Bring a Bottle Podcast: Episode 88

Hello, hello, and welcome back to the Bring a Bottle Podcast! We’re back from our Summer jollies and up to our usual mischief while helping you fall in love with what’s in your glass. From this week onwards though, we’re mixing things up by not only recording podcasts together but also recording podcasts separately with special guests and it just so happens that this week it’s Aidy’s turn!

You can listen to the full podcast via the player below or via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify. Here’s a little snippet of what he got up to:

Third Drinkers

Joining Aidy in the studio are Amanda Selby and Keiligh Baker.

Amanda Selby, known as @DrinkWithMeUK, is an online drinks sensation. From wine to spirits she’s worked in just about every drinks job there is working on a huge roster of brands like Jack Daniels, Chambord, Russian Standard Vodka, Finlandia Vodka, Sonoma Cutrer Winery in California, Royal Tokaji in Hungary, we could go on.

Keiligh Baker is a journalist and podcast extraordinaire. On the writing side, she’s worked with everyone from the MailOnline to BBC and the Travel Show publishing breaking news stories. In the podcasting world, she’s been working on a number of hit BBC Shows like Ouch and is currently a producer of the BBC’s disability podcast, Access All.

What’s in Our Glass?

We’re putting Grand Marnier to the test this week. Grand Marnier is an orange liqueur made in the heart of cognac and is more commonly mixed into cocktails than drunk mixed with tonics. We’ve chosen to mix our Grand Marnier with Franklin & Sons Rosemary and Black Olive tonic water and Franklin & Sons Mallorcan tonic water.

The Mallorcan tonic water has a smell reminiscent of an orange spritz! It is lovely and fresh, not too sweet and when mixed with the Grand Marnier a natural breeze of fresh orange marmalade hits you with a refreshing burst of tonic at the end. It’s like summer in a glass!

Find here: £17.50 for 24 (200ml)

The Rosemary and Black Olive tonic water is like a meal in a bottle before you’ve even put any Grand Marnier in the mix – think focaccia! When mixed with the Grand Marnier, orange and rosemary hits your nose and to be quite honest it smells like Christmas and would make for a great aperitif before your turkey! It’s a perfect winter drink.

Find here: £17.50 for 24 (200ml)

Drinks News

Have you ever flown Emirates? Well, for all those of you lucky enough to fly first class with them (please do get in touch we have soo many questions!), you will be pleased to hear that now, not only do you get a double bed, a 3.5 minute hot shower and a huge TV screen, but Emirates has just invested £1.6 billion in unlimited Dom Perignon and Caviar for you to enjoy! Cheers to that!

Buy it or Bin it

In ‘Buy it or Bin it’ Amanda puts our tastebuds to the test with a bright blue liquid that looks like either WKD or an energy drink. We can tell you it is neither of those and we can also tell you that you’re going to love the reactions had when it’s tried! Listen in to find out what it actually is here.

Question Time with Aidy

Aidy has some burning questions for Amanda and Keiligh and the answers involve NYC’s Gangsta Crab, how to make the perfect Martini no matter how you like it best, what life is like working for BBC’s disability podcast, Access All, and finally… stealing your baby’s diffuser and putting it to “much better use” by using it to make cocktails!

Mailbag

This week’s burning question is ‘Why do people rub lemon around the glass when making a martini – is it just theatre or is there a reason?’ Well, there is a reason and although it may seem like quite a bizarre thing to do, it’s really quite an important reason. Listen in to hear Amanda explain more!

⁣Enjoyed this? Well, there’s plenty more to listen to so make sure to check out Episode 88 of The Bring a Bottle Podcast now!

The Bring a Bottle Podcast: Episode 87

We’re back with another fun-filled podcast and this week we’re joined in the studio by special guest Christian Smith. Listen in as we chat all about the perfect mixers for your tequila, a great hangover cure, 24-carat gold covered fish and chips and more!

What’s in our glass?

This week we’re focussing on great mixers for tequila and have chosen Franklin and Sons Grapefruit and Bergamot tonic water and Pink Grapefruit Soda.

Bergamot is what you associate earl grey tea with and the tonic didn’t disappoint. Subtle and floral with a nice fruity edge from the grapefruit, it made for a beautiful and very refreshing drink alone and then in combination with the tequila led to a more savoury drink with a slight peppery edge to it. Nom! 

