Intro: The Buffalo Brews Podcast.

Bri: Hey, have you ever wondered about these ready to drink drinks.

Jason: Ready to drink cocktails?

Bri: So we're in the liquor store and we see the commercial and we find a couple of fun ones. Uh, kettle one and on the rocks, right.

Jason: I think people have seen the On the Rocks commercials a lot.

Bri: That was the one that we saw. And then we also saw that kettle one made it. And so my girlfriend's favorite drink is a cosmopolitan. So we actually got two, uh, one of each of the cosmopolitan. And we're going to do a little taste test, right? Yeah. So that's how we're going to start the episode.

Jason: Do you know where the ready to drink alcohol industry began?

Bri: No.

Jason: So when you go into a convenience store or a beer shop. You find entire coolers that are dedicated now to ready to drink cocktails. Kind of like what we experienced with bottles when we were at premier. Uh, hard T's, hard lemonade, canned margaritas, vodka soda. Right. Uh, it's fastest growing segment of the beverage industry currently. And while it seems like it's an overnight success, ready to drink or as we know them as Rtds are, it's a category stretching back more than forty years with a story beginning in the early nineteen eighties, nineteen eighty one, California company introduced a product that would forever change the alcohol industry. Do you know what that is?

Bri: A wine cooler.

Jason: Okay. Which wine cooler?

Bri: Uh, Seagram's before them? Uh, no.

Jason: Bartles and James.

Bri: Oh, nice. Yeah, I do kind of remember them.

Jason: Bartles and James. Instead of asking consumers to mix their own cocktails, they offered a sweet and fruit flavored alcoholic beverage that was ready to enjoy straight from the bottle. And their memorable advertising campaign campaign featured the fictional elderly founders of Frank Bartles and Ed James sitting on the porch singing. And thank you for your support.

Bri: Oh, yeah. I'm I'm too I'm too young to know all of that. But that is super fun. I do remember though, my mom really into wine coolers where my dad would, like put the beers in the cooler to go to the beach. My mom would always have her wine coolers. Yeah. Right. Yeah, yeah.

Jason: So quickly I so growing up, I don't know, I was a goody two shoes or whatever, so I didn't do the whole wine cooler thing. I didn't actually drink alcohol until I was twenty one. That will come up in this story here because of, of how things phased out and then phased back in. So, uh, while wine coolers became a cultural phenomenon, the peak in the mid nineteen eighties, Americans were consuming hundreds of gallons of wine coolers per year. And the drink appeal to young adults and the casual drinker who wanted something light, sweet, and less intimidating than beer, wine or spirit. So the first RTD boom didn't last that long because by nineteen ninety one, the US government increased the federal excise tax on wine overnight. Producing wine coolers became much more expensive. So rather than absorb those higher costs, many companies reformulated their products and replaced the wine base for malt alcohol, and those became malt flavored beverages or Zima. Right. And then while.

Bri: The.

Jason: Recipe changed, uh, consumers barely noticed because they, they tasted fruity and refreshing, but now they were technically closer to a beer than a wine. From a regulatory standpoint. So by the mid nineteen nineties, flavored malt liquors continued to evolve. Products like Zima. Introduced by Coors in nineteen ninety three. The first drink I ever had Alcoholically.

Bri: I mean, I.

Jason: Don't.

Bri: At me drank those in high school illegally, right?

Jason: Attempted to create an entirely new experience and then clearly like carbonated and marketed as something different from both beer and wine, Zima developed a loyal following, even though it became a target of many a joke as it was for me.

Bri: Listen, as a kid, you love it.

Jason: Um, real turning point comes in nineteen ninety nine when the launch of the Smirnoff Ice.

Bri: Oh, I remember when everybody got excited about those. Yeah.

Jason: So despite carrying one of the world's most recognizable vodka names, Smirnoff Ice actually contained zero vodka. And it was another flavored malt beverage that was designed to fit within the beer distribution laws while leveraging the popularity of a trusted spirits brand. The strategy was brilliant because Smirnoff Ice exploded in popularity and helped launch an entirely new generation of packaged alcoholic beverages. Early two thousand saw the explosion of the innovation Mike's Hard Lemonade as we know, Sky blue, Bacardi Silver, countless others that competed for shelf space. Bright colors. Bold flavors. Remember bright colors and labels was everything then. Yeah, I was like, that's what I thought was very appealing, was labels was what appealed to what people wanted to have in their hand.

Bri: Right. Like, think about Mike's Hard lemonade. When it first came out, it looked so edgy. You're like, what is that? It's just spiked lemonade. Yeah.

Jason: So then something unexpectedly happened. By the early twenty tens, everything started to cool off. Many consumers shifted toward craft beer, premium spirits and craft cocktails. That's when the twenty eleven craft beer boom started.

Bri: Mhm.

