Podcast
The Curious Bartender Podcast
Hosted by Tristan Stephenson · EN
Long-form conversations with the leading minds in drinks, spanning history, science, culture, and craft, with bestselling author and bartender Tristan Stephenson.
31episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
#78 Freddy Andreasson - El Gallo Altinero, Tequila & Jalisco, 50 Best, Terroir, Coffee
5d ago01:38:39Tap to summarizeFreddy 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/
Transcribe →
#77 Liam Davy - Director of Bars for 14 Hawksmoor Restaurants: Martinis, US vs UK Drinking, Gen Z, Natural Wine, Mezcal, Pubs
2w ago02:01:56Tap to summarizeLiam 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 CURIOUS1500:00:00 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/
Transcribe →
#76 Thibaut Hontanx - World's Most Travelled Distiller: Cognac, South African Agave Spirits, Rhum Clement, Courvoisier, Hennessy
3w ago01:12:08Tap to summarizeThibaut Hontanx is only the seventh master blender in Courvoisier's nearly 200-year history, but that might not be the most interesting thing about his incredibly eclectic career. From growing up around his grandfather's sawmill in France, to arriving in South Africa at 21 with a brief and a blank piece of paper to build the country's first agave spirits distillery from scratch, to seven years at Hennessy deepening his understanding of cognac ageing — all while completing an oenology degree in Bordeaux mid-career. Thibaut has accumulated a breadth of experience that very few people in this industry can match. We follow him to Martinique, where he oversaw production at Rhum Clément, and explore the surprising parallels between rhum agricole and cognac — two AOC-protected, terroir-driven spirits that share a philosophy but feel like completely different worlds. Back in Cognac, we get into the technical craft behind Courvoisier's house style, the challenges of recent vintages in a changing climate, new grape varieties being trialled within the AOC, and what it means to hold a role where the decisions you make today will be drunk by someone thirty years from now. And why growing up around a sawmill turns out to be surprisingly useful preparation for a life spent thinking about oak.To support the show please subscribe. It really means a lot to me.With thanks to our sponsors:Fever-Tree mixers for incredible mixers and soft drinksBelvedere Vodka making vodka the right way, with characterful organic rye, and absolutely no additives.
Transcribe →
#75 Dave Mulligan - Is Poitín Ireland's Mezcal? History, Production, Brands, Tasting
4w ago01:26:06Tap to summarizeDave Mulligan is the owner of Dublin's Bar 1661 and The Sackville Lounge, founder of Bán Poitín, and one of the most committed advocates for Ireland's oldest spirit currently working the floor. Poitín was banned by the British Crown in 1661 and remained illegal for 336 years, surviving in the hills of Connemara and Donegal as both an act of cultural defiance and a working farmer's economy. Now legal, GI-protected, and slowly finding its place on the world's best back bars, the category is at one of the most interesting moments in its history. On the episode we trace the spirit's origins back through the 1500s and earlier, separating monkish folklore from the documentary record. We taste a remarkable bottle from the 1830s that may rewrite some of what we think we know about Irish distillation. And we work through a flight of contemporary expressions including Micil's malted barley poitín, the Micil x Kneecap collaboration finished in Buckfast casks, Killowen's peated Dead & Buried, Bán Poitín itself, a Bán expression finished in cocktail-seasoned casks, and an unlabelled brown-paper-bag illicit bottle from an unnamed distiller ;-)We talk about what 1997 legalisation actually changed, why the 2008 PGI imposed a ten-week barrel limit, and why every poitín we taste sits as a fully resolved spirit in its own right rather than a stop on the way to something else. We also get into the early days of Sibín in Kentish Town, the founding of Bar 1661 and The Sackville Lounge, the Belfast Coffee origin story, and what it would take for poitín to become a serious global spirit category.POITÍN TASTED IN THIS EPISODEIn rough order of tasting:Bán Poitín (in the Belfast Coffee at the open, then neat later in the episode) — Dave's own brand. Blended from malted barley, Comber potatoes and Irish grain, distilled at Echlinville. https://www.ban-poitin.comA forgotten ~1830s spirit from County Tyrone — discovered around 2019–2020. Not commercially available.Micil Poitín — six-generation family recipe dating to 1848. https://micildistillery.comMicil x Kneecap Poitín — limited collaboration, Buckfast-cask seasoned. Available via Micil. https://micildistillery.comKillowen Dead & Buried — peated, 67.9% ABV, distilled by Brendan Carty in collaboration with historian Fionnán O'Connor. https://www.killowendistillery.comBán 1661 (cocktail-cask finish) — limited release finished in casks seasoned with Bar 1661's own cocktails. https://www.ban-poitin.comA mystery stout based poitín — from a sizable distillery; not yet released.An illicit, unlabelled bottle — currently being made off-grid; not commercially available.Featured venues: Bar 1661 — https://www.bar1661.ie · The Sackville Lounge — https://thesackvillelounge.comFionnán O'Connor is the mentioned author of A Glass Apart
Transcribe →
