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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your mind. My name

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Speaker 1: is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. And it's Saturday.

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Speaker 1: Time to go into the Vault. And apparently today the

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Speaker 1: Vault is operating a pop up bar. That's right with

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Speaker 1: the delicious cocktails for all. This was our This was

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Speaker 1: our cocktail episode where we talked about the nature of cocktails,

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Speaker 1: some of the chemistry of cocktails, and and some of

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Speaker 1: the very interesting cocktail ingredients and where they come from.

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Speaker 1: I remember in this one we got into some of

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Speaker 1: the weird history of absinthe. Yes we did, Robert, have

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Speaker 1: you have you had any absinthe cocktails since we did

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Speaker 1: this episode. I had some absence just last night, but

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Speaker 1: not really. Well. What I've taken to doing is I

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Speaker 1: really enjoy making tiky drinks and uh, in some cases

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Speaker 1: teaky drinks do actually call for absinthe, but other times

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Speaker 1: I find that a missing of absence. I have some

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Speaker 1: absence that I've put into a little spray bottle for

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Speaker 1: making a sasserac. Yeah, but it works with an number

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Speaker 1: of different cock I enjoy it with my Taie, for instance,

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Speaker 1: But just to miss the glass of little absence before

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Speaker 1: before you pour it in it, it's marvelous. I had

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Speaker 1: one of when I was in New Orleans this year.

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Speaker 1: One of I had one of the worst cocktails I've

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Speaker 1: ever had in my entire life. It was from one

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Speaker 1: of those bars in the French Quarter where you can

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Speaker 1: walk up and get it to to take away. Well,

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Speaker 1: now there's some very good bars that you can you

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Speaker 1: can walk up and take away. But saying there was

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Speaker 1: no inside, this was no, there wasn't inside. That's just

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Speaker 1: it looked like a cool bar. It had like old

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Speaker 1: wood fixtures and everything. Um. But yeah, I went up

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Speaker 1: and I was like, okay, time to get an absinthe

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Speaker 1: frap a right, I got a prey to the green Ferry.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, I I tried to get It was basically

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Speaker 1: just equal parts cheap absinthe and simple syrup, and it

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Speaker 1: was undrinkably disgusting. I had to throw it in the trash.

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Speaker 1: Well that's a shame, but but yeah, I do want

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Speaker 1: to drive home that that New Orleans is a place

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Speaker 1: where you can walk into some very nice bars and

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Speaker 1: get a very nice cocktail to walk the streets with,

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Speaker 1: including beach Bumberri's latitude twenty nine, which is one of

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Speaker 1: my absolute favorite Tiki bars. Man with you it is

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Speaker 1: Tiki's all the Way Down. Well, I still enjoy a

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Speaker 1: nice Manhattan as well. Yeah. Well, hey, well we're we're

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Speaker 1: delaying too long. Let's get into this episode, which originally

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Speaker 1: published January twelve, two thousand seventeen. Welcome to Stuff to

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Speaker 1: Blow your Mind from how Stuff Works dot com. Hey you,

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Speaker 1: welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name is

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Speaker 1: Robert Lamb, and I'm Joe mccormickin today in the I

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Speaker 1: guess this will be the final installment of our totally

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Speaker 1: unplanned run of food Stuffs and drink Stuffs science podcasts. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we kind of had a post New Year's run of

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Speaker 1: foodie topics think with some exorcism there in the middle.

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Speaker 1: What did you you did green tea with Christian Yes,

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Speaker 1: we did. There there's a green tea and butter and

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Speaker 1: butter and now we're going to get into a little

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Speaker 1: mixology and and and we'll even come back to exorcism

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Speaker 1: at one point, believe it or not, No way, Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: it comes up. It's important. When you're talking about cocktails,

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Speaker 1: you're inevitably going to talk about exercisse. Wait, is that

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Speaker 1: what they always meant by holy water. Um well wait

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Speaker 1: and initi'll see. But one of the important things we

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Speaker 1: want to get out at the top of this episode

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Speaker 1: is that, yes, in this episode we are going to

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Speaker 1: talk about mixology. We're gonna talk about the history and

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Speaker 1: science and botany of mixed drinks that involve various alcoholic substances. Right,

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Speaker 1: But we do want to make clear that we know

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Speaker 1: we've got some younger listeners out there, and so you

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Speaker 1: shouldn't take this podcast is an encouragement to go out

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Speaker 1: and try all the drinks we're gonna be talking about, right,

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Speaker 1: And we certainly have non drinkers out there as well. Uh,

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Speaker 1: don't worry. This is not going to be a scandalous,

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Speaker 1: um out of control exploration of cocktails by any means.

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Speaker 1: And on our personal note, I want to add that

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Speaker 1: my wife and myself we are currently doing a dry January,

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Speaker 1: so we are only doing mock tails at the moment,

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Speaker 1: which is kind of ironic having just finished research on

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Speaker 1: this episode. Yeah, well you wanted to do it, I

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Speaker 1: think because you read a couple of books this month, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: two books in particular that I picked up over the holidays.

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Speaker 1: One is Amy Stewart's The Drunken Botanist The Plants that

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Speaker 1: create the World's Great Drinks. And this is a really

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Speaker 1: wonderful book, very flippable, kind of the kind of book

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Speaker 1: you can bring to a bar or a nice dinner

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Speaker 1: and look up the things you're ordering. It takes a

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Speaker 1: botanist approach to all of the ingredients, basically coming down

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Speaker 1: to the fact that just about anything, pretty much anything

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Speaker 1: in a drink except for maybe bacon. If you if

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Speaker 1: you go that route, it's going to have some sort

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Speaker 1: of botanical origin. Where because things come from bacon, has

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Speaker 1: a botanical origin. Well, in a sense, yes, if you

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Speaker 1: follow it back far enough, all of our drinks really

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Speaker 1: have a solar origin. Just true. True, you can say

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Speaker 1: that it's all a gift of the sun. I really

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Speaker 1: enjoyed the Sami Stewart book. I didn't have a chance

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Speaker 1: that you you lent it to me yesterday, and I

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Speaker 1: didn't have a chance to read the whole thing yet,

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Speaker 1: but I just flipped through it, and as you say,

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Speaker 1: it is very flippable. You can just drop to any

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Speaker 1: page and there's something interesting on it. It's sort of

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Speaker 1: a mix between a science book and a recipe book,

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Speaker 1: and I like that, uh, and the other book that

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Speaker 1: you lent me, which I got through some of, and

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Speaker 1: I really really enjoyed the writing style of the second guys.

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Speaker 1: This book by David Wondrich, Yes he say his name, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: believe so imbibe. He has a couple of books out

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Speaker 1: related to mix streams. One is entirely about punches and

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Speaker 1: this one is really focused more in on on the

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Speaker 1: cocktail and it it has recipes in it as well,

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Speaker 1: but it is more about the history and culture, especially

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Speaker 1: the origins, the very American origins of the cocktail. And

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Speaker 1: along those lines, I believe you had a quote that

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Speaker 1: you wanted to read from David Wondrich's book, right, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think this it's the tone fabulously for a lot

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Speaker 1: of what we're gonna talk about here, and just for

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Speaker 1: discussion of basically what a cocktail is. He writes, Anyone

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Speaker 1: who has spent any time pondering the origins of the cocktail,

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Speaker 1: be it for the months or years it takes to

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Speaker 1: write a book, or seconds it takes to internalize a

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Speaker 1: dry martini, will agree that it's a quintessentially American contraption.

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Speaker 1: How could it be anything? But it's quick, direct, and vigorous.

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Speaker 1: It's flashy and a little bit vulgar and induces an

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Speaker 1: unreflective overconfidence. It's democratic, forcing the finest liquors to rub

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Speaker 1: elbows with ingredients of far more humble stamp. It's profligate

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Speaker 1: with natural resources. Think of the electricity generated to make

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Speaker 1: ice that gets used for ten seconds and discarded in short,

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Speaker 1: it rocks. But the cocktail is American. It's American in

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Speaker 1: the same way as the hot dog, that is, the frankfurter,

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Speaker 1: the hamburger, the hamburger steak, and the ice cream cone

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Speaker 1: with its rolled good fret. As a nation, we have

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Speaker 1: a knack for taking underperforming elements of other people's cultures,

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Speaker 1: streamlining them, super charging them, and then letting them rip

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Speaker 1: from nobody to superstar with a trail of sparks and

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Speaker 1: a hell of a noise along the way. That's how

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Speaker 1: the cocktail did it, anyway. So yeah, that's uh. That's

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Speaker 1: from page two o nine in his book. Uh. It's

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Speaker 1: It's full of just weird historical details, colorful characters, and

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Speaker 1: more than a few classic cocktail recipes. So we'll keep

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Speaker 1: referring back to it, but I highly recommend picking it

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Speaker 1: up if you're a cocktail fan or an American history fan.

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Speaker 1: It's a great rate. Yeah, you mentioned historical characters. One

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Speaker 1: of the great colorful characters in this book is in

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Speaker 1: the section I was reading. I think he's a central

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Speaker 1: figure in the book is Jerry Thomas, legendary bartender who

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Speaker 1: operated bars all over the place in San Francisco during

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Speaker 1: the gold Rush boom and in New York. Who was

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Speaker 1: this crazy, flamboyant character, a man of what is it

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Speaker 1: called the sports sporting fraternity, yes, which I think generally

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Speaker 1: means no good lay abouts of the of the eighteen hundreds,

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Speaker 1: and who love to celebrate with these extravagant drinks that

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Speaker 1: he was very good at making. And he loved lavish clothes,

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Speaker 1: and he loved diamonds, and he loved big pieces of art.

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Speaker 1: And there's a great story where somebody interviews him for

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Speaker 1: a newspaper at some point and he's got a couple

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Speaker 1: of pet rats scampering along on his shoulders or something. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he seems to have had a wonderful sense of showmanship,

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Speaker 1: which is is ultimately such a huge part of of

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Speaker 1: cocktails and cocktail cultures, Like there's the there's this the

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Speaker 1: pure mixology of what's going on, and then there's the

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Speaker 1: flash of creating something, creating an experience and selling it

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Speaker 1: to the customer and maybe making a few things up

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Speaker 1: if he flourishes up to to to grease the sale. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the mixed up cocktail, the product of any real endeavor

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Speaker 1: of mixology is an event. It's not just something to

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Speaker 1: be consumed. It's something to be admired in many cases,

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Speaker 1: to watch the bartender making for you. Uh, it's a

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Speaker 1: process and and it's kind of a process in the

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Speaker 1: same way that I don't know, going to like one

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Speaker 1: of those Teppanyaki steakhouses is right, Yeah, we're setting it

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Speaker 1: a sushi bar for instance. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you get

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Speaker 1: to see the magic of the food come together. I mean,

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Speaker 1: in a sense, it's like you know, like making cocktails

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Speaker 1: at your home or cooking at your home. There's this

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Speaker 1: there's this experience, this this process. You're following instructions, maybe

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Speaker 1: you're improvising a little bit, You're going through an experience

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Speaker 1: to get this thing. You're richer for the experience, and

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Speaker 1: that plays a part in your enjoyment of it. Well,

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Speaker 1: before we look at the science of some cocktails and

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Speaker 1: the and the alcohols, and then maybe we should look

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Speaker 1: a little bit at the history of the cocktail though,

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Speaker 1: what's what's the social relevance of this tradition of mixing

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Speaker 1: different alcoholic beverages together to produce a newer, better, higher

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Speaker 1: emergent form. Well, one of the core points that one

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Speaker 1: which makes is that the the origins of the cocktail

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Speaker 1: and cocktail culture a largely American. Now, certainly it's a

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Speaker 1: culture that we lost and we had to rediscover and

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Speaker 1: reclaim the realm of mixology from the tyranny of apple

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Speaker 1: teen ease and an unimaginable, unimaginable tryst with vodka. This

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Speaker 1: is a thing in the book I noticed. I I

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Speaker 1: didn't get to the part where he explains this, but

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Speaker 1: he makes some snide comments about vodka. Well, I think

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Speaker 1: his main deal, wonder which is that, you know, he's

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Speaker 1: very interested in the origins of cocktail culture in this

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Speaker 1: golden age of cocktail culture, and vodka really didn't, you know,

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Speaker 1: make it splash until until after that point. Now, and

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Speaker 1: that's not to say there aren't some wonderful vodka cocktails

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Speaker 1: out there, but is we were discussing before the podcast,

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Speaker 1: you said that you personally feel vodka's a little bit workhorse, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's not. I mean I don't know of any of

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Speaker 1: my favorite cocktails that have vodka in them. It just

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Speaker 1: seems like it's something that you mix with something vaguely

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Speaker 1: sugary and it makes a drink that has alcohol in it.

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Speaker 1: I mean maybe I don't know. You see James Bond

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Speaker 1: ordering vodka martinis, but I just look at that and

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Speaker 1: be like, why not just get a real martini? What's

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Speaker 1: wrong with you? Um? Well, another thing that came up

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Speaker 1: when we were preparing for the episode, going along with

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Speaker 1: your your point about the food culture and the preparation

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Speaker 1: culture and how that enriches the social experience of enjoying

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Speaker 1: the cocktail. I also personally feel experimenting with with mocktails

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Speaker 1: this month, as I am that a concoction without alcohol

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Speaker 1: in it can go down a bit fast, you can

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Speaker 1: be a little bit thirstier for it, whereas my in

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Speaker 1: my own experience, if it has a strong spirit in there,

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Speaker 1: it forces you to take smaller drinks and it sort

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Speaker 1: of draws out the experience of enjoying the beverage. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: like the relaxation brought on by a cocktail might not

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Speaker 1: just be from the drug content, the alcohol content acting

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Speaker 1: upon your brain, but it's also from the process of drinking,

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Speaker 1: because you're you're forced to slow down and relax and

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Speaker 1: take your time for a moment. Yeah. Now, cocktail culture

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Speaker 1: is also something that some might argue that the Japanese

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Speaker 1: have elevated and perfected, as they've done with other Western properties,

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Speaker 1: but they not all still. But it was all still

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Speaker 1: one of America's first true art forms, at least culinarily

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Speaker 1: speak right now. To be sure, the American cocktail float

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Speaker 1: followed closely on the heels of a tradition of proper punches,

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Speaker 1: which one which is quick to remind us, So we're

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Speaker 1: more complex back in the day. Yeah, you can think

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Speaker 1: of the punches being like the big bowl of stuff

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Speaker 1: that somebody's drinking at a Christmas party in a Christmas

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Speaker 1: carol that that party that Scrooge won't go to their

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Speaker 1: having them punch. Sure, yeah, and it wasn't just sprite

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Speaker 1: and fruit juice and some booze it was. It was

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Speaker 1: more complex. I mean, the one which wrote an entire

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Speaker 1: book about it. Uh. He makes a distinction between between

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Speaker 1: today's punches and the greater punches. He calls them calls

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Speaker 1: them that were made quote long and strong. And so

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Speaker 1: this style of mixology rain from the sixteen seventies to

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Speaker 1: the eighteen fifties and then Temperance in the Temperance move

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Speaker 1: movement in Europe put the brakes on punch a bit,

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Speaker 1: as did the busy approach to life in the Americas.

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Speaker 1: So instead of going through the whole rigmarole of having

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Speaker 1: this giant punch bowl, with this this carefully balanced concoction

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Speaker 1: inside of it, punched by the glass became a thing,

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Speaker 1: and this was sort of a precursor to the cocktail. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that sort of makes sense. I mean punch punches for parties.

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Speaker 1: As I was saying, it's there to serve a lot

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Speaker 1: of people in a limited time frame. Yeah, why would

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Speaker 1: you make make yourself a punch after work? Yeah? Or

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Speaker 1: you go into a bar, it's just you, you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe you you don't have that much of a social

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Speaker 1: situation going on. You want to a glass of punch?

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Speaker 1: Why not? Why can it not be provided by the glass?

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Speaker 1: After this, you have what Wonderage calls the children of punch.

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Speaker 1: So you have collins Is, Daisies, pizzies, sours, cobblers, coolers,

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Speaker 1: the swizzle, uh, the egg drinks, the various egg drinks

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Speaker 1: where you have especially the white of the egg that's

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Speaker 1: been frothed up. And before the cocktail you had toddies

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Speaker 1: ings julips. So even though just trying to figure out

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Speaker 1: what a proper cocktail is that can be kind of

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Speaker 1: hard to nail it down, you'll find various historical tidbits

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Speaker 1: and descriptions that entail cocktail like concoctions. So, for instance,

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Speaker 1: Dickensian Londoners that drink what we're known as pearls, this

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Speaker 1: was hot ale hold on this pearl with a U,

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Speaker 1: not yes an oysters, not like an oyster pearl like

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Speaker 1: p U r l s, And this would have been

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Speaker 1: hot ale, gin, sugar, eggs and nutmeg. So very close.

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Speaker 1: Samuel Peeps recorded the drinking of a great many things,

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Speaker 1: including pearls as well as gin and vermouth, so as

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Speaker 1: as one Bridge points out, he was really close to

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Speaker 1: having invented Martinish. I do remember in the Diaries of

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Speaker 1: Samuel Peeps an episode in which he drinks far too

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Speaker 1: much alcohol and has to run outside and urinate in

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Speaker 1: an alley way somewhere, but I don't remember what he's drinking.

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Speaker 1: In this episode. I think it is beer though, Okay, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I might. I believe he was not opposed to just

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Speaker 1: straight up beer as well. I certainly think of beer

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Speaker 1: as the quintessential uh English drink. I should also point

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Speaker 1: out there are various stories about why we even call

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Speaker 1: it a cocktail. One story I ran across is that

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Speaker 1: it had to do it was a horse analogy. So,

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Speaker 1: if you have an old, older horse and you're gonna

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Speaker 1: sell it off, you want to make it appear young

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Speaker 1: and spirited, so you might give it something to perk

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Speaker 1: it up, to cock its tail. No, yeah, well, I

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Speaker 1: mean I I don't know. I'm not I'm not up

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Speaker 1: in the details of how you would cock the tail.

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Speaker 1: I'm not saying this is something intrusive. Well, no, I

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Speaker 1: I've heard stories of this. Well, the idea stories are

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Speaker 1: like rubbing ginger on its butt. Okay, stuff, Well, I

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Speaker 1: guess the idea here, then, is that the cocktail would

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Speaker 1: be the human equivalent of a little ginger on the butt,

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Speaker 1: you know, to to perk you up, to live in

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Speaker 1: your spirits and uh and make you a little more

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Speaker 1: presentable for a short period of time. Stuff to blow

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Speaker 1: your mind does not advocate putting ginger on or some spuds. No,

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Speaker 1: not at all. So by the nineteenth century standards, a

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Speaker 1: true cocktail had specific ingredients spirits or wine, and then

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Speaker 1: you'd sweeten it with sugar diluted with water if you

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Speaker 1: needed to. And and it may be throwing a dash

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Speaker 1: of bitters bitters or of course a medicinal infusion of

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Speaker 1: bitter roots or spices, what have you. And if you've

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Speaker 1: ever tried to make a cocktail without bitters and wondered

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Speaker 1: what's missing, that's what's missing. Yeah, Bitters I think are essential. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: as you sort of triangulate the flavor, right, because you've

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Speaker 1: gotta have your your bitter, you have your sweet um.

