Episode 219 - All The Bitter with Ian Blessing

In this spirited discussion with Ian Blessing, co-founder of All The Bitter, some of the topics we discuss include:

• How Ian’s career as a sommelier at restaurants of all kinds (including the legendary French Laundry) led him to ponder and experiment with non-alcoholic spirits and cocktail ingredients.
• What happens when you decide to side-step ethanol as an extracting agent and instead harness the solvent powers of vegetable glycerine and vinegar in your bitters recipe.
• As we taste, we also cover why Ian and his wife and business partner Carly roll out a platoon of bittering agents and also spotlight a featured functional ingredient in each of their flavors, including Holy Basil, Lemon Balm, and Schisandra Berry.
• We also dig into the medicinal history of these kinds of products and the really specific opportunity they hold in the no-ABV cocktail space, which is to replace the somewhat “anesthetic” effect of alcohol with other functional, and felt health benefits that can still impact your mood and homeostatic state.
• Along the way, we cover the difference between adaptogens and nervines, our mutual love for shrink-banding thousands of bottles of bitters by hand, what numerical coincidence always makes Ian giggle, and much, much more.

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