E201 Julianna McIntosh

This week's guest is Juliana McIntosh, who joins us from San Diego, California. Juliana created the platform, Join Jules, back in 2020, with the idea that everyone should be able to enjoy a craft cocktail at home. Join Jules is a community for anyone with a passion for travel, lifestyle, and of course, a well-crafted cocktail with an emphasis on fresh seasonal ingredients and visually appealing cocktail recipes. We had a terrific conversation with Jules about how the Join Jules brand came about and how her farming background influences her work plus a host of other topics.

Jules has a book that is coming out on July 23rd, named Pretty Simple Cocktails, which you can find on our website, JoinJules.com. Make sure you also check out Jules on Instagram at JoinUnderScoreJules and check out her podcast titled The Art of Drinking with Join Jules and your favorite uncle on all your major podcast platforms. Enjoy the show. We're back with another episode of the industry podcast.

My name is Kit and this is Dan. What's happening? Oh, you're not too much. Just another crazy heatwave actually here.

Yeah, just pretty hot all the time. Yeah, it's been great actually. It's been off work for a couple of days, so you have to listen to it. Thanks for well.

You know what, it's pretty close. It was really hot last week. I've been looking for more of these with the humidity here. But other than that, pretty good yourself.

Same old set. Hot. But, you know, plugging along. Yeah, in this past week, we did actually go to one of the bars used to work at Ethel's Lounge in the 30th anniversary, where we got to see some local pro-rashland in the market.

That was great. That was super fun. Good. Congratulations again to Ethel's Lounge for 30 years.

It looks like you had a lot of fun. No, you don't. It's like, hey, one lease on your own. Yeah, so that's good.

Yeah, type from that. Nothing really new to report. If you are in the area of Kitchener Water, you should go check out Ethel's Lounge. It's amazing.

And also, check out my spot. So I should have run him downtown Kitchener or Babylon Sisters in Uptown Water, Lou. At Sugar Run bar on Instagram, at Babylon Sisters bar on Instagram to check out all the good stuff going on there. Yeah.

And if you are liking what we're doing here on the show, then subscribe. Right? Follow review. Do all that stuff.

It helps out a great deal. You can also get in touch with us if you're interested in being on the show and you're in the service industry or have been at info with the Industry Podcast.club or you can DM us at the Industry Podcast on Instagram. And that is where the amazing artwork from Zacana lives. He does all the artwork for the Instagram page and we are forever appreciative.

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Anything else you want to talk about? Nope. Okay, great. Good times.

I have a smart say at this point. You didn't have the beginning of the conversation. That's a good point. We're bringing our guests now from San Diego, California, Julie, Anna, Mackintosh.

How are you? I'm good. How are you guys? We are good.

Thanks very much for coming on the show. Yeah. You guys, thank you for having me. I can talk to a wall about this stuff.

So I'm excited to finally talk to somebody out of my iPhone. Oh, well, this is happy to be on. That experience you'll find very similar. Okay, so let's just dive right into it.

What is your background and how did you decide to sort of set up this website and describe what the website is? Yeah. Okay. So join Jules was a happy accident which started in COVID, full transparency.

No background really in the bartending space. I worked at a restaurant here in San Diego and would always jump behind the bar and help the bartender when I could, but I never got into bartending and when I thought I was going to take the leap to COVID hit. And so I was just, you know, at home drinking cocktails with my sister. And she actually at the time was doing a lot of restaurant photography.

And so when COVID hit, she wasn't working. So when we were sitting on our porch all drinking together, we just kind of were bored and she said, why don't we set these up in a cool way and I can take photos of them and you can post them on Instagram. And so I did. That's kind of how this whole thing started was I had this budding interest of wanting to be a bartender and I spoke to some bartender's previous and they're like, it's a crazy schedule.

It's kind of bullshit. Just if you want to make cocktails, buy books and teach yourself and save that money, you would take on classes and buy a lot of booze and just do trial and error. And I said, say less. And so I taught myself and my sister was doing all the photography for me at the time.