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Speaker 1: You want you want to be able to to define

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Speaker 1: that balance. You don't want it to be just this

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Speaker 1: ultra sweet or this ultra bitter concoction. So you can

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Speaker 1: get really high and mighty about the definition of the cocktail.

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Speaker 1: You can stick to that, to a narrow definition. But

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Speaker 1: all you really need is the mixture of an alcohol

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Speaker 1: with some other ingredient, right, I mean a jack and

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Speaker 1: coke is a cocktail? Am I being high and mighty here?

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Speaker 1: I I promise I'm not high and mighty. That just

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Speaker 1: sounds like it really is it? By the my modern

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Speaker 1: deluded standards, I think you can say, yes, it's on

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Speaker 1: the cocktail menu. Um, but it's of course far from

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Speaker 1: a perfectly balanced Manhattan and old fashioned, etcetera. A punch

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Speaker 1: wasn't a cocktail. But we can certainly go back much

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Speaker 1: further in time and find examples of its basic principles.

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Speaker 1: On that note, let's take a quick break, and when

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Speaker 1: we come back, we will look at some in some

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Speaker 1: cases very ancient concoctions that you can argue where cocktails,

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Speaker 1: though you might not want to try and order them

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Speaker 1: at your favorite restaurant this weekend. So looking at the

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Speaker 1: origins of cocktails, I want to throw out an idea

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Speaker 1: that I'm I don't know, I've been mulling over. So

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Speaker 1: I'm sort of sympathetic to the idea that cooking has

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Speaker 1: multiple anthropological functions. Of course, there's the basic biological role

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Speaker 1: of it in that it makes food safe to eat,

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Speaker 1: you know, killing food born and bacteria and stuff like that.

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Speaker 1: And it makes food easier to digest. It's externalizing some

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Speaker 1: of the process of digestion. You can get more nutrition

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Speaker 1: out of the food, but it might Also I think

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Speaker 1: kind of provide a psychological effect in that it sort

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Speaker 1: of d natures or provides psychological distancing effects, um. By

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Speaker 1: putting a veneer of artificiality and civilization over the brute

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Speaker 1: animal activity of gorging oneself on calories of plant matter

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Speaker 1: and animal flesh in order to stay alive. It's almost

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Speaker 1: like a way of putting death out of mind in

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Speaker 1: the process of eating. Okay, kind of like how we

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Speaker 1: we distance ourselves from the reality of especially meat products. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: we like sometimes people are disturbed to see their meat

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Speaker 1: being cut off of an animal carcass instead of just

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Speaker 1: arriving in a wrapped container. Uh. Some people don't even

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Speaker 1: want to look at raw meat. They might buy pre

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Speaker 1: cooked meat or something like that. And I think that

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Speaker 1: there's some of the same anthropological uh desire for distancing

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Speaker 1: from our animal nature that that's operating here. And again

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Speaker 1: this is this is just my speculation. I'm not This

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Speaker 1: is not backed up by any hard science, um. But

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Speaker 1: I wonder if some of the same thing could be

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Speaker 1: going on with the idea of mixing alcohols uh, cocktail culture,

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Speaker 1: or even going back to some of these things we're

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Speaker 1: about to talk about. You know the origins of mixing

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Speaker 1: wine with various ingredients. It is tasty, I'll give it that,

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Speaker 1: so I, but also cooked food is tasty. I wonder

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Speaker 1: if there is also an element that's operating that is

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Speaker 1: putting a veneer of civilization and sophistication onto the act

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Speaker 1: of ingesting ethanol to dull your senses, right, or sort

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Speaker 1: of the to take a page from nature documentaries and

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Speaker 1: of course overdrawn at the memory bank, the idea of

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Speaker 1: of a monkey eating a rotting, fermenting fruit and then

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Speaker 1: falling out of a tree exactly. We don't want that experience, though, essentially,

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Speaker 1: how is it that different? Right, We've we've taken something

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Speaker 1: that has been transformed by its uh, by its demise,

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Speaker 1: we've we've we've eaten it, or we've we've sipped of it,

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Speaker 1: and then it's altered our senses a bit. Yeah. So

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Speaker 1: I'm certainly not saying that the you know, the visual

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Speaker 1: art and the taste and smell pleasure of a cocktail

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Speaker 1: is not the primary reason for it. But I wonder

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Speaker 1: if it's fulfilling this other role, to if it makes

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Speaker 1: us feel just a little more human and a little

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Speaker 1: bit less like an ape rolling around while we're getting

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Speaker 1: in the state of mind that you know, if if

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Speaker 1: it goes wrong, could lead to some actual rolling around. Well, certainly,

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Speaker 1: there's there's no shortage of of culture attacked attached to cocktails,

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Speaker 1: especially when you get into the even the particulars of

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Speaker 1: the glasses and and what sort of glass is suitable

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Speaker 1: for this type of beverage, some of which is grounded

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Speaker 1: in the physics of the chemistry of the thing, but

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00:21:01,320 --> 00:21:06,240
Speaker 1: more often than not, it's just pure cultural distinctions. This

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00:21:06,280 --> 00:21:08,440
Speaker 1: type of glack coop glass or a nick and Nora

386
00:21:08,560 --> 00:21:11,040
Speaker 1: is more appropriate for this drink. Why just because it

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00:21:11,320 --> 00:21:13,680
Speaker 1: looks nice, Because it is. Yeah, yeah, that's how it's

388
00:21:13,680 --> 00:21:18,479
Speaker 1: always been done. That's what your culture says. Yes, But anyway,

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Speaker 1: let's go back through that culture. Let us retreat into

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Speaker 1: the clouds of history and see if we can find

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Speaker 1: the origins of this process of mixing alcoholic beverages. Well,

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Speaker 1: the true origins are are ultimately going to be lost

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Speaker 1: to the midst of history because essentially what we're talking

394
00:21:36,760 --> 00:21:40,760
Speaker 1: about it is just it's very basis combining wines or

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Speaker 1: other alcoholic concoctions with herbal ingredients or other ingredients that

396
00:21:46,640 --> 00:21:51,200
Speaker 1: alters the finished beverage, because distilled liquor is not that old.

397
00:21:52,560 --> 00:21:56,320
Speaker 1: So making wine with some selection of specialized ingredients, well,

398
00:21:56,359 --> 00:21:58,200
Speaker 1: these have been with us for for ages, so you

399
00:21:58,400 --> 00:22:01,400
Speaker 1: might choose to call them magic potions, or you might

400
00:22:01,440 --> 00:22:05,280
Speaker 1: call it a medicinal elixir. But let's consider a few

401
00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:08,240
Speaker 1: interesting examples. What do they call it in Game of Thrones?

402
00:22:08,400 --> 00:22:12,280
Speaker 1: Muld wine? Mold wine? Yes, and everybody drinks mould wine.

403
00:22:13,119 --> 00:22:15,320
Speaker 1: And don't forget the milk of the poppy. Oh yeah,

404
00:22:15,440 --> 00:22:17,080
Speaker 1: which will we'll kind of come back to in a bit.

405
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Speaker 1: So these are a few examples. These are not necessarily

406
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Speaker 1: in order of historical occurrence, but one of Emperor Claudius's physicians,

407
00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:33,640
Speaker 1: one Scribonious Largus Uh, prescribed the following to sue the stomachache.

408
00:22:34,080 --> 00:22:39,200
Speaker 1: Sweet wine combined with dissolved black myrtle berries and pills

409
00:22:39,320 --> 00:22:46,400
Speaker 1: made up updates deal saffron, nigella, seeds, hazel ward and juniper. Okay,

410
00:22:46,520 --> 00:22:50,679
Speaker 1: so it sounds like, wait, hold on, some wine. So

411
00:22:50,920 --> 00:22:53,880
Speaker 1: like wine that is a precursor of a vermouth product,

412
00:22:53,920 --> 00:22:56,119
Speaker 1: and you're getting some juniper here, So they're working on

413
00:22:56,119 --> 00:22:59,040
Speaker 1: a martini you could, Yeah, juniper berries are are? Are

414
00:22:59,080 --> 00:23:01,639
Speaker 1: they the key ingredient gen So you could make an

415
00:23:01,760 --> 00:23:04,960
Speaker 1: argument that, yeah, this is maybe a precursor to a martini.

416
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Speaker 1: Very certainly, almost certainly would not have tasted like a martini.

417
00:23:10,800 --> 00:23:13,879
Speaker 1: Here's another one. According to Amy Stewart's The Drunken Botanist,

418
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Speaker 1: an eighteenth century concoction called for boiling snails with milk,

419
00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:24,119
Speaker 1: brandy figs, and spices to create to treat consumption. Yeah.

420
00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:28,159
Speaker 1: Can you imagine you're you're already dealing with consumption and

421
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Speaker 1: then somebody who really cares about you comes at you

422
00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:33,480
Speaker 1: with a cup of this. Yeah, what's in it? Well,

423
00:23:33,800 --> 00:23:36,800
Speaker 1: you know, some brandy figs, spices, milk, Oh, sounds good,

424
00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:40,040
Speaker 1: and some boiled snails. That's that's how they get you

425
00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:43,159
Speaker 1: the final ingredient. Now, if we go back all the

426
00:23:43,160 --> 00:23:48,199
Speaker 1: way to a thirty BC. Virgil, the of course, the

427
00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:52,760
Speaker 1: poet who write notably guided Dante into the underworld and

428
00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:57,000
Speaker 1: the divine comedy. Uh he he wrote of of citron

429
00:23:57,400 --> 00:24:01,800
Speaker 1: is a remedy against poison. So citroning, you know, citrus fruit,

430
00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:07,200
Speaker 1: the peel was added to wine as a vomit inducing remedy.

431
00:24:07,720 --> 00:24:10,400
Speaker 1: So citron is one of the earliest species of citrus.

432
00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:13,080
Speaker 1: It's a parent of various citrus species that we've we

433
00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:16,080
Speaker 1: prized today and use in in concoctions, and you know,

434
00:24:16,280 --> 00:24:18,840
Speaker 1: an all manner of recipes. Um. So it has a

435
00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:21,520
Speaker 1: thick peel. It's a sour fruit. It is a quote

436
00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:25,760
Speaker 1: dinosaur of the citrus world. Uh kinda again, too many

437
00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:28,120
Speaker 1: fruit fruits that we cherish in our cocktails and more

438
00:24:28,200 --> 00:24:31,960
Speaker 1: closely related to the Boodhoo's hand citron. I don't know

439
00:24:31,960 --> 00:24:35,520
Speaker 1: if you've ever seen this. It's a really beautiful fruit

440
00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:38,160
Speaker 1: that has this kind of don't think of a straight

441
00:24:38,200 --> 00:24:42,359
Speaker 1: up hand, but think of a very Eastern depiction of

442
00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:44,360
Speaker 1: a curly fingered hand, and you have it. It looks

443
00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:47,320
Speaker 1: very love crafty and I just looked it up. It does,

444
00:24:47,480 --> 00:24:50,280
Speaker 1: it has, it has tentacles coming out of its head.

445
00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:52,359
Speaker 1: I have actually have a post about it that I'll

446
00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:54,600
Speaker 1: link to on the landing page for this episode because

447
00:24:55,040 --> 00:24:58,800
Speaker 1: it photographs beautifully just a beautiful, beautiful fruit. Now I

448
00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:03,639
Speaker 1: can't I can't recommend trying Virgil's recipe here, but it

449
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:06,639
Speaker 1: is worth a noting that in Barbados they originally made

450
00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:09,840
Speaker 1: citron water in the eighteenth century and may have used

451
00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:12,560
Speaker 1: it to flavor of vermouth so there is some connection

452
00:25:12,640 --> 00:25:16,479
Speaker 1: there too, uh more or less modern drink culture. All right,

453
00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:19,080
Speaker 1: So a minute ago we mentioned the juniper berry is

454
00:25:19,080 --> 00:25:23,280
Speaker 1: one of the ingredients prescribed for this This pill combined

455
00:25:23,320 --> 00:25:26,640
Speaker 1: with sweet wine to soothe an upset stomach in ancient Rome.

456
00:25:27,680 --> 00:25:31,440
Speaker 1: But uh so, juniper actually did does, as we say,

457
00:25:31,520 --> 00:25:33,919
Speaker 1: end up being the main ingredient in gin. Right, And

458
00:25:33,960 --> 00:25:36,399
Speaker 1: it's a medicinal use goes way back as well, as

459
00:25:36,480 --> 00:25:40,280
Speaker 1: used as early as twelve sixty six by Belgian theologian

460
00:25:40,359 --> 00:25:44,840
Speaker 1: Thomas van Contemporary, and he recommended boiling juniper berries in

461
00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:48,919
Speaker 1: rain water or wine to treat stomach paint paint. Now, this,

462
00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:51,520
Speaker 1: it's important to note, would not have tasted like gin,

463
00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:55,240
Speaker 1: no matter what you're what you know, bottom shelf variety

464
00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:57,639
Speaker 1: of gin you might be thinking of. I'm sure that

465
00:25:57,720 --> 00:26:01,840
Speaker 1: tasted better than a rain water juniper concoction. Bad gin

466
00:26:02,040 --> 00:26:04,840
Speaker 1: is a bad idea, Yes, as I would. I would

467
00:26:04,840 --> 00:26:07,520
Speaker 1: advise anyone who has turned off of gen to, you know,

468
00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:10,359
Speaker 1: explore there's some there's some great gen's out there, uh

469
00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:14,399
Speaker 1: that that aren't that don't taste of rainwater. Now, in

470
00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:19,200
Speaker 1: the second sist century, Greek physician Galen recommended juniper berries,

471
00:26:19,400 --> 00:26:23,040
Speaker 1: to quote, cleans the liver and kidneys and uh, and

472
00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:26,479
Speaker 1: they evidently thin any thick and viscous juices, and for

473
00:26:26,520 --> 00:26:30,120
Speaker 1: this reason they are mixed in health medicines unquote. So

474
00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:34,440
Speaker 1: Stewart in her book writes that this suggests a mixture

475
00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:38,560
Speaker 1: with alcohol, which again kind of sounds like jen. Probably

476
00:26:38,560 --> 00:26:42,080
Speaker 1: would not have tasted anything like jen. Alright, moving on

477
00:26:42,200 --> 00:26:46,480
Speaker 1: from proto gen uh, here's an eighteen fifties recipe for

478
00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:50,240
Speaker 1: concoction to treat I was, which was some sort of

479
00:26:50,280 --> 00:26:54,639
Speaker 1: bacterial infection that afflicted the skin and the joints. So

480
00:26:54,760 --> 00:26:59,040
Speaker 1: Kentucky farmer John B. Clark listed the recipe as follows.

481
00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:01,080
Speaker 1: This is listed in the Drunken Botanists as well. You

482
00:27:01,119 --> 00:27:04,240
Speaker 1: would need to combine one pint of hog lard, one

483
00:27:04,320 --> 00:27:08,400
Speaker 1: handful I think you said lard. Yes, lard, yes, hog lard, yes,

484
00:27:08,640 --> 00:27:12,080
Speaker 1: straight up hog lard in the drink. Yes. Again, not

485
00:27:12,160 --> 00:27:15,600
Speaker 1: that different from the bacon related drinks that would briefly

486
00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:21,080
Speaker 1: become the fat. So okay, you get your pineahog lard,

487
00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:24,440
Speaker 1: you got your handful of earthworms. That's what you're gonna

488
00:27:24,480 --> 00:27:27,960
Speaker 1: You're gonna need that handful of tobacco four pods of

489
00:27:27,960 --> 00:27:33,520
Speaker 1: red pepper, a spoonful of black pepper, a race of ginger,

490
00:27:33,840 --> 00:27:37,880
Speaker 1: and you stew this together and mix with brandy. Well,

491
00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:41,160
Speaker 1: that sounds dangerous on one hand, because if you're using

492
00:27:41,200 --> 00:27:44,440
Speaker 1: tobacco and it, that sounds like you could easily accidentally

493
00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:48,960
Speaker 1: extract too much nicotine and poison yourself. Right. Well, this

494
00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:50,879
Speaker 1: is a good good point as well. And this this

495
00:27:50,920 --> 00:27:54,960
Speaker 1: will come up again as we discuss the weird connection

496
00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:58,800
Speaker 1: between alcohol and tobacco. There and tobacco and fused alcohols.

497
00:27:58,800 --> 00:28:01,080
Speaker 1: You can actually buy one today, but yeah, that would

498
00:28:01,080 --> 00:28:04,479
Speaker 1: have been a potential threat here. Or maybe that's how

499
00:28:04,520 --> 00:28:08,679
Speaker 1: it works. Maybe you're you're isolating the the true power

500
00:28:08,840 --> 00:28:11,080
Speaker 1: of this folklorimity. Yeah, I mean, I guess when you

501
00:28:11,080 --> 00:28:14,480
Speaker 1: think about it, the whole nature of of drinking ethanol

502
00:28:14,600 --> 00:28:19,080
Speaker 1: based drinks is you're kind of slightly poisoning yourself. Yeah. Yeah.

503
00:28:19,119 --> 00:28:21,359
Speaker 1: And as we get into the some of the so

504
00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:24,480
Speaker 1: called nefarious spirits that have been used in cocktails over time,

505
00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:28,840
Speaker 1: it's worth stressing that alcohol is kind of the nefarious spirit.

506
00:28:29,600 --> 00:28:31,840
Speaker 1: Very few of the substances that get mixed in with

507
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:36,320
Speaker 1: it are as potentially dangerous as the thing itself. Finally,

508
00:28:36,400 --> 00:28:39,360
Speaker 1: I want to mention this is a little, a little

509
00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:44,080
Speaker 1: far less of a cocktail, but certainly a mixture of spirits. Uh.

