The Curious Bartender Podcast

Tristan Stephenson

Long-form conversations with the leading minds in drinks, spanning history, science, culture, and craft, with bestselling author and bartender Tristan Stephenson.

  1. #84 Jörg Meyer - Gin Basil Smash, 50 Best Bars, Le Lion, German Bar Scene

    3 hrs ago

    #84 Jörg Meyer - Gin Basil Smash, 50 Best Bars, Le Lion, German Bar Scene

    Jörg Meyer is the founder of Le Lion — Bar de Paris in Hamburg, one of the most consistently recognised cocktail bars in the world and the birthplace of the Gin Basil Smash, a drink he created in 2008 that now accounts for upwards of 25,000 pours a year at Le Lion alone and has become one of the few genuine modern classics produced outside London and New York. In this episode we go deep on the full origin story of that drink: the Whiskey Smash he fell for at Pegu Club in New York, the G'Vine recipe booklet with a basil garnish that caught his eye, the batch of basil he borrowed from a restaurant warehouse next door, and the blog post on July 10th 2008 that set the whole thing in motion. We talk about the strange position of being a committed classicist who loves two-ingredient drinks and measures success in restraint... and yet being best known for a vivid green herb cocktail that outsells everything else on the menu by a considerable margin. Along the way we get into the surprisingly technical world of basil sourcing (500 kilograms a year, with quality varying dramatically by country of origin), why over-muddling produces a drink that tastes of chlorophyll rather than basil, and what a gin fizz served at Bar High Five in Tokyo taught Jörg about the cost of too much lemon. We also get into the World's 50 Best Bars list in considerable depth — Jörg was on it for seven consecutive years, peaked at number 16 in 2013, and has since developed a very clear-eyed view of what the list actually is, how it can be gamed, and why being on it can sometimes be more damaging than helpful for small independent bars. Elsewhere we cover the Diageo World Class competition and what happened when Jörg started asking questions about how it was being run in Russia, the business mechanics of Le Lion right now (sales up 30% without a price increase), the Le Lion summer pass modelled on an 80s German youth leisure scheme, and a Midori cocktail that a Ueno San of High Five in Tokyo served him with barely concealed contempt. We end on Germany's bar scene — where it came from, where it is, and Jörg's honest and slightly uncomfortable answer to the question of what Germany uniquely contributes to global cocktail culture.📷 Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tristanstephenson/📚 I've written quite a few books on spirits and cocktails - https://www.thecuriousbartender.com/

    1h 32m
  2. #83 Bruce Russell - Wild Turkey, Rye, Barrels, Blending, Custodianship, Bourbon Glut, Jimmy Russell, Eddie Russell, Vintage Bourbon

    Jun 22

    #83 Bruce Russell - Wild Turkey, Rye, Barrels, Blending, Custodianship, Bourbon Glut, Jimmy Russell, Eddie Russell, Vintage Bourbon

    This week we're filming on location at Wild Turkey in Lawrenceburg, sitting in the old station house with Bruce Russell — third-generation whiskey maker and associate blender, grandson and son of the two living legends whose names hang over the place: Jimmy Russell, the longest-tenured master distiller of any spirit, and his son Eddie. Bruce was headed for a career in robotics until a summer giving distillery tours, and one quietly devastating afternoon when his introverted father walked his tour and told him he didn't know much of anything, redirected the whole course of his life. We get into what it means to carry a name like Russell, the freedom in being told you'll never be Jimmy or Eddie so you'd better be yourself, and the uncanny way personality and palate skip a generation. We discover Jimmy's handwritten 1950s notebooks and the by-hand, by-feel craft that's quietly vanishing, chase the elusive "Wild Turkey Funk" of vintage bourbon and ask whether it can ever be made again. We don't dodge the state of the market — the glut, the overproduction, the correction coming around 2029-30, and why the big houses ride out storms that sink smaller players. There's plenty for the nerds: angel's share losses of 75 to 90 percent on the oldest barrels, the freakish top floors at Camp Nelson where the highest-proof whiskey somehow tastes the best, and how a single recipe becomes Jimmy whiskey or Eddie whiskey depending only on the warehouse. We trace the rise of rye, the difference between Wild Turkey's stewardship and the offence of Russell's Reserve, and the tight, almost familial culture binding the Kentucky distilling families. Along the way we taste through some genuinely rare liquid: Bruce's first solo project - Austin Nichols Gold Foil 16 Year Old - a sneak peek of Russell's 13 made for Eddie's 45th anniversary, then onto the near-mythical Russell's 1998, and hear how Generations brought all three Russells together for what turned out to be the last whiskey Jimmy actively worked on. We finish on a Wild Turkey that travelled to Japan, took on a second life at Chichibu, and came back tasting like nothing any of us expected.