Size: 200ml
Find here: £17.50 for 24

The Pink Grapefruit soda is a beautiful and very sophisticated soda that we would quite happily enjoy on its own as a soft drink. Today, however, is all about the tequila mixers and this soda did not disappoint. It smells just like that burst of oils you get when cutting into a grapefruit and tastes just as good with a touch of zesty lime on the finish. 

Size: 200ml
Find here: £17.50 for 24

Third Drinker

This week we are joined in the studio by Christian Smith who is the online editor for The Drinks Business. He shares with us his favourite stories, including one about 24-carat gold adorned fish and chips being sold for £80 in Glasgow, a stunning whisky and tells us more about what it is like to work as the online editor for The Drinks Business!

The Three Drinkers in Ireland Wins an Award

For those who haven’t yet heard, The Three Drinkers in Ireland won an award for ‘The Best Contribution to Wine and Spirits Tourism’ at the Drinks Business Awards this June! If you haven’t seen the series yet, all 6 episodes can be found on Prime Video!

Drinkers Discovery

Stepping away from our usual Drinkers’ Discoveries this week, we bring you ‘Phizz’. These are orange or apple and blackcurrant flavoured tablets that dissolve in water and enable you to absorb 3x the amount of water you would from just drinking a glass of it. Full of natural electrolytes, like sodium, potassium and zinc, not only are they perfect for rehydrating but they’re also great for your skin, hair and nails… and we reckon they would work a treat when you have a hangover too ;)

That’s not all though, we also have a fantastic ‘Buy it or Bin it’, Aidy brings back his ‘Wine and a Whine’, we share a dishwasher hack for your cloudy glasses and talk about vines grown in space! Listen in today!

The Bring a Bottle Podcast: Episode 86

It’s that time again and this week we have a very special podcast for you as we are joined by the fabulous Bruce and Paramjit Nagra, owners and producers of Crazy Gin, as we talk about some rather risqué drinks news, what it is like to be a woman in the drinks industry and a wine brand doing good. We also sample a very questionable drink in ‘Buy it or Bin it’ and of course, sip away on Crazy Gin’s Lassi and Punjabi Chai gin! Listen in via the player below for all this and more!

What’s in our glass

First up is the Lassi Gin. Thought up after a bad Indian takeaway, the idea behind this gin was to create a British Indian fusion drink just like there is British Indian food. It pushes flavours together that people wouldn’t normally associate working together and wow if it doesn’t do just that! The main botanicals are turmeric, coriander and black pepper, as well as juniper, pomegranate, black cumin and yoghurt. Then whole thing is also fat washed with ghee leading to a really smooth gin that you can enjoy neat at 41%. We reckon it would work beautifully in a martini and equally well in a G&T with for example, a coriander garnish!

Size: 500ml
ABV: 41%
Find here: £39.95

The second gin we sip on is the Punjabi Chai Gin, another very tasty gin, this one taking inspiration from their Grandma’s secret Chai tea recipe. It has botanicals of vanilla, black cardamom, green cardamom, cloves, juniper and black pepper and is fat washed with coconut. It also has a unique colour derived from the use of not just any old saffron but ultrasonic saffron!

Size: 500ml
ABV: 40%
Find here: £39.95

Drinks News

There’s nothing like having a pint at a pub and company ‘Nothing on Events’ have taken this well-loved past time one step further, introducing naked pub meets! First held in Guildford, Surrey, the aim behind these meet-ups is to put an end to body shaming. Listen in to see whether we’ll be participating…

Buy it or bin it

This week’s wonderful treat for our buy or bin it segment is a warm no-low drink. It’s vegetal, smoky and seaweed-y. It’s very earthy and has a taste of kale and spinach to it. ‘What is it?!’ we hear you ask, why it is organic, premium ‘Duckshit’ tea from the Guangdong province in China! The question is who decided to buy it and who is binning it?!

Drinks Doing Good

We love a good chat about drinks that do good and this week we are giving a shout out to wine brand ‘Madame F’ as they have donated money to the founding and building of Britain’s first LGBTQIA+ museum, Queer Britain. That’s not all though, they are also holding a yearly bottle design competition where they give a cash grant to artists from the LGBTQ+ people to help them explore their artistic nature and the winner then has their art placed on the bottle.

Mailbag

Finally, it wouldn’t be a podcast without one of your mailbag questions and this week we tackle ‘What is London Dry Gin?!’ Listen in to hear the answer!

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