510
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:48,200
Speaker 1: If you look back at Homer's Odyssey, you find a

511
00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 1: mixture that is referred to as kai kion, and this

512
00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:53,800
Speaker 1: would have been a mixture of beer, wine and meat

513
00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:58,080
Speaker 1: that was given by Circe to um to Odysseus crew

514
00:28:58,880 --> 00:29:02,440
Speaker 1: in the Odyssey. So a mixture of spirits and maybe

515
00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:05,280
Speaker 1: a little magic in there as well. That doesn't sound

516
00:29:05,320 --> 00:29:08,280
Speaker 1: like a good combination, right, Yeah, yeah, I mean it

517
00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:11,080
Speaker 1: either it doled them out enough that she could turn

518
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:13,000
Speaker 1: them into pigs, or it had some role in turning

519
00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:15,680
Speaker 1: them into pigs. Either way, not something you want out

520
00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:19,040
Speaker 1: of your your your beverage. Bottom line, don't accept drinks

521
00:29:19,040 --> 00:29:21,760
Speaker 1: from a witch, right, yeah, never except to drink from

522
00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:23,239
Speaker 1: a witch. I think we should all we should all

523
00:29:23,280 --> 00:29:25,080
Speaker 1: know that by that point, been fooled too many times.

524
00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:29,120
Speaker 1: All right, So let's get into these nefarious spirits. Touching uh,

525
00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:34,760
Speaker 1: touching down once again on tobacco. So tobacco liqueur, what's

526
00:29:34,760 --> 00:29:37,800
Speaker 1: the history here? Well, we don't know for certain on this,

527
00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:40,960
Speaker 1: but Amy Stewart points out that people that the people

528
00:29:40,960 --> 00:29:44,360
Speaker 1: of Columbia, Venezuela and Brazil had a long standing practice

529
00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:47,760
Speaker 1: of soaking tobacco leaves and honey. And since honey can

530
00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:51,400
Speaker 1: of course be fermented into mead and such drinks, such

531
00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:54,880
Speaker 1: meat type drinks were known in South America. It's possible,

532
00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:59,520
Speaker 1: but unproven, that some manner of nicotine mead may have emerged.

533
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:03,239
Speaker 1: So nicomede, nicomede, I guess, yeah, So it would have

534
00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:08,200
Speaker 1: your your alcohol and nicotine buzz combined into a single experience.

535
00:30:08,240 --> 00:30:10,760
Speaker 1: No need to drink and smoke, you just have one

536
00:30:10,800 --> 00:30:15,240
Speaker 1: concoction that is. Yeah. But let's leave the ambiguous world

537
00:30:15,280 --> 00:30:21,240
Speaker 1: of conjecture and consider actual, verified, and perfectly legal tobacco liqueurs.

538
00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:25,480
Speaker 1: The best known of these is periq liqueur did tobacco.

539
00:30:25,600 --> 00:30:28,239
Speaker 1: So this is a French tobacco liqueur, and pretty much

540
00:30:28,240 --> 00:30:31,160
Speaker 1: it be tobacco liqueur. I gotta say, I'm surprised to

541
00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:35,360
Speaker 1: I would not have expected anybody was actually making tobacco booze, yeah,

542
00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:37,880
Speaker 1: or that it was like a refined thing and not

543
00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:42,760
Speaker 1: some sort of weird, gimmicky somebody's dangerous backyard concoctions. Right

544
00:30:43,360 --> 00:30:47,560
Speaker 1: the distillers here at the Combert facility, they claim that

545
00:30:47,640 --> 00:30:50,480
Speaker 1: it has no nicotine in it though, and this is

546
00:30:50,480 --> 00:30:54,240
Speaker 1: apparently quite likely since the high boiling point of nicotine

547
00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:57,840
Speaker 1: is like four seventy five degrees fahrenheit, meaning that it

548
00:30:57,880 --> 00:31:01,960
Speaker 1: probably doesn't rise through the still during the distillation process.

549
00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:05,440
Speaker 1: That's interesting. So that makes it seem like, given that fact,

550
00:31:05,480 --> 00:31:09,040
Speaker 1: it's actually safer to have a tobacco based liquor or

551
00:31:09,040 --> 00:31:11,720
Speaker 1: liqueur than it would be to do what we were

552
00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:14,760
Speaker 1: talking about earlier, and like soaked tobacco leaves in a

553
00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:17,960
Speaker 1: wine that you're drinking or something where the essence could

554
00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:21,480
Speaker 1: come out into the liquid, whereas in a still you're

555
00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:24,440
Speaker 1: saying it would not evaporate correctly, right, And that's something

556
00:31:24,520 --> 00:31:26,760
Speaker 1: she points out there, is that, especially in this age

557
00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:33,480
Speaker 1: of nix nix, a logical enthusiasm and often home bitter

558
00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:38,200
Speaker 1: making projects that some some might make a cigar bitters,

559
00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:39,920
Speaker 1: for instance, at their house, but if you don't know

560
00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:44,680
Speaker 1: what you're doing, uh, you might accidentally create this a

561
00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:48,800
Speaker 1: supercharged nicotine concoction, and you could create a cocktail with

562
00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:52,520
Speaker 1: an inappropriate dose of nicotine in it. That sounds like

563
00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:55,760
Speaker 1: a very bad night. Now. Now some of you are

564
00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:59,080
Speaker 1: probably wondering, well, what is that actual tobacco liqueur taste

565
00:31:59,080 --> 00:32:03,120
Speaker 1: like well, Stewart describes it as quote sweet, aromatic and

566
00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:06,880
Speaker 1: decidedly different, and that it quote tastes the way sweet

567
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:10,920
Speaker 1: damp pipe tobacco smells. So I know that smell, but

568
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:14,960
Speaker 1: I can't imagine that taste. Yeah. Yeah, so that's why.

569
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:17,160
Speaker 1: If anyone out there has any experience with this one

570
00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:21,840
Speaker 1: and has a more detailed explanation or additional thoughts on

571
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:26,880
Speaker 1: it's a particular uh bouquet, then let us know. Okay,

572
00:32:26,880 --> 00:32:31,000
Speaker 1: so that's nicotine, but how about how about cocaine? How

573
00:32:31,080 --> 00:32:36,080
Speaker 1: about coca wines and tonics? Moving up the ladder of stimulants? Yeah,

574
00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:40,200
Speaker 1: this so so this is another something. Hold on, when

575
00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:42,360
Speaker 1: do we get to four loco then four local? What

576
00:32:42,440 --> 00:32:44,120
Speaker 1: is in four loco? I'm not familiar with this one.

577
00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:45,880
Speaker 1: Oh I just made a four loco joke, and I

578
00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:48,160
Speaker 1: don't really know. I believe it is a or at

579
00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:53,680
Speaker 1: least was a combined alcoholic beverage and energy drink. Yes,

580
00:32:54,080 --> 00:32:56,560
Speaker 1: I think it might not be anymore something. I don't know.

581
00:32:56,600 --> 00:33:00,160
Speaker 1: I've never had a four loco. I'm not advocating it, Okay, Well, mean,

582
00:33:00,160 --> 00:33:01,960
Speaker 1: of course there are other drinks out there that combine

583
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:07,000
Speaker 1: alcohol and coffee, so or the much dreaded vodka and

584
00:33:07,040 --> 00:33:10,480
Speaker 1: red bull, which David Wandridge does not cover in his book.

585
00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:14,080
Speaker 1: But really it didn't make it into didn't make it in. Yeah,

586
00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:17,560
Speaker 1: it's not refined enough. Go figure. But but as far

587
00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:22,040
Speaker 1: as the history of coca leaves, the prime ingredient in

588
00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:26,240
Speaker 1: cocaine and alcohol, Uh, this this gets really interesting. So

589
00:33:26,280 --> 00:33:28,840
Speaker 1: Peruvian has made use of the coca plant leaves as

590
00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:32,640
Speaker 1: early as three thousand b C. So they would choose

591
00:33:32,680 --> 00:33:36,040
Speaker 1: the leaves for energy. It provided mild stimulus and it

592
00:33:36,040 --> 00:33:39,800
Speaker 1: would also help against altitude sickness. It could be brut

593
00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:42,800
Speaker 1: and tease as well. Now did we mention the the

594
00:33:42,840 --> 00:33:46,440
Speaker 1: idea that this was employed by the the runners in

595
00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:49,680
Speaker 1: the Kingdom of the Incan's, the runners who would carry

596
00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:56,080
Speaker 1: the not messages across the high altitude I believe we did. Yeah, yeah,

597
00:33:56,120 --> 00:33:59,120
Speaker 1: that would have been an example of usage there where

598
00:33:59,120 --> 00:34:01,160
Speaker 1: you just needed a little more boost or a little

599
00:34:01,200 --> 00:34:04,880
Speaker 1: a little better ability to uh, to really go at

600
00:34:04,920 --> 00:34:08,279
Speaker 1: it in the U in the higher altitudes, they would

601
00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:11,400
Speaker 1: have turned to the coca leaf. Now, when the Europeans

602
00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:14,560
Speaker 1: came in, they figured out how to extract the cocaine alkaloid,

603
00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:17,680
Speaker 1: and it was used as a pain reliever and antiseptic,

604
00:34:17,880 --> 00:34:21,279
Speaker 1: digestive and various other medical uses. In fact, in the US,

605
00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:25,080
Speaker 1: it remains a schedule to narcotic. That means it has

606
00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:28,400
Speaker 1: quote currently accepted medical use and treatment in the United

607
00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:34,359
Speaker 1: States or currently accepted medical use with severe restrictions. What

608
00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:39,680
Speaker 1: what what use is cocaine today in the medical community? Uh? Well,

609
00:34:39,719 --> 00:34:41,160
Speaker 1: I mean basically it comes down to some of the

610
00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:44,560
Speaker 1: properties was originally used for, um, you know, such as,

611
00:34:44,920 --> 00:34:49,520
Speaker 1: you know, alleviating pain. If anyone's ever seen the Wonderful

612
00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:53,360
Speaker 1: Blue of Cinemax show the Nick, they do a wonderful

613
00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:56,720
Speaker 1: job of exploring the use of cocaine medically at the time.

614
00:34:57,320 --> 00:35:00,720
Speaker 1: Uh pre anesthesia. You know, you could you could inject

615
00:35:00,960 --> 00:35:04,760
Speaker 1: cocaine and uh and and get the desired result for surgery.

616
00:35:05,120 --> 00:35:08,720
Speaker 1: Uh yeah. Wow. But it is an interesting reality to

617
00:35:08,719 --> 00:35:13,720
Speaker 1: to remind oneself that while marijuana is a Schedule one narcotic, uh,

618
00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:18,360
Speaker 1: cocaine is a schedule too. Of course, today cocaine continues

619
00:35:18,400 --> 00:35:22,000
Speaker 1: to power around with alcohol and illicit recreational usages, but

620
00:35:22,080 --> 00:35:26,120
Speaker 1: it also made its way into coca leaf wines and tonics,

621
00:35:26,160 --> 00:35:30,000
Speaker 1: So there was a French vin Mariani. This was a

622
00:35:30,080 --> 00:35:33,160
Speaker 1: tonic and it was patent in patented in eighteen sixty

623
00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:37,520
Speaker 1: three by French chemist Angelo Mariani, and he also offered

624
00:35:37,520 --> 00:35:41,040
Speaker 1: a coca wine called then Tonique Marianni, which was a

625
00:35:41,080 --> 00:35:45,319
Speaker 1: combo of Bordeaux wine and coca leaves. Now none of

626
00:35:45,360 --> 00:35:49,040
Speaker 1: that goes on, at least legally today, but coca flavoring

627
00:35:49,080 --> 00:35:51,560
Speaker 1: is still used. And you can order yourself some d

628
00:35:51,960 --> 00:35:55,719
Speaker 1: coconut cocaine eysed cocoa tea right off of Amazon. And

629
00:35:55,719 --> 00:35:59,279
Speaker 1: it's actually pretty good. It's it's you've had I've had it. Yeah, Yeah,

630
00:35:59,320 --> 00:36:02,080
Speaker 1: they've they've they've leached all of the cocaine out of it.

631
00:36:02,160 --> 00:36:05,920
Speaker 1: So it's perfectly, perfectly legal, perfectly reasonable thing to have.

632
00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:07,360
Speaker 1: I don't know if you should have it before a

633
00:36:07,400 --> 00:36:12,359
Speaker 1: drug test from employment or anything, but it's certainly interesting. Well,

634
00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:14,720
Speaker 1: one thing that occurs to me is if coca cola

635
00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:19,040
Speaker 1: originally was flavored with coca, wasn't it some kind of

636
00:36:19,080 --> 00:36:23,320
Speaker 1: coca product? I believe it's not anymore. Right, Well, they

637
00:36:23,360 --> 00:36:25,840
Speaker 1: have the whole secret recipe thing, right, and and certainly

638
00:36:25,840 --> 00:36:29,399
Speaker 1: coca can be d cocaine eyst so so it could

639
00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:31,560
Speaker 1: be d cocaine and so so, but you could think

640
00:36:31,640 --> 00:36:35,160
Speaker 1: just flavor wise, perhaps if you're mixing coca cola with

641
00:36:35,200 --> 00:36:37,680
Speaker 1: some kind of alcoholic beverage, you may be to some

642
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:42,239
Speaker 1: very tamed extent simulating this kind of mixture. Right, And

643
00:36:42,239 --> 00:36:46,879
Speaker 1: there's apparently a liqueur called Agua sold in the US

644
00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:50,080
Speaker 1: and European markets, and it's marketed as quote a premium

645
00:36:50,080 --> 00:36:53,440
Speaker 1: herbal liqueur made from Bolivian coca leaves and an infusion

646
00:36:53,440 --> 00:36:56,160
Speaker 1: of thirty six herbs and botanicals. So in this case

647
00:36:56,280 --> 00:36:59,359
Speaker 1: we would be talking, uh, you know, the cocaine has

648
00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:01,279
Speaker 1: been removed from it as well, and you're just getting

649
00:37:01,320 --> 00:37:04,120
Speaker 1: the flavor profile with the leaf. And of course this

650
00:37:04,280 --> 00:37:09,640
Speaker 1: the the the excitement of oh it's it's it's cocaine liqueur. Well, yeah,

651
00:37:09,680 --> 00:37:11,399
Speaker 1: there you go. I mean, as we talked about, it's

652
00:37:11,440 --> 00:37:14,480
Speaker 1: not just the taste. There's an event going on, right,

653
00:37:14,520 --> 00:37:18,640
Speaker 1: it's the showman show. Now from there, let's move on

654
00:37:18,680 --> 00:37:22,600
Speaker 1: to another schedule to narcotic with a similar timeline of

655
00:37:22,640 --> 00:37:28,480
Speaker 1: traditional use, medicinal use, refinement, and then outright abuse. We're

656
00:37:28,520 --> 00:37:34,160
Speaker 1: talking of course about opium. Okay, so opium cocktails huh yeah, well,

657
00:37:34,680 --> 00:37:36,520
Speaker 1: you know this is this is something I didn't realize.

658
00:37:36,840 --> 00:37:39,399
Speaker 1: I guess I knew this, but I never really put

659
00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:43,040
Speaker 1: one and two together. But the seeds of the opium plant,

660
00:37:43,040 --> 00:37:47,640
Speaker 1: poppy seeds, they're sold legally since they're used in baked goods. Right.

661
00:37:48,120 --> 00:37:52,120
Speaker 1: I remember the old Seinfeld bit about Elaine having poppy

662
00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:55,279
Speaker 1: seed muffins and then flunking a drug test, But I

663
00:37:55,360 --> 00:37:57,720
Speaker 1: somehow didn't put put it together that it was actually

664
00:37:57,800 --> 00:38:00,319
Speaker 1: the same plant. I kind of, without thinking about it,

665
00:38:00,360 --> 00:38:02,360
Speaker 1: assume that it was just, you know, something that's closely

666
00:38:02,400 --> 00:38:06,279
Speaker 1: related to it and would trigger a false positive. Now,

667
00:38:06,320 --> 00:38:08,360
Speaker 1: I imagine this does not mean that we have to

668
00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:11,279
Speaker 1: worry about eating poppy seed muffins because they're gonna have

669
00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:15,000
Speaker 1: opioid effects on us. No, yeah, not at all. Continue

670
00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:18,200
Speaker 1: to eat your, your, your, your poppy seed muffins. Now.

671
00:38:18,320 --> 00:38:21,880
Speaker 1: Stewart points out that the earliest possible description of an

672
00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:26,800
Speaker 1: opium infused cocktail of sorts is again Homer's Odyssey Uh

673
00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:31,359
Speaker 1: the elixir Nephanthy that Helen of Troy drank to alleviate

674
00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:34,799
Speaker 1: her sorrows. It was mixed quote with an herb that

675
00:38:34,880 --> 00:38:38,480
Speaker 1: banishes all care, sorrow, and ill humor, and this of

676
00:38:38,520 --> 00:38:41,000
Speaker 1: course may have referred to opium. Or if you're a

677
00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:43,839
Speaker 1: fan of Game of Thrones and I think this might

678
00:38:43,880 --> 00:38:46,680
Speaker 1: be yeah, there you go. Now that, of course, the

679
00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:49,239
Speaker 1: more direct comparison there would be if we go to

680
00:38:49,320 --> 00:38:54,480
Speaker 1: Victorian times laudanum tonic, which was opium steeped in alcohol.

681
00:38:54,560 --> 00:38:58,320
Speaker 1: The alkaloids and opium are for more soluble in alcohol

682
00:38:58,400 --> 00:39:01,440
Speaker 1: rather than in water. There is so. I just recently

683
00:39:01,560 --> 00:39:05,640
Speaker 1: read the novel True Grit Oh Yeah, by Charles Portis uh,

684
00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:08,839
Speaker 1: and there is so. I've seen the movie before, but

685
00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:11,120
Speaker 1: especially in the novel, there is a scene in which

686
00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:14,319
Speaker 1: the main character, who is a girl who is very

687
00:39:14,440 --> 00:39:18,759
Speaker 1: level headed and very all business like. She she sort

688
00:39:18,800 --> 00:39:22,080
Speaker 1: of messes things up in a scene because she has

689
00:39:22,080 --> 00:39:26,040
Speaker 1: been given laudanum to treat a cold. It was it

690
00:39:26,080 --> 00:39:27,560
Speaker 1: was one of these things that was used to treat

691
00:39:27,600 --> 00:39:31,080
Speaker 1: just about everything. And that's the thing about opium is

692
00:39:31,160 --> 00:39:34,359
Speaker 1: that whatever ails you, at least in the short term,

693
00:39:34,400 --> 00:39:36,840
Speaker 1: a little little bit of opium will probably make it better.

694
00:39:37,440 --> 00:39:40,080
Speaker 1: It's the it's more the long term, not the problem,

695
00:39:40,120 --> 00:39:44,279
Speaker 1: not make it better, but make you not care. As

696
00:39:44,320 --> 00:39:48,560
Speaker 1: far as actual cocktails go, this is kind of interesting. Uh.