    1h 58m
  3. #82 Simon Ford - Ford's Gin, Plymouth Gin, 86 Co., Martinis, London, NYC, First Brand Ambassador, Tales of the Cocktail,

    Jun 15

    #82 Simon Ford - Ford's Gin, Plymouth Gin, 86 Co., Martinis, London, NYC, First Brand Ambassador, Tales of the Cocktail,

    Simon Ford is the co-founder of The 86 Co. and creator of Ford's Gin, and the man widely credited as the first brand ambassador the modern spirits industry ever produced (though he's not so sure about that). In this episode, we trace his career from a London wine shop job secured despite admitting he didn't actually like wine, through his years at Ideal Brands working on Absolut alongside Nick Blacknell, Dick Bradsell and Wayne Collins, to opening the celebrated Koba bar in Brighton and the call that sent him off to launch Plymouth Gin around the world. We follow Simon through his years as Plymouth's North America ambassador, the move to New York in 2006 at the height of the craft cocktail renaissance, and the senior Pernod Ricard directorship he turned down to build something of his own. We dig deep into the founding of The 86 Co. in 2012 alongside Employees Only's Jason Kosmas and Dushan Zaric — the survey of 149 bartenders that shaped Ford's Gin, the 90-plus formula iterations before Simon was satisfied, the moment Dale DeGroff invested on the spot after tasting it at the distillery, and the blind taste test at Pegu Club where Audrey Saunders put Ford's up against 14 other gins and Simon picked it out. We cover the famously oversubscribed Tales of the Cocktail launch party in 2013 (which I was at), the 2019 acquisition by Brown-Forman — including the full story of how it came together and the day Simon fell fully clothed into a pond on the Louisville campus — and the unvarnished realities of scaling a spirit brand from nothing. The episode closes with Simon's current projects: a campaign to revive sloe gin, a new Ford's innovation in development at Thames Distillers, and the annual Ford's Gin party at Tales of the Cocktail. 🥃 Get 15% off the world's best drinking vessels at ⁠Denver & Liely⁠ using the discount code CURIOUS15 at checkout ☕ Get 15% off the best coffee liqueur I have tried at ⁠Algebra Drinks ⁠with code CURIOUS15

    2h 15m
  4. #81 Valentine Warner - Food & Art, Eating Seasons, Douglas Fir, Cider, Hepple, Nick Strangeway

    Jun 8

    #81 Valentine Warner - Food & Art, Eating Seasons, Douglas Fir, Cider, Hepple, Nick Strangeway

