War Time Leaders and Their Drinks of Choice Part 2

Four wartime icons walk into a bar... Andy, Big Z, and Rob join Matt and we take history way too seriously to keep it simple. We’re back with a Wartime Leaders Booze Battle where each of us brings a leader, their signature drink, and a case for why that person matters long after the last battle ends. Expect real tasting notes, real history, and the kind of arguing that only friends can get away with.

We start with Ulysses S. Grant and a high-proof Kentucky bourbon, tasting it straight and then with a few drops of water to see what actually changes in the nose and the finish. From there we hit Grant’s Civil War reputation, the complicated reality of his life after office, and the Mark Twain connection that turns his final years into something both brutal and inspiring.

Then Big Z swings in with Harry S. Truman and a dangerously drinkable old fashioned, using it to trace the end of World War II and the decisions that shape everything that follows: Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Truman Doctrine, the formation of the United Nations and NATO, and the early blueprint of the Cold War. We also get a deep appreciation for “breakfast cocktails” that may just belong in the past.

Andy takes us medieval with Joan of Arc and a French Bordeaux that changes minds about red wine, price tags, and why drier Old World bottles can feel smoother and more food-friendly. 

Matt closes with Tokugawa Ieyasu and a sake cocktail called The Patient Slice, built with sake, yuzu, and honey syrup, and it might be the best drink he's ever brought to the show.

Hit play, pick your winner, then subscribe, share the episode with a friend, and leave a review so more history and cocktail nerds can find us!

The Patient Slice

• 3 oz chilled Junmai Ginjo sake
• ¾ oz yuzu juice
• ¾ oz honey syrup (1:1 honey + warm water)

Floating slice of lemon  

Transcript

Liftoff And The Rules

Matt 1:01

Ten nine eight seven six five four three two one we have liftoff welcome to Matt and Friends Drink the Universe All right everyone welcome back to Matt and Friends Drink the Universe. We are going back to our roots season one. Season one. This is a wartime leaders booze battle. Round two. Round two. Fight. Welcome back, losers. Hello.

Rob 1:42

Hello, friends. Let's go around the table. Same crew as the first time. That's right, guys. It's Rob.

Big Z 1:47

It was the eventual winner of Big Z.

Matt 1:50

And Andy. And here we are. Here we are once again. We're going to figure out the individual that everybody brought and the cocktail that they paired with that individual to try to wow us. Big Z over here, hot to trot, trying to get that second victory.

Big Z 2:05

I'm not really sure why we're here. We should just move on.

Rob 2:09

Oh man, the confidence.

Big Z 2:11

You know. Win in the in the in my column and call it a day.

Rob 2:14

I believe Andy's bought a young sack for this time. Yeah. She's been aged.

Andy 2:21

It's moist this time. I'm pretty sure it's aged older than when my leader died.

Big Z 2:26

So what you're saying is not the sack has not dropped yet. The sack has not dropped.

Andy 2:30

Oh.

Matt 2:31

There was no sack there.

Rob 2:32

That's very intriguing.

Matt 2:34

If you have no idea what we're talking about, please go back and listen to the first episode.

Rob 2:38

Context, everyone. Context. It will make sense. So my wartime leader is Ulysses S. Grant. And uh his drink of choice was whiskey. So I will get into more of the type of whiskey when it is my turn. But that is what I have with me today is just some nice Kentucky bourbon that we will be having straight.

Big Z 2:58

All right. I brought Harry S. Truman from World War II, and his drink of uh choice was Osco bourbon whiskey. However, he liked an old fashioned in the morning, which we'll get into, so you have an old-fashioned.

Andy 3:10

Okay. So I went medieval. I brought La Pousselle de Lorraine, the maid of Lorraine herself, Joan of Arc. Oh. And I know what you're saying. Super Catholic saint lady, right? She didn't drink. Obviously, she had communion on a regular basis, so I brought a nice French wine with me. This is not true. Jesus. Jesus turned water to wine. True. That's true. But I'm I'm sure just like every time you're like loading up a video game or something, it doesn't always completely load up right, right? So sometimes it has to be just straight wine.

Matt 3:44

I went with Tokugawa Iwayashu. God bless you. I'm sorry, what? I can only pronounce it so many times in a row here before things are gonna go. I was very impressed by that. Tokugawa Iayashu, who was a samurai warlord. I watched Inanaju and United Japan at one point. And I will let my cocktail

Grant’s Bourbon And Tasting Science

Matt 4:05

be a surprise later.

Rob 4:06

Okay, very well.

Big Z 4:08

It kind of sounds fun.

Rob 4:09

This is this is very exciting. We've got we've got two past modern era and then two modern era modern-ish.

Big Z 4:17

Yeah, modern. I'm modern-ish. Yeah, modern-ish.

Rob 4:20

Yeah. I'm thirsty. What did you bring? Okay. So I would like to just say, first of all, that Grant's favorite whiskey is rumored to be a brand called Old Crow. And I do believe that it's still made today. They have a medicine show. Uh that is a band. Thank you. Yes. Old Crow was bought out by a Jim Beam, and they do make it still today, but I could not find it anywhere here in Pennsylvania to purchase it. So I have gone with the next best thing, which is a bourbon that I've been waiting to open for a long time and looking for a good excuse to do that. So this is gonna be from Heaven Hill Distillery. This is a bottled and bond, hundred-proof Kentucky Straight bourbon whiskey. This was seven years old at the time that I bought it, and that was, I believe, two years ago. So uh aged seven years, and now uh it's been another two. So about nine years old at this point. All right. So before I get into talking about Ulysses S. Grant and why I selected him, uh let me give everybody a quick pour. Sounds good.

Big Z 5:28

Let's do it. Also, this is like Grant elevated. This should be a really good bourbon. I'm looking forward to this one. Oh, yeah, good bourbon.