#74 Edward Slingerland - The Evolutionary Case for Getting Drunk, Alcohol and Neurochemistry, Socialisation, Archaeology, Philosophy
Apr 2001:54:54Tap to summarizeEdward Slingerland is a distinguished University Scholar and Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, whose research spans early Chinese thought, cognitive science, and evolutionary psychology. He is, among other works, the author of Drunk: How We Sipped, Danced, and Stumbled Our Way to Civilization. Our conversation starts by traging the origins of his thinking on alcohol to his earlier work on wu wei, the ancient Chinese concept of effortless action, and explore how downregulating the prefrontal cortex, whether through drinking, flow states, or long-distance running, unlocks the lateral thinking and spontaneity that the self-conscious mind tends to suppress. We get into the Ballmer Peak, the Google whisky room, and our own experiences of writing and creating under the influence, before turning to the central argument: that alcohol is not an evolutionary mistake but a genuine cultural technology, one that has been helping humans solve the problems of creativity and large-scale cooperation for at least 13,000 years. We dig into what the archaeological record reveals, from Gobekli Tepe to the Epic of Gilgamesh, making the case that the desire for intoxication may have preceded and even driven the development of agriculture and civilisation itself. We explore the hidden social intelligence embedded in drinking rituals, the way toasting customs, rounds at the pub, and the unspoken etiquette of sharing a bottle all serve to pace and regulate consumption within a group, before examining the two conditions that make alcohol most dangerous: distillation and isolation. We compare northern and southern European drinking cultures, look at what Italy's historically low alcoholism rates can teach us, and ask what cultures that abstain entirely reveal about alcohol's social role. Along the way we taste through two whiskies, discuss whether a pill that replicated alcohol's effects would ever replace the real thing, and hear Ed's thoughts on his next book, which turns his evolutionary lens on foraging, food, and our need to reconnect with the natural world.00:00:00 Introduction00:00:06 From Wu Wei to Whisky: How This Book Came About00:03:56 Flow State, Wu Wei and the Prefrontal Cortex00:10:45 Why Does a Poison Persist in Every Culture?00:11:07 Alcohol and Religion: Costly Behaviours, Hidden Benefits00:14:18 The Brain Hijack Theory and Why It Falls Short00:27:02 Humans as the Creative and Communal Animal00:29:20 Creativity, Lateral Thinking and the Maturing PFC00:33:05 The Ballmer Peak and Google's Whisky Room00:35:22 Writing Drunk: Personal Experiences with Alcohol and Creativity00:37:34 The Negroni That Wrote the Book Proposal00:52:59 The Pub as Social Infrastructure00:57:01 Whisky Tasting: Kilchoman00:58:30 Toasting Rituals and the Hidden Etiquette of Drinking Together01:01:28 The Twin Dangers: Distillation and Isolation01:05:15 Getting Drunk: The Bonding Functions Beyond 0.0801:09:35 Those Who Puke Together Stay Together01:10:07 Archaeology: The Beer Before Bread Hypothesis01:16:32 The Epic of Gilgamesh: Beer Makes You Human01:19:31 Hard Numbers vs the Intangible Benefits of Alcohol01:21:23 Northern vs Southern Drinking Cultures01:24:16 Italy as a Natural Experiment01:28:00 Cultures That Don't Drink: Islam and Mormonism01:29:34 Whisky Tasting: Highland Park 1401:49:00 Ed's Next Book: Foraging and Reconnecting with Nature01:51:24 Alcohol as Culture, Place and Technology01:53:19 Would We Still Drink if a Pill Could Replace It?📷 Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tristanstephenson/📚 I've written quite a few books on spirits and cocktails - https://www.thecuriousbartender.com/
Transcribe →
#73 Mathieu Sabbagh - Mobile Distillery, Fin de Bourgogne, Eau-De-Vie, Fruit Spirits, Reviving Tradition
Apr 1301:43:14Tap to summarizeMathieu Sabbagh spent fifteen years navigating the corporate corridors of Pernod Ricard, working on the relaunches of absinthe and Suze, before packing it in, driving around France looking for something real, and ending up buying a mobile still in Beaune. He's now the sole travelling distiller in Burgundy, running Alambic Bourguignon and his own label Sab's — and in this episode we pull apart how that happened and why it matters. We talk about the slow industrial death of France's once-thriving network of mobile distilleries, the customs regulations that govern when a still is allowed to run, and the three-pot preheating system that means someone has to be up at 4am during distilling season. Mat explains the difference between Marc de Bourgogne and Fin de Bourgogne, why Burgundy's grapes (Pinot noir and Chardonnay harvested at full maturity) make a fundamentally different spirit to cognac or Armagnac, and how he sources wine barrels from some of the most sought-after producers on earth because, quite simply, they're next door. We taste through an extraordinary range: four gins (including a navy strength, a barrel-aged expression and one infused with Pinot pomace), aged Marc and Fin finished in Islay whisky and mezcal casks, and three unaged fruit eaux-de-vie from apricot, mirabelle and pear. The conversation keeps circling back to the same idea: a great spirit is just great ingredients honestly handled.Find Mathieu and the full Sab's range at alambic-bourguignon.com.
