Unravel Travel
David and Malcolm met at school when they were 14, and by some miracle, 40 years later they are still friends. They Interrailed together after University and for both travel has been a constant in their lives.
Out travel blog is weekly and covers everything travel related including reviews of trips taken, the business of travel, longer breaks, short breaks, travel for work and living overseas. We will also interview our friends about their interesting travel experiences.
Malcolm has been an Engineer and run several software businesses, now he is semi-retired with a part time role in IT and a full time role in life. He is a long time traveller for work and pleasure who has lived in Singapore for 2 years, is currently dividing his time between the UK and Czechia and has been an AirBnB host for 5 years.
David worked in Accounting and Financial services for many years and retired young to start a business providing walking trips and tour group holidays. David travelled extensively and took very interesting long holidays during his working life. Since retirement he has become a migratory bird, overwintering in warmer climes.
Unravel Travel
Alcohols of the world
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Alcohols of the World: Beer First, Then Spirits of Travel
Specific episode mentions
Hook Norton Brewery tours - https://www.hooky.co.uk/visit-us/book-a-brewery-tour/
That bar in Bratislava - ZilVerne Craft beer pub - https://www.beer4you.sk/zil-verne/
El Floridita - The Hemmingway bar - https://www.barfloridita.com/
The Raffles Long Bar - https://www.raffles.com/singapore/dining/long-bar/
De Trollekelder (The Troll Cellar) is a legendary, troll-themed pub in the heart of Ghent, Belgium, located on the historic Bij Sint-Jacobs square. Famous for its impressive menu of over 300 Belgian beers, its defining features include its cozy, 15th-century medieval cellar and quirky troll-themed decor.
https://share.google/q0ht1pvIWfGRCrZ03
Belgian Trappist beers
Chimay
Westvleteren
Orval
Rochefort
Westmalle
Achel
The lovely craft gin made in Goa: Stranger & Sons Gin
Episode summary
In this episode of Unravel Travel, we explore the drinks that become part of the travel experience, starting with beer around the world before moving into the stronger stuff: local spirits, national cocktails, fruit brandies, rum, aniseed drinks, rice wine, and after-dinner liqueurs.
The first half looks at beer culture and brewery travel, from traditional brewery tours such as Hook Norton, to Belgian beer, IPA, Singapore’s Tiger Beer, and the fun of beer discovery in places like Bratislava.
In the second half, we move into spirits of the world, including Central European fruit spirits such as slivovice and hruškovice, Cuban rum, Peruvian pisco sour, Greek and Cypriot ouzo, Italian limoncello, Vietnamese rice wine, arak, Metaxa, and the Singapore Sling at Raffles.
This is a travel episode about taste, place, memory, hospitality, and the caution sometimes needed when trying local drinks abroad.
What we cover in this episode
Beer, breweries and drinking culture
We begin with beer as one of the easiest ways to experience local culture when travelling. Beer is often tied closely to place, whether it is a village pub, a historic brewery, a Belgian beer café, or a city where you simply order something unfamiliar and see what arrives.
We talk about brewery tours, including places such as Hook Norton Brewery, and the appeal of seeing how beer is made, tasting local styles, and understanding how brewing traditions become part of a destination’s identity.
The conversation also covers Belgian beer, strong ales, specialist beer cafés, and the difference between old brewing traditions and newer beer trends such as IPA. We touch on the rise of beer tourism and why travellers often remember the setting as much as the drink.
We also include Bratislava beer roulette, where the fun comes from choosing unfamiliar beers, taking a chance, and discovering something unexpected. Beer can be a low-pressure way into a place: casual, social, and often very local.
Finally, we mention beer in wider travel settings, including Tiger Beer in Singapore and the role of well-known local lagers as part of the travel experience.
Spirits, cocktails and stronger local drinks
In the second half, we move from beer to spirits and cocktails. These drinks often have stronger cultural rituals around them, and sometimes much higher alcohol content.
We start with the powerful fruit spirits of Central Europe, including slivovice, hruškovice, apricot spirits, walnut liqueurs, sour cherry spirits, lemon drinks, date spirits, and other homemade or regional varieties. These drinks are often offered as a sign of hospitality, but they can be stronger than expected.
From there, we travel to Cuba, where rum is central to the drinking culture. We discuss mojitos, Cuba Libre, and the famous Hemingway bar in Havana.
In Peru, we look at the pisco sour, made with pisco, egg white, bitters, and lemon or lime.
Around the Mediterranean, we cover ouzo in Greece and Cyprus, Metaxa, and the wider family of aniseed drinks including Ricard and Pernod in France. We also stop on the Amalfi Coast for limoncello, a drink closely tied to lemons, sunshine, and Italian coastal travel.
Further east, we discuss arak, Vietnamese homebrew rice wine, and the need to be careful with local spirits in Southeast Asia, where homemade alcohol can be unpredictable in both strength and safety.
We close with Singapore’s more famous cocktail culture, including the Long Bar at Raffles and the Singapore Sling.
