The Thinking Drinkers Podcast

Hotel, Motel, Is That Your Foreskin? This week's pod recalls Tom's unfortunate and minor (very minor) costume malfunction on stage at the Alnwick Playhouse before raising a Rob Roy in memory of the Waldorf Astoria and exploring the ale-loving entrepreneur who invented Cat's Eyes. Get your Worthington White Shield here: £3.59 from Beers of Europe Rob Roy 50 ml Scotch Whisky, 20 ml Sweet Red Vermouth, dash Angostura Bitters. How To make a Rob Roy. Stir ingredients over ice in a mixing glass Discerning Drinks Deals Of The Week Waitrose, Kyro Gin, £25, £4.95 off, Sainsburys, Cardhu Gold Reserve Single Malt Scotch £26 down from £40 1000 Stories Bourbon-Aged Zinfandel £12 down from £15 Master of Malt: Silent Pool Gift Pack for Mother's Day. £55 down from £65. Other Stuff Buy yourself or someone else annual membership (and a signed copy of our award-winning Thinking Drinkers Almanac Book) for just £120 here. Check out dates and tickets for our "Thinking Drinkers Pub Quiz" show, featuring lots of laughs and FIVE free drinks for every audience member, here: AUSTRIAN ALPS: ALTITUDE COMEDY FESTIVAL

This week, we hark back to the halcyon days when strangers blew smoke up the bottoms of wet people and, in the whining words of Liam Gallagher, things get supersonic with a gin and tonic as we celebrate the birth of Concorde. Oaxaca Old Fashioned (created by Phil Ward in New York) 40ml Fortaleza Reposado Tequila 12.5ml Lost Explorer Mezcal 1 barspoon agave nectar 2 dashes Angostura bitters Garnish: orange twist Method: Set the orange peel to one side before bringing all the ingredients in a glass (Old Fashioned) containing a large ice cube. Stir until chilled. Flame an orange twist over the surface of the drink. Discerning Drinks Deals Of The Week Majestic Chanoine Frères 'Réserve Privée' Brut Champagne - £20 OFF Beronia Rioja Gran Reserva 2013/15 - 8 quid off. Definition English Sparkling Brut, Hampshire - 11 quid off. Lanson Le Blanc de Blancs Brut Champagne - £20 off Whiskey Exchange Fortaleza Blanco Tequila with a case of London Essence Pomelo and Pink Pepper Tonic - £62.75 ASDA GIN OF THE WEEK Asda, Plymouth Gin, £20, save a fiver, Waitrose Wine: Terre di Vita Organic Pinot Grigio Terre Siciliane £6.49 - down from £8.99, Mimo Moutinho Dão Red Wine, Aldi, £5.79 Become a reviewer for the Aldi Wine Club - click here Are you a wine enthusiast? Do you have a nose for aromas and impeccable tastebuds? Or simply want the opportunity to try some FREE wines? We are looking for thirty vino-loving superstars to make up our latest Aldi Wine Club panel – an exclusive group of Aldi shoppers with a passion for wine. As an Aldi Wine Club member, you will have the opportunity to trial delicious and award-winning wines, including new launches from Aldi’s Spring Summer range, without spending a penny. All you’ll be tasked with is reviewing each wine via a 140-character tweet or Instagram post using the dedicated #AldiWineClub hashtag– it’s as simple as that! Applications now open until 13th March! To apply to the Aldi wine tasting opportunity, shoppers simply need to send an email to Aldiwineclub@clarioncomms.co.uk with the below details: • Full name • Proof of age • The name of your social media handles and the number of followers for each account • 150 words explaining why you think you should be selected as an Aldi Wine Club member • What your favourite wine is and why Other Stuff Buy yourself or someone else annual membership (and a signed copy of our award-winning Thinking Drinkers Almanac Book) for just £120 here. Check out dates and tickets for our "Thinking Drinkers Pub Quiz" show, featuring lots of laughs and FIVE free drinks for every audience member, here:

After a week off, the hardest working beefcakes in the drinks business slide back into the Pod saddle, digging their heels into some hard-nosed aural journalism and whipping up some searing investigative insight - namely the return of bananas to the UK in 1945 and. of course, National Pig Day (only America). Like beer? Like bananas? Well you'll flipping love Mongozo Banana Beer - available here or via Amazon here And how about A Pigs In Blanket Old Fashioned? Pigs in Blanket Old Fashioned Ingredients 12 pigs in blanket 70cl of Pork fat-washed whisky 5ml Maple syrup 2 dashes of Angostura Bitters To make the fat-wash whisky · Grill the pigs in blanket over a baking tray and collect 30ml of the fat. · Strain it into a container filled with 70cl of blended Scotch whisky. Leave it to steep in the whisky for 6-8 hours or overnight at room temperature before placing the bottle in the freezer. · Once the fat has congealed in the bottle, strain the bourbon into a new bottle. Method: · Take 40 ml pigs-in-blanket fat-infused whisky and stir in a mixing glass with the maple syrup and ice. · Add bitters and stir. · Strain into a child ‘Old Fashioned’ glass filled with ice. Garnish with an orange slice.. Or a pig-in-blanket While you're waiting for the pig fat to steep in the whisky, here's a video about pigs that play video games. Drinks Deals Of The Week Mirabeau La Folie Sparkling Rose - down £3 to £11 at Sainsburys Johnnie Walker Black Label - Sainsbury, £22, save £10, Martini Rosso, only £2.50 off, but down to £8 at Waitrose, Jameson Orange, £15, save £9.50, great in an alternative to the Irish Espresso Martini Waitrose For gin fans, Hayman’s London Dry Gin, fiver off, £21 Waitrose Keep your eye out for the new Luxardo Espresso Liqueur _____________________________ Buy yourself or someone else annual membership (and a signed copy of our award-winning Thinking Drinkers Almanac Book) for just £120 here. Check out dates and tickets for our "Thinking Drinkers Pub Quiz" show, featuring lots of laughs and FIVE free drinks for evewry audience member, here:

If drink-soaked discussion of aphrodisiacal accompaniments to oysters, 'titanic plums', guinea pigs with dodgy fivers, hangover cures and some seriously decent discounted drinks are your thing then listen to this Valentine's Special featuring a boffin. VALENTINE DRINKS The Properly Dangerous Liason Ingredients 45ml Brockmans Gin 75ml Taittinger Champagne or Sparkling Wine 15ml Fresh Lemon Juice 10ml Creme de Cassis 5ml Sugar Syrup Method – Combine all ingredients apart from the sparkling wine and creme de cassis in a shaker over ice – Shake to combine, double strain into a champagne flute and – Top with Champagne, then drizzle over the creme de cassis. – Garnish with a lemon twist. Chilean Red Wine: Errazuriz Max Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon – £12.99, Waitrose Chargrilled asparagus with Westmalle Tripel – £4.20 from Beer Merchants Oysters with Titanic Plum Porter – £1.80, Sainsbury’s Discerning Drinks Deals Aperol, Morrisons, reduced from £20 to £15.99, Morrisons, Courvoisier VSOP, £29.99, down from £37, Gin deal of the week, Sainsbury, 1l of Tanqueray, £20, Asda Beer Deals You can get two packs for a tenner on certain beers. So 4xJaipur and 6x Pilsner Urquell for £10. That’s a tenner for 10 quality beers, so that makes them £1 each. Some maths for you. _____________________________ Buy yourself or someone else annual membership (and a signed copy of our award-winning Thinking Drinkers Almanac Book) for just £120 here. Check out dates and tickets for our "Thinking Drinkers Pub Quiz" show, featuring lots of laughs and FIVE free drinks for evewry audience member, here:

We tell the WWII story behind Whisky Galore before linking a classic gin cocktail to a tale of someone knocking a vase over. You should listen. The Ola Dubh range is available from The Whiskey Exchange Sainsbury has its Villa Maria on at £8.75, down from a tenner, Jameson is £19 down from £22.50, Gin deal of the week, Asda and Waitrose are going at it in their bid to bring you the best price on Tanqueray Ten Waitrose, £27, Aviation Cocktail 60ml gin 15ml Maraschino Liqueur 10ml Créme De Violette 25ml Lemon Juice Lemon zest, to garnish Shake gin, lemon juice, maraschino liqueur and crème de violette over ice, Taste, then add a splash of chilled water to dilute, if you like. Strain into four chilled cocktail glasses and garnish with blueberries and lemon zest. Buy yourself or someone else annual membership (and a signed copy of our award-winning Thinking Drinkers Almanac Book) for just £120 here. Check out dates and tickets for our "Thinking Drinkers Pub Quiz" show, featuring lots of laughs and FIVE free drinks for evewry audience member, here: 241 tickets use the word DRINKER

Hail Henry VIII's death with Tynt Meadow - the only Trappist Beer in Britain. Read Mark Dredge's great article about the monastery in Good Beer Hunting here: Watch the documentary "Outside City" - all about the realities of the modern-day Monky business here. AA Milne & The Bee's Knees Cocktail Get Hiver Blonde Beer from Waitrose here Bee's Knees Cocktail Ingredients Method: Loosen up the honey in a jug by stirring it with a little bit of freshly boiled water. When it's smooth, add the mixture to a shaker filled with plenty of ice, the lemon juice and the gin. Shake and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with some lemon zest. This week's "Les Bargains" Benriach The Original Ten Speyside Single Malt Scotch, £29 Waitrose (save £9) Sweet and easy-drinking intro into whisky. Balblair 15 Year Old, Whisky exchange, £64.95 (£13 off) A bit more punchy, 46%, full-bodied, matured in ex-bourbon casks and finished in first-fill Spanish oak butts. Vestal Kaszebe 2011 Vintage Vodka, Whisky Exchange at £21.95 (£8 off) The potatoes used as the based for this vodka are the Vineta varietal and are all grown in the Kaszebe region of central northern Poland. Absolute, £16, Asda Great vodka for mixed drinks and recreating the scene in Wolf of Wall Street Heineken 0,0, 6xcans for £4.50, Sainsburys doing Bacardi Carta Blanca for £14, £2 off. Makes a wicked daiquiri, 700ml bottle, 50ml per daiquiri, how many can you make? You do the math. ________________________________ Buy yourself or someone else annual membership (and a signed copy of our award-winning Thinking Drinkers Almanac Book) for just £120 here. Check out dates and tickets for our "Thinking Drinkers Pub Quiz" show, featuring lots of laughs and FIVE free drinks for evewry audience member, here: 241 tickets use the word DRINKER

This week, following our inaugural appearance on "This Morning", our pod adopts an alternative approach to Burns Night and solves a mystery for those looking to drink something in honour of Hercule Poirot. Burns Night is coming. Let's face it, if it wasn’t in January, no-one would take any notice. But after 25 moribund days of ‘meh’, celebrating the birthday of an 18th century tax collector with some root vegetables and stomach stuffed with bits of sheep sounds like a brilliant night out. It’s not. A clichéd caricature of Scottish-ness, it’s tediously quaint, painfully kitsch and all those endless Immortal Memories, those cheesy Addresses to the Lassies; the dreary drone of the bagpipes would have bored the life out of the real Robert Burns. So we suggest some alcoholic alternatives to breathe life back into Burns Night including: Harviestoun Ola Dubh - you can get it the three different expressions, here. Braemble gin Liqueur - Scottish blackberry with English London Dry Gin. £24.89 Master of Malt The Long Bramble 25ml liqueur 100ml ginger ale or tonic Pour the bramble over ice, in a highball, top with ginger ale, garnish with a wedge of lime, squeeze it in first Cross Brew coffee liqueur, £25.74 Master of Malt Cross Brew Negroni 20ml Cross Brew 30ml Campari 30ml Punt e Mes Stir over ice and strain into rocks glass with ice Whisky Deals Mortlach 15 YO for £87.95 Whisky Exchange – saving £32.05 Aberlour 14-Year-Old Single Malt Whisky, £46 Waitrose - save £10 Cardhu, £26, Sainsburys - was £40 Woven Whisky, Experience N.11, Peachy, £55 POIROT And then we celebrate a lesser-known milestone - the 103rd anniversary of the first ever Hercule Poirot novel - and honour the "detestable, bombastic, tiresome,egocentric little creep" with a superb Belgian stout. Get Hercule Stout here ________________________________ Buy yourself or someone else annual membership (and a signed copy of our award-winning Thinking Drinkers Almanac Book) for just £120 here. Check out dates and tickets for our "Thinking Drinkers Pub Quiz" show, featuring lots of laughs and FIVE free drinks for evewry audience member, here: 241 tickets use the word DRINKER

Amid all this talk of Harry and Meghan, we explore Edward VII, aka "Dirty Bertie" - the original Playboy Prince with some cracking King's Ginger liqueur. Then, having once again proven that #winewritingiswelleasy, we make ourselves a Bicicletta for birthday boy and Pirate peddler Marco Pantani. If you'd like to see Edward VII's 's3x chair' (and why wouldn't you?) then click here. Amazon is offering a great deal on King's Ginger, complete with swanky gift tin, for just £23 here. You're welcome. King's Mulled Cider 50ml The King's Ginger 150ml Cider 150ml Apple juice Serve in a handled glass, hot or over ice. Garnish with lemon, cinnamon stick and fresh blackberries. Marco Pantani Here's the picture of Marco shaking an Italian policeman's hand after some rather ripe parking manouevres and here's a picture of his statue in Northern Italy. For Campari, the best price is at Morrisons, £15.50 - click here The Bicicletta Built over ice, use a wine glass or a highball glass Other Royal Drinks: King Charles's Royal Lochnagar 12 year old, Whisky Exchange, £40.95 Megan Markle's Tignanello 2018 can be found at Fine Wine Direct for £180 Buy yourself or someone else annual membership (and a signed copy of our award-winning Thinking Drinkers Almanac Book) for just £120 here. Check out dates and tickets for our "Thinking Drinkers Pub Quiz" show, featuring lots of laughs and FIVE free drinks for evewry audience member, here:

Get yourself some Veuve Clicquot here The Monkey Gland, created by Harry MacElhone Ingredients 60ml London Dry Gin 45ml orange juice 1 teaspoon absinthe 1 teaspoon grenadine 1 teaspoon sugar syrup (optional) Shake all ingredient with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with orange peel or a lychee. Serve with monkey nuts. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Buy yourself or someone else annual membership (and a signed copy of our award-winning Thinking Drinkers Almanac Book) for just £120 here. It's what Jesus would have wanted. Check out dates and tickets for our "Thinking Drinkers Pub Quiz" show, featuring lots of laughs and FIVE free drinks for evewry audience member, here:

Bonjour tout le monde, In this week's podcast, discover how Alfred Nobel inspired peace after accidentally reading his own obituary, marvel at probly the best Danish design in the world and strap yourself in for some fascinating yeast chat. Ahead of France v England, we commemorate the Battle of Agincourt, and Ben's tortured football analogy, with a Biere de Garde/Saison style beer. Buy here Watch Dennis Bergkamp, the non-Flying Dutchman, book the Argentinians on the plane home with this 'worldy' from the 1998 World Cup. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Buy yourself or someone else annual membership (and a signed copy of our award-winning Thinking Drinkers Almanac Book) for just £120 here. It's what Jesus would have wanted. Check out dates and tickets for our "Thinking Drinkers Pub Quiz" show, featuring lots of laughs and FIVE free drinks for evewry audience member, here:

In this week’s podcast, we chat to radio and TV presenter Adrian Chiles about his new book "The Good Drinker - How I Learned to Love Drinking Less" which is very much in tune with the Thinking Drinkers' mantra "Drink Less Drink Better" . Amusing, insightful and compelling yet never preachy, Adrian's book explores both the benefits and difficulties of drinking in moderation after years of seriously committed consumption. Adrian didn’t think he had a drinking problem, until he realised he was regularly putting away 100 units of alcohol a week. When specialists told him something had to change, he had a choice to make - stop drinking completely or cut right down. He chose the latter and embarked on a fascinating quest to find the good drinker within... Adrian Chiles is a writer, television and radio presenter and world-weary West Bromwich Albion fan. He has been a presenter on BBC Radio 5 Live since the day it started in 1994 and his TV presenter work includes Working Lunch, Match of the Day 2 and The Apprentice: You're Fired. He recently released a documentary called "Drinkers Like Me", in which he explored his relationship with alcohol and decided to cut down. You can buy the book here: Buy yourself or someone else annual membership (and a signed copy of our award-winning Thinking Drinkers Almanac Book) for just £120 here. It's what Jesus would have wanted. Check out dates and tickets for our "Thinking Drinkers Pub Quiz" show, featuring lots of laughs and FIVE free drinks for evewry audience member, here:

Manhattan 60ml (2 fl oz) Elijah Craig Kentucky Straight Bourbon 25ml (¾ fl oz) sweet vermouth | 3 dashes of Angostura bitters Ice | Cherry, to garnish • Pour the bourbon, vermouth and bitters into a mixing glass. Add ice, stir gently for 10–15 seconds, then strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry. Get yourself a can of Carlsberg Special Brew here Buy yourself or someone else annual membership (and a signed copy of our award-winning Thinking Drinkers Almanac Book) for just £120 here Check out dates and tickets for the shows below here:

This week's podcast features phallic-shaped outcrops and death-defying, rum guzzling, swashbuckling salty seamen. Marvel as we expertly tip-toe around some sensitive issues of the past whilst simultaneously decanting drinks knowledge into you generous ears. As promised, here's the picture of Cock Rock (now known as Rooster Rock) and here's where you can buy some Jagermeister - a much misunderstood digestif made with 56 different herbs, roots, fruits and spices. Given Blackbeard became a pirate at the tender age of 12, we're going for some El Dorado 12 year-old in a Rum Old Fashioned. Rum Old Fashioned - 12YO 60ml El Dorado 12YO - buy it here 3x Dashes Aromatic Bitters Barspoon of Demerara Sugar Orange Twist Method: Put the sugar, bitters and water in a tumbler/old fashioned glass. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Add a couple of ice cubes and stir in the rum. Add a couple more and stir some more. Garnish with the orange twist

Get some Pilsner Urquell here Drink some neat Gin whilst gawping at Gin Lane & Beer Street here Subscribe to the Thinking Drinkers Spirits Subscription Club here and check out dates and tickets for the shows below here:

This week, the Thinking Drinkers hail Harry Houdini's almost fatal attempt to escape from an urn full of fermenting Tetley's Beer, light a firework under several myths surrounding Guy Fawkes and big-up the famous Northampton massif with Three Hills brewery. And as promised, here's our super duper mulled cider recipe. How do you like them apples? Mulled cider Ingredients 1½ litres of dry cider 100ml Calvados 400ml apple juice 80g dark brown sugar 2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half 4 whole cloves zest 1 orange, pared into strips 1 tbsp allspice berries Add cider, Calvados, apple juice and sugar to a saucepan, gently heat, then add the orange zest and spices, simmer on a low heat for 20 mins. Subscribe to the Thinking Drinkers Spirits Subscription Club here and check out dates and tickets for the shows below here:

Date: October 30th Event: 1974 Rumble In The Jungle - George Foreman v Muhammed Ali Drink: The Uppercut 50ml Triple Sec 25ml Cachaça 15ml Lemon juice (freshly squeezed) 15ml Pink Grapefruit Juice (freshly squeezed) Dash of Angostura Aromatic Bitters Method: Shake all the ingredients with ice and strain into a coupe glass Or, given Ali was born in Louisville, reach of some quality Kentucky Straight Bourbon in the shape of Elijah Craig Small Batch. Enjoy while watching.... Highlights of the Rumble In The Jungle fight in 1974 here Trailer for When We Were Kings here and the trailer for Soul Power here Date: 2nd November Event: Marie Antoinette's Birthday Drink: Bollinger Champagne And here's a picture of a Greek nipple bowl. You're welcome. Subscribe to the Thinking Drinkers Spirits Subscription Club here and check out dates and tickets for the shows below here:

This week, we shall ostly be drinking rum and red wine mixed with coca-cola. Here's why. Event: Death of Lord Admiral Nelson Agggghhh landlubbers. On October 21st, 1805, Lord Nelson was shot by a Frenchman during the Battle of Trafalgar during a battle which the Brits won 22-0 (in terms of ships). Drink: Nelson's Blood To commemorate the one-eyed, partially-deaf, philandering, publicity-seeking, sea-sick seaman, we're drinking Nelson's Blood II using Pusser's Navy Rum. Nelson’s Blood No.2 45ml Pusser's Navy Rum 45ml Cranberry Juice 22.5ml Lime Juice 22.5 ml Orange juice 12.5 ml Sugar syrup Two dashes of Angostura Bitters Strain into ice-filled glass after shaking all the ingredients in a shaker packed with ice. Garnish with a lime wedge to prevent scurvy. Event: Thomas Edison invents a commercially practical incandescent light at his industrial research lab in New Jersey. Drink: A “Calimocho”, a blend of equal parts cola and cheap red wine. America’s finest inventor gave us the gramophone, the movie camera and the first commercially practical long-lasting light bulb. He drank something called Vin Mariani, a ‘medicinal’ mix of cheap red wine and coca leaves, believed be the pre-cursor to Coca-Cola. We're mixing the two in equal parts. But you can buy a version of Vin Mariani (without the nose candy) here. To find out more about our Spirits Subscription Club and tour dates - click here

Evel Knievel & Wild Turkey Enjoy a Wild Turkey 101 whilst watching Evel Knievel (mostly) fail to land death-defying jumps. Wembley 1975: And the report from The Guardian here CNN Obituary footage here Matthew McConaughey's Eulogy at Knievel's funeral here And here's the..... Kung Fu and the Grasshopper How to make: SHAKE all ingredients with ice and fine strain into chilled glass. 25ml Crème de menthe 25ml Crème de Cacao 25 ml Single cream Pour ingredients into shaker full of ice, shake and strain into a coupe Also, here's a link for Mortlach 25 year-old and RinQuinQuin

The first episode of our new podcast series recommends drinks to enjoy from October 7th to October 13th. Listen to Lenny Bruce At Carnegie Hall Here's Ursula Andres and her shells in Dr.No C*cks**king Cowboy 15ml Butterscotch Schnapps 30ml Baileys Irish Cream Layer the two ingredients in a shot glass by pouring Baileys off the back of a bar spoon so it floats on top of the schnapps Vodka Martini 60ml Vodka 3tsp Dry Vermouth Ice cubes. Olive or lemon zest Method: Stir the ingredients in a glass with ice and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with an olive or a lemon twist. For more on The Thinking Drinkers and dates for their "Pub Quiz" shows - click here For the C**kSuck*ng Cowboy you can buy Baileys Irish Cream here and Bols Butterscotch here For the Vodka Martini - go for Belvedere Smogory Forest Single Estate Rye here and Cocchi Extra Dry vermouth here

he full range of Diplomatico rums can be bought from The Whisky Exchange here: Luxury chocolate supporting a great cause can be found at Harry Specters here Waitrose chocs can be purchased here: And you can the lovely wine packs from Bibwine here And you can watch the pod here