And so join Jules really kind of started there. And then it wasn't until fall of 2020 when I started posting on TikTok. I think it was just one of those happy accidents, right? Time where people were starting to get into the home bartending space since we realized there's nothing else to do.

And so it just kind of took off from there. And now it's, it's become this big join Jules cocktail brand that's focused on helping the at home bartender, especially because when I'm starting out, I feel like there wasn't a person or liaison for home bartenders. It was always like experts in the field. And I'm like, well, Jesus, how do I get there?

So I kind of wanted to be that middle ground for people and I think it just kind of took off. Interesting. So which books were you were the most helpful to you when you were starting? Cocktail, Codex.

That was my bible to start. I mean, that was the one where I feel like it all clicked for me. I mean, it was just like, okay, you have your five like classic cocktails to start from. Then once you really get that down, you can just kind of plug and chuck.

And my background is my family's been farming up in Northern California for over 150 years, which is a long time. So I always knew, I always knew what was in season. I always knew what was fresh and what tasted really good with what. You know, my dad was an excellent cook.

My mom had a cooking show on PBS. And so she always met with the farmers. And so like, who's seasonality? Yeah.

So I think it just kind of spiraled once I read that book. I was like, oh, you can add this ingredient with this based on the season. So it's cool. Yeah.

So what was the cooking show? Okay. So it was called bringing it home with Laura McIntosh. Okay.

I've actually, I think I've seen that because every time I'm at my mom's place, I'm watching PBS all the time. And there's a ton of cooking shows on there. So I think I, okay. Yeah, it was, yeah, it was funny because she, I think way back when probably even younger than I was, she was on the news or something and the weather man was giving the news like from the newsroom.

And she just thought it was hilarious because all the farmers needed to know what the weather was going to be like. They could, you know, go with their crops and understand what they need to do for that day. And she was just like, why is the weather man in a newsroom? This is so stupid when, you know, farmers need this information of what's actually happening.

And so what she took that concept and she brought people with her film crew out into the field to show people where their food comes from. And so they could fit like literally see it, how it was grown, who the farmer was. And then she brought on a local chef from that area to cook with that commodity. So that is how I grew up.

It's engraved in my brain. And I always said, I was never going to turn out to be like my mom. You know, I want to go on a different path. Yeah.

That's cool though. So that's obviously been a serious influence in addition to the books that you were reading this background on like how you developed your cocktail creation style, would you say? Yeah. And I think also, you know, I wanted to do something that wasn't like my mom, which was food.

But at the same time when I was reading these books and I had this budding interest of, you know, the happy hour and beautiful style drinks, I just, I saw that even in cocktail codex, you know, some of these cocktails are like having these liqueurs and these special ingredients. I'm like, how in the hell am I going to get this for this one drink? And it's going to, you know, at the time I was like broke out of college. I was like, I can't afford all these ingredients.

And so I kind of took the framework of understanding the cocktails through that book. I'm like, okay, well, maybe instead of having, you know, this apricot liqueur, I can actually get fresh apricots from the store and make like a stirrup or do X, Y, and Z. And so like I kind of wanted to find an easier fresher route that ended up just kind of being cheaper. I think that's in the back of my mind kind of how it started.

And then it's like, no, really, it's good to use these fresh ingredients. So it definitely had an influence and it makes it really fun for me because, you know, I get asked all the time, how do you continue? I mean, I have like over a thousand recipes now. And you know, people always ask me, how do you still how do you still come up with these?

And it's like, I just, I love flavor. I think that's where this whole thing ultimately has stemmed from is understanding flavor and then being educated in how to combine them together. It's just super inspiring for me. That's great too, because that is a big, huge annoyance of like making cocktails at your house.

And even myself who owns bars, like I don't fucking make cocktails at home anymore either because like it's like one bottle of the cure. Like you mentioned that you have to go and get for a specific recipe or if you've got something in your mind and then maybe you bring it home, you buy it. And then what you had in your head doesn't end up working out. Now you've got this bottle of whatever sitting on your shelf till the end of time.

No, yeah, I have some bottles behind me with some bottles. And it's the way the money really is. Like when you, I think it's really smart, especially for the home bar. And like bars can afford to do this