Why beer and spirits matter in travel
Beer is often the social entry point into a place. It can lead you into pubs, breweries, cafés, beer halls, bars, and local conversations. A brewery tour or a simple glass of local lager can become part of the memory of a trip.
Spirits can be more ceremonial. They are often offered after meals, poured at family gatherings, or linked to national pride. A glass of homemade plum brandy, a mojito in Havana, a pisco sour in Peru, or limoncello on the Amalfi Coast can connect taste, place, and story in a very direct way.
But drinking around the world also requires judgement. Some local spirits are very strong, some homemade drinks are not regulated, and travellers need to understand local customs, personal limits, and safety risks.
This episode is not about drinking heavily. It is about how beer, spirits, cocktails, and local drinking rituals help tell the story of a place.
keywords
alcohols of the world, beer around the world, travel drinks, brewery tours, Hook Norton Brewery, Belgian beer, IPA, Bratislava beer, beer roulette, Tiger Beer, national drinks, local spirits, slivovice, hruškovice, pisco sour, Cuban rum, mojito, Cuba Libre, ouzo, Metaxa, limoncello, arak, Vietnam rice wine, caipirinha, cachaça, Singapore Sling, Raffles Long Bar, travel podcast, Unravel Travel
If you have any question on this or another travel topic, just contact us at contact.unraveltravel@gmail.com
Our theme music is Traveler's Blues by Jerzy Gorecki from Pixabay (with licence)
https://pixabay.com/users/jerzyg%C3%B3recki-2233926/
Welcome to Unravel Travel, where every journey has a story. I've never been and seen one, but I've seen signs for wood fired still. And you you know you turn up with your own barrels of fruit and and come out the other end with bottles of spirits. And they can get really strong. I mean we've got that one knocking around at the cabin that Milan gave me for my 50th birthday, which was 67%, I think. It's getting up there, isn't it? It is getting up there, and it's just about gone now. We we Ollie and I and the boys had some more. Last time we were there, there's only a little dribble left in the bottom, and that was a litre. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_00For those that haven't been, I'd really recommend going to Ghent for a long weekend because they they've just got some of the prettiest little bars. Uh some of them are tiny, some of them a bit yeah, stay in town, uh, or on a train line or tram line or whatever. But you know, and each Belgian beer comes with its own glass, which I always found quite nice. And some of them maybe aren't overly designed to sort of like accentuate the beer, some of them are a bit gimmicky, sort of like in a wooden stand and all that sort of stuff. But a lot of the glasses are designed to get the most out of the beer, and I kinda like that sort of attention to the detail of having a specific glass. In a bar, Johnny drinks. Johnny drinks Johnny Walker, runs up a bill that the Pope couldn't pay. He's drinking to the memory of a prince in a pauper's grave.
SPEAKER_02Well, I don't even need to look that up to know that it's a band whose immediate. But you do need to look it up. No, I don't, because it it's from 101 Damnations, isn't it? It is, yeah. Yeah, so it would be uh that that lot. Carter. John Bob and Carter. Everything apart from the name I can remember. I think it's Jim Bob, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00Jim Bob. Barter the unstoppable sex machine. Yes. And since today's episode is about alcohols of the world, that was the song that came to mind, drinking in a bar. I'm sure there's going to be a few mentions of bars when we're going through Alcohols of the World.
SPEAKER_02Yes. I mean we've mentioned alcohols in various episodes, including a an episode on Czech wine. But I always think that a bit like food, alcohol is tied to a place, you know, and it brings back memories, you know, like smell, smell is a real evoker of memory, and I think taste is as well. And when it comes to alcohol, I suppose it brings back and loses memory, potentially when you first drink it, and then it brings it back later, generally in a good way. But you know, we've been to lots of different places, and whilst you can seemingly get a beer everywhere in the world, it's not necessarily apart from maybe the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, it it's um not always the same, you know, and it's the local differences that make it interesting, and then specific drinks that come from particular countries and places, and uh it's just thought it'd be a nice sort of topic to bring it all together, compare and contrast.
SPEAKER_00Definitely, and I don't I can't remember, I know it was on one of the episodes, and I can't remember whether it was you or Ollie who made the point, but a drink, and it wasn't necessarily in the context of alcoholic drinks, but I think it's true in the context of alcoholic drinks. A drink is often specific to the the environment, the weather, whatever, that just makes it work in that place. And there's been many a bottle of something I've drank and thought, this is lovely. I'm taking it back to at the time London. Drank it in London thinking, what the hell was I drinking this for? It just does not travel to the rainy weather that you sometimes have in London, even when it's sunny.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's true. Uh and at the moment, as soon as we start thinking about this, I can think of another thing that we should talk about. So uh traveling travelling alcohol. Let me just kick off then with the thought we didn't have on the notes, but I just immediately think of alcohol designed for travel, the India Pale Ale, uh a classic British beer, brewed differently and stronger, so it would withstand the journey to India by Kegg.