Jason: Which was actually the second or even the third coming of craft beer at that point. Um, Craig and I have talked on barely getting started about how it kind of cycles, like every twelve to fifteen years. It seems to be like, it's like we're in a cooling off phase. So like, he's like, give it another twelve years, it'll probably come back on hot again. Um, so, uh, then you got White Claw, you got truly, which is the now.

Bri: Mhm.

Jason: And arrived, um, nationally a few years later transformed the RTD market once again. And then, unlike earlier malt beverages, hard seltzer now emphasizes lower calorie, lower carbs lite flavor cleaner image.

Bri: Mhm.

Jason: Which is something we've talked about. And then their timing couldn't be better because health conscious consumers, especially millennials, Gen Z embracing the category. And by twenty nineteen, they became the fastest growing beverage segment in history.

Bri: Yeah. I mean, you just want to keep that bikini body going all summer. Why not bring those to the pool, right? Right. You could drink like three or four of them, and you have as many calories and carbs as one beer.

Jason: So again, going back, if you've seen the commercials on TV, on the rocks, there's the group of people I, the one I see all the time is the people by the pool.

Bri: Yeah.

Jason: And they're drinking whatever. And then she's just breaking out her on the rocks and pours it.

Bri: Instead of like, mixing up this whole cocktail. Right? You have it already made.

Jason: Yeah. So your keen eye saw. Okay. Yeah.

Bri: So the first difference I saw was that the on the rocks is a lighter pink than the kettle one where that looks more of what a. I would say like a traditional cosmopolitan would look like, because the cranberry gives it like that deeper pink hue.

Jason: So the deep, this deeper pink and the kettle one.

Bri: Is more a traditional looking. Okay from just eye sight of um, of what a cosmo. Now I want to smell each one before we sip this.

Jason: Yes.

Bri: And the smell kettle.

Jason: One kettle, one edge goes to kettle one again.

Bri: Yes. So for the kettle, one on the smell, you're picking up that cranberry lime smell. Right. Like you're really you get the effervescence of.

Jason: You get all the aromas.

Bri: Yeah. Where the on the rocks smells just sweet.

Jason: Okay, so I'm gonna do the same thing here.

Bri: Yeah. Tell me what you think. That's the kettle.

Jason: one. Vodka. cranberry, a little bit of lime. Yep.

Bri: And then what do you think of the on the rocks?

Jason: Oh, yeah. I can get I get some of the cranberry, but yes, it's definitely smells sweeter. It smells sugary.

Bri: Yeah yeah.

Jason: Yeah.

Bri: Which is interesting because it's very pale in color too, which would make you think of a sweeter drink.

Jason: Right. And they're not. Well, I doubt that they have like nutritional facts on them, but um.

Bri: Um I know as we just do.

Jason: Almost wiped out.

Bri: So also to note the on the rocks is made by Effen vodka where the kettle one is obviously Ketel one vodka. So, um, let's see if it tells you. Okay, so this one does say that it's one hundred and twenty calories, ten carbs.

Jason: Oh, okay. Oh, see, I wouldn't have without glasses.

Bri: And then the kettle one says, Oh ninety five calories and six carbs.

Jason: Okay.

Bri: Okay.

Jason: All right. Then definitely a noticeable difference.

Bri: I think that once we taste it, we'll see. But with the carbs, I think that this one probably has more sugar.

Jason: Okay.

Bri: All right. So let's give it a taste. All right. Let's go for on the rocks first.

Jason: On the rocks.

Bri: first. Yeah.

Jason: Well, cheers.

Bri: All right. Wait. Do I have mine back? Oh, no. This is because this one's spilled. Silly. Silly, silly.

Jason: Well, cheers. Small table, you know.

Bri: Okay. It tastes like a light cosmopolitan.

Jason: I don't hate this.

Bri: I don't hate it, either.

Jason: I don't hate.

Bri: It, but it definitely for someone who regularly drinks a cosmopolitan. Okay, this definitely tastes like a light one. So almost as if you're making it with almost as if you're making it with like a diet cranberry or like less triple seq.

Jason: Okay. That's fair.

Bri: I'm just going to take a second sip. I really want to. Yeah. All right.

Jason: We owe it to science.

Bri: Right? We're doing the research for you. I mean, you can obviously taste it yourself and see which one you like better.

Jason: But we've had these we've had these like in-depth conversations recently about, you know, all these different things that are available.

Bri: And we've been having a lot of fun. We, um, what's the place that's over by the arena that we stopped in.

Jason: Literally just pulled up Southern Tier brewing.

Bri: Southern tier. So we had the transfusion that was in a can. It was, it was fantastic. Like I would definitely go buy them and drink them, you know what I mean? Um, are they the same ones who made the, uh, Manhattan or whatever it was the old fashioned in a can.

Jason: They did the, they did the bourbon smash.

Bri: Bourbon smash.

Jason: I'm looking at the strawberry basil fizz.

Bri: We haven't tried that, but I know we did. The one that was like a whiskey one.

Jason: Yeah. So that would be the bourbon smash.

