Lush Life

Where can you learn to live life one cocktail at a time? Here on the Lush Life Podcast discover why an old-fashioned is the drink of choice, who is making their own bitters and how ice, or lack there of, is transforming the cocktails you drink. Hosted by your favorite drinking companion, Susan L. Schwartz, the Lush Life Podcast introduces you to the movers and shakers of the cocktail world.

First study English Literature, then move to London and then visit Cuba - at least that’s what our guest today did before making me the Daiquiri of my dreams. Dave Miller, General Manager of Ray’s Bar (closed now) in London, reveals how one phone call changed the course of his life. ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confused! Before there was Lush Life, there was Best Sips Worldwide, I rebranded aft...

Some guests are super chatty and some take a little work to get going. Our guest today, Adrian Pudleschak, was definitely in the second camp, not that he didn’t have loads to say. I think he just wanted to see if I could get it all out of him. ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confused! Before there was Lush Life, there was Best Sips Worldwide, I rebranded after the first season. Although I referenc...

It sounds insane to us modern folk, but beer without hops was a favorite of some of the 280 breweries in Ghent during the Middle Ages. At least that’s what Annick De Splenter, our guest today, discovered while doing her degree in beer-making at university. (Yes! You can study beer-making at university in Belgium!) ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confused! Before there was Lush Life, there was Best...

The political revolution in Romania may have gone down in 1989, but our guest today is quietly starting one of his own. Heading down to his bar, Fix Me A Drink , don’t expect a menu of 300 drinks. Each one of Alex Ciomârtan’s cocktails is a masterwork of ingenuity. ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confused! Before there was Lush Life, there was Best Sips Worldwide, I rebranded after the first seaso...

Just a few days in Four Seasons Fairways and you feel like you have been coming for years. Our guests today all have that special quality in a bartender - making you feel welcome even before you order your first cocktail. Rui Pereira, Victoria Murphy, and Nuno Fonseca found their way to Quinta do Lago and, thankfully for us, are set to stay! ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confused! Before there w...

It’s tough to imagine our next guest going to work in tails and pinstripe trousers at Fortnum & Mason in their Wine and Spirits department, and on his gap year no less. Now, in his new role as Global Brand Ambassador for Woodford Reserve Bourbon , Tom Vernon can be a bit more casually dressed. ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confused! Before there was Lush Life, there was Best Sips Worldwide,...

Jereon’s grandmother came up with a plan - keep making elderflower liqueur and no one in her family could stay away. Needless to say it worked, worked so well that her grandson took up the helm and made all of Belgium want it as well. ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confused! Before there was Lush Life, there was Best Sips Worldwide, I rebranded after the first season. Although I reference Best Si...

It worked for our guest today, but I don’t recommend it unless of course you are as talented as he. Missing deadlines, ignoring briefs, but using his quick wits and competitive spirit, Michael Mann has rightfully garnered the title UK Brand Ambassador of Bols Genever and Galliano .   ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confused! Before there was Lush Life, there was Best Sips Worldwide, I rebrand...

Have you been on holiday and want to bring a bit of that sunshine home with you?  On my last trip to Menorca, I met our guest today, Maria Teixidor, at the distillery of Gin Xoriguer in the capital city of Mahon. ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confused! Before there was Lush Life, there was Best Sips Worldwide, I rebranded after the first season. Although I reference Best Sips – it’s Lush Li...

Superlatives are needed when describing our next guest, Aidan Bowie , and his place of employment, Dandelyan (now Lyaness) in London. World Class Diageo UK Bartender of 2016, Class Magazine’s Best Bar in the UK, Best Hotel Bar and Best Drinks Menu for their Modern Botany theme as well as one for Aidan as the Bartender of the Year, and the list goes on and on. ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confus...

Before anyone else even knew about drinking single-malt whisky, except the Scottish of course, Jack and Wallace Milroy were in their van traipsing across the wilds of Islay to bring it back down to London. ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confused! Before there was Lush Life, there was Best Sips Worldwide, I rebranded after the first season. Although I reference Best Sips – it’s Lush Life through a...