    Valentine Warner is a chef, food writer and broadcaster who trained as a portrait painter before swapping the brush for the spoon in the kitchens of Alastair Little. He went on to make his name on BBC2 with What to Eat Now and a run of further series, and is co-founder of the Moorland Spirit Company, the Northumberland distillery behind Hepple Gin, as well as curator of the immersive food-and-craft retreat series Kitchen in the Wild. We talk cider as Britain's lost wine, the chef's view of saké, and the allure of martinis. We dig into a Dorset childhood spent dividing the world into edible and inedible — including the eating of his sister's paints — the lessons of Alastair Little's kitchen, and why he insists he isn't a forager. On Hepple we get the founder's view on Douglas fir, supercritical CO2 extraction, why no one else was using green juniper berries, and what a properly built martini actually requires. We then turn to the closing of the Norwegian chapter and what comes next for Kitchen in the Wild, a portrait of Nick Strangeway, the state of British hospitality, and the in-progress Sketchbook Cookbook. 🍋‍🟩 Fever-Tree - For the very best mixers that taste pretty damn good even by themselves☕ Algebra Drinks - The world's best coffee liqueur (partly because it's low in sugar - get 15% off at http://www.algebradrinks.com with the code CURIOUS15🌾 Belvedere Vodka - Organic vodka, with substance, made from Polish rye and absolutely no additives.🍷 Denver & Liely - The best glassware on the planet - get 15% off at http://www.denverandliely.com with the code CURIOUS15📷 Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tristanstephenson/📚 I've written quite a few books on spirits and cocktails - https://www.thecuriousbartender.com/

    1h 17m
  5. #80 Julio Bermejo - 61 Years of Tommy's, Tequila Production, Margaritas, Mexico, 100% Agave, Dre Masso, Tom Estes

    Jun 1

    #80 Julio Bermejo - 61 Years of Tommy's, Tequila Production, Margaritas, Mexico, 100% Agave, Dre Masso, Tom Estes

    Julio Bermejo is the owner of Tommy's Mexican Restaurant in San Francisco, which is the bar credited by the Wall Street Journal as "the epicentre of tequila in the United States" and the place where the Tommy's Margarita was created in the 90's. In this episode we trace his journey from the family's Yucatecan roots and the early days of a restaurant that didn't even hold a liquor licence until 1972, through his decision in the mid-1980s to go exclusively 100% agave on the well — years before the mainstream caught up — and into the creation of the Blue Agave Club, now with over 7,000 members worldwide. We get into the philosophy behind the Tommy's Margarita itself: why agave syrup replaced triple sec, and how Dre Masso, Henry Besant and others carried the drink into bars globally before it became the first venue-specific cocktail ever added to the IBA Official list. Julio also shares what his early distillery trips taught him, from meetings with Guillermo Romo de la Peña at Herradura, Don Felipe Camarena at Tapatio and Fernando Gonzales at Siete Leguas, to the lesson about never putting your opinions in a tequila menu — as well as his principled stance on regulation and safety, the Highland versus Valley divide, what agave boom-and-bust cycles reveal about the industry, and the persistent problem of contracted tequilas and shifting NOM numbers. We also talk about Tommy's post-pandemic reality, what his mother Elmy — now 92 — still brings to the place, and the 60 pop-ups in 20-plus countries he did to mark the restaurant's 60th anniversary.🍋‍🟩 Fever-Tree - For the very best mixers that taste pretty damn good even by themselves☕ Algebra Drinks - The world's best coffee liqueur (partly because it's low in sugar - get 15% off at http://www.algebradrinks.com with the code CURIOUS15🌾 Belvedere Vodka - Organic vodka, with substance, made from Polish rye and absolutely no additives.🍷 Denver & Liely - The best glassware on the planet - get 15% off at http://www.denverandliely.com with the code CURIOUS15

    2h 6m
  6. #79 Yumi Yoshikawa - Chichibu Distillery, Ichiro Akuto, Japanese Whisky, Mizunara Oak, Floor Malting, Scotch Whisky

    May 25

    #79 Yumi Yoshikawa - Chichibu Distillery, Ichiro Akuto, Japanese Whisky, Mizunara Oak, Floor Malting, Scotch Whisky

