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Like many others who came before him, our guest today fell in love with Venice at first site. Unlike many others, he brought Venice home with him..in a big way. I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. We’re not talking a t-shirt or gondola-shaped ashtray, Russell Norman brought us Polpo - the restaurant that introduced Cicchetti and, for our purposes here, the Aperol Spritz to London and the UK. I met up with Russell in the original Polpo on Beak Street, to hear how his first date with Venice developed into a long, long lasting relationship!I apologise now for all the background noise you’ll hear…this is London during the day on a busy street. Just pretend every honk is made by a vaporetto on the Grand Canal. You could fight me and say that the Aperol Spritz is not a classic cocktail and I promised it would be all classic cocktails this season.Well, I’m fighting back to say that yes it is. Aperol was invented in 1919 by the Barbieri brothers and the spritz is ages old. During the time when the Austrians owned Venice in the 1800s. The Austrian soldiers found the wines a little too alcoholic and added in a bit of water. Thus the spritz was born.Fast forward to the 1950’s when the Italians added Aperol to their spritz and, now, it’s everywhere and so easy to make.Of course, our Cocktail of the Week is the Aperol Spritz.Ingredients:3 oz Prosecco2 oz Aperol1 oz SodaOlive Method:Add all the ingredients to a wine glass with ice, stir. Garnish with an olive if you want it really Venetian. I would be remiss if I didn’t share the recipe for the Cynar Gin Fizz that Russell and I enjoyed during our chat, and you can find that recipe, the Aperol Spritz and all the cocktails of the week at ALushLifeManual.com, where you’ll also find all the ingredients in our shop. Full Episode Details: http://bit.ly/2oDUXf5Always remember the wise words of Oscar Wilde, “All things in moderation, including moderation,” and always drink responsibly!-----If you live for Lush Life would you consider supporting us by buying us a coffee…Just go to buymeacoffee.com/lushlife and you can donate once or monthly to make sure we are still here every Tuesday.Life Merchandise is here – we’re talking t-shirts, mugs, iPhone covers, duvet covers, iPad covers and more covers for everything, and more!Theme music for Lush Life is by Steven Shapiro and used with permission.Lush Life is always and will be forever produced by Evo Terra and Simpler Media Productions.Until next time, BOTTOMS UP 🍸

22 Okt 201942min

Robert Roy MacGregor, the infamous 17th-century outlaw was Scottish through and through. Most likely, he would have been a little bothered that the classic cocktail named after him was invented in the USA. Well, it doesn't matter really where it was invented. We are still drinking it thanks to our guest today, the National Brand Ambassador of Glenfiddich. I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. Alex Walker may not be from Scotland originally but that doesn't mean he doesn't know a thing or two about Scottish whisky. His accomplishments speak for themselves, and after stints at the Savoy Beaufort Bar and the Artesian in London, plus winning too many of world’s toughest cocktail competitions to mention here, Rob Roy would definitely be happy with Alex’s version of his eponymous cocktail.Of course, our Cocktail of the Week is the Rob Roy!Ingredients: 50ml Glenfiddich 1220ml Sweet Vermouth2 dash AngosturaLemon TwistMethod:Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass, stir it down and strain into coupette. Garnish with the lemon twist.You’ll find this recipe and more whisky recipes, plus all the cocktails of the week at ALushLifeManual.com, where you’ll also find all the ingredients in our shop. Full Episode Details: http://bit.ly/2Vh85TfAlways remember the wise words of Oscar Wilde, “All things in moderation, including moderation,” and always drink responsibly!-----If you live for Lush Life would you consider supporting us by buying us a coffee…Just go to buymeacoffee.com/lushlife and you can donate once or monthly to make sure we are still here every Tuesday.Life Merchandise is here – we’re talking t-shirts, mugs, iPhone covers, duvet covers, iPad covers and more covers for everything, and more!Theme music for Lush Life is by Steven Shapiro and used with permission.Lush Life is always and will be forever produced by Evo Terra and Simpler Media Productions.Until next time, BOTTOMS UP 🍸

