Shift Drink

Hampden Estate is one of Jamaica’s oldest distilleries and the producer of Rum Fire, a high-ester rum full of funk. Today we’re talking with the US importer, Nicholas Feris about the traditional production of the rum, the differences between dunder and muck, and how to use Rum Fire in a cocktail. You can taste hundreds of years of history and tradition in the rums of Trelawny, and Nick is as passi...

Just in time for annual Memorial Day cookouts, we’re talking about utilizing Japanese-style grills. Chef JJ Boston is on a mission to teach the world how to better cook outdoors using Kamado grills. Over a decade ago, JJ was first introduced to Big Green Eggs while cooking for a private client. He quickly realized that people that were purchasing these high-end grills didn’t know how t...

The link between music and cocktails is impossible to ignore. Making cocktails at home? You put on a record. Going out for drinks at a cocktail bar? They’ve spent hours curating a playlist. Inebriated at 4:30am at Mac’s Club Deuce on South Beach? You’ve got $20 of Slayer tunes on the jukebox. This week’s guest, André Darlington , just co-authored a book called Booze & V...

It’s hard to overstate Don Lee’s impact on the cocktail industry. He seems to be simultaneously moving in fifteen directions while plotting his next move. He was there at the beginning of the craft cocktail resurgence, sitting at the bars at Milk & Honey , Pegu Club , and Death & Co. , asking questions of the bartenders and taking notes. In the years since, he left his job in...

Chef Danny Mena of La Loncheria and Hecho en DUMBO joins us this week. We’re talking about Mexican food in NYC, how Mexican cuisine adapted and evolved through centuries of immigration and colonialism, the question of “authenticity”, and Danny’s role as a partner at Mezcales de Leyenda . We tasted through mezcal from Durango, Guerrero, Oaxaca, and their Pelotón de La Muerte...

Madelyn Hille’s passion for wine began while working at a boutique hotel in Indianapolis. Having a bit of wanderlust, she decided to travel to New Zealand to explore. But she knew she’d need a job to sustain her journey. Having heard of fellow travelers working at wineries during the season, she put out word that she’d be interested in winery employment. And thus began her first...

Jim Romdall of Novo Fogo Cachaça , and previously of Vessel and Rumba in Seattle, joins us this week to talk all things cachaça. It’s misunderstood and underrepresented in bars and package liquor stores yet is one of the most consumed liquors in the world. The terroir, regional traditions, deforestation, and distillation methods all affect the production of cachaça. Despite being a sugarcane spiri...

After attending a very special rum tasting by Habitation Velier , we trekked up to Spanish Harlem to meet up with an old friend at the The Axis Project . Yannick Benjamin is one of New York’s most respected sommeliers not just for his palate and knowledge but also for his work with his not-for-profit, Wheeling Forward . This week he’s talking about his work in New York and the life-cha...

The affable Martin Cate joins us this week from New York City. The tiki guru has built an empire of some of the world’s most respected bars in just 10 short years. Smuggler’s Cove was named the Best Cocktail Bar in America at Tales of the Cocktail , Martin’s book of the same name won a coveted James Beard Award , he was one of the seven collaborators on Plantation OFTD, and he co...

While attending university in Southern Indiana, David McCracken (writer/director) and Josh Riedford (producer) found that their shared interest in the movie industry would drive them to start their own production company, Mr. Pictures . Today they are here talking about their new feature film Bullitt County – about four friends with a dark secret, reuniting for a bachelor party on the Bourbo...

David Andrichik is a pioneer in one of the trendiest neighborhoods in Indianapolis, Massachusetts Avenue. In 1982, while working for an architecture firm, he decided to invest in some real estate across the street from crack dealers. Little did he know that his purchase would put him at the helm of what is now considered the city’s best dive bar and jazz club. And he’s been there for 35 years. Peo...

To kick off 2018, we’re talking with one of our favorite people in the Midwest. Vinny Salas is a familiar face in Indianapolis culinary circles. For years, you could find him slinging cheese and cured meats at Goose the Market – owned by past guest Chris Eley . He’s since moved on to Caplinger’s Fresh Catch, but his cheese passion is stronger than ever. We’re all over...