    Yumi Yoshikawa is the global brand ambassador for Chichibu Distillery, the small operation in Saitama Prefecture, Japan, which has become the most celebrated whisky producer in the world. We map out the full picture: two malt distilleries in Chichibu and a brand-new grain distillery that started production in Hokkaido in January 2026, before going deep into what actually happens at Distillery I — the multi-origin barley programme, the floor malting Ichiro Akuto spent years visiting England to learn, the Mizunara oak washbacks and the lactic bacteria they bring to every fermentation, and the switch to direct fire at Distillery II that Ichiro always wanted but waited a decade to attempt. We discuss cask management and work through an extraordinary range of wood: bourbon, sherry, wine, cognac, rum, Madeira, port, IPA beer, tequila and the occasional grappa cask. We taste three whiskies together, including the first UK pour of the Distillery II single malt, an unreleased Double Distilleries blend, and a cask sample straight from the warehouse — seven years old, local Japanese barley, 59.4%, 100% Mizunara Oak — that has no right to taste as good as it does. We also cover Ichiro's story: 21 generations of brewing, the loss of Hanyu, the rescue of 400 casks and the two years he spent visiting 2,000 bars across Japan to build support for a distillery he hadn't yet opened. Yumi's own journey closes things out: a bartender who cycled around Scotland with her CV, worked at The Highlander Inn in Craigellachie alongside a young Tatsuya Minagawa, negotiated simultaneous seasons at both The Highlander and Bruichladdich, and joined Chichibu in 2013 With thanks to our sponsors: Fever-Tree Mixers for the best fizzy liquids going Belvedere for additive free, organic Polish vodka 🥃 Get 15% off the world's best drinking vessels at ⁠Denver & Liely⁠ using the discount code CURIOUS15 at checkout ☕ Get 15% off the best coffee liqueur I have tried at ⁠Algebra Drinks ⁠with code CURIOUS15 📷 ⁠Follow me on Instagram⁠ 📚 I've written ⁠quite a few books⁠ on spirits and cocktails

    1h 22m
  7. #78 Freddy Andreasson - El Gallo Altinero, Tequila & Jalisco, 50 Best, Terroir, Coffee

    May 18

    #78 Freddy Andreasson - El Gallo Altinero, Tequila & Jalisco, 50 Best, Terroir, Coffee

    Freddy Andreasson is a 6'4" Swede from the small town of Falkenburg who grew up working a conveyor belt at the Falcon Brewery, spent his late teens dealing weed, and bought a one-way ticket to Melbourne with the proceeds.He arrived in Melbourne with nowhere to stay and a litre of Jim Beam in his bag. That journey through Australian kitchens and coffee machines, via a period of real personal darkness in Guadalajara, eventually led him to co-found El Gallo Altanero in 2017: a bar dedicated entirely to independent agave spirits from Jalisco, with a menu that changed every week. Eight years in, the bar the bar has been featured on global 50 Best list, and Freddy has just been named the 2026 Altos Bartenders' Bartender Award winner for North America — the only peer-voted accolade in the programme. On the episode we talk about what it actually takes to earn the trust of Mexican tequila producers as an outsider, why terroir means more in agave than almost anywhere else in the spirits world, and what happened when the 50 Best spotlight hit a bar that was never designed to be a destination. We also get into the new bar — Fandango, a classics-only concept two years in the making, built around a simple question: what do you actually want to drink? — plus the politics of mezcal DOCs, raicilla, why the most romantic bars in the world are often the most stubborn, and a dream distillery project coming soon. With thanks to our sponsors: 🍋‍🟩 Fever-Tree - For the very best mixers that taste pretty damn good even by themselves 🌾 Belvedere Vodka - Organic vodka, with substance, made from Polish rye and absolutely no additives. 🍷 Denver & Liely - The best glassware on the planet - get 15% off at http://www.denverandliely.com with the code CURIOUS15 📷 Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tristanstephenson/📚 I've written quite a few books on spirits and cocktails - https://www.thecuriousbartender.com/

    1h 39m
  8. #77 Liam Davy - Director of Bars for 14 Hawksmoor Restaurants: Martinis, US vs UK Drinking, Gen Z, Natural Wine, Mezcal, Pubs

