Matt: 1:01

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Intro: 1:13

We have liftoff. Welcome to Matt and Friends. Drink the Universe. Drink the Universe.

Matt: 1:25

Alright, welcome back to Matt and Friends Drink the Universe.

Intro: 1:28

The theme for today is A good drink can be an experience, and a good experience can call for a good drink. I've invited my friends to bring a drink of their choice and to share a story.

Josh: 1:39

This time I've brought another beer which, if you don't know, is from Hawaii.

Intro: 1:43

It's going to be a traumatic experience for Siobhan, which seems to be the theme for sharing stories.

Matt: 1:51

This is the mudslide recipe from Rum Point in the Cayman Islands. I recently was up in Maine Last summer.

Intro: 1:58

I spent time in Lithuania. Sit back and enjoy as we answer the question how did we get beer?

Matt: 2:07

So joining me drinking the universe today are some of my great friends. It's the fish. I'm Josh.

Christa: 2:14

I'm Christa.

Matt: 2:15

And we have the fish live and in the scales and as a teaser for later in the episode, I think we're going to learn why we call the fish the fish the episode, I think we're going to learn why, we call the fish the fish, whoa Low drop.

Intro: 2:27

Pale teased.

Matt: 2:28

It's up to him whether or not he wants to say his actual name at any point, because it's never been said on the p podcast.

The Fish: 2:34

This is very true. Has it not been Never? No, not once, never.

Matt: 2:38

So let's go ahead. We're going to get started. Dive right into it.

Christa: 2:45

Christa, would you like to go first? Yes, I would love to. So the drink that I had brought today is an Orange Crush, Best made with fresh squeezed orange juice, which is what I have here as well. I got it from Sips and Berries in Harleysville, PA. This drink is one that I had a couple years ago when I was in Ocean City. I mean, I drink this drink a lot whenever it's summertime, it's a big summertime drink. A couple of years ago, me and a couple of my girlfriends shout out Davina, Rachel, Rita and Amanda we all went to Ocean City.

Matt: 3:10

Was that Mambo no 5 you just did?

Christa: 3:13

A little bit of Monica in my life.

Matt: 3:15

This one to check.

Christa: 3:16

We went out for, you know, a weekend in Ocean City and went a little hard on Friday night. So by Saturday we were just all deceased, dead, like really, we're trying to scrape ourselves off the pavement. And you know, we like went out for dinner. We had a drink at dinner and I was. We were like, oh, it was okay, I guess.

Christa: 3:36

Um, we went to my friend Davina's like let's go to Hammerheads, like we'll get a watermelon margarita and we'll be lifted back to life. I'm like, oh, good idea, good idea, we go to Hammerheads and they're like we don't do that anymore. And we're like, oh, got like a, got a random drink, you know like whatever, like it was okay. And we're like kind of still like just not really feeling it. You know the vibe is not here, um, but we wanted to end at Fish Tales in Ocean City, maryland. Um, it's one of our favorite bars. It's like right on the water and all of us are just not not vibing, not jiving, we're all kind of dead.

Christa: 4:09

And Rita, I think, was like I'm gonna get an orange crush and we're like you know what? That sounds like a good idea, sounds like a really good idea. Yeah, you know what? Me too, I'm gonna get one too. And we were like revived from this drink, the orange juice in it and the triple sec and vodka. We're just like, wow, this is fabulous, amazing. And then I think we hung out at fishtails the rest of the night, but instead of us, you know, going home at like or going back to our hotel room at like eight o'clock because we were dead, we were, we were out till the cows came home again. Um, so this is my this is your kickstarter.

Christa: 4:38

This is my revival back from the dead drink, so I hope you guys like was that ocean city, jersey or maryland?

Matt: 4:44

ocean city, maryland I have not been there since I was 18 years old. We've been going to virginia beach and stuff like.

Christa: 4:49

But I do love ocean city well, we went to ocean city for my friend davina's bachelorette party, which was that was my second time in ocean city. Um, because I did go to ocean city for senior trip in when I was graduating high school, but we didn't do a whole lot anyway because we were like 18. So what are we gonna do? But then, yeah, going when I was like in my 20s I'm still in my 20s, but going like as somebody who could drink is a lot more fun.

Matt: 5:12

So the fish is a little older, just died inside, but that's okay sorry, but no it it it is a very fun town it's good, good for drinking, good for drinking.

Josh: 5:22

So what all did you put in this drink I might need to?

Christa: 5:26

So this drink is fresh squeezed orange juice from Sips and Berries, also vodka, which is just like plain unflavored vodka, but I got this vodka from Boardroom Spirits in Lansdale, which is another small distillery.

Josh: 5:38

And they do have familiar.

Christa: 5:39

Yeah, I like their stuff. They got good stuff.

