In this Mealtime Magic & Mayhem episode, Tricia Clark is joined by Kim Parkinson, podcast producer, and entrepreneur, to dive into the exciting world of cocktails and mixology. Get ready to shake up your cocktail game and discover new flavors for your next happy hour!

- 🍹 Crafting the Perfect Bourbon-Based Cocktail:

Tricia discusses her latest experiment with creating a whiskey-based cocktail. She introduces a new liqueur called Italicus, known for its floral and orange notes. Tricia explores how Italicus can enhance the flavors of the cocktail and reduce the need for additional sweeteners.

- 🍊🌹 Name That Cocktail!

Tricia seeks suggestions for a clever name for Kim's signature bourbon-based cocktail infused with orange, rose, and bergamot. Listeners are invited to contribute their ideas for a chance to have their names featured on the podcast.

- 🧪 The Mad Scientist of Mixology:

Tricia shares her passion for mixology and compares it to playing the role of a mad scientist. She reminisces about childhood experiments and emphasizes how cocktails can be an art form that engages all the senses.

- 🍓🍋 The Versatility of Shrubs:

Tricia introduces the concept of shrubs, zingy, and acidic cocktail additives that start with vinegar. She explains how shrubs can be made at home using fruit, vinegar, sugar, and optional herbs and spices. Tricia also suggests using flavored balsamic vinegar as a refreshing alternative.

- 📦 The Subscription Box Advantage:

Tricia highlights the benefits of cocktail subscription boxes, mentioning Shaker and Spoon and Cocktail Courier. She emphasizes how these boxes provide an opportunity to experiment with different brands and flavors without committing to a full bottle.

- 🎙️ The Podcasting Journey with Kim Parkinson:

Tricia interviews Kim Parkinson, podcast producer, and entrepreneur, about her journey in the craft industry and her transition to podcasting. Kim shares her insights and tips for podcasters while emphasizing the importance of sharing your message with the world.

- 🍹🍓 Let Your Imagination Run Wild:

Tricia encourages listeners to experiment with flavors, sugars, and bitters to create unique cocktail variations. She shares her own tips for making simple syrup at home and suggests adding tea bags and other ingredients for infusion.

Stay tuned for the next Mealtime Magic & Mayhem episode for more delicious recipes, entertaining tips, and culinary adventures. Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast for your regular mealtime inspiration! 🎧🍽️🎉

Resources:

Shaker & Spoon: https://shakerandspoon.com/

Cocktail Courier: https://www.cocktailcourier.com/

What Are Shrubs and How Do You Make Them: https://www.thespruceeats.com/what-is-a-shrub-759919

Connect with Kim:

Join her challenge here: https://kpcreativemedia.com/challenge-checklist

Visit her website: https://kpcreativemedia.com

Join her Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/creativepodcasting/

Connect with Tricia:

Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/tricia.clark.161

Tired to Inspired Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tiredtoinspiredcooking

, but we will let her tell you more about her later. But I wanted to give you a little bit of an intro and then we are gonna talk all things cocktails and fun. So Kim is really an entrepreneur at heart. She began with a career in the craft industry, which is one of those things we found we had in common was the craftiness.

So Kim, I'm super excited to have you. Welcome, welcome, welcome.

Kim: Thank you so much. It's so great to be here. Thank you for having me.

Tricia: I feel like you and I can talk all things entertaining and cocktails for days on end. So I'm gonna attempt to keep my a d d brain focused today, but we're just gonna see where the conversation takes us. I love cocktails and so far all the episodes that we've done have really focused on, on food and our relationships with food.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: I'm gonna say the issue here isn't necessarily that I dread it, it's just I get overwhelmed. That brings on some dread, I guess. Right? So I host not only Easter, but also Christmas Eve, and while I love both of them, the lead up to that is. Is dreadful. just a lot of making of different foods, a lot of preparation of getting the house clean and entertainment worthy.

And especially like for the Easter one, getting all of those eggs filled for all of the nieces and nephews so that I can throw them out into the yard. It's, yeah, I would say that does cause me to, to have a cocktail or two.

So, one of my favorite things to do is to create signature cocktails for people. And I really think I'm gonna develop a quiz that is like, if your personality had a signature cocktail, what would it be? And I haven't thought through all the crazy questions, but I think it could be super fun quiz.

But I know we're working on one for you. Do you wanna share kind of the flavor profiles you've challenged me with?