SPEAKER_00Um it lasts longer if there's more alcohol in it because it works as a preservative, presumably. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And so that's why that's where it comes from. There you go. There's alcohol and travel all wrapped up in a nice TLA. Yeah, well, thank you for listening, everybody, and I hope you've enjoyed this episode. And for those of you who are drinking while listening it, that was it.
SPEAKER_00Anyway, do you want to kick off with uh part two of this episode?
SPEAKER_02Um well I think beers is quite an interesting one because you can generally get a beer anywhere, can't you? Yeah in the world, pretty much. So uh obviously, you know, we're from the north of England where well bitter used to be the predominant drink of choice. I'm not so sure it necessarily is anymore. It's probably replaced with lager. But I'm still the uh whenever I walk into a bar in the UK, I generally go and look to see what's on the hand pull pumps before I think of anything else.
SPEAKER_00Whereas I generally go and see if they've got any bottled Belgian beer.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well there you go. Although you still do that in England, do you? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. In it like a bar in England, that's exactly what I do. Because for me, the place is different. In England, I'm always going to look for a bitter. When I'm in Czech, I'm always drinking lager. If I'm down in the West Country, I drink cider. Although in the middle of summer I prefer cider over anything else, really. Uh I think that's a good idea.
SPEAKER_00I'll I'll have to I I made some cider from my own apples last autumn. I've got a few bottles, so next time I see you in England, uh I'll bring you some of my cider over.
SPEAKER_02And I've got some as well that we made uh probably quite a long time ago. Nearly nearly ten years ago. Not sure it lasts that long. Well, yes, I'm not sure it lasts that long either. And it was it was obviously so good that you decided to lay a bottle down. I'll open it when you uh when you come, Dave, and we'll compare and contrast. Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00Looking forward to you trying my side and maybe not the other way around. Well, make some more, make some recent. Anyway, we need to go back to overseas alcohol.
SPEAKER_02Uh well, and uh not just overseas alcohol, but like I say, in the UK as well. You know, I live round the corner from Hook Norton, uh which has a famous brewery, and the brewery tour I've done I think four or maybe even five times in the last six or seven years. Whenever we have guests over, we take them to do that because it's a really interesting thing. I I I've taken Czech guests when I don't speak Czech properly and they don't speak any English, and they've enjoyed the tour because it's just such a historic, interesting building. You can sort of follow what's going on with the process anyway, and uh who doesn't like some beer tasting?
SPEAKER_00You get to drink beer at the end of it. Yeah. I I had an image when you said you'd done it five or six times that you had to wear a different disguise each time.
SPEAKER_02No, uh four or five times, and actually I don't I think it's been a different guide every time. Uh that's how you're getting away with it. Yeah. But very good, well worth doing. You need to book well in advance though, it's very popular. And uh I've I've done a similar sort of thing at a brewery in Czech as well. Not quite as historically interesting, but obviously the beer was nice.
SPEAKER_00So shall I talk a little bit about my Belgian beer? Explain to these with So I haven't done a with monks. Are monks involved here? There are five Trappist beers from Belgium, genuine Trappist, beer made from by the monks. Uh I can't remember all of them, so I'm not going to try and list them, but we can put maybe put them in the notes. Uh but only one of those you can only actually in theory, you could should be only be able to buy it from the monastery. But sometimes bars go and buy them and then sell them in their bar, but they limit you to a crate of time so that it's not commercially produced, it's quite difficult to get hold of. And that's the one quite close to where my ex's uh parents had a house on the coast, so we did go and visit that once uh to go and try the beers. But generally, when I would have been drinking Belgian beer in Belgium, it's not always, but mostly Ghent, and they just have the most amazing, quaint little bars. Uh, and when I first visited, I was in my early twenties, and I just remember going into a place and they had a menu, page after page after page of beers. And it was like, wow, I could get all of these. Uh and unfortunately, I got a taste for the triples, which are about you know eight percent to nine and a half, ten percent.
SPEAKER_03Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_00Uh, so you can manage about three a night and not really embarrass yourself, just embarrass yourself. Uh so it would take you a long time to get through the whole menu. But I you know, they've got some of the I mean, for those that haven't been, I'd really recommend going to Ghent for a long weekend because they they've just got some of the prettiest little bars, uh tiny, some of them a bit, yeah, stay in town, uh or on a train line or tram line or whatever. But you know, and each Belgian beer comes with its own glass, which I always found quite nice, and some of them maybe aren't overly designed to sort of like accentuate the beer, some of them are a bit gimmicky, sort of like in a wooden stand and all that sort of stuff. But a lot of the glasses are designed to get the most out of the beer, and I kind of like that sort of attention to the detail of having a specific glass.