Matt 5:35

Yeah. I have the other bottle over there, Rob, that you brought back when you were at Heaven Hill. This is thank you.

Big Z 5:40

This is fragrant. Fragrant? So take two is better.

Rob 5:43

What we're gonna do, guys, is we're gonna try this straight.

Big Z 5:48

Nice nose.

Rob 5:49

And then after we try it straight, I would love for everybody to allow me to put just a little bit of water in it.

Big Z 5:55

Just want to get the listeners this to feel the nose. Oh, it's good.

Various 6:01

It's good. It's good. It's good. It's good.

Big Z 6:06

Good lord. Well, I mean, they don't know what we're doing. You know, it's for the ASMR out there. That's there you go.

Andy 6:14

It's the sound of sinusitis, too. Chevron just turned off this episode. Cheers.

Rob 6:20

All right, boys. Well, cheers to your health. I hope you all enjoyed Cheers.

Andy 6:26

Oh, yeah. That's very smooth bourbon. It's wow. Definitely has that Kentucky hug going afterwards. Oh, yeah, it sure does.

Rob 6:34

I'm getting um getting a lot of different tasting notes from this.

Big Z 6:39

Yeah, up front, you get a lot.

Rob 6:40

I'm getting vanilla.

Big Z 6:41

That's my professional opinion. You get a lot, you get a lot.

Rob 6:44

There's a lot.

Andy 6:45

Definitely getting vanilla in like a buttery.

Rob 6:47

Yeah, yeah.

Andy 6:47

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rob 6:48

So now what we're gonna do is we're gonna add a couple of drops of water to let the whiskey open up. And this is created by chemically reducing the concentration of the ethanol. And it allows aromic compounds like glycol to escape the liquid and reach the surface. So we're gonna see what happens. It should reduce the burn and make it even smoother. Science. Science!

Big Z 7:15

That's appropriate.

Rob 7:16

So we're we're gonna see what happens. There's a lot of big words there.

Andy 7:18

So I assume that that's science.

Rob 7:21

Now, typically, this is my personal preference. Anything that is above like 45% alcohol in a bourbon is when I like to start adding a water to see if it'll open up. Let's go ahead and uh pass me your snifters.

Andy 7:35

Yeah, I'm not generally uh adding water to the to the bourbon guy. Let's see how much of a difference. We'll see how much it goes. I do like an ice cube in it. In the old fashioned, there's just something about that nice big ice cube chunk in there that's diluting slowly, but you really just want to add like maybe a a cap full of a water bottle, like a couple of drops.

Rob 7:57

You don't really need much here, guys. Give it a little swish around.

Andy 8:01

Yeah, it definitely reduces the no the nose. Yeah.

Big Z 8:05

I mean essentially what you're doing with the ice same thing. Over time, over time, that's right.

Rob 8:10

Right. Okay, boys, let's see how this changes.

Matt 8:13

A little smoother, a little more vanilla. Rob did give us Glenn Karen glasses to taste that if you don't know what those are, they kind of force your nose because of the shape of the glass into the bourbon as you're drinking it, and you you get a lot more of the smell, which goes along with taste, of course. I like this a lot.

Big Z 8:29

That's phenomenal.

Matt 8:30

Yeah, I liked it better.

Andy 8:31

I you like the I just think that, yeah. Not that I dislike this.

Rob 8:35

In general, it didn't do a ton for me with the water. It did not, but I like the bourbon a lot, is what I was sure. Like the I don't feel like the water really opened this up much. And maybe, you know, I didn't put quite enough in. I only really gave everybody about three drops of it. Right. Yeah. Sometimes you have to play around with that to see if it'll really change or not change. But getting into the nuts and bolts of it, Ulysses S. Grant was a famous general in the U.S. Army. Eventually, the Civil War is where he kind of has his biggest reputation and then becomes president of the United States from 1869 to 1877.

Big Z 9:11

Is that right around the time Wild West came out? Yeah, Will Smith?

Rob 9:15

Wild Wild West. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Big Z 9:18

I'm pretty sure Grant was in that.

Rob 9:19

He could have been in Victoria. I think Kevin Klein plays like a fake version of him. Right. Yes. At one point. Yeah.

Big Z 9:26

And they had the spider machine. Is that a Grant invention? No, that was from that was the Southern guy.

Andy 9:33

Loveless? Colonel Loveless. Loveless. Loveless. Loveless. Loveless. Because he was shot.

Matt 9:37

How far off the rails this is right now. I'm just trying to do that. I'm going to revisit that movie.

Andy 9:41

Because I remember us shooting on it a lot.

Big Z 9:43

Oh, it's terrible. Why aren't we watching it right next to the show? Is it terrible though?

Andy 9:47

I don't really remember.

Rob 9:48

Couple of fun facts. Uh, he was born Hiram Ulysses Grant. So I'm not really sure what the S stands for, but he dropped the first name at some point and started going by Ulysses. I don't know what the S is for. Shit K. I didn't do enough uh enough uh research there. But at one point, Lincoln had actually asked him what his favorite bourbon was because he wanted to send it to all the other generals that were under him because Grant was so successful in his campaigns that he thought it was because of what he was drinking.

Andy 10:18

There's a theory for you. Well, hey, you never know. Let's all get sloshed on the same thing and then go to battle. This will be good.

Matt 10:24

They had the tasting planned for the Sunday after Lincoln went to the theater. Yeah.

Rob 10:29

Some some people some people do say that he was uh oh he was a little too fond of his bourbon. Some people were kind of judgmental of that for a little bit. I was originally going to pick Lincoln, but according to my research, and this is not a lie, his favorite drink was water. And uh, I guess that's because anytime he had alcohol, it went right to his head. Oh this is a dark episode. Listen, I'm just saying, he couldn't take a shot. Oh I just uh finish your verb. Hit it again.

