthusiasm. So in that state of mind, Season 4 of Lush Life - The Classic Collection will commence next Tuesday . I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. The Classic Collection...hmm what’s that I hear you asking yourself? Well, Season 4 is bringing it all down to basics. Why you may ask? I’ve been busy all summer rereadi...
Sep 10, 2019•4 min
Trentino, nestled in the Alps, welcomes each and every guest with a glass of Bollincine Da Montagna translated as Mountain Bubbles but officially known as Trentodoc - their splendid sparkling wine. But what else is there to drink in this gorgeous northern region of Italy. I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. Today we get to meet a few people who are making the drinks...
Jul 23, 2019•33 min•Season 3Ep. 125
Meeting in primary school doesn’t always predict a future business career together, but in the case of our guests today, it most certainly did. They also went to the same prep school, university and lived together in London...oh and did I mention they both love rum! I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. Alex Jollivet and Tom Wiggett also drank together and while Tom w...
Jul 16, 2019•42 min•Season 3Ep. 124
A hotel was destined to be our guest’s second home from the time he first stepped into one when he was a little boy. Now Fabio Pezzini is all grown up and behind the bar at one of London’s premier hotels right in the center of it all. I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. The Polo Bar at the Westbury Hotel has seen and heard it all. From bowler hats to Beatles perform...
Jul 09, 2019•56 min•Season 3Ep. 123
Can you imagine a state where in every bar all that was served were airplane mini-bottles of spirits? So you order an old-fashioned and they take the tiny bottle of JD off the shelf, unscrew it, add sugar and bitters and that’s it. Only order, unscrew, serve for every cocktail! Crazy talk...yet that was South Carolina until 2006 - yes 2006. I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the...
Jul 02, 2019•42 min•Season 3Ep. 122
Don’t ever call someone’s idea crazy - you’ll probably end up eating your words or in this case drinking them. Our guest today knew that cider was not just for crepes and galettes any more and when he heard the French government was paying farmers to chop down apple trees in his home region of Normandy, he knew the time was now. I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. X...
Jun 25, 2019•32 min•Season 3Ep. 121
Before we head into The Connaught Bar , I want to make sure you know this is a two parter. Did you listen to part 1 of Ago Perrone’s story? Then you already know that he is Director of Mixology for The Connaught Bar. If you are flummoxed and have no idea what I’m talking about then head back to last week’s episode where you can hear the beginning of Ago’s journey. If you’re set, then let’s head to Mayfair - Carlos Place, to be exact and one of my favorite hotels in the world. I’m Susan Schwartz,...
Jun 18, 2019•33 min•Season 3Ep. 120
I felt right at home with my next guest, even though we had never met. The Connaught Hotel is a place I have been returning to since I was a child. As my parent’s port of call when visiting London, The Connaught has seen me roam its halls, sleep in its beds and also try smoked salmon for the first time in the now legendary dining room. We only stopped staying there because now I live in London. Meeting Ago Perrone, Director of Mixology for the Connaught Bar, was like being reintroduced to an old...
Jun 11, 2019•36 min•Season 3Ep. 119
My friend and fellow podcaster Palle Bo, the Radio Vagabond, tells me that I don’t reveal enough about myself on Lush Life. I am slightly reticent to do that as I want it to be all about my guests. Still I will keep trying little by little I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion who lives in London by the way, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. I wouldn’t have not met my next guest if I hadn’t been invite...
Jun 04, 2019•33 min•Season 3Ep. 118
Creating one successful brand is hard enough, but two - well as our guest today, Alex Carlton discovered, it’s just as exciting the second time round. I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. I met with Alex on his birthday a few weeks ago, having just received the best gift an entrepreneur could. A fantastic review of his Stryyk Not Rum. STRYYK, the distilled zero-proof...
May 28, 2019•36 min•Season 3Ep. 117
When someone says their bourbon is made with 100% corn - you can’t really believe them can you? You can if it’s our guest today. Scott Blackwell of High Wire Distilling Company wanted to create a spirit that was different, but how do you even start? I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. Winner of the Best of the South award from Garden and Gun Magazine this year was j...
May 21, 2019•46 min•Season 3Ep. 116
So you know that your family once owned a gin company and some pubs, but how surreal would it be to find it was not just any gin company but one of the most important brands in the UK ever. Even arguably the oldest. I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. Milo Walker, Brand Ambassador and heir to Nicholson Gin, discovered that his family produced not only politicians an...
May 14, 2019•24 min•Season 3Ep. 115
Can you say that one gelato changed your life? For our next guest, being served an ice cream cone introduced her to the world of hospitality and she never looked back. From the age of 12, Mariantonietta Varamo has been on a fast track to making her dreams come true. Thank goodness for us, she choose to be behind the bar. Little did Mariantonietta know when she left Italy for London that she would be the one to shake things up at Dukes Bar. As the first female bartender at that bastion of martini...
May 07, 2019•33 min•Season 3Ep. 114
Strawberries only on Sunday could be the name of one of her cocktails, but as our guest today revealed her grandfather would truly only allow his strawberry jam to be enjoyed as a treat on Sunday. The strawberry season in Norway is only three weeks after all and he made jam so they could eat them all year round and that meant having a little bit only on Sunday to make it last. Monica Berg, one of the glittering stars of the cocktail world, is here with us today. Her journey from Norway to London...
Apr 30, 2019•1 hr 7 min•Season 3Ep. 113