697
00:39:48,760 --> 00:39:50,719
Speaker 1: King George the Fifth like to consume a mixture of

698
00:39:50,719 --> 00:39:53,879
Speaker 1: brandy and laud him to alleviate his gout. So there

699
00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:58,480
Speaker 1: you go again. Not alleviate his gout, would alleviate his mind,

700
00:39:58,920 --> 00:40:02,239
Speaker 1: alleviate his his experience of the gout, or his relationship

701
00:40:02,280 --> 00:40:05,759
Speaker 1: to his experience of the count um and uh. And

702
00:40:05,800 --> 00:40:09,640
Speaker 1: of course Bear the Drug Company sold an opium syrup

703
00:40:09,800 --> 00:40:13,799
Speaker 1: in under the name Heroin, which was you know. Of

704
00:40:13,840 --> 00:40:17,320
Speaker 1: course often it was often marketed at kids, four kids

705
00:40:17,360 --> 00:40:19,640
Speaker 1: to help with your your cough or what whatever ails you.

706
00:40:19,680 --> 00:40:22,280
Speaker 1: I've seen those ads. Yeah, y'all out there, you should

707
00:40:22,280 --> 00:40:25,920
Speaker 1: look up these ads. Yeah, they're they the old printed

708
00:40:25,960 --> 00:40:28,879
Speaker 1: ads for it. It's it's phenomenal. And again, if you're

709
00:40:28,880 --> 00:40:31,279
Speaker 1: a fan of of all this, you want you want

710
00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:34,360
Speaker 1: sort of a fictional treatment of it. Uh. Steven Soderberg's

711
00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:38,920
Speaker 1: The Nick also explores uh, the early days of heroin

712
00:40:39,280 --> 00:40:42,040
Speaker 1: rather nicely. All right, well, what else do we do

713
00:40:42,080 --> 00:40:45,440
Speaker 1: we have here on the drink menu? If you will? Well,

714
00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:48,440
Speaker 1: I was just thinking about as long as we're going

715
00:40:48,480 --> 00:40:52,640
Speaker 1: into strange and perhaps illicit ingredients may be less illicit

716
00:40:52,680 --> 00:40:57,680
Speaker 1: than opium and cocaine. Uh. But do you remember the

717
00:40:57,840 --> 00:41:02,320
Speaker 1: bacon craze of the late two thousand's early two thousand tens.

718
00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:05,480
Speaker 1: Oh yes, how could I not. And of course coming

719
00:41:05,480 --> 00:41:09,200
Speaker 1: out of that craze, there were lots of bacon cocktails,

720
00:41:09,239 --> 00:41:11,600
Speaker 1: of course, you know. And not to say that that

721
00:41:11,640 --> 00:41:13,319
Speaker 1: was the first time there was ever such a thing

722
00:41:13,360 --> 00:41:17,000
Speaker 1: as like bacon infused alcohol, but it became very popular then,

723
00:41:17,040 --> 00:41:18,799
Speaker 1: and during this time it was it was like when

724
00:41:18,840 --> 00:41:22,200
Speaker 1: everybody thought it was hilarious to have an I Heart

725
00:41:22,239 --> 00:41:26,319
Speaker 1: Bacon bumper sticker or T shirt and have bacon parties,

726
00:41:26,880 --> 00:41:29,640
Speaker 1: and to have bacon on all your food, to make

727
00:41:29,719 --> 00:41:33,600
Speaker 1: like bacon utensils to eat your food with. Not to

728
00:41:33,719 --> 00:41:36,719
Speaker 1: disparage bacon itself, but I do think it's funny how

729
00:41:37,880 --> 00:41:40,520
Speaker 1: all of us at the time, for some reason, didn't

730
00:41:40,520 --> 00:41:45,200
Speaker 1: seem to realize that this was not just a spontaneous

731
00:41:45,239 --> 00:41:49,400
Speaker 1: outpouring of ironic Internet love, but to some extent a

732
00:41:49,520 --> 00:41:52,640
Speaker 1: result of market forces in the meat markets and a

733
00:41:52,719 --> 00:41:56,120
Speaker 1: manipulation of public opinion by the pork industry. I was

734
00:41:56,160 --> 00:41:59,160
Speaker 1: reading an article about that not too long ago, like,

735
00:41:59,400 --> 00:42:01,680
Speaker 1: was it really just a coincidence that you knew a

736
00:42:01,719 --> 00:42:05,600
Speaker 1: guy in college who started a hilarious bacon based garments

737
00:42:05,640 --> 00:42:09,160
Speaker 1: blog right around the same time that Wendy's introduced the

738
00:42:09,160 --> 00:42:13,280
Speaker 1: bacon eight er. Ah, that that's perfect and it again

739
00:42:13,320 --> 00:42:17,680
Speaker 1: it it fits perfectly in the culture of cocktails because

740
00:42:17,719 --> 00:42:20,240
Speaker 1: of that that marketing angle, and that's often a hidden

741
00:42:20,560 --> 00:42:23,600
Speaker 1: marketing angle. Like it reminds me of the origins of

742
00:42:23,640 --> 00:42:26,840
Speaker 1: the Moscow Mule, which of course is a is a

743
00:42:26,880 --> 00:42:29,960
Speaker 1: nice beverage. It has vodka, ginger beer, what some lime.

744
00:42:30,120 --> 00:42:32,399
Speaker 1: It's pretty in that copper cup. Yeah, that copper cup.

745
00:42:32,400 --> 00:42:34,879
Speaker 1: It looks beautiful. And where did it come from? That's

746
00:42:34,920 --> 00:42:37,600
Speaker 1: the thing you might think, Oh, well, this it's it's

747
00:42:37,640 --> 00:42:39,520
Speaker 1: called a Moscow Mule. Must have been This must have

748
00:42:39,560 --> 00:42:43,239
Speaker 1: been like a work working man's drink in Moscow, invented

749
00:42:43,280 --> 00:42:49,520
Speaker 1: by the great bartender Ivan Mulevich. No, you you might

750
00:42:49,520 --> 00:42:51,799
Speaker 1: think it might be something cool like that, but as

751
00:42:51,800 --> 00:42:53,960
Speaker 1: it turns out, it just goes back to a vodka

752
00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:57,799
Speaker 1: distributor who knew somebody. I think it was a girlfriend

753
00:42:58,160 --> 00:43:00,720
Speaker 1: who had all these copper mugs that that she needed

754
00:43:00,760 --> 00:43:03,440
Speaker 1: to sell. So just put one and two together and

755
00:43:03,480 --> 00:43:05,960
Speaker 1: the Moscow meal was born. It was delicious, but the

756
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:10,319
Speaker 1: whole story, the fictional creation story behind it, just had

757
00:43:10,360 --> 00:43:16,040
Speaker 1: no basis. In fact, that is incredibly deflating. Well, you know,

758
00:43:15,880 --> 00:43:18,120
Speaker 1: you drink half of one and then you feel better

759
00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:22,400
Speaker 1: about it. Well anyway, you definitely remember though how this

760
00:43:22,440 --> 00:43:24,840
Speaker 1: did happen, or it was around two thousand ten. I

761
00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:27,600
Speaker 1: think that this was really peaking, that there was, you

762
00:43:27,600 --> 00:43:29,879
Speaker 1: know a little bit after the years after that were

763
00:43:29,880 --> 00:43:34,440
Speaker 1: suddenly these recipes for bacon infused bourbon and stuff like that.

764
00:43:34,480 --> 00:43:38,640
Speaker 1: We're just taking over the menus everywhere, and everybody thought

765
00:43:38,680 --> 00:43:42,799
Speaker 1: it was great to give somebody bacon old fashions or

766
00:43:43,080 --> 00:43:45,200
Speaker 1: for something like that for Christmas. And I think I

767
00:43:45,200 --> 00:43:47,879
Speaker 1: still see drinks of this nature on the menu every

768
00:43:47,880 --> 00:43:51,279
Speaker 1: now and then. Sometimes it's like a bacon like the

769
00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:53,640
Speaker 1: the Glasses Room, not in salt. That's some sort of

770
00:43:53,640 --> 00:43:56,520
Speaker 1: like bacon based not not straight up bacon bits, but

771
00:43:57,080 --> 00:44:00,920
Speaker 1: the fancier version of bacon bits. I think the barbecue

772
00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:04,319
Speaker 1: place here in town, Fox Brothers Barbecue in Atlanta, they

773
00:44:04,320 --> 00:44:06,480
Speaker 1: have a Bloody Mary that's got a bunch of bacon,

774
00:44:06,560 --> 00:44:11,440
Speaker 1: and that's of Bloody Mary's were not already pretty salty.

775
00:44:13,000 --> 00:44:16,759
Speaker 1: Um I I can't. I can't match anything that is

776
00:44:16,880 --> 00:44:22,120
Speaker 1: quite as meat centric as a bacon cocktail. But carnivorous

777
00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:25,080
Speaker 1: plants have occasionally made their way into cocktails. So you

778
00:44:25,120 --> 00:44:27,839
Speaker 1: have a plant by the name of an we call

779
00:44:27,960 --> 00:44:30,560
Speaker 1: sun Do. We talked about the sun Do in our

780
00:44:30,840 --> 00:44:33,319
Speaker 1: episode on carniverous Plants. Yeah, so you might remember it.

781
00:44:33,320 --> 00:44:36,520
Speaker 1: It catches insects with the sticky nectar and digest them

782
00:44:36,520 --> 00:44:39,640
Speaker 1: with his enzymes. And it was once popular in a

783
00:44:39,719 --> 00:44:45,160
Speaker 1: cordial known as rosalio. And uh today rosalio entails of

784
00:44:45,280 --> 00:44:48,840
Speaker 1: various liqueurs made from fruits and spices steeped in alcohol.

785
00:44:49,080 --> 00:44:52,080
Speaker 1: But sun Do was once a prime ingredient, and you

786
00:44:52,080 --> 00:44:54,440
Speaker 1: were advised to pick the dead insects out of the

787
00:44:54,480 --> 00:44:57,360
Speaker 1: fruit first. No way, yeah, no way, you're knocking that out. No,

788
00:44:57,400 --> 00:45:00,160
Speaker 1: I'm not making it the dead insects in your drink. No, no,

789
00:45:00,239 --> 00:45:02,400
Speaker 1: you would take it out before you made the drink.

790
00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:05,359
Speaker 1: Oh I see, so you'd strain it and then make

791
00:45:05,360 --> 00:45:08,279
Speaker 1: your cocktail. Right. Yeah. That being said, I don't know

792
00:45:08,320 --> 00:45:09,920
Speaker 1: that it that it would be that bad if they

793
00:45:09,920 --> 00:45:13,160
Speaker 1: were bugs in the drink. Speaking of dead things in

794
00:45:13,200 --> 00:45:16,240
Speaker 1: your drink and meaty flesh in your drink, I'm gonna

795
00:45:16,320 --> 00:45:20,040
Speaker 1: converge these two, uh, these two lines of inquiry into

796
00:45:20,120 --> 00:45:24,680
Speaker 1: a single cocktail, which is you may have heard about this,

797
00:45:25,000 --> 00:45:28,160
Speaker 1: you may not have, But in the town of Dawson City,

798
00:45:28,480 --> 00:45:32,239
Speaker 1: in the boreal yonder of the Yukon Territory, way up there,

799
00:45:32,760 --> 00:45:37,320
Speaker 1: there is a hotel bar with an infamous local tradition

800
00:45:37,480 --> 00:45:41,120
Speaker 1: of bibulation known as the sour toe cocktail. If you

801
00:45:41,200 --> 00:45:44,480
Speaker 1: heard of this, Robert, I don't think I had. And

802
00:45:44,520 --> 00:45:47,520
Speaker 1: you know, I'm already I'm at this point, I'm already

803
00:45:47,560 --> 00:45:50,960
Speaker 1: a little bit afraid because I'm I'm picturing Yukon Territory.

804
00:45:51,000 --> 00:45:54,839
Speaker 1: I'm picturing very rugged individuals here. Uh huh yeah, oh yeah, yeah,

805
00:45:54,880 --> 00:45:59,799
Speaker 1: there's a lot of miners, hunters, barge operators, stuff like that.

806
00:46:00,120 --> 00:46:03,960
Speaker 1: So you're probably wondering, sour toe cocktail, Okay, does it

807
00:46:04,040 --> 00:46:07,520
Speaker 1: really contain a toe? And the answer is yes, what

808
00:46:07,719 --> 00:46:10,320
Speaker 1: there's a real toe in it, a human toe. For

809
00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:15,719
Speaker 1: it is a dark, shriveled, mummified piece of toe jerky

810
00:46:16,560 --> 00:46:20,080
Speaker 1: and it goes in your drink for five dollars. Actually,

811
00:46:20,120 --> 00:46:22,839
Speaker 1: that's that was the price in last time. I read

812
00:46:22,840 --> 00:46:25,319
Speaker 1: a newspaper article about it, So the price may have

813
00:46:25,360 --> 00:46:28,440
Speaker 1: been hiked up since then, who knows. But wait, was

814
00:46:28,440 --> 00:46:30,120
Speaker 1: this an old thing or is the current thing does

815
00:46:30,160 --> 00:46:32,440
Speaker 1: the current? You can do this now? Oh okay, I

816
00:46:32,480 --> 00:46:37,080
Speaker 1: thought this was like an old uh you know, frontier beverage. No, no,

817
00:46:37,080 --> 00:46:39,280
Speaker 1: I was willing to give them a little more license.

818
00:46:39,400 --> 00:46:44,200
Speaker 1: Desperate times, uh, wilderness madness setting in, maybe you would

819
00:46:44,239 --> 00:46:47,239
Speaker 1: throw a toe into a beverage for whatever reason. No,

820
00:46:47,440 --> 00:46:50,520
Speaker 1: this is less like the frontier wine with a pound

821
00:46:50,560 --> 00:46:54,840
Speaker 1: of pork lard and more like the ironic chipster bacon cocktail. Now,

822
00:46:54,920 --> 00:46:58,040
Speaker 1: because this started in the nineteen seventies, so you have

823
00:46:58,120 --> 00:47:00,560
Speaker 1: to pay a five dollar toe tag X to have

824
00:47:00,680 --> 00:47:03,920
Speaker 1: this toe added to whatever alcohol you want, presumably whether

825
00:47:03,960 --> 00:47:07,279
Speaker 1: it's four fingers of Yukon jack whiskey or a cranberry

826
00:47:07,280 --> 00:47:10,360
Speaker 1: apple teeny or a glass of champagne. As you will see.

827
00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:14,000
Speaker 1: And the toe goes in your glass of booze, and

828
00:47:14,080 --> 00:47:18,160
Speaker 1: you drink the booze, and then the toe lives on. Uh. So,

829
00:47:18,239 --> 00:47:21,080
Speaker 1: of course I was wondering where did this toe come from? Well,

830
00:47:21,160 --> 00:47:24,360
Speaker 1: Atlas Obscura has an excellent, very short, little history of

831
00:47:24,400 --> 00:47:27,280
Speaker 1: the sour toe that you can look up, but basic

832
00:47:27,320 --> 00:47:30,640
Speaker 1: story goes like this. In nineteen seventy three, a river

833
00:47:30,719 --> 00:47:34,480
Speaker 1: barge pilot named Captain Dick Stevenson, he's cleaning out a

834
00:47:34,520 --> 00:47:37,840
Speaker 1: cabin when he came across an amputated human toe in

835
00:47:37,880 --> 00:47:41,680
Speaker 1: a jar of alcohol. So much is an appropriate place

836
00:47:41,840 --> 00:47:43,960
Speaker 1: to keep it to preserve it? I guess right. So

837
00:47:44,200 --> 00:47:48,120
Speaker 1: supposedly the toe had belonged to a minor named Louis Lichn,

838
00:47:48,320 --> 00:47:51,320
Speaker 1: whose toe became frost bitten sometime in the nineteen twenties

839
00:47:51,400 --> 00:47:53,319
Speaker 1: up in the Yukon, and he had to get it

840
00:47:53,360 --> 00:47:57,759
Speaker 1: amputated and decided to preserve it in this jar of alcohol.

841
00:47:58,320 --> 00:48:01,360
Speaker 1: So after Stevenson found the toe in the jar in

842
00:48:01,480 --> 00:48:05,399
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three, he got this amazing idea to head

843
00:48:05,400 --> 00:48:08,120
Speaker 1: down to the local saloon and start dropping it into

844
00:48:08,120 --> 00:48:11,560
Speaker 1: people's drinks. And those who could bear to drink the

845
00:48:11,600 --> 00:48:14,440
Speaker 1: booze with the toe knocking around in the glass became

846
00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:19,720
Speaker 1: the original members of the Sour Toe Cocktail Club, which

847
00:48:19,800 --> 00:48:22,560
Speaker 1: now more than forty years later, has more than fifty

848
00:48:22,600 --> 00:48:25,440
Speaker 1: thousand members. So if you go up to the Yukon

849
00:48:25,560 --> 00:48:28,040
Speaker 1: Territory and you go to this bar and you order

850
00:48:28,400 --> 00:48:30,960
Speaker 1: the toe, you get a drink, pay the toe tax,

851
00:48:31,000 --> 00:48:33,160
Speaker 1: and get the toe in your drink and you drink it,

852
00:48:33,640 --> 00:48:36,080
Speaker 1: they will give you a certificate of membership that you

853
00:48:36,120 --> 00:48:38,719
Speaker 1: are now in the Sour Toe Club. It's sort of

854
00:48:38,840 --> 00:48:41,840
Speaker 1: local attraction. If you happen to end up in Dawson City,

855
00:48:42,640 --> 00:48:46,640
Speaker 1: there you go. But I know what you're thinking. Has

856
00:48:46,680 --> 00:48:52,200
Speaker 1: anyone ever swallowed the toe several times more than once? So?

