September 26th is the birthday of American folk hero Johnny Appleseed. In this episode we're going to explore the real person behind the character of Johnny Appleseed, his role in helping to shape the American frontier, and why apples might be the weirdest fruit of all. Sharfiq Cosby, bartender at Clayton, North Carolina's own Revival 1869, will be stopping by a little later to talk to us about his passion for cocktails, his love of the industry, and how he has Barney to thank for learning about Johnny Appleseed. But first, a word from our sponsor. Upgrade your cocktail game with Remedy Cocktail Company's handcrafted bitters. Order online at RemedyCocktailCompany.com and choose from over 20 flavors. Elevate your drink experience today. First things first, Johnny Appleseed wasn't just a figment of some writer's imagination. His real name was John Chapman, and he was born on September 26, 1774 in Lemonster, Massachusetts. John's mother died two years after his birth, only weeks after giving birth to his younger brother, who sadly followed their mother in death. John's father was part of the Continental Army, and during this time, John and his sister, Elizabeth, were cared for by relatives. John's father was honorably discharged in 1780, and it was in that year that he remarried. It's not clear if John and his sister went to live with the newly-wedded couple, but over the next few years, John would eventually come to have 10 more siblings. John's father, convinced his brother, convinced his 11-year-old brother Nathaniel to go west with him. Remember, folks, the frontier at this time meant western Pennsylvania? Or maybe the exotic lands of Ohio. In the late 1790s, John was said to have been seen picking apple seeds from the pumice of cider mills in eastern Virginia. You might be wondering, what's the deal with all the apples? Well, in the western expansion of the United States, settlers in Ohio could form a permanent homestead in the wilderness beyond Ohio's first permanent settlement of 100 acres of land. To prove their homestead to be permanent, settlers were required to plant 50 apple trees and 20 peach trees in three years. There was a need for apple and peach trees in John, ever the shrewd businessman, discovered that he could travel in advance of the coming wave of settlers, buy land, plant and cultivate the trees, then sell them to the settlers as they arrived. Once enough settlers arrived, he'd sell the plot of land with the orchard and move along to the next area. So why were settlers required to plant so many fruit trees? One reason is that apple and peach trees take up to 10 years to produce fruit. This ensured that settlers were invested, not just financially, in their land claim. Why would the settlers want to plant the trees, though? Well, even in the early 1800s, consuming water was still a dangerous proposition. You never knew if water supplies were contaminated, and there was limited understanding of the causes and effects of water pollution. If the water was questionable, you still needed something to drink. Enter the most popular beverage of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, hard apple cider. When you or I think about apples, we probably think about those shiny, gorgeous globes of sweet deliciousness available at our local grocery stores. Traditionally, however, apples were very different. Get ready, we're going to jump in a bit of pomology, a branch of botany that deals with the cultivation, production, and study of fruit, so that we can understand apples a little better. Apples are thought to originate from Central Asia, specifically Kazakhstan. They spread through Europe and Asia thanks to the Silk Road, the Greeks, the Persians, and later, the Romans. There are an estimated 7,500 varieties of apples today, but the majority are not the crisp, sweet examples we know and love. Instead, the majority are bitter, misshapen, and not very good for eating. So let's say you happen to have an apple tree that produces these gorgeous, succulent apples. Hoping for more of these apples, you take the seeds from one and plant them, diligently tending to the seedlings for years until finally, after a decade, they begin to produce fruit. Only to find that they produce small, tart, nearly-in-edible apples. What happened? Well, apples, in an attempt to survive and grow, have an extreme amount of genetic variability. They are what scientists refer to as extreme heterozygotes. What this means is that there is zero guarantee that the seed of the fruit of a given apple tree will produce similar fruit. How, then, do we get consistent varieties of apples? The answer lies in an ancient technique called grafting. Grafting, a technique which can be dated back almost 4,000 years, involves inserting a portion of an existing plant, known as the scion, into a newly growing plant, the rootstock. In modern-day apple orchards, this is the common practice to ensure that the resulting apples are the desired look and taste that consumers expect. Johnny Appleseed didn't practice grafting, however. He undoubtedly knew about the technique, but it was his religion that he felt precluded him from practicing it. John Chapman was an