Josh: 5:41

I'm not the Irvine's vodka.

Christa: 5:45

I don't remember it's. I would have to look at my bottle. I forgot. I'm not a huge vodka fan. In general I don't drink it a lot, but I do like the boardroom one. I think it's nice. Um, I do enjoy that one. And then it's triple sec as well. Um, and then just a splash of sprite on top, sure it's done very well.

Matt: 6:00

I can't get the taste of vodka as I drink. I don't taste the vodka.

Josh: 6:05

You're welcome. This is great.

Christa: 6:07

This is very good. I'm glad you guys like it.

Matt: 6:09

Christa I don't think this is your first one, but I'm just saying you're going to.

Intro: 6:14

Stellar.

Matt: 6:15

Senate. Is Ocean City one of your vacation spots? Do you find yourself there a lot?

Christa: 6:20

I'm one of these people that I like to travel around a lot. I like to go to new places, so I don't like to stop in the same place. You know multiple, multiple times. I have gone back to Ocean City a couple of times and I do enjoy going there. So when I do end up going I always have a blast. But I know like I enjoy going to a lot of different places and experiencing different things.

Matt: 6:41

Shameless plug. If you want to go new places, call Poppins Travel yeah.

Josh: 6:45

I mean, Crushes are one of my favorites, especially for the spring and summer, and you can really change them up in so many ways. You can use a flavored vodka for it. You know this same exact cocktail.

Christa: 6:58

You don't change any ingredients, you just put a flavored vodka in there and it changes it, or, if you want to do, grapefruit juice or some other type of juice in there you can.

Josh: 7:06

you can change it up that way. They're so simple and so easy to make and very refreshing and yeah, very, very versatile drink.

Christa: 7:12

And yeah, every time I drink one, I just I'm like wow, I feel so much better.

Matt: 7:15

Like.

Christa: 7:16

I mean that could be the vodka is talking. But I'm going to have send me the exact recipe with the exact vodka ingredients and all that stuff and we're going to put it up like I said it's. It's the juice that makes the difference, because if you have like simply orange or like chapagana in it, you're like it's good, whatever. But when you get like fresh squeezed juice in there, whether that be from a grapefruit or orange or whatever you're doing, the fresh squeezed juice, the fresh juice really does make the drink. It elevates really good.

Josh: 7:43

I think that's part of the appeal. When you go down to Ocean City, they are doing. They have the, you know the little hand crank juicer and they're juicing it straight from the fruit right into the cup and they're uh, they're topping it with the vodka and the Sprite or whatever soda they're using, and you know that's part of the appeal to it. It makes the drink a little bit more expensive at the bar, but it ups the freshness of it.

Matt: 8:03

I was going to say for many years I had to drink on a budget. For some of that it was like mandatory, and then for more of that it was just like I want to drink on a budget. And lately, for probably the last two years, especially since I started the podcast, it's like I've realized how important fresh ingredients actually are, because it makes that much difference in any cocktail that you're making. It really does. It's night and day for a lot of cocktails. Huge, huge difference, yeah.

Christa: 8:26

I mean one of the other things that, like my mom especially, was always into. My mom always makes like fresh homemade iced tea in the summers with, you know, black tea and a little bit of orange juice. But one thing that was always like the best was we had mint that grew in our backyard, so fresh mint in that.

Josh: 8:44

That's a nice touch Cocktails are very similar to cooking right, and every person who's trained in the kitchen will tell you fresh herbs are going to trump dried herbs every time. And there is a place for dried herbs in recipes and things like that and there's probably a place for Tropicana orange juice in some drinks. But you know you're going to get so much more of the true essence and flavor out of fresh stuff and in cooking and in in making drinks.

Josh: 9:11

A little bit of effort goes a long way For sure, but but to Matt's point, it's more expensive, it's more expensive to buy a bunch of oranges and juice them yourself than get just the you know $2.

Matt: 9:26

I I don't know who knows these days $3, $4 bottle of Tropicana that's processed and then pasteurized, and all that yeah right, where are you shopping?

Christa: 9:31

Fish is like I'm swimming to that store.

Matt: 9:33

I at the risk of Making Josh die. I used to make All of my gin and tonics with, like the concentrated Lemon juice. They taste so bad like that, though, and I started squeezing my own lemons, oh, and I see people use like.

Josh: 9:46

Rose's lime juice. People will see lime juice in a recipe and they will use Rose's lime juice. And not only is that not like bottled lime juice, that's like lime flavored sweet syrup.

Christa: 9:59

It's just so bad.

