The Real Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Why do we like the food, drinks and flavours that we like? How much does colour, sound and even upbringing have on your enjoyment of a meal? And is Willy Wonka’s everlasting gobstopper scientifically possible? This month’s episode of The REAL Podcast answers all of these questions and many more, as we chat with food scientist and flavour expert, Dr Rachel Edwards-Stuart.

Her contributions and insights at the cutting edge of gastronomy have been extraordinary, having studied and worked with Hervé This and Heston himself, not to mention developing a huge range of gluten free products for one of the UK’s biggest supermarkets. These days she teaches science to chefs and runs a selection of unique and bespoke events that take in the science of flavour and gastronomy.

Over the course of the hour-long podcast, Rachel discusses her journey into the world of food science, some of the amazing studies in flavour perception that many of us many not know about, the emergence of the non-alcoholic drinks movement and how these new drinks can be paired with delicious dishes.

If you’ve ever wondered what happens once you place something tasty on your tongue, this is the podcast for you. Pour yourself a glass of REAL and put in your earbuds as we explore the fascinating world of flavour with Rachel Edwards-Stuart.

This month's REAL Podcast is with Henry Chevallier Guild, chatting about how a natural-born cider maker, an 8th generation heir to the Aspall estate, former chairman of the National Association of Cider Makers, now makes non-alcoholic drinks. Nonsuch Shrubs, to be precise.  

It's a story that takes in a huge amount of history, truckloads of apples (and a quick sidestep into the history of the apple), plenty of tradition with a side order of local ritual. Ideal, then, for the merry month of May, when the country springs to life and drinks are quaffed aplenty.

Starting with a brief history of cider making, we move swiftly into the world of shrubs and kombuchas and question how the growing non-alcoholic drinks scene might take hold of some of these artisanal traditions and adapt them for modern times.

For the 19th episode of The Real Podcast, we thought we'd delve further into healthy eating. At REAL we're very much about eating and drinking well, but in these unusual times that becomes a little more challenging. 

So, we spread our net far and wide, really going to our network to see if we could find someone, anyone, to come on the podcast and talk to us about ways to fill our plates with colour and goodness. We were looking for hints, tips, ideas, habits to form... anything that might ensure that we're really getting what we need to maintain healthy body and mind. 

We didn't have to go far. Our very own co-founder, Adrian Hodgson, has these skills in abundance. A food and nutrition scientist who has spent his career writing and giving talks on this very subject, we got him to sit down and make his Real Podcast debut, answering a few questions from our own team as well as followers on our Instagram account. 

Take a listen. And please do stay safe and healthy. 

Undoubtedly, the best thing about producing the Real Podcast is that it offers the chance to meet and natter with absolute experts in a variety of subjects. In this new episode, we chat to Real’s tea partner, a chap called Will Battle who quite literally wrote the book on tea. You can check that out yourself – go and look for The World Tea Encyclopaedia in any good bookshop and you’ll find his name right there under the title.

Excitingly, Will thinks that 2020 is really tea’s time. The humble cuppa on which the UK seems to so heavily depend is having a bit of a moment. For us, it’s a vital ingredient in the production of our exquisite drinks, but it seems that the world is quite rapidly waking up to the possibilities that this wonderfully versatile plant offers us, whether that’s from a foodie perspective or a health perspective.

So it seemed the right time to catch up with Will and ping him with questions relating to everything tea. Over the next hour or so, we’ll look at the history of tea, some of the origin stories and legends, what different teas mean to different cultures, what it takes to grow a certain type of tea and why one small pot of tea was once worth more than Richard Nixon’s limousine, and what, in Will’s opinion, the tea world will look like in 2020.

We’d suggest you put on a brew and put your feet up, but it’s all a bit more fascinating than that...

In the first Real Podcast of 2020, we're chatting about creativity and the idea that you don’t need something mind-altering, be that alcohol or anything else, in order to produce something beautiful and interesting.

Tobias Ben Jacob and Lukas Drinkwater are two touring musicians who work in improvisational music. Two years ago they made the professional decision to go on “dry tours”. They realised that they needed to be alert and in the moment in order to perform at their best, and that the trappings of being a touring musician were working to their detriment.

