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Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny. I'm not going to Stephane never

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Speaker 1: told your production of I Heart Radio. It is time

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Speaker 1: for another happy Hour, which means that we just want

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Speaker 1: to take some time and highlight some women doing some

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Speaker 1: amazing things in the beverage business and hopefully give you

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Speaker 1: a space too to take a minute of your day. UM.

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Speaker 1: If you're choosing to drink, please drink responsibly. UM. And

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Speaker 1: a note on this this episode, this one is not sponsored,

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Speaker 1: but for for full disclosure, the company did send us

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Speaker 1: a free product to try. UM. So, we are talking

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Speaker 1: today about Highway vodka, and we went to their website

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Speaker 1: to look at some recipes we we would be interested

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Speaker 1: in making. Samantha, what did you end up concoct? Dig

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Speaker 1: So I realized that I was missing like one ingredient

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Speaker 1: on almost every single one of those recipes. So I

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Speaker 1: decided to do my own variation, and I made myself

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Speaker 1: a mule, except I have Hibiscus ginger beer, which I'm

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Speaker 1: very excited about, and of course, because I love some helipeneos,

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Speaker 1: I decided to shake up the a vodka with just

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Speaker 1: a little bit of a helipano so I can have

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Speaker 1: a little bit of spicy kicken yeah, and then I

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Speaker 1: don't have lines. I don't know where my lines went.

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Speaker 1: But I do have a lemons with a small squeeze

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Speaker 1: of that because I did want the citrucy bit. So

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Speaker 1: that is my hibiscus mule variation. I like that biscus

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Speaker 1: mule variation. I might be behind the missing limons lives.

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Speaker 1: So that's why bad. I think, Well, that sounds delicious.

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Speaker 1: I am drinking what they call the hair Juana, which

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Speaker 1: is one and one half ounce Highway vodka, some triple

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Speaker 1: sec simple syrup, lemon juice, and lime juice. I did

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Speaker 1: a cilantro assault rim, which is something I learned from somebody.

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Speaker 1: But I'm very jealous of your halapinos. I you know,

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Speaker 1: I love a good alapino and that would be a

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Speaker 1: good kick. But this is very, very delicious. Nonetheless, on

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Speaker 1: this rainy, rainy day, rainy, dreary, dark day in Atlanta.

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Speaker 1: So yes, today we're talking about Texas based Highway Vodka,

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Speaker 1: which was founded in twenty nineteen by Ben Williams and

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Speaker 1: Windell Robbins, the third the first black owned distillery in Texas,

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Speaker 1: and they specialize in himp based vodka, a product that

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Speaker 1: took eight years of experimentation before they figured it out,

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Speaker 1: and we're super happy with it. Is distilled six times

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Speaker 1: and uses a unique strain of himp and locally sourced corn,

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Speaker 1: and they've won several awards, including gold medals at the

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Speaker 1: Las Vegas Global Spirit Awards and Denver International Spirits Competition.

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Speaker 1: Yes and Robbin's twenty six year old daughter, Cody Fuller,

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Speaker 1: acts as the lead distiller in general manager, making her

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Speaker 1: one of the only black women distillers in the country.

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Speaker 1: You know, we love it. She graduated college with a

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Speaker 1: bachelor's and Business administration with a focus on management and

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Speaker 1: god experience in the alcohol industry through bartending. In early

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty, she joined Highway Vodka as a general manager and,

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Speaker 1: after several years of learning from her father, became lead

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Speaker 1: distiller there in December twenty twenty one. She also takes

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Speaker 1: a lead on their hand sanitizer production, which I'm sure

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Speaker 1: it happened because of the pandemic, So thanks for that. Yes, yes, um,

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Speaker 1: she's really involved in a lot of their charitable efforts.

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Speaker 1: So let's do our favorite thing and try to describe

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Speaker 1: the tastes. YEA, So, yes vodka is not my choice

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Speaker 1: of liquors. Typically. I think because I did so badly

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Speaker 1: with it as a younger drinker, I guess, you know,

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Speaker 1: it became one of those easy accessible things because that's

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Speaker 1: the only thing I kind of knew. I didn't understand

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Speaker 1: all the drinks, but this one is really nice. So

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Speaker 1: I just took a sip and it is the burn

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Speaker 1: of vodka and the taste of vodka, but it also

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Speaker 1: has an herbal note, so it ends off without the bitterness,

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Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, okay, I guess that's where the

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Speaker 1: hemp comes in. That's a little different because it has

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Speaker 1: that good almost like finished as if it's almost not barley.