adherent of the Swedenborgian Church, also known as the New Church. This denomination of Christianity was based on the writings of Swedish scientist and mysticist Immanuel Swedenborg. John wasn't just cultivating apple trees on the American frontier. He was also a missionary for the New Church, passing out books and sharing their teachings. Apocryphal stories of his travel suggest that he went barefoot so as to not injure earthworms or other animals, and often extinguished his campfire to avoid bringing harm to the various bugs that would fly around it. He might have even had a pet wolf that followed him after he fixed its injured leg. John felt that his religion's appreciation of life precluded him from harming the trees he planted by grafting them, and as such, he let the proverbial genetic dice land how they may when he planted and cultivated his trees. The resulting apples, often misshapen, tart, bitter, and odd-looking by today's standards, were perfect for fermenting into the hard apple cider so widely consumed in the early 1800s. Did you know that by the early 1800s, the average American was consuming more than 10.5 gallons of cider per person annually? Now, there's a common perception of Johnny Appleseed as a wilderness-loving nomad wearing a tin pot hat and tattered clothes. The tin pot hat bit? That's mostly myth. But Johnny was indeed quite the minimalist. He was known for his generosity, often trading trees for barter items or giving them to settlers who couldn't afford to pay. He had a simple lifestyle and cared deeply for the environment. But he was, without a doubt, a shrewd businessman, eventually amassing approximately 1,200 acres of land across three different states. John Chapman died in early 1845 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was first mythologized in 1880 by abolitionist author Lydia Maria Child in a poem. In cities, some said the old man was crazy, while others said he was only lazy. But he took no notice of jibs and jeers. He knew he was working for future years. And if they inquire whence came such trees, where not a bough once swayed in the breeze, the answer still comes as they travel on, the trees were planted by Appleseed John. The early 20th century would see Chapman memorialized as Johnny Appleseed in multiple poems and children's books. Johnny Appleseed even received the Walt Disney treatment in the 1948 animated film, Melody Time. But what's the lasting impact of Johnny Appleseed? Why do we still talk about him today? For starters, he's a symbol of America's frontier days. His journey through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois wasn't just about planting trees. It was about cultivating hope and perseverance. More concretely, some of the apple trees he planted still stand today. There are trees in Nova, Ohio, believed to be direct descendants from those planted by Johnny himself. So if you're ever in the area, maybe give one of those trees a hug and a thank you. On a larger scale, Johnny Appleseed's legend reminds us of the importance of sustainability and environmental consciousness. In a way, he was one of America's first conservationalists. And in today's age of climate change and environmental degradation, his spirit and message are more critical than ever. There you have it, folks. The legend of Johnny Appleseed. Not just a man who planted apple trees, but a symbol of American resilience, sustainability, and let's face it, a love for good apple-based spirit. Speaking of good apple-based spirits, for this episode's challenge, our contestants will be seeing which of them can craft the winning cocktail that embodies the spirit of Johnny Appleseed. Innovative, rugged, and rooted in American history. Their concoction must feature apple in some form, be it fresh apple, apple cider, apple jack, or apple brandy. So stick around after the break when we sit down with our guest, Sharfik Shark Cosby of Clayton, North Carolina's Revival 1869. A little later, we'll see how he fares when he has to go head-to-head with our AI contender. Will he be our winner, or will he fail to produce fruit? Stick around to find out. I want to take a moment and say thank you for listening so far. I'd love it if you'd connect with the podcast on social media. We're Drinking With Robots on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Threads. And we definitely appreciate your likes and follows. Make sure to hit the subscribe button on whatever platform you're listening to our podcast on so you don't miss any episodes. Also, check out DrinkingWithRobots.com while you're at it. Hey, folks. We're here today with our guest, Sharfik Shark Cosby. He is a cocktail Jedi at Revival in Clayton, North Carolina. We're very happy to have you with us today. Oh, thank you. Happy to be here. I appreciate you. Appreciate you. So the topic for this episode is Johnny Appleseed, of course, his birthday is coming up soon here in September. I really was kind of surprised at some of the stuff that I learned about Johnny Appleseed and doing research for this episode. My understanding is you kind of took a little bit of time and did some research yourself, huh? Oh, yeah, I did, actually. So, fun fact, when