MMM Ep 9 Guest: Ooh, I think I challenged you with, oh my gosh, I've, I've gotten all of them, but I think definitely Orange was in it, right? Or an orange color, right. Orange Contra maybe.

Tricia: Yeah. Yeah.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: love. And did I also give you St. Germaine? Did I give you

in there. And because you love St. Germa, I found a new, a new Laur, well new to me anyway, called Itus, and I think. That it might be a great sub in the cocktail that we're, that we're concocting, because it is rose and bergamot.

So you get those floral notes like you get in the St. Germain. But it has had that orange, you know, the bergamot is really the orange peel. And so you really get the sense of both of those, that floral and the orange and combined with a bourbon or a whiskey, actually I found that you can combine italica with.

But I could come up with a clever name if anybody's listening. You have some brilliant name ideas for orange, rose, bergamot, and bourbon, and you can come up with a clever name that goes with podcasting. I'd love to hear it. Send me a message. We're, yeah. Yeah. It's gonna be fun. But I think we're close. I think we're close.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: I love that. I have not heard of the Italica. I've not heard of that. I've heard of Metallica,

Tricia: Yeah.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: but, uh, not that one. I just, I love those flavor profiles, so I'm very interested to find that. I've not heard of it. I'm, I'm excited to try something new.

Tricia: Yeah, we're gonna, hopefully you can find it. I had a really hard time finding it in Arkansas and, but I did find it in Missouri. Now you probably don't have weird liquor laws like we do in Arkansas, so you can probably order it, even if you can't find it locally. I can't have any liquor shipped into my state.

I.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: Interesting.

Tricia: it's very bizarre. Very bizarre. Okay, so let's talk cocktails.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: Yeah.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: Yeah. You know, I move around a lot in my, I experiment a lot, so my very favorite drink is made at a local, pub, and it's called the Tollhouse Teeny, and I only get it there. , my husband has tried to recreate it. It's not been very, super successful. He does good job, but there's something in it that's not quite right, but the pub is located in the town of Whitman, which is the home of the chocolate chip cookie. And so they came up with this signature cocktail for their pub called the Tollhouse Teeny. And they did change it for a few months, a couple of like maybe about a year ago. And so now whenever I go and I order, I'm like, is it the creamy kind or the clear kind? 'cause I only drink the clear kind.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: Yes, yes.

Tricia: okay. Yeah, so like making cocktails is like, it's like playing mad scientists for me as an adult and as a kid I loved playing mad scientist.

Unfortunately, it was with cleaning ingredients, which was not safe. But, you know, I had no supervision so nobody knew and nobody cared until I stained the carpet or ruined a piece of furniture. I'm definitely not like a professionally trained bartender, but I love playing with mixology and.

It's just another way of playing with flavors that really tap into all of your senses, right? Because I do think that drinks have texture, you know, it's taste, texture. Scent, right? All of those things really can add to, the complex flavors and nuances of a cocktail. But I think when we hear craft cocktails, we think everything has to be super complicated.

Probably not. Those people are trained. they make them day in and day out. Right. I do this, more for fun and, and like to think that I can help that aspiring home bartender, if you will, that likes to entertain or somebody who even just wants to make their own random drink. But I think about the toll house, teeny, I feel like there has to be, and you said it's clear or just not creamy?

MMM Ep 9 Guest: It's clear.

Tricia: It's clear.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: and it has chocolate chips at the bottom of the martini glass.

Tricia: Interesting. So they're definitely probably using the white creme de cocoa.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: I do think so. and there is a vodka in it.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: Oh yeah, he didn't make that. So that could be,

Tricia: Hmm. So the other thing I'll tell you, like if you just wanna play with a few different variations is I discovered a cookie dough ball whiskey. Do you? Okay.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: I do, I have actually, uh, I just bought, I just bought another bottle because I thought we were out. My son is home from the Marines, and so of course being a Marine, he, he does partake in his libations and, he likes to try different, types of things. As a matter of fact, all of mom's whiskey seems to go well with milk, which doesn't sound right, but.

Tricia: Uh, it does if you like milk and cookies.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: Exactly. Exactly. So, and originally when he came home, we had a gingerbread whiskey in the house. And he said that was amazing with milk too. So the, that's all gone. I'll have to wait

MMM Ep 9 Guest: Yes, I do think I have tried the old Smokey. Yes. Usually my whiskey of choice is bird dog, and they do make a salted caramel as

Tricia: Oh, okay. The other one I stumbled across, I can't remember the brand. if I was looking in the, plethora liquor bottles in my bar, I could probably tell you, but I wanna say it wasn't oatmeal raisin, but it was an oatmeal cookie

and I like it better than the cookie dough ball, quite honestly.

