In this campy conversation with Reece Sims (@reecesims), creator of Flavor Camp, some of the topics we discuss include:

• How camps - like bars - act as intense and intimate “third places,” where people with shared interests or commonalities can gather and thrive.

• What Reece does to shake up the traditional ruts we fall into when tasting spirits--from the way she sets up the layout of the room, to the way she goes about selecting spirits for any given flight.

• And did you know: Flavor Camp isn’t just the name of the program; it’s an organizing paradigm that Reece deploys that both SIMPLIFIES the typical flavor wheels we often see used in spirits tastings, and also EXPLODES the restrictions implied by traditional spirits categories.

• We also talk about how to navigate the “personal” and the “public” when generating tasting notes. How do you take something that tastes like a certain thing to YOU--like grandma’s kitchen, or the woods after a rain--and figure out how to communicate that very unique flavor to other people who may not share your experiences.

• Finally, we talk about the notion of the “Head-Fake” in the spirits and cocktail world: which is when you overtly focus on one thing, but that ONE THING teaches you so much more about other components of leading a meaningful life.

• Along the way, we discuss the one booze billboard that triggered me in a major way, how to pair donuts with whiskey, why simple cocktails made with high quality spirits are waaaay better than molecular gastronomy, and much, much more.