Bri: Yeah, yeah. And that one was very good.

Jason: Let's see what else they have here. Uh, blood orange pineapple smash. Blueberry pomegranate smash. Raspberry lemonade. Smash cran. Orange twist.

Bri: Oh, I had the cran orange twist.

Jason: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Bri: You did? Yeah, I really liked that one. It was good. Mhm. That one actually reminded me of cosmopolitan a little bit, because then you're taking the cranberry and lime. Um, it just kind of omitted that sort of, I don't know, I don't want to call it like a punch of the vodka, but kind of that like that heavier vodka and triple sec flavor. So it was more like the cranberry lime with like, you knew you were having a little alcoholic beverage, but it wasn't like a mixed drink.

Jason: Yeah.

Bri: Yeah.

Jason: Uh, what else they got on here?

Bri: They have a new one I saw, too. That was like a citrus something that I wanted to try to get Ahold of. I feel like I saw it on Instagram.

Jason: Yeah. They don't they're only showing the strawberry basil fizz that.

Bri: Somebody else who was.

Jason: Making the smash pack, as they call it. Yeah. Smash or pass smash. So, uh, but yeah, I don't see the bourbon smash. I don't see the vodka soda one.

Bri: And it could be that, you know.

Jason: Maybe it's a rotating thing for them.

Bri: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. I mean, everybody changes everything all the time. And they, you know, things are done like seasonally and stuff like that.

Jason: Sure. Uh, but a lot of companies are getting in on the.

Bri: Oh yeah. Southern tier vodka, citrus. So yeah. All right.

Jason: All right. Well this is this is decent. Yeah. I mean, I'm not gonna poo poo on it.

Bri: All right. Now let's try the kettle one, which is obviously a, uh, higher end vodka. All right.

Jason: Okay.

Bri: I don't think either of them are tasting like a traditional cosmopolitan.

Jason: Agreed.

Bri: And it's interesting because the way this one smelled, I thought it would taste more like a cosmopolitan. But I gotta give. I gotta give my vote to on the rocks on taste.

Jason: Yeah yeah.

Bri: Yeah. I think this one is, I don't know. It almost has like a little bit of a too much cranberry, which is probably how you can smell it on the nose.

Jason: That's fair.

Bri: Which is giving it kind of like that a little bit more bitter taste to it.

Jason: Okay.

Bri: Yeah, definitely. Okay. That's interesting. That's interesting that the higher end vodka being kettle one was not my choice. Right. Yeah. What do you think?

Jason: Well, taste wise, I, I would give the edge to on the rocks. Yeah. But I mean color again. Colors, smell.

Bri: I gave it to kettle one. Yeah. Color and smell. I would have picked that one over the other one. But honestly, once you tasted it. Yeah yeah.

Jason: Yeah. Uh, kettle one. Uh, some of the other ones, they make espresso martini. Lemon drop martini. They also make some of the spritz, uh, vodka spritz. Let's see. They have cucumber, mint, grapefruit, and rosé, peach orange blossom. So there's there's that. And then what was this on the rocks, right?

Bri: Yes. And I did see a bunch of them when we were in the liquor store on the rocks. So I do feel like they make several also. Yeah. I remember seeing a spicy margarita I almost grabbed because, you know.

Jason: Because I have to verify.

Bri: I love my spicy.

Jason: If I'm of age to be on this website. Trust me, I am. Uh, let's see, we have, um, on the rocks. Passion fruit. Margarita. a jalapeno pineapple.

Bri: Yeah, yeah, I knew there was a spicy one.

Jason: Old fashioned espresso martini. Uh, strawberry daiquiri. Oh, yeah. Jalapeno pineapple margarita, lemon drop, martini and aviation, which is probably a gin based one.

Bri: Mhm. Yeah. I mean, I would definitely try another one of these on the rocks, I won't lie.

Jason: Uh, it's called ariose, which is a lighter tasting juniper citrus gin.

Bri: Oh, interesting.

Jason: So. Okay.

Bri: All right.

Jason: Okay.

Bri: Well, there you have it. We did the research for you guys. Um, what do you what do you think this retailed at, like thirteen point nine nine. Were they both thirteen point nine nine?

Jason: I think with the sales I think they were even.

Bri: But I think on the rocks was a regular price of thirteen point nine nine, which we. Okay. So to tell you how much you're getting for that like cost, we made two martinis and we only used half of the bottle. So this easily can make four full drinks.

Jason: And this is the smaller one. So yeah. Uh three hundred and seventy five milliliters. So it's a three hundred seventy five which is, you know, half of a half of a traditional bottle of wine or whatever the wine bottle.

Bri: But it made for it easily made for martinis.

Jason: Well, we'll drink these at the rest of the episode. Hey, can you bring up your calendar? Yeah, because everything post, uh, let's look at everything post summer barbecue and we can fill up the rest of this here. Oh, well. Thank you.

Bri: I thought I was.

