We met up with Ryan Hiebendahl, vice president of sales at Sail Away Coffee. Also Joining us was coffee expert and "shaman", Mike Love from Coffee Labs. Both Ryan and mike gave us an education on the art of cold brewing which interestingly, has many similarities to craft beer brewing. The sail away slogan: ""live young"...Sail Away pairs it free-spirited approach to flavor with a well traveled palate."

The crew at Sail Away focus on single-origin roasts, blends and signature cold brew coffee. This episode we stuck to cold brew which is trending. Yep, Dunkin' has joined the band wagon. We've had cold brew before; however, flavor profiles range from amazingly smooth and balanced to "what were you thinking!" Ryan tasted us through what we thought were some of the best cold brew's we've experienced. We tasted through five, nitrogen cold brews. The cans included sweetened, unsweetened, horchata, salt and caramel and pumpkin chai. We were very skeptical on the pumpkin chai; however, ryan collaborated with Amy Rothstein owner of Dona Drinks to create an amazingly tasty and balanced cold brew. "Balanced" being the key to great cold brews. Sail Away has also "sailed" into the craft cocktail movement utilizing their cold brews. We're eager to try!

Big thanks to crew at Sail Away, we thoroughly enjoyed the cruise!

Shop Sail Away

Prologue: We suggest you purchase a couple of bars of chocolate from Dandelion Chocolate while listening to this podcast. It will definetly enhance the experience! The single-origin chocolates we sampled were incredibly complex and different depending on country of origin and Terroir. It was very helpful having both a chocolate expert and coffee expert joining us to help guide.

This was a fascinating experience for us! We met up with chocolate maker/educator, Christine Keating from Dandelion Chocolate at the New York City Coffee Festival. Also joining us was Mike Love from Coffee Labs our resident "coffee Shaman". Yes, coffee and chocolate have many similarities when it comes to processing and tasting. The experience began with the opening of a beautiful, raw cacao pod, which has an almost alien appearance. The flavor and textures we experienced from the raw beans completely different from the end product we know as chocolate. Notes of mango, squash, banana, citrus and slimy almond came through. We had no idea how fermentation and processing affects the final flavors found in chocolate. Willy Wonka never told us that at the factory tour. Christine then took us through the whole process of making chocolate as well as educating us on the differences between a chocolate maker and a chocolatier.

Dandelion Chocolate: "At Dandelion, we believe great chocolate starts with the bean. Because we only use two ingredients to make our chocolate—cocoa beans and organic cane sugar—the flavor of the beans we buy is critical. While genetics and processing play integral roles in developing flavor, getting good flavor reliably has everything to do with building good relationships."

Dandelion Chocolate: "We do our best to work directly with the producers who grow, ferment, and dry the cacao we buy. We travel to origin as frequently as possible to learn about our producers’ best practices, exchange feedback, and make sure that high standards of quality and sustainability are met. We pay a premium far above the world market price and work to strengthen our relationships year after year in order to maintain our collective commitment to sharing the best and most distinctive cacao."

Not enough chocolate for you? Dandelion chocolate also provides a host of different experiences which include tours, classes, private events, talks and cocoa trips!

Shop at Dandelion Chocolate

We met up with Dani and David at a local gastro pub, Country Fare to discuss their latest epic costume design for Magic Wheelchairs. Together they are working on a Halloween themed build that will be revealed at Comic Con For Kids.

"Magic Wheelchair is a nonprofit organization that builds epic costumes for kiddos in wheelchairs — at no cost to families. Their mission is to bring communities together to create unforgettable moments for children around the world by transforming their wheelchairs into magic. To be eligible for a Magic Wheelchair costume, a kiddo must be between the ages of 5 and 17 and primarily use a wheelchair for mobility."

There are teams from all over the world donating their time to create unforgettable costumes for wheelchairs. Each team is given a budget of $1500 for their build and team sizes range from just a couple of people to large college groups. Intially, Teams meet with the kids to discuss ideas and themes but nothing is revealed until the costume is complete. Additional materials can be donated and as you can see on their website, some builds are incredibly detailed and elaborate.

