The Government's War on Cocktails [Podcast]

Nick Gillespie talks with Peter Suderman about Prohibition's lingering effects on booze.

1x 1.1x 1.25x 1.5x 2x 3x

:15 :15

Download

The Government's War on Cocktails [Podcast]

"What we lost with Prohibition wasn't just a couple of drinks," says Reason's Peter Suderman, "we lost an art and a culinary tradition that is really this kind of great, uniquely American thing."

In our latest podcast, Suderman joins Nick Gillespie to talk about his feature story in the latest issue of our print magazine, "Government Almost Killed the Cocktail." They discuss why cocktails started out as morning eye-openers, Prohibition-era drinking loopholes, methods for disguising the flavor of low-quality bathtub gin, and how the ghost of Prohibition still affects drinking culture today.

Subscribe to Reason for early online access to articles and archives dating back to 1968. For just $19.95 a year, you'll get 11 print issues and digital access!

Audio produced by Ian Keyser.

Subscribe, rate, and review the Reason Podcast at iTunes. Listen at SoundCloud below:

Don't miss a single Reason podcast! (Archive here.)

Subscribe at iTunes.

Follow us at SoundCloud.

Subscribe at YouTube.

Like us on Facebook.

Follow us on Twitter.

Comments

[Crusty Juggler]

I can't even with this.

[WakaWaka]

Quitter

[WakaWaka]

What cocktail was Gillespie drinking when he smeared Ron Paul as the father of the 'alt-right'?

[Domestic Dissident]

A Marx mimosa garnished with a Lenin lemon, well-stirred with a Stalin swizzle stick.

[widget]

A martini should be made with 1/3 vermouth, or so I've heard. A martini should be made next to bottle of gin (without actually pouring any vermouth into the glass), and so I've heard.

I very rarely go into bar these days. When I do, my order is shelf bourbon on the rocks with a splash of water. That's gotta be worse than a Robert E. Lee statue in a park.

[Philadelphia Collins]

Drank tequila and club soda last night at a Gov't Mule. Show. Still buzzed.

[FreeToFear]

I would think a government mule would be Flint, MI drinking water mixed with ginger beer

[lap83]

Then, as now, it's generally for hiding crappy liquor

[CE]

Oddly enough, the government assumed it needed a Constitutional amendment to prohibit alcohol sales nationwide. Somehow the War on Drugs didn't though. I can't figure out what's different. We still have the same Constitution don't we?

[Liberty =><= Equality]

The Marihuana tax came before Prohibition, actually.

Part of the reason for a constitutional amendment was to make it nearly impossible to repeal.

[Charles L. Aucoin]

There are some interesting points in time in this article Boxhead Zombies but I don’t know if I see all of them center to heart. There is some validity but I will take hold opinion until I look into it further. Good article, thanks and we want more! Added to FeedBurner as well