Jason: Gonna say that was in June, right? Yeah. There it is. Right there. Look at that.

Bri: I thought I was gonna.

Jason: I love that we sync our calendars together so we can do that stuff. Uh, let's see. We we, we're at Magic bear for the podcast, uh, the podcast meetup. We'll see as we had some great conversations with Molly and talk about the cruise. We're going to leave it at that.

Bri: I know, I hope she had so much fun. It sounded like it was going to be awesome.

Jason: Yep. Um, let's see here. Cookouts we had cookouts with Father's Day was, uh, what did we do? We hiked on Father's Day, right? We did. Franklin.

Bri: Kieran came home.

Jason: Yeah.

Bri: We picked up Kieran from the airport. He came for a week long visit, and we did. Sunday we went hiking. We took him to see the Eternal Flame for the first time. He had never seen it before.

Jason: Yep.

Bri: And we went the long hike down and we passed like four people total, like two sets of two hikers. And maybe that got one guy. And, um, and then Kieran was like, oh, this isn't bad. And then we get down to where you walk in the like creek area bed or whatever you call that to get up to the flame. And he was like, wow, this is really busy now. And I said, well, it's an attraction. So we got there, took our picture.

Jason: one of only six natural gas.

Bri: Yeah. I couldn't believe you said that.

Jason: Yeah, I think it is. And the only one behind a waterfall.

Bri: Oh. That's cool. Yeah. Well, so then I said to the kids when we got back up, because Josh was with us too. I said, do you guys want to go up the stairs that they had created? And they looked at all the people and they said, we'll take the long way home.

Jason: There's a that was a lot of people now.

Bri: And I did not trust when Josh was like, mom, it's going to be so busy on Father's Day. And I thought to myself, okay, what do guys do on Father's Day? They go play golf, they go do like whatever, right? They get out of the house to be able to go do their dad thing, and then they come home and like, kids have presents. Maybe the wife makes a dinner, maybe you take.

Jason: Your dad out.

Bri: To dinner, right? Like maybe you take your dad out to dinner. Maybe he cooks a barbecue even though it's Father's Day because he likes to barbecue. And he already went out and golfed in the morning. I don't know, I'm just thinking of, like, traditional dad stuff. Like, my dad was never a golfer, but like, he normally would make his own breakfast, right? Father's day, family.

Jason: Day for me. it's.

Bri: And then we would go fishing, right? Or we would do something. Right. And if we didn't do breakfast, he would always have donuts. And then knowing like, if we're going to have a cool cookout. But he was like doing the thing even though it was his is his day, right? Right. So I was thinking like, there's no way there's going to be all these people hiking on Father's Day.

Jason: Jeez, Louise.

Bri: I was wrong, and Josh was right.

Jason: For for you travelers.

Bri: So busy.

Jason: Orchard Park. Orchard Park, new York is the location. And it's the same town that the Buffalo Bills Stadium is in. But it's the. It's chestnut Ridge Park is where you're going to find it. It has its own unique parking spot.

Bri: Yeah. For people.

Jason: Of.

Bri: Parking. Yeah. So you can just park and you can just do that hike and that's it. And now they've built stairs.

Jason: In and out. I would say about a mile and a half.

Bri: Yeah. And listen, people who don't know okay, I get it there. Stairs. You do not do this in flip flops. You do not do this in Crocs because even though they built the steps, you still have to walk the creek bed and go on slippery rocks over trees. You. There's no easy path to get to this thing, and you.

Jason: You have to walk a certain way too, especially when you're in the creek because you're going along the creek bed, right? And when you're on wet rocks that are. They get covered with, you know, algae and moss and slime, you have to be wary of where each of your feet are placed.

Bri: Right?

Jason: And once you get there, I mean, it's an amazing experience, but you have to be careful. You can't be like, I'm walking on a trail because the next thing you know, you're going to be face planting in shale rock, right, with a broken ankle, right? And the only way is to extract you.

Bri: Yeah. And I know.

Jason: Nobody.

Bri: Wants. And I couldn't believe the amount of people who were walking down there, like just not prepared to be doing that hike.

Jason: Yeah.

Bri: And that's scary because I don't want little kids to be getting hurt or old adults who were not prepared for this either.

Jason: And you get a lot of out-of-towners. And then here's what happens is. So a lot of out-of-towners want to do all the things. And the things include going behind, uh, doing the, um, maid of the mist up in Niagara Falls. And then they'll do the.

Bri: Cave of the winds.

Jason: Cave of the winds. Now, when you do cave of the winds, you don't wear your shoes. They give you special shoes. So you put your shoes in a locker. You wear the special shoes.

Bri: Okay.

Jason: So then they don't want to get their feet wet because they know it's a creek walk. So then they're going to wear the special shoes. Um, the special shoes have no traction.

Bri: Oh my gosh.

