The WAY to WOW Shows
Cocktails & The Finer Things in Life
February 27, 2025
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[0:00] who are you and where are you going what do you [Music] want hello and welcome to jigger's place I'm your host Kevin bemel and we're here every other Thursday at 5:00 pm Pacific time to talk talk about all the aspects of life that don't aren't related to business and finances so uh uh jigger's

[0:40] place is named after my dog jiggers um if you here's here's this picture right here is a Jack russle Terrier and he was the most convivial being certainly that I've ever met and uh if you uh want to know more about him and and the uh roots of jiggers his place so please go to the original episode of this show um which is now in its second season and uh you can learn about it there um or you can come over you can come to Los Angeles and visit jigger's place and in in my uh

[1:16] my bar guide you have the the story right there so so today I'm i' I've been talking I've been you know promoting this show all week and trying to figure out exactly uh how I wanted to say this and I I came up with this uh getting ready for the show today we're going to talk about the Finer Things in life so that is a phrase that you don't hear very much anymore um but it was very common when when I was a boy to talk about the Finer Things in life and um they were they were they as

[1:52] I remarked yesterday it's it it it's not the things that make life worth living because I think the things that make life worth living are family friends um you know doing good things in the world um but they're the they're the things that enhance Our Lives they they give us some some pleasure um there are things that that we can feel some passion about and share with with other people uh that that sort of thing and and um while I was aware of such things as I when I was growing up um I didn't really get into them until I read a book

[2:30] by one of my favorite authors Peter ma um the book is called acquired tastes and I'm goingon to be talking specifically about um Peter M's work and and that book that book uh as it focuses on the Finer Things in life and and and kind of in talking about that so um normally I make a cocktail uh for uh you know here in jigger's place um because as you can see I've got my bar behind me here um but in honor of of of Peter Peter M who

[3:05] unfortunately passed away now I think it's about two three years ago I'm going to uh highlight one of his acquired tastes and and that is uh whiskey in particular now in England which is where Peter M was from uh when you say whiskey what you mean almost for sure is what we here in America call Scotch so um I I was my my father was a scotch Drinker um and uh I have two of his favorites in my bar um I

[3:42] was not a whiskey afficionado at all um never could understand why my dad liked it um and then then but then reading about it uh in in acquired taste I I got a sense of what my father must enjoy about it and by the way this was this book came out long before the explosion of of craft distilleries and all this kind of stuff and the and the the sort of resurgence of of spirits as as as one of the Finer Things One of the pleasures in life

[4:17] so uh for those of you uh not particularly familiar with whiskey and and and I'm going to be using that term meaning Scotch whiskey as opposed to say bourbon rise you know Canadian those kind of things um basically there's two categories of whiskies there's Blended whiskies and there's single malt whiskies uh and um now the fact of the matter is most single malt whiskies are sort of Blended because the only way you could have a whiskey that's not Blended is to have it be a single cast whiskey

[4:52] um but but when we say a single malt whiskey we really mean a whiskey where all all of the all of the um all all of what's in the bottle is is developed to be of the precise flavor profile as opposed to a blended whiskey where several whiskies of different flavor profiles are Blended together um and Blended whiskies are really meant to be consistent year after year after year um less so with single malt whiskies

[5:27] although um over the last I think I don't know I've been drinking single malts now for 25 years I think um I haven't noticed the flavor profiles of of of my preferences change um but uh be that as it may so um my dad's all-time favorite whiskey was a blended whiskey I don't have it in the bottle here it's in a decanter uh with with a Jack Russell Terrier on it for [ __ ] place and it's Johnny Walker Black black now in the days when my father uh drank Johnny

[6:05] Walker um there were two there was Johnny Walker red which was pretty awful and Johnny Walker black which was quite good so my my rat whiskey is is Johnny Walker black and and and uh in honor of my father nowadays you have Johnny Walker green and gold and blue uh I I I will say I I've had blue several times I think I it's it's it's fine it's it's you know it's a decent blended whiskey but I think it's not a particularly good value I think there's a lot of whiskies that are much better that are much less expensive anyway so and I always have a

