The Philip Duff Show

This is the first in a mini-series of three about agave spirits and the people who make them.(The WiFi wasn’t great, so sound quality is a little echoey at times and there’s the occasional pause in dialogue when Zoom froze, but that’s how it goes when you’re a 4-hour drive from Oaxaca!)It was great to catch up with Dani, who I first met when she was bartending in Vancouver, part of the first wave of mixology in Canada back around 2008. She moved down to start ecolodge Acre in Cabo San Lucas, and when my wife Elayne and I were invited down to Cabo to give some seminars,  I suggested she and her professional colleague Osvaldo Vasquez at the Chileno Bay resort start a cocktail festival, and she and Osvaldo went on to found CCF (Cabo Cocktail Festival). When I was down there next year at CCF, Dani was already selecting mezcals to have a house brand at Acre, and five or six years ago she left Acre and CCF and moved to Zipolite, near Oaxaca, to found Mezcal Gotagorda and a mezcaleria. Dani seeks out small batches of unusual mezcals and "destilado de agave" (unregistered mezcal, basically)  in runs of as little as 42 liters , bottles them under the brand name Gotagorda and sells them, from her mezcaleria, locally, also shipping throughout Mexico and (soon) abroad. Over a wee mezcal we chatted about how brands can work sustainably with mezcal producers, what you should pay for a bottle of mezcal, the regulations for glass-aged madurado mezcal, harvesting agave at night on her birthday and what it's like working in rural Mexico and educating her customers. Enjoy! Danielle on IG: https://www.instagram.com/danifish/?hl=enGotagorda on IG: https://www.instagram.com/mezcalgotagorda/?hl=esMezcal and Destilados Gotagorda info & shop: https://destiladosgotagorda.myshopify.com/ (Get in touch with Duff!Podcast business enquiries:  consulting@liquidsolutions.org (PR friends: we’re only interested in having your client on if they can talk for a couple of hours about OTHER things besides their prepared speaking points or their new thing, whatever that is. They need to be able to hang. Oh, plus we don't edit, we won’t supply prepared or sample questions, nor listener or “reach” stats, either, and no, you can't sit in on the interview (or lurk on the Zoom.) Retain Philip’s consulting firm, Liquid Solutions, specialised in on-trade engagement & education, liquor brand creation and repositioning: philip@liquidsolutions.orgPhilip on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philipsduff/ Philip on Facebook: Philip Duff Philip on X/Twitter: Philip Duff (@philipduff) / Twitter Philip on LinkedIn: linkedin.com Old Duff Genever on Instagram: Old Duff Genever (@oldduffgenever) • Instagram photos and videos Old Duff Genever on Facebook: facebook.com Old Duff Genever on X/Twitter: ...

I sat down with the extravagantly-hatted Damon Boelte himself, founder of the longest-running bars & cocktails podcast The Speakeasy as well as owner of Grand Army bar in Brooklyn, musician, and bartender of decades standing. We talked about him going from never having worked in hospitality to being the bar manager in four weeks, did a Where Are They Now for the OG bartending crew of Prime Meats in Brooklyn, learn the origin story of the Hard Start cocktail (and who named it), and why we don't need umbrellas in hotel rooms for them to be luxury any more than we need sleeve gaiters and twirly moustaches to be mixologists nowadays, and a whole bunch more. Enjoy!Damon on IG: https://www.instagram.com/damonboelte/?hl=enGrand Army bar: https://www.instagram.com/grandarmybar/?hl=enThe Speakeasy podcast: https://www.instagram.com/speakeasypodcast/?hl=en (Get in touch with Duff!Podcast business enquiries:  consulting@liquidsolutions.org (PR friends: we’re only interested in having your client on if they can talk for a couple of hours about OTHER things besides their prepared speaking points or their new thing, whatever that is. They need to be able to hang. Oh, plus we don't edit, we won’t supply prepared or sample questions, nor listener or “reach” stats, either, and no, you can't sit in on the interview (or lurk on the Zoom.) Retain Philip’s consulting firm, Liquid Solutions, specialised in on-trade engagement & education, liquor brand creation and repositioning: philip@liquidsolutions.orgPhilip on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philipsduff/ Philip on Facebook: Philip Duff Philip on X/Twitter: Philip Duff (@philipduff) / Twitter Philip on LinkedIn: linkedin.com Old Duff Genever on Instagram: Old Duff Genever (@oldduffgenever) • Instagram photos and videos Old Duff Genever on Facebook: facebook.com Old Duff Genever on X/Twitter: ...

Well, we did it all. Awards? 50 Best? Alternative agave?We got it all, and this was fun - plus discounts for awesome gin and the world's best spiced rum! (Get in touch with Duff!Podcast business enquiries:  consulting@liquidsolutions.org (PR friends: we’re only interested in having your client on if they can talk for a couple of hours about OTHER things besides their prepared speaking points or their new thing, whatever that is. They need to be able to hang. Oh, plus we don't edit, we won’t supply prepared or sample questions, nor listener or “reach” stats, either, and no, you can't sit in on the interview (or lurk on the Zoom.) Retain Philip’s consulting firm, Liquid Solutions, specialised in on-trade engagement & education, liquor brand creation and repositioning: philip@liquidsolutions.orgPhilip on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philipsduff/ Philip on Facebook: Philip Duff Philip on X/Twitter: Philip Duff (@philipduff) / Twitter Philip on LinkedIn: linkedin.com Old Duff Genever on Instagram: Old Duff Genever (@oldduffgenever) • Instagram photos and videos Old Duff Genever on Facebook: facebook.com Old Duff Genever on X/Twitter: ...

Sid's a fascinating chap; coming from a family background of East Coast (USA) liquor stores, he created Beverage Trade Network to operate spirits, wine and beer contests just about everywhere, as well as advise brands, all with the goal of helping brands market themselves and succeed in the marketplace. There's a lot of cold hard truth truth in this episode about building brands, and we do a little crystal-ball gazing to guesstimate what'll happen where & when in some liquor categories in the future. Enjoy!(Oh, and it's nomination time - if you enjoy The Philip Duff Show, give us a bit of motivation to keep going by nominating us for an award, such as here: https://spiritedawards.secure-platform.com/a )Sid on LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/sidpatelbtnSid & Beverage Trade Network on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BeverageTradeNetworkSid on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sidpatelbtn/Beverage Trade Network: https://beveragetradenetwork.com (Get in touch with Duff!Podcast business enquiries:  consulting@liquidsolutions.org (PR friends: we’re only interested in having your client on if they can talk for a couple of hours about OTHER things besides their prepared speaking points or their new thing, whatever that is. They need to be able to hang. Oh, plus we don't edit, we won’t supply prepared or sample questions, nor listener or “reach” stats, either, and no, you can't sit in on the interview (or lurk on the Zoom.) Retain Philip’s consulting firm, Liquid Solutions, specialised in on-trade engagement & education, liquor brand creation and repositioning: philip@liquidsolutions.orgPhilip on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philipsduff/ Philip on Facebook: Philip Duff Philip on X/Twitter: Philip Duff (@philipduff) / Twitter Philip on LinkedIn: linkedin.com Old Duff Genever on Instagram: Old Duff Genever (@oldduffgenever) • Instagram photos and videos Old Duff Genever on Facebook: facebook.com Old Duff Genever on X/Twitter: ...

Greg's a top chap and I first met him years ago when he had a brief stint as GM at one of my local bars here in NY. A hospitality refugee, Greg dove deep into the beer world before coming to the dark side of spirits and cocktails, and is now the third leg of the sturdy stool that is the award-winning The Speakeasy podcast, together with its founder Damon Boelte and Sother Teague. Greg is possibly the oldest person on TikTok and as well as that he recently brought real agave syrup to the world (and it is DELICIOUS), so it was high time we sat down in the back room on Porchlight (which was a bit noisy - sorry!) and shot the breeze. Enjoy!Greg on IG: https://www.instagram.com/100proofgreg/Order Ancestral Agave Syrup: https://www.ancestralagave.com/The Speakeasy on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7iM1x2yL8rbqMXTZlMOmId (Get in touch with Duff!Podcast business enquiries:  consulting@liquidsolutions.org (PR friends: we’re only interested in having your client on if they can talk for a couple of hours about OTHER things besides their prepared speaking points or their new thing, whatever that is. They need to be able to hang. Oh, plus we don't edit, we won’t supply prepared or sample questions, nor listener or “reach” stats, either, and no, you can't sit in on the interview (or lurk on the Zoom.) Retain Philip’s consulting firm, Liquid Solutions, specialised in on-trade engagement & education, liquor brand creation and repositioning: philip@liquidsolutions.orgPhilip on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philipsduff/ Philip on Facebook: Philip Duff Philip on X/Twitter: Philip Duff (@philipduff) / Twitter Philip on LinkedIn: linkedin.com Old Duff Genever on Instagram: Old Duff Genever (@oldduffgenever) • Instagram photos and videos Old Duff Genever on Facebook: facebook.com Old Duff Genever on X/Twitter: ...

The champ is here! Dutchman Nick Vrielink is definitely on a roll: Fitz's Bar, which he set up in Amsterdam's Pillows Hotel, won Best New Cocktail Bar at the Entree (Dutch hospitality) Awards last year, and the day after the Awards Nick boarded a plane to Rome to compete on behalf of the Netherlands Bartender Club (NBC) in the International Bartenders Association (IBA) World Cocktail Championships (WCC), where he won gold in the Pre-Dinner category with his Garden of Dreams cocktail (recipe below)!We talk about building teams, the rising cost of accommodation in Amsterdam versus what bartenders earn, why luxury hotels open with the chef already in place but not the bar manager, the first cocktail book Nick read, his goals when opening Fitz's, how he communicates with his staff, what it's like to compete at the world finals, why he's having another crack at the WCC this year, what Dutch people think of genever versus whiskey, and lots more - enjoy!Garden of Dreams, Nick Vrielink, 2023. 20ml Grappa Nonino Moscato20ml Campari, rapid-infused with basil & white jasmine pearls20ml Vermouth Bianco Del Professore5ml Montelobos mezcalStir with iceStrain over fresh ice in a double old-fashioned glass. Top with prosecco Garnish with a basil leaf and a zalotti blossomNick on IG: https://www.instagram.com/nick.vr/Fitz's Bar on IG: https://www.instagram.com/fitzsbaramsterdam/Pillows Hotel on IG: https://www.instagram.com/pillows.mauritsatthepark/Pic Credit: Albert van Beeck Calkoen, aka Mister Cocktail: https://www.instagram.com/mister.cocktail/ (Get in touch with Duff!Podcast business enquiries:  consulting@liquidsolutions.org (PR friends: we’re only interested in having your client on if they can talk for a couple of hours about OTHER things besides their prepared speaking points or their new thing, whatever that is. They need to be able to hang. Oh, plus we don't edit, we won’t supply prepared or sample questions, nor listener or “reach” stats, either, and no, you can't sit in on the interview (or lurk on the Zoom.) Retain Philip’s consulting firm, Liquid Solutions, specialised in on-trade engagement & education, liquor brand creation and repositioning: philip@liquidsolutions.orgPhilip on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philipsduff/ Philip on Facebook: Philip Duff Philip on X/Twitter: Philip Duff (@philipduff) / Twitter Philip on LinkedIn: linkedin.com Old Duff Genever on Instagram: Old Duff Genever (@oldduffgenever) • Instagram photos and videos Old Duff Genever on Facebook: facebook.com Old Duff Genever on X/Twitter: ...

Chris and www.abarabove.com which he founded with his wife Julia, is a bit of a legend. They've been cranking out top-notch online education centered around spirits, cocktails and mixology since 2013, with 661 (!) videos on YouTube and over 200 podcast episodes (including one with me, about gin & genever - link below!), all building on Chris' decade-plus career bartending in San Francisco's Bay Area and his desire to give young bartenders the education and tools he didn't have when he was coming up. Today the company produces sought-after high-quality barware and has launched a number of in-depth online mixology training courses on their website. Chris is an enormously affable chap, and we kick it about the next steps after bartending, doing the future you a solid, finding factories on Alibaba, the nerdy details of jigger construction, the even nerdier details of shaker construction and (I couldn't stop him by this stage) the staggeringly nerdy details of Lewis bag construction, why only one of your tins should be weighted for shaking with eggwhites, building your 'rizz, making your life easier by actively cultivating regulars, serving your listeners, and much, much more. A Bar Above: https://abarabove.com/ (Check out their Shop for barware, and the online courses!)A Bar Above on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Abarabove/featuredEpisode on Gin & Genever with ME! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TFglHZhEi0A Bar Above podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/1qQSbJ4neKg1Q8XrsHHGcGA Bar Above on IG: https://www.instagram.com/abarabove/A Bar Above on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ABarAboveMixology (Get in touch with Duff!Podcast business enquiries:  consulting@liquidsolutions.org (PR friends: we’re only interested in having your client on if they can talk for a couple of hours about OTHER things besides their prepared speaking points or their new thing, whatever that is. They need to be able to hang. Oh, plus we don't edit, we won’t supply prepared or sample questions, nor listener or “reach” stats, either, and no, you can't sit in on the interview (or lurk on the Zoom.) Retain Philip’s consulting firm, Liquid Solutions, specialised in on-trade engagement & education, liquor brand creation and repositioning: philip@liquidsolutions.orgPhilip on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philipsduff/ Philip on Facebook: Philip Duff Philip on X/Twitter: Philip Duff (@philipduff) / Twitter Philip on LinkedIn: linkedin.com Old Duff Genever on Instagram: Old Duff Genever (@oldduffgenever) • Instagram photos and videos Old Duff Genever on Facebook: facebook.com Old Duff Genever on X/Twitter: ...

Tim's company Healthy Hospo is at the forefront of bartender health, both mental and physical, but it took a crisis in his career to put him on that path. After bartending in the UK and New Zealand, he became a liquor brand ambassador, first regionally in India and Africa, then globally for Bulleit whiskey, before one day hitting a wall - almost literally. We talk about avoiding being kidnapped, adjusting your sleep cycles, strategies for day 1 of not drinking, doing things purposely, drawing cocks with your Strava runs, the madness of cycling in general and Alpine cycling in particular, why what we used to call bartender contests are now called "engagement programs", why brands lose their souls when they outsource such programs to agencies,  how we're at the extreme end of the drinking spectrum, why he's breathing new life into the Appletini with his brand Avallen Calvados, and a whole bunch more. Healthy Hospo: https://healthyhospo.com/ (Tons of free resources to improve your mental and physical health & happiness, all tailor-made for hospitality industry people) Avallen Calvados: https://avallenspirits.com/Tim on LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/timetheringtonjudgeTim on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gingerbitters/?hl=en (Get in touch with Duff!Podcast business enquiries:  consulting@liquidsolutions.org (PR friends: we’re only interested in having your client on if they can talk for a couple of hours about OTHER things besides their prepared speaking points or their new thing, whatever that is. They need to be able to hang. Oh, plus we don't edit, we won’t supply prepared or sample questions, nor listener or “reach” stats, either, and no, you can't sit in on the interview (or lurk on the Zoom.) Retain Philip’s consulting firm, Liquid Solutions, specialised in on-trade engagement & education, liquor brand creation and repositioning: philip@liquidsolutions.orgPhilip on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philipsduff/ Philip on Facebook: Philip Duff Philip on X/Twitter: Philip Duff (@philipduff) / Twitter Philip on LinkedIn: linkedin.com Old Duff Genever on Instagram: Old Duff Genever (@oldduffgenever) • Instagram photos and videos Old Duff Genever on Facebook: facebook.com Old Duff Genever on X/Twitter: ...

Always fun to sit down with Philip Duff Show stalwart Tony Sachs and go over all the happenings of the year! We covered AI, ChatGPT's cocktail skillz, Skrewball whiskey, gonzo "collabs" like Absolut's vodka sauce made with Heinz and Empirical's Doritos flavour, and discussed the deafening silence around Jason Momoa's Meili vodka, the dastardly abv-lowering deeds of Beefeater Gin, and the likeability of Keanu Reeves. Along the way we had some fancy Tequila Ocho bottlings, the delicious El Viaje raicilla, Charbay's surprisingly tasty R5 hopped whisky, Ryan Maybee's fine J Rieger Rye whiskey, some 1980s Ancient Age bourbon, and (after judicious application of a hammer) some Chartreuse Elixir Vegetal. But, the big news was we fired up the mini copper still I brought Tony back from Lisbon, and distilled a can of Stella Artois into something that wasn't half-bad! Duff-Sachs Distilling is now open for business. Enjoy! (Get in touch with Duff!Podcast business enquiries:  consulting@liquidsolutions.org (PR friends: we’re only interested in having your client on if they can talk for a couple of hours about OTHER things besides their prepared speaking points or their new thing, whatever that is. They need to be able to hang. Oh, plus we don't edit, we won’t supply prepared or sample questions, nor listener or “reach” stats, either, and no, you can't sit in on the interview (or lurk on the Zoom.) Retain Philip’s consulting firm, Liquid Solutions, specialised in on-trade engagement & education, liquor brand creation and repositioning: philip@liquidsolutions.orgPhilip on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philipsduff/ Philip on Facebook: Philip Duff Philip on X/Twitter: Philip Duff (@philipduff) / Twitter Philip on LinkedIn: linkedin.com Old Duff Genever on Instagram: Old Duff Genever (@oldduffgenever) • Instagram photos and videos Old Duff Genever on Facebook: facebook.com Old Duff Genever on X/Twitter: ...

Colin is a legend, an English native who doggedly pursued his dream of being head bartender at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, a position he achieved and dominated for thirty years, creating the Hemingway Bar along the way, serving & befriending celebrities, heads of states, and run-of-the-mill billionaires as well. Now retired from the Ritz, he's busier than ever, running incredible drinks events around the world with his new agency Colin Field Bar Concept, and bartending a gruelling one shift a week at Paris' Maison Proust. This was a great chat with an old mate, and we covered everything from the origins of the negroni to why a code of omerta must exist between bartender and guest, bartending in business class on Air France 380s vs the Emirates configuration (and why Colin prefers Boeing 777s), how he created a true nationally-accredited degree in bartending in France, the politics of five-star hotels, and a whole bunch more. Enjoy!Email Colin: colinpeterfield@gmail.comColin on LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/colin-field-14960a43Colin on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/colinpfield/?hl=en (Get in touch with Duff!Podcast business enquiries:  consulting@liquidsolutions.org (PR friends: we’re only interested in having your client on if they can talk for a couple of hours about OTHER things besides their prepared speaking points or their new thing, whatever that is. They need to be able to hang. Oh, plus we don't edit, we won’t supply prepared or sample questions, nor listener or “reach” stats, either, and no, you can't sit in on the interview (or lurk on the Zoom.) Retain Philip’s consulting firm, Liquid Solutions, specialised in on-trade engagement & education, liquor brand creation and repositioning: philip@liquidsolutions.orgPhilip on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philipsduff/ Philip on Facebook: Philip Duff Philip on X/Twitter: Philip Duff (@philipduff) / Twitter Philip on LinkedIn: linkedin.com Old Duff Genever on Instagram: Old Duff Genever (@oldduffgenever) • Instagram photos and videos Old Duff Genever on Facebook: facebook.com Old Duff Genever on X/Twitter: ...