15 Okt 20191h 8min

Jennings Cox is one of the biggest names in cocktails. History has remembered him as the “inventor” of the daiquiri. But as David Wonrich the famous drinks historian says "The daiquiri represents such an obvious marriage between local, as in Cuban, ingredients—rum, sugar, limes—and American technology—cocktail shaker, ice—that it would take the chowder -headedest duffer who ever buttoned a trouser not to invent it." Whether Cox did or didn’t, it’s a great drink and has remained one of the one of the classics since the late 1800s.Our guest today might not have invented it, but move over Jennings Cox, Sly Augustin is in town and he’s made the daiquiri his own.I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. Check any list of the best bars in London and Trailer Happiness is always at the top. That would be because of the dedication and effort of its owner Sly Augustin. Today on Lush Life, Sly recounts how he fell for Trailer Happiness as a customer and since buying the place, he’s continued to make it a home away from home. It’s tongue-in-cheek tiki vibe give it a party atmosphere and although it’s on the lower ground floor, you would swear you were sunning yourself on a beach holiday, drinking the best cocktails on the island, which I guess the UK is? And did I mention they have amazing cocktails.Here is the Trailer Happiness Daiquiri: Ingredients:50 ml Don Q Cristal25 ml lime juice20 ml 1:1 sugar syrupMethod:Add all ingredients to a shaker, add ice and shake vigorously. Strain into a chilled coupette.You’ll find this recipe and more rum recipes, plus all the cocktails of the week at ALushLifeManual.com, where you’ll also find all the ingredients in our shop.Full Episode Details: http://bit.ly/2nt1XdAAlways remember the wise words of Oscar Wilde, “All things in moderation, including moderation,” and always drink responsibly!-----If you live for Lush Life would you consider supporting us by buying us a coffee…Just go to buymeacoffee.com/lushlife and you can donate once or monthly to make sure we are still here every Tuesday.Life Merchandise is here – we’re talking t-shirts, mugs, iPhone covers, duvet covers, iPad covers and more covers for everything, and more!Theme music for Lush Life is by Steven Shapiro and used with permission.Lush Life is always and will be forever produced by Evo Terra and Simpler Media Productions.Until next time, BOTTOMS UP 🍸

8 Okt 201945min

A Negroni is one of the great cocktail classics. In fact, it’s celebrating its 100th birthday this year, when, as legend would have it, Count Camillo Negroni asked his bartender to add a drop of gin to his Americano. Folks are changing up ingredients all the time and the negroni has been tinkered with by creative bartenders trying their hand at redefining the basic recipe of vermouth, campari, and gin.Our guest today knew the native flavors he had in his backyard were crying out for attention and he was going to be the one who answered their call! I can’t say his original m.o. was to rework the Negroni per se, but the outcome of his pursuits have provided bartenders with a new spirit to play with.I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. Eddie Brook’s family had macadamia nuts on their mind when purchasing an old dairy farm in Byron Bay ,an eight hour drive north of Sydney. They discovered they had landed in the region’s largest subtropical rainforest, home to hundreds of Australia’s native botanicals.After a childhood spent enjoying literally the fruits of his parents labor and a chance meeting with his idol, Jim McEwan of Bruichladdich fame, Eddie established Cape Byron Distillery and the awards keep pouring in, especially for that one ingredient that gives his take on the negroni a particularly Australian character.Our cocktail of the week is the Slowgroni! It has the best of both worlds - the old and the new. It starts with the traditional Gin, Campari and Vermouth recipe, but this time the gin is Brookies and the additional ingredient is the Byron Slow Gin that Eddie described!Ingredients: 30ml Brookie’s Byron Dry Gin15ml Brookie’s Byron Slow Gin30ml Campari15ml Premium vermouthGarnish: Orange slice or zest.Method:Stir over ice in mixing glass until chilled. Strain over ice-filled glass. Garnish with an Orange slice or zest.You’ll find this recipe and more Negroni recipes, plus all the cocktails of the week at ALushLifeManual.com, where you’ll also find all the ingredients in our shop. Full Episode Details: http://bit.ly/2LF7hEoAlways remember the wise words of Oscar Wilde, “All things in moderation, including moderation,” and always drink responsibly!-----If you live for Lush Life would you consider supporting us by buying us a coffee…Just go to buymeacoffee.com/lushlife and you can donate once or monthly to make sure we are still here every Tuesday.Life Merchandise is here – we’re talking t-shirts, mugs, iPhone covers, duvet covers, iPad covers and more covers for everything, and more!Theme music for Lush Life is by Steven Shapiro and used with permission.Lush Life is always and will be forever produced by Evo Terra and Simpler Media Productions.Until next time, BOTTOMS UP 🍸