Transcribe →
#72 Franz-Arthur MacElhone - Harry's Bar Paris, History of Bloody Mary, Sidecar, French 75; Harry MacElhone, Being a Custodian
Apr 601:00:26Tap to summarizeFranz-Arthur MacElhone is the fourth-generation custodian of Harry's New York Bar, the legendary Paris institution founded in 1911 when its original Manhattan fittings were shipped across the Atlantic. His great-grandfather Harry MacElhone — a young Scotsman who arrived in Paris via Ciro's in London — bought the bar in 1923, put his name above the door, and set about building one of the most consequential addresses in cocktail history. Franz now runs the bar day to day, oversees its social media, has opened a second Harry's Bar, and has recently revived the International Bar Flies — Harry's original membership society.In this episode, recorded inside the bar itself, we work through the cocktails that made Harry's a cornerstone of the canon: the Bloody Mary (anchored by a 1967 Newsweek interview as the key documentary evidence), the Sidecar, the White Lady in both its original and better-known gin form, and the French 75 — originally made with Calvados, named after a piece of WWI artillery, and still the bar's best-seller. We also dig into Harry MacElhone as a personality: a WWI Royal Flying Corps pilot, a gifted self-promoter who distributed crying towels and earplugs during the 1929 financial crash, and — as Franz argues — someone who invented marketing before marketing was even really a word. Franz reflects on what it means to be born into that legacy: the daily responsibility of keeping 115-year-old American mahogany in good repair, serving 600 cocktails a day, and running through thousands of bottles of Cognac a year, while living by the philosophy he has coined to capture the whole thing: traditionally inventive.🥃 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
Transcribe →
#71 Kami Newton - Flavour Perception, Sensory Science, How to Taste Spirits
Mar 3002:26:19Tap to summarizeKami Newton is a flavour expert, sensory analyst, and founder of Sensory Advantage, whose career took him from wine shelves at Oddbins to leading tasting panels at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society — and eventually to one of the most fascinating corners of the drinks world: the gap between chemistry and perception.This is one of the most illuminating conversations about flavour we've ever had on the show. Kami unpacks why the drinks industry has become extraordinarily good at talking about technical production while almost entirely ignoring how chemistry becomes experience — and why that matters enormously for how people engage with spirits. We explore flavour as a cross-modal, non-conscious construct involving all of the senses; why tasting notes are snapshots of a movie that's constantly changing; how genetics, mood, environment and even your microbiome shape what you taste; and why the real difference between a novice and an expert taster is fundamentally about language, not sensitivity.Sponsored by Denver & Liely whose whisky tasting glass will level up your flavour experience - get 15% of their glassware with this linkFollow Kami on Instagram:
Transcribe →
#70 Padraig Fox - Guinness: History, Production, Quality Control, Advertising, 0.0, Global
Mar 2301:07:44Tap to summarizePadraig Fox has spent 21 years at Guinness, starting out as a tour guide at the Storehouse in Dublin and working his way through sales, quality, and trade before landing the title of Global Brand Ambassador.In this episode, Padraig takes us deep into the world of Guinness: what's behind the brand's remarkable recent surge in popularity, the surprisingly exacting science of pouring the perfect pint, and why the two-part pour is a hill Padraig is prepared to die on. We get into the history: Arthur Guinness's audacious 9,000-year lease on a rundown Dublin brewery in 1759, the switch from ale to Porter recorded on a single turned-over page of a recipe book, and the Welshman who quietly invented draught Guinness in a London lab. We also explore how a brand that refused to advertise for 150 years eventually gave the world the toucan, the surfer ad, and the Guinness Book of Records. And what it actually means to pour the same beer consistently from Dublin to Astana.Get 15% off the world's best drinking vessels at Denver & Liely using the discount code CURIOUS15 at checkout - https://denverandliely.comGet 