[6:42] a a Johnny Walker black and soda on uh Friday afternoon um in preparation for The Jewish Sabbath uh in honor of my father um and and and and it is to this day um one of my very favorite uh uh Scotch whiskies um another one of my father's favorites that I have in my bar is cudy Sark I think that's because he was a sailor I don't know I never asked him I wish I had um my other very favorite blended Scotch whiskey is the Famous Grouse and you can't tell on the

[7:17] bottle but right here is an emblem um and it is um By Appointment of her majesty the queen uh Scott Scotch whiskey blenders uh Matthew you uh glok and Sun limited so um the queen to whom they're referring is Queen Elizabeth II who um if you follow such things you know pass passed away I think about a year and a half or two years ago so this was Queen Elizabeth II's favorite whiskey um and again it's it's a it's a wonderful blended Scotch

[7:52] whiskey and uh I also on uh uh Friday afternoons I have a little Tipple of uh the Famous Grouse and I toast to the queen because I think uh Queen Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth II one of the greatest women who ever lived um my all-time favorite Scotch whiskey is a single Mt Scotch whiskey obon okay this is a 14-year-old single malt scotch whiskey um it is a West

[8:27] Highland um uh whiskey that West Highland is just the part of Scotland from which it comes um and I I've told the story about it I think on on a previous show but um I was in uh Seattle on business I flew in um late on a Sunday afternoon didn't have to work until Monday decided to go out to dinner to a this very Cozy Restaurant a few blocks from my hotel it was a darkening night as I walked down there there you know you know Seattle is a very uh Misty Town it was very romantic

[9:04] I walked into this restaurant it was very warm inside and they had a whiskey flight of single malt scotch whiskies prior to that um I I really had tasted Scotch whis uh single malts that I that I recall and and there was a 10 a 12 a 14 and a 16-year-old Scotch whiskey and so I was sitting in this big leather chair at at at it was it wasn't the bar because there was a a bar but it was a place where people who were eating by themselves could sit you could see the you know the kitchen you know across the way and I ordered this flight of single

[9:39] malt scotch whiskies and I drank the 10 and I thought oh it's okay I couldn't tell you what it was I drank the 12 H it's okay I drank the 14 and Angels started to sing so and I drank the 16 and it wasn't nearly as good as the 14 so you know the number of years that a scotch has been aged um um doesn't necessarily mean you know if a scotch is older it doesn't necessarily mean that it's better um at least in my experience so um so in honor of Peter ma um I'm gonna have a a single malt scotch

[10:14] whiskey um and I thought I would take just another minute to talk about glasses so um you know typically uh um scotch will be uh drunk in a uh what's called a rocks glass um it's a sort of a you know squat somewhat squarish glass it goes by a number of names um and and some people like to drink their whiskey over an ice cube some people like to have a little water in it some people drink it with soda that's what that's generally how how I drink it although not a single malt as good as obon um and

[10:51] then these Karen glasses became very popular for drinking whiskey you can see they have this sort of shape and the idea is they funnel um the the nose of the whiskey so that you can you're not really supposed to stick your nose into a glass whether it's wine or or whiskey or whatever um but this funnels the the scent of the whiskey um for you to drink it um and this one happens to be from tarnish truth Distilling Company which is the distillery in the basement of the Cavalier Hotel in Virginia Beach um my sister was just there over the past weekend I had recommended that she visit

[11:28] there and she just just loved it um my go-to whiskey class is actually a Shirley Temple mug or Shirly Temple little little glass here um I got this from um my dear Marie um the the the the woman um that I always sign off my show with She's My Belle um and so um ironically I guess um Marie was not into two Spirits I don't even think she drank wine um I hope that she doesn't mind my um using the glass that I I um inherited

[12:04] from her um to drink whiskey in and uh Shirley Temple always one of my favorite actresses a great great woman um you may know she was an ambassador um when uh President Reagan was in office um and uh you know just a a tremendous human being and so this this glass brings together um you know so so much of of what uh I enjoy and respect in life so just going to pour myself a uh some some obon and then we're going to continue with the show so oops well maybe more

[12:41] than I should but oh well whatever and um I will wish you cheers so good so good okay I'll see you on the couch

