60 acast.com <![CDATA[Distillate: The Hidden History of Cocktails, Spirits & Drink Culture]]> https://thealchemistsbar.com/distillate en Shawn Spitaleri cocktail history,spirits history,drinks history,history of alcohol,narrative podcast,food history,craft cocktail,mixology history,cultural history,history of fermentation,alchemy,drink culture,history podcast,storytelling podcast,culinary history The history, science, and human story behind what’s in the glass. Distillate is a narrative podcast about the history, science, culture, and human stakes behind what people drink. Not technique. Not recipes. The story — the people, the chemistry, the politics, the accidents, and the moments in history where what was in the glass reflected something larger about the world.


Rum built an empire on the back of slavery and molasses waste. Gin brought 18th-century London to its knees before it became a symbol of craft and refinement. Coffee didn't just wake people up — it reorganized how they thought, and built the institutions of the Enlightenment in the process. The history of drinks is the history of transformation: of raw materials, of cultures, of human ambition and catastrophe.


Distillate is hosted by Shawn Spitaleri and produced by The Alchemist's Bar — craft mixology through the lens of alchemy as proto-chemistry. The alchemy framework is the editorial lens here: transformation through material process, observed with precision. Every episode follows a single drink, ingredient, or moment to where it breaks open into something larger.


Every drink has a story. Most of them are stranger than you think.


New episodes every Tuesday.

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

]]> Distillate is a narrative podcast about the history, science, culture, and human stakes behind what people drink. Not technique. Not recipes. The story — the people, the chemistry, the politics, the accidents, and the moments in history where what was in the glass reflected something larger about the world.


Rum built an empire on the back of slavery and molasses waste. Gin brought 18th-century London to its knees before it became a symbol of craft and refinement. Coffee didn't just wake people up — it reorganized how they thought, and built the institutions of the Enlightenment in the process. The history of drinks is the history of transformation: of raw materials, of cultures, of human ambition and catastrophe.


Distillate is hosted by Shawn Spitaleri and produced by The Alchemist's Bar — craft mixology through the lens of alchemy as proto-chemistry. The alchemy framework is the editorial lens here: transformation through material process, observed with precision. Every episode follows a single drink, ingredient, or moment to where it breaks open into something larger.


Every drink has a story. Most of them are stranger than you think.


New episodes every Tuesday.

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

]]> false Shawn Spitaleri distillate@thealchemistsbar.com 69bf533a1861d127d5356757 distillate episodic https://assets.pippa.io/shows/cover/1774145380685-c0f318df-216e-45c4-b7bf-f4379acd3315.jpeg https://thealchemistsbar.com/distillate <![CDATA[Distillate: The Hidden History of Cocktails, Spirits & Drink Culture]]> 540ccd20-4e3e-11f1-9196-176dc5c54e5f Before Distillation: Pulque, Mezcal, and the Colonial Transformation of Agave Before Distillation: Pulque, Mezcal, and the Colonial Transformation of Agave Tue, 02 Jun 2026 11:00:00 GMT 18:37 6a1de58b302b9e359c0fba9f false https://thealchemistsbar.com/distillate/episodes/s1e05-before-distillation/ 6a1de58b302b9e359c0fba9f 69bf533a1861d127d5356757 before-distillation full 1 5 Long before the first still arrived in Mexico, the agave plant had been growing in the same soil for decades — accumulating sugar, waiting for a jimador who knew how to read it. The people who worked it had a word for what they made from it. That word is Nahuatl. The process that produced the spirit is not.


This episode traces the history of mezcal from its roots in pre-Columbian pulque culture through the arrival of distillation technology via the Manila Galleon trade — Filipino settlers on the Pacific coast of New Spain, adapting their coconut still to an agave that had been cultivated for millennia. The drink that emerged from that collision is genuinely ancient and genuinely colonial at the same time. Understanding what's in the glass requires understanding both.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.

Distillate: The Hidden History of Cocktails, Spirits & Drink Culture is a production of The Alchemist's Bar, part of the Obscura Meridian family of projects. New episodes every Tuesday at 6:00 AM Central.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.


Follow The Alchemist's Bar on Instagram @the_alchemists_bar. Subscribe to the Alchemist's Ledger — the monthly newsletter where the research that didn't fit in the episode lives — at thealchemistsbar.com.