15% off my favourite coffee liqueur at Algebradrinks.com with code CURIOUS1500:00 Why is Guinness Having a Moment? Taste, Look, Quality03:50 Arthur Guinness’ 9000 Year Lease, Bringing Porter to Dublin, The Difference Between Stout & Porter07:30 The Size of the Guinness Today09:05 Guinness Variants: Guinness Original, Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, Draught Guinness, Innovation Products, Foreign Markets11:42 Ingredients for Guinness: Roasted Barley, Malt, Hops, Yeast14:35 Why Is Guinness Creamy? Introducing Nitrogen Gas, What Nitrogen Does to Flavour17:00 Why Is Guinness Poured in Two Parts?18:30 Where is Guinness Brewed?19:40 What Temperature Should Guinness Be Served At? Guinness Extra Cold21:50 What is the Correct Mix of Gas for Guinness?23:30 The Secret to A Great Tasting Pint of Guinness: Line Hygiene 27:00 The Correct Glass for Guinness31:35 The Cult of Guinness, Discernment & Taste Acquisition35:20 Best Guinness in Dublin37:30 Why Is the Irish Bar Exported? Difference to British Pub, Balancing Irishness42:00 Guinness Advertising: The Surfer, the Toucan, Evolution Ad47:45 Association with Rugby & Other Sports49:45 Guinness Goes Viral51:02 Guinness 0.0 - Production, Scale53:20 Guinness Book of Records55:20 Is the Trend for Guinness Sustainable?56:20 The Opengate Brewery: Innovation, Nitrogen Foreign Extra Stout, Barrel Aged Guinness59:00 Being the Guinness Brand Ambassador1:00:00 The Guinness Storehouse Experience1:01:40 Is Guinness a Craft Beer?📷 Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tristanstephenson/📚 I've written quite a few books on spirits and cocktails - https://www.thecuriousbartender.com/
Transcribe →
#69 Hannah & Siobhán - London Cocktail Week, The Pinnacle Guide, London, Community
Mar 1601:20:18Tap to summarizeHannah Sharman-Cox and Siobhán Payne are the co-founders of London Cocktail Week and the Pinnacle Guide. Having launched London Cocktail Week 16 years ago, they have built one of the drinks industry's most recognised consumer-facing events, taking it through multiple ownership structures - from its origins under Simon Difford, through the Whisky Exchange and Pernod Ricard — before buying it back outright in January 2026. Together with business partner Dan Dove, they also created the Pinnacle Guide, a Michelin-inspired rating system that awards one, two, or three pins to bars across 14 countries and counting.In this conversation, Hannah and Siobhán talk about the decision to move London Cocktail Week from October to March, how the event has evolved from its early days of London buses and pop-up bars in Seven Dials to a more purpose-driven celebration of bartenders and bar culture. They go deep on the Pinnacle Guide — its two-year consultation process, the extensive application form, how bars are assessed and reviewed, and the deliberate "skew of kindness" built into the system. They also reveal Curate Your City, a new venture that will offer a turnkey framework for anyone to create their own multi-venue festival in any industry, anywhere in the world. Plus, some quick questions from Jake Burger at the end on the golden age of UK bartending.https://londoncocktailweek.com/https://www.thepinnacleguide.com/Get 15% off the world's best drinking vessels at Denver & Liely using the discount code CURIOUS15 at checkout Get 15% off my favourite coffee liqueur at Algebradrinks.com with 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/00:00:00 Introduction00:02:12 London Cocktail Week: 16 Years and Counting00:03:09 Taking Back Full Ownership00:04:12 Moving LCW from October to March00:08:04 How London Cocktail Week Has Changed00:10:31 The Cocktail Village Era00:14:38 Wristbands, Guidebooks and Building Community00:17:01 The Evolution of London's Cocktail Scene00:21:21 The Ownership Journey: Difford, Whisky Exchange and Pernod Ricard00:24:43 Burnout, the Pandemic and Pivoting00:27:36 What's Next for LCW in 202700:33:14 Introducing the Pinnacle Guide00:38:50 The Scoring System and "Skew of Kindness"00:43:21 Reviewers: Industry Pros and Interested Amateurs00:48:48 How the Application Form Elevates the Industry00:54:48 Global Expansion: 146 Bars Across 14 Countries00:57:36 How the Pinnacle Guide Will Make Money01:05:53 Curate Your City: A New Venture for Festival Creators01:14:52 The Hannah and Siobhán Partnership01:16:19 Is the Golden Age of UK Bartending Behind Us?
Transcribe →