Magic Wheelchair operates on donations and volunteers only. If you are interested in becoming involved please check out the links below.

Donate

Volunteer

Apply for an epic costume

We met up with Yvan at Deccico's markets in Armonk, NY. Yvan De Baets is a founder and brewer at the famed brewery, Brasserie De La Senne, in Brussels. He is also a social worker and beer historian. Belgium has a long rich history when it comes to brewing and is also trend setter to the entire brewing industry. Yvan is extremely passionate about the beers he and fellow brewer, Bernard Leboucq produce. Together they brew beers they love while remaining uninfluenced by trends and profit. As a result they brew beers that are wonderfully bitter, low in alcohol and superior when it comes to quality. Many consumers in the brewing industry consider Brasserie De La Senne to be "some of the best beer in the world".

"The beers of Brasserie de la Senne are produced by two passionate brewers from Brussels: Yvan De Baets and Bernard Leboucq. They work in a small brewery honouring the traditional ways of brewing beer: unfiltered, unpasteurized, free of any additives and using only the finest raw materials of the highest quality. Their dedication to un-compromised quality is definitely one of the outstanding characteristics of the brewery. The beers, with their complex flavour and well-distinguished personalities, are true beers of character, made in Brussels."

"Brussels is the place where we were born and where we live. We love this city. We are very proud to have doubled its number of breweries, as, when we opened, the only other active brewery in Brussels was Cantillon. We brew in the Brussels Region, on 565 Chaussée de Gand, in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, since 22 December 2010. This date has also become the date of our anniversary brew, only brewed once a year – the Brussels Calling. We have designed our production facilities by carefully selecting the technologies in use. For some stages we have purposely opted for simpler technologies in order to preserve all the aromas of our beers. We take pride in being a local brewery; Brussels is our first market, followed by the rest of Belgium. We limit our exports, despite the success we have encountered abroad. We are, however, available in a dozen countries, with a leading presence in the United States, Italy and Japan."

We hope at some point to follow up with Yvan at his brewery in Brussels for an "on the road" episode.

Finally...an episode that has given us the most complete education on sour beers. We met up with Alex Wallash at, Deccicos & Sons in Brewster, NY. Alex is a founder, brewer, innovator and surfer from The Rare Barrel, in Berkley California. The sours produced at The Rare Barrel are some of the finest and most innovative we've experienced.

RARE BARREL: "We are an all-sour beer company. Sour beer is our favorite style of beer. The flavors produced by this unique fermentation and aging process cannot be replicated in any other food or beverage. Due to the involved process, sour beer is not often a commonly brewed style, making it difficult to find. We’d like to help change that.

Aside from our personal preferences for the beer, there are also practical reasons for going all-sour. By focusing completely on sour beer, we can concentrate on learning as much as possible about the reasons why those unique flavors are produced in sours. With our entire focus on sours, we have crafted a cellar around the production of sour beer. Our space is dedicated to the conditioning of barrel-aged sour beers. With high ceilings, a moderate climate and plenty of space, we give our barrels an ideal home to create their unique flavors.

It’s been said that constraint breeds creativity. By adopting a singular focus on crafting sour beer, we plan on thoroughly exploring flavors through both conventional and experimental methods to create exciting new beers.

Periodically, we will organize an extensive search (tasting) of our barrel house to find our finest barrel of sour beer. A team of craft beer enthusiasts, sour-heads, homebrewers, brewers, BJCP judges, cicerones, and foodies will taste through our barrel house and select our finest barrels of sour beer. Once the “Search Party” has determined the top barrels of sour beer, the founders of The Rare Barrel will taste them, and name the finest of the final barrels as “The Rare Barrel.”

Thirty minutes before this podcast we had no idea we were going to record this. This episode is dedicated to the oldest barber in the world and WWII veteran, Anthony Mancinelli. We never met Anthony, however we thought it appropriate to honor Anthony by attending his funeral Mass, procession and grave-side service. This is where we met up with military bugler, Dani Masterson.