Big Z 11:00

Honestly, all the time you got to bring the black bottom last, right?

Rob 11:05

It wasn't a joke. You brought levity, you brought tragedy. Yeah. Listen, it's okay. At least we're not recording in a booth. Is it six separate territories? Jesus. I already know that I'm going to I know that I'm going to charring your whoa. Okay. I I like where you're going there. But uh anyway, this is what he used to shoot him.

Big Z 11:28

Oh, is that what happened? Yep.

Various 11:30

Okay.

Rob 11:31

So Grant took a famous world tour after his presidency, but he lost his life savings at a fraudulent investment, leaving him bankrupt. He wrote his presidential personal memoir while dying of throat cancer, and he was aided by Mark Twain, which became, you know, a literary and financial success. Died in 1885 in New York State. And uh, yeah, Grant. There you have it. A bourbon man.

Big Z 11:57

Yeah. I mean, in in also in fairness, he did it quite a bit during the Civil War. Sure. Oh. You sort of skipped over all of his wartime stuff. You wouldn't do his depression.

Rob 12:05

I said he was the most winningest general in the Civil War. That is it. All right. You want me to list all the battles? I'm just saying all the burrzys.

Big Z 12:16

And now here we are.

Rob 12:17

It wasn't a hymen, my friend. It was a hyrum. Listen, I know some people will start with hymen's, but we didn't get to Andy's person yet. Oh. What's up? So we popped the chair in this episode? Wow. I mean, there is a cherry in your cocktail. Jesus. God help us. Anyway.

Matt 12:40

Thank you, Rob, for the grip, bourbon.

Andy 12:44

You're welcome. This is the first episode of the day, guys.

Rob 12:47

I know. Grant's most famous Civil War battles and his most decisive victories were Fort Donaldson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga. That was kind of the highlights of his biggest victories over the Southern. Was he a West Point guy? He was a West Point guy.

Big Z 13:06

Yes, he was.

Matt 13:07

Fair enough to say that the man's on the $50 bill for a reason. Without him, the Civil War does not get one.

Big Z 13:12

I was gonna say it's solid, it's a solid choice.

Matt 13:13

It is a solid choice.

Big Z 13:14

And a good drink. So you're I'm feeling a little bit nervous. So far, you're in first place. Thank you.

Matt 13:21

The Lincoln jokes, on the other hand, questionable at best.

Rob 13:23

Listen, they weren't jokes. No, a lot of that. Y'all wanted to take them in in a wrong direction. I was just talking about a man who liked to drink water.

Andy 13:33

You also like to haunt vampires. Oh, yes. Yes. I saw that.

Rob 13:37

You're right.

Andy 13:38

I read the book as well.

Grant’s Wins And Hard Realities

Andy 13:40

As bad as the movie is, and it that is legit a bad movie, the book's pretty good. The book's really fun.

Rob 13:46

Oh, that's good to know. Yeah, I'm not gonna read that. Seriously, it's worth it. Big Z, I'm gonna go ahead and throw it to you now.

Big Z 13:53

I'm slightly nervous.

Matt 13:54

I just want everybody to know now. This man showed up with an 8x11 sheet of paper, single spaced, front and back, bullet points.

Big Z 14:04

I have a problem with losing, okay? That's what this comes down to. Had I lost round one, this wouldn't be a thing. But I won. All right? So here I am. Heavy weighs the crown. Correct. So I'm not, this is I don't show up for shits and giggles here, all right? All right. So I have Truman, and uh Truman took over for Roosevelt on April 12th of 1945, when Roosevelt passed away.

Rob 14:28

FDR.

Big Z 14:29

FDR. So the end of World War II. We'll get into that in a minute. He also was a bourbon drinker. Old uh granddad, which actually Matt has, I should just drink his stuff. I mean and wild turkey. And uh I was cheap and already had a bottle of Buffalo Trace laying around because his other drink, which he used to enjoy with breakfast, I love the old timey guys. Yeah, man. Shot of whiskey in the morning, old fashioned with breakfast. That's how you got his day.

Andy 14:57

That's how you do it then and you're a war hero. You do it now and you're going to meetings.

Various 15:01

Yeah, yeah.

Big Z 15:02

You have a problem. Yeah. So uh in front of you in the uh the plastic glass, because unlike Rob, walking around with these stuck.

Rob 15:11

Yeah, yeah. I wasn't walking around with them, they were sitting over there.

Andy 15:13

Yeah, we just took them off of uh Matt's shelf here.

Rob 15:16

Yeah, it's um I'm a man of convenience, that's all. That's fair. That's fair.

Big Z 15:20

You have an old fashioned in front of you that I pre-mixed last night and put in the freezer because I saw that on Instagram. So shout out, I don't really From the Gram. You don't seem like a grammar.

Rob 15:29

Well, you don't have a lot of uh orange notes from this peel you've put in, but I I appreciate your muddling.

Big Z 15:35

You are garnished with an orange peel and a cherry, and it's been sitting on ice.

Andy 15:39

That's a good old fashioned that is phenomenal.

Matt 15:42

That's a that's an outstanding old-fashioned folks. If you didn't know this.

Big Z 15:47

Should we just end the episode now? Or how do we do this?

Matt 15:50

Oh, Lord. Big Z and I were talking about this as he was making it out in the kitchen.

Truman’s Breakfast Old Fashioned

Matt 15:55

Buffalo Trace sets off an old fashioned every time.

Big Z 15:58

It just Yeah, but Matt, it's not the care and love that I put into this that you guys are missing. Okay, you didn't see me mixing this last night and shaking it in my basement.

Rob 16:07

Big Z's love is in the shakes. I can taste the shakes. All the shakes. All of them.