[13:28] ah so here we are it's uh Thursday afternoon uh here in here in Los Angeles I umum I was fortunate enough to have a house guest until this morning um one one of my my dearest friends uh David uh he he and his wife live in Florida he was here on on business and uh it's always a a pleasure to um to spend time with David and to be able to host him and we uh we had dinner a couple nights ago and had some wine together um so uh you know after a very difficult

[14:03] week last week um it was really wonderful to uh to have a friend and by the way you may be you may be wondering wait uh don't you wear a a bow tie for jigger's place yes normally I do and don't you wear a foreign hand tie for all your other shows yes so what's with the um sort of handkerchief tie around your neck so um we're we're going to get to that so as I mentioned this show is about the Finer Things in life and and it's also kind of a tribute to one of my favorite writers Peter Ma so Peter ma was a an advertising executive

[14:41] um in uh in in England um as far as I know he spent his advertising career in London although I think he did spend some time here in the United States as well and um I don't know exactly why um but at one point he decided um well I mean he tells the story in the book but he and his wife um decided that um he was going to give up advertising and they were going to move to the south of France in particular to provance um and uh they did and he wrote a book uh

[15:21] sort of memorializing their experience called a year in provance this is the book this is the paperback version it anyway and it was written 1982 let's see let's see how good my memory is uh 1989 1989 um and the book was an enormous success it really kind of took the World by storm and it is a wonderful book um it's it's funny it's Charming um it's

[15:57] informative and it really uh shows uh the love of of of a man for uh for his wife um for his the country of his birth for the country of his adoption um this whole thing about how the English and the French hate each other uh no I don't think not so much certainly not not the case uh with with Peter male um and and and like uh I I don't want to call him Peter I never met him um but like like Peter M

[16:32] um I am both a a an angile and a Francophile so there are many parts of of both country's cultures that uh um that I that I dearly love um this is a little sketch of him by the way with his dog um the illustrations are done by um Judith shoot what's her name Judith Clancy so it's it's it's an absolutely wonderful book Charming book highly recommend it um you can read it you know in one sitting and this is what introduced me to Peter M and to the south of France so before that for me

[17:08] France was always uh Paris um I can't tell you how many times I've watched An American in Paris um but to me the Jean Kelly um movie um is the epitome of what France is about um and I I idolize or not idolized but romanticized Paris and France for decades until I finally visited there for the first time in uh January of 2018 and as I remarked to the people I was

[17:43] with there at the time the City of Lights does not disappoint even with all of the Romanticism that I had built up over the decades I was still absolutely Enchanted by Paris um and and and um so and then some a few years after that and let me get you the let me get you the date here uh oh yeah in in actually a year later or no three years later in 1992 Peter ma wrote a book called acquired tastes and this is a book about

[18:23] all of from from Peter M's perspective all of Finer Things in life it was actually the fourth book that he wrote and he talks about uh well he gives he gives um uh uh different he gives funny names to the chapters um I'm going to read some of them so uh one of them is um uh all um which side do you dress that's a reference to having uh Taylor

[18:58] Made clothes because that's what the Taylor will ask you the Millionaire's mushroom um which is about truffles um you know how the rich keep warm uh that's about cashmir a mouthful of black pearls um that's about caviar um the true cigar which is of course about cigars and one of the chapters is about The Malt meaning Scotch whiskey

[19:34] chairs so you know I read about all these um wonderful things that um you know that that um you know that that Peter M talked about and um I said you know some of these sound um quite intriguing so um one of them was the which side do you dress and the shirt Delux so it used to be that

[20:13] uh all clothing was essentially tailor made in the sense that um you didn't go to the store and buy clothes off the rack um if you were wealthy you had a tailor make them for you and if you were poor um your mother made them for you or your wife made them for you or you seed them yourself um but but you know we didn't shop for clothes the way we do now and and so so-called bespoke clothing is you know H has become um or

[20:49] at especially at the time of this book had really become the the province of the the very wealthy um but I was I was in intrigued by the idea of having um a you know a suit made specifically for me um and I you you probably can't tell but this shoulder is actually lower than this shoulder because I broke my collar bone and so no matter what I would get uh when whenever I would buy a suit off the rack it never fit quite right because I'm lopsided basically so um I