857
00:48:52,239 --> 00:48:56,200
Speaker 1: The first time was supposedly in July nineteen eighty, when

858
00:48:56,239 --> 00:48:59,320
Speaker 1: a miner named Gary Younger had been working on his

859
00:49:00,080 --> 00:49:07,520
Speaker 1: thirteen glass of quote Sour Toe champagne. According to the

860
00:49:07,640 --> 00:49:11,600
Speaker 1: Sour Toe Cocktail Club account, this guy's chair tipped over

861
00:49:11,640 --> 00:49:15,239
Speaker 1: backwards and he accidentally swallowed the toe. Now I'm not

862
00:49:15,280 --> 00:49:17,239
Speaker 1: sure if I buy this story, because how do you

863
00:49:17,360 --> 00:49:21,279
Speaker 1: accidentally swallow something as big as a toe from a

864
00:49:21,400 --> 00:49:25,560
Speaker 1: champagne glass? I don't know. But because he's presumably drinking

865
00:49:25,600 --> 00:49:28,560
Speaker 1: it out of the traditional champagne flute, right, so or

866
00:49:28,600 --> 00:49:30,239
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe in the Yukon you get your

867
00:49:30,320 --> 00:49:33,560
Speaker 1: champagne and a tin cup. I don't know. Of course,

868
00:49:33,719 --> 00:49:38,080
Speaker 1: thirteen glasses in who knows what was going on? Probably yeah,

869
00:49:38,080 --> 00:49:41,400
Speaker 1: probably not in total command of his faculties. So uh,

870
00:49:41,440 --> 00:49:44,640
Speaker 1: this wasn't the only time somebody swallowed the toe. Toes

871
00:49:44,800 --> 00:49:47,879
Speaker 1: keep disappearing, so new ones have to be supplied, and

872
00:49:48,160 --> 00:49:51,280
Speaker 1: uh so. Over the years years a few more toes

873
00:49:51,360 --> 00:49:54,080
Speaker 1: were donated by people who had to have amputations due

874
00:49:54,120 --> 00:49:57,800
Speaker 1: to frost bite, diabetes, and a so called quote inoperable

875
00:49:57,920 --> 00:50:03,600
Speaker 1: corn his drink he keeps getting less and less appetizing um.

876
00:50:03,640 --> 00:50:06,680
Speaker 1: And one donation was apparently an anonymous donation that was

877
00:50:06,760 --> 00:50:10,399
Speaker 1: later stolen from the bar, And in probably the most

878
00:50:10,440 --> 00:50:13,200
Speaker 1: famous toe origin story, one arrived at the bar in

879
00:50:13,200 --> 00:50:15,680
Speaker 1: a jar of alcohol with a note that said, quote,

880
00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:22,319
Speaker 1: don't wear open toe sandals while mowing the lawn. Well,

881
00:50:22,360 --> 00:50:24,279
Speaker 1: it's one way to live, for your toe to live

882
00:50:24,320 --> 00:50:28,120
Speaker 1: on right after it's it's left your body. Yeah, but so.

883
00:50:28,239 --> 00:50:32,880
Speaker 1: More recently, the Toronto Star reports that a man known

884
00:50:32,960 --> 00:50:37,080
Speaker 1: only as quote Josh from New Orleans paid the toe

885
00:50:37,160 --> 00:50:40,480
Speaker 1: tax to have the toe deposited in his glass of whiskey.

886
00:50:40,719 --> 00:50:43,080
Speaker 1: And at the time there was a five hundred dollar

887
00:50:43,160 --> 00:50:46,759
Speaker 1: fee for accidentally swallowing the toe, and Josh from New

888
00:50:46,920 --> 00:50:50,279
Speaker 1: Orleans just popped the toe in his mouth and down

889
00:50:50,280 --> 00:50:53,439
Speaker 1: it went, and he immediately paid the five hundred dollar

890
00:50:53,520 --> 00:50:57,120
Speaker 1: fee in cash and walked out of the barn. And

891
00:50:58,520 --> 00:51:01,360
Speaker 1: last last tidbit about this, apparently, when you order the

892
00:51:01,360 --> 00:51:05,359
Speaker 1: toe the bartender recites a magical incantation to steal you

893
00:51:05,520 --> 00:51:09,080
Speaker 1: for your journey of death and alcohol, and it goes.

894
00:51:09,320 --> 00:51:12,000
Speaker 1: You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow,

895
00:51:12,600 --> 00:51:17,839
Speaker 1: but your lips must touch the toe. I can see

896
00:51:17,880 --> 00:51:19,400
Speaker 1: this is really good to you. Robert. Do you have

897
00:51:19,440 --> 00:51:22,360
Speaker 1: a mummified toe thing? I don't know. It just seems

898
00:51:24,320 --> 00:51:27,680
Speaker 1: it well, I mean, it seems rather unnecessary, but it

899
00:51:27,840 --> 00:51:31,160
Speaker 1: just not particularly appetizing. I guess. I don't know. I'm

900
00:51:31,160 --> 00:51:35,560
Speaker 1: just imagining this shriveled mummified toe just knocking against your

901
00:51:35,600 --> 00:51:37,360
Speaker 1: lips as you're trying to down it, kind of like

902
00:51:37,400 --> 00:51:39,600
Speaker 1: a like a like a like just any kind of

903
00:51:39,640 --> 00:51:42,040
Speaker 1: a garnish and a drink that you're not ready to consume.

904
00:51:42,160 --> 00:51:45,680
Speaker 1: Except it's the It's the worst possible Marischino Cherry. I

905
00:51:45,760 --> 00:51:47,920
Speaker 1: have no evidence that they actually did this, but my

906
00:51:48,040 --> 00:51:50,560
Speaker 1: idea is they should use it in place of an

907
00:51:50,560 --> 00:51:53,200
Speaker 1: ice cube, so they should freeze it so it's always cold,

908
00:51:53,400 --> 00:51:55,799
Speaker 1: and then when it gets plopped into your God, I

909
00:51:55,840 --> 00:51:58,279
Speaker 1: just assumed it was frozen. I would I would hope

910
00:51:58,280 --> 00:52:01,080
Speaker 1: it would be frozen. I don't know. I've seen pictures

911
00:52:01,080 --> 00:52:03,120
Speaker 1: of it, and it looks like it's room temperature, but

912
00:52:03,520 --> 00:52:06,240
Speaker 1: it's hard to tell. It's well, it's like stored in salt.

913
00:52:06,360 --> 00:52:08,239
Speaker 1: I think I've seen pictures of it in a jar

914
00:52:08,320 --> 00:52:12,319
Speaker 1: of salt. I guess to keep it desiccated and mummified. Huh.

915
00:52:12,400 --> 00:52:16,040
Speaker 1: I would love to to see or hear anyone describe

916
00:52:16,120 --> 00:52:18,759
Speaker 1: how it affects the flavor profile. If it does it all,

917
00:52:18,760 --> 00:52:22,200
Speaker 1: it could just be pure psychology of the thing, which

918
00:52:22,239 --> 00:52:24,359
Speaker 1: is kind of right, because ultimately, like which is worse

919
00:52:24,400 --> 00:52:29,120
Speaker 1: for your body, swallowing one dead human toe or drinking

920
00:52:29,160 --> 00:52:32,000
Speaker 1: thirteen glasses of champagne in a row, I would argue

921
00:52:32,080 --> 00:52:35,759
Speaker 1: that the champagne is actually worse for you, probably probably so.

922
00:52:35,920 --> 00:52:37,879
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess it depends on what's in the toe.

923
00:52:38,239 --> 00:52:40,879
Speaker 1: All right, we have just I certainly cannot top that

924
00:52:41,280 --> 00:52:44,600
Speaker 1: at all. We have just a few more nefarious spirits

925
00:52:44,640 --> 00:52:50,720
Speaker 1: to mention. One comes from uh cubab from piper cube eba,

926
00:52:50,800 --> 00:52:52,920
Speaker 1: a member of the pepper family. It produces a fruit

927
00:52:53,239 --> 00:52:56,960
Speaker 1: that wind dried resembles black pepper as a pungent, biting

928
00:52:57,040 --> 00:53:01,160
Speaker 1: flavor that comes from high levels of lemoning, which is

929
00:53:01,200 --> 00:53:03,960
Speaker 1: a flavor foundain citrus and herbs. And you'll find it

930
00:53:04,000 --> 00:53:06,320
Speaker 1: as an ingredient in various gins these days as well,

931
00:53:06,920 --> 00:53:10,800
Speaker 1: but it has a medicinal and even magical history. The

932
00:53:11,120 --> 00:53:15,320
Speaker 1: Victorians had cubeb cigarettes that were supposed to help you

933
00:53:15,360 --> 00:53:19,080
Speaker 1: with your asthma. Yeah, and most exciting of all, seventeenth

934
00:53:19,120 --> 00:53:25,799
Speaker 1: century Italian priest and exorcist Ludovico Maria Sinistari employed a

935
00:53:25,920 --> 00:53:32,279
Speaker 1: brandy tonic flavored with cubab, cardaman, nutmeg, birthwartz, aloe, and

936
00:53:32,400 --> 00:53:35,120
Speaker 1: various other roots and spices. So if you're looking to

937
00:53:35,160 --> 00:53:39,840
Speaker 1: banish demons with your cocktail, take note. All right, Another

938
00:53:39,880 --> 00:53:43,120
Speaker 1: interesting concoction comes from, and this is another example from

939
00:53:43,120 --> 00:53:47,759
Speaker 1: the drunken botanist, is uh uh Damiana, which is from

940
00:53:47,840 --> 00:53:51,840
Speaker 1: the plant turned era diffusea. So this is a Mexican

941
00:53:51,840 --> 00:53:55,399
Speaker 1: shrub produces yellow flowers and small fruits, and it's long

942
00:53:55,480 --> 00:54:00,560
Speaker 1: been reputed to have afrodisiac properties. So now teenth century

943
00:54:00,560 --> 00:54:04,360
Speaker 1: physicians prescribed it to female patients to promote orgasm, and

944
00:54:04,360 --> 00:54:07,160
Speaker 1: a two thousand nine studies saw that it quotes sexually

945
00:54:07,160 --> 00:54:10,600
Speaker 1: exhausted male rats. What does that mean? They just they

946
00:54:10,680 --> 00:54:15,600
Speaker 1: just kept they made of them so eager to perform

947
00:54:15,840 --> 00:54:20,360
Speaker 1: that it exhausted them. That's intense, so it seemed to

948
00:54:20,360 --> 00:54:25,000
Speaker 1: have afro daz ac effects on the road. In nineteen

949
00:54:25,040 --> 00:54:28,120
Speaker 1: o eight, the FEDS confiscated a shipment of so called

950
00:54:28,640 --> 00:54:33,239
Speaker 1: Damiana gin and found that it contains strict nine. Yeah. So,

951
00:54:33,400 --> 00:54:35,080
Speaker 1: and this seems to be more a matter of like

952
00:54:35,120 --> 00:54:40,000
Speaker 1: just illicit, just a poorly made and poisonous substance that

953
00:54:40,120 --> 00:54:43,120
Speaker 1: was that someone was trying to sell. But there have

954
00:54:43,160 --> 00:54:46,040
Speaker 1: been no human studies that that I'm aware of or

955
00:54:46,040 --> 00:54:49,759
Speaker 1: the steward was aware of regarding it's it's human use.

956
00:54:50,560 --> 00:54:53,240
Speaker 1: But it's a legal food additive. You can even find

957
00:54:53,239 --> 00:54:58,120
Speaker 1: a Mexican herbal decur called Damiana and it's sold in

958
00:54:58,200 --> 00:55:02,400
Speaker 1: like a fertility goddess kind of bottle. So if anyone

959
00:55:02,400 --> 00:55:04,080
Speaker 1: out there has tried that one, we would love to

960
00:55:04,120 --> 00:55:07,799
Speaker 1: hear from you as well. Now, finally, before we take

961
00:55:07,840 --> 00:55:11,040
Speaker 1: a break, I want to mention real quick, cannabis cocktails

962
00:55:11,080 --> 00:55:14,480
Speaker 1: to move back to this schedule one narcotic Well, of

963
00:55:14,520 --> 00:55:18,200
Speaker 1: course somebody has made that, yeah, but but is there, like,

964
00:55:19,360 --> 00:55:21,000
Speaker 1: is there a i don't know what you call it,

965
00:55:21,080 --> 00:55:26,759
Speaker 1: a legitimately produced version somewhere out there. Well, unsurprisingly, there

966
00:55:26,760 --> 00:55:29,560
Speaker 1: are a few cannabis liqueurs on the market. But the

967
00:55:29,600 --> 00:55:31,600
Speaker 1: major example of these tend to be seemed to be

968
00:55:31,680 --> 00:55:35,520
Speaker 1: flavor only, so they've captured the flavor profile of the cannabis,

969
00:55:35,560 --> 00:55:39,560
Speaker 1: but but none of the actual th HC. Part of

970
00:55:39,600 --> 00:55:42,200
Speaker 1: this probably is that in terms of making a th

971
00:55:42,440 --> 00:55:46,600
Speaker 1: HC laden cocktail, it's super easy tip to do. Uh.

972
00:55:46,800 --> 00:55:48,480
Speaker 1: So all you have to do is make a simple

973
00:55:48,480 --> 00:55:52,840
Speaker 1: syrup from cannabis. Cannabis simple syrup heat activates the th

974
00:55:53,000 --> 00:55:55,400
Speaker 1: HC kind of in the same way that people use

975
00:55:55,480 --> 00:55:58,640
Speaker 1: th HC butter to make brownies. Really, this is the

976
00:55:58,719 --> 00:56:01,879
Speaker 1: kind of thing you can find recipes for wherever you

977
00:56:01,960 --> 00:56:06,000
Speaker 1: find your marijuana related recipes. Uh. In the syrup enables

978
00:56:06,040 --> 00:56:08,640
Speaker 1: you to create a whole host of of drinks. For instance,

979
00:56:08,680 --> 00:56:12,040
Speaker 1: I found a recipe for a Malibu Malibu mule, which

980
00:56:12,120 --> 00:56:15,280
Speaker 1: is I think essentially you know a Moscow mule except

981
00:56:15,440 --> 00:56:19,600
Speaker 1: using the syrup and you And also specialty shops, especially

982
00:56:19,640 --> 00:56:23,799
Speaker 1: in California and Colorado, uh, they often sell th HC

983
00:56:24,120 --> 00:56:27,200
Speaker 1: lemonades or juices. So there you go. If you if

984
00:56:27,200 --> 00:56:31,239
Speaker 1: you desire that and it's a legally permitted avenue for you,

985
00:56:31,680 --> 00:56:34,799
Speaker 1: then the means are out there. I wonder what it's

986
00:56:34,840 --> 00:56:37,000
Speaker 1: like to work at one of the companies that produces

987
00:56:37,040 --> 00:56:40,319
Speaker 1: these products. I don't know, you mean just in like

988
00:56:40,400 --> 00:56:43,279
Speaker 1: th HC laden products or just the I don't know.

989
00:56:43,360 --> 00:56:44,960
Speaker 1: I wonder if you reach a point where you feel

990
00:56:45,000 --> 00:56:50,440
Speaker 1: like you've you've you've reached peak creativity for for marijuana

991
00:56:50,480 --> 00:56:53,759
Speaker 1: based food products, Like, at what point do you realize, Oh,

992
00:56:53,800 --> 00:56:56,640
Speaker 1: I just I just created a recipe for th HC

993
00:56:57,040 --> 00:57:00,120
Speaker 1: lasagna and now I feel a little hollow inside. Well,

994
00:57:00,160 --> 00:57:03,080
Speaker 1: I mean, I wonder so if at some point, uh,

995
00:57:03,440 --> 00:57:08,520
Speaker 1: cannabis becomes widely legal or just regulated in the same

996
00:57:08,560 --> 00:57:11,160
Speaker 1: way that tobacco products are now or something like that,

997
00:57:11,680 --> 00:57:15,840
Speaker 1: eventually does the appeal of this kind of stuff go away?

998
00:57:16,600 --> 00:57:21,080
Speaker 1: Is this basically all just like novelty celebration and bacon. Yeah,

999
00:57:21,080 --> 00:57:24,640
Speaker 1: where this is recently legalized and that you wouldn't have

1000
00:57:24,760 --> 00:57:28,520
Speaker 1: maybe much more in the realm of cannabis inspired drinks,

1001
00:57:29,000 --> 00:57:30,760
Speaker 1: you know, a hundred years down the road than you

1002
00:57:30,840 --> 00:57:34,520
Speaker 1: have now this one tobacco liqueur made by what was

1003
00:57:34,560 --> 00:57:37,800
Speaker 1: it some company in France. Yeah. Well, it comes down

1004
00:57:37,800 --> 00:57:40,520
Speaker 1: to the fact, right that, uh, if something is illegal,

1005
00:57:40,560 --> 00:57:43,280
Speaker 1: if it's prohibited, that just makes it all the more alluring.

1006
00:57:43,560 --> 00:57:50,600
Speaker 1: And sometimes you find yourself craving a particular substance purely

1007
00:57:50,640 --> 00:57:54,120
Speaker 1: because it is forbidden, like it just enhances its mythology. Well,

1008
00:57:54,240 --> 00:57:58,040
Speaker 1: speaking of the forbidden, I thought that we could not

1009
00:57:58,160 --> 00:58:03,760
Speaker 1: do an episode about the strange scientific avenues in drink making, mixology,

1010
00:58:03,840 --> 00:58:07,440
Speaker 1: cocktails and liquor without taking a look at the green ferry.