1 Okt 201947min

Hello everyone and welcome back for Season 4 of Lush Life - The classic Collection. We’ll be exploring classic cocktails - who drank them, who makes them and a few modern twist on the genre. Things would get so boring if we didn’t change it up a little, so saying that I wanted to let you know the format has been “jujjed” slightly. Don’t be scared - none of the good stuff is gone. You’re still going to hear from the greats of the cocktail world and still going to get your cocktail of the week. You’ll just have to wait until the bitter end to discover who our next guest is and all the ways you can support Lush Life!That being said - let’s get on with the show...I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry.There could be no better way to begin a season of classics than by inviting Alessandro Palazzi to kick off Season 4. He defines classic in every sense of the word, but don’t think that makes him any less modern. With more than 800 gins on the market, vermouth production on the rise, and let’s not even get into vodka, fruity, shaken, or stirred. No one can really define how to make a classic martini at all any moreWhat I can tell you is from his second home at Dukes Bar, Alessandro has probably made more martinis than anyone in London, if not the world. Four years and many martinis ago, he was game enough to be Lush Life’s 3rd guest ever..and now he’s back - the one and only Alessandro Palazzi! So we all know James Bond had his martini shaken not stirred.It was also Winston Churchill’s signature beverage - icy cold and so dry he just bowed toward France instead of letting vermouth anywhere near his glass.Julia Child liked it one part gin to 5 parts French vermouth - maybe that’s why she is known as the French Chef. Everyone who has ever loved a martini had it a different way. It may seem simple to make but as a wise bartender said once, “People mess up simple all the time.”In that vein here is the simple Dukes Bar classic gin martini recipe and this week’s Cocktail of the Week.Ingredients:3 dashes dry vermouth4 ounces gin, frozenlemon peelMethod:Dash vermouth into a frozen martini glass & coat the glass. Pour in the gin. Do not stir! Garnish with a lemon peel.You’ll find this recipe and loads more Martini recipes, plus all the cocktails of the week at ALushLifeManual.com, where you’ll also find all the ingredients in our shop. Full Episode Details: http://bit.ly/32u8O5KAlways remember the wise words of Oscar Wilde, “All things in moderation, including moderation,” and always drink responsibly!-----If you live for Lush Life would you consider supporting us by buying us a coffee…Just go to buymeacoffee.com/lushlife and you can donate once or monthly to make sure we are still here every Tuesday.Life Merchandise is here – we’re talking t-shirts, mugs, iPhone covers, duvet covers, iPad covers and more covers for everything, and more!Theme music for Lush Life is by Steven Shapiro and used with permission.Lush Life is always and will be forever produced by <a href="https://simpler.media/" rel="noopener noreferrer"...

24 Sep 201924min

September has come ‘round and I am bursting with enthusiasm.  So in that state of mind, Season 4 of Lush Life - The Classic Collection will commence next Tuesday .  I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry.   The Classic Collection...hmm what’s that I hear you asking yourself? Well, Season 4 is bringing it all down to basics.  Why you may ask?  I’ve been busy all summer rereading the classics - as in my essential New York Times Book of Cocktails, Robert Simonson’s wonderful book A Proper Drink, all about the revival of the modern cocktail craze, and my very own signed copy of David Wondrich’s Esquire Drinks. These great minds have reminded me that if you don’t know your classics how can you move forward. As a layman and I mean layman in cocktail making, it’s time to go back and master the old-fashioned, martini, negroni before purchasing a centrifuge to make the Boys to  the Yard like Liquid Intellect! So what does this mean for our season ahead? Our guest are still the greats of the drinking world. Still the movers and shakers of the industry! Don’t you worry? I’ll just be mixing in a little more history to the classic cocktail of the week and you might even see some video instruction along the way on alushlifemanual.com. But don’t think I am stuck in the past.  There are so many new things happening in the Lush Life world that I can’t wait to tell you about, but you will just have to wait until next week! I can’t leave you without a cocktail of the week - so as the last days of summer are fading away here in London  the most famous of all summer cocktails seemed to be the perfect choice.   The Aperol Spritz - whose history we’ll go into in a later episode. Ingredients 3 oz Prosecco 2 oz Aperol 1 oz  Soda One green olive Method Mix all the ingredients into a wine glass with ice and stir. Garnish with an olive if you want it really Venetian.    We’re talking classic here! You’ll find this recipe, plus all the cocktails of the week at ALushLifeManual.com, where you’ll also find all the ingredients in our shop<span...