SPEAKER_02They've lost the art of the glass in the UK, haven't they? The sort of standard generic pint glasses. In Czech, nearly all the different breweries have a different style of glass. Yeah. And they have these really big, heavy tankards with the handle and the sort of faceted glass, and I like those sort of things as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, my my mate who lives uh not that far from you actually, um in around Otmore area, uh, he gets really upset if they just give him a normal glass. He either wants a a mug or he's got some of these himself, a proper pewtered, yeah. Tankered to be drinking it from. And you know, it I I'm I'm not overly fussy when I'm drinking beer, or wine for that matter, but when it comes to coffee, I kind of like a specific shaped sized mug. It is all part of the beautiful. If you have an espresso, you don't want it in a big cup, deer. Exactly, exactly. Uh it's part of the experience is uh how you sort of transport said liquid to mouth. Uh it's all part of the enjoyment. So that was my my Belgian. I mean I could go on and on about the the different types Leffa, triple, West Malah, Triple, Ho Garden, Triple.
SPEAKER_02Well, how about do these travel? Because I mean, you know, the one you the one you see in the UK most often I think is Leffe. Yeah. Would would you say it travels well from Belgium?
SPEAKER_00The difference uh I mean most of the ones that I've been drinking are bottled beers, so they they travel absolutely fine. The leffe that you're talking about is usually on tap. And it's okay, it's fine, it's perfectly fine. I mean, I'm don't shoot me. Luckily, we're not in the same room, but I've had it in weather spoons and oh your face. And you know, it's perfectly fine, but I I prefer the bottled and I prefer the stronger beers anyway. So left on the bottom. But the pubs are available. Exactly. Well, except they don't all serve it, that's the problem. That was why I went there because I knew they had left on tap. Because the Czech beers don't travel well.
SPEAKER_02Uh obviously if it's bottled, it's fine, but yeah, um, Cozil you get, and um and obviously Star Primer. Sozel to riding with Sozel and uh Staropramen and things you get, but then uh they're just never the same.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. When we go to your cabin, we always have the bottled beers, obviously, because we're buying them in the supermarkets. I I like bottled beers. I think they they come across or they come out fresh, you know, and concentrate.
SPEAKER_02Well, they're never quite as cold. I mean that you know, those cold pumps they put them through when you get it served in a tankard, you know, on a warm day and it's so cold that that's just you just need to get a different setting on your fridge.
SPEAKER_00I know a fridge would be a start. Exactly. In the cabin, you don't have one.
SPEAKER_02Although we've got a cellar, you know, and that's groups cellar temperature only. Well, but the cellar temperature I mean it is amazing that how cellars work, you know, and and now you and then you realise why people store everything underground. It's a proven technology because it works.
SPEAKER_00I've never taken uh a beer out of your cellar, even on the hottest days, which we you talk in mid-twenties, even a bit higher, maybe. No, it's much higher than that 30s. Yeah. Sorry, that I've been. I haven't been when it's been in 30s. Drank a beer from your cellar and thought, oh, this could be colder.
SPEAKER_02It's always I mean they could be cold because they put them through these, like I said, these these chilling pipes, but but yeah, no. Certainly don't get four or five out and leave them on the side, get one out when you need it.
SPEAKER_00No, one yeah, one at a time. Um, so other other famous countries for their beer. I was thinking America. Uh you've been recently. Would you like to talk about how much you love the beer in America? I'd like to. They meant it woodweiser, didn't they?
SPEAKER_01Did they, Dave? That's probably what they say on Treat Social. But I don't think it's a good idea.
SPEAKER_00I've noticed how many American listeners we've we've got on the podcast. So that's why I've and we've obviously been uh very, very polite about Americans and not criticize their president at all. Uh so I just thought I'd throw a little bit out there and sort of like make it a bit of a specialised comment on America and its beers.
SPEAKER_02I mean, of course, the it's Budvar, really, isn't it? That's the that's the best bud, uh, and it's Czech beer.
SPEAKER_00Although I think the Budweiser in America was actually brought there by a Czech. I remember I think we I think we looked it up once. And so it's got check, it's got Czech routes as well.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Of course, Pilsner is in Czech, and that's where uh Pilsner comes from.
SPEAKER_00Um did you drink any beer when you were in New York?
SPEAKER_02Uh we went to a dive bar and had some beer, yeah. And and it was but I had an IPA. I mean IPA seems to be taking over the world, Dave.
SPEAKER_00I I have had craft beers in New York, and this was 20 years ago. So, you know, I I'm I I I was a bit tongue-in-cheek when I was going about American beers, but the craft beers are were quite nice.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I did have one somewhere else actually. I I I think I had Japanese beer actually, because we were eating some Japanese food. The IPA does seem to be taken as well. There's lots of IPAs available in Czech now. Kraft breweries doing them. Even Bernard makes an IPA. So, you know, it it really has. That although English beer gets maligned a lot as a bitter, actually it's the IPA has really become very popular. Everywhere you go you see them.
SPEAKER_00The only problem with that is once something gets popular, it tends to become homogenized, doesn't it? As the craft ones get taken over by the big ones and they sort of they lose a little bit.