Dani Masterson is a volunteer bugler working with Bugles across America and Spiritof45.org. She's been a horn player for over 30 years and for the past 20 years sounding TAPS for over 3500 details. When she shows up for a detail, she feels, " It"s the last nicest thing that can do for someone." These are the times when Dani feels her service is most pure. "I don't do this to receive a pat on the back or even a thank you. I do it to serve. I'm personally grateful because it has given me a place to serve those who have served. My mission is to educate people on the significance and history of TAPS, why it is important to have a live Bugler and to sound TAPS in all 50 states."

Anthony was born March 2, 1911 in Montemilone, Italy. The son of John and Savino Madrisi Mancinelli. Anthony came to America in September of 1919, on the ship Caserta. He served in WWII and was honorably discharged in 1945. He took up barbering in 1924 and continued to work until July of this year. He was a life member and the oldest member of the New Windsor American Legion 1796. He was Grand Marshall of the New Windsor Memorial Day parade for 13 years. He was inducted into the Barbers Museum and Hall of Fame and is listed in The Guinness Book of World Records. He has been honored numerous times and received many awards/certificates from government officials, including Senator Larkin, Representative Thomas Kirwan, Congressman John Hall, Supervisor George Green, County Executives Edward Diana and Steven Neuhaus and many others. March 2nd was named Anthony Mancinelli Day in Orange County.

A big thanks to the members of the New Windsor American Legion 1796, The Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club, and the Newburgh/New Windsor police department.

SIDE NOTE: Towards the end of the service we listened to a beautiful rendition of Ave Maria. We've heard this classic many times before, however this was the most beautiful we've ever experienced. The entire moment brought us to tears as we tried to figure out who was singing. Looking up behind the pews we could see a woman in military fatigues and then we realized who it most likely was, Master Sergeant, Mary Kay Messenger. Sergeant Messenger is the premier vocalist for the West Point Band and has extremely long list of accolades. This day she played humbly and then quietly exited with little notice. Thank you for your service.

Rest well, Anthony...

Big thanks to Delta Sky Club for hosting this episode with Damrak Gin. We met up with Tanya from Damrak to discuss cocktails, gin history and trends. Delta Sky Club's complimentary cocktail of the month is a Spanish-Style gin and tonic made with Damrak. The gin recently won silver at Food and Beverage Magazine's PROOF% awards Damrak is light on the juniper with a lot of subtle flavors, predominantly citrus. These characteristics opens it to whole host of cocktails. There are 17 different ingredients that give Damrak Gin its DAM good taste. Some of them they disclose, but some are the Master Distiller’s secret. The main distillate consists of the best quality Curaçao oranges. The distillate of these peels highlights the citrusy character of Damrak Gin; like a triple-sec liqueur without sugars. Valencia oranges give Damrak Gin its sweet and distinctive aroma, while lemons provide the freshness. In every gin, there are juniper berries. Even though they deliberately added little less juniper berries, it is still clearly noticeable in taste and smell. Adding some herbs and spices like angelica root, cinnamon, lavender and star anise results in the unique flavor of Damrak Gin.

Recipe: Damrak gin, good tonic (we love Fever Tree), two slices of cucumber, FRESH sprig of rosemary or thyme or even lavender. Toss in a few dried juniper berries and there you have it! This style of gin and tonic is great on a hot day paired with tapas or even on cold day paired with short rib sliders. Tanya loves to pair Damrak with oysters on the half shell or even served as a shooter.

Delta Sky Club is an amazing experience and we are very much looking forward to returning to take advantage of ALL the great amenities they have to offer!