Andy 16:13

You know, it's always a sign of a good old fashioned when you don't want to just sip it like you're supposed to. No, I know you just want to toss it. You want to down it. Yeah, I'm aware. Which is what I'm saying.

Big Z 16:22

I could absolutely just toss. There is a small amount left in the bottom.

Rob 16:27

Perfect. If I didn't know we had another episode coming up later today, uh-huh, I would I mean you are I would be having a lot more of this.

Big Z 16:36

Here's the deal about Truman. He doesn't do a lot during World War II. He's vice president. So most of its FDRs run. So I I understand the knock there. However, he takes over in 1945, and within weeks of taking office, he oversees the surrender in Germany. So he sees the end of the European theater, uh, which is really important because that's sort of where the war really starts to go downhill for the the uh axis. He then makes the decisions to drop both atomic bombs in uh Nagasaki and Hiroshima, which effectively ends the Pacific theater. And then what he really does is sets up the United Nations and NATO with the Truman Doctrine on the back end. Wow. So he comes out and he actually sets up our fight against Soviet Russia and what becomes the Cold War.

Matt 17:19

So what you're telling me is he was not there for the really hard part of the group project, and he came along at the end and got the phenomenal grades and the praise with the rest of the group.

Big Z 17:28

I think you're oversimplifying it because not only does he hear it. I want to win too. Yeah, yeah, but you suck. So, like, why like anyway? But don't get me mad.

Andy 17:36

Um But to be to be fair, you're not wrong. He came in at the end of the group project, but he basically came in the group project and looked at what was on the table, went, we gotta fix this. Correct. Yeah, dude, yeah. Let's do all these things. Now we're not gonna join that thing that I'm setting up here, right? But that's a good idea. Yeah, no.

Big Z 17:52

Well, he sets up a lot of post-war conflicts that we get into, you know, both Korea and you know, unfortunately Vietnam, but that's all done here. It all starts here. Our outreach in the world as the United States, as we know it now, starts at the end of World War II, and it is because of Truman and no one else.

Rob 18:12

I feel underinformed. You know, when when we learn about World War II in school, I feel like oftentimes it's just FDR. Like I you don't really think of Truman as there at the end. I thought stupidly, I guess, that FDR was there when we were dropping the the A-bombs. Nope. I didn't realize he had already passed.

Andy 18:34

It's definitely one of those weird things of there's so much history just in World War II and the lead up to and the aftermath from. Like there's just so much history that it's just not practical.

Big Z 18:45

So do you guys know about Truck Lagoon? Trunk Lagoon? Yep. Yes, I'm familiar with that. Essentially the United States version of Pearl Harbor against the Japanese. Yeah. I believe Truman is in office when that happens as well.

Rob 18:57

Okay.

Big Z 18:57

I'm not 100% sure. I did not look that up, but that was that I did not know. That's a very pivotal turning point in the Pacific Theater because that was our attack on Japan's naval base.

Rob 19:06

You should check out the Expedition Unknown. I've seen it. Where they're looking for downed MIA planes that are underwater in Trunk Lagoon.

Big Z 19:15

I kind of knew you would know that. Yeah. And if you don't watch Expedition Unknown, you might not. Uh Josh Gates. Josh Gates.

Rob 19:19

Shout out to you, Josh Gates. Listen to our podcast. Come have a beer with us. Yeah, come on, come on down, Josh. We know you like a beer. Come on, Josh.

Big Z 19:26

But without shows like Expedition Unknown, you would not have known about like that's not in any history book. It's not. Trunk Lagoon doesn't get talked about. Right. I'm pretty sure Truman's in office. All the other stuff I talked about, it's definitely Truman. So it's not even just this war. It's like all the wars. All of them, Matt. All of them since World War II. Since, since, yeah. Yeah. So again, should I just knock the mic over now or do we want to continue?

Matt 19:52

It's on a boomstand. You'd have to throw the table out the window.

Andy 19:56

Don't you challenge that? Now look, Matt, let's be real here. Any one of us could flip the shit out of this table if we wanted to. That's gonna cost you a lot of people. Yes.

Matt 20:04

It's not a table.

Big Z 20:05

I'm just gonna take a again for all you out there in the ASMR world.

Rob 20:09

This is a Big Z, you are on fire today. I'm trying over with your ASMR.

Andy 20:15

Sivan was back in when we were talking about an old fashioned. Now she's gone again. Right back out.

Big Z 20:20

Right back out. Real fast. Double check my paper. Oh, we gotta go to the back side. Yep, nope, we won.

Matt 20:25

Okay.

Big Z 20:26

There we go.

Matt 20:26

Wow. He has paper dropped. Feeling confident. This is a really good old fashioned. Thank you.

Andy 20:31

Thank you. I don't want to go on until I finish this uh old fashioned.

Matt 20:33

I'll give Andy a minute here to finish his old fashioned. If you would like to visit any of the places that we've talked about so far, go ahead and reach out to our friends at Poppin's Travel. They can make it happen anywhere in the United States, across the world. Truck Lagoon. There you go. Poppins Travel. Definitely. John will work up a trip that involves a scuba rental. There's my challenge for you, John.

Andy 20:51

Are we ready to go medieval? We can go medieval. We can try it. Let's do it. Let's give it a shot. So we're gonna need some cups here. I I brought my official Matt and Friends drink the universe.

Big Z 20:59

Oh, so did I.

Andy 21:00

Cup. Well, there's some cups here.

Big Z 21:01

Look at that. People have planned. I was sanctioned one time and I got one.

Rob 21:05

There you go.

Big Z 21:06

Here I am.

Matt 21:07

There you go. I did not bring mine. I feel like a schmuck.

Big Z 21:11

What a loser.

Matt 21:11

Mine's out in the cabinet, so don't feel that. You live here, dude. I know. You do live here, actually.