Just before Christmas, they stopped off – mid-tour – to crack open a few bottles of Real Kombucha and discuss how it feels to go from being dependent on "Dutch courage" to take the stage, and doing it in the startling light of sobriety.

A few quotes from the podcast to get you in the mood...

“We started to notice that our performances were so much better when we were alert, switched on and sober, and we really enjoyed that so much more than the feeling of being drunk. There’s a buzz and fun from that, but the buzz from giving it you best and playing your best is so much better.”

“The clarity of consciousness of being sober, and the degree of self-awareness – being aware of the subtle details of what I was doing – I began to really enjoy. New, subtle layers started to appear.”

Along the way, they discuss the nature of giving up alcohol in an industry that has long been synonymous with substance abuse, and the way that touring without alcohol has freed them up from the emotional instability that often goes with this line of work.

“Promoters are often surprised when we don’t drink. Sometimes, as soon as we get there the first thing we’ll be offered is a beer. It is quite strange. If you were to turn up at any other kind of work and someone offered you a beer…”

“It was challenging because you’ve built this performance persona, and if you’ve used alcohol as part of that… for me, it took time to deconstruct. On the other hand, I had this feeling that I was enjoying that clarity and playing better, so it was a case of balancing that with the fears, anxieties and doubts of not being confident enough. I found it took a couple of weeks to get it out of my system, and then I felt a new, natural growing sense of confidence which had more value because it was coming from my own inner work rather than a liquid fix.”

For more info on what these guys do, head to jacobanddrinkwater.com. 

Here are a few interesting head-scratchers for you. Is it possible to drown your sorrows in a bottle of non-alcoholic gin? How do you approach the ritual of after-work drinks without a pint in front of you? Is it possible to meet a non-alcoholic binge drinker? How does Tinder Night work in an alcohol-free bar?

Welcome to this week’s Real Podcast – episode 16, no less. A couple of weeks ago, we headed off to The Understudy, a bar on London’s Southbank that really knows its non-alcoholic drinks, to chat to someone who has helped to plant a very visible flag in the sober curious world, and most definitely has the answers to all of those questions.

Over a few glasses of Real Kombucha, we chatted to Anna Walsh, the manager of the now world-famous Virgin Mary bar in Dublin. Why’s it world famous, you may ask? Well, it’s entirely unique in that it’s Ireland’s first ever alcohol-free pub. And rather than being something to scoff at, as you might imagine in a town synonymous with a pint of the black stuff, it’s a place that Dubliners have taken to their hearts.

So, let’s get stuck in. Answering the eternal question, “Can we lose the booze but keep the craic?”, here’s Anna Walsh.

Welcome to episode 15 of The Real Podcast, brought to you by Real Kombucha, creators of Royal Flush, the sophisticated non-alcoholic fizz (order yours online now in time for the coming festivities).

This is something of a symbolic episode for us. Our guest is none other than Sandor Katz, often called the Godfather of Fermentation. It’s an odd nickname, given that the godfather of fermentation would have to predate the fermentation process itself – and if that’s the case, Sandor’s looking rather good for his age. He prefers the slightly less godlike Fermentation Revivalist, which is a wonderful job title in and of itself.

But even Fermentation Revivalist doesn’t seem to nail it. It’s a little bit humble. After all, most people who get into brewing kombucha, baking sourdough, making yoghurt – any kind of fermented food production in any involved manner – will have come across one of Sandor Katz’s books. To say that his Wild Fermentation, published in 2003, is “The Bible of Fermentation” (as Newsweek once described it) feels less of an overstatement. In many ways, it’s where our modern interest in fermentation was revitalised. Its influence is difficult to overstate.

So, when David Begg, the founder of Real Kombucha, shared a panel with Sandor at the Abergavenny Food Festival this summer, we were delighted to hear he’d happily join us on The Real Podcast to discuss not only kombucha, but all things fermentation.

We caught him on an early morning call from Tennessee.

Welcome to episode 14 of The Real Podcast, brought to you by Real Kombucha, brewers of the non-alcoholic alternative to a fine wine or champagne, now served in some of the UK’s best bars, restaurants, pubs and hotels, not to mention right here online. Our podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts… all the usual places, so make sure you subscribe.

