Drinking Lessons

Drinking Lessons

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Drinking Lessons episodes

  • The Bubbly Stuff
    Luna bids a fond farewell to his trusted Spirit Guides and starts some independent study with Champagne, with a knowledge base limited to pop culture references. He learns the process of creating sparkling wine, the history and specifications of Champagne-with-a-capital-C, and the range of flavors and prices. He also finds some tasty recipes that add fruit juices and simple syrups to the mix, because sweet, jazzed-up Champagne is for your real friends, and plain, dry Champagne is for your sham friends. Or something like that.
    30 min
  • The Christmasy Stuff
    Drinking Lessons – The Christmasy Stuff – Show Notes
    Luna and the Holiday Spirit Guides invent their own cocktails based on their favorite Christmas characters: The Grinch, Krampus, and the explosive battle between good and evil from Die Hard (technically not a character, but it still counts)! And when the talk turns to holiday party memories, Luna recalls an event that featured Russian Squirrels, and Spirit Guide Jordon shares a holiday adventure that can’t be topped…not even by Clayton’s paratrooping cold-war Christmas recollections.
    43 min
  • The Noggy Stuff
    Eggnog is a love-it-or-hate-it kind of drink…and Luna is staunchly in the hate-it camp. The Spirit Guides school him on the history (revelation: nog is NOT part of the drink itself) and everyone comes up with a recipe to try. One of them doesn’t even include eggs. Intriguing, right? Listen in and find out why! And how! And…what it tastes like.
    33 min
  • The Minty Stuff

    Nothing says “holiday flavor” quite like the brisk taste of peppermint…and nothing says “peppermint” like schnapps. The lads take a dive into the minty liquor by concocting their own minty beverages – one warm, one cold, one somewhere in between – and finding out the true nature of the plant that gives us the taste of what Luna describes as “a melted snowman in a cup.” It’s not as horrific as it may sound.

    45 min
  • The Spiced Stuff
    The season of warm beveraging arrives, and with it comes mulling about…erm, mulling. What’s the deep, rich history behind mulled drinks, you ask? We’ll tell you, because we found out just for this show! What sorts of fruits and spices can be used in such a process? We’ll tell you that, too, because now we have that information! How much mulling should you do about your mulling? We…have no idea. We’re thinking maybe half. Give or take.
    Check out the show notes for the recipes used by Luna and his Holiday Spirit Guides!
    1 hr 3 min
  • The Simple Stuff
    It might seem pretty easy to make a two-ingredient drink, but Luna once failed at martinis badly enough to turn his beverage red. In order to clarify things, the team explores the virtues of a drink so simple, even a fool can get it right: the gin gimlet. It turns out to be a Drinking Lessons favorite, the next best thing to a gin and tonic, and its history leads back to curing scurvy and working with hand tools. Unexpected!
    37 min
  • The Fizzy Stuff
    The n00b talks Rum and Cola with guest Spirit Guide Erin Crouch, who explains how to elevate a modest, popular drink into something a bit more bougie - but not too much…it turns out a little mixology bougie goes a long way. Along the way, they discuss the revolutionary roots of the drink, and the notion that a drink can be either simple or sophisticated, depending on your ingredients and your flair for the theatrical.
    50 min
  • The Shaken Stuff
    Luna tries to make a martini for the first time ever…and boy, does this podcast ever justify itself when he does. Once his spirit guides determine that his ingredients aren’t quite up to par, they set about teaching him the various historical possibilities of the drink’s origin while instructing him that no, you don’t use sweet vermouth, and yes, you do twist the lemon over the glass before you drink, and no, your martini should never be brown at any stage of the game.
    39 min
  • BONUS EPISODE: The Cool Stuff
    You meet the coolest people when you beverage with purpose. While recording The Ancient Stuff episode, we were introduced by our incredible bartender Justin to a celebrity: Giovanna Horning, winner of Naked and Afraid Season 7. Giovanna was kind enough to chat with us about what it took to survive the experience more than once, what she did to prepare for it, and what happened afterward.
    17 min
  • The Ancient Stuff

    Luna and his Guides quote Top Gun and give their best Kermit the Frog impersonations while on location at Superstition Meadery in charming Prescott, Arizona, while exploring a dozen different types of meads (ancient honey-based wine) and ciders - drinks with awesome names like Warhoney and Blood Eagle, and Ragnarok. How exactly is mead made, anyway? The incredibly helpful bartender Justin tells all – including what makes a melamel, a pyment, and a cyser. No spoilers here, but one of the samples ends up tasting like peanut butter and jelly...UNEXPECTED.

    44 min

About Drinking Lessons

From the publisher's feed

Steven Luna is 47 years old, and he just started drinking alcohol. Now you get to go along for the ride of his life.