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Speaker 1: Like I said, it's more herbal in that note, and

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Speaker 1: it has a nice clean end to it. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I agree. It's a very unique vodka because it does

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Speaker 1: have it's It's pretty smooth, and I can feel I

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Speaker 1: can taste the corn, and I can feel that himp

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Speaker 1: kind of finish out, and it is much more herbal.

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Speaker 1: I'm just not used to having that corn taste in vodka.

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Speaker 1: But it's very nice and it's very smooth, and I

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Speaker 1: really enjoyed it. According to them from their website, Highways

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Speaker 1: distilled six times, keeping only the hearts of the run

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Speaker 1: to preserve the nuance of the grain and oils from

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Speaker 1: the hemp and corn. The himp acts it's as super

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Speaker 1: fuel to the forming a thick layer of oil during fermentation.

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Speaker 1: The process yields a smoother product that has a noticeably

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Speaker 1: different viscosity and mouth feel than other vodkas. Yes, it

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Speaker 1: definitely I agree with that, but mouth fill is completely different.

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Speaker 1: That's the ending that I was like, This is not

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Speaker 1: necessarily the twin that I get with typical vodkas, but

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Speaker 1: it has that clean finish that it does feel actually finished.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't taste typically lingers because usually that lingering is

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Speaker 1: a bad side of the burn of vodka. It doesn't

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Speaker 1: do that, and that's really nice to see. Is a

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Speaker 1: whole different level to me. Yeah, So I was thinking

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Speaker 1: about this, and I know we've talked about how you

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Speaker 1: worked it a local brewery here. You've worked in in

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Speaker 1: this and the alcohol industry before. If you were gonna

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Speaker 1: like dis something, what would be the thing you would

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Speaker 1: go to? You know? So I have thought about dabbling

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Speaker 1: into some type of homebrewing thing about making wine. Of

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Speaker 1: course younger, I felt like, hey, take some grapes, put

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Speaker 1: it away. Let's see if at ferments, I probably didn't

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Speaker 1: le did that, but of course that's not wine. Um.

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Speaker 1: I think I also told the story of the fact

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Speaker 1: that my old church they would not buy wine for

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Speaker 1: our communion, so we did communion, but they but you

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Speaker 1: couldn't do grape juice because that was not what the

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Speaker 1: Bible said, according to King James. So they made their own.

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Speaker 1: So one person in the group made their own wine,

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Speaker 1: and it was a whole different taste. I really liked

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Speaker 1: it as a kid, and I was like, Oh, look

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Speaker 1: at that. Maybe I should make that. I would like

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Speaker 1: to say, I think if I wanted to make anything

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Speaker 1: like like a distillery of sorts, of product of sorts,

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Speaker 1: it would probably be a gin because I love it gin.

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Speaker 1: But I also liked the ideas of using like juniper

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Speaker 1: and what if we use hubiscus, or what if we

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Speaker 1: use lavender. Not that you can't do that with other alcohols,

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Speaker 1: obviously you can do that. Vodka has its a big

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Speaker 1: platform for different flavors and different orble mixes within vodka. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: hemp being something fairly new I've not even thought of.

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Speaker 1: I was like, oh, yeah, I like what you're doing

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Speaker 1: with that. But I think for me, Jen would be

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Speaker 1: that preference. And I say this and knowing I will

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Speaker 1: never do it, but she's one if. Yeah, I think

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Speaker 1: Jen as well. That's kind of that potion vibe of

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Speaker 1: like what if I had this? What if I had this?

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Speaker 1: And I love this whole idea of you know, experimenting

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Speaker 1: and trying different things and different aging processes, Like people

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Speaker 1: have tried all sorts of things like music, they'll play

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Speaker 1: different music and I love I love that the pot

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Speaker 1: of doing that. It feels very potions glass to me.

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Speaker 1: And I did get the opportunity to make Jen once

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Speaker 1: and it was a really fun experience. Also Tomorrow, because

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Speaker 1: Tomorrow has a really secretive, interesting past that fascinates me.

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Speaker 1: My partner really wants to make it himself, and I'm like, uh,

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Speaker 1: you have fun with that. Yeah, I mean it is

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Speaker 1: very complicated and that's a very divisive taste. But Savor

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Speaker 1: and I were lucky enough to do an interview with

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Speaker 1: a in tomorrow place and they were telling us about

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Speaker 1: the history and they would reveal their secrets, but they

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Speaker 1: did tell us a ghost story. Do you know. I

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Speaker 1: love a good ghost story. So I was like, Okay,

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Speaker 1: this is great. Even better exactly, but I mean, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's you're right. You could do that with any alcohol. Really,

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Speaker 1: there are certain rules and definitions you kind of have

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Speaker 1: to fall in. But I do love that places like