Mm-hmm.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: is that made by Screwball? I know they make a peanut butter whiskey.

Tricia: do. My, my son loves the peanut butter one. I'm not a peanut butter fan. not a peanut butter flavored anything fan, but I'm a, I'm a minority. I fully recognized where that's concerned.

I think you had some questions for me about cocktails, so throw them at me and let's see what we can share with anybody who's listening.

They don't know what I'm talking about. So I wanna know more about these shrubs.

Tricia: Okay. shrubs are an additive for cocktails or a mix mixture for cocktails that the, base starts with vinegar, so they add a really nice, fresh zing. they're acidic, and so you don't wanna mix them with other citrus or other highly acidic fruits, but they're really fun to experiment with, with those.

You know, I always think like, you know, fireside cinnamon, those fall flavors. I saw a recipe, I think it was on Spruce Eats, where they do a blueberry shrub and make a daiquiri. But they're also really easy to make at home.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: Okay.

Tricia: They're really easy to make at home. the majority are made with apple cider vinegar.

You can use some with balza, but it'll also give you another hint, like if you have some of those really, if you can't find shrubs and you don't wanna make them, I was in an olive oil and vinegar, one of those like boutique shops and they have all those flavored olive oils and vinegars and, they actually had a bar in their store and they would take, Spirits and then they would add like an ounce of this balsamic vinegar.

But if you wanted to, Attempt to make your own shrubs. And I'm gonna share an article in the show notes from Spruce Eats. It's one of my favorite blogs. but rather than try to create a whole new recipe, they do a great job of walking you through how to create or how to make your own shrubs at home.

And it, it really comes down to two cups of fruit and two cups of vinegar and sugar. And then that ratio of vinegar and sugar really can just be adjusted to taste. and then you can add herbs and spices at like a tablespoon at a time to add some more complex flavors to it. So I will make sure that that's in the show notes.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: It sounds like they would be great in mocktails as well,

and maybe some of them might even be good in other types of like beverages. Like if you just wanted like a fancy latte or something. Maybe.

Tricia: Mm. I don't know. You know, I haven't played with that, but I have several shrubs at home and I'm, you've just inspired me to start playing with them a little bit more. I did try adding them what we were doing, the mimosa bar and I was just kind of playing around and the one that I tried with the mimosa, and again, because there was juice in it, gonna put very much for me, it was.

To vinegar. And so what I will tell you is you try different shrubs because all of that vinegar and sugar is so much to taste. They're not all created equal. And so some are much more vinegar on one end and some are sweeter. And so you, you do kinda have to play with them and kind of find your, find your sweet spot.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: Now when you go shopping for your, your local shrub,

Tricia: Mm-hmm.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: where in the liquor store do you find it?

Tricia: They're usually with the mixers, the bitters, uh, the simple syrups. They would be there if they carry them. I can also give you a couple of websites that have some, I have never looked on Amazon for shrubs. but we have a local company in Arkansas called Pink House Alchemy. I. But I know they also ship and they have an online store.

They have a fabulous line of really interesting, simple syrups and bitters and shrubs. And the pineapple one I was talking about they have one.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: Oh, great.

Tricia: yeah, so I'll be sure to drop that link in the show notes as well. The label looks like pH alchemy. It stands for Pink House.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: I'm wondering if it is a, and I could be completely wrong, but I'm wondering if it is regional

Tricia: oh, like it shrubs themselves or regional?

MMM Ep 9 Guest: the name

So that's why I was, I was very intrigued. But to know more about this because I love vinegar, absolutely love vinegar. I actually would drink it straight up. I'm terrible.

Tricia: Well then I really think rather than going down the road of finding shrubs, I would recommend that you find some of those really good infused vinegars and play with those with the spirits that you already have versus trying to figure out how to.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: Yeah.

Tricia: done so much of the work, work for you. when it comes to doing them at home, I just happen to have a couple of bottles from some cocktail kits.

and the other one is called Cocktail Courier.

And you sign up. It's a membership, it's a subscription program, and they great Facebook groups with, I mean, active people with all kinds, playing with all kinds of, of cocktail ideas. It's super fun. But every month you get a box and it has a theme. So maybe it's a gin theme or maybe it's a summer Flavors theme depends on the company and what's going on.