Jason: So then they're trying to walk the creek. But once you're down there you've gone too far. You've got to finish it. Right. Don't walk. Walk the creek. It's it's, it's never a situation where you're walking in super deep water. And the only way that could possibly happen is if we just had an incredible rainfall.

Bri: Yes.

Jason: Which it's Western New York and it's summertime and it don't rain that much, right?

Bri: I feel like, Josh, what was it two years ago or something? He did it and they went and they waited. It was in their knees and they.

Jason: Because they did it post rainstorm.

Bri: Yeah. But they were excited to do it. They were prepared. They had all the proper stuff.

Jason: Get your shoes wet.

Bri: They had all the proper stuff on to do it. Right. You know, and um, you know, that's the thing is so we had, yes, we had a great hike and then we stopped at first line and had a beer and um, Kieran doesn't drink beer, which the cool thing about that is if you're military, a lot of people buy beers for you.

Jason: If you're red line, blue line military.

Bri: And it was funny because I think somebody overheard us having a conversation because when the bill came, his Shirley Temple was not on the bill.

Jason: Nope.

Bri: Nope. But, um, so he, he obviously had a Shirley Temple, but, um, then we had to drop off Josh because he was going to a picnic And, um, yeah, we just had a really good day. I feel like it was a good Father's Day for you. Yeah.

Jason: Yeah. It was. Yeah, it was a fun day. I dropped off.

Bri: Kieran.

Jason: Shane. Oh, Shane and Mike. That's I'm trying to I couldn't I remember Shane's name all the time. I can never remember his business partner, Mike. Uh, so Shane and Mike. Yeah. They've been long time. I think they, I think they have a line of like police officers and firefighters in their family. You go look up above. There's patches everywhere.

Bri: Yeah. I mean, Kieran loved the place because there's just so much to see. That's like military police firefighter, you know, whatever he was picking out different patches being like, oh my God, check out that one. And he's such like a patch kid. Like he loves the patches and the coins. So it was cool to see.

Jason: It's a cool place because if you, if you know the history of the place, it used to be a dry cleaner and it was so you know where the, the beams are.

Bri: Mhm.

Jason: That's all the bigger ever was.

Bri: Oh that's.

Jason: Funny. And then they renovated the other part because the other part was the brew space. So now the brew tanks, you know, are no longer where they were.

Bri: Mhm.

Jason: Um, they're now in the back area because they've renovated the back area. So now that's going to become all new seating in there. Nice and expand because they're just getting bigger by by the day.

Bri: Yeah.

Jason: Food is good. The cocktails are good. The beer is good.

Bri: The beer is awesome. Yeah.

Jason: They also.

Bri: Like.

Jason: Smoke in there too.

Bri: The that's where we had the chicken that we fell in love with that we learned about.

Jason: Oh, shoot.

Bri: Yeah. You do like the hot sauce mixed with, like the garlic parm.

Jason: Yeah.

Bri: And they call it like a particular kind of chicken. Oh my gosh, it's so good. They do it on like chicken wings. But we we replicated it and did it on chicken breast. And it was just as good. And I'm sure you could like dip chicken fingers in it if you wanted to or chicken nuggets or whatever. But yeah, it was really, really good. And, um.

Jason: I thought it would bring up the name right away, but it didn't. Oh, but yeah, that's.

Bri: What it is. It's, you're just mixing like hot sauce.

Jason: Sophie Murphy. Source.

Bri: Oh, is that what it is?

Jason: Murphy. Source. That's what it's.

Bri: Called. Yeah. So it's just like hot sauce with garlic parm from Frank's.

Jason: Frank's hot mixed with garlic parm.

Bri: It's so good. So good. And I think Buffalo wild Wings makes garlic parm. You can get it a generic at Aldi this garlic parm. And I think theirs is better. It's a little it's a little thicker I think. And that's what makes it like cling better. So but yeah. And then, uh.

Jason: So what do we have? We have that week we had, uh, we stopped at chef's. Um, that's always a traditional stop.

Bri: Yep. We made sure to go to chef's. Let's see what. Oh, I don't even know. I feel like the week went by so fast. As usual.

Jason: I stopped at Nickel City comic Con, had a conversation with Sean Astin who?

Bri: Oh, yeah, that was from.

Jason: From Lord of the rings. Um, yeah, I'm trying to think of some of the other movies. He was so, so I, I know him from different things. Obviously he was, um, he was in Lord of the rings as, uh, Sam. Uh, so.

Bri: I just knew him from Stranger Things.

Jason: Yeah. Bob from Stranger Things.

Bri: So, like, if I was at Comic-Con, that's the only thing I would go up to him to say. So I.

Jason: So I wait in line for Sean Astin, and I go up and I said, look. And he shakes my hand real nice. Real nice guy. So we're having a conversation. He's. I love celebrities who will spend time with fans more than just the whole whatever.

Bri: Yeah.

Jason: Hot dog and a handshake, I call it.

Bri: Yeah.

