Episosde 295 - State of Gin, 2025 with Bobby Freeman
Release Date: 03/07/2025
Episode 315 - The Seagroni
The Modern Bar Cart Podcast
In this aquatic maturation deep-dive with Danny and Billy Dalla Polla, Eddie Odabachian, and Nick Carmer of , creators of the Seagroni, some of the topics we discuss include: The genesis story of the project, starting with the question: “what if there was sunken treasure in this reef?,” and culminating in a fateful Negroni week experiment that changed everything. What happens to spirits and cocktails when they’re barrel aged under water, as compared to the conditions and results you might expect from standard, terrestrial warehouse conditions. How consumers have been reacting to the...
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Episode 314 - Rare and Vintage Drambuie Tasting
The Modern Bar Cart Podcast
This time around, we explore the fascinating flavors of different Drambuie releases. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a honey and whiskey liqueur made in Scotland, and if you have heard of it…well, you know that you can’t make a Rusty Nail cocktail without it. In this episode, the bottles we taste through include: Today’s Drambuie base expression A bottle from maybe 4 or 5 years ago…just to see if it’s the same juice A vintage bottle from the ‘70s or ‘80s A 1980s-era Drambuie decanter special release Drambuie 15-year old (made, of course, with 15-year-old whiskey) And we...
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Episode 313 - Australian Spirits Trends with James Young
The Modern Bar Cart Podcast
In this Down Under conversation with James Young of Old Young’s Distillery, some of the topics we discuss include: The influence and defining characteristics of the Australian cocktail scene, which differs starkly from what you might find when you travel to Europe and is responsible for such mixological gifts as Mr. Black Coffee liqueur and the butterfly pea coloring craze. How to plan your travel itinerary around tasting delicious spirits in every state in Australia, including whisky in Tasmania, Gin & Brandy in Western Australia, and rum up in Queensland and Kununurra. The growing...
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Episode 312 - Intro to Australian Spirits with James Young
The Modern Bar Cart Podcast
In part one of my two-part waltz through the flavors and landscapes of Australia with James Young of , some of the topics we discuss include: The history and evolution of the Australian distilling industry, specifically with respect to the development of the Australian whisky scene and the rise of distinct gin and rum traditions. The impact of Australian agriculture and wine on the types of grains, casks, and other production choices that have come to define Australian whisky on the world stage. The flavor and culture phenomenon that is Australian gin, including the story behind Four...
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Episode 311 - Flavor Attractors with Dr. Kevin Peterson
The Modern Bar Cart Podcast
In part two of my exploration of flavor and memory with , some of the topics we discuss include: What the Big 5 personality index (also known as OCEAN) might be able to teach us about how guests think about factors like novelty and comfort in the cocktails they enjoy. The difference between the highest-rated drink (on average) on most Castalia menus, versus the highest-rated drinks for specific individuals. How people respond when asked to describe their ideal cocktail - including the aesthetics and memories they tended to focus on, and which qualities they most often left out of the...
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Episode 310 - Data-Driven Drinks with Dr. Kevin Peterson
The Modern Bar Cart Podcast
In this data-driven conversation with , some of the topics we discuss include: How winding down Castalia and Sfumato after a decade of service provided the impetus for , and why Kevin has set out to address a very different set of questions than in his last book, Cocktail Theory. Why matching a person with their ideal drink is very different (and much more difficult, it turns out) from trying to make the optimal Old Fashioned or Negroni or Daiquiri. This leads to a conversation about all the variables that go into cocktail preference: sweetness, acidity, bitterness, booziness,...
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Episode 309 - The Donn of Tiki with Alex Lamb and Max Well
The Modern Bar Cart Podcast
In this fascinating conversation with Max Well and Alex Lamb, directors of , some of the topics we discuss include: How a COVID-era YouTube short on the history of Tiki in LA snowballed into a full-length feature film on one of the most iconic bar entrepreneurs of the 20th century: Ernest Gantt, AKA Donn Beach, AKA "Don the Beachcomber." The way that stop-motion puppetry and clever era-appropriate animations were used to give Donn an embodied presence in his own story, with audio unearthed from a single set of tapes uncovered at the University of Hawaii. The interesting ironies that run...
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Episode 308 - Your Whiskey Math is Bullsh*t
The Modern Bar Cart Podcast
Eric kicks off 2026 with an audio essay rant targeted at the ham-fisted "percentage" math that people use to answer the question: "How much of a whiskey's flavor comes from the barrel?" In the censored words of George Carlin: "It's all BS, and it's bad for ya." To demonstrate this, we sift through GC-MS whiskey sample results, human neurobiology, and behavioral economics. In the end, it's a poorly posed question invented to solve a problem that doesn't exist, and it colors our expectations about flavor in harmful ways.
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Episode 307 - Sacred Serves: The Rituals that Make Drinking Human
The Modern Bar Cart Podcast
This time around, we’ll be taking a look at drinking rituals from around the world. A few months back, my friend asked me to write an article about drinking rituals for her new publication, . She has graciously agreed to let me read the article on-air and give you all a bit of a “Director’s Cut” version of the article, entitled: . For those of you who have the opportunity to enjoy a few drinks with family and friends this holiday season, I hope some of these thoughts about the importance of ritual, hospitality, gratitude, and the sometimes radical act of coming together can help...
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Episode 306 - The Bartender's Manifesto with Toby Maloney
The Modern Bar Cart Podcast
Eric interviews Toby Maloney () about his award-winning book, . Some of the topics covered in this conversation include: How Toby thinks about cocktail development, including the importance of inspiration, intention, comfort, and curiosity The importance of curated attention in the creative process, allowing you to notice aspects of the world around you that can be used as inspiration and structural components for cocktail building A live cocktail development case study, where Toby and Eric riff on a menu prompt and create their very own custom cocktail worthy of inclusion on a...
info_outlineIn this Navy Strength conversation with Bobby Freeman (@nononsensegin), creator of the hit YouTube Channel, No Nonsense Gin Drinking, some of the topics we discuss include:
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Bobby’s journey through gin, beginning with the gin & tonic that launched his obsession and all of the stylistic preferences and affinities he’s developed along the way
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A discussion of recent gin trends in the UK, including the “Pink Gin Bubble” that occurred during COVID and the current obsession with citrus-heavy gins.
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We also cover the popular cocktail trends that are dominant right now in the London bar world, including Pisco & whiskey sours, porn star martinis, and brambles.
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And of course, this wouldn’t be a true gin nerd conversation if we didn’t take the opportunity to sample some of our personal favorite gins featuring outlandish botanicals, like oyster shells, elephant dung, ants, and prickly pear cactus.
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Along the way, we discuss why Bobby gets a little nervous when ordering a Mojito, which South American country has suspiciously good deals on distilled spirits, the gin with a flavor profile that can only be described as “pure fart,”
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And much, much more.