Shaker and Spoon was very much , spirit focused in terms of the theme. And so one month you would get a box that was focused on gin and you would get four cocktail recipes. Three cocktail recipes and each and all the things to make the cocktail except for the spirits themselves and everything that they sent you would make a batch of four cocktails, and so you get 12 cocktails out of a box, but you get the little bottles of simple syrup, the shrubs, the bitters.

When I would kind of get locked in, in a zone of like, I have to follow a recipe right now. I can keep those recipe cards and I can say like, okay, well I know that they recommended this gin, but I can try a different gin. Or, oh, this was really good, but I don't have those bitters. But if I don't have mole bitters, I.

I bet I could use chocolate bitters and maybe some black pepper syrup. Right. It really kind of opened my eyes to how, craft cocktails are created quite honestly. and while I've always loved to mix drinks and try all the craft cocktails, I think that's really, really got excited about kind of thinking about it more in terms of, it's, it's like making a recipe when you're cooking, right?

and you can really get creative with it.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: and you can experiment, like you said, if you don't have exactly the right thing on hand, you can, you can add something different in.

Tricia: Right, right. I think there was only one cocktail out of the shaker and spoon sets that I didn't love, and it was just too bitter for me. It wasn't anything else, but, you know, a lot of people love that really, bitter amaro flavor and I think the only one I didn't like was just a really bitter drink, and I've loved every other cocktail that I've gotten out of that one.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: That's really interesting. I've heard of other types of subscription services and I've certainly heard of, you know, the original like beer of the. A month club or whatnot, wine of the month club and stuff like, but I have not heard of this shaker and spoon until you mentioned it during the brunch party.

And I thought that is fascinating because I just have never heard of any of those. I guess head in the sand, I guess.

'cause I texted somebody about it or talked about it. Now all of a sudden I've got these ads for, you know, liquor and stop drinking and here's your, you know, substitute. And so I was like, you know what, we'll try shaker and spoon for a while. , I personally preferred Shaker and Spoon , because I felt like you got more in the box than you did with Cocktail Courier.

Now it was slightly more expensive too, so, to each their own cocktail courier was really good. I also will say that I felt like Shaker and Spoon. Not that it was better than cocktail Courier, but I felt like. You got more variety of ingredients and so it got my creative juices going more.

Right? So it really kind of depends. I would say look into both companies. Try each one for a couple of months, see what you like better. I'm not even sure there may be other ones out there at this point. but I did really love being part of their, their Facebook group as when I had that subscription going.

'cause I, I really do think it's super fun.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: I love that. I'm gonna give it a try. I'm

Tricia: Yeah. Yeah, you totally should. And I should probably have an affiliate link now.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: You should. Absolutely. Yeah.

Tricia: Yeah. What else do you have for me?

MMM Ep 9 Guest: All right, so you also opened my mind completely when you said, what do you put in your mimosa? And I was like, orange juice. And you were like, no, what other flavors? And I'm like, there are other flavors of mimosa. I just assumed, I guess, that the definition of mimosa was orange juice and champagne. But you, you were like, no, you can do all these others.

Tricia: Yeah, so, what's funny is, so yeah, I know the traditional mimosa is it's orange juice and champagne or prosecco or cover, whatever float your boat. orange juice can be too acidic for me. And so I started playing with, and I would see at other restaurants where they would have a cranberry mimosa.

I had a friend who is allergic to oranges. And so she would always order a cranberry mimosa. And I was like, Hmm, okay. So it's not just me, like mimosa's candy, more than orange juice. And so one of my favorite, and I I'm not gonna pretend like I'm the one who came up with this, this is just how I started changing up flavors.

when we'd go to Mexico, I loved a mango mojito and I thought, Hmm, maybe mango. It would be good in a mimosa or, you know what, I like orange juice. Maybe if I dial back the orange juice and I add a splash of cranberry, what does, you know, what does that taste like? and then I was like, oh, okay. This is fun.

What else can I mix it with? And I tried it with mimosa and I was like, oh, now that's the jam. So I just started playing. And so most of the juices that I use, I just get at the grocery store. Now when it comes to mango and pear and some of those, you can get these cans these like 12 ounce cans like a Coke can, but you can get those cans of mango nectar, pear nectar.

There's all kinds of those in the grocery store. There's a ton of them in any sort of Hispanic market that you find. and, you know, pomegranate juice, like literally you can use any juice. I prefer the Simply Brand just because they feel very natural with a whole lot less additives to me, than a lot of the other juices.