Jason: Um, so he's, he's like, you know, I ask if I'm having a good time today. I say, yeah. I said, literally, I just came here to get in line, you know, for you. I said, look, I said, not for nothing at this point. I said, but we needed more Bob from Stranger Things Serious. So here's your Stranger Things story, straight from the mouth of Sean Astin. Okay, so we know him as as Bob, who is the heroic character who Basically sacrificed himself for the kids. Um, he was Winona Ryder, um, Joyce's boyfriend for a hot minute in season two. I want to say it was maybe it was three. I think it was two, though. So I think three is when they did the reset with the high school. Um, spoiler alert if you haven't watched Stranger Things at this point, here's the right.

Bri: But here's the deal is we binged it. So all the seasons kind of run into each other because we just kept watching.

Jason: So he said, hey, what you got of Bob was all you were going to get. And he said that he was only supposed to last two episodes and they were going to kill him off in the second episode, he said, but, um, one of the things we don't know is that when they do, when they did, um, the focus groups for Stranger Things that they would show them to the focus groups minus the CGI, so they would just see the raw footage of it. And they liked his character so much, they all said they want to see more. Bob. Yeah. So they let him survive like another three or four. I think there was another three episodes. It was episode. I am.

Bri: So happy. And I, you know, like anybody who watched it can correct me, but I mean, I feel like it may have even been the end of one season going into the next season because we were like, are still here. And then when he died, we were like, oh no, but but yeah.

Jason: But we needed.

Bri: Like, not Bob. No. Like, and you think that he's not gonna die in the moment that he dies because like, nothing's happening. And you're like, oh my God, he's gonna be the hero. He's gonna be the hero. And he was kind of was the hero. But you wanted him to like, save everybody and have them be, like, hugging when they come out, you know what I mean? Yeah, but he did save everybody. He did. And if it wasn't for him, they would all be dead.

Jason: They could have lost.

Bri: So.

Jason: They could have lost Joyce. You could have lost. Um.

Bri: And the boys.

Jason: Yeah. And the boys. Yeah. I think seven I don't know. I think eleven wasn't there at the time. No, I don't think she was in that scene. Uh, but yeah, they would have lost it as well. So he signed my, um, circa two thousand and I think it's two thousand and three box set of the Lord of the rings.

Bri: I would have been there with something Stranger things for sure.

Jason: Like if I own nothing strange.

Bri: But if I was going with you.

Jason: Like, actually I do now.

Bri: If I was not, if I was able to go with you and I knew you were going there for him, I.

Jason: Forgot I had that Stranger Things jacket I should have had. Oh, yeah.

Bri: You could have had that sign.

Jason: I had that.

Bri: Yep. So that's all right. Next time.

Jason: Next time.

Bri: Yeah.

Jason: Um, but yeah, and then secondary to that I met, uh, so I'm, I'm, as people know, I'm a big professional wrestling fan. We talked at length about the, the, uh, interaction with Trish Stratus last year.

Bri: We're best friends now.

Jason: She stole my phone. Um, so she gave it back. Um, after I asked nicely and grovelled in front of her, but, uh, yes, but I did get an opportunity to meet Mickie James, who is a, I want to say a seven or eight time world champion. Another, another sweetheart, big country music fan. Um, she has quite a few songs out there right now. She is, uh, very embedded into her native Native American heritage. Um, she's actually spends time in Niagara Falls, like working with the kids in schools and she'll, and she was the emcee for the Native American Music Awards here a few years back up at the Seneca Niagara Casino. So yeah, it was just fun to talk to her, you know, just to talk about little bits of things. I ask her about her country music influences. I don't, you know, a thousand people have asked her a day about, hey, it was cool when you your angle with Trish Stratus. Great. Okay, that was thirty years ago. But you know, but I wanted to ask her about music and she talked about how her parents were big southern rock people. Zee, Zee top and Lynyrd Skynyrd and stuff like that. So she's like. But my grandfather was a was very old school. Very what did I say? It was, um, some, some old school country music influences. I forget.

Bri: Um.

Jason: I forget anyway, but like Conway Twitty in them back in that day, Loretta Lynn, stuff like that. But yeah, so that was a, that was a fun time. What else you got on your calendar? There is your bouncing between things. I'm gonna take another sip here. We got a couple of minutes left.

Bri: Um, let's see. Waterfall. Oh, I met your family on fourth of July. I went.

Jason: How's that for you? No, it's no, it went really well.

Bri: You're so funny. So, I mean, it was exciting to go out there because I didn't realize how beautiful that area is until we, like, started to drive out there. And it was a gorgeous literally.

Jason: Took you in the back way too.

Bri: And it was a gorgeous day and the lake was just glistening and there were so many people walking around. And then I was like, oh my God, is that Ellicottville? And then you were like, we're early. We can turn around and stop for a beer. And I was like, yeah.

Jason: Geographically, we weren't in Ellicottville, we were in Bemus Point, but there's.