Andy 21:16

Go ahead and pour whatever you want there.

Matt 21:18

Andy, there's a there's plastic cups behind you, if you can. Red solo cup. Yep. Give it away.

Rob 21:24

By the way, Matt, if you haven't feel noticed this yet, my uh my MO for this episode is just uh like trying to get some very known people to enjoy our podcast.

Matt 21:35

Hey, that's go for it. I'm still waiting on Burt Kreischer, Dwayne Johnson to do that.

Andy 21:40

It is a fact that Jim Carrey listens to our episode. Like that's a fact. Somebody would have to disprove it. Okay.

Various 21:46

Fair enough.

Rob 21:48

May I be the first in line? So what empirical evidence do you have?

Big Z 21:53

Andy, we can just say whatever the hell we want right now.

WWII Ending And Cold War Setup

Big Z 21:55

Fair enough. Yeah, yeah. No one can say no because they don't know. That's that's prove me wrong. Accurate. This smells delightful for everyone. All right. Yeah, no, it really does.

Rob 22:07

Again, we just if you're I don't know what I like this because I'm normally not a wine guy.

Andy 22:12

I don't know what order the episodes are coming out here, but we just did an episode on white wine, which I was on. I'm not a wine connoisseur. I do enjoy uh a wine. So we are drinking uh Bordeaux Superior from France. You fancy as fuck. Yeah, man. The year is 2020, not a good year. Say le COVID.

Rob 22:36

There's all notes of virus. I'm getting notes.

Andy 22:41

But we're talking about Joan of Arc, right? All right.

Rob 22:43

So serious faces, gentlemen, serious faces. We're good, we're good.

Andy 22:47

So your leaders might be good leaders, right? Wait, wait, what? They might be good leaders, right? They led wars, good outcomes, right? Joan of Arc became a saint because. What she did. Joan of Arc didn't become an official canonized saint until the 1900s. Like I checked the date, I don't remember it, but it's in the 1900s, and she lived in the 1400s. So big enough impression that 500 years later the Catholic Church was like, all right, let's make it official.

Rob 23:19

Well, I guess they did that for that purse maker, too, Saint Laurent. Wow. I don't know exactly. Not great. Swing and a miss. Swing and a miss. Not honoring it. There it is. St. Laurent, please sponsor our podcast.

Big Z 23:39

You know, not to throw out another expedition, a known reference or plug, but I mean Josh Gates does talk about this. Josh Gates. Josh Gates. And Discovery. We're here. So I'm I'm not a listener of that. Probably don't want us, but we're here.

Andy 23:52

I am a listener of the Fantastic History Hip Podcast family with their gone medieval, and they talk about Joan of Arc a lot. Because I mean, we're talking about a hundred-year war, right? More than that. The hundred-year war, they call it, was about 116 years, right? So this thing just kept slogging on. Basically, Joan of Arc, 14, 15-year-old peasant girl, shows up and says, Hey, do these things that I say to because the angels told me to, and we're gonna turn this stuff around. Yeah, she was a badass bitch. She really was.

Quick Travel Shoutout And Reset

Andy 24:25

Like we're we're talking about a literal teenage, yeah, barely above a peasant girl. Like she's not a peasant girl. Her parents legit owned land, so like a little above that, but still basically a peasant girl who convinced knights and royalty and stuff like that to follow her lead. I have a dumb question. Prepare yourself for a dumb answer. Is Ark a city? Well, like where does the name come from? Her father was also, I think, Jacques of Ark. So it was it was a family name, but I believe there would have been an area of Ark. I'm not 100%. Okay.

Matt 25:00

She was in the large boat-building family. Continue.

Big Z 25:05

I mean it was it wasn't bad. It wasn't bad. Related to Noah. You had the gopher would it. I I had the something.

Andy 25:14

Just build out a gopher word. Oh for it.

Big Z 25:17

Can we try this wine?

Andy 25:18

Yeah, let's try the wine. For the love of God, it does smell lovely. Should I do the smell thing again? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Should we all do it together? I'll do this for you, Schivan. Ready?

Big Z 25:29

Oh, yeah, no, it's good. It smells good. Smells good. It smells nice.

Rob 25:34

I don't think I've ever had an actual real French wine before. Because I'm not like I don't go out and buy wines, right? So most of my wine drinking that I've done in my life has been hey, I'm going to a local winery. It's a Pennsylvania or New Jersey produced wine. Maybe, you know,

Joan Of Arc And French Red

Rob 25:50

the grapes came from France originally or something like that, but I've never had a true French wine. So I'm I'm excited to try this.

Andy 25:57

So in my research, I did try to look up like what kind of wines they would have been drinking at that point, right? And obviously local is good. Right? Obviously, local, but also would have been a drier red, which is what we went for here. So this isn't good.

Rob 26:12

This is not like sapping my mouth. Like some dry reds, like really like pull it out. Yeah. This is very smooth. There's like an earthy taste that I'm getting, and not in a bad way. And I'm really tasting grape. I kind of want a steak right now.

Andy 26:28

Oh let's go. No, but everybody wants to go as you drink. That's what I'm just saying. But here's the thing like I think we all have a perception of a good wine is going to be a hundred dollar bottle or whatever. Yeah, it's it's not though. This is like a $20 bottle. Yeah. It's a good wine. It's only a $20 bottle.

Big Z 26:47

I don't know the winery. I don't know where it's at, but there's a fortified red wine in Jim Thorpe that's phenomenal. It's like $25. It's it's heavy. It's like 21%, but it's not quite as dry as this. But you don't not have to spend a lot of money on a good wine.

Rob 27:01

Andy, that's just completely changed my opinion. Online? There's a lot of good wine.

Andy 27:08

So 14%.