10 Sep 20193min

Trentino, nestled in the Alps, welcomes each and every guest with a glass of Bollincine Da Montagna translated as Mountain Bubbles but officially known as Trentodoc - their splendid sparkling wine. But what else is there to drink in this gorgeous northern region of Italy.I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry. Today we get to meet a few people who are making the drinks that Trentino is famous for and some that were a surprise. Matteo Covazzi from Mezzacorona, the second largest producer of Trentodoc, is with us to explain exactly what Trentodoc is. Then we have Andrea Luchetta telling the tale of Bellaveder, a small producer of Trentodoc and the other wines I got to try. Michele Dolzan from the world famous Villa De Varda grappa distillery joins us and, to end it all, we have Andrea Paternoster who is making mead, the Trentodoc way. This is just a fraction of what’s available to imbibe in Trentino. To find out what else? You would have to read my new Lush Guide to Trentino at alushlifemanual.com, but don’t leave us yet, as we head to Mezzacorona.Our cocktail of the week is not really a cocktail recipe but a syrup recipe and a syrup which can be used in loads of cocktails. On the aforementioned jaunt through Trentino, we met Nonna Ponomarenco at the agriturismo Maso Flonkeri where she showed us how to make an amazingly aromatic, yet subtle rose syrup to add to Chardonnay. At least that’s what she added it to and it was incredible. We picked her roses to make it, but please buy CULINARY-GRADE roses. Do not use the ones you get at the florist! INGREDIENTS 1 cup water 1 cup sugar 1 lemon 2 cups fresh rose petals METHOD Place the rose petals in a bowl. Squeeze the juice of a lemon over them and scrunch the liquid with the petals. Place the water and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Add in the rose petals and cook for 10 minutes. Strain into glass jars, removing the petals from the liquid Turn the glass jars upside down and store for a few days. When it’s ready add it to Chardonnay or Prosecco or anything you want... You’ll find this recipe, plus a video of Nonna making it, and all the cocktails of the week at ALushLifeManual.com, where you’ll also find all the ingredients in our shop. Full Episode Details: http://bit.ly/2Jxh7XX-----Become a patron of A Lush Life Manual for as little as $1 a month - less than Starbucks: www.Patreon.com/LushLifeLush Life Merchandise is here - we’re talking t-shirts, mugs, iPhone covers, duvet covers, iPad covers and more covers for everything! and more! Produced by <a

23 Juli 201932min

Meeting in primary school doesn’t always predict a future business career together, but in the case of our guests today, it most certainly did. They also went to the same prep school, university and lived together in London...oh and did I mention they both love rum!I’m Susan Schwartz, your drinking companion, and this is Lush Life Podcast, every week we are inspired to live life one cocktail at a time by the best in the industry.Alex Jollivet and Tom Wiggett also drank together and while Tom was enjoying a thousand variations on the G&T, the only mixer Alex was being offered with his rum was Coke, not that there is anything wrong with a good Cuba Libre, in fact I make a Cuba Libre range of Merchandise so check it out at A Lush Life Manual.com/merch. Still it can get monotonous, so what are two guys to do - well these guys created Long Tail Mixers. Three different mixers that were developed specifically to compliment rum, whiskey, bourbon..whatever brown spirit you have on your shelf. Our Cocktail of the Week is the Sundown Spice, a combination that will have you dreaming of the beach in the Caribbean. Ingredients:Long Tail Island Spice Mixer50 ml The Duppy Share RumLime WedgeMethod:Fill your Long Tail Glass with 3 ice cubes. Pour in The Duppy Share Rum, add Long Tail Island Spice Mixer. Cut a lime wedge and add for garnish.If you want to hear more about Duppy Share - go back and listen to my episode titled How to move from insurance to rum in five easy steps!You’ll find this recipe and two more from Long Tail, plus all the cocktails of the week at ALushLifeManual.com, where you’ll also find all the ingredients in our shop. Full Episode Details: http://bit.ly/2LCIktMAlways remember the wise words of Oscar Wilde, “All things in moderation, including moderation,” and always drink responsibly!-----If you live for Lush Life would you consider supporting us by buying us a coffee…Just go to buymeacoffee.com/lushlife and you can donate once or monthly to make sure we are still here every Tuesday.Life Merchandise is here – we’re talking t-shirts, mugs, iPhone covers, duvet covers, iPad covers and more covers for everything, and more!Theme music for Lush Life is by Steven Shapiro and used with permission.Lush Life is always and will be forever produced by Evo Terra and Simpler Media Productions.Until next time, BOTTOMS UP 🍸

16 Juli 201941min