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

]]> Long before the first still arrived in Mexico, the agave plant had been growing in the same soil for decades — accumulating sugar, waiting for a jimador who knew how to read it. The people who worked it had a word for what they made from it. That word is Nahuatl. The process that produced the spirit is not.


This episode traces the history of mezcal from its roots in pre-Columbian pulque culture through the arrival of distillation technology via the Manila Galleon trade — Filipino settlers on the Pacific coast of New Spain, adapting their coconut still to an agave that had been cultivated for millennia. The drink that emerged from that collision is genuinely ancient and genuinely colonial at the same time. Understanding what's in the glass requires understanding both.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.

Distillate: The Hidden History of Cocktails, Spirits & Drink Culture is a production of The Alchemist's Bar, part of the Obscura Meridian family of projects. New episodes every Tuesday at 6:00 AM Central.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.


Follow The Alchemist's Bar on Instagram @the_alchemists_bar. Subscribe to the Alchemist's Ledger — the monthly newsletter where the research that didn't fit in the episode lives — at thealchemistsbar.com.

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

]]> The Thinking Drink: Coffee, the Coffeehouse, and the Birth of the Enlightenment The Thinking Drink: Coffee, the Coffeehouse, and the Birth of the Enlightenment Tue, 26 May 2026 11:00:00 GMT 27:45 6a0c70aca173e3b4db206c88 false https://thealchemistsbar.com/distillate/episodes/s1e04-the-thinking-drink/ 6a0c70aca173e3b4db206c88 69bf533a1861d127d5356757 the-thinking-drink The story of how a bean from the Ethiopian highlands made its way into the rooms where the modern world was built — and what it did to the brains inside them. full 1 4 In 1698, a broker named John Castaing started publishing a twice-weekly list of stock and commodity prices from Jonathan's Coffee House in Exchange Alley, London. That document is the direct ancestor of every financial data feed that exists today. The London Stock Exchange, Lloyd's of London, the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Arts, Sotheby's, Christie's — all of them trace their origin to a coffeehouse.


This episode traces the history of coffee from the Ethiopian highlands through its near-prohibition in multiple cultures, to its role as the physical and social infrastructure of the Enlightenment. The argument: when Europe switched from ale to coffee at breakfast, it wasn't making a dietary choice. It was making a pharmacological one. A CNS depressant gave way to a stimulant — and the institutions that emerged from coffeehouse culture bear the chemical signature of that shift.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.

Distillate: The Hidden History of Cocktails, Spirits & Drink Culture is a production of The Alchemist's Bar, part of the Obscura Meridian family of projects. New episodes every Tuesday at 6:00 AM Central.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.


Follow The Alchemist's Bar on Instagram @the_alchemists_bar. Subscribe to the Alchemist's Ledger — the monthly newsletter where the research that didn't fit in the episode lives — at thealchemistsbar.com.

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

]]> In 1698, a broker named John Castaing started publishing a twice-weekly list of stock and commodity prices from Jonathan's Coffee House in Exchange Alley, London. That document is the direct ancestor of every financial data feed that exists today. The London Stock Exchange, Lloyd's of London, the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Arts, Sotheby's, Christie's — all of them trace their origin to a coffeehouse.


This episode traces the history of coffee from the Ethiopian highlands through its near-prohibition in multiple cultures, to its role as the physical and social infrastructure of the Enlightenment. The argument: when Europe switched from ale to coffee at breakfast, it wasn't making a dietary choice. It was making a pharmacological one. A CNS depressant gave way to a stimulant — and the institutions that emerged from coffeehouse culture bear the chemical signature of that shift.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.

Distillate: The Hidden History of Cocktails, Spirits & Drink Culture is a production of The Alchemist's Bar, part of the Obscura Meridian family of projects. New episodes every Tuesday at 6:00 AM Central.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.


Follow The Alchemist's Bar on Instagram @the_alchemists_bar. Subscribe to the Alchemist's Ledger — the monthly newsletter where the research that didn't fit in the episode lives — at thealchemistsbar.com.

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

]]> 8,000 Years in Clay: Georgia, the Qvevri, and the Archaeology of Orange Wine 8,000 Years in Clay: Georgia, the Qvevri, and the Archaeology of Orange Wine Tue, 19 May 2026 11:00:00 GMT 22:35 69eec7baaa3f81e2b90c886d false https://thealchemistsbar.com/distillate/episodes/s1e03-8000-years-in-clay/ 69eec7baaa3f81e2b90c886d 69bf533a1861d127d5356757 8000-years-in-clay full 1 3 Wine is 8,000 years old. We know this because in 2017, archaeochemist Patrick McGovern identified tartaric acid — the chemical fingerprint of fermented grape — in pottery fragments from Neolithic villages in the Republic of Georgia. The vessels dated to 6000 BC. The people who made them decorated the clay with images of themselves dancing under grapevines.