Rob 27:10

This has unlocked something for me. Is it because of the tannins in this wine? Something that I've never well, okay. I will also say this. I I recently went on a cruise. We did go to a French restaurant, and at the French restaurant, I decided I would just fry. No, I did not.

Matt 27:27

No French fries?

Rob 27:29

They had them there, but no, I did not get that.

Matt 27:31

No. French toast?

Rob 27:32

Yeah. Also.

Andy 27:37

He's gonna flip the table. It's coming.

Rob 27:38

Anyway, the point is I had a wine that was from another country, not from America, and it is so different than the sugar content that you're putting in these local wines. Not not to crap on local wineries at all.

Big Z 27:57

It's a different kind of wine.

Rob 27:58

It's just a different experience. I I don't remember if it was from Argentina or it was somewhere in South America. The Argentinian wine's a good one.

Matt 28:06

Yes, very big wine region.

Big Z 28:07

The basic white bitch wine that you get right now is not like the wine that's good out there. You know, I'm just saying.

Rob 28:15

I think that that is a true statement.

Big Z 28:16

No, I'm just being honest. Like these high sugar content wines, that's not what wine's about. Right.

Rob 28:21

I'm not sure. Correct. That and the sulfites is what's giving you the headache of the wine.

Andy 28:27

You know, like when you're Josh, Josh would go into it in absolute depth, but there's so much in like the region with the soil, with the with the type of water.

Big Z 28:38

The grape we can grow, right? So you get you get these high sugar content because that's what grows here. Correct. Yeah, it's it's where we live.

Matt 28:45

It's Pennsylvania is where we live. But if you go to California, this is a nice, smooth, and it's in the as the bottle says in the couve tradition. Yes, Rob.

Big Z 28:55

Other people live in California.

Rob 28:57

Andy, this is delicious. This is good wine. This is great. This is good too. I'm surprised at how much I like this. I really am. Yeah. This is a wonderful wine. I wish that we did have like a kebab or some kind of meat to pair.

Big Z 29:08

Meat with this is great.

Rob 29:10

Lamb.

Big Z 29:10

Oh, lamb.

Rob 29:13

I love lamb. I don't want to admit that.

Andy 29:15

I'm kind of picky about it. It's not a thing for everybody.

Big Z 29:17

It's very gamey. I like lamb though. Gamey? Lamb is gamey. If you don't eat game meat a lot, you don't like lamb.

Rob 29:27

Interesting. I feel like mutton is that way. But lamb doesn't have a gamey taste.

Big Z 29:32

You don't even know what mutton is.

Rob 29:33

Well, that's that's a full grown sheep. That kind of lamb is a baby sheep.

Big Z 29:37

Oh no, kill those things when they're young. You want the lamb. Wow.

Andy 29:45

Well, I want the veal as well. Oh man, put the baby cow in a corner.

Rob 29:52

Nobody cares about the grapes. Hey, PETA, we don't want your endorsement. Pita Griffin?

Big Z 30:03

No, no, Death. Come have a drink with us. That PETA we want. PETA.

Rob 30:08

Yeah. You talking about the Hunger Games guy played by Josh Josh Hutcherson? People? Josh Hutcherson. Listen to people.

Andy 30:17

Matt, make sure to tag every one of these references.

Big Z 30:23

I absolutely will. Be honest right now. What?

Matt 30:25

Last time we're doing this, or no, I'm thinking this is now gonna be another thing that happens more often. Like Joan of Arc. The bottle appeared. There was skepticism. Yeah, man. Skepticism was quickly laid to rest.

Rob 30:40

So we really tangented here. Okay. Oh, us? But but what I'm sorry, what did she do? Uh she did a lot. Right, right. Like she was convincing people to do stuff, but like what was the ultimate outcome? Dude, I don't know if we ever let you finish.

Andy 30:56

Ultimate outcome, arguably, she changed the the course of the hundred-year war. She didn't live to the end of it.

Rob 31:02

Was that during Charlemagne's reign?

Andy 31:04

No. No. No.

Rob 31:05

That's the only French person I know other than Louis.

Andy 31:08

Well, and and a good point of the impact Joan of Arc had is how many people can you name from the 1400s? On top of that, how many peasants can you name? On top of that, how many peasant females?

Rob 31:22

I'm sure there was a guy named Steve in there somewhere.

Big Z 31:25

What was the guy from Braveheart?

Andy 31:27

Well, historic William Wallace. William Wallace. There you go. Extremely no, he was not. But wasn't that like the movie? Wasn't that an accurate movie?

Matt 31:36

1600s? I don't think any. Well, uh, the answer is none.

Andy 31:47

We can talk about it. The answer is none. Eleanor of Aquitaine, that's a big one. I could. So Hildegard von Biggin's huge one can talk about no giant nerd here.

Matt 31:59

Some of us not as well read in history, clearly.

Rob 32:01

Listen, I'll tell you, you're you're you're pulling out medieval names I've never heard of in my life.

Andy 32:06

Well, Hildegard von Biggin's huge, right? Hildegard von Biggin was a mystic. She was also responsible for all these medical books. Wow plus I also like music like Von Biggin.

Rob 32:18

I mean, she's not Von Smollin, she's von Biggin. She's very big in deal. She's she's a big and deal.

Andy 32:25

She Hildegard von Biggin's so big in the big.

Rob 32:27

Hildegard von Biggin, listen to our podcast.

Andy 32:30

Hildegard von Biggin might be in the room with us right now. She's no in spirit, she's right here. She's right here.

Rob 32:36

I feel her presence.

Matt 32:40

Andy, any closing remarks about Jonah Varc or Aphrodite?

Rob 32:45

She's so high above me.

Big Z 32:51

She's so lovely. She's so lovely. This is a good poll. Like I said, she's a badass bitch. She did not just show up at these wars and like sit in the back either. She was on the front line swinging the sword. Yeah. And the red wine's good. Yeah, man. This is a wallet new.

