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What are the 7 cocktails every drink is based on? 🍹 Dive into tiki, bitters, fire tricks & cocktail history w/ bartender legend Dr. Cush! 🎙️@ThirstyThursdaysat3PMEST

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/azJZrXe5R2Q

💡 What happens when a comedian turns into LA’s best bartender? You get Dr. Cush’s Exotic Drinks — a one-man show mixing cocktail science, bar wisdom & some hilarious fire tricks 🔥🍊

✨ Highlights from the episode:

• 🍹 The 7 cocktails that rule all other cocktails
• 🔥 His signature drink: Dr. Cush’s Exotic Old Fashioned
• 📚 Why bartending is more books than booze
• 🍍 How pineapples became the symbol of hospitality
• 🧊 The lost art of ice (yes, really!)
• 🎭 From improv heel to hospitality hero
• 💻 Building an online bar community during COVID
• 💥 Flaming citrus, tiki wars, and cold pizza cocktails

🎯 CTA: Subscribe for weekly food & bev innovation talks 🎙️ — and try making the Hemingway Daiquiri or your own signature drink!

0:00 Intro to Dr. Cush 🍸
1:00 From comedy to cocktails
5:00 The 7 cocktails theory explained
12:00 Punch vs daiquiri: tiki breakdown
17:00 Cocktail vs experience: why it matters
25:00 Building an online bar community
31:00 Hemingway Daiquiri tutorial 🍹
41:00 The Dr. Cush Exotic Old Fashioned (🔥)
50:00 Shelf-stable lime juice recipe
1:03:00 State of the booze industry
1:10:00 Signature drink + fire tricks
1:20:00 Cocktail nerd history tour
1:30:00 Outro & cocktail class invite

Mentors in Drinks and Tiki

Steve the Bartender

Created Drinks Website: Kindred Cocktails Discovered: Pseudo Juice Calculator

Dave Arnold - Technique Liquid Intelligence

Jeffrey Beachbum Berry Owns Latitude 29 in New Orleans

Martin & Rebecca Cate own Smuggler's Cove in San Francisco

Wrote James Beard Award-winning “Smuggler’s Cove: Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki

David Wondrich Drinks Historian and author, Link to his Books and awards

Sammy Ross Best Bar Dudes of All Time

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Host Jessie Ott's Profile on LinkedIn

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This week 📢I talk🎙️with Maria Littlefield, Co-founder of Owl's Brew made with only premium clean ingredients! 👏🍷 🎇 🎉 ✨ 👏 🥂 😁

Explore how Owl’s Brew is reinventing RTD drinks with real tea & botanicals 🍋🌿 and transparent labels that consumers love. 🍹💥 Clean cocktails explained + brand story! ⁨@ThirstyThursdaysat3PMEST⁩

In this episode of Thirsty Thursdays, Maria Littlefield, Co‑Founder of Owl’s Brew, shares how they built a clean‑ingredient RTD brand long before it became a trend. 🍹 From brewing tea in buckets at events to scaling canned cocktails in 22+ states, Owl’s Brew stands out in a crowded market by choosing real tea, botanicals, and juice instead of artificial flavors and lab compounds.

🔥 Key Takeaways:
• 🧪 Clean Ingredients First: Real tea and botanicals create authentic flavor.
• 📜 Transparent Labels: They fought to list sugar & nutrition — most spirits don’t.
• 📊 Consumer Shift: People now read labels and demand real food quality in drinks.
• 🛒 Retail Noise: RTD shelves are crowded — deep consumer pull is bigger than shelf presence.
• 🤝 Brand DNA: Authentic stories and community build loyal drinkers.

Buy them today! https://www.theowlsbrew.com/

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Host Jessie Ott's Profile on LinkedIn

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This week 📢I talk🎙️with Ruby Honerkamp Founder and Co-CEO of Talkhouse Encore created in honor of the iconic Hamptons venue, Stephen Talkhouse! 👏🍷 🎇 🎉 ✨ 👏 🥂 😁

Ruby Honerkamp talks TalkHouse Encore 🍊🍸 RTDs, real tequila, vodka, & legacy bar roots in the Hamptons 🎤🎶 A brand built on taste, data, & community ❤️‍🔥

Ruby grew up in the music venue and shares a story of wearing her best dress for Sting as a kid. Her parents founded and manage the venue. Created out of a way to pivot from COVID "Talkhouse Encore" was born. It honors the top drinks requested at the bar and is made with fresh ingredients.

🎤 From the stage to the shelf! Ruby Honerkamp, Founder of TalkHouse Encore, brings the soul of an iconic East Hampton live music venue into every can. These tequila & vodka RTDs are no boardroom – they’re grassroots, authentic, and crushable. Ruby shares the startup journey, operational smarts (hello KPIs), flavor formulation secrets, and the hustle of scaling without selling out.

💡 Top Takeaways:

• Built on heritage, not hype
• Tequila & vodka-based RTDs with real fruit juice
• Flavor-first, calorie-smart
• Strong local focus > chasing every market
• CRM-driven growth & velocity KPIs
• Distribution done right: beer-style mindset
• Authentic storytelling builds sub-communities
• Howard Stern & Metallica fans approved 🎸🎧

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Host Jessie Ott's Profile on LinkedIn