Josh: 9:59

I'm like, oh my God, please try it with fresh limes one time. And if you need it to be sweeter, I will always tell people, just make simple syrup it's really easy it's. It's one part sugar, it's one part water. Bring it to a boil, put it in a bottle in your fridge. You can keep it for months and if you want to sweeten your drink up, just sweeten it that way don't use these fake bullshit sweeteners. Excuse my language use fresh citrus and sweeten it to however you like.

Christa: 10:24

Yeah, I'm a big. I'm a big gin and tonic fan. That's like been my go-to drink for the last like year, a couple of years or something. But uh, yeah, I always have fresh limes on hand because it just is so much better to have half a lime squeezed into it than to use, like you know, lime juice from a bottle and as in cooking right.

Josh: 10:40

So in cooking we say season as you go. So if you need something to have more salt, you add more salt.

Josh: 10:45

If you want something to be a little more citrusy, you might squeeze instead of where it says in the recipe half a lemon. You might squeeze a lemon and a half because that's how you like it. You can do that when you're making cocktails at home. You take the recipe that you found online, in a book or whatever. You taste it and you're like you know what? I like my margaritas more sour, or I like my margaritas more sweet, or I like them stronger. So add something to it, write it down and okay, this is how I like it and that's how you go from there. So you don't have to stick to the recipe, taste it, say I like it this way, I like it that way and change it. So, yeah, customize.

Matt: 11:19

Yeah, for sure I'm the vibe. I am a big beach guy and I'm a creature of habit, so if I find a beach I like I will point my car in that direction, I will show up. I have like the family plan of beach chairs and a roller cart and everything I need to get everybody there. I can totally feel the vibe of just having this sitting smelling the salt. You're perfectly happy.

Josh: 11:38

Next time I go I might make this in like a five gallon container so you could make like that to my friends you could make like a quadruple version of this in one of those like big stanley cups and take that and that's your all-day drink there, you go, or you can. I always say this when you're going to batch cocktails you can take all the ingredients aside from the soda, right yeah, the orange juice, the vodka, the triple sec.

Josh: 11:59

You can put all of that in one container and you could put this in a 10 times, 20 times recipe, whatever. And then just bring yourself the bottle of soda, you pour that over ice on the beach and you you top it with some of your soda and so you don't lose the carbonation of it, and this could be an all-day thing that you've literally had to take 10 minutes to batch in the morning and it's like your perfect picnic drink or party drink or beach drink.

Josh: 12:20

This is like right there, yep, all right, who's next? You, me you're next.

Matt: 12:26

Okay, hazards of asking the question. Who's next?

Josh: 12:29

I thought we were gonna go with my next because it's the biggest hitter I thought we're gonna go with my last is what I meant.

Matt: 12:34

No, we're. We're saving the fish for last, okay cool, all right.

Josh: 12:38

So kind of piggybacking off of what was talking about and and where we got to like batching cocktails, where I kind of jumped in there. This is a cocktail that I like to take for my wife and I when we go camping, and it's a cocktail that I can pre-batch before we leave and I make it in, you know, a large enough batch to figure out how many I'm going to need so that we can each have one at the end of the night for sitting around the fire after the kids are kind of tucked away in their sleeping bags and whatnot.

Matt: 13:06

Multiplied by the number of family, and how many campfires and how many children.

Josh: 13:11

So I brought it kind of the way I would bring it in a camping situation. So I have it in one of these like double wall thermoses. I pre-mixed everything. I didn't shake it with ice yet or anything like that. This cocktail you can drink either shaken and up over, you know, on a martini glass, or you can drink it over ice, which is how we would drink it if we're camping. The way this cocktail came about is my wife likes to go when we go out, she likes to find cocktails that she likes and she will send me a picture of the cocktail on the cocktail menu and say can you make this, Can you recreate this? Luckily enough, I've worked in bars and in culinary settings my whole life so that I can then, as long as I know the ingredients, I can do my best to try and recreate.

Matt: 13:53

She's texting the right person is what he's saying yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Josh: 13:55

Correct correct. I might not be able to come up with the exact replication because I don't know the exact measurements that they're using at that bar or restaurant and sometimes they have really exotic ingredients that it's not easy to get our hands on here in Pennsylvania. But and oftentimes if you just Google the ingredient that you're looking for and type in you know replacements you can find something to replace it with. So this comes from a local restaurant in Easton I won't name the restaurant because it's a cocktail stolen from them. It's called a burnt orange sidecar. Now, sidecars usually will be served shaken and up in a martini glass with a sugared rim and they're usually made with cognac or brandy. This is a bourbon burnt orange sidecar. So in it I have Evan Williams 100 proof. So bottled in bond. I find that to be a very good, budget-friendly bourbon that you can find in any liquor store. That's still high proof. That's still bottled in bond, really good for mixing.