Andy 33:07

She made such an impression on the prince that the prince got her a custom sword and set of armor, which to us doesn't seem like that big of a deal. Oh, that's

Wine Talk That Changes Minds

Andy 33:15

a huge deal. So when we're talking about a full set of plate armor plus a white charger that they call it. Called a horse. That's the horse, right? Yeah, and when we're talking about a war horse, we're between that set of armor and a war horse. Dodge sponsor our podcast. Take back the brother immediately, Mark. It lasted through the rest of the hundred-year war. And then so no, I mean we're talking that's more than the cost of a house.

Big Z 33:39

And and I don't mean this in the wrong way, but you're also talking about a woman in a time when women never really got recognition.

Andy 33:48

Even if she wasn't leading battles, she was at least minimally, we know, advising the battles. Correct. Right. Like the the leaders were going to her and saying, what do you think about this tactic? And she's saying, No, shift it over here to that. Yeah, no, she was sucking under she was under 20. That's like, think about the high school girl you know. No, you shouldn't. First one you go to. She shouldn't do that. So you're thinking, you're thinking about your average run-of-the-mill high school girl, right? And you're gonna take her advice on defending a castle against a siege. That's what we're talking about. She couldn't even read. She was considered illiterate. Wow. Now the definition of illiterate has changed over the years. The history books define her as being illiterate. She couldn't even read, and war leaders are taking her advice on how to end a siege that's been going for years on the city of Orleans.

Matt 34:41

Absolutely outstanding.

Big Z 34:42

To go back, I am really impressed.

Matt 34:45

I'm very impressed.

Big Z 34:47

And the knowledge is excellent. All right. Strong showing.

Matt 34:51

Yep. Okay. So as I said before, I went with Tokugawa Iwayaso.

Andy 34:56

I wish that last one was. Maybe you should have gotten gone first before we were drinking. We were drinking.

Matt 35:01

No, no, but he said he said that flawlessly. Yeah. That was very good Japanese pronunciation. So he was born in 1543, died in 1616. So he lived to the ripe old age of 73, which was quite an accomplishment at that point in human history. A lot longer than Joan Mayor.

Big Z 35:14

Oh my god, at what time? Probably a lot longer than I'll look.

Matt 35:17

In what years? 1543 to 1660. Yeah, that was. He uh he founded the Tokugawa shogunate, which was a long period of Japanese history. His family ruled Japan until 1868. So he set up a dynasty, 250 years. So he was a samurai warlord. One important fact about him, he was kidnapped as a child and held by enemies. And the story behind that is that that taught him patience. So he was a samurai warlord. He eventually became shogun, the Japanese military leader. He founded the Endo period, which is a long time of Japanese peace. It lasted for an extremely long time. The next fact about

Tokugawa Patience And The Patient Slice

Matt 35:55

him leads to the name of my drink. Tokugawa is known as a master of patience. So the title of the drink is The Patient Slice. I did. Because he Wait, wait, what you you did this? I did this. Yes, this is mine. Not Cha Chibi Chi. No, this is mine. Okay.

Big Z 36:12

Oh no, I take it back. Andy not fancy as fuck. Matt fancy as fuck. Matt fancy as fuck. So he We didn't taste it yet, though. It does matter. It does smell good. Did you have a name for yours? Red wine.

Matt 36:22

He was known. So there was a battle that he was famous for in 1600. Sikega harra. I think. That's where the term came from. Yeah.

Andy 36:31

Because they won and they went Shikega Hurra!

Matt 36:34

I'll take it. So this was the largest and most important samurai battle in Japanese history. He defeated rival warlords. A story from here is he put 30,000 people's heads in a basket after he uh dominated the other side. Several baskets. Hey, as I said to Andy when we were discussing this earlier, if it's a quarter of that many heads, that's still an impressive amount of people.

Big Z 36:57

There's always some truth in the case.

Rob 37:00

Let me also just tell you that the Japanese in general, like the samurai in general, and Matt, I don't mean to be pleading your case for you. Oh plead away. But but the way that they they measured their swords was by body count. So they would make a new sword, they would hang prisoners, that's true, and they would have a man run with this new sword and however many bodies he could cut through in one sprint. You know, you don't see that in forge and fire. You don't. You just don't. You don't, but but then it will cut. Doug Markeda, please listen to our podcast.

Various 37:35

So here's here's here's the important hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, go on.

Matt 37:39

Here's the important fact about him. He wasn't an overwhelmingly kill you by force military leader. That was not his style. He was patient. Patient. He was he was kind, making. So in that decisive battle, he won because he made a lot of behind-the-scenes deals with people. He was saying, I'll give you land, I'll give you power, I'll give you political influence. Come over to my side, we're gonna make this thing happen. And after that battle, he founded what became modern-day Tokyo. Oh, so really, yeah, really condensed Japanese power. Very cool. This is very cool.

Rob 38:12

And then joking aside, I'm excited to drink this.

Andy 38:16

Can we sniff it? A patient slice. I've run out of patience this time to drink. Oh, it smells so it does. It's smell lovely. Oh, it's kind of like lemoncello.

Big Z 38:24

It really does. Yeah. That's like a boozed up lemonade. It's phenomenal. That's a perfect description. It tastes like a hard lemonade. I know you've been known to have hard lemonade in your own. Matt Stellar said.

Rob 38:41

Hit the button, dude. Stellar said. Wow. Listen, this is for all you ASMR people out there. Rob, that was rough.

Big Z 38:53

It's because he hiat halfway through. No, no, no. How many? There it was.