I mentioned this to my wife, she had no idea who Johnny Appleseed was. Wait, she didn't learn about him in school? No, she didn't. Maybe she did. She said she thinks, but I don't know. But this is also the same person that's from New York and has never seen Ghostbusters. Oh, wait. How have you let this stand? I don't know, but I give a shit about it all the time. But, yeah. So, Johnny Appleseed, I first learned about him from Barney the Dinosaur. Really? Yeah. Yep. So, there was an episode of Barney the Dinosaur, one of the children, was dressed up like Johnny Appleseed. He had a flannel shirt on, the tin hat, which was more like a pot. Yeah. I think the kid had no shoes on. I don't know. I can't remember that far. But he was just digging seeds out of his pocket, planting them on the ground like he was doing something. Yeah. Cool and all that, but that's not really what it... It's a little bit more than that. So, yeah. He's a popular American folktale character. His real name was John Chapman. Yep. His folklore centers around a normatic man who travels across the western frontier planting apple orchards. So, the thing that I thought was interesting, and I don't know about you, but when I thought western frontier, when I first heard that, I was like, okay. So, we're talking like the west. Yeah. The west was Ohio. Uh-huh. You know? And that was the thing I was like, oh, so this guy was just kind of rolling around the midwest. Uh-huh. And I thought that was interesting. The other thing, talking about the barefoot part. Oh, yeah. So, I read something, and I don't know if you ran across the same thing, but apparently the reason for going barefoot was a story that was apocryphal, so it was after. I think it didn't come from him directly, but apparently, and we talked about this a little bit before we started recording, he was part of this branch of Christianity that was popular in the era that he lived. That was a little mystical, a little kind of bringing in all lives are sacred, including worms. And the reason I mention that is because apparently the story about him wearing no shoes was he felt bad one day he had looked down and squished a worm under his boot. Oh, yeah. So, I read it was a snake or something. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And supposedly his feet were so thick that if a snake bit him, he couldn't feel it. So, along that same lines, I read a story where it was like kids would put hot coals to his feet. Yeah. That's wild. Well, yeah. I think that denomination of Christianity was called Swedenborg or something like that. Yeah. The other thing that I found interesting as a byproduct of that religious viewpoint was he didn't believe in grafting. Oh, yeah. And as we talked about in the first part of the show, grafting is the process where you take part of one plant and basically insert it into part of another plant. And I don't know about you. This is going to sound weird. I kind of got into researching apples as a byproduct. Oh, yeah. I didn't realize that like you don't just get nice, pretty apples. Uh-huh. Yeah. You get different kind of apples. Something happens with apples are weird, apparently. Yeah. You could plant them from seed. That's what he was doing. Plant them from seed and you don't get the same apple from the tree that you picked it from. And the other part is you can plant, you know, seeds from one apple and each one of the seedlings as they grow into trees are going to potentially give you different apples from one another. Yeah. Now, if he grafted, which also was a part of that religion he was part of, they forbade that. Yeah. Or forbode that. Forbade. Yeah. Forbade, forbode. Yeah. I got to see an English class, y'all. But yeah, that was forbidden. Yeah. So that was what I read was he didn't care for it because he feared that it would hurt the tree. I mean, yeah, that very may be, but it was part of his religion. But yeah, grafting was not his thing. But so there's a tree, his last tree that he planted is still around. It's like 160 years old. Something like that. Yeah. I saw that there was like one that they could say like with pretty good certainty was one that came from his nursery. And that's the other thing, too, that I found interesting. The research that he was doing. I blame Walt Disney for a lot of this. Oh, yeah, definitely. The Disneyfication of Johnny Appleseed basically made him seem like this guy who was just casting seeds willy nilly for these beautiful apple trees. And it turns out what he was actually doing. We talked about this, you know, like I said in the first part of the show was he was creating nurseries so that new settlers into this northwest territory in order to make a land claim. You had to plant 10 apple trees and 10 peach trees because the idea behind it was that it takes approximately 10 years for those to make fruit. And so it was this sign that you were going to tend this land for at least 10 years. Well, how do you get the apple trees out there if they aren't indigenous? Hauling them becomes problematic. Yeah. They're going to rot if you're taking wagons out and things like that. So what John would do would be to kind of the research that I