[21:26] was involved with a networking group uh I I got involved with the networking group I should say um uh short around the same time that this book came out and uh there there a Taylor joined the group uh and he had what he called the clothing plan where you could pay so many dollars a month and depending on how much you paid periodically you could come in and order a suit or a sports coat and slacks or some shirts whatever and they would all be they weren't they weren't really bespoke that's a little

[22:02] bit different they were what we called made to measure which is kind of a middle ground between off the rack what you buy in a store and bepoke which is very carefully made exactly for your body uh the fellow's name was Greg Chapman his shop still exists on on Robertson Boulevard in Beverly Hills just uh several blocks north of where I I where I live right now and the first suit I had him make for me was a very subtly pinstriped blue suit I

[22:40] love that suit I I don't have it any longer um but over the years he made a number of suits for me they fit like a dream they were so comfortable to wear that I started wearing suits every day just because they were the most comfortable things that I had to wear uh he did make me a tuxedo at one point I actually still have that tuxedo um it's frankly a little bit out of style um but the the jacket is is just it's so comfortable

[23:15] because it's made very much for the the shape of my body and one of the things that um Greg Greg um dealt with is the fact that I have one shoulder uh you know lower than the other and so that was adjusted for um in in the suits to begin with rather than what I had to do with a suit that that I bought off the rack where they had to kind of try and you know remake this remake the suit a little or remake the the coat a little bit to accommodate my weirdly shaped you know shoulders so um so so I tried that

[23:52] and then I had him make shirts for me and again it was these shirts shirts F fit so well one of the things I realized was I wore them so often and had to have them laundered so often that they you know pretty quickly wore out and and and that is one of the the the the things about shirts is you know you kind of need to have a lot of them so that you're not wearing them and and laundering them you know constantly um and you need to have a a you know a launderer uh like Browns cleaners in

[24:28] Santa Monica where they launder your shirts in cold water which which maintains their uh um their condition and wearability much longer uh than if they're watered in laundered in warm or hot water which um has a a negative impact on the fabric it it can cause them to shrink and in fact the cleaners I went to before Browns cleaners um they laundered my shirts in water and in several cases with some beautiful tuxedo shirts they ended up with sleeves that

[25:03] were too short unfortunately I couldn't wear the shirts didn't fit me anymore so um the you know and I was I I was talking with my nephew on Tuesday and somehow we got on the subject of men's clothing and I was and he was telling me that he really you know he would really like to learn how to how to dress better um there there's there was no one to well his mother tried to he said my mom tried to

[25:39] show my sister uh his mother tried to show him how when he was kind of a teenager he wasn't interested and now that he's you know um old a little bit older he's married G to be having a baby soon he really feels like he needs to sort of up grade um his his clothing and so we talked about it a little bit and uh you know God willing um he'll he'll he'll ask me for more guidance and and uh you know hopefully I'll introduce him to um

[26:14] the the comfort that comes from clothes that that fit you well even though you know suits and slacks and sports coats and you know collared shirts have the reputation for being uncomfortable in many cases they can be at least as comfortable as sweats if not more so and the way they make you know a person feel uh is is is certainly worth any minor margin of discomfort that there may be you know that there may come from not wearing sweats so um so that was

[26:52] that was one of the one of the finer things in life that um I learned from Peter Ma my older sister started out professionally as a fashion designer uh of of women's clothing and so I learned from her that it was important to dress beautifully um but I didn't learn anything about uh tailored or bepoke or made to measure uh clothing uh from her uh and that's okay she she gave me an awaren of how how a man should dress and then uh Peter ma took it from from there

[27:29] so uh that that's one of the Finer Things in life uh that I that I got from Peter ma another is scotch whiskey which I've already told you about another is what he calls the millionaires mushroom uh which is truffles so um if you've never had truffles um they are kind of like a mushroom in texture they have a more earthy flavor they also have a smell to them that that's that's quite

[28:04] um uh Savory and they are I mean they're just a wonderful thing to eat so uh people will grate them over an omelette U people will um mix them into uh uh um Pate um I I know I have uh I think two little uh jars of truffle oil um where I think it's olive oil that's been infused with truffles