Garnering the title of Mezcal-eria (tequila’s smoky sister) is no easy feat, but they did it. El Bandito was one of the first UK bars to be awarded this status by Del Maguey Single Village Mezcal. Hidden below the Drunken Monkey restaurant on Broadgate, steps away from Shoreditch High Street station, John & Matt are converting the neighborhood to 100% Agave and Mezcal. ---- Hello everyone - Do...

As Brand Ambassador for Langley’s Gin, he can finally embrace his heritage; the brand strives to be quintessentially English and for the discerning & sophisticated. Made from a single distillation in a 1960-English-produced copper pot in Langley Green, UK, it couldn’t be more English. ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confused! Before there was Lush Life, there was Best Sips Worldwide, I rebrand...

As Brand Ambassador for R&B Distillers , Chris Hoban has the enviable job of talking about whiskey night and day. His early years working at the Scotch Whiskey Experience, the famous whiskey tourist attraction in Edinburgh, paved the way. ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confused! Before there was Lush Life, there was Best Sips Worldwide, I rebranded after the first season. Although I reference...

The mix of Alfonso Califano’s over-the-top enthusiasm and his inherent Italian hospitality is drawing them south of the river, before you can even say Alice in Wonderland. ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confused! Before there was Lush Life, there was Best Sips Worldwide, I rebranded after the first season. Although I reference Best Sips – it’s Lush Life through and through – the same great guests...

Brought together by Woodford Reserve for Cocktails in the City, Gobo Hansen of Ruby in Copenhagen, Adam Ghellab of Himkok in Oslo, and Ludvig Grenmo & Andreas Bergman of Linje Tio in Stockholm made it to London to wow the crowds at Cocktails in the City. ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confused! Before there was Lush Life, there was Best Sips Worldwide, I rebranded after the first season. Alth...

A true family venture, Champagne Gremillet , was born when Grandmother Lulu planted those first vines in 1978. In the past, the Aube region where Gremillet sits, was considered second class to their northern friends near Marne and Épernay. ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confused! Before there was Lush Life, there was Best Sips Worldwide, I rebranded after the first season. Although I reference Be...

Leon’s father might have tried to steer him away from a life of teaching, but it’s a role he found he couldn’t avoid. The Gin Journey combines his passion for storytelling and his favorite tipple. While winding through the streets of London, stopping at gin joints to sip Southsides, Leon amuses us with gin-related historical sound bites. ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confused! Before there was L...

Ali Reynolds' first love may have been sports, but after graduating from university, his job as bartender kept him inside many a basement establishment. His competitive spirit never wavered and led him to win the Oscar of the drinking world: Diageo World Class UK Bartender in 2015. ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confused! Before there was Lush Life, there was Best Sips Worldwide, I rebranded afte...

Vittorio hails from Southern Italy with a degree in Economics, but he was quickly seduced by hospitality world. Upon moving to London, he worked his way up to Head Sommelier for Theo Randall at the InterContinental  in just three years. ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confused! Before there was Lush Life, there was Best Sips Worldwide, I rebranded after the first season. Although I reference...

The Veuve in Veuve Clicquot is Madame Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot. Married at 21 to François Clicquot, she was widowed only six years later. Left in control of his company, she stuck in and truly created the brand as we know today. ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confused! Before there was Lush Life, there was Best Sips Worldwide, I rebranded after the first season. Although I reference Best S...

It all did end badly for Max, but in his heyday, he was one of the richest gangsters in town and his legacy is The Franklin Mortgage and Investment Company . Thank goodness, alcohol is legal in this day and age, so Jason and Jon, General Manager & Head Bartender respectively, can do their job without fear of the cops rushing in at any moment..unless it’s to enjoy one of their very legal bevera...

Lipstick covered, mirrored walls, feather boas swinging from chandeliers, over-flowing champagne-filled coupes? Yes, you are in the right place - the Aldwych’s swingin’, speakeasy Miss Homage. Good Godfrey, the former band leader of the original Waldorf, may have broken her heart, but Miss Homage is having the last laugh. ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confused! Before there was Lush Life, there...

The fact they are both from Australia has nothing to do with how Alix Nardella, our guest today, feels for Mr. Black. Her first love may have been whisky but now she only has eyes for this smooth and sexy coffee liqueur. ---- Hello everyone - Don't get confused! Before there was Lush Life, there was Best Sips Worldwide, I rebranded after the first season. Although I reference Best Sips – it’s Lush...