Josh: 14:51

It's got triple sec in it. I used Combier triple sec. It has fresh lemon juice in it and it has a brown sugar simple syrup in there. So that's the burnt orange side of it. The way I did it, since I wasn't shaking it with ice. I did add a little bit of water to it to help with the dilution, and then I'm going to pour it over a big rock here in our glass. So at camping we obviously don't have big rocks, but we have just regular rocks glasses, or we bring cups along and we put ice from the cooler in there. So this is a nice sit around the fire and drink it as a sipping cocktail.

Christa: 15:26

Very exciting.

Josh: 15:27

Yeah, great for like a cold night sitting around the fire.

Matt: 15:30

This is something I would say is like my refreshing margarita style summer cocktail refreshing margarita style summer cocktail so it's you and I both grew up in relatively the same area in pennsylvania, 20 minutes apart at the absolute most sure. Uh, when josh moved into the neighborhood, my comment to my wife was crap, there goes the neighborhood, but uh, where are your camping spots like locally? Because I I grew up camping. I have not gone in years and I really want to again.

Josh: 15:56

It's just so um, so, um, in all honesty, last year was our first year. So I have a five-year-old and a seven-year-old, so they were four and six last summer, and last year was our first year really getting out and going camping. We went camping a few different times. Um, we went out near Lancaster once to a Yogi bear campground. We did um out near Harrisburg, we, we camped. Or near Mannheim, actually, we camped, uh, and we went to the Renaissance fair what that one weekend. And we also did camping at Knoebels, which was a lot of fun, right there.

Josh: 16:30

Yeah, it just, it was just a fun time, um, you know, cause for us, with the kids that are that age, just going and sitting in a campground all day. While there are things to do at most campgrounds, they tend to need something to, you know, stimulate them and keep them busy, and the goal was to not have, like tablets and whatever going on throughout the day. So we had stuff that we could go and do that was either close to the campground or, you know, the Yogi Bear campground had this pool with a big like half like water park thing and, uh, a little disc golf course around and big giant jumping pillows for the kids and stuff like that. But this would be, you know, end of the day.

Josh: 17:05

we just we would sit down dinner was done, the kids were going to bed and this was like, hey, we're going to sit around the fire and just the two of us. After the, you know, the fire is kind of dwindling. We need something to sip on, and this was that kind of cocktail.

Christa: 17:19

But yeah, it's really good oh yeah, yep my brothers and my dad are big on camping. I like sleeping in a bed so I like the uh, the vibe of like going outside to like a fire pit or you know, hanging out on the water and stuff like that, but then you know at the end of the night going into like a cabin so that I can take a shower and go to bed, but definitely this is, this is for sure, a sitting by the fire hanging out. So a quiet night, yep yeah, I totally agree with that.

Matt: 17:57

So when camping I like to be comfortable as well. I have gone camping in like march and put a space heater in a camper or in a tent to try and keep warm in the middle of this summer. I put a straight up like giant box fan in the middle of my tent to try and stay cool, I've done things that not recommended when camping.

Josh: 18:19

I much prefer the colder camping, so we went twice in the summer this past year and then once in late October.

Christa: 18:26

And the late.

Josh: 18:27

October was so great because it was. I like to sleep cold, right, and I think everyone in my house does, luckily. So it got nice and cold at night and we were tent camping. Now, we were not, you know, primitive camping. We still had, you know, electric hookup and we had water and whatnot. There's a lot of in between. You know, I like to just be able to bundle up. I'll put on an extra, you know, I'll put on a hoodie and get in, buried down in the sleeping bag. When, when we were camping at Knoebels this year, it was like 95 during the day. It's miserable when it's 10 000 degrees. Four of us in the tent, it was still, in my opinion, a thousand degrees at night, you know. So I'm like, I'm like just stripped down to gym shorts and like a tank top and laying on top of the sleeping bag, like I'll never sleep because I think I might cook to death.

Matt: 19:12

Uh, in the middle of the night here oh, that's good, josh, that's very good, it's a very good drink all right, so I will go next and the original idea between how did we get beer, which I blew up? And if you listen to the first episode, I was like I'm not bringing beer, I'm bringing spirits. My original pitch for this was just bring a drink. That means something to you, you have a story behind it and it doesn't matter to me if you're walking through a beer distributor and you see a label and it triggers something.

Matt: 19:39

And that's exactly what happened to me yesterday and I was hoping because I really honestly didn't have any ideas for this today but I found a session Nipah from it's called Quiet Riot from Prison City Brewing in Auburn, new York, and the label and I'm going to put up a picture of this is it's like music notes, it is a Les Paul, is a Gibson guitar, almost like a Slipknot mask and a skull and crossbones, and when I looked at this it triggered memories in me of when I started playing in bands and I've talked about the fact that I played in bands and I made jokes about Rob and I playing in bands together. We'll open this and pour it while I'm yakking here.