[28:41] um they are like they're like mushrooms on steroids but in a good way um they and the whole way that truss truffles grow the way they're found so um uh in in France um dogs and pigs are trained to sniff out truffles um and there's there's black truffles there's white truffles so it's it's a whole thing and they're they're only in season uh in in the fall you can get them canned of course um the canned are

[29:17] not as good as fresh Truffles and fresh truffles of course very expensive I couldn't tell you what their cost is nowadays I can't afford them um even the canned ones are are you know expensive um but if you have the opportunity to taste them uh Avail yourself of the opportunity especially if you love mushrooms because they are a taste

[29:52] sensation and I never would have known about them or tried them had it not been in for for Peter May uh and so staying on the culinary side of things um I mentioned another one of his chapters um a mouth full of black pearls so I I as I as I said at the beginning of the show um this is refers to caviar so uh caviar has come to mean any kind of fish eggs but in its kind of

[30:29] original usage it referred specifically to the eggs of certain species of sturgeon in Russia so you so there's Beluga which is one species of uh of of sturgeon that caviar historically came from um and there's uh see beluga and um shoot I had another one in my mind now now it went away cuga uh is another one so there were different ones um

[31:04] now um there is a controversy in the kosher World um because um historically the sturgeon was not considered a Kosher fish um and so therefore the eggs from that fish would not be kosher um and the reason was considered not Kosher is supposedly sturgeon didn't have scales so um about 20 or 25 years ago um because we now have things like microscopes uh somebody examined a sturgeon and said indeed it does have

[31:40] scales so the sturgeon should be kosher the tradition is they're not and so you can't eat uh genuine caviar um so you know depending on how strict you are I'll let you figure that out uh for yourself or in consultation with your Rabbi um but uh these days you you have things like salmon caviar which is basically salmon what would have been called previously salmon row salmon eggs and the salmon is a Kosher fish so so even if you keep kosher you can you can eat it and and it is it's quite

[32:18] delicious um I will on occasion when I can afford it um have salmon salmon row and I I tend to uh have it just like one does caviar uh with with a little creme fresh or some sour cream with some chopped hardboiled eggs some chopped uh Red Onion um on uh maybe a toast like a wafer toast or um uh a particular good particularly

[32:54] good thing to have uh caviar on is something called called shura matah it's a it's a it's a type of matah I should say specifically handmade shura matah it's a particular type of matah that's only available uh during the Passover season and I'll usually get an extra box to have on hand it's a very uh dry almost cracker like um uh bread because it's it's just flour and water

[33:29] um but it's particularly good uh to have with with salmon row or caviar and in fact I'm told that there are high-end restaurants in New York for example that during the Passover season will stock up on shura matah and serve it with uh with caviar you know until until basically they run out of it um and and the idea is it has a it has a fairly neutral taste and so it's it's the perfect base for for the caviar or the caviar with the eggs and the creme fresh and the and the uh chopped onions so um I had never

[34:06] I mean I had heard of caviar of course but I had never thought about trying it until I read acquired tastes and Peter ma is right it is it is wonderful now if you if you detest fish you're probably not going to like caviar um but it it it is really an amazing taste so there are um you can also get kosher Whitefish caviar um which is the eggs themselves are black they look very much like

[34:41] actual caviar although they're they're really white fish row and uh it doesn't to my palette taste like caviar um first of all it's saltier than caviar um but um it it it ALS is very delicious um not nearly as expensive as caviar for sure or even as salmon row um and so if you're looking for a way to kind of ease yourself into the caviar world or the Egg you know the fish egg World um you know consider uh

[35:20] White Fish uh roow now a little tip on uh caviar I think I learned it from Peter ma is uh don't eat it with a metal spoon because the interaction between the caviar and the metal causes an oxidation that that brings a a bad flavor to the caviar so historically uh caviar spoons were made of uh horn like the Horn of a cow and in fact my mother when she found out I I

[35:55] had developed an affinity for caviar gave me a set two sets of uh caviar spoons and they're made from horn they're quite beautiful and you know they're they're they're absolutely the right thing um they're absolutely the best utensil for eating caviar if you're just G to kind of scoop it and eat it or even if you're going to scoop it and put it on a cracker or Moz or toast whatever you're going to do you don't want the oxidation from the metal so if you've ever had caviar from a metal spoon and didn't like it I do recommend that you try it again without using a metal spoon