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Speaker 1: Highway Vodka are experimenting with these things I wouldn't have

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Speaker 1: thought of to give kind of it's refreshing take. Do

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Speaker 1: you have a specific flavor you would want to make, like,

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Speaker 1: so I'm thinking this specifically hemp. I'm like, okay, I

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Speaker 1: wouldn't have thought of that. I know there's a peanut

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Speaker 1: butter flavored whiskey right right, So I'm like, huh, what

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Speaker 1: would be a thing I'm immediately torn between, like something

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Speaker 1: kind of like mildly spicy, because you know, I love

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Speaker 1: shoshidos and stuff like that, so not like they're like

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Speaker 1: hot hot, but kind of like a a mild, earthy

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Speaker 1: herbal thing that has heat to it. I've had a

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Speaker 1: lot of interesting drinks that do that where I would

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Speaker 1: read the description and like that was a risk? Did

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Speaker 1: it payoff? And I would take a sip and it did.

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Speaker 1: But you know, looking at it, you might think no

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Speaker 1: way that I want you to move venture out and

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Speaker 1: then do it in a way that tasty instead of

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Speaker 1: just I know, like some flavors, as we talked about

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Speaker 1: the peanut butter one because I've never had it, but

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Speaker 1: I'm like, that does not sound tasty to me. Maybe

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Speaker 1: just me, but like people, I'm really impressed with some

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Speaker 1: of them, like this one. Again, I didn't think anything

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Speaker 1: of it either way, but I'm like, oh, this really

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Speaker 1: works good, JEFFI, y'all dide a great thing here. This

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Speaker 1: is tasty and it it rounds out the vodka in

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Speaker 1: a different way that's really really on point as opposed

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Speaker 1: to being counterintuitive and making it kind of a messy

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Speaker 1: flavor profile. But yeah, when you see it done well,

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Speaker 1: you're like, oh, I've never thought of that. So it's

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Speaker 1: really nice to think on. I am with you because

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Speaker 1: obviously I've been helping you. Was almost in everything that's

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Speaker 1: been my new thing. Just earlier, I actually touched my

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Speaker 1: eye after touching you how to pin you, and I

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Speaker 1: didn't put it in my eye but right below, and man,

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Speaker 1: it got swollen and it hurt, and I was like,

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Speaker 1: I regret Peppers, but I love him still. I'm the

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Speaker 1: same way. I did feel very bad for use of

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Speaker 1: it the but I am the same way where there's

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Speaker 1: been so many instances in my life I've been like,

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Speaker 1: I will never do this again. It's too hot, it hurts.

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Speaker 1: Why Why do I like this? Next day? Like, I

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Speaker 1: give that another goal? Right. I would also like to

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Speaker 1: like low key, so I don't get sued to make

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Speaker 1: a lot of Star Wars kind of themed like Casher's

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Speaker 1: the you know, the Dark Side or the Light Side

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Speaker 1: or something like that. Yeah, yeah, and I am big

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Speaker 1: Like as we move into Fall, I do love fall

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Speaker 1: flavors a lot, and I do love kind of that

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Speaker 1: Halloween vibe a lot. So I was thinking about, you know,

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Speaker 1: something like that could be really funda. I'm sure that exists.

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Speaker 1: I have no doubt in my mind. Is it good?

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Speaker 1: I don't know, but it exists. Well, cheers, cheers, cheers.

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Speaker 1: I have my little ewalk tikka yep wicket. I love it.

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Speaker 1: I love it. Cheers to you, Samantha, Cheers to you listeners,

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Speaker 1: and cheers to Highway Vodka and Cody Fuller. Joba is tasty. Yes, yes,

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Speaker 1: and if you're interested. Highway Vodka is available in Georgia, Florida,

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Speaker 1: Southern California, Texas, and online at Reserve bar dot com.

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Speaker 1: Again not a sponsor they did send some to us

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Speaker 1: because they just now became available in Georgia, which is

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Speaker 1: very very exciting and yes, we love the work Cody

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Speaker 1: Fuller is doing, very excited to see where that goes.

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Speaker 1: And as always, listeners, if you have someone you want

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Speaker 1: us to highlight in these segments, please let us know.

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Speaker 1: You can email us a stuff Youdia mom Stuff at

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Speaker 1: i heart media dot com. You can find us on

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Speaker 1: Twitter at mom Stuff podcast or on Instagram and Stuff

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Speaker 1: I've Never Told You. Thanks as always to our super

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Speaker 1: producer Christina, and thanks to you for listening. Stuff Under

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Speaker 1: Told You distraction of I Heart Radio. For more podcast

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Speaker 1: on my heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shops