CRAFTED

Why does a wool blanket cost $200? After touring Faribault Mill, most visitors ask a different question: why doesn't it cost more? In this episode, Faribault’s CEO, Ross Widmoyer, explains the remarkably involved process of turning raw wool into a finished blanket, and how Faribault blends generations of textile expertise, old machinery, and modern technology to keep one of America’s oldest manufa...

Nicks Handmade Boots makes a few hundred pairs a month, all by hand, and the number of possible boots on their website runs into the millions. For the customer, that means a boot built around your foot, your work, and your taste. For the shop floor, it means almost no two boots are built quite the same way. Today, Nick Jarrett and Lucas Grasberger walk Eli through how one of those boots actually g...

‘Tony,’ A24's new film, follows a 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain through his first summer in a Provincetown kitchen. It's charming, it's well reviewed, and it might be exactly the kind of tidy origin story Bourdain would have hated. Today, Eli’s friend and executive chef of Everett's 8800 at Big Sky Resort, Youssif El-Rakabawy, joins Eli to talk about ‘Tony’ and revisit Kitchen Confidential. We Want...

In the American culinary world, winning a James Beard Award can change your life overnight. Today, Jonathan talks with the VP of the James Beard Awards, Dawn Padmore, about the origins & evolution of the awards; their current 'open call' season for submissions; and the impact of winning or being nominated for a James Beard Award. We Want to Hear from You! Have a topic, craft category, or craft com...

Lance Winters has one of the stranger paths to becoming a master distiller: nuclear engineering, the Navy, brewing, and eventually showing up at St. George Spirits with a bottle of homemade whiskey. Three decades later, Lance has helped shape St. George into one of America’s most influential craft distilleries. In this episode, Lance and Eli discuss St. George’s early days as one of the first Amer...

How did Templin Family Brewing become one of the most respected breweries in the USA? Today, Eli talks to owner, Kevin Templin, about his approach to craft brewing, German brewing traditions, and what it takes to build a brewery where quality comes before speed. We Want to Hear from You! Have a topic, craft category, or craft company you’d like to see us cover? Email us at: info@blisterreview.com...

While most of us use knives every day without thinking much about them, Zack Jonas has spent his life thinking about almost nothing else. And today, the founder of Jonas Blade & Metalworks joins Eli to explain how a former philosophy major became one of just over 100 master bladesmiths in the mysterious world of Damascus steel. We Want to Hear from You! Have a topic, craft category, or craft compa...

If you love great food and great restaurants, then you’re probably familiar with the extremely prestigious James Beard Awards. But there is more to the James Beard Foundation, and today, you’ll learn more about its origins, its mission, its work today, and you’ll get a fantastic history of American culinary culture from the JBF’s Vice President of Impact, Anne McBride. We Want to Hear from You! Ha...

What does it actually mean to have a “great palate”? In this episode of the Vault, originally featured on CRAFTED, Jonathan talked to lifelong skier and PARC Aspen Chef, Mark Connell, about “supertasters,” and why some chefs can detect tiny changes in a dish while still loving Domino’s pizza. Note: We Want to Hear From You! We’d love for you to share with us the stories or topics you’d like us to...

What do rye whiskey, fruit brandy, and vinegar have in common? At one point, they were all made on the same kind of still. Todd Leopold, co-founder and owner of Leopold Bros, has spent years resurrecting that lost production method, including commissioning the first three-chamber still built since Prohibition. Today, Todd and Eli discuss what drew Todd to that forgotten technology, and why he beli...

What exactly is ‘pressure-brewed’ coffee? (Hint: it’s not espresso.) Today, Presston founder Korey Dausz joins Simon Stewart to talk about designing and building a coffee maker that uses pressure to make great coffee, in a simple, plastic-free, sustainable way.  We Want to Hear from You! Have a topic, craft category, or craft company you’d like to see us cover? Email us at: info@blisterreview...

Today we’re talking with the master distiller of one of the most prominent American whiskey producers of the past two decades, High West Whiskey. High West built much of its reputation through blending, which has long been a tradition in Scotch whisky but has often been treated with suspicion by American whiskey drinkers. In this episode, master distiller, Isaac Winter, joins us to investigate why...

Zerno manufactures some of the best coffee grinders in the world, and last week, Jonathan Ellsworth returned to Zerno HQ to get into the weeds with founder, Vel Genov, about coffee grinder burrs, particle analysis, burr geometry, some big updates, and the future of Zerno. If you care about manufacturing in America, or uncompromising craftsmanship, or you love coffee, you need to know the Zerno sto...

