Drinking With Robots

Who Invented the Bloody Mary? Paris, a New York Hotel Bar, and a $2,024 Garnish

Drinking with Robots — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 21:15:52 +0000

Ingrid once got an order for a Bloody Mary made with blueberry vodka. It didn’t come from a hipster trying to make a point. It came from a middle-aged guy in a nice shirt, the kind of customer you’d expect to order an Old Fashioned with Buffalo Trace. She made it. It was less terrible than you’d think, and she still wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. That’s the Bloody Mary for you. It’s the one…

Source

The History of Halloween, From Turnip Lanterns to a Candy Corn Old Fashioned

Drinking with Robots — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 21:15:52 +0000

We recorded our Halloween episode on Friday the 13th, which felt about right. Rob grew up without much money in western North Carolina, and most of his childhood costumes came out of his parents’ closet. In the lean years he went as a sheet. Our guest, Brianna Neville, grew up in Massachusetts, where you went to the nice neighborhoods because that’s where they gave out the full-size bars.

Source

Sober Curious? What Zero-Proof Cocktails Look Like at a Real Cocktail Bar

Drinking with Robots — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 21:15:52 +0000

“I drank enough for all of us for a long time.” That’s how Ian Murray summed up his history with alcohol when we asked about the sober curious movement. Ian tends bar at Foundation in Raleigh, North Carolina. He got sober at about the same time a lot of people were starting to rethink their drinking, and he has spent the years since making alcohol-free drinks that can stand next to anything else…

Source

The History of Espresso: From Steam Machines in Turin to Your Morning Cortado

Drinking with Robots — Wed, 20 Nov 2024 20:45:34 +0000

Espresso is the most Italian thing about coffee, and its story is mostly about machines: a series of Italian inventors chasing a faster, better cup. In 1884, Angelo Moriondo of Turin patented a steam-powered machine for making coffee quickly, in bulk, for his hotel and bar. It brewed big batches, not individual cups, and it never went into wide production, but it’s considered the first…

Source

The Manhattan: The Real History, How to Make One, and the Variations Worth Knowing

Drinking with Robots — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 13:57:23 +0000

The Manhattan is whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters, three ingredients and one of the most important cocktails ever made. Its story has been embellished for more than a century, so let’s sort out what’s true. The famous version says the Manhattan was invented at New York’s Manhattan Club in 1874, at a banquet thrown by Lady Randolph Churchill, the former Jennie Jerome…

Source

From Beans to Buzz: A History of Coffee, From Ethiopian Goats to the Third Wave

Drinking with Robots — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 13:42:26 +0000

August is National Coffee Month. Coffee’s journey from an Ethiopian hillside to nearly every kitchen on Earth is full of bans, smuggling, and arguments, and it ends, as all good stories do, in a cocktail glass. Coffee comes from the highlands of Ethiopia, where arabica coffee still grows wild. The most famous origin story involves a goatherd named Kaldi, who noticed his goats…

Source

The Fascinating Origins and Stories Behind Classic Drinks

Drinking with Robots — Sat, 17 Jun 2023 00:28:22 +0000

Cocktails have become an integral part of our social gatherings, offering a delightful blend of flavors and a touch of sophistication. But have you ever wondered how these concoctions got their intriguing names? Join us on a journey through time as we uncover the fascinating stories and trivia behind some of the most well-known cocktails. From classics that have stood the test of time to modern…

Source

Spirits and Ties: The Real History of Father’s Day

Drinking with Robots — Sat, 17 Jun 2023 00:13:12 +0000

Mother’s Day took off almost immediately. Father’s Day took more than six decades to become official, and for years a lot of Americans treated it as a punchline. Here’s how it happened. On December 6, 1907, explosions at the Fairmont Coal Company mines in Monongah, West Virginia, killed 362 men, the worst mining disaster in American history. The next summer, a woman named Grace Golden…

Source

Drive-In Delights: Five Classic 70s and 80s Comedies in Cocktail Form

Drinking with Robots — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 21:53:40 +0000

Our episode on the 90th anniversary of the drive-in had us thinking about the movies people watched from their front seats. These five comedies are some of the most quoted ever made. Each one gets a drink built on a cocktail that works, with a nod to the movie. Mel Brooks’s Western spoof, co-written with Richard Pryor, starred Cleavon Little as Bart, a Black sheriff sent to a bigoted…

Source

Sip Back Into Childhood: Five Cocktails Inspired by Classic Kids’ TV

Drinking with Robots — Sun, 21 May 2023 22:01:55 +0000

Our Mister Rogers episode got us thinking about the other shows that raised us, the ones that taught kids to read, to be kind to their neighbors, and to save the world before bedtime. Those kids are old enough to drink now. Here are five cocktails for them, each built on a solid classic so it actually tastes good, not just clever. For 23 years, LeVar Burton invited kids into a…

Source