Life Behind Bars with Noah Rothbaum & David Wondrich

Latest Episodes:

Life Behind Bars - Episode 32 The Ultimate Holiday Party Drink: Cognac Punch Dec 08, 2018

Show notes

Forget the holiday season, it’s punch season! Seriously. For centuries, people have been making big bowls of Cognac punch for their friends and family. Why? It’s not only delicious but much easier to make than other traditional seasonal drinks, like Eggnog, Hot Buttered Run or Tom Jerry, and you can mix up a batch ahead of time. And when it comes to punch, there is no one more knowledgeable than David Wondrich. In fact, he wrote the book on the historic beverage.On this episode of Life Behind Bars, Wondrich and his co-host Noah Rothbaum discuss the origins of this tasty holiday drink, share tips for making it and chat with guest Jordan Bushell, national brand ambassador for Hennessy Cognac.So before you host a party or attend one, listen to this podcast and then get out your punch bowl and ladle!Life Behind Bars features Half Full’s editor Noah Rothbaum and its Senior Drinks Columnist David Wondrich as they discuss the greatest bartenders and greatest cocktails of all time. It just won the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for the world's best drinks podcast. Edited by Alex Skjong

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Life Behind Bars - Episode 31 The Wide World of Whiskey Nov 29, 2018

Show notes

For decades, Kentucky, Scotland, Ireland and Canada dominated the whiskey business. Few bars carried any whiskies made anywhere else and that was really just fine with most drinkers. But over the last decade, these distilling stalwarts have been joined by an ever-growing international selection of bottles from India, Japan Scandinavia and seemingly everywhere in between. On this episode of Life Behind Bars co-hosts David Wondrich and Noah Rothbaum discuss this growing trend, share their favorite international whiskies and forecast where they see the business headed. (Spoiler alert: Are you ready for Italian whiskey?) So pour yourself a good dram and listen to this spirited conversation.Life Behind Bars features Half Full’s editor Noah Rothbaum and its Senior Drinks Columnist David Wondrich as they discuss the greatest bartenders and greatest cocktails of all time. It just won the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for the world's best drinks podcast.Edited by Alex Skjong.

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Life Behind Bars - Episode 30 - The Greatest Bartenders the World Forgot Oct 24, 2018

Show notes

The stars of the rebirth of the cocktail are legendary bartenders, likeJerry Thomas, Harry Johnson andHarry Craddock, who worked decades and decades ago. Their drink books are now back in print and their signature cocktails can be found on bar menus around the world.

But there are several important bartenders who made major mixological contributions that have been largely lost to history. This episode of Life Behind Barsis about Duncan Nicol, who ran San Francisco’s famed Bank Exchange until Prohibition and was known for his signature Pisco Punch, and Jim Gray, who was one of New York’s most famous bartenders in the late 1800s when he worked at the Fifth Avenue Hotel.

Listen now to find out more about these two incredible barmen.

Life Behind Bars features Half Full’s editor Noah Rothbaum and its Senior Drinks Columnist David Wondrich as they discuss the greatest bartenders and greatest cocktails of all time. It won the 2018 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for the world’s best drinks podcast.

Edited by Alex Skjong

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Life Behind Bars - Episode 29 - You Only Know Half of Rum’s History Oct 11, 2018

Show notes

The history of rum usually begins and ends with the Caribbean. It makes sense since the region is home to many famous brands and has been producing the liquor since the 1600s. But that’s really only part of the spirit’s long story. There is strong evidence that people were making spirits from sugarcane 1,000 years earlier in India. This distilling knowledge ultimately traveled with sailors, explorers and traders, and it was brought to the Caribbean and Brazil where it flourished. If you love to drink rum you need to listen to co-host David Wondrich build his case for this revolutionary theory and share his deep research on the topic. Life Behind Bars features Half Full’s editor Noah Rothbaum and its Senior Drinks Columnist David Wondrich as they discuss the greatest bartenders and greatest cocktails of all time. It just won the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for the world's best drinks podcast.Edited by Alex Skjong

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Life Behind Bars - Episode 28 Everything You Know About the Sazerac is Wrong Aug 24, 2018

Show notes

The legendary New Orleans drink had a lovely history about how it was originally made with Cognac, but thanks to the massive destruction wrought on European vineyards by phylloxera, Americans were forced to replace the French spirit with rye whiskey.Sadly, this history is not true. On this episode of Life Behind Bars, co-hosts David Wondrich and Noah Rothbaum discuss the complicated history of the Sazerac and try to finally set the record straight about its origins.Life Behind Bars features Half Full’s editor Noah Rothbaum and its Senior Drinks Columnist David Wondrich as they discuss the greatest bartenders and greatest cocktails of all time. It just won the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for the world's best drinks podcast.Edited by Alex Skjong

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Life Behind Bars - Episode 27 - Did Trump Curse New York’s Tiki Bars? Aug 16, 2018