looked at said that he was very savvy at figuring out where settlers were going. Yeah. And would get out there in advance of them so that he could have these nurseries on plots of land that he would pick up. Uh-huh. And then sell these trees for like six or seven cent a piece, which doesn't sound like much in today's money. But at the time, you know, considering he had no cost. Right. They were great. And the other part, and I blame Disney for this as well, is in my mind, and I don't know if you were the same, all these apples were like the beautiful apples we eat today. Yeah, they were. They were shiny as hell. Looked like wax. But they weren't. They're not. They weren't even edible. Yeah. What were they for? Making apple cider. Hard-ass cider, y'all. Yeah. Yep. So Johnny was hoping everybody on the frontier, you know, have something to drink besides water. Because at the time, I was looking into this. It was something like the average person consumed 22 ounces of hard cider a day. Uh-huh. Even kids. Yeah. Even kids. Yeah. Water. It was like, no, I don't want no water. Dirty as hell. Yeah. Just give me some of that cider. And then, so, and we'll circle back to this later. But it was like by 1830. Wait, I got it right. I have to say, for listeners, I am impressed. Shark is the first person on this podcast to bring notes. And I am doubly impressed. Like, he did his research. Yeah, it's my manual teleprompter. Yep. And that's what it sounds like, y'all. A little ASMR for you there. Flipping pages. Well, yeah, by 1830, it was like the U.S. was in like a drunken haze, so to speak. And everyone was drunk. And eventually, this brought on the temperance movement. Going back to these settlers. So, he pretty much flipped the land. He planted these trees. He said, hey, you want this land? Buy it for me. Just take care of these trees. And made profit off it. So, he pretty much flipped land, much like flipping houses today. Yeah. You know they got this program where you can buy houses on a USDA-approved land. Oh, yeah. Stimulation is that you have to pretty much do something with it. Oh, yeah. That's pretty much what he did or what was happening back then. Someone described him following the settlers as eerie. And I have a little theory about that. So, in all his walking barefootedness, if that's even a thing, a phrase, a word. The reason for that is, you know, when you walk barefooted, you're grounded to the earth. When you're grounded to the earth, you're closer to the creator. With that being said, most likely, he was tuning into all this spiritual woo-woo. And he was able to find these settlers. Right. And knew what they needed, knew what they're trying to do, and pretty much sold them the land. He was an evangelist, traveled, started preaching his word to Native Americans, some other settlers. Yeah, he was just like this great giving guy. He never married at all. So, I wouldn't say he practiced abstinence, but maybe he did. Well, I don't know. Let's be honest. I would say, he walking around the Northwest Territory, the Western expanse of America, running water wasn't there. He slept outside a lot. Right. Wore kind of the same clothes for long stretches at a time. Yeah, he wasn't getting no biddies. I was going to say, man, I don't think he was really appealing to a lot of the ladies of the frontier. Right. And then he, apparently he said he couldn't find his wife on earth. He would hope to find his wife in heaven when he died. There you go. Yeah. I mean, that's a, I mean, that's to each his own. But I guess, I mean, you like what you like. Yeah, true, true. Angel wings. Now, I know you are passionate about cocktails and making cocktails, but we were talking a little bit before the show. You've got other interests. Oh, yeah. Although they are limited, because I, like you said, I, I'm impressed by the amount of passion you bring to what you do and the amount of research and focus you have in your industry. But we were talking a little bit. Now, you like doing a little bit of Muay Thai? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I love Muay Thai. One Championships has like live streams. So I watch the fights every Friday, get up, have a coffee. And I practice at home. I'm just, I'm just iffy about gyms. So since the pandemic, when everything shut down, I started this program, this online program, online coaching. It's called the Fighter's Body. Oh, okay. There's a guy, his name is Sean Fagan. He goes by the name of the Muay Thai guy. Okay. And he recently just visited North Carolina. Did you get to see him? I didn't. Yeah. It was in Durham. I wanted to, I planned to, but I mean, had other things going on. So I've been following his program. I'll tune in to his live streams. And what I do is, being so I train at home, I practice at home. I don't have a sparring partner, I told you earlier. So what I'll do, I'll do as much as I can, close to a Muay Thai training camp as possible. I'll start off with like 10 or 15 minutes of either cycling or skipping rope. I have a Muay Thai rope. So I'll do that. And I mean, doing that is like a bitch. Your forearms will be on fire, your shoulders. And trying to keep it tight, keep your elbows tight