1011
00:58:07,960 --> 00:58:10,000
Speaker 1: So we should take a break and when we come

1012
00:58:10,000 --> 00:58:19,360
Speaker 1: back we will talk about absinthe. So absently you've had,

1013
00:58:19,400 --> 00:58:23,320
Speaker 1: You've had absence before, Yeah, yeah, I recently had the

1014
00:58:23,440 --> 00:58:27,160
Speaker 1: absinthe service at a local restaurant here in town in Atlanta,

1015
00:58:27,320 --> 00:58:32,360
Speaker 1: the kimble House restaurant. It is absolutely wonderful if you're

1016
00:58:32,360 --> 00:58:35,560
Speaker 1: if you're around Atlanta, especially in the Decatur area. Kimble

1017
00:58:35,560 --> 00:58:38,320
Speaker 1: House is amazing. But they have a sort of old

1018
00:58:38,320 --> 00:58:41,480
Speaker 1: timey bar that celebrates the traditions where they will do

1019
00:58:41,560 --> 00:58:44,520
Speaker 1: an absence service, where they will serve it up in

1020
00:58:44,520 --> 00:58:46,640
Speaker 1: the traditional way, which we can describe in a minute,

1021
00:58:46,640 --> 00:58:49,400
Speaker 1: I guess. But I would say maybe more than any

1022
00:58:49,440 --> 00:58:53,720
Speaker 1: other liquor, absinthe is a drink that is totally surrounded

1023
00:58:53,720 --> 00:58:57,160
Speaker 1: in myth I remember when I was in college, I

1024
00:58:57,240 --> 00:58:59,400
Speaker 1: was once at a party where some guys were talking

1025
00:58:59,440 --> 00:59:01,520
Speaker 1: about time a friend of theirs who had been in

1026
00:59:01,520 --> 00:59:05,120
Speaker 1: the military had brought a bottle of absinthe back from overseas,

1027
00:59:05,120 --> 00:59:07,040
Speaker 1: and this was at a time when absinthe was still

1028
00:59:07,160 --> 00:59:11,400
Speaker 1: banned in the United States, and they claimed that when

1029
00:59:11,400 --> 00:59:15,360
Speaker 1: they drank this, this green liquor, they entered a state

1030
00:59:15,560 --> 00:59:19,200
Speaker 1: of green hallucinations. I remember one of them mentioning swimming

1031
00:59:19,240 --> 00:59:24,240
Speaker 1: through green tunnels, and I was like, I don't know

1032
00:59:24,280 --> 00:59:27,160
Speaker 1: if I believe that. But in the widespread version of

1033
00:59:27,200 --> 00:59:30,520
Speaker 1: this story that you just substitute a person for a place,

1034
00:59:30,600 --> 00:59:33,160
Speaker 1: and you can read about this everywhere. Absinthe allows one

1035
00:59:33,520 --> 00:59:38,120
Speaker 1: to visit her majesty, the green fairy. So is there

1036
00:59:38,200 --> 00:59:41,800
Speaker 1: anything to this, to this idea that absinthe is more

1037
00:59:41,920 --> 00:59:45,760
Speaker 1: than just another alcoholic beverage, that it has these advanced

1038
00:59:45,920 --> 00:59:51,240
Speaker 1: drug like properties causing hallucinations or or these also very

1039
00:59:51,280 --> 00:59:57,520
Speaker 1: common negative reported qualities like uh, causing seizures or convulsions

1040
00:59:57,640 --> 01:00:01,200
Speaker 1: or all this other stuff. Yeah, it really, it really

1041
01:00:01,200 --> 01:00:03,400
Speaker 1: had that reputation for the longest until it was it

1042
01:00:03,480 --> 01:00:08,280
Speaker 1: was finally legalized again in the US. Yeah, and so this, uh,

1043
01:00:08,960 --> 01:00:12,480
Speaker 1: this mythology is very much a part of what absence

1044
01:00:13,160 --> 01:00:16,880
Speaker 1: profile and character is. But we should take a look

1045
01:00:16,920 --> 01:00:19,919
Speaker 1: at the science behind it. So, so what is absinthe. Well,

1046
01:00:20,200 --> 01:00:23,560
Speaker 1: absinthe is a distilled liquor, usually a very strong one,

1047
01:00:24,240 --> 01:00:28,320
Speaker 1: made by combining alcohol with wormwood. And that's a type

1048
01:00:28,320 --> 01:00:33,520
Speaker 1: of plant green annis finnel like Florence finnel, and other

1049
01:00:33,560 --> 01:00:37,560
Speaker 1: herbs and flowers like hiss up and lemon balm. And

1050
01:00:37,680 --> 01:00:40,439
Speaker 1: the exact origins of absinthe as we know it now

1051
01:00:40,520 --> 01:00:43,960
Speaker 1: are unclear by most accounts. It was invented sometime the

1052
01:00:44,040 --> 01:00:47,880
Speaker 1: late seventeen DS, probably seventeen nineties, and the distiller per

1053
01:00:47,960 --> 01:00:52,000
Speaker 1: Node produced its first commercial absinthe in eighteen o five,

1054
01:00:52,040 --> 01:00:54,240
Speaker 1: which is when I think we should consider the birth

1055
01:00:54,360 --> 01:00:57,600
Speaker 1: of the absinthe era. But uh, let's take a look

1056
01:00:57,600 --> 01:01:02,120
Speaker 1: at those ingredients. So wormwood, that is an interesting name. Yes,

1057
01:01:02,160 --> 01:01:05,040
Speaker 1: it brings to mind the Book of Revelation. Right, it

1058
01:01:05,080 --> 01:01:08,480
Speaker 1: makes me think, doesn't C. S. Lewis have a novel

1059
01:01:08,720 --> 01:01:11,320
Speaker 1: has a wormwood character? And in the screw Tape letters,

1060
01:01:11,360 --> 01:01:16,080
Speaker 1: I believe he's writing to Wormwood, a lower subordinate demon,

1061
01:01:16,200 --> 01:01:19,320
Speaker 1: and advising him on corrupting of a mortal soul. Right,

1062
01:01:19,360 --> 01:01:21,680
Speaker 1: so wormwood is a good name for a for a demon,

1063
01:01:21,720 --> 01:01:25,040
Speaker 1: I would say, yeah, it already implies some sort of

1064
01:01:25,080 --> 01:01:29,080
Speaker 1: illicit magical quality. But wormwood is just a plant. It's

1065
01:01:29,160 --> 01:01:34,200
Speaker 1: the the Artemisia absinthium, and it's the famed central ingredient

1066
01:01:34,320 --> 01:01:37,680
Speaker 1: in absinthe and the one that would be later singled

1067
01:01:37,720 --> 01:01:41,920
Speaker 1: out in the supposed case against absinthe as more poison

1068
01:01:42,120 --> 01:01:45,240
Speaker 1: or more drug than than liquor. Now, it's worth noting

1069
01:01:45,280 --> 01:01:50,080
Speaker 1: that vermouth is derived. The word vermouth is revived from vermut,

1070
01:01:50,600 --> 01:01:55,240
Speaker 1: the German word for wormwood, and the original Vermouth's would

1071
01:01:55,240 --> 01:01:59,560
Speaker 1: have contained this in some quantity. And going back to

1072
01:01:59,560 --> 01:02:03,480
Speaker 1: the ingredi and so you mentioned earlier, the taste of

1073
01:02:03,520 --> 01:02:06,160
Speaker 1: absinthe has far more to do with the annis in

1074
01:02:06,200 --> 01:02:08,840
Speaker 1: it as opposed to the wormwood itself. Yeah, I've heard

1075
01:02:08,880 --> 01:02:14,600
Speaker 1: that wormwood itself has a more mental like taste and scent. Yeah. Yeah,

1076
01:02:14,640 --> 01:02:17,160
Speaker 1: And so it's basically covered up for the most part

1077
01:02:17,200 --> 01:02:22,160
Speaker 1: by this, this liquorice taste. Now, the ancient Egyptians used

1078
01:02:22,160 --> 01:02:27,960
Speaker 1: wormwood in wines and spirits. The the Ebber's Papyrus from

1079
01:02:27,960 --> 01:02:31,400
Speaker 1: around fifteen hundred b C. And this might have been

1080
01:02:31,400 --> 01:02:34,680
Speaker 1: a copy of an earlier work, recommends wormwood spirits to

1081
01:02:34,720 --> 01:02:39,640
Speaker 1: treat round worm infections and digestive problems. Chinese medicinal wines

1082
01:02:39,680 --> 01:02:42,720
Speaker 1: of the same era also featured wormwood, and we know

1083
01:02:42,800 --> 01:02:47,640
Speaker 1: this from chemical analysis of drinking vessels that archaeologists have uncovered.

1084
01:02:48,040 --> 01:02:49,760
Speaker 1: And it's also worth pointing out you're talking about the

1085
01:02:49,800 --> 01:02:53,200
Speaker 1: timeline of absinthe in the Golden Age of absinthe. Uh one.

1086
01:02:53,240 --> 01:02:56,200
Speaker 1: Bridge points out that absence was sold in New Orleans

1087
01:02:56,320 --> 01:02:59,600
Speaker 1: by eighteen thirty seven, in New York by eighteen forty three,

1088
01:02:59,760 --> 01:03:01,480
Speaker 1: but it took a while to make its way into

1089
01:03:01,480 --> 01:03:04,680
Speaker 1: a true cocktail. It was something he merely dashed in

1090
01:03:04,720 --> 01:03:07,240
Speaker 1: a cocktail, kind of like how if anyone's had a

1091
01:03:07,680 --> 01:03:12,720
Speaker 1: proper Sasarak Chris Fame New Orleans drink, there's a there's

1092
01:03:12,720 --> 01:03:16,160
Speaker 1: an absent wash of the glass before the drink is poured,

1093
01:03:16,600 --> 01:03:19,160
Speaker 1: so it's it's it's It was like a bitter You

1094
01:03:19,200 --> 01:03:22,080
Speaker 1: wouldn't you wouldn't just fill up a cocktail glass with it.

1095
01:03:22,120 --> 01:03:24,600
Speaker 1: You would just have a dash of it for flavoring.

1096
01:03:25,760 --> 01:03:28,600
Speaker 1: Right now, while it wasn't the central ingredient, and a

1097
01:03:28,600 --> 01:03:31,040
Speaker 1: lot of cocktails, there was of course a ton of

1098
01:03:31,120 --> 01:03:35,240
Speaker 1: just straight drinking of absinthe right rights with water and

1099
01:03:35,240 --> 01:03:39,080
Speaker 1: sugar in the traditional preparation. Yeah, now wonder which he

1100
01:03:39,120 --> 01:03:41,520
Speaker 1: says that by eight seventy though, that's when you saw

1101
01:03:41,600 --> 01:03:46,320
Speaker 1: absent cocktails as a thing. So the absent frope, which

1102
01:03:46,400 --> 01:03:48,720
Speaker 1: was absent shaken with a lot of ice and then

1103
01:03:48,760 --> 01:03:51,720
Speaker 1: strained into a glass. Now, Wondridge points out that according

1104
01:03:51,720 --> 01:03:54,800
Speaker 1: to a writer by the name of Clarence Louis Cullen,

1105
01:03:55,120 --> 01:03:58,240
Speaker 1: another member of the Sporting Fraternity, he thought that that

1106
01:03:58,320 --> 01:04:01,280
Speaker 1: the the absent frope was just the right drink to

1107
01:04:01,360 --> 01:04:03,920
Speaker 1: have a first thing in the morning when you've got quote,

1108
01:04:04,280 --> 01:04:06,080
Speaker 1: a head the size of a bird cage and a

1109
01:04:06,120 --> 01:04:09,600
Speaker 1: mouth that smelled like a motorman's glove. So it would

1110
01:04:09,600 --> 01:04:13,520
Speaker 1: have been the perfect hangover cure. I guess, uh, yeah

1111
01:04:13,880 --> 01:04:17,920
Speaker 1: that I don't know the idea. I mean, all of

1112
01:04:19,280 --> 01:04:22,520
Speaker 1: moralization on what people should and shouldn't drink aside, I

1113
01:04:22,560 --> 01:04:25,280
Speaker 1: think the idea of curing a hangover with more alcohol

1114
01:04:25,400 --> 01:04:29,360
Speaker 1: is just disgusting. I would agree that tends to be

1115
01:04:29,440 --> 01:04:32,720
Speaker 1: my read on the situation as well, that the hair

1116
01:04:32,800 --> 01:04:35,600
Speaker 1: of the dog and all that. But but hey, for

1117
01:04:35,600 --> 01:04:38,720
Speaker 1: whatever reason, people consume them. The absent rope was popular.

1118
01:04:38,960 --> 01:04:41,480
Speaker 1: There were even songs about it. Yeah, I actually had

1119
01:04:41,520 --> 01:04:44,120
Speaker 1: to look up the the Absinthe Frappe, a song that

1120
01:04:44,200 --> 01:04:47,120
Speaker 1: was referenced in wond Rich's book, and I found the

1121
01:04:47,200 --> 01:04:50,920
Speaker 1: lyrics lyrics by Glenn McDonough. I think this was from

1122
01:04:50,960 --> 01:04:53,080
Speaker 1: a Broadway play. And so the song is about the

1123
01:04:53,080 --> 01:04:57,440
Speaker 1: Absinthe Frappe, and the lyrics go, it will free you

1124
01:04:57,560 --> 01:05:00,200
Speaker 1: first from the burning thirst that is born of a

1125
01:05:00,360 --> 01:05:05,080
Speaker 1: night of the bowl, like a sun twel rise through

1126
01:05:05,120 --> 01:05:08,320
Speaker 1: the inky skies that so heavily hang over your soul.

1127
01:05:09,000 --> 01:05:11,680
Speaker 1: At the first cool sip on your fevored lip, you

1128
01:05:11,800 --> 01:05:16,000
Speaker 1: determined to live through the day. Life's again worthwhile. As

1129
01:05:16,040 --> 01:05:22,280
Speaker 1: with a dawning smile, you imbibe your absinthe Frappe. I

1130
01:05:22,320 --> 01:05:24,840
Speaker 1: think that's given a little too much credit to the

1131
01:05:24,920 --> 01:05:27,080
Speaker 1: to the drink. I think so that feels a little

1132
01:05:27,080 --> 01:05:31,280
Speaker 1: bit a little bit like marketing. Yeah, but anyway, so yeah,

1133
01:05:31,320 --> 01:05:34,640
Speaker 1: so you said absence was being adopted in the United States.

1134
01:05:34,640 --> 01:05:39,200
Speaker 1: Absence drinking was very popular, especially in France. In the

1135
01:05:39,280 --> 01:05:42,760
Speaker 1: nineteenth century. It became very fashionable in Europe, especially France

1136
01:05:42,760 --> 01:05:48,280
Speaker 1: and Switzerland. Famous artists and intellectuals were notorious absence drinkers.

1137
01:05:48,320 --> 01:05:52,800
Speaker 1: For example, of French poets like Baudelaire and rambeau Verlaine.

1138
01:05:53,000 --> 01:05:57,880
Speaker 1: In an eighteen sixty pamphlet by Henri Ballesta called Absinthe

1139
01:05:57,920 --> 01:06:02,160
Speaker 1: at Absinthe Tours, he calls these types of people, quote

1140
01:06:02,200 --> 01:06:05,000
Speaker 1: the brilliant young men on the boulevard who were the

1141
01:06:05,040 --> 01:06:07,560
Speaker 1: absinthe drinkers. You know, these were the people who were

1142
01:06:07,560 --> 01:06:11,800
Speaker 1: out there making absinthe cool. And it was also reportedly

1143
01:06:11,840 --> 01:06:16,320
Speaker 1: popular with Oscar Wilde and continental artists like Van Gogh.

1144
01:06:16,560 --> 01:06:18,800
Speaker 1: Did I say I've always my whole life, said van

1145
01:06:18,880 --> 01:06:21,920
Speaker 1: Go And now I'm retraining to say van Gogh. Oh

1146
01:06:22,040 --> 01:06:24,240
Speaker 1: is that the preferred pronunciation? Is it? I thought I

1147
01:06:24,480 --> 01:06:26,680
Speaker 1: thought I heard you say it that way one time. No,

1148
01:06:26,840 --> 01:06:28,480
Speaker 1: maybe I coughed a little bit. I thought it was

1149
01:06:28,560 --> 01:06:31,600
Speaker 1: van Go. I've been saying van Go. I I grew

1150
01:06:31,680 --> 01:06:35,120
Speaker 1: up saying van Go. We have to let you know.

1151
01:06:35,200 --> 01:06:37,200
Speaker 1: We just looked it up and it's and it's. The

1152
01:06:37,240 --> 01:06:41,439
Speaker 1: Internet says it's Vincent van holl Okay, Well, I think

1153
01:06:41,440 --> 01:06:44,919
Speaker 1: I might just stick to van Go for simplicity. Set Okay, Well,

1154
01:06:44,960 --> 01:06:49,520
Speaker 1: according to Amy Stewart in The Drunken Botanist, well I

1155
01:06:49,560 --> 01:06:52,520
Speaker 1: thought this was really interesting. One explanation for the explosion

1156
01:06:52,560 --> 01:06:56,000
Speaker 1: of popularity of absinthe in Europe in the nineteenth century

1157
01:06:56,400 --> 01:07:00,680
Speaker 1: can actually be traced to a plant parasite. Anytime there's

1158
01:07:00,680 --> 01:07:02,760
Speaker 1: a good parasite story, we gotta do it on stuff

1159
01:07:02,840 --> 01:07:06,560
Speaker 1: up your mind. So it is the Philoxera pest or

1160
01:07:07,000 --> 01:07:12,840
Speaker 1: Daktulos fira vitifolia, and so none other than Thomas Jefferson,

1161
01:07:13,960 --> 01:07:17,280
Speaker 1: that Thomas Jefferson, not some other. Thomas Jefferson had tried

1162
01:07:17,360 --> 01:07:22,360
Speaker 1: to cultivate both native American and imported European grape varieties

1163
01:07:22,440 --> 01:07:25,960
Speaker 1: for making wine within the United States, and neither of

1164
01:07:26,080 --> 01:07:30,280
Speaker 1: them worked. The vineyards were just no good. And the

1165
01:07:30,600 --> 01:07:33,280
Speaker 1: reason for this, Stewart says, is that the American varieties

1166
01:07:33,320 --> 01:07:36,800
Speaker 1: failed because they just don't make good wine, and the

1167
01:07:36,880 --> 01:07:42,200
Speaker 1: European varieties failed because, unlike the sturdy, resistant American grape vines,

1168
01:07:42,320 --> 01:07:46,520
Speaker 1: the delicate European grape vines were susceptible to attacks from

1169
01:07:46,560 --> 01:07:49,840
Speaker 1: a tiny insect much like the apid that was only

1170
01:07:49,920 --> 01:07:54,560
Speaker 1: found in the Americas, and this is philox Era. And unfortunately,

1171
01:07:54,640 --> 01:07:58,000
Speaker 1: before anybody knew about this, the Americans had made gifts

1172
01:07:58,160 --> 01:08:01,880
Speaker 1: of native American grape vines sent them to France, and

1173
01:08:02,160 --> 01:08:05,080
Speaker 1: much like a deadly spider hiding in a bag of bananas.