We’re usually talking booze and all the fun we have drinking cocktails. But what happens when the fun fades and alcohol becomes a detriment to your health? After hearing about Joshua Gonzales’ recent talks about mental health and drug abuse in service industry, we knew we needed to invite him back on the show to discuss this important topic. The statistics are grim – depression and anxiety go unch...

This week we’re sitting down with Clay Robinson – the co-founder of  Sun King Brewing  in downtown Indianapolis. After satisfying a bit of wanderlust, working with corporately-owned breweries, and writing numerous business plans, Clay opened a small brewery in the heart of the city in 2009 that has now become a community leader, a pioneer in canned craft beer, and the first major produ...

After spending decades in software and marketing, Greg Wilson partnered up with bartender Zach Wilks in 2012 to launch Wilks & Wilson . In six short years, the guys have grown from making syrups for a few bars in Indianapolis to an becoming an internationally-distributed producer of specialty mixers and bitters. You can find their syrups and bitters being used in home bars, Vegas casinos, cock...

The tables got turned on this week’s episode. We sat down with the guys from DRNK CLTR to talk about a bit about Shift Drink, and about our “day jobs”. We drank some Jamaican rum & French wine, discussed our lack of importance in the world, uppity sommeliers, rum’s increasing popularity, and how the Midwest is (mistakenly) perceived as flyover country.

Brother Cleve is a true Renaissance Man. He’s a legendary bartender, an accomplished musician, an amateur historian, a charismatic storyteller, and a Minister of the Church of the SubGenius . He’s remixed Bollywood film music , toured the world playing exotica, and was instrumental in the craft cocktail revival. His place in cocktail history was recently documented in A Proper Drink: T...

It’s been a year since we’ve had Ben Jones on the show. The last time around ( Rhum Agricole with Ben Jones ) we were talking all things Martinique. This time he’s back to talk about St. Lucia Distillers , a relatively recent addition to the Spiribam portfolio. Learn a bit about how the islands work together, how the hurricanes affected the islands, the Ti’ Punch Cup, and r...

This week we planned on talking with Chris Benedyk of Love Handle about the breakfast/brunch revolution. We planned on talking about how chefs that traditionally opened dinner-only restaurants are now rethinking their concepts and cooking innovative food for the morning hours. We planned to get deep into what makes a dish a “brunch dish”. We planned on delving into the world of offal a...

Vermouth, Amaro, and Haus Alpenz or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Tell Jake to Shut The F*ck Up If there are two confusing categories of alcohol, vermouth and amaro are at the top of the list. There are few people as knowledgeable on the subject as Jake Parrott of Haus Alpenz. He’s an old friend of the show so expect some NSFW language and ribbing along with some twisting rabbit holes...

Alexandre Gabriel, Master Blender and Owner of Maison Ferrand , has turned the company into one of the most important producers of fine spirits in the industry. He’s a bibliophile, voracious reader of historic texts, a farmer, and a perfectionist. As the charismatic leader of a band of misfits, he and his team have brought the world elegant Cognac, obtained permission to distill gin in Cogna...

Still bar hopping in Amsterdam, this week Ed and Arthur met up with Timo Janse of Door 74 . He started out working at hotel bars before there was a cocktail scene in Amsterdam and soon enough he was running a place considered one of the World’s 50 Best Bars . As an active participant as a judge and competitor at cocktail festivals around the world, he’s proven that the Dutch are a force to be reck...

The guys are in Amsterdam and hitting some of the best bars in the world – in Amsterdam. Born in Argentina, raised in Miami, and now residing in Amsterdam, Guillermo Gonzalez is operating one of the best bars in the world. This week he sits down to talk with the guys about life in Amsterdam, how he operates his bar, Hiding in Plain Sight (HPS) , under the radar and still serves some of the best dr...

Aric Geesaman of Ash Blaeds has a background in the sciences, but his frustration with cheap knives lead to a whole new business. He drops by to talk about metallurgy, forging blades, making custom knives for professional chefs and home cooks, reality television, choosing the right sword for the right armor, and “The Blondes Age”.

It’s our Independence Day Episode! What better way to celebrate the Fourth of July than with BBQ and heavy metal? This week’s guest does it all – a food truck, competitions, full-time work in Criminal Justice, and brings it all together with the edge of black metal. Chris Morrison’s Black Metal BBQ has been working it’s way up to the top of BBQ competitions. Though he’s relatively new to the circu...