Last Thursday we headed into East London to chat to Jamie Crummie, a former human rights and refugee lawyer who has turned his attentions to one of the most under-publicised issues we’re currently facing. Food waste amounts to around 8-10% of greenhouse gas emissions, and yet 70% of Brits are unaware of the link between what’s dumped in the dustbin at the end of the day and the biggest crisis of our times: climate change.

A born tech disruptor, Jamie Crummie co-founded the Too Good To Go app to try to tackle this problem, allowing consumers to connect with food sellers such as Morrisons, Costa Coffee, Cafe Nero and plenty of smaller independents, and collect “Magic Bags” of their waste produce at the end of each day at an affordable cost. It’s a bit like having a digital version of those supermarket discount shelves right there in your pocket.

Amazingly, the app recently celebrated their millionth saved meal – testament to the strength of the movement they’ve helped to inspire. Jamie has subsequently been listed as one of Forbes 30 Under 30, although he claims that’s neither here nor there.

Here, then, is our interview with Jamie Crummie, food waste activist. We get the sense we’ll be hearing a lot more from this guy in the future.

Taste testing non-alcoholic drinks... something we'd not have had much fun with until fairly recently. The rise of the adult-oriented non-alcoholic drink here in Britain has been swift. Laura Willoughby, the founder of Club Soda Guide and the Mindful Drinking Festival, says their website now lists 1,000 non-alcoholic options from 600 producers, many of which are operating here in the UK.

There's undoubtedly an irony to the fact that Britain, once the international poster boy for bad drinking behaviour, appears to be leading the non-alcoholic drinks movement. However, as Laura explains in this podcast, that's certainly the exciting situation we find ourselves in. Not only is our relationship with alcohol evolving, but the infrastructure is being updated, too. Aside from the growing legions of non-alcoholic drinks producers, the likes of Holland & Barrett are kitting out their nationwide stores with shelves dedicated to the Sober Curious.

Inevitably, Laura has become something of a connoisseur when it comes to that wide selection. So we raided her non-alcoholic drinks cabinet one recent lunchtime and took a collection of 12 bottles down into a podcasting studio that looked a little like a 1980s nuclear fallout shelter. Over a liquid smorgasbord, we discussed the rise of this movement, the great work that Club Soda are doing, the latest non-drinking stats and how to make your local pub really work for you.

Chin chin.

The statistics seem to be on a constant upward trend: young Millennials are turning away from alcohol in vast numbers. To an older generation, it sounds almost impossible. How can you not drink in your twenties? Isn't that what your twenties are for?

These ingrained ways of thinking, of course, are what fascinate us here on The Real Podcast. So this week, for our 12th episode, we sent Shani Higgs, one of the Real Kombucha team who recently gave up drinking for three months (you may have read her Sober Diaries on this blog), to meet Millie Gooch.

Millie is a writer and speaker, and the founder of Sober Girl Society (website here), an ever-growing collective of young women who are fed up with living a hangxiety-fuelled life, their weekends drowned out by beer fear, under constant pressure to succumb to Wine O'Clock. And when we say "an ever-growing collective", we mean it. The Sober Girl Society currently boasts close to 60,000 Instagram followers.

According to Millie, this new tribe is made up of young women, “People like me – busy lives, busy jobs, often working in media – who still wanted a social life but wanted to take alcohol out of the equation”. As our readers will know, this description is one that Shani has come to identify with wholeheartedly. So it made sense to give her the mic and get her talking.

In the following podcast you'll hear Millie and Shani discuss everything from the emergence of the Sober Girl Society, how the growing Sober Curious Movement relates to Cancel Culture and Callout Culture, how to navigate the pitfalls of sober dating, and what's involved in "coming out" as a non-drinker. They also discuss something called the "Pink Cloud" and "the Pink Cloud Dispersal Phase", which is a level of non-drinking science we've so far not discovered!

So, chatting to Millie Gooch about the rise of the Sober Girl Society over a glass of the finest non-alcoholic Prosecco alternative, here's Shani Higgs.