The Curious Bartender Podcast

Vikram Achanta who is a 25 year veteran of the India bar and drinks industry. He is the  founder of Tulleeho, one of the country’s premiere education and consultancy agencies, the co-founder of 30 Best Bars in India and the co-founder of India Bartender Week.  This conversation, recorded in October at Bar Convent Berlin, features Vikram, who was delivering a seminar on the rise of indigenous Indian spirits. I spent an insightful hour with him during the event. In the first 15 minutes, Vikram discusses the rapid evolution of the Indian bar scene, which has progressed significantly since my last visit to Delhi over a decade ago. We then delve into spirits production in India, covering gin, rum, and whisky—India is now the world’s largest whisky producer, consumer, and a major importer of Scotch. We also explore Indian agave spirits and dedicate the second half of the episode to Mahua and Feni, two lesser-known indigenous spirits made in small, traditional distilleries. It’s fascinating to consider whether these unique spirits could someday achieve global recognition, much like mezcal has in recent years.

Dr. Arielle Johnson is a chemist, biologist and food scientist. She was the science advisor to Alton Brown on the TV show good eats, is a director’s fellow at MIT media lab and has worked with acclaimed cooks and scientists across the world. She is the chief scientific advisor for Noma restaurant in Copenhagen, which was founded by Rene Redzepi - who also wrote the forward for a recent book, Flavorama: A guide to unlocking the art and science of flavour (available to buy here - https://www.ariellejohnson.com/buy) On the episode we discuss the building blocks of taste and aroma, why you should never underestimate a humans capacity to smell, what it’s like to be a chilli plant, the tools that scientists use to analyse flavour, smoke, campfires and evolution, how ai and biotech might shape the future of flavour, cooking with insects, our favourite flavour molecules, and much more. This episode is available to watch on Youtube in 4k with chapter makers so you can single out the bits that interest you most.

Colin Dunn is a whisky educator and collector and one of the best known ambassadors for malt whisky in the UK. This is a wide ranging conversation about malt whisky covering producing regions, production, marketing, new and old distilleries, luxury whisky, along with a tonne of anecdotes from Colin. You're in for a treat. We are switching Spotify episodes to audio only for the time being, as it makes it much easier to include an introduction to the episode. If you prefer it this way or the previous way (with no intro) feel free to let us know in the comments. Colin is on instagram as @colindunnwhisky I am on instagram as @tristanstephenson This episode is sponsored by Fever-Tree mixers.

Sean Finter is a hospitality coach and mentor who has worked with hundreds of clients over the past 20 years to help them improve profitability, hire better, optimise their business operations and generally perfect the craft of hospitality. Trawling Sean's social media, I offered him 10 of his own quotes with which to frame a conversation around hospitality, business, motivation, efficiency and sustainability.