Show notes

During the winter of 1989, Donald Trump went to war with Trader Vic’s.The New York outpost of the famous tiki bar chain was located in the legendary Plaza Hotel, which Trump owned at the time. In an attempt to close the establishment, he reportedly said it had “gotten tacky.” He continued by saying “Trader Vic’s does not fit in with the image of the hotel that I want to achieve.”This lead to an uproar with even former President Richard Nixon issuing a statement about how much the bar meant to him and his family. Ultimately, Trader Vic’s closed and ever since the city can’t seem to sustain a tiki bar scene despite the success of tropical-themed watering holes in other cities.Recently a number of new tiki bars have opened in New York, and on this episode of the podcast Life Behind Bars, hosts Noah Rothbaum and David Wondrich discuss whether they can succeed or whether tiki is indeed too tacky for the Big Apple.Life Behind Bars features Half Full’s editor Noah Rothbaum and its Senior Drinks Columnist David Wondrich as they discuss the greatest bartenders and greatest cocktails of all time. It just won the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Award for the world's best drinks podcast. Edited by Alex Skjong

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Life Behind Bars - Episode 26 - Your Summer Drink: The Tom Collins Jul 12, 2018

Show notes

The beautiful simplicity of the Tom Collins recipe—gin, sugar, lemon juice and club soda—makes it hard to believe that someone had to actually convince the rest of us to give it a try. It’s the perfect drink for a hot summer afternoon.But the British bartender John Collin popularized the recipe in the early 19th century. Yes, it was originally called a John Collins but over time morphed and became known as a Tom Collins. It’s a good story full of odd twists and turns, and is the subject of the new episode of podcast Life Behind Bars.Hosts Noah Rothbaum and David Wondrich go all the way back to 1820s London when the drink was the signature of Limmer’s Hotel and follow its meteoric rise to become an East Coast country club favorite. They also share their personal recipes for the cocktail.So mix yourself a refreshing Tom Collins and start listening to the episode now.Life Behind Bars features Half Full’s editor Noah Rothbaum and its Senior Drinks Columnist David Wondrich as they discuss the greatest bartenders and greatest cocktails of all time. Edited by Alex Skjong

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Life Behind Bars - Episode 25 - Punch Will Save Your Summer Party Jul 02, 2018

Show notes

Summer party hosts, a word of advice: forget about serving cocktails.Parties should be fun for the guests as well as the host and making drinks for a large groups is hard and sweaty work. So, put away the shaker, the bar spoon and the strainer. You won’t need them. Instead, at your next event make a big bowl of delicious punch, which can be prepared in advance and is the original session drink!Over the last decade, the drink’s reputation has greatly improved—from fraternity house staple to the darling of the cocktail community. A number of the best bars around the country now offer big bowls of historic and delicious punch on their menu. A few will even serve you a glass of it as a welcome drink. And there’s no one more qualified to talk about punch than Life Behind Bars co-host David Wondrich, who literally brought the concoction back to prominence with his book.In fact, his delicious punch recipe may just save your summer parties. You can’t afford not to listen to this episode.Life Behind Bars features Half Full’s editor Noah Rothbaum and its Senior Drinks Columnist David Wondrich as they discuss the greatest bartenders and greatest cocktails of all time. Edited by Alex Skjong.

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Life Behind Bars - Episode 24 Are Drinking Rules Made to be Broken? Jun 01, 2018

Show notes

From no standing at the bar to no yelling to no hats, over the last two decades, craft cocktail bars from coast to coast have been posting their own etiquette guidelines. But are any of these rules actually necessary or worth following?To answer this question, Life Behind Bars hosts Noah Rothbaum and David Wondrich are joined by veteran Portland, Oregon, bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler, who just published "Drinking Distilled: A User’s Manual."Listen to the episode to find out if you need to change your behavior in bars.Life Behind Bars features Half Full’s editor Noah Rothbaum and its Senior Drinks Columnist David Wondrich as they discuss the greatest bartenders and greatest cocktails of all time. Edited by Alex Skjong

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Life Behind Bars - Episode 23- Are There Any Classic Cocktails That Are Still Lost? May 07, 2018

Show notes

There are have been hundreds of cocktail books published over the last 200 years. While a lot of the drinks listed in them are familiar (like the Old-Fashioned and Daiquiri) or versions of those classics, there are also dozens and dozens of other recipes that are completely unfamiliar. Are they lost classics that could be the next Martini or Manhattan? Or are they just filler put in to pad these books?This episode of Life Behind Bars, hosted by Noah Rothbaum and David Wondrich, tries to answer this question. Wondrich also reveals how he looks for recipes and his methods for evaluating them.Listen now to find out if there are any lost classics still out there in the wild, which you should be hunting for.Life Behind Bars features Half Full’s editor Noah Rothbaum and its Senior Drinks Columnist David Wondrich as they discuss the greatest bartenders and greatest cocktails of all time. Edited by Alex Skjong

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