Christa: 20:17

Also, I love that you just ignored the fact that the state of California is behind this as well.

Matt: 20:22

Well, no, I did notice that that was on there too.

Christa: 20:24

That was like the most prominent thing that I saw first.

Matt: 20:31

Yeah, and I will tell something about that that I haven't really shared with many people. But I started playing in bands or playing with other musicians playing drum kit when I was like in eighth grade, and this is, this is like when I really discovered like Zeppelin and the Eagles and the first time I heard House of the Rising Sun and that sort of thing, and there was a lot going on with me in general, with my parents splitting up and that sort of thing, and as I worked with bands later on, when I saw this, it was really cool, like mashup of memories, because Rob bought a Gibsonson les paul at one point. Um, rob, I have yet to play a concert or a show with you where you're actually using that les paul, so we're going to put that out there, uh, and does he still have the les paul?

Matt: 21:08

he does. Yeah, he still has les paul. His is really nice. It's a gray color. It's beautiful guitar and I'm just curious.

Matt: 21:15

I also with the state of cal, california on there, which wasn't lost on me. There were several times in like my early twenties where I was playing in bands. We were trying to make it and I had conversations with the guy who was playing bass guitar in our band Like, do we want to just pick up and go? Do we want to actually try it and see what happens and live in a one bedroom apartment and be broke is all imaginable? Do we actually want to drop out of college and make this happen? Sorry, mom and dad, that's a conversation that actually took place. It was a great dream but not practical for us at that point.

Matt: 21:45

But music and playing in bands meant so much to me and playing drum kit with so many wonderful people over the years, several different bands growing up, and then Seven Ways from Sunday. You guys know who you are rob, uh, john and joey and we had such a great time playing in that band and I still play in bands with rob and john to this day. We play cover, we play cover music at a couple of local bars and, uh, just have a great time. And I saw that label and I was like that just speaks to me because I was just in that like that emotional place right there with the music and and just enjoying it, growing up, and really shaped just how I feel about music in general, because I listen to more of that kind of music than I do anything else. And yeah, so I hope the beer doesn't suck because it's all about the label for me it's an IPA beer.

Christa: 22:30

I mean it does have like the IPA spring to it you know it does, it's only 4%.

Josh: 22:35

So yeah, I was kind of shocked by that. Yeah, sessionable ipa yeah I agree.

Christa: 22:40

I agree, I saw something one time a tweet or tumblr post or something like that that um said that I as a person am an amalgamation of everything that other people have introduced me to and other people have have told me to listen to or watch or read or whatever. Um, and I think it's so funny, like you know, talking about different bands that you listen to REM, led Zeppelin, et cetera, et cetera. You know that stuff like my parents introduced me to, but then you know your tastes, that you have continue to grow and change and stuff like that. So it is very cool. You know, as you're a kid, you kind of just listen to what your parents listen to, because that's what's on in the car or on at home or whatever.

Christa: 23:23

And then once you branch out and get friends and stuff like that, then they recommend you music that their parents listen to, Like it's just. It's really cool to be able to branch out and hear a lot of different music. I'm such a big music fan too.

The Fish: 23:36

It's an ever-growing experience.

Christa: 23:38

It really is, and it's very cool to be able to then reflect that in stuff like beer tastes, where you're like the can really spoke to me and I bought it and I thought it was good.

Matt: 23:47

And that's actually like the core of it. You like nailed it, . That's the core of that, because in my dad's living room at the time we had the CD player, we had the vinyl and we had a tape deck and given that point in the 90s, it didn't matter what you had it on. You could come to the living room, stick it in something to play it and we listened to it.

Josh: 24:06

You came to the living room and stuck it in something.

Intro: 24:07

That's crazy. You know what?

Matt: 24:11

Just saying I've been doing this so long now, I know when.

Intro: 24:14

I say something there's something coming.

Matt: 24:19

Thank you sorry. Hey, you said it, but we would. We would sit there and someone would bring over and say hey, my parents played this for me at some point and they put on like a record and you'd be like that's I've never heard. Yeah, I've never heard that album before album before in my life album album, album, oh yes, just the way.

Intro: 24:34

We need a. We need a thing up here every time that says ablum. Oh yes, just the way. We need a.

Christa: 24:37

We need a thing up here every time matt says ablum but that's like uh, that's like uh, one of the things that I do with my parents and I still do with my parents is, uh, if I'm home and chilling out, we just like put on youtube videos. Uh, of you know, music videos from you know, I'll put on stuff that I listen to, whether that'd be newer stuff, like fallout boy. But then my mom will be like, well, have you ever seen that one Michael Jackson video that was like all over MTV in the 80s? I was like no, I was not alive.

Josh: 25:04

But then, like there it was, mark it down what's the time that she made a comment about being younger than us.