1174
01:08:05,160 --> 01:08:08,600
Speaker 1: The philox A repast was thus lee imported to Europe

1175
01:08:08,840 --> 01:08:11,600
Speaker 1: and they laid waste to a vast new landscape of

1176
01:08:11,720 --> 01:08:15,120
Speaker 1: maladapted grapes. And as a result, the French wine making

1177
01:08:15,200 --> 01:08:19,479
Speaker 1: industry was severely damaged and and production was limited throughout

1178
01:08:19,479 --> 01:08:23,599
Speaker 1: the nineteenth century. Well, so Frenchmen were deprived of their

1179
01:08:23,680 --> 01:08:26,719
Speaker 1: wine right. And this this mattered because wine was seen

1180
01:08:26,800 --> 01:08:29,120
Speaker 1: by them as as like a you know, a drink

1181
01:08:29,160 --> 01:08:32,639
Speaker 1: of rectitude. It's a family drink, it's a moral drink,

1182
01:08:32,720 --> 01:08:37,040
Speaker 1: it's an upstanding and civilized drink. These other drinks like absinthe,

1183
01:08:37,840 --> 01:08:40,680
Speaker 1: maybe not so much. But anyway, Suart claims that it's

1184
01:08:40,720 --> 01:08:43,840
Speaker 1: because of this severe shortage of wine due to the

1185
01:08:43,880 --> 01:08:47,600
Speaker 1: parasite infestation that absinthe became the drink of choice in

1186
01:08:47,840 --> 01:08:51,799
Speaker 1: cafes in France in the nineteenth century, feeding this surge

1187
01:08:51,880 --> 01:08:55,599
Speaker 1: in absence consumption that culminated in the late eighteen hundreds

1188
01:08:55,640 --> 01:08:58,760
Speaker 1: in early nineteen hundreds. So the idea here's this kind

1189
01:08:58,800 --> 01:09:03,000
Speaker 1: of forced the birth of absent culture because people had

1190
01:09:03,080 --> 01:09:05,639
Speaker 1: to embrace it to a certain degree and then kind

1191
01:09:05,640 --> 01:09:09,280
Speaker 1: of stuck with it. Right, But absent, like I said,

1192
01:09:09,479 --> 01:09:13,360
Speaker 1: was not viewed as this, you know, family values kind

1193
01:09:13,360 --> 01:09:16,880
Speaker 1: of drink like wine was. And so there were plenty

1194
01:09:16,880 --> 01:09:20,000
Speaker 1: of people spreading a message of fear and suspicion about

1195
01:09:20,160 --> 01:09:22,920
Speaker 1: the Green Titania. And I want to read one quote

1196
01:09:22,960 --> 01:09:25,320
Speaker 1: because I think it's amazing from a New York Times

1197
01:09:25,439 --> 01:09:29,360
Speaker 1: article about absentthe They had an absent scare piece running

1198
01:09:29,400 --> 01:09:33,559
Speaker 1: in December eighteen eighty New York Times. Yeah, so here

1199
01:09:33,600 --> 01:09:38,000
Speaker 1: it goes. Quote. A French physician of eminence has recently

1200
01:09:38,080 --> 01:09:42,680
Speaker 1: declared that it is ten times more pernicious than ordinary intemperance,

1201
01:09:42,840 --> 01:09:46,840
Speaker 1: meaning ordinary alcohol, and that it very seldom happens that

1202
01:09:46,960 --> 01:09:50,959
Speaker 1: the habit, once fixed, can be unloosed. The same authority

1203
01:09:51,040 --> 01:09:54,519
Speaker 1: says that the increase of insanity is largely due to

1204
01:09:54,680 --> 01:09:57,040
Speaker 1: absentthe I didn't even know there was an increase in

1205
01:09:57,120 --> 01:10:01,880
Speaker 1: insanity around eighteen eighty, but can tinuing it exercises a

1206
01:10:02,040 --> 01:10:05,920
Speaker 1: deadly fascination, the source of which scientists have vainly tried

1207
01:10:05,960 --> 01:10:10,160
Speaker 1: to discover, although they have no trouble ascertaining it's terrible effects.

1208
01:10:10,640 --> 01:10:13,599
Speaker 1: It's a moderate use speedily acts on the entire nervous

1209
01:10:13,680 --> 01:10:16,840
Speaker 1: system in general, and the brain, in particular, in which

1210
01:10:16,880 --> 01:10:21,040
Speaker 1: it induces organic changes with accompanying derangement of all the

1211
01:10:21,120 --> 01:10:25,919
Speaker 1: mental powers. The habitual drinker becomes at first dull, languid,

1212
01:10:26,320 --> 01:10:30,560
Speaker 1: is soon completely brutalized, and then goes raving mad. He

1213
01:10:30,680 --> 01:10:34,960
Speaker 1: has at last holy or partially paralyzed, unless, as often happens,

1214
01:10:35,280 --> 01:10:39,080
Speaker 1: disordered liver and stomach brings a quicker end. Was this

1215
01:10:39,200 --> 01:10:43,600
Speaker 1: your experience at kimble House? No, though, I though to

1216
01:10:43,680 --> 01:10:46,679
Speaker 1: be fair, I I am not a frequenter of absinthe cafes,

1217
01:10:46,720 --> 01:10:49,080
Speaker 1: and I guess this is referring to chronic use. These

1218
01:10:49,160 --> 01:10:52,519
Speaker 1: would be the absent themes which I would admit. Chronic

1219
01:10:52,680 --> 01:10:54,960
Speaker 1: use of absinthe. You know, drinking a lot of absence

1220
01:10:55,040 --> 01:10:59,000
Speaker 1: regularly probably does produce some very bad effects in people.

1221
01:10:59,120 --> 01:11:02,880
Speaker 1: But maybe it's not the absinthe. Uh, maybe it's not

1222
01:11:03,080 --> 01:11:06,679
Speaker 1: the absinthe in particular. We can look at the details

1223
01:11:06,720 --> 01:11:10,280
Speaker 1: of this. So fear of this condition called quote absinthe

1224
01:11:10,320 --> 01:11:13,920
Speaker 1: is um believed to be separate from and worse than

1225
01:11:14,000 --> 01:11:18,240
Speaker 1: regular alcoholism, spread throughout these temperance minded circles in Europe,

1226
01:11:18,320 --> 01:11:21,080
Speaker 1: and at the time there also seemed to be scientific

1227
01:11:21,160 --> 01:11:23,560
Speaker 1: evidence backing this up. For example, the work of the

1228
01:11:23,600 --> 01:11:28,679
Speaker 1: French physician Valentine Magnon. According to one two nine review

1229
01:11:28,760 --> 01:11:33,600
Speaker 1: of Magnon's work, he found that this alcohol soluble component

1230
01:11:33,760 --> 01:11:37,599
Speaker 1: that existed in wormwood did cause a lot of bad things,

1231
01:11:37,720 --> 01:11:43,200
Speaker 1: including lapses of consciousness, myoclonic jerks, and tonic clonic convulsions

1232
01:11:43,280 --> 01:11:47,000
Speaker 1: in animals. So what was that component? While it was

1233
01:11:47,080 --> 01:11:50,720
Speaker 1: the natural plant essence found in wormwood known as thusion.

1234
01:11:51,160 --> 01:11:54,839
Speaker 1: More on that compound in a bit. But in addition

1235
01:11:55,360 --> 01:11:59,760
Speaker 1: looking at what caused this anti absinthe attitude, there were

1236
01:11:59,760 --> 01:12:04,040
Speaker 1: the called absinthe murders. Now there are multiple versions of

1237
01:12:04,080 --> 01:12:07,000
Speaker 1: this story reporting slightly different details, and the one I'm

1238
01:12:07,040 --> 01:12:10,719
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna use comes from an article in Distillations magazine,

1239
01:12:10,760 --> 01:12:14,200
Speaker 1: which is published by the Chemical Heritage Foundation. But according

1240
01:12:14,240 --> 01:12:16,920
Speaker 1: to this version, in August nineteen o five, in the

1241
01:12:17,040 --> 01:12:21,519
Speaker 1: village of Communie, Switzerland, a French born laborer named Jean

1242
01:12:21,640 --> 01:12:24,400
Speaker 1: Lamfrey was getting ready for a day of hard work

1243
01:12:24,479 --> 01:12:27,280
Speaker 1: at a local vineyard and around daybreak he had a

1244
01:12:27,360 --> 01:12:30,080
Speaker 1: couple of shots of absinthe before heading off to work.

1245
01:12:30,960 --> 01:12:35,120
Speaker 1: But Launfrey wasn't done, he was just getting started. At lunch,

1246
01:12:35,200 --> 01:12:38,120
Speaker 1: he had six classes of wine. Then he had another

1247
01:12:38,160 --> 01:12:41,120
Speaker 1: glass of wine before heading home. On the way home,

1248
01:12:41,200 --> 01:12:44,160
Speaker 1: he snagged a black coffee with brandy. Then when he

1249
01:12:44,240 --> 01:12:47,839
Speaker 1: got home, he had another leader of wine. Then Launfrey

1250
01:12:47,960 --> 01:12:50,240
Speaker 1: got into an argument with his what with his wife,

1251
01:12:50,320 --> 01:12:53,160
Speaker 1: and tragically he became enraged and he shot her with

1252
01:12:53,240 --> 01:12:55,640
Speaker 1: a rifle, and then he shot his two daughters. Now

1253
01:12:55,880 --> 01:12:59,400
Speaker 1: it's a horrible crime. The tale gets significantly less funny

1254
01:12:59,439 --> 01:13:02,240
Speaker 1: the right there and right, But the lesson a lot

1255
01:13:02,320 --> 01:13:05,720
Speaker 1: of people apparently took away from it was that absinthe

1256
01:13:06,520 --> 01:13:09,840
Speaker 1: that must have messed him up. Obviously, if you're like me,

1257
01:13:10,000 --> 01:13:12,920
Speaker 1: you'll you'll regard this as a kind of absurd conclusion,

1258
01:13:13,040 --> 01:13:15,200
Speaker 1: Like it seems like there is at least one other

1259
01:13:15,439 --> 01:13:20,559
Speaker 1: major factor at play, maybe alcohol um. But so these

1260
01:13:20,640 --> 01:13:23,960
Speaker 1: forces combined, like the research on the effects of absinthe

1261
01:13:24,040 --> 01:13:28,840
Speaker 1: done by people like Magnon, and these stories of these crimes.

1262
01:13:28,880 --> 01:13:30,880
Speaker 1: There were some other crimes I think that were attributed

1263
01:13:30,920 --> 01:13:33,000
Speaker 1: to absent There was some kind of axe or hatchet

1264
01:13:33,160 --> 01:13:35,880
Speaker 1: murderer I think that was referred to as an absinthe murder.

1265
01:13:36,400 --> 01:13:40,360
Speaker 1: And they combined into this whirlwind of anti absinthe public

1266
01:13:40,439 --> 01:13:43,880
Speaker 1: sentiment that eventually led to the banning of absinthe in

1267
01:13:44,000 --> 01:13:47,080
Speaker 1: the United States and much of Europe starting around nineteen fifteen,

1268
01:13:47,320 --> 01:13:52,680
Speaker 1: and that lasted for nearly a century. So what is

1269
01:13:52,800 --> 01:13:55,080
Speaker 1: all the fuss about, Like, what what's actually going on

1270
01:13:55,280 --> 01:13:59,440
Speaker 1: in absinthe and in the wormwood plant? And wasn't justifying

1271
01:13:59,680 --> 01:14:03,040
Speaker 1: all of this backlash? So we mentioned though jone the

1272
01:14:03,120 --> 01:14:07,080
Speaker 1: compound though jone is an organic compound found in wormwood,

1273
01:14:07,200 --> 01:14:10,560
Speaker 1: but also found in herbs like sage, So if you

1274
01:14:10,640 --> 01:14:13,720
Speaker 1: ever made sage stuffing there, you might be getting some

1275
01:14:13,840 --> 01:14:17,679
Speaker 1: through jane there. Uh. And the modern scientific consensus affirms

1276
01:14:17,720 --> 01:14:20,920
Speaker 1: that it can be toxic at large doses, primarily acting

1277
01:14:20,960 --> 01:14:24,519
Speaker 1: as a convulsant and also being associated with kidney failure,

1278
01:14:24,560 --> 01:14:27,560
Speaker 1: so it can cause convulsions. Uh. And this might be

1279
01:14:27,680 --> 01:14:30,320
Speaker 1: related to the fact that it was, you know, accused

1280
01:14:30,360 --> 01:14:34,480
Speaker 1: of being a cause of epilepsy. At great enough concentrations,

1281
01:14:34,880 --> 01:14:39,040
Speaker 1: it could also lead to death. There are a couple isomers.

1282
01:14:39,120 --> 01:14:42,040
Speaker 1: There's alpha though jone and beta though Jane without the

1283
01:14:42,080 --> 01:14:44,920
Speaker 1: alpha isomer being the more toxic of the two. And

1284
01:14:45,040 --> 01:14:47,080
Speaker 1: the primary method of action in the body is that

1285
01:14:47,160 --> 01:14:51,200
Speaker 1: attacks the nervous system by inhibiting the activation of GABBA receptors.

1286
01:14:52,160 --> 01:14:55,519
Speaker 1: But is through Jane really to blame for the so

1287
01:14:55,680 --> 01:14:58,400
Speaker 1: called effects of absynthei is um and all of these

1288
01:14:58,520 --> 01:15:04,320
Speaker 1: mythological accusations that absence could cause hallucinations and other stuff

1289
01:15:04,360 --> 01:15:07,080
Speaker 1: like that. Yeah, I think the mythology of it is

1290
01:15:07,200 --> 01:15:09,160
Speaker 1: worth keeping in mind at all times. Kind of getting

1291
01:15:09,160 --> 01:15:11,680
Speaker 1: back to the whole marketing of the cocktail. To what

1292
01:15:11,800 --> 01:15:14,640
Speaker 1: extent does I mean you're already drinking, but then if

1293
01:15:14,640 --> 01:15:18,040
Speaker 1: there's this mystical quality involved, does it give you license

1294
01:15:18,600 --> 01:15:23,960
Speaker 1: to engage and maybe a little more um inappropriate behavior

1295
01:15:24,040 --> 01:15:27,080
Speaker 1: than normal. There's a there's a quote that I run

1296
01:15:27,080 --> 01:15:28,880
Speaker 1: across before that I always got to kick out of

1297
01:15:29,120 --> 01:15:32,600
Speaker 1: from Ernest Hemingway. He said, got tight last night on

1298
01:15:32,680 --> 01:15:36,080
Speaker 1: absentthe and did knife tricks, great success, shooting the knife

1299
01:15:36,120 --> 01:15:39,400
Speaker 1: into the piano. The woodworms are so bad and eat

1300
01:15:39,479 --> 01:15:42,240
Speaker 1: hell out of all furniture. And you can always claim

1301
01:15:42,320 --> 01:15:45,400
Speaker 1: the woodworms did it. There you go. You can always

1302
01:15:45,520 --> 01:15:48,760
Speaker 1: claim the woodworms did it. You can always say, hey,

1303
01:15:48,800 --> 01:15:51,920
Speaker 1: it's the wormwood, it's the it's the absinthe that's responsible.

1304
01:15:52,120 --> 01:15:54,760
Speaker 1: I think tight is a euphemism that we should bring

1305
01:15:54,880 --> 01:15:58,479
Speaker 1: back for for drunkenness. Yeah, I think so too. I

1306
01:15:58,560 --> 01:16:01,880
Speaker 1: can I can just easily imagin gen the the violent

1307
01:16:02,040 --> 01:16:05,880
Speaker 1: tightness of the the absent drinkers psyche. I remember tight

1308
01:16:06,040 --> 01:16:11,160
Speaker 1: also being the drunkenness euphemism used in some classic memo.

1309
01:16:11,320 --> 01:16:15,679
Speaker 1: Or remember reading about Winston Churchill or his his generals

1310
01:16:15,720 --> 01:16:18,160
Speaker 1: in World War two or something. We're talking about how

1311
01:16:18,280 --> 01:16:21,000
Speaker 1: Winston was quite tight last night when it was giving

1312
01:16:21,080 --> 01:16:26,400
Speaker 1: us our strategy. So myths aside, modern research shows that wormwood,

1313
01:16:26,560 --> 01:16:28,439
Speaker 1: you know, isn't really quite that bad. So yes, the

1314
01:16:28,640 --> 01:16:31,680
Speaker 1: jone can be dangerous compound at high levels. It can

1315
01:16:31,720 --> 01:16:35,160
Speaker 1: cast seizure and death at high doses, but there's actually

1316
01:16:35,360 --> 01:16:39,040
Speaker 1: very little of it in absinthe and other liqueurs. Most

1317
01:16:39,120 --> 01:16:42,800
Speaker 1: of the tales of absinthe fuel madness probably come from

1318
01:16:42,800 --> 01:16:45,400
Speaker 1: the fact that there's just a high alcohol content in

1319
01:16:45,520 --> 01:16:49,360
Speaker 1: absence is compared to other, um, other other alcohols out there.

1320
01:16:49,360 --> 01:16:53,000
Speaker 1: It was traditionally bottled at a b V, so that's

1321
01:16:53,120 --> 01:16:56,560
Speaker 1: twice as alcoholic as your common gen So you the

1322
01:16:56,840 --> 01:16:58,840
Speaker 1: scare piece of New York Times, I think it said

1323
01:16:58,840 --> 01:17:02,840
Speaker 1: that it was ten times as dangerous as normal alcohol.

1324
01:17:03,640 --> 01:17:07,320
Speaker 1: Now you can without quibbling on how you you factor

1325
01:17:07,439 --> 01:17:09,320
Speaker 1: the numbers here, I think you could say it's at

1326
01:17:09,400 --> 01:17:12,639
Speaker 1: least twice as dangerous as normal alcohol, because it's twice

1327
01:17:12,680 --> 01:17:15,519
Speaker 1: as strong as most alcohols that would have been up

1328
01:17:15,520 --> 01:17:17,960
Speaker 1: there on the bar for your perusal. But then again,

1329
01:17:18,320 --> 01:17:21,760
Speaker 1: the traditional preparation about of absinthe as it served in

1330
01:17:21,840 --> 01:17:24,720
Speaker 1: the French cafes was to dilute it, that's right. And

1331
01:17:24,880 --> 01:17:27,720
Speaker 1: so if you're diluting it, I wouldn't even say it goes.

1332
01:17:28,080 --> 01:17:30,880
Speaker 1: It goes as far as the alcohol concentration, and it

1333
01:17:30,960 --> 01:17:33,679
Speaker 1: would would lead you to believe, because so the traditional

1334
01:17:34,200 --> 01:17:38,040
Speaker 1: UH production is you get this glass, it's got specially

1335
01:17:38,080 --> 01:17:40,720
Speaker 1: shaped glass back to these special glasses and making an

1336
01:17:40,760 --> 01:17:42,439
Speaker 1: event out of it. It's got this kind of bulge

1337
01:17:42,479 --> 01:17:44,880
Speaker 1: in the bottom, and your absence goes down in the

1338
01:17:44,920 --> 01:17:47,919
Speaker 1: bulge at the bottom, and then you put a slotted

1339
01:17:48,040 --> 01:17:50,120
Speaker 1: spoon on the top of the glass with a sugar

1340
01:17:50,240 --> 01:17:53,720
Speaker 1: cube on it, and then they would dribble cold ice

1341
01:17:53,800 --> 01:17:56,880
Speaker 1: cold water over the sugar cube and the spoon into

1342
01:17:57,600 --> 01:17:59,880
Speaker 1: the drink, and when the water hit the drink, it

1343
01:18:00,080 --> 01:18:03,599
Speaker 1: do this very interesting thing where the clear green absence

1344
01:18:03,640 --> 01:18:07,960
Speaker 1: would suddenly froth up and become this uh. It's often

1345
01:18:08,000 --> 01:18:12,400
Speaker 1: described as a pale green, milky type appearance. And I've

1346
01:18:12,400 --> 01:18:14,400
Speaker 1: seen to do that. It does quite look like that,

1347
01:18:15,280 --> 01:18:18,680
Speaker 1: like a cloud emerging in the depths of a crystal ball. Yeah,

1348
01:18:18,720 --> 01:18:21,439
Speaker 1: it's referred to as the lush, and it's very interesting

1349
01:18:21,520 --> 01:18:24,240
Speaker 1: because because you're like, wow, what's going on there? Chemically?