There are more than 175 species of agave native to Mexico — so why is tequila made from just one? To answer that question, you have to understand centuries of tradition, industrialization, and the forces affecting Mexico's native spirits, and today, Pedro Jiménez, founder of Mezonte, joins me to unravel that history and explore one of the world's most fascinating spirits traditions. We Want to Hea...

“That’s smooth!” That’s often the first thing someone will say after trying a new drink. But what if that’s a sign that we don’t actually know how to evaluate -- and appreciate -- the thing in the glass we’re holding? In this episode, Nicolas Palazzi, founder of PM Spirits, joins Eli to discuss how artisanal producers think about the difference between perfection and excellence. We Want to Hear fr...

Hot sauce — many of us love it, but few of us know how & why it came to be; how it works; how it could kill you and how it might save you; and why exploring these topics actually leads into some big questions about the evolution of humankind itself. Jonathan Ellsworth & Eli Brown discuss. We Want to Hear from You! Have a topic, craft category, or craft company you’d like to see us cover? Email us...

According to all the headlines, the wine industry is in trouble — sales are plummeting, major producers are shrinking their portfolios, and the natural wine movement has become a punchline. But what if wine isn't actually in crisis at all? Louis Schofield, founder of World Apart Wines, joins us to argue that the industry is simply returning to reality after years of unsustainable growth.  We...

Tiki is easy to dismiss: themed mugs, carved idols, Hawaiian shirts, and over-the-top cocktails. But the real history is far more interesting. After nearly disappearing in the 1970s, tiki is being revived and redefined by a passionate group of bartenders. Today’s guest, Sam Miller, is one of the people leading the charge, breathing new life into a style of drinks we almost lost. We Want to Hear fr...

What happens when a category's success leads to its demise? Tequila is the fastest-growing spirit in the world, yet its popularity has put it on a path to extinction. In this episode, David Suro joins us to discuss the world of agave spirits, from smuggling tequila into the U.S. for tastings in the 1980s to the rise of industrialized production methods that he believes have put the entire category...

Who decides which wines make it to wine shop shelves and restaurant lists? For decades, importers like Ronnie Sanders have quietly helped shape the way we drink wine. As the founder of Vine Street Imports , Ronnie has spent the last two decades building a reputation for finding overlooked winemakers long before the rest of the industry. In this episode, Ronnie and Eli dig into emerging wine trends...

Bûcheron (French for “lumberjack”) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, won the James Beard Foundation award for Best New Restaurant in America in 2025. Last month, Jonathan Ellsworth had the opportunity to attend a Bûcheron dinner, and today, he talks with owners Jeanie and Adam Ritter about their unconventional backgrounds; how they and their team created a restaurant that earned one of the most prestigio...

For decades, Oregon’s winemakers have looked to France as the standard setter for what constitutes great wine. Brianne Day, founder of Day Wines , thinks it's time to stop doing that. Brianne has spent her career exploring what makes Oregon's vineyards unique. Today, we discuss her winemaking philosophy, biodynamic farming practices, and why Oregon's most exciting wines are the ones that aren’t tr...

Salt Lake City shouldn’t be home to one of America’s best cocktail bars. And yet, despite Utah’s strange liquor laws and its distance from traditional cocktail meccas, that’s exactly what makes Water Witch so interesting. After the Blister team stumbled across Water Witch on a recent trip, Eli wanted to find out how owner / operator Scott Gardner built something so special in such an unlikely envi...

Jonathan just got back from an incredible 12-day trip to Washington DC and Manhattan, and had a ton of notable ‘CRAFTED’ experiences. So he and Eli Brown talk about a bunch of them, and we’d love to hear your thoughts on some of the places we mention — or some additional places you think we need to check out next time we’re in DC / NYC. We Want to Hear from You! Have a topic, craft category, or cr...

How good is good enough? For those of us obsessed with any craft category (e.g., coffee, watches, wine, knives, audio gear, etc), we can find ourselves crossing the line of ‘diminishing returns,’ where we keep chasing some notion or ideal of perfection. So why do we do this? Today, our CRAFTED co-hosts, Eli Brown, Jonathan Ellsworth, & Simon Stewart discuss. We Want to Hear from You! Have a to...