[36:32] you may find that you like it because I have had it dish from a metal spoon uh and and it it it definitely tasted funny if not actually bad uh and so um the other uh what What's become kind of a a classic caviar spoon is the plastic spoons you get from Baskin Robins of all things so plastic too does not interact with a caviar and so it's a very oh it's a it's it's a free if you've gone to Baskin Robins you know they'll give you a spoon to eat your ice cream or a

[37:07] little a little spoon that they use for the tasting spoon I have sets of both of them um and and they are also kind of a fun way uh to eat caviar and and and so you know plastic spoon or you know traditional caviar spoon made of bone either one um if you're going to try caviar use one of those spoons um you know I like it plain I like it you know just to take a spoonful of it I like it on just you know matah by itself or toast by itself but it's it it's just it's so good when you have the creme fresh or the sour cream and a caviar a

[37:45] little bit of uh chopped hardboiled egg and a little bit of chopped up Red Onion those flavors together there's something about them all the flavors coming together uh there are there's nothing like them and there are few things to the extent that we can measure the quality of taste um that that compare to them so another thing that that I got from Peter ma uh and let's see what other what other finer things in life do I want to tell you about uh before Before I Let You Go um so um it was also through the

[38:25] um the uh office is of of Peter ma um that uh that I decided to try uh cigars so my father smoked a pipe when I was a boy and uh the smell of of pipe tobacco I can still kind of smell it in my mind's nose so to speak um he he smoked Cherry tobacco it was a particular brand of pipe tobacco that was very popular in the 60s and 70s um and my favorite picture of my dad is one kind of a a semi-profile of them he has

[39:01] his pipe um and and but I never I I don't know I never you know tried smoking a pipe was never into smoking cigarettes um and was always kind of intrigued by cigars but um you know the kind of cigars that were uh around when I was a kid the sort of uh you know the ones you'd buy in a you know drugstore or whatever not very high quality they smelled bad when they were burning um and so never really interested me and then uh but but you know reading about them in acquired

[39:39] taste I thought well you know maybe if I had a chance to try a high quality cigar I would um but I never had the chance until this was the you know was it was not long after I read this book it was early to mid 1990s um some friends of mine invited me up to their house uh they were living in um I think it was Redwood City south of San Francisco

[40:14] and uh they invited me up and uh you know for dinner so I I drove up for dinner we had dinner and they they said uh would you like to hang out in the hot tub and I love Hot Tubs so and I had brought my swim swimsuit so and I'm getting you know I'm in the room changing in my swimsuit and this is my life my ex-girlfriend through whom I had met them shows up at

[40:49] their house and I thought this is a little bit weird but whatever I hadn't seen her in years and so we we get into the hot tub and and my host uh Dennis says uh would you like some port wine so I'm telling you any kind of wine is okay with me so Dennis went and got some uh port wine uh was it port wine no I take that back it was conac I'm sorry he asked if you wanted some cognac so he went and got some cognac at French Brandy basically from the cognac region in

[41:26] France and if you if if if you're familiar with it so cognac is is served in a kind of bulbous glass and typically you'll kind of warm it up a little bit so of course the heat coming off of the hot tub was warming the Cognac and so we're sitting in this it was a gigantic hot tub I've never seen a hot tub bigger than this one we're sitting in this gigantic hot tub very relaxed with our cognac um and and then um Dennis says you know my cousin sent me some Cuban cigars and I'm thinking to myself you can't get Cuban

[42:01] cigars in the United States at the time it was illegal they may still be and I said well how did you get those he said well my cousin England they're able to get them and so then he sent them to me in the United States so he said if you'd like one so I figured this is my big chance so he went and got his cigars now if you can kind of picture this in a hot tub the warm bubbly water the cognac the Steam and the cigar so the steam coming off the cognac I mean coming off of the uh hot tub really mellowed this

[42:40] cigar and I mean it was just wonderful uh to be honest it was one of the few times I really enjoyed a full-on you know big stogy type cigar um most of the times after that they're just too big and too much for me to take um and so I don't think you can see it behind me because it's blocked by these books I do have a humidor and in my humidor I have what are called clubs siiz cigars which are cigars that are a little bit bigger than a traditional