SPEAKER_02It can be like that, but it depends on the culture, doesn't it? I mean, Czech's got a much bigger culture of small local breweries. I mean, that one we've been to, just in in the next village, it's just a guy brewing his own beer and selling it.
SPEAKER_00I I would say that was true of Belgium at one point, but my understanding is that all the you know the bigger breweries in Belgium like Douval have taken over some of the smaller, yeah, more niche uh breweries, which I think is a well, it's it's the times, isn't it? But it's a bit of a shame.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. I I guess all the sort of beers in different places. I drank a lot of taiga when I lived in Singapore.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I was thinking Asia, each uh uh Chang uh is my go-to in Thailand, uh Singer.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I can't remember I can't remember what I was drinking in Indonesia, it'll come back to me though.
SPEAKER_02But I think I remember drinking a lot of lion beer in in South Africa. I think that's right.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I've had oh Leo, I've had Leo in Asia. Um to be honest, I can't tell an awful lot. I like them because uh again, what we were talking about at the start, uh the environment makes a big difference. It's hot in those places, having a big cold beer at the end of the day. Yeah, it's you know that's what your body's crying out for because you're probably dehydrated. Yeah. Well, I know I know I am, because I I know that I don't end up peeing it out as quickly as I do everywhere else.
SPEAKER_02Well, of course, I lived in Singapore for two years and working outside quite a lot. I got kidney stones, I'm sure. You and I I remember it well. It's the only time I've ever been to the doctors, and they said uh you you're you need to drink more alcohol because it's diuretic, it will make it specifically beer. Drink more beer. I said, Can I have that in writing?
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Well, in writing, wouldn't you want a prescription? Well well that would be great, wouldn't it? But yeah, so beer in Asia, I wouldn't say there's one specific that uh I I'd prefer over others. They're they're all just the right thing at the right time, end of the day. I mean, that's the thing though, they're regionalised, aren't they?
SPEAKER_02It's it's what each each country has its own you know, in the in in the way that you've just mentioned, like Singer and Tiger, they're very specific to that country. But I I you know England doesn't really have one, does it? Please don't uh please don't tell me it's Carling. Carling, yeah, please don't tell me that's the case. But but there isn't one. There isn't an obvious exact one, is there? In the way that Budweiser would be the case in America and not Lager, no.
SPEAKER_00I I think you know you've got Boddingtons for Manchester and Oh yeah, but that's not for the country as a whole, I mean.
SPEAKER_02It's too regionalized still, like it would be Tetley if it was Leeds and Yeah, absolutely. London Pride, whatever. Yeah. Places for beers. I mean I had a I I went into the uh Raffles, the long bar a few times for beers and you eat the peanut monkey nuts and drop the traditionally drop all the husks on the floor. That's quite an amusingly different experience. And then we went went in there and had three or four tigers and and then bumped into John Major on the way downstairs with a security entourage.
SPEAKER_00So that's the second ex Prime oh no, was he Prime Minister at the moment? He was ex-prime minister, yeah. You've bumped into then because you bumped into Cameron once, didn't you? Uh yeah, I probably didn't know what to talk about that. Yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_02You've you've you've Well you bumped into Cameron, didn't you?
SPEAKER_00I did, yes. Yeah, yeah, Checkers. He was Prime Min actually he would have been Prime Minister at the time.
SPEAKER_02Wasn't he wasn't that at the pub where he left his child behind, just to bring it back to pubs again, go full circle?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yes, yes, it was. The uh the plough in Cadston. He was walking there from Checkers and I was leading a walk through. Did you check the pub? Did you count up his kids for him on the way past? He didn't have any with him, but Samantha was about half a mile behind with uh both kids in tow, one of them screaming, crying, and all I could think was, yeah, she's probably worried she's gonna get left behind again.
SPEAKER_02So that that's the sort of the beer starters. Uh we're gonna go on to the stronger stuff. This is Unravel Travel on Alcohols of the World.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, I usually do it the other way around. I start with the stronger stuff and then go. So shall we start with Czech? Because you've got a lot of experience of the Slivervitz.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we could do Slivervitzer, which which is the sort of generic term. It's like a sort of fruit spirit, like a fruit brandy. Clear, usually usually clear.
SPEAKER_00Not always fruit though, because my favourite one was the walnut.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, was that we had with Walter? We had oh no, it was Ollie. We we were had we were drinking with Walter last time. Sorry, not you. Yeah, no, but I you you had a walnut. Yeah, yeah. In fact, the ones from the ones from nuts are very good. Walnut and also and uh another nut as well, which is going to come back to me in a minute, that are very good, but that they're all sort of ending ivervitza, uh if you like, and the word at the beginning is what the what it's made out of. So Slivervitzer is made out of plums, not big like Victoria plums.
SPEAKER_00I never knew that was the generic tame term for the whole drink, but that's a lot of different things. Well, people will talk about that then.
SPEAKER_02But Hiruskovitzer is made from pears, um Moronkovitzer is made from peach one.