in as well. I mean, it's a pain in the ass, but I mean, it's great. I love it. See, your workout routine and my workout routine are so different. Yeah. See, my workout routine consists of lifting a cocktail glass and then putting it back down. And I try and do that. I try and get that, you know, probably 20 reps in a day at least. I'll start off with a shot of Frenette. There you go. There you go. At least it's not Malört. Yeah. Even now. No, no, no, no. I'm going to cut you off right there. Let's talk about the prompt. All right. The prompt for this episode was make a cocktail that embodies the spirit of Johnny Appleseed. His ruggedness. It has to obviously use apple in some way. So innovative, rugged, rooted in American history. So talk to us about your cocktail that you brought. All right. So my cocktail is pretty much inspired by the American Trilogy cocktails. One of my favorite cocktails. Rye whiskey, apple jag, a little bit of orange bitters and some sweetener of some sort. Usually it's like Demerara sugar. And I believe that that drink came from the bar Attaboy. I'm actually making quite a few drinks from Attaboy at Revival sometime. If you want a recommendation rather. So I need to make a visit to that bar. The cocktail has rye whiskey. There's some apple jack in there. But this apple jack is milk washed. So if you guys watch Truffle on the Rocks on YouTube, it makes a milk liqueur. I recently used a milk liqueur in one of my cocktails at Revival. So I kind of just adopted that technique and put it towards another spirit. Apple jack. So what I did was milk wash the apple jack. Well, first I acid adjusted it. I'm going back to Dave Arnold. About 3.5 grams of a 6% citric acid solution. And I washed mine with almond milk. Because I already don't drink. I don't drink regular dairy. Let that sit overnight. And then the next process in that was making the oleosaccharin. Pretty much sugar oil. Citrus peels. Sugar. Let it sit overnight. I think I did. I think I told you about 3 limes. 3 lemons. So pretty much making the spire oil. Almost. Once the milk proteins soak up all that acid and whatever harshness in the apple jack. Pour that over the oleo. Once all that sugar is dissolved. Pour that over the oleo. Stir it around. Make sure that sugar is dissolved. Add a couple drops of vanilla extract. So then you have your milk wash, citrusy, apple jack. Now the mouthfeeling flavor for that. So it's going to be silky. You taste the citrus. The hint of vanilla. But you can also still tell it's apple jack. So that flavor is still there. Other ingredients in there would be the cream sherry. To add a little bit of nuttiness to this cocktail. Also a little bit of sweetness. My sweetener for this would be the apple syrup. But there's only a little bit in there. Only about a quarter ounce. So I have to interject here. Yeah. Because you make it sound so easy. This was not easy. Oh, yeah. The apple syrup. It's an overnight. Basically, we're sweating the apples with sugar. Yeah, pretty much. There's a little bit of water in there. We end up putting some apple cider vinegar. Yeah. Yeah. You're basically making a shrub. I just I call it a syrup because it's a little bit sweeter. I don't like using that much vinegar because then you start to overpower. That's another thing. When you when you're making a syrup or shrub, keep in mind the acidity level for that vinegar because you don't want to put too much. You usually I think apple cider is only like about 5 percent. But yeah. So I only used a little bit because I really just wanted the apples to come through. And then we're not done. We're not. Because then it was. Oh, and make some apple chutney. First of all, first of all, I've heard the word chutney. Uh-huh. I've never made chutney. Uh-huh. I don't know that I've ever had chutney. Oh, wow. So thank you for that. No problem. It's good on charcuterie boards. Well, like you said, apparently my charcuterie experiences have been lacking. Yeah. But yeah, so there's a whole apple chutney. Oh, yeah. So apple chutney is my jam. No pun intended or pun intended. All right. Because that's that's the way I view chutney. Yeah. It's just a savory ass jam. Yeah. It's my jam. So so the apple chutney, this is something I also did in the past, except with cranberries. So I chopped up about two apples, white pepper, some clove. I forget. Carraway seed. Yeah, carraway seed. Yeah, that was carraway seed is like my new type of flavor. I mean, carraway seeds is like a good amount of things. Carraway seed, a little bit of salt, sugar, red chili flakes. I give a little bit of spice. Apple brandy, half cup of apple brandy, water and sugar and vinegar. So pretty much cook that till the other liquid reduce. Most of the liquids reduce. Usually you're not supposed to blend up. Well, I haven't seen chutney blended up, especially with apples. But I did because I wanted to be usable in cocktails. And there's a reason for that. I mean, it really just came out looking like applesauce. So take your, uh, your spiced applesauce, your heavily spiced, boozy ass applesauce and get a bar spoon of that. Put that in there. I put that in there because the texture that it gives that drink