This episode traces the history of wine's oldest known origin, the vessel that made it possible — the qvevri, a clay amphora buried in the earth — and the science of what happens when white wine spends six months in contact with its skins. Orange wine is not a trend. It is archaeology. Georgia never stopped making it. The West is only now catching up.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.

Distillate: The Hidden History of Cocktails, Spirits & Drink Culture is a production of The Alchemist's Bar, part of the Obscura Meridian family of projects. New episodes every Tuesday at 6:00 AM Central.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.


Follow The Alchemist's Bar on Instagram @the_alchemists_bar. Subscribe to the Alchemist's Ledger — the monthly newsletter where the research that didn't fit in the episode lives — at thealchemistsbar.com.

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

]]> Wine is 8,000 years old. We know this because in 2017, archaeochemist Patrick McGovern identified tartaric acid — the chemical fingerprint of fermented grape — in pottery fragments from Neolithic villages in the Republic of Georgia. The vessels dated to 6000 BC. The people who made them decorated the clay with images of themselves dancing under grapevines.


This episode traces the history of wine's oldest known origin, the vessel that made it possible — the qvevri, a clay amphora buried in the earth — and the science of what happens when white wine spends six months in contact with its skins. Orange wine is not a trend. It is archaeology. Georgia never stopped making it. The West is only now catching up.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.

Distillate: The Hidden History of Cocktails, Spirits & Drink Culture is a production of The Alchemist's Bar, part of the Obscura Meridian family of projects. New episodes every Tuesday at 6:00 AM Central.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.


Follow The Alchemist's Bar on Instagram @the_alchemists_bar. Subscribe to the Alchemist's Ledger — the monthly newsletter where the research that didn't fit in the episode lives — at thealchemistsbar.com.

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

]]> Gin Lane: The History of Gin, the Gin Craze, and the Birth of the Modern Spirits Industry Gin Lane: The History of Gin, the Gin Craze, and the Birth of the Modern Spirits Industry Tue, 12 May 2026 11:00:00 GMT 27:27 69dd0fc0f24ed7c15fb6fc42 false https://thealchemistsbar.com/distillate/episodes/s1e02-gin-lane/ 69dd0fc0f24ed7c15fb6fc42 69bf533a1861d127d5356757 gin-lane full 1 2 Gin was said to have been invented by a Dutch physician as a cheap diuretic. Within decades it had crossed the Channel, and by 1743, London was consuming 2.2 gallons of gin per person per year — every man, woman, and child in a city of 600,000.


This episode traces the history of gin from the Dutch Low Countries to the streets of Georgian London, where it became the first large-scale public health crisis of the industrial age. The city's poorest workers drank it because it was cheaper than food and safer than water. Parliament banned it, taxed it, and restricted it — and none of that worked until they regulated who could sell it.


William Hogarth published Gin Lane in 1751, showing a mother dropping her baby into a gin vault. Parliament passed the Gin Act the same year. The poverty that caused the crisis didn't go anywhere.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.

Distillate: The Hidden History of Cocktails, Spirits & Drink Culture is a production of The Alchemist's Bar, part of the Obscura Meridian family of projects. New episodes every Tuesday at 6:00 AM Central.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.


Follow The Alchemist's Bar on Instagram @the_alchemists_bar. Subscribe to the Alchemist's Ledger — the monthly newsletter where the research that didn't fit in the episode lives — at thealchemistsbar.com.

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

]]> Gin was said to have been invented by a Dutch physician as a cheap diuretic. Within decades it had crossed the Channel, and by 1743, London was consuming 2.2 gallons of gin per person per year — every man, woman, and child in a city of 600,000.


This episode traces the history of gin from the Dutch Low Countries to the streets of Georgian London, where it became the first large-scale public health crisis of the industrial age. The city's poorest workers drank it because it was cheaper than food and safer than water. Parliament banned it, taxed it, and restricted it — and none of that worked until they regulated who could sell it.


