Folktails. Better Drinks, Less Noise.

Alf del Portillo
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  • Food
  • Biweekly

A folktail is what I call a street drink: popular, cheap and rooted in a place. Kalimotxo, Rebujito, Fernandito, a Berliner Weisse with syrup. Every week I follow one folktail: where it comes from, who drinks it and what it says about the place. Through it, I tell you the bar and hospitality industry news. To finish, I answer one-star reviews of some of the best bars in the world. I’m Alf del Portillo, bartender and co-owner of Quattro Teste in Lisbon. A podcast made from behind the bar, about fifteen minutes long. New episode every week.

Episodes

  1. 3d ago

    Poncha: Madeira's Drink With More Legends Than Inventors

    In a tavern in the mountains of Madeira, the floor is covered in peanut shells and the walls are covered in business cards. And on the bar, a short glass with no ice: poncha. This week on Folktails: cane spirit, lemon, sugar or honey, and a wooden stick with a name I won't translate. Where poncha comes from, and why it's younger than it looks. Why "pescador" and "regional" are not the same drink. And the fight on the island to keep poncha real. With Augusto Ribeiro, bar manager at Three House Club in Madeira, on how Madeirans really drink it, and the one thing a real poncha must never have. Plus: Danil Nevsky on how minimalism ruined bartending, and why at Quattro Teste we still finish every drink in front of you. Better Drinks, Less Noise. 🍋 POncha à Pescador (fisherman's poncha) 50 ml Madeira cane spirit (aguardente de cana / rhum agricole) Peel of 1 lemon 1 heaped spoon of white sugar Fresh lemon juice, to taste Crush the peel with the sugar, add the lemon juice and the spirit, and stir hard with a wooden stick (mexelote). Short glass, no ice. (Or with ice, if it's summer.) Poncha Regional: cane spirit, orange juice, lemon juice and honey. Augusto makes it with "mel de cana", cane honey. 🎙 Guest Augusto Ribeiro, Three House Club, Madeira [@usuario] 📰 Mentioned in this episode Danil Nevsky, "How minimalism ruined bartending", Drinks International: https://drinksint.com/how-minimalism-ruined-bartending/ António Rosa Santos, "Poncha sim, mistela não", Diário de Notícias da Madeira: https://www.dnoticias.pt/2026/1/6/476390-poncha-sim-mistela-nao/ Austin Bush, on A Venda do André, Punch: https://punchdrink.com/?p=155495 Taberna da Poncha, DN Madeira: https://www.dnoticias.pt/2019/9/5/68401-taberna-da-poncha-um-marco-na-freguesia-da-serra-dagua/ Time Out Madeira, best places to drink poncha: https://www.timeout.com/madeira/bars-and-pubs/the-best-places-to-drink-poncha-in-madeira Essential Madeira, "The poncha ambassadors": https://www.essential-madeira.com/en/index.php/features/1107-the-poncha-ambassadors Elucidário Madeirense: https://elucidariomadeirense.pt 🎵 Music: [título] by [artista], via Epidemic Sound 👋 Follow me Linktree: https://linktr.ee/folktailsbyalf Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alfdelportillo TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alf.del.portillo YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@folk_tails Substack: https://folktails.substack.com

    Poncha: Madeira's Drink With More Legends Than Inventors

  2. Oct 28

    Ep. 3: Red or Green? Berlin’s Sour Beer, a Shorter BCB and a Review That Says “Order a Beer”