But you can literally use anything.

Tricia: Yeah. Yeah. So the other thing is I went to a restaurant in St. Louis called Squires, and they have this bottomless mimosa bar and bloody Mary bar. And like, you gotta pick a lane, you gotta pick mimosas or the bloody Mary. Like, it's not, you know, otherwise being real world to hurt. But it's this huge buffet and one side is focused on mimosas and what's even.

Got me all excited about the mimosa because aside from the juices and all the things that you can put in your mimosa, they had like the little tiny marshmallows and fruits and cookies and short breads and dried fruits, gummy bears, like all these things that you could, it, it was like a snack and a drink, right?

And so, yeah, it's just, get creative and just have fun with it. Because the worst case scenario is you pour some mix together like I did with the weird shrub, and you're like, mm, that's not good. And you pour out, you know, three ounces of drink, like a big

MMM Ep 9 Guest: Yeah.

yeah, yeah. You just experiment. Move on. Yeah, I love that. I love that. we have also a whiskey top smoker. I don't know if you've seen those.

Yep. And so the yeah, the little smoke, I think they, ours is called a smoke top, but, so we'll make an old fashioned smoked, old fashioned.

And so I love experimenting with different things like this, so this is like, so very up my alley to, to get all these other information on all these other different ways to, to make a drink, to do something like that. Very cool.

But I'll do a bar spoon of simple syrup. So to make simple syrup at home, it is simply one cup of water and one cup of sugar, and I melt it in the microwave for five minutes. Or you can do it in a sauce pan. I'm lazy. I do it in the microwave. And then once that's melted and you've started it and it's clear, then you add in a tea bag.

You can also choose to let divide that simple syrup up into, uh, you know, two or three batches before you infuse it so you can play with those flavors. Because once you make that, you know, you've got a cup and a half of simple syrup and you use a bar spoon at a time like. You got a lot of simple syrup.

Save some for regular portion, some off play with some flavors. Earl Gray Tea makes a great simple syrup.

It's fabulous in cocktails. throw in a cinnamon stick and a vanilla bean. You've got those fall flavors that you can, you know, as I think about an old fashioned that are fabulous. some of my favorite bitters to play with in Old Fashions outside of the typical Angas Dora Orange Bitters. are, tobacco bitters.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: Ooh,

And all of a sudden you've got like a whole new old fashioned

MMM Ep 9 Guest: Yeah, I have actually done that. A friend brought over some black walnut bitters

and yeah. Yeah, so I mixed those with the orange bitters to try to offset the, the flavor. But yeah, really good, really good.

Tricia: So much fun. Alright, so we've talked a lot about cocktails and for anybody who's listening, if you have other questions about cocktails, I would love to hear them. Email me, message me. I'm always game to talk about cocktails. it's really one of my favorite subjects because it makes me feel all scientist.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: I agree.

Tricia: Any other questions before you wanna talk about what you have going on and anything that, um, you might have another challenge coming up you wanna talk about?

and that is going to be in August and we are just going to be. Launching your podcast. So if you are interested in starting a podcast and you just want the basics and you want more information, every day of the week, Monday through Friday, I go live and I walk you through step by step, all the different steps you need to launch your podcast.

So yeah, that challenge is coming up in August and I will get you the date,

Tricia: is there a link we can share for them to register?

MMM Ep 9 Guest: I do, yes. I have a link. I can give you that. Yeah, absolutely.

Tricia: I loved your podcast challenge. I've been thinking about launching this podcast for over a year.

And then I was hooked. I was like, I, I have to do this. You made it so simple and so easy to get started, that I, I mean, this podcast wouldn't be here and we wouldn't be, oh, geez. weeks in

by the time with this one airs.

So if you had a couple of tips for an aspiring podcaster, or let's say somebody who's already gotten started, but maybe kind of struggling, tell us a little bit outside of the challenge about the services that you offer and give, new and aspiring podcasters.

A couple of tips on, on how to get motivated to get started.

Listeners watchers, whatnot. But so we do it all over here at KP Creative Media. And yes, we do help spiritually aligned women entrepreneurs for the most part, although we do have a subset of architects, engineers, and construction that we help out, which is a little weird, but interestingly enough, All of those podcasts that we help that are, are in that particular industry, are all owned by women companies, so still helping women.

And they're all hosted by women too. So even though it is architecture, engineering, and construction, still all women talking to me all day

See you next time.

MMM Ep 9 Guest: Thank you.