is just phenomenal. That's something I'm always trying to achieve is like textures and drinks. So another thing is I just, I'm like, I'm a technique freak. Dave Arnold helped me realize that. Just a technique freak. That's what I think makes a great cocktail. I mean, other things involved. Yes. But I think when it comes down to technique is just nailing that right. It's just, it just makes the cocktail better. I'm always trying to perfect my shake and my stir. Those two basic things. I'm constantly going back to basics. Then I'll add the more involved stuff. So, and that was it for the cocktail, right? Yeah. Yes. Because like you said, it was multiple, multi-part things. And I remember kind of getting this and going, okay, all right, we're doing this. Let's make the simple, what, five ingredient cocktail. Sometimes if I get to six, I'll end up pre-batching something. But like my approach to cocktails is just modernist approach, multiple ingredients into one, and then make this one ingredient part of maybe a four or five step cocktail. Yeah. So what it ultimately ended up being was the ounce and a half of rye whiskey. That's one. Three quarters of an ounce of the milk-washed apple jack. Two. Quarter ounce of apple syrup. Three. Half an ounce of cream sherry. Four. And a bar spoon of chutney. Five. I will say, but that process getting there, and this is why I say like I am ultimately impressed with like how complex you made this and distilled it into five ingredients. Yeah. That turned out to be a great cocktail, I will say. Like I was very impressed. Oh, and then. Yeah, the lime. Oh yeah, yeah, the lime juice. Yeah, quarter ounce of lime juice in there. But I will say that it was interesting because you were also like save the apples from making the syrup because you're going to dehydrate those for garnish. And that's what we did. Yep. No waste. All right. Next to that, the AI cocktail seems just daggone pedestrian. They called their cocktail the Johnny's apple seeding cocktail. Boo. That name is basic as shit. You know what? For AI. Let me stop talking shit because it probably whooped my ass. Let me stop. You know what? I don't like Skynet. That's right. I said it. You know what? Sonny was good in iRobot. All right. So for the apple seeding cocktail, it was two ounces of bourbon, one ounce of fresh apple cider, half an ounce of fresh lemon juice, half an ounce of maple syrup, three to four fresh mint leaves, and then an apple slice and mint sprig for garnish. So basically it was prep the glass with a little bit of a lemon wedge around half of it and do a run through a mix of cinnamon and sugar for rimming the glass. Combine the bourbon, apple cider, lemon juice, and maple syrup. Shake well. Slap the mint leaves. Throw them in. Shake additionally. Double strain into the prepped rocks glass. Add an apple slice and a sprig of mint for garnish. Boom. Very straightforward. Yeah. I don't like that. That'd be something I drink. So I don't knock it at all. Yeah. Yep. Now I will say it was impressive in its simplicity. I didn't have to make six different things. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. You almost made me spit this bourbon on your mic. Good thing I turned my head away. Don't do that. No spit takes. I'm drinking some Old Fitch, y'all. It's called Old Fitch Prime 80 proof. So it's not the fancy stuff. But it's fancy to me and it's delicious. I always love bringing bartenders in and walking them past the back bar here where we record. Yeah, that's ridiculous. I thought my home lab looked, I mean, well, my home lab looks messy as hell. But I mean, you also have an entire kitchen you can, you're allowed to take up. I'm, I'm, I'm freaking contained to a small corner, unfortunately. Well, I think we're, I think in last count, we're somewhere around, I think we're creeping over 380 bottles. Oh man, where do you put it all? It's all out there. It's all out there. All right. So let's talk about our scores. Just quick rundown recap for folks who may not be familiar. Our judge is Ariana Nester, owner of Remedy Cocktail Company, my wonderful wife. She has a great palate. I always kind of default to her of why do I like this thing? And she can explain it to me. We have three buckets of points. We have taste, which is worth a maximum of 50 points. We have presentation, which is worth a maximum of 30 points. And originality, which is a maximum of 20 points. So totaling 100. Let's talk about your cocktail. Okay. Okay. For taste, you got 48 out of 50 points. For presentation, you got 28 out of 30 points. For originality, 18 out of 20 points. So you got 94 points total. Uh-huh. Good showing. Oh, thank you. Appreciate it. Now, let's talk about the AI. Oh, unless it's Allen Iverson. I don't want to hear it. Taste, 48 points. Presentation, 28 points. Originality, 16 points. 