    In a Berlin beer hall, before they pour your Berliner Weisse, they ask you one question: red or green? This week’s folktail is a sour wheat beer with a shot of syrup that survived by getting smaller. Bar Convent Berlin, the most important bar show of the year, is about to try the same. A folktail is what I call a street drink: popular, cheap and rooted in a place. Every week I follow one and, through it, tell you the bar and hospitality industry news, in about fifteen minutes. In this episode: The Berliner Weisse mit Schuss: the “Champagne of the North” (legend or not), old bottles aged like wine, and why Berliners started adding raspberry and woodruff syrup around 1900Bar Convent Berlin (BCB) drops from three days to two in 2027, after around 11,000 visitors in its 20th editionZana Möhlmann (Manhattan Bar, Singapore) wins Diageo World Class 2026 with a barrel-aged Rob Roy. I met her in Amsterdam, when she was at Flying Dutchmen Cocktails and Super Lyan, and she was the one who recommended my barberAna Roš (Hiša Franko, Slovenia) won’t travel to Lima for The 50 Best Restaurants gala, even though she’s number 60 on the listMax Shapiro vs Massimo Bottura: “the worst meal of my life” at Osteria Francescana, and the answer in the Instagram commentsWhat one extra star on Yelp or Google Maps means for an independent restaurant, according to a Harvard Business School study by Michael LucaWhy every new café and wine bar looks the same, from Bilbao to Lisbon to Mexico CityThink Drinks’ UK trends report: are we drinking less, or just lighter? Plus the rise of the Hugo Spritz and low-ABV drinksAbsolut x Charli XCX, “I love Dirty Martini” T-shirts and a song called “Card Declined”Coming up: Lucerne Cocktail Week, Athens Bar Show (3–4 November), The 50 Best Restaurants in Lima (4 November), Puerto Rico Cocktail Week (8–14 November), the first Manchester Cocktail Festival (from 9 November) and Bar Convent Berlin 2027 (4–5 October). And to finish, two one-star Google reviews for two of the best cocktail bars in the world. One says skip the cocktails and order a beer. Which bars? Listen and find out. Folktails is a weekly podcast about cocktails, bartending and the bar and hospitality industry, made from behind the bar by Alf del Portillo, bartender and co-owner of Quattro Teste in Lisbon. Follow me:Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/alfdelportillo⁠Linktree: ⁠https://linktr.ee/folktailsbyalf⁠YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@folk_tails⁠Substack: https://folktails.substack.com TikTok: ⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@alf.del.portillo⁠

    Ep. 3: Red or Green? Berlin’s Sour Beer, a Shorter BCB and a Review That Says “Order a Beer”

  3. Oct 19

    Ep. 2: Californian dive bars, VAT, BCB and other acronyms I can't explain

    A mother in a Spanish village with no bus needed a bar that would feed her daughter once a week. That bar will never be on a list, and this was the week the bar industry sat down to grade itself. In this episode: Bar Convent Berlin turns twenty, drops to two days, and why the third day mattersThe 50 Best Bars list: Bar Leone, London down to three, Hamish Smith (CLASS Magazine) and Tyler ZielinskiKings Heath, Birmingham: Matt Wilden (Perro) and Katie Rouse (Couch) open a bar. Chelsie Bailey (Happiness Forgets) on moving to London. Abraham RiveraTom Kerridge's VAT petition, the British Beer and Pub Association on pub closures, and why I think rent is the bigger squeezeRules and the National TrustThe KAM report on alcohol-free drinks, and what it means behind the barNoah Galuten in Punch on the beach dive bars of southern California, and Plus two reviews of reviews of cocktail bars. Follow me:Instagram: https://instagram.com/alfdelportilloTikTok and everything else: https://linktr.ee/folktailsbyalfYouTube: https://youtube.com/@folk_tailsSubstack: https://folktails.substack.com

    Ep. 2: Californian dive bars, VAT, BCB and other acronyms I can't explain

  4. Oct 12

    Ep. 1: 50 Best & A Bartender Older Than Your Grandpa

    The number for the week is three — the British bars in this year’s World’s 50 Best list. In the first episode of Folktails, we dig into what the new rankings actually say about who’s rising, who’s falling, and whether novelty has quietly become the real currency of the list (the bars climbing have been open 5 years on average; the ones falling, 9). Plus: US craft distilleries closing faster than they’re opening, Southern Glazer’s getting sued over pricing to small retailers, London Cocktail Week scraps its festival-wide fee, a Tamago Sando goes viral for all the wrong reasons, and the story that stopped us in our tracks — a 103-year-old bartender in Maryland still pouring drinks in his cash-only basement, 60 years in. We also read (and roast) a couple of real reviews left at Bar Leone and The Clumsies, break down a new technique called “Frost Bloom,” and look ahead to what’s coming at Bar Convent Berlin. Folktails is a weekly podcast about hospitality, food and drink — cocktails and bartending at the center — hosted by Alf, bartender and co-owner of Quattro Teste in Lisbon. Follow along:Instagram — @alfdelportillo / @quattro.testeTikTok & YouTube — @folk_tailsNewsletter — folktails.substack.comEverything in one place — linktr.ee/folktailsbyalf Got news, feedback, or something you want us to talk about? Write to alf@etxealisboa.com New episodes every week. Better drinks, less noise.

    Ep. 1: 50 Best & A Bartender Older Than Your Grandpa
  • 4 Episodes

About

A folktail is what I call a street drink: popular, cheap and rooted in a place. Kalimotxo, Rebujito, Fernandito, a Berliner Weisse with syrup. Every week I follow one folktail: where it comes from, who drinks it and what it says about the place. Through it, I tell you the bar and hospitality industry news. To finish, I answer one-star reviews of some of the best bars in the world. I’m Alf del Portillo, bartender and co-owner of Quattro Teste in Lisbon. A podcast made from behind the bar, about fifteen minutes long. New episode every week.

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