SPEAKER_00That was nice, the pear one was nice.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the pear one is nice. That it can be a bit sharp, the Slivervitzer. They they make from apples, which is essentially the same as car card cardovos. Right. Um but they call it something different.
SPEAKER_00That sounds very brandy, like cavalry. The name sounds like Calvados. It is the same thing. Apple brandy. That's the same thing. You'll have to dig that one out for me sometime.
SPEAKER_02Made from lemons, made from dates, made from sour cherries. I think you've had the sour cherry one. I've got a box of channels.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think I think I think I have, yeah. Um these, if I remember correctly, are very local, small production, quite often just you know, jo Joe Blocks or whatever the equivalent is in check, making it in his in his cellar or wherever.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly. I mean, you can buy them from the supermarkets at 40% proof, like normal shop alcohol. But people make them themselves, so people will have orchards, or the you'll see people at the right time of year collecting fruit from the side of the road, um, from trees, fruit trees that line the roads. Yeah. And they store it in big plastic barrels with water, let it sort of partly ferment. And then many of the villagers out in the countryside have their own still. So it's a shared still, and you pay for the electricity you use when you're making your own booze, or you can take it to crack. But they don't do it old style where they light a fire underneath it. Yeah, something you get. There are wood wood fired ones. Brilliant. Ah, I'm liking that. I've never been and seen one, but I've seen signs for wood fired still. And you you know, you turn up with your own barrels of fruit and and come out the other end with bottles of spirits. And they can get really strong. I mean we've got that one knocking around at the cabin that Milan gave me for my fiftieth birthday, which was sixty-seven per cent, I think. It's getting up there, isn't it? It is getting up there, and it's just about gone now. We we Holly and I and the boys had some water. There's only a little dribble left in the bottom, and that was a litre. Oh my god. But they start to get a bit sharp at that strength, they're better at the sort of fifties, really. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Rather than the sixties. I had some navy strength rum, again from my mate who lived around Otmore area. 71%.
SPEAKER_02Do you know what the origin of the word proof is?
SPEAKER_00Is it something to do with well, I know the navy strength is because if you spill the spirit on the gunpowder, it will still light. So I'm guessing 100% proof is the point where gunpowder still burns if it gets wet with the the liquid that's 100% proof. Is that that's correct?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, that's correct.
SPEAKER_00Shoot some scores. Was you expecting that from somebody who doesn't have much of a science background?
SPEAKER_02I'd heard the alcohol. But I've heard it in conversation several times. I think Ollie's told me twice, and you might have been there once, because we were probably sat on the fire drinking it actually having strength.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, actually I was, and I think I I corrected Ollie. But anyway, I can't believe that's possible, is it? Yeah, no, neither could I, so maybe I was wrong. Since we've since I've touched upon rum, I know you've been to Cuba. Yeah. Is it worth I'd be quite interested to know what it's like there. Uh did you go to the Hemingway bar? Did you have his favourite drink? We did go to the Hemingway Bar.
SPEAKER_02It's very small, and we we managed to just get a seat inside and had a few drinks. Yeah, it's that's the sort of emotive thing about those places, isn't it? And but but mostly tourists in there, of course. Of course, the prices were much more than on. I would still go whatever just for that experience, though. Yeah, but I mean in Cuba there was beer, and we did drink some beer, but mostly rum, actually, and we had tucked into the mojitos. That's the sort of about drinking the right drink in the right place, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00Well, I think that was Hemingway's, wasn't it? That was his favourite. And I love Mojito as well. One of my favourites. Or was it Cuba Libra? I'm not sure what his favourite was. Um I think it was Mojito, but I'm not sure. Yeah, it's a good one. What's in Cuba Libra?
SPEAKER_02Isn't it isn't it just rum and coke? It's just a poche for rum and coke, I think, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00Oh right, okay. Probably.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, they're excellent and just sort of perfectly fitting. Uh we also drank dark rum, but I mean obviously mojitos and stuff are made with with white rum, aren't they?
SPEAKER_00Usually, well, dark and stormy is my favourite cocktail with a dark rum, which I I can't remember exactly what else is in there, but oh, it's ginger beer, lime juice, and a dark rum, maybe a spicy one. Right. Okay. But uh as you said, it's whatever the drink for the wet. I mean, that is a country, uh sorry, uh a winter's night cocktail drink, as opposed to mojito, which is a lovely summer's day, refreshing, cooled down with all the ice in it, sort of drink.
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna tell you uh uh which you've you've heard before, I should think, an amusing story with the names changed to protect the not so innocent that uh I've got like a kraken and and I'd taken some off duty free and we'd had it at the cabin and it'd been finished, and I used the glass bottle to put my chainsaw oil in because I um we had a mouse problem at the time and plastic bottles were getting chewed. So I put my chainsaw oil in the kraken bottle and I wrote across the label in pen. Chainsaw oil. In English. Yeah, in check.