[43:15] cigarette and I was introduced to them by a chaplain friend of mine when I was station in Germany where you can get Cuban cigars um and um I have davidas that was the one I I enjoyed the most and and they are they're they're really wonderful so if if you're if you if you're not a smoker um but you want to enjoy uh or or you want to see if if a cigar is enjoyable for you what I would recommend is is get a a clubs siiz cigar

[43:51] um they're not going to overwhelm you and you can get a sense of now why are cigars so wonderful well first of all you don't inhale them into your lungs like you do cigarettes you you you take the smoke into your mouth and then you expel it so what you're doing is you're tasting the flavor of the tobacco without ingesting the smoke so um now there are some cigar smokers who tell you there's no danger in smoking cigars I don't know that that's actually the case um there are you know cases

[44:26] where people get you know like mouth cancer from cigars but if you if if like me you have a you know a club- siiz cigar you know maybe once a month um you very unlikely you're going to have any you know health problems from them and what you're really going to experience is the deliciousness of tobacco and unlike you know like the the 50s 60s 7s where people you know chain smoked and

[45:01] they'd smoke you know a pack of cigarettes a day and that kind of thing that was not historically how tobacco was meant to be enjoyed so um tobacco was kind of like almost a dessert if you will um and and so um from that standpoint the the health impact is small if if at all and and and again it was it was because of acquired taste that I tried them so um and and I I you know I have friends who you know they dearly love cigars and they all kinds of things about them um I I just treat them

[45:38] as as a little bit of a treat once in a while so uh so that's that's another acquired taste uh to which Peter M um introduced me and then the last one well actually no I'm sorry there's two more I want to talk about so one is champagne so if you read any of Peter Ma's books champagne is a part of his books uh I never had tried champagne I think before I read his books having read them I was curious and

[46:15] one Sip and I was sold um there is no greater beverage in the world uh than champagne uh and when I say champ chag I mean specifically sparkling wine that is that is from the Champagne region of France that is really that is the only wine that qualifies to be called champagne um that that's by law in France and by treaty with any country to which champagne is shipped like the

[46:50] United States and indeed uh champagne is made according to what's known as me champenois which is the champagne method uh and and indeed countries who have who have signed this treaty they're not supposed to uh allow sparkling wine made in the champagne method to be called metho champenois they're supposed to call it method traditionel which is the traditional method it it's the same method as champ

[47:27] but it's not it's not actually performed in the Champagne region of France so there is nothing better to this day than champagne in sparkling wine uh there just isn't it it could be the conditions under which it's aged and these sort of chalk um uh structured uh C which is the the cellers in which it's aged it could be the the chalk and the soil in which the grapes are grown there's lots of

[48:03] different theories about it but the carbonation is so fine yet distinctive The Taste the buet all of it there is there is in my there's no better uh uh beverage in my opinion than than champagne um now there are lovely sparkling wines from other countries there are wonderful cavas from Spain there are wonderful pros from Italy there are sparkling wines here in the United States um that are made one of my

[48:38] favorite is is is it's not even meth metho tradicio now my friend uh Jeff Morgan makes a sparkling wine that really is is very simply made it's it's a it's essentially a Chardonnay wine with uh with um uh CO2 pumped into it um but I I love the Covenant sparkling wine that he makes he sells out every year very quickly uh uh the Herzog Winery the these are both these are all kosher of

[49:13] course CU I keep kosher the Herzog Winery makes a methot traditionel uh white sparkling wine and Rosé sparkling wine they do label it as metho champenois I I think that's that's wrong on their part but it is it is uh it is very good um so there are good sparkling wines made outside of champagne um but in the end there is there is nothing like champagne to to borrow a line from uh from the the great show South Pacific so uh if you like

[49:50] wine but you've never had sparkling wine try some champagne and uh I I you know especially it's not just for special occasions people associate champagne with celebration I think it's the opposite way around I think drinking champagne makes the time that you're drinking it a wonderful occasion so I encourage you to think of it that way uh so that's that's uh that's the penultimate uh acquired taste and then the final acquired taste that Peter M talks about