Christa: 25:11

Yeah, Someone put a whiteboard up for that one too. You want to look at the fish's face over there. He's like she wasn't alive in the 80s, not alive in the 80s but uh, you know it's cool then, uh, to be able to watch stuff and and listen to stuff. You know that is older. Even like, uh, my pop-up has like an old school jukebox with like 45 records on it and stuff like that. So he's got, you know, some real old stuff like temptation, like temptations yeah, real old stuff from the 70s yeah, yeah, oh my god, the 70s super old ass music from like 1988

Christa: 25:51

wow disgusting but like uh, no, I, uh, he's looking real close for something over here. I was at german night last night and yeah, oh man, I accidentally called the fax machine and then my mom's like get off the internet. Oh, my, I never thought I'd use this one again you good yeah, no, you know, I just had a flashback to my mom being like get off the internet, get off webkinscom.

Matt: 26:23

I'm trying to use the phone. Damn it ass, Jeeves.

Christa: 26:27

Yeah, I'm just trying to do my thing on the internet and my mom's trying to get a phone call on the landline Get out of here with that. Your grandma's trying to call Get ass. Well, yeah, I was at German night last night on the home phone on the landline Get out of here with that your grandma's trying to call Get us Well like yeah.

Christa: 26:39

I was at German night last night at my parents' church and they were playing like Eric Clapton songs and stuff and I turned and looked at my pop-up and I was like this is on the jukebox. He's like it is on the jukebox. I'm like yes.

Matt: 26:53

So wow. So, to round this out for today, I think we're going to turn it over to the fish. I'm looking at what you brought and debating, giving you a preemptive cosmic chug Might as well.

The Fish: 27:07

All right, so I picked a beer. That's a beer that I drank in my freshman semester of college.

Matt: 27:15

Yes, what year?

The Fish: 27:16

This would happen to be 1990. Of college, yes, what year? This would happen to be 1990. And well, it was my first time away from home.

Christa: 27:28

Where did you go to college?

The Fish: 27:29

I went to UConn oh okay, up in stores, okay, husky, oh yes.

Christa: 27:34

Just curious question. No, no, no For the lore, it's fine.

The Fish: 27:37

It's fine. It's fine. I had some we'll call it troubles with UConn, but I actually did graduate from there in stores, so it's impressive.

Christa: 27:49

I did, it guys, yippee.

Matt: 27:51

There was effort involved.

Christa: 27:53

There was a lot of effort involved. Some colleges just do not care about their students at all and make life way more difficult than it needs to be.

The Fish: 28:00

Oh, I made my life way more difficult than it needed to be. Trust me, and this story is just the beginning, anyways, so this actually refers to the time that the fish got his name. Okay, so I wound up bringing coors banquet beer coors, coors, banquet in the can too.

Christa: 28:22

Not the little cute stubby bottles. No, no, no, no in the can first night.

The Fish: 28:26

I'm there. I'm like, hmm, there's nothing to do, let's walk down the hall see what people are doing like in the dorm uh-huh, yeah. So I walk two doors down. I look in like, hey, what are you doing? Oh, we're drinking. What are you drinking? Oh, vodka and tequila. Okay, at this point I had no clue what either one was, that was what I was going to ask.

Matt: 28:51

Have you had either one?

Christa: 28:52

of those before 18-year-old you like.

The Fish: 28:53

Oh, cool pour me up Correction no not 18. No no no. Freshman year of college, freshman year of college, but every school year, every grade that I was in, I was the young one.

Christa: 29:08

Okay, so you were 17. That's how I was too. I was in the younger half of my class as well.

Josh: 29:12

Barely Just 17. All right.

Christa: 29:16

Freshly 17.

Josh: 29:17

Yes, and these older kids are offering you drugs, alcohol, which is a drug Horrific.

The Fish: 29:24

Yes, I look in and they're like, hey, you want to come in, we're playing quarters.

Christa: 29:29

Off quarters. I have no clue what quarters are With vodka and tequila, all we ever play quarters with Miller Lite, yeah.

The Fish: 29:38

I sat down with them and they're like what are you drinking? What kind of beer you got? Oh well, we got this beer, okay Of course.

Intro: 29:47

There you go, I'll have.

The Fish: 29:49

I'll have one of those. I had only had Molson Golden before that and that was because my dad left it on the mailbox I was going to say, like at your parents' house, or something like that. Yes, yes, I started drinking that and trying to play quarters the best that I could. I had no freaking clue. I still have no clue, but at the same time they're like I put my beer on the table. They're like oh, violation, coaster police, oh no.

Christa: 30:18

College kids are the worst man House rules that you didn't know about College kids are the worst.

The Fish: 30:23

And I'm like, okay, I'm sorry, oh coaster police.