SPEAKER_00Somebody drank some of it. I know and it wasn't me. Anyway, luckily it's not poison. How much of it did they drink?
SPEAKER_02Did you not back that there was only half a bottle left? No, they're just enough to spit out and realise their mistake. At least they realised so when it comes to spirits, I uh drunk minimally well just beyond Slivervitzer, minimally. Uh, I think of you, David, and your choice of gins. Have you been to a gin distillery or because you're you're Mr. Gin drink?
SPEAKER_00No, I haven't. I mean, gin is the best gins I think. I was gonna say I made in England, but then I actually my one of my favourite ones for a martini is actually made in Scotland, the botanist. Uh-huh. Um there was one in Goa, and I can't remember I was trying to remember the name of it before this podcast, but I can't remember its name. Uh my mate Alan and I, we'd been in Goa for well, we were there for a month, so towards the end of it, I think we'd I'd taken two litres or one. I can't remember. I'd taken a litre or two, he'd taken a litre duty free, and by the end of three weeks we'd finished our gin that we'd taken with us. So we thought, well, let's see if we can buy something locally. And there was a a spirit shop there, and we went down, found us we were basically judging it based on whether the labels looked nice or what. Yeah, like like buying books in the bookshop, you mean? A little bit like that, yeah. Uh anyway, we picked one, and it wasn't expensive, it was like 12, 13 quid for uh 70cm. So, you know, we didn't have high hopes, but we you know, we didn't have a fridge, we didn't have ice, we didn't have a mixer, we were just drinking it neat, so more like uh and this is again going back to how you tend to drink when you're uh abroad, different drinks suit different things. Having a plain tankereye with no tonic, no ice, warm, is actually quite nice in a hot country. Because I don't like whiskey. As much as I would like to like whiskey, I don't like whiskey. Uh, but we were drinking gin like it was whiskey, you know, it's a warm in drink, but in a hot environment, and it worked. So anyway, we we went and bought this gin and wasn't thinking too much expecting too much from it. And then we bought it and drank some of it and went, wow, this is a cause he likes his gins as well. He's got sort of 10 plus different bottles of gin at home. Uh and this was it was a special gin, and I started looking it up, and although it was about 15 quid out there, maybe a bit less, uh, to buy it back in the UK was 40 quid, and it was from uh a Goa uh Goa specialist distillery, which we didn't realise at the time. So actually, I'm going back to Goa this February, so I'm hoping the shop's still there and I'm hoping they're still stocking. So I'll I will buy some when I'm there and I'll also bring some back because it's special little gin.
SPEAKER_02The problem is, oh, you take big bags there, don't you? So you can always put a bag in the hold. Otherwise you go, yeah. Of course, we don't bring stuff back from Czech. It doesn't tri I've I've brought the occasional beer back, actually bought at the airport, but not really. Other spirits, I'm a big fan of Anasidi spirits, so I quite like Uzo.
SPEAKER_00Yep, I've had Uzo in Greece. I personally put that in the bracket of it was nice out there and didn't enjoy it when it came back to the UK.
SPEAKER_02Really? Because I do, I mean, uh with water, yeah, an ice cube on a summer's day, very nice.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I think that might be the problem, is that it needs to be I mean Greece, Greek island, Uzo, as you say, a bit of water. It was absolutely amazing. The other uh you carry on with the honest CD.
SPEAKER_02Well, I was gonna say, and then Ricard and Perno, you know, in France, it's exactly the same thing. I mean, I'm sure it's just they just call it something different, tastes the same to me.
SPEAKER_00Does um I've only had it a couple of times, but uh does Absinthe fall into that, or is that slightly different?
SPEAKER_02Oh, that's a good question. I've had Absinthe a couple of times, and I brought some back from Czech. I don't know where it originates from, actually. It's French, is it? But they they date they certainly make it in Czech as well. I think it's a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I thought it was quite an CD, but it was such a long time ago I drank it. I know it's very strong, and I know there's people have gone blind back in the day, probably before there were any health and safety.
SPEAKER_02Well, that's the thing about making these these village distilleries for Slivervitz and stuff, because if you don't get it right, you can it can be a big problem.
SPEAKER_00It's the heads and the tails, isn't it? You've got to discard the first bit that comes off above a certain well, it's not the alcohol level that's necessarily the issue, it's a different type of alcohol. Never remember which one, but I think it's is it ethanol instead of methanol or something? Yeah, that yeah, it's one of those ways round, and then below that level you can drink it, and then you discard the last bit just because it tastes a bit crap. But you you have to be able to test the it so that you're getting rid of the right amount of the top stuff of the case.
SPEAKER_02I was having this conversation with somebody about in check about this, and they were saying it's not actually quite like that. The stills they have are better than that, and it sort of auto-discards it, you just take so I didn't know this, but I mean the way stills work, and it's the same with the refracting oil, I think.
SPEAKER_00I guess it's still on what level so they I guess it's still the same point, but they've got a still that does the job for you, so it's more scientific. Cool.