Bri: There's in Ellicottville. Oh yeah. I probably.

Jason: Ellicottville, what they call.

Bri: It. Yeah. So the lake was beautiful. So anyways, we turned around to be able to have a beer because we were early and we walk in and they had just shelved your like one of your beers that you've been talking about forever.

Jason: So pressure drop one of the original six in Buffalo went out of business a few years ago, but the intellectual property was bought by Ellicottville. So with that, they got the recipes and they had been brewing like seventy seven. They did Sticky Trees, which is their famous IPA.

Bri: Mhm.

Jason: But all of a sudden, or excuse me, as I burped from drinking the ready to drink cocktails and, uh, I looked to the side and what do I see over here? is dank Sinatra.

Bri: And he's been talking about this for years.

Jason: Guys. You'll never like. I was sad that you were never going to experience dank Sinatra.

Bri: That's what he said. He was like, oh my gosh, I'm so sad. You're never going to be able to try this. Because it was it would be just the kind of beer that you would like, that piney ness that like rotten fruit that I always talk about. Like those are like my favorite things. And lo and behold, I had this beer and it was.

Jason: And it had.

Bri: So good.

Jason: Just came out that day.

Bri: Yeah. So we, we picked up a four pack. We had a couple of beers out, uh, on their little like side patio. And it was a beautiful day. And then we.

Jason: Yeah. Is that your first time in Bemis ever?

Bri: I mean, we stopped in that one time, like I told you when we picked up clothes, but it was winter.

Jason: But that was I mean, we didn't even come into town.

Bri: Yeah. No, that's what I'm saying. Like, we drove in, we picked up those clothes. It was winter. And then we went on to our winter hike. Right? Like, I don't know, I feel like the only time I've experienced that lake is when we've gone to Barney's Ice Cream, which he also brought me to ice cream.

Jason: He took you to Barney's.

Bri: He said, do you want to go to my family for Fourth of July? I said, does it include Barney's ice cream? And he said, it can. And I go, then I'm in. Yeah, yeah.

Jason: Um, yeah. Barney's ice cream. If you're a fan, you know, Western New York. I mean, think about the ice cream places you love. You love sweet Jenny's. You love Rosie's, you love, you know, uh, Main Street ice cream who we've interviewed on the podcast before.

Bri: Oh, we just went to a big, big papa's.

Jason: Big Papa's.

Bri: In Lancaster. That was really good. Yeah. But I'm telling you.

Jason: Very large vegan and dairy free selection if you're into that game.

Bri: So that's my thing is I have to be able to have something that's dairy free. Yeah. And so if the ice cream place doesn't have it, or you're just like serving the same cookies and cream or vanilla, I'm over it. But anyways, so when you go out to Barney's, this ice cream, I do not know what kind of magic they put into their dairy free ice cream, but this stuff, besides Spotted Duck is probably the best dairy free ice cream.

Jason: We're going to be talking about spotted. So I.

Bri: Feel.

Jason: Like.

Bri: I feel like if we're going to be rating some ice cream for me of dairy free, it's going to go Spotted Duck. It's going to go Barney's and it's going to go Rosie.

Jason: Oh. Oh yeah. Well you're gonna have to listen to the, uh, you know. Yeah, our summer barbecue.

Bri: And I think it's just because, like, that was the freshest tasting ice cream I've ever had in my entire life.

Jason: Yeah, aesthetics in the presentation was incredible.

Bri: Yeah. But for me, whatever Barney's does to do their dairy free, like, I don't know if they're mixing milks. Like if they do an oat milk mixed with an almond milk mixed with a. I have no idea what magic they're doing.

Jason: It's time to have a conversation.

Bri: But like, it's so good and it doesn't it, it tastes like I'm eating ice cream. And for somebody who used to be able to have dairy and had dairy her whole life until a certain point in my life. You know what it tastes like to have real thing, you know? So then to try to like, eat something that you love, you want it to taste like what you loved, right? You know, you don't want to be like, oh, I, I totally know this is dairy free. Like you can, you can taste that this is, you know, made without dairy. So I don't know, there is creamy and perfect and they have like awesome flavors. Like they did this chocolate chunk that I had. And it just, it tasted like I'm just eating chocolate chunk ice cream. So it was incredible. And I was so happy I started. That's how we began our fourth of July. And I was so happy.

Speaker 4 I was so happy.

Bri: Then we had beer and, you know, I mean.

Jason: We brought some sit Mo two fifty from resurgence.

Speaker 4 Yeah.

Bri: Which is always like a good beer to have. So I brought that chilled out, met your family.

Speaker 4 Got some good food.

Jason: Aunt Barb now context because I come from very old school family. My father passed away at seventy. I want to say my mother passed away at seventy, unfortunately. So we lost them within ten months of each other. But my mother was the second youngest out of ten kids. Second youngest or youngest? Possibly. My father was the second oldest, second oldest out of nine, I want to say.

Speaker 4 Oh my gosh.