Christa: 30:26

Like bro, I just got here, oh what does that mean?

The Fish: 30:29

That means you need to drink, and not just what's the remainder in your can. You need to drink this too.

Matt: 30:36

A whole like solo cup of yes, yeah, yeah, okay, okay.

The Fish: 30:40

So I downed all that stuff. We played for like hours.

Matt: 30:45

How many times you get hit by the coaster police? Oh, I dread the coaster police.

The Fish: 30:50

The more that you drink, the more you forget about the coaster police. At the end I'm like who are the coaster? Police.

Christa: 30:57

What's a coaster?

Josh: 30:59

Yes, and this is legit. Night one, night one, oh geez. Night one Set up for success. Do you have class the next day, like first day of classes.

Intro: 31:09

Or is it just orientation, I don't remember.

Christa: 31:12

Bro. He barely remembers this night in general, Not the next day.

The Fish: 31:16

So it's been hours. We've been playing the game, we've been drinking. I'm like blitzed off my ass. All the other guys in the room. Mind you, there's four other guys in there. Yeah, I'm not paying attention, I'm like, all right, they gave me beer, they gave me vodka they're your best friends.

Christa: 31:33

Now Damn right Later at night.

The Fish: 31:36

I'm like alright, so we're done. Uh-huh, uh-huh. I'm completely blitzed out of my mind.

Christa: 31:45

Can someone drive me home? You mean two doors down the hall, two doors down. Yes, two doors down.

The Fish: 31:50

So I get up and I wander back to my room and I just collapse on the bed. That is the only thing that I remember, until I am crawling in my room to the door to unlock it so I can go to the bathroom. I have no clue how long that was. I open the door, I look down the hallway there's no one. I'm just too damn tired and I'm not sure I'd be able to walk hell with it. I'll swim down the damn hallway.

Christa: 32:20

oh my god there it is oh yeah, so yep, I start swimming down the hallway by the way, you are so lucky that this was like before camera phones were a real thing.

The Fish: 32:37

Oh yeah, oh, yeah, oh yeah, but it's still at the same time. It's such a freaking awesome story when you think about it, because I'm swimming down the hallway.

Matt: 32:49

Yes.

The Fish: 32:49

I'm doing like the breaststroke because you know like going like that. This makes perfect sense to me, yeah you know, and I get halfway like a door down and someone comes around the hallway and unfortunately it was the people that I was drinking with of course it was yeah, they clocked your ass.

Christa: 33:08

They saw you. Was it holy?

Josh: 33:10

fortunately or unfortunately, yeah, right well.

Christa: 33:14

Well, at least they knew that you were drinking.

Intro: 33:16

Yeah, for sure.

Christa: 33:17

You were just like some random crazy dude, excuse me, I gotta. Need a little bit of alcohol for this one.

The Fish: 33:22

Oh, that's crappy crap. Fuck you, Coris.

Christa: 33:25

Just kidding. Coris, we love you.

The Fish: 33:28

Not really. Anyways, I'm like a door down the hallway from my door. Anyways, I'm like a door down the hallway from my door. These guys come around the corner and just start laughing hysterically, but they're like holy shit, it's the fish. And it stuck and I did not get up. I continued to swim down the hallway. The bathroom was on the left and I swam get up. I continued to swim down the hallway, the bathroom was on the left and I swam into the bathroom.

Josh: 34:00

Perfect, Is that where you slept?

The Fish: 34:02

No, no no, I actually made it back to the room.

Christa: 34:04

All right. Nothing humbles you more than when you have to sleep next to the toilet. Oh, no, no.

The Fish: 34:09

That didn't happen that first night. No, no.

Christa: 34:12

A different night. Many other nights Been there, done that.

The Fish: 34:16

Yep. Anyways, you know I'm getting to the bathroom and it goes from carpet to tile.

Christa: 34:26

I'm like oh well, this is easier.

The Fish: 34:28

Instead of the breaststroke you had to change swimming tactics on the tile. Yes, yes, a little bit, but you know so.

Matt: 34:35

Which to freestyle yeah, well, whatever.

The Fish: 34:37

No, I made it down the hallway and when I came out I wasn't exactly walking every everybody did you hit the toilet? Oh, yeah, yeah we made it to the toilet. That's all that matters, but there's there's a follow up.

Josh: 34:55

I think the question she's asking Is a different question than you're answering. You made it to the toilet.

Christa: 34:59

I'm sure you didn't hit the toilet. The accuracy is important.

Josh: 35:05

We hardly hit the toilet when we're sober.

The Fish: 35:08

This is true. I know y'all are the worst Not you guys.

Christa: 35:12

Specifically, men in general you think they aim better you think y'all would learn. You would think that y'all would aim better.