Matt 39:02

So this is, let me just uh give you the recipe here real quick so everybody has it. I'll post it later. Yeah, post that. That's coming. This is Jun Mai Jun Mai sake with three-quarters ounce wizu juice. It is honey syrup, so I I homemade honey syrup myself, honey simple syrup. This did call for a dash of like orange or ginger, but I didn't want to put it in. That was not what I was looking for. A little bit of ginger in this.

Andy 39:24

I think a little orange though. Either one.

Matt 39:27

Either would have been floating orange.

Big Z 39:32

This is this is messy. Is there any gin in this? There's no gin in this.

Rob 39:36

This is sake. Interesting. So I am getting a little just a tiny floral note.

Matt 39:41

That's yeah, it's the sake. Sake can be very floral. Now, the sake brand that I went with, I'll post a picture of the bottle, is known for being fruit forward, not as floral for being very fruit forward. And I appreciate that. This is stellar.

Rob 39:54

This is awesome.

Andy 39:55

Yeah, man. Summer party, man.

Rob 39:56

This is the best drink you've ever made on this podcast.

Matt 40:00

It's pretty good.

Rob 40:02

The best drink you have ever brought onto this whole podcast.

Matt 40:04

I mean, in in ever. So should we get to the part where we declare a winner?

Andy 40:09

Yep. It's still. Well, here's the thing, though. We we're talking about war leaders here, right? Yep. You're talking about somebody with one battle. Many battles. Ah, you got one battle you're referenced to. One big one that he's known for.

Matt 40:21

I mean, he's been dead for how many hundred years? Give a little credit. But many battles where he consolidated power. He formed modern Tokyo, the modern central of Japanese power.

Big Z 40:31

Yeah, but did he like create the United Nations or NATO? No, he didn't.

Rob 40:35

I think that it's only on my drink. I think that it's only fair that we go in order and we take our votes. Okay. So first things first, I've got to give Matt props for the best drink he's ever brought to this podcast. It's not the best.

Big Z 40:49

I want this drink all the time.

Rob 40:50

Yeah. Yes. All the time.

Andy 40:52

In the pool? Lazy river? Absolutely. Yep. Mowing the lawn? Mow in the lawn. Mowing the lawn in the lazy river got it.

Matt 40:58

Mowin the lazy river.

Rob 40:59

Driving on a lawnmower, though. Oh, or a golf cart. A golf card.

Votes, Winner, And Closing Plugs

Rob 41:05

Yeah. All right. But I will say that the French red wine did change my opinion overall on drinking red wine. And I do believe that Joan of Arc is a very influential wartime figure. And I will cast my vote for Andy. Honorable mention Matt.

Big Z 41:28

Okay. Matt. I can accept this. Beverage. Hands down, best of the table. There is honestly no comparison. As much as I love the bourbon, as much as I love the red wine. As much as I'm partial to my own old-fashioned thing.

Rob 41:41

There was not a bad drink in all the balls. No losers. No losers.

Andy 41:44

There was no dry sacks on the table. No.

Big Z 41:46

No. Nothing about completely wet sacks. But this this drink is phenomenal. Thank you. But as it was said in episode one, this is red wine!

Various 41:59

What?

Big Z 42:00

That's a callback to our first episode. It's an amazing callback thing. Thank you. I think Joan of Arc is the uh most influential leader that we have at the table. I did bring a guy who sort of showed up at the end and was like, hey, I'll fix all your problems, but he didn't really do a lot of the work in the middle.

Rob 42:15

Listen, we're not we're not crapping on Truman here. Yeah.

Various 42:19

I will be back.

Rob 42:19

But that is for Andy.

Andy 42:21

Okay, that's that's two for Joan. I mean, I gotta vote for myself. No, yeah, absolutely you should. I mean, it's great, it's a great bourbon you brought. That's a great old-fashioned.

Big Z 42:30

Thank you.

Andy 42:30

This drink that Matt brought is fantastic, but it's so good. What it hit your lips. But uh, you know, there's something about a French wine and Joan of Arc, 600 years later, still massively influential on our modern culture. I gotta give it to Joan.

Matt 42:46

I will vote for my own cocktail because I I'm gonna go make one of these later. I have to agree with the rest of the group here. Drink me like one of your French girls.

Rob 42:56

I gotta give it to Drink me like one of your French girls. Leonardo DiCaprio, listen to our podcast.

Big Z 43:03

Leonardo, we're not under 25.

Matt 43:05

He's not listening.

Big Z 43:06

Hate me, Leonardo, pain to me.

Matt 43:08

Most influential at the table, definitely Joan of Arc. I mean to Andy. Wow.

Rob 43:14

But I will say, you gotta also give yourself that Stellar stream. Oh my god, because I got one already. This drink is phenomenal. If it was drinks alone, you're coming out on top for me.

Matt 43:25

Choco Gala would have found the proper solution and patience. I will be back. Stellar win. Yep. Cheers.

Big Z 43:34

Andy, you son of a bitch. Last to first. Goodbye, friends. Thank you for listening.

Unfiltered Studios Guy 43:41

This podcast is a production of Unfiltered Studios. If you would like to know more about joining Unfiltered Studios, please visit our website at unfpod.com for more information.

Matt 43:51

This episode's pussy quote comes from Edgar Allan Poe, who said, I don't drink for pleasure. I drink to cope with tortured memories, unsupportable loneliness, and the dread of some strange impending doom. Would you like to suggest something for us to drink? Give us some feedback, or have your brand featured on Matt and Friends Drink the Universe? We would love to hear from all of our listeners. Please check our episode descriptions down below for links to send us a text, support the podcast, and visit our merch store. To keep up with our latest news or share your stellar sifts with us, please like and follow Matt Friends DTU on Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, Threads, Blue Sky, and Reddit. For more information about the podcast and links to all of our episodes, please visit www.matfriendsdtu.com. That's mat and friendsdU.com. Cheers, friends.