92 points total for the AI. Shark, you have won. Congratulations. Yeah. Congratulations. Yeah. Call me to terminate. What now, bitch? That's right. Yeah. I'll be some AI. Yeah, I am the answer. Yep, that's right. Allen Iverson, I'm stealing your title. What you going to do? What you going to do? You look like someone's uncle now. I'm talking shit. Let me shut up. I'm sorry. All right. So I always love reading the judge's notes. So let's do the AI first. So the judge said that the AI cocktail was complex yet light on the palate. A great combination of easy to locate ingredients. They loved the way that the mint brightens the cocktail. They would have assumed this cocktail to be presented in stemware after tasting, but the rocks glass leans into the prompt being more rugged of a cocktail appearance than stemware would have provided. For your cocktail, lots of innovative ingredients present in this complex and delicious cocktail, slightly heavier on the palate with the spices lingering longer. So we talked after judging was completed, and we feel like these two cocktails cocktails especially are perfect early and late fall cocktails, respectively. The AI is a lighter cocktail, a little bit of mintiness, doesn't linger quite as long, and your cocktail has this wonderful warmth and a little bit of spice from like the crushed red pepper and things like that. And that little bit of spice from rye whiskey naturally. That definitely is that like late fall right on the cusp of winter, that perfect like warming cocktail. So kudos to you again. Oh, thank you. AI did a good job, but not good enough. Well, I was going to say we were very impressed, although I was a little panicked trying to get everything complete. So I will say, listeners, I learned something new. One of the things I love about doing this podcast is I've been fortunate to have some really amazing professionals on here, and they bring interesting techniques. You know, as I mentioned earlier, it's the first time I've done a milk clarification. If you happen to try your hand at doing a milk clarified cocktail or spirit, one piece of advice I would give you starting out is don't freak out when you filter it the first time if it's not perfectly clear. I actually ended up trashing my first attempt because it looked too milky to me. Subsequently, when I did my second attempt, what I found was that a second filtration with a coffee filter made a huge improvement in the clarity. And so let that be a takeaway for you. All right. It's time for everybody's favorite part of the podcast. It's don't get me started. Now to recap. The idea is that I give you a topic. You have 30 seconds. It's you are required. You're obligated, no less, to completely rail against it, no matter how much you may like it or not. Shark's views are not the views of drinking with robots. They're not the views of his employer. They may not even be the views of Shark himself. Shark. Don't get me started. About Star Wars. Oh, yeah. Do not get me started about Star Wars. You know what? Why? You said I can't. No matter how much I like it. You got to. I got to go against it. You got to. All right. Oh, gosh. So I got to. Man. All right. This is going to hurt. This is going to hurt. I like Lando Calrissian. The sequels were great. I'm talking. Talking about 10. Wait, wait, wait. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine were great. Oh, man. This is going to hurt. Gosh, I don't want to do it. I don't want to do it. I don't. I liked Ray. No, no, wait. No, I actually like Ray. I do like Ray. No. Freaking. Oh, gosh. What's that guy's name? Black dude. Oh, John Boyega. Should have been a Jedi. I'm sorry, Shark. I had to. Gosh. Thank you so much. I got a question. Do people actually like Lando Calrissian? Man, Lando Calrissian was cool. I don't know. He's corny. I think I like Finn better than him. I mean, look, how can you not? What do you not? Wait, what do you not like about Lando Calrissian? I think he's corny. I mean, Billy Williams as a person, he's cool as shit. Lando Calrissian, I don't know. Like, he's like the lamest character I've ever seen in Star Wars. What even is his point? Dude, all I know is this Billy Williams and you can't hate Billy Williams. Yeah, I don't hate Billy Williams. He's fly as hell. But that's what I'm saying. Like, to be fair, when I watch it, I don't see Lando Calrissian. I see Billy Williams and it's just, that's it. Well, maybe it's the cape. I don't know. Well, I mean, it was, you know, come on, it was the 80s, man. And he's using that one little pistol against a whole bunch of stormtroopers. But they can't hit anything. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I give them that, but I don't know. I just, I don't see the appeal. Well, listen, Shark, thank you so much for stopping by. No problem. We appreciate you for being part of this episode. If folks want to keep in touch with you, how can they find you? So my Instagram is feakeasyspeakeasy. That's F-I-Q-E-Z. The letter's E-Z. Then speakeasy. S-P-E-A-K. Again, the letter's E-Z. Speakeasy, speakeasy. Play on my name and my soft-spoken nature. And as always, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Threads. We're drinking with robots everywhere. Thank you so much and drink well and be well. Are you a full-time professional bartender who thinks they have what it takes to defeat our AI competitor? If so, we'd love to talk to you about being on the show. Slide into our DMs on Instagram or email us at bookings at DrinkingWithRobots.com. We'll see you next time.