1350
01:18:24,360 --> 01:18:28,320
Speaker 1: What's going on is that the the water is is

1351
01:18:28,520 --> 01:18:32,280
Speaker 1: breaking up this the way that the oils from the

1352
01:18:32,360 --> 01:18:35,920
Speaker 1: plants are held in suspension in the liquor, and when

1353
01:18:35,960 --> 01:18:39,000
Speaker 1: the water enters it, it creates this emulsion essentially, like

1354
01:18:39,160 --> 01:18:41,080
Speaker 1: you know, you'd create an emulsion if you're making a

1355
01:18:41,160 --> 01:18:43,760
Speaker 1: vinaigrette and the salad dressing or something like that. The

1356
01:18:43,840 --> 01:18:46,960
Speaker 1: oils and the water get emulsified and so it clouds

1357
01:18:47,080 --> 01:18:50,679
Speaker 1: up and becomes rather beautiful. It's kind of nice it's

1358
01:18:50,760 --> 01:18:53,240
Speaker 1: this production. But it also does lead to the fact

1359
01:18:53,320 --> 01:18:56,000
Speaker 1: that you're deluding the drink with water, bringing it down

1360
01:18:56,560 --> 01:18:59,640
Speaker 1: probably closer to or even lower than the level of

1361
01:18:59,800 --> 01:19:02,040
Speaker 1: if you were dreating drinking a straight liquor of some

1362
01:19:02,160 --> 01:19:05,200
Speaker 1: other kind. And I believe in this space it's been

1363
01:19:05,200 --> 01:19:08,879
Speaker 1: a years since I had straight up absentthe in this scenario,

1364
01:19:09,360 --> 01:19:11,919
Speaker 1: it was at a place in New Orleans called Pravda.

1365
01:19:12,120 --> 01:19:13,400
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's still around. But it was

1366
01:19:13,479 --> 01:19:16,280
Speaker 1: a like a Soviet theme, like the word for truth. Yeah,

1367
01:19:16,400 --> 01:19:21,240
Speaker 1: like that, and also with the Soviet publication, and they

1368
01:19:21,280 --> 01:19:23,559
Speaker 1: did the whole ceremony. As I recall, they also had

1369
01:19:23,560 --> 01:19:26,960
Speaker 1: a version that involved fire, like a small amount of fire.

1370
01:19:27,000 --> 01:19:31,200
Speaker 1: Nothing flashy, no blueblazers here. But if of course fire

1371
01:19:31,320 --> 01:19:33,200
Speaker 1: is involved, you have the potential to burn off some

1372
01:19:33,280 --> 01:19:36,200
Speaker 1: of the alcohol as well, which would thus, uh make

1373
01:19:36,280 --> 01:19:40,360
Speaker 1: its alcoholic punch a little less. Yeah. But anyway, so

1374
01:19:41,400 --> 01:19:43,959
Speaker 1: you've had absence in in this case, I've had absence.

1375
01:19:44,160 --> 01:19:47,439
Speaker 1: It seems to be clear that modern absinthe is, you know,

1376
01:19:47,640 --> 01:19:50,519
Speaker 1: not any more dangerous than any other alcoholic drink, with

1377
01:19:50,680 --> 01:19:52,800
Speaker 1: all of the things that we should understand about the

1378
01:19:52,880 --> 01:19:57,160
Speaker 1: dangerous regular alcoholic drinks. Um, but there there, it doesn't

1379
01:19:57,479 --> 01:20:01,120
Speaker 1: carry this special drug like or poor isn't like property.

1380
01:20:01,720 --> 01:20:04,080
Speaker 1: So what was going on with all those experiments in

1381
01:20:04,120 --> 01:20:08,280
Speaker 1: the late eighteen hundreds showing absence to be a poisonous horror. Well,

1382
01:20:08,439 --> 01:20:11,439
Speaker 1: recently people have gone back and reviewed this research, and

1383
01:20:11,520 --> 01:20:14,040
Speaker 1: generally the problem appears to be that they were testing

1384
01:20:14,120 --> 01:20:18,679
Speaker 1: the effects of not absinthe itself, but of ridiculously high

1385
01:20:18,800 --> 01:20:23,439
Speaker 1: concentrations of thusion in the form of extracts and pure

1386
01:20:23,600 --> 01:20:28,240
Speaker 1: wormwood essence oil essential oils UH. And so the thing

1387
01:20:28,320 --> 01:20:31,519
Speaker 1: we know about doses is the dose makes the poison. Right,

1388
01:20:31,840 --> 01:20:34,120
Speaker 1: pretty much all of the food and drink we consume

1389
01:20:34,200 --> 01:20:37,639
Speaker 1: on a regular basis contains compounds that can be toxic

1390
01:20:37,760 --> 01:20:40,600
Speaker 1: and extremely large doses. So the question is, if you

1391
01:20:40,680 --> 01:20:42,920
Speaker 1: go out and get a bottle of absinthe, does it

1392
01:20:43,000 --> 01:20:46,479
Speaker 1: actually contain enough thujone to hurt you? Well, if you're

1393
01:20:46,520 --> 01:20:49,040
Speaker 1: getting it from a reputable distiller, the answer is no.

1394
01:20:50,880 --> 01:20:54,360
Speaker 1: So modern absinthe really doesn't have enough through jone uh

1395
01:20:54,439 --> 01:20:57,560
Speaker 1: to cause any of the effects in absence drinkers concentrations

1396
01:20:57,560 --> 01:21:00,519
Speaker 1: are small enough, the alcohol content is high enough that

1397
01:21:00,680 --> 01:21:04,120
Speaker 1: you would encounter toxicity due to alcohol way before you

1398
01:21:04,160 --> 01:21:07,120
Speaker 1: would ingest enough through jone to hurt you. But there's

1399
01:21:07,120 --> 01:21:10,840
Speaker 1: another question, what about the pre band absinthe, because maybe

1400
01:21:10,960 --> 01:21:13,600
Speaker 1: what's going on is that absinthe is safer now and

1401
01:21:13,720 --> 01:21:17,599
Speaker 1: safety standards were much lower back then. Well, there's actually

1402
01:21:17,640 --> 01:21:20,840
Speaker 1: been research on this as well. So in two thousand

1403
01:21:20,880 --> 01:21:24,440
Speaker 1: and eight there was a paper published by Dirk Lachenmeyer

1404
01:21:24,680 --> 01:21:29,120
Speaker 1: and at All called a Chemical Composition of vintage Preban

1405
01:21:29,240 --> 01:21:35,040
Speaker 1: absinthe with special reference to through Joan, finn shone, pinot, camphone, menthal, copper,

1406
01:21:35,120 --> 01:21:38,880
Speaker 1: and antimony concentration. So this is looking at old old

1407
01:21:38,920 --> 01:21:42,479
Speaker 1: bottles of absinthe from before the absinthe ban to say, okay,

1408
01:21:42,560 --> 01:21:45,120
Speaker 1: did they have something really poisonous going on in them?

1409
01:21:45,200 --> 01:21:49,759
Speaker 1: It looked at thirteen samples of vintage absinthe bottles dating

1410
01:21:49,800 --> 01:21:53,960
Speaker 1: back to before nineteen fifteen, and they were analyzed for

1411
01:21:54,240 --> 01:21:59,559
Speaker 1: toxicity including naturally occurring herbal lessences like through Joan all

1412
01:21:59,640 --> 01:22:03,960
Speaker 1: the ones I mentioned before, and then mental higher alcohols, copper,

1413
01:22:04,040 --> 01:22:08,479
Speaker 1: and antimony, and then they used gas chromatography and mass

1414
01:22:08,520 --> 01:22:12,920
Speaker 1: spectrometry analysis to reveal that quote. The total through jone

1415
01:22:13,000 --> 01:22:16,360
Speaker 1: content of Preban absinthe was found to range between about

1416
01:22:16,560 --> 01:22:20,600
Speaker 1: zero point five and about forty eight point three milligrams

1417
01:22:20,680 --> 01:22:25,719
Speaker 1: per leader of absinthe, with an average concentration of about

1418
01:22:26,439 --> 01:22:31,519
Speaker 1: twenty five milligrams per leader and a median concentration of

1419
01:22:31,720 --> 01:22:35,040
Speaker 1: thirty three milligrams per leader. How much is that? Turns

1420
01:22:35,080 --> 01:22:38,320
Speaker 1: out not that much. This shows that vintage absinthe from

1421
01:22:38,320 --> 01:22:41,320
Speaker 1: the pre Ban era is pretty much comparable to post

1422
01:22:41,400 --> 01:22:45,760
Speaker 1: ban and modern commercial absinthe in terms of toxic content. Uh,

1423
01:22:45,840 --> 01:22:50,120
Speaker 1: and they concluded, quote all things considered, nothing besides ethanol

1424
01:22:50,400 --> 01:22:52,759
Speaker 1: was found in the absence that was able to explain

1425
01:22:52,880 --> 01:22:55,760
Speaker 1: the syndrome absinthe is um. And I think that's a

1426
01:22:55,960 --> 01:22:58,439
Speaker 1: that's a good note to end on the absinthe discussion with,

1427
01:22:58,560 --> 01:23:01,640
Speaker 1: because from my perspective, I think the reasonable conclusion is

1428
01:23:01,720 --> 01:23:06,479
Speaker 1: that absinthe is um was in fact alcoholism by another name,

1429
01:23:07,280 --> 01:23:11,559
Speaker 1: rebranded alcoholism if you will. And this is a good reminder,

1430
01:23:11,600 --> 01:23:13,600
Speaker 1: I guess not to end on a down note, but

1431
01:23:14,160 --> 01:23:16,679
Speaker 1: but that we should always be careful when we're thinking

1432
01:23:16,720 --> 01:23:20,240
Speaker 1: about about alcoholic drinks, because, as we pointed out, I mean,

1433
01:23:20,439 --> 01:23:24,000
Speaker 1: ethanol is in some sense a poison. It is in

1434
01:23:24,160 --> 01:23:28,479
Speaker 1: some sense a thing that is impairing our bodies. Now, generally,

1435
01:23:28,840 --> 01:23:32,080
Speaker 1: responsible adults can learn to manage their ingestion of ethanol

1436
01:23:32,160 --> 01:23:34,479
Speaker 1: in a way that's not too harmful in the long

1437
01:23:34,600 --> 01:23:37,800
Speaker 1: term to themselves or others. But it's it's something we

1438
01:23:37,880 --> 01:23:39,759
Speaker 1: have to be careful with. It's a it's a dragon

1439
01:23:39,840 --> 01:23:42,280
Speaker 1: in a cage. Yeah, I mean, if you, if you

1440
01:23:42,400 --> 01:23:45,720
Speaker 1: really tease it apart, what is any cocktail but a

1441
01:23:45,960 --> 01:23:50,960
Speaker 1: balance of poisons that you then drink uh, and yeah,

1442
01:23:51,000 --> 01:23:55,080
Speaker 1: there's there's there's there's certainly a danger in consuming too much,

1443
01:23:55,479 --> 01:23:57,160
Speaker 1: and there's you know, and certain people are going to

1444
01:23:57,200 --> 01:24:01,559
Speaker 1: be more susceptible to problems than others. So certainly use

1445
01:24:01,840 --> 01:24:07,480
Speaker 1: use caution, uh, employer better judgment when choosing witch cocktails

1446
01:24:07,479 --> 01:24:09,800
Speaker 1: and how many to consume or if to consume at all.

1447
01:24:10,240 --> 01:24:12,240
Speaker 1: And again, to come back to mocktails, I will say

1448
01:24:12,280 --> 01:24:16,000
Speaker 1: there are some fabulous mocktail recipes out there. Oh yeah,

1449
01:24:16,080 --> 01:24:19,920
Speaker 1: So for our listeners who are underage or who are teetotallers, Robert,

1450
01:24:19,960 --> 01:24:22,800
Speaker 1: what what's a great mocktail for that you would recommend? Okay,

1451
01:24:22,840 --> 01:24:25,240
Speaker 1: there's a recent New York Times article that came out

1452
01:24:25,840 --> 01:24:30,640
Speaker 1: because when they're not when they're not shaming absinthe in

1453
01:24:30,680 --> 01:24:34,880
Speaker 1: previous times, they're putting out mocktail articles in our modern times.

1454
01:24:35,040 --> 01:24:36,840
Speaker 1: But there's a mocktail article that came out recently, and

1455
01:24:36,880 --> 01:24:39,920
Speaker 1: they included a recipe for something called a Mombai mule,

1456
01:24:40,439 --> 01:24:44,559
Speaker 1: which you can serve in the copper uh containers if

1457
01:24:44,560 --> 01:24:47,680
Speaker 1: you like. But it's a wonderful concoction that has uh

1458
01:24:48,000 --> 01:24:52,120
Speaker 1: believe it was a coconut cream or coconut milk. A

1459
01:24:52,160 --> 01:24:56,439
Speaker 1: few different spices, some citrus, and it has all the

1460
01:24:56,720 --> 01:24:59,080
Speaker 1: complexities because I guess one of the things that you

1461
01:24:59,200 --> 01:25:02,720
Speaker 1: instantly think, what if you take the liquor and the

1462
01:25:02,840 --> 01:25:04,760
Speaker 1: liqueurs out of a cocktail, what are you left with

1463
01:25:04,880 --> 01:25:08,120
Speaker 1: but some juices? Well, this drink, uh, I think is

1464
01:25:08,120 --> 01:25:10,600
Speaker 1: a nice answer to that, because you get this this

1465
01:25:10,880 --> 01:25:16,360
Speaker 1: balance of different flavor notes uh in the ingredients without

1466
01:25:16,479 --> 01:25:20,960
Speaker 1: actually having to engage alcohol. So look around. You know

1467
01:25:21,040 --> 01:25:24,479
Speaker 1: there's some definitely some lesser mocktails out there, but but

1468
01:25:24,600 --> 01:25:28,599
Speaker 1: there are some very finely crafted concoctions that don't involve

1469
01:25:28,640 --> 01:25:32,360
Speaker 1: alcohol but do give you this appreciation for the process

1470
01:25:32,920 --> 01:25:35,720
Speaker 1: and and and also in appreciation for just the rich

1471
01:25:35,800 --> 01:25:39,200
Speaker 1: flavor profile. Though my one criticism is that they too,

1472
01:25:39,479 --> 01:25:41,880
Speaker 1: they do tend to go down a bit fast without

1473
01:25:41,920 --> 01:25:44,840
Speaker 1: the alcohol in them. Yeah. I don't know if I

1474
01:25:44,920 --> 01:25:46,320
Speaker 1: told you this. When I was a kid, I was

1475
01:25:46,400 --> 01:25:49,799
Speaker 1: a big fan of virgin bloody Mary's. Oh but bloody

1476
01:25:49,840 --> 01:25:52,679
Speaker 1: Mary with no alcohol in it? Uh. Though it wasn't

1477
01:25:52,720 --> 01:25:55,800
Speaker 1: even I wasn't even preparing what would be recognized by

1478
01:25:55,840 --> 01:25:58,080
Speaker 1: a bartender as a proper bloody Mary mix. What I

1479
01:25:58,200 --> 01:26:01,360
Speaker 1: was drinking was like a can of vate with a

1480
01:26:01,760 --> 01:26:05,200
Speaker 1: lot of tabasco sauce and celery salts in it. Well,

1481
01:26:05,200 --> 01:26:07,599
Speaker 1: it's kind of like the rob Roys and the Shirley Temples.

1482
01:26:07,880 --> 01:26:10,960
Speaker 1: Like I remember going out to dinner and and my

1483
01:26:11,080 --> 01:26:13,439
Speaker 1: dad got a cocktail and I got to get a

1484
01:26:13,560 --> 01:26:16,720
Speaker 1: rob Roy And you know, that's just what it's. It's

1485
01:26:16,840 --> 01:26:20,000
Speaker 1: it's not the most finely balanced of a of a mocktail.

1486
01:26:20,080 --> 01:26:23,799
Speaker 1: It's just like ginger rail and uh and in my experience,

1487
01:26:23,840 --> 01:26:26,760
Speaker 1: like the bad Maraschino cherry is not the real Maraschino chair.

1488
01:26:27,640 --> 01:26:30,840
Speaker 1: Um Maraschino Cherry is, by the way, a fabulous story

1489
01:26:31,280 --> 01:26:33,560
Speaker 1: just about those and I believe that shows up in

1490
01:26:33,560 --> 01:26:36,920
Speaker 1: The Drunken Botanists. So another reason to pick up that book. Well,

1491
01:26:36,920 --> 01:26:39,000
Speaker 1: if we ever come back to doing more episodes on

1492
01:26:39,080 --> 01:26:42,320
Speaker 1: food and drink, maybe we should explore cherry science. Oh yeah,

1493
01:26:42,360 --> 01:26:44,160
Speaker 1: there's so much. I mean, we've touched on cherry science

1494
01:26:44,160 --> 01:26:47,400
Speaker 1: a little bit in our most recent Dangerous Foods episode. Yeah,

1495
01:26:47,439 --> 01:26:50,519
Speaker 1: don't grind up those pits, yeah, because that would be

1496
01:26:50,680 --> 01:26:54,759
Speaker 1: that would make for pretty nefarious cocktail right there. Okay,

1497
01:26:54,920 --> 01:26:56,720
Speaker 1: so hey, if you want to explore some of the

1498
01:26:56,760 --> 01:26:59,160
Speaker 1: links we talked about here, check out the landing page

1499
01:26:59,200 --> 01:27:01,240
Speaker 1: for this episode is have to Blow Your Mind dot com.

1500
01:27:01,600 --> 01:27:05,040
Speaker 1: That's where we'll find podcast videos, blog post links out

1501
01:27:05,040 --> 01:27:08,480
Speaker 1: to our various social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, Instagram.

1502
01:27:08,920 --> 01:27:10,679
Speaker 1: Who knows what they'll be in the future will probably

1503
01:27:10,720 --> 01:27:13,640
Speaker 1: be on those two. We will probably active and if

1504
01:27:13,640 --> 01:27:15,360
Speaker 1: you want to get in touch with us, as always,

1505
01:27:15,400 --> 01:27:17,479
Speaker 1: you can email us at blow the Mind at how

1506
01:27:17,600 --> 01:27:30,120
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com for more on this and thousands

1507
01:27:30,160 --> 01:27:32,519
Speaker 1: of other topics. Is that how stuff works dot com.