Bri: No wonder you have so much family.

Jason: Yeah, but I mean, mixed with a lot of history. Like some like one of my aunts brothers passed away in infancy. One passed away at a young age because he was chasing women and drown in Chautauqua Lake.

Speaker 4 Wow.

Jason: Listen, I'm being vulnerable here, okay?

Speaker 4 But you got to.

Jason: Meet my Aunt Barbara and my Uncle Dana. So on my dad's side, I think the only surviving members of my dad's side are my aunt Carol, Barb, Donna, and Verna. I think they're the only four of the seven that are surviving right now.

Bri: That's still a lot, though. Yeah, my family's so tiny.

Jason: Carol's in Georgia. Donna's in Florida, but she's hasn't been well in years. My aunt Verna actually lives, like, ten minutes from here or twenty minutes from here on Grand Island. It's like twenty minutes. Right? Um, and then my aunt Barb, who lives in Bemis.

Speaker 4 Mhm.

Bri: Well, her house is beautiful. The view is gorgeous. She was so incredibly nice. I loved that.

Speaker 4 You thought.

Jason: You were very sweet.

Bri: I love that your uncle strategically placed a bottle of Crown Royal right in my spot when I had gotten up to walk.

Jason: I don't care what he says. That was deliberate.

Bri: It was facing my seat.

Jason: It was a.

Bri: Test right in front of me, like I had walked away. I come back, here's a bottle. Model there and then his brother. That's his brother right there. Came over and he was like, oh, do you drink this? Of course I do. Do you need a mixer? No, no. I'll take some ice though. Oh good choice. I also drink it with ice. Uh huh. Suddenly I'm in.

Jason: Yep.

Bri: Now I'm in.

Jason: Yeah. You were a hit. You were definitely a hit.

Bri: Yeah. So I feel like that was super fun. Um, it was a gorgeous. A little a little hotter than I would like it to be. It was, um.

Jason: A little.

Bri: Spicy weekend.

Jason: Spicy.

Bri: Yeah. But, uh, yeah, otherwise it was gorgeous. We didn't stay to watch fireworks. We ended up driving home, which was fine because we had a fireworks display everywhere.

Jason: Driving coming up, the ninety everywhere. We were looking up.

Bri: Holy.

Jason: Irving. Um, West Seneca.

Bri: Everybody's fireworks were going off. So it's not like we missed fireworks, but I just, I, I wanted to be home before midnight, so I said, let's head out because it was like an hour and twenty minutes. Yeah, about.

Jason: twenty to get out of there.

Bri: To to drive home. So I just was like, I don't want to, I don't want to be home tomorrow.

Jason: Right?

Bri: You know, like, yeah.

Jason: You got to get out of there straight, straight ish shy. You got to drive the back roads up the up to Dunkirk and then shoot up the ninety from there.

Bri: Yeah. And you know, we always have stuff to do. So it's like, you can't just spend all night, you know, partying like rock stars. Plus we're old. Plus we are old.

Jason: Old like to sleep in my own bed.

Bri: Um, yeah. So to wrap up this craziness was the smoke we had coming down from the wildfires, cancelled my run that I was supposed to be doing on Saturday. We'll see when that gets postponed. I was going to do my first ever run through vineyards, so I was kind of looking forward to how cool that might be, and I was pretty bummed that they postponed it. I really, really hope that the day they pick is going to be a day that I am available.

Jason: Yeah. But yeah.

Bri: Yeah. Now all the smoke is gone and we had a good day.

Jason: Let's say it's shifted. Yeah. For the time being, because I.

Bri: Yeah.

Jason: Definitely here because we.

Bri: Had a.

Jason: Podcast.

Bri: Yesterday.

Jason: We love our neighbors to the north. And uh, regardless of what's going on in our ridiculous government, they, uh, you know, our thoughts are with everybody in, in western Ontario because.

Bri: All the people who have lost their homes and cities, townships, like all these little towns are just gone.

Jason: Entire towns that are gone.

Bri: Yeah. It's crazy. It's crazy what fire can do, you know, like how destructive fire and water is. All these floods.

Jason: Fire and water undefeated.

Bri: Yeah. You see all these floods happening everywhere and these fires and everybody's complaining about, oh my God, the smoke is ruining my life, blah, blah, blah. And I'm thinking people's houses are being destroyed.

Jason: Small and convenient.

Bri: Right. And towns are being destroyed. I mean, was I bummed that my run got postponed? Of course. But I think about all the all the things that are far worse than our poor air quality right now. Yeah.

Jason: Worst case scenario, your asthmatic, you stay indoors and.

Bri: Yeah, Josh carried his inhaler everywhere he went. Yeah, he left for work. Inhaler was in his pocket, you know.

Jason: So yeah, we'll get through that. But okay. Yeah. From our from our TDs to Canadian wildfires in fourth of July, fireworks.

Bri: And everything else we're up to.

Jason: There you go.