The Fish: 35:21

Do you have brothers? I have four brothers. Yeah, there you go.

Christa: 35:26

Four brothers. The house I grew up in, I had four younger brothers and we all shared one bathroom.

Matt: 35:33

Did you bring your own toilet seat for that? Just unscrew the other one I should have.

Christa: 35:37

Honestly, yo I swear to God.

The Fish: 35:41

So, anyways, I get back to my room and I fall into bed, Completely pass out. I wake up the next morning and meet up with these guys again. They're like, hey, do you remember anything from last night? I'm like, yeah, sort of I remember. Like was I swimming down the hallway Like yeah, oh man, that was terrible. Yeah, we know fish. I'm like fish. Who's that Like? You are All right, Got my first college name't take long. Good, I couldn't hold my liquor at that point, yeah well, yeah.

Christa: 36:22

Well, to be fair, most 17 year olds who are their first time away from home are not going to be able to hold their liquor super well.

Matt: 36:27

Yeah, I sure didn't there were mistakes made, but you also the biggest one was telling me that your college nickname was the fish. So when I started this podcast, I was like congratulations, you're the biggest one was telling me that your college nickname was the fish. So when I started this podcast, I was like congratulations, you're now the fish.

The Fish: 36:38

Yes, and actually, if I remember correctly, the conversation was do you want to go by your, your name or the fish?

Matt: 36:46

Oh yeah, I did give you the option, I did give you the option. And you were like nah, nah, we'll go with the fish.

Christa: 36:52

So does like everyone in your life, call you the fish, or just like your college friends and also Matt, and also all of us.

The Fish: 36:59

I'll go with the second part. And not a lot of people know the story, unless they listen to this.

Christa: 37:04

Fair enough, I wasn't sure. If your co-workers were like yo, fish, what's up.

The Fish: 37:08

Well, there are a few co-workers that actually do listen to the podcast. Oh hi, co Hello.

Josh: 37:15

Hello there.

The Fish: 37:16

So that's our Taco Bell friends, but yeah, they didn't know that part.

Matt: 37:22

They didn't know that part.

Josh: 37:24

So what does your mom call you my?

The Fish: 37:26

little sweetheart. That was a weird way to say what the hell is your name? Well, I was trying. What's on your birth?

Josh: 37:32

certificate.

Christa: 37:33

What's your government name?

Josh: 37:34

What did the University of Connecticut?

Intro: 37:36

call you.

The Fish: 37:38

My real name is I was already there.

Intro: 37:43

I had my hand on it.

Christa: 37:44

I know you're ready for it. I was like that's funny 100%.

Intro: 37:49

had my hand on it.

Christa: 37:51

It takes away the mystery.

The Fish: 37:53

It does, but at the same time. That's the story.

Intro: 37:56

Very interesting.

The Fish: 37:57

Realistically. That's the shortened version.

Matt: 38:00

I feel like I need a picture of you swimming down my hallway before you leave.

The Fish: 38:04

Press, stroke A video. It should be a video. I'm not sure I can really. Can you reenact that moment in your life? No, no.

Matt: 38:11

I'm not going to. I will say this though the course banquet actually was kind of like hit the spot right there.

Christa: 38:17

It wasn't that bad yeah, because it's our 15th drink of the day and it's like, yeah, it's a light beer, you know.

Christa: 38:24

It went right through and I was like, oh, that's, that's not too bad I'm not a chorus hater, you know, I like I used to be a chorus hater and then as. So like my aunt is not that far away from me in age. My aunt is only seven years older than me, so she's kind of like my big sister, but her drink, interesting, my mom and my aunt have a larger age gap than I do with my aunt. So because my mom and my aunt are 19 years apart and I and my aunt are only seven, so just a little fun fact. But, um, she's a, she's a Coors enjoyer. So, uh, I've, I've grown to, I've grown to appreciate Coors Light by the fire pit with her, you know, chilling out, and then, yeah, you're drinking Coors Light, looking up and going, what is our place in the universe? I'm like we're drinking Coors. Yeah, relax, yo all right.

Matt: 39:12

Thank you all for listening to how we got beer today, as we went through many different drinks and some fun stories. We will be back, of course, with some great new material. We got a lot more coming for you. I just want to say thank you.

Christa: 39:25

Thank you, everybody.

Matt: 39:26

Thank you. Thank you for listening.

Christa: 39:28

Oh, you guys were so in sync.

Josh: 39:31

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

Matt: 39:41

This episode's boozy quote comes from author and screenwriter Ray Bradbury. He said beer's intellectual. What a shame so many idiots drink it. 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 sips with us. Please like and follow Matt and 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 wwwmattandfriendsdtucom. That's mattandfriendsdtucom. Cheers friends, thank you.