    May 11

    #77 Liam Davy - Director of Bars for 14 Hawksmoor Restaurants: Martinis, US vs UK Drinking, Gen Z, Natural Wine, Mezcal, Pubs

    Liam Davy is Director of Bars at Hawksmoor, the British steakhouse group that's grown from a single Spitalfields opening in 2006 to fourteen sites across the UK, Ireland and the US, with Boston due in September. We sat down after a night at Hawksmoor's new St Pancras Martini Bar, which has sold over twenty thousand martinis since November.On the episode we dig into what it's like running a bar programme across cities and countries: what travels, what doesn't, and why a steakhouse group has bet so hard on the martini. We talk about the gin boom and its bust, why the Hawksmoor cocktail list is deliberately unfussy and built around the steakhouse experience, and what genuine training looks like inside a fast-growing group. We also get into his time outside Hawksmoor — running the Bad Sports taco place on Hackney Road and co-creating the War in Terroir Instagram account, the wine influencer parody that started during a stretch of unemployment and ended up shaping how a lot of the trade now talks about natural wine. Along the way we cover the cost of going out, what Gen Z actually want from bars, hospitality in the age of top-50 lists and content creators, the operators he genuinely rates — Dukes, the Connaught, Attaboy, Three Sheets, Bar Snack — the institutions that never miss, the elegant decline of bars that fall off lists, the state of British pubs, the resurgence of mezcal, and of course Shaky Pete's Ginger Brew. 🍷 War on Terroir - https://www.instagram.com/waronterroir/A shout out to our sponsors:🍋‍🟩 Fever-Tree - For the very best mixers that taste pretty damn good even by themselves☕ Algebra Drinks - The world's best coffee liqueur (partly because it's low in sugar - get 15% off at https://www.algebradrinks.com with the code CURIOUS15🌾 Belvedere Vodka - Organic vodka, with substance, made from Polish rye with absolutely no additives🍷 Denver & Liely - The best glassware on the planet - get 15% off at https://www.denverandliely.com with the code CURIOUS15 00:00:00 Hawksmoor's new Martini Bar at St Pancras00:02:34 14 restaurants and Boston coming next00:03:19 Why a martini bar00:05:08 The martini's cultural moment00:08:13 Gin's boom, bubble and aftermath00:09:52 Running a bar programme across cities and countries00:13:37 Lessons from the great American steakhouses00:17:03 How a British steakhouse plays in America00:21:39 Recruitment and training inside a growing group00:27:07 Liam's Hawksmoor history00:28:45 Bad Sports, hot dogs and Surfside Cornwall00:43:06 Lessons for anyone opening their own place00:47:38 The state of pubs and independents00:52:28 Who's doing it right00:55:33 The cost of going out01:00:19 Gen Z, phones and the truth about drinking habits01:09:59 War on Terroir: the wine parody Instagram01:14:51 Tribal drinking, natural wine, mezcal01:21:15 We are not normal: rethinking who bars are for01:25:26 Hospitality as entertainment and top 50 culture01:32:26 Dukes, Connaught, attaboy: institutions that don't miss01:39:52 Awards, recognition and elegant decline01:43:50 Shaky Pete's Ginger Brew01:46:45 20,000 martinis since November01:47:42 The Sour Cherry Negroni's lockdown roots01:48:36 Boston Hawksmoor01:55:05 Bringing UK bars on tour01:59:07 Mezcal, education and final thoughts📷 Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tristanstephenson/📚 I've written quite a few books on spirits and cocktails - https://www.thecuriousbartender.com/

    2h 2m
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

Long-form conversations with the leading minds in drinks, spanning history, science, culture, and craft, with bestselling author and bartender Tristan Stephenson.

Information

  • Creator
    Tristan Stephenson
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    84
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Tristan Stephenson
  • Show Website
    The Curious Bartender Podcast

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