William Hogarth published Gin Lane in 1751, showing a mother dropping her baby into a gin vault. Parliament passed the Gin Act the same year. The poverty that caused the crisis didn't go anywhere.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.

Distillate: The Hidden History of Cocktails, Spirits & Drink Culture is a production of The Alchemist's Bar, part of the Obscura Meridian family of projects. New episodes every Tuesday at 6:00 AM Central.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.


Follow The Alchemist's Bar on Instagram @the_alchemists_bar. Subscribe to the Alchemist's Ledger — the monthly newsletter where the research that didn't fit in the episode lives — at thealchemistsbar.com.

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

]]> The First Industrial Drink: Rum, Slavery, and the Making of the Atlantic World The First Industrial Drink: Rum, Slavery, and the Making of the Atlantic World Tue, 05 May 2026 11:00:00 GMT 25:44 69c074207878605e11456446 false https://thealchemistsbar.com/distillate/episodes/s1e01-the-first-industrial-drink/ 69c074207878605e11456446 69bf533a1861d127d5356757 the-first-industrial-drink The story of rum, slavery, and how a waste product built an empire. full 1 1 Rum was never supposed to exist. It was the garbage of the sugar trade — fermented molasses, the waste product of Caribbean plantations — and it became the fuel of an empire.


This episode traces the story of how a byproduct of industrial slavery turned into the first drink manufactured at scale, how it moved across the Atlantic as currency and commodity, and what it means that the history of rum and the history of the slave trade are the same history.


The Royal Navy even issued a daily rum ration to its sailors from 1655. They stopped in 1970.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.


Distillate: The Hidden History of Cocktails, Spirits & Drink Culture is a production of The Alchemist's Bar, part of the Obscura Meridian family of projects. New episodes every Tuesday at 6:00 AM Central.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.


Follow The Alchemist's Bar on Instagram @the_alchemists_bar. Subscribe to the Alchemist's Ledger — the monthly newsletter where the research that didn't fit in the episode lives — at thealchemistsbar.com.

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

]]> Rum was never supposed to exist. It was the garbage of the sugar trade — fermented molasses, the waste product of Caribbean plantations — and it became the fuel of an empire.


This episode traces the story of how a byproduct of industrial slavery turned into the first drink manufactured at scale, how it moved across the Atlantic as currency and commodity, and what it means that the history of rum and the history of the slave trade are the same history.


The Royal Navy even issued a daily rum ration to its sailors from 1655. They stopped in 1970.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.


Distillate: The Hidden History of Cocktails, Spirits & Drink Culture is a production of The Alchemist's Bar, part of the Obscura Meridian family of projects. New episodes every Tuesday at 6:00 AM Central.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.


Follow The Alchemist's Bar on Instagram @the_alchemists_bar. Subscribe to the Alchemist's Ledger — the monthly newsletter where the research that didn't fit in the episode lives — at thealchemistsbar.com.

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

]]> <![CDATA[Distillate - Trailer | The Hidden History of Cocktails, Spirits & Drink Culture]]> Tue, 14 Apr 2026 11:00:00 GMT 1:40 69bf5832007cdcf83f450440 false https://thealchemistsbar.com/distillate/ 69bf5832007cdcf83f450440 69bf533a1861d127d5356757 distillate-trailer Coming May 5, 2026 trailer 1 The history, science, and human story behind what's in the glass — and what it reveals about the world that made it. Launching May 5, 2026.

Distillate: The Hidden History of Cocktails, Spirits & Drink Culture is a production of The Alchemist's Bar, part of the Obscura Meridian family of projects. New episodes every Tuesday at 6:00 AM Central.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.


Follow The Alchemist's Bar on Instagram @the_alchemists_bar. Subscribe to the Alchemist's Ledger — the monthly newsletter where the research that didn't fit in the episode lives — at thealchemistsbar.com.

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

]]> The history, science, and human story behind what's in the glass — and what it reveals about the world that made it. Launching May 5, 2026.

Distillate: The Hidden History of Cocktails, Spirits & Drink Culture is a production of The Alchemist's Bar, part of the Obscura Meridian family of projects. New episodes every Tuesday at 6:00 AM Central.


Full show notes, research sources, and transcript at thealchemistsbar.com.


Follow The Alchemist's Bar on Instagram @the_alchemists_bar. Subscribe to the Alchemist's Ledger — the monthly newsletter where the research that didn't fit in the episode lives — at thealchemistsbar.com.

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

]]>