This episode we met up Morgan Spurlock at his pop-up restaurant, Holy Chicken to discuss the newly released Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! Morgan is an award-winning and Academy Award-nominated writer, director, producer, playwright and president and founder of full-service New York-based production studio Warrior Poets. Joining us were poultry farmers John Buttram and Charles Morris. Although the start of this documentary is about opening a truly transparent fast-food chicken restaurant, it became quickly apparent that this film is about the farmers, there struggle and the corruption surrounding "big-ag" in our country. 99% of the chicken consumed is the United States is produced by a monopoly of five main companies. These companies control all aspects of chicken production and essentially "own" the farmers who grow their chickens. The whistle-blowing in this documentary has resulted in John has being black-balled the the industry and no longer grows chickens. Charles is still working because he has no choice which is a struggle every day. He currently grows approximately 1.2 million chickens every 8 weeks with a 10% average die-off. Thats an average of 100,000 chickens to compost that he is also responsible for disposing of. Both John, Charles and their families are struggling to survive with a constant barrage of threats from the retaliating industry which includes lobbying group, The National Chicken Council. This film did NOT stop us from eating chicken; in fact, immediately following the episode we ate a spicy, grilled, crispy chicken sandwich which was delicious. Morgan, john & Charles DID open our eyes to the corruption in "big-ag" as well as the struggle our farmers deal with on a daily basis which is carefully and strategically hidden from the average American consumer. We will continue to stay in touch and hope to do a follow-up episode with a more positive change to the industry.

Another first for us! Truly honored to be guests & students at The Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, NY. Not only home to the famous X-men mansion its also home to 50 North American wolves. Species at the center include Gray, Mexican Gray and Red wolves. We met up Maggie Howell who is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to Canis Lupus. Maggie, Executive Director, has worked at the Wolf Conservation Center since 2005, starting as the WCC's Managing Director and taking the helm as Executive Director in 2013. She continues to lead the WCC's education and advocacy initiatives and be the main voice of the WCC. The remaining staff is made up of dedicated professionals that include educators, scientists, veterinarians and volunteers. As we learned, the center has many moving parts; however, there are two main components, education and breeding. In regards to education, WCC has ambassador wolves, Zephyr, Alawa and Nikai who work directly with the public and will never be released into the wild. Don't worry, they live an amazing life in their enclosure which includes donations of filet mignon & octopus from Whole Foods. The breeding component is made up of the remaining 47 wolves and have limited contact with humans as to protect them for eventual release into the wild. Their diets are kept more wild and depend solely on donations which include road-kill and hunter drop-offs. The breeding component is absolutely fascinating and WCC along with US Fish & Wildlife have had many successful reintroductions. Surprise guest Rocio La Rosa also joined us to give insight into the spiritual side of wolves as well as their symbolism. We had an amazing experience and very much look forward to following the WCC progress and continued success in bringing back Canis Lupus and the 38 sub-species.

The Wolf Conservation Center is a registered 501 (c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization and rely heavily on donations and volunteering. Please give at the following link: THE WOLF CONSERVATION CENTER

This episode we met up with Brittany Chardin of Movers and Shakers. Brittany is a beverage and bar consultant who has partnered with Delta to help transform the Delta Sky Club into a whole new experience. The key word is "experience" and that's what Delta is striving to accomplish. An all-encompassing, multi-sensory "Shangri-La" thats surprisingly affordable.

Delta: "We’re constantly updating our offerings at THE BAR for our guests, including premium spirits and cordials, craft cocktails, local beer choices, and hand-selected wine options by Master Sommelier Andrea Robinson, who works closely with Delta to make selections from vineyards worldwide.

Hand-Crafted Cocktails:

Curate your experience with our reimagined list of craft cocktails including a refreshing Bramble Tonic, a Luxe Manhattan, a Day Tripper Spritz and more. 

Old Forester Whiskey Row series:

Take a journey through the history of bourbon with our new Old Forester flight. This bourbon experience includes four distinct offerings that highlight this historic brand's major milestones. 

Pop the Champagne:

Celebrate something truly special with us. Dom Pérignon is now available for purchase with money or miles by the bottle or glass at most Delta Sky Club locations featuring THE BAR.

Miles with a Twist:

Now you can use miles for premium drinks. Simply order your premium drink, then scan your boarding pass or provide your SkyMiles number and enjoy."