[50:27] is a great Hotel so look I love being at home um but when I travel if I have to travel I vastly prefer to stay in a great hotel now a great Hotel doesn't mean that it's big or that it's well known or that it has um all kinds of amenities no it's a hotel where the guest is welcomed warmly and

[51:02] sincerely it's it's a place where uh the rooms are are clean and whether they're richly appointed or somewhat more sparingly appointed they they're designed for comfort and it's a place that you en you just enjoy coming to and even though you're going home home you leave with a sense of bittersweetness so um um there is the Mayflower Hotel in

[51:38] Seattle um that that's an example of of one of of one of the great hotels that I've stayed in um oh gosh I know I'm I'm going up on the name there's a hotel in the Mountain Brook area of Birmingham um it's part of the Kesler collection and I'm going up on the name it and it's a newer Hotel whereas the Mayflower is in Historic Hotel it is wonderful the staff there is superb uh the bar is just a wonderful place to go have a cocktail and

[52:13] relax um you know I always enjoyed when I had to travel to Birmingham a lot to take care of my dear Marie I always enjoyed staying there and it was always a little bit bittersweet leaving even though I was going home um so there is nothing like a wonderful hotel and uh Peter ma wrote a book I'll give you the date yeah it was it was actually written the year after acquired taste in 1993 called Hotel

[52:50] Pas and it this is this is this is his first fiction book that he read that he wrote sorry and it's the story of an advertising executive who essentially gives up the the fastpaced uh stress-filled world of advertising in London to buy and refurbish a building into a boutique hotel in provance I I I think I've read this book every year since I've gotten it so I've probably read it more than 20 times I

[53:25] know I gave it as gift to a client of mine when I had my real estate company and he he devoured it he was a big fan of provance he and his wife used to go there every year in the summer and he he he sent me a message about the the fantasy of it uh but the hotel provance is essentially an Ode to a great hotel and uh if if you like to travel uh like I do and I aspire to be a member of the uh traveler Century club which is a

[54:02] club where you've traveled to 100 countries in the world I'm not anywhere near that now my effort has been stalled for personal reasons uh the last few years uh but there are places that we can go to where they're not home but we're still greeted like family and that's that's really the the I think the theme of Hotel pastis it's it's a wonderful book it's it's it's the kind of book you and you can tell you can see it's kind of

[54:37] starting to get dog ear from the number of times I've read it but if if you want some romance in your life uh read hotel pasti and then make plans to travel and find a hotel pasce in real life knowing that you know the odds are against finding it but there's as much pleasure in the hunt as there is in the

[55:13] finding and I think I'm saying this as much to remind myself as I am to share with you uh I think much of life is much of the the Delight in life is not NE necessarily in the finding it's it's it's in the search and if we can keep that in mind um it will reduce the impact of the difficult aspects of our lives and it will give us

[55:50] something to look forward to and to enjoy and to Revel in uh the search and then truly Delight when we find it I I found a handful of hotels like this in the world one of them that leaps to mind is the hotel at at Colonial Williamsburg they have little Cottages with fireplaces one of the most delightful three days I've ever had in my entire life and life isn't

[56:26] living in in hotel pasce but the thought that for short periods of time we can find them uh will hopefully give us the strength to get through the challenges of life and now that I think about it hopefully jigger's place is like one of these hotels it's a place where you can come to relax and just enjoy forget about the cares of the work a day world

[57:01] and we can just spend a little while together so a final toast to you my live viewers especially I wish you a wonderful evening excuse me a wonderful rest of the week and weekend the way to shows start again on Monday at 10:00 a.m. and and uh and and we can continue to learn together and

[57:36] two weeks from today continue to enjoy life together so signing off I thank you very much for joining me and and if you're not watching if you if you're watching this uh you know on my YouTube channel subsequently I thank you very very much for for viewing this episode and uh signing off as I always do Marie darling you you are my bell I I hope up in shamayim in heaven that um you're you

[58:13] know looking down on the things that I do and and you're um pleased by my attempt to uh bring your legacy to the world and uh know that I I love you and I to this day am very privileged that I got to spend all the time I did with you the last year of your life courage at all times my friends