SPEAKER_02Anyway, I've never gone blind, so it must work.
SPEAKER_00I'm sure that's where blind drunk comes from. I think it is, yeah. Actually, while we're on that subject, because it is relevant, out in Asia there's been issues where you know you've got the young backpacking crowd, and a lot of these backpacking places, one of the things they do to entice you to go and stay there, free drinks all night, and it's spirit shots and all that sort of stuff. But there's there's tragically been several instances. Laos was the last one, but I don't think.
SPEAKER_02That's Laos, not Laos, by the way.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Laos, Laos or Laos was the last place about a year ago, I think there was an outbreak where people have died, gone blind, uh, because basically they're drinking local spirits. And you know, it the tough thing there is that the place that's serving it might not even know. They've bought a bottle of what they thought was genuine spirits, even in a you know, a Western label type thing, but somewhere further up the supply chain, somebody sort of like found an empty bottle. There's probably a whole business really. Exactly. So be careful, I guess, is the uh the the message here if you are drinking, especially out in Southeast Asia, lots of spirits. Because I think one or two shots probably isn't going to do you an awful lot of harm. No medical expert, so take take your own advice. But my guess is it's when you're sort of really tucking into it, you're just concentrating essentially the poison that your body's not able to cope with. So yeah, just be careful. And as I say, even going into a reputable bar won't necessarily help you. You know, I've also been out there and I've had many a cocktail and not had any issues, so I don't want to necessarily scare too much. It's just be aware.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. You've been to um South America, Dave.
SPEAKER_00Peru. Yeah, pisco sour is the famous drink in Peru. And I had I had it at the time and it wasn't overly memorable, but I wasn't really into cocktails at the time. And I've had it since I've been back in the UK. A friend of mine likes her cocktails and she made it, and I thought, this is amazing. And then I realised I'd actually had it in Peru. Uh but it's pisco, which is a kind of brandy, it's egg white, which is whipped up when you sort of mix the drink, so it's got this frothiness to it. It's bitters, and then um the recipe I looked at said lime, but I think I've made it with lemon. A bit like um a white lady, which uses gin instead of uh the pisco sour. Because pisco sour is either expensive in this country or difficult to get hold of. But if you wanted a similar drink, just substitute it with a reasonably bog standard gin, and you you end up with a really nice, uh refreshing, quite fancy because of the froth on the top. It's quite a nice looking cocktail.
SPEAKER_02I always find those sort of cocktails that require quite a lot of effort to make them a bit.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, I've got a quite a nice food blender type thing, so it's pretty quick for me these days, so I'm not overly bothered. And I just put water in it at the end and run it again rather than washing it up, so it's easy.
SPEAKER_02Fine if you're on a session, that sounds good. And I should just mention one of the just coming back to the beers, there's beers quite a lot from our trip to Bratislava, Dave. It would be remiss of us not to mention the we wandered around the old town and with Merlin as well and found quite a lot of nice little pubs and had one here or there, but we were looking for somewhere to spend a little bit longer and we found that great pub with 24 I think local craft beers. They were the blackboard, numbered 24 different beers, all from local breweries, all craft beers on on tap. And we had a couple each, and then we decided it was so good we were gonna stay for a session, and we worked out a roulette thing where we would all draw numbers.
SPEAKER_00I I'm not sure I completely went along with that. I think I just said, Well, I'm having this one.
SPEAKER_02Well, I think you you said you'll go along with it as long as you don't have to drink one of those two if they come up. Well, I might and I said I said I would drink them if they came up, and one of them did. And one of them was the it was green, wasn't it, if I remember properly. It was a photo because it it looked like traffic lights. There was green and amber and a red all that came together. The green one, I think it was was it seaweed and so oyster or something like that? It was something like that. It was pretty rank, to be honest, but um, but it was an excellent night. We must have got through nearly all of them, I think.
SPEAKER_00Well, you're Merlin, because I found one I liked and tended to stick with it. But it was that was good luck. That reminded me of a Belgian bar as well. Not because it was the same or anything, but just the fun nature, the the the selection of beers that you could go through. Yeah, it was a really, really good night out.
SPEAKER_02And just sitting outside and watching people come past and great beer, and yeah, good. Those are the those are the sorts of you know, neck the stagdoo has got a horrible reputation and we weren't in Bratislava for a stagdo, but it was um it was just a a you know a fun thing to do, quite enjoyable, highly recommended. I'll try and find the link for it and stick it on the notes.
SPEAKER_00Funnily enough, I actually watched a YouTube video this morning which was off Bratislava, and I'm pretty certain they went or outside they went past that bar. Right, well it's it's on the main drag in the old town, isn't it? Exactly, yeah. I recognise the the images anyway.
SPEAKER_02Cool, that was good. I'm well I'm gonna offer a drink, Dave. I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_00It's a bit early for me, I'll probably have one later. I'll speak to you all soon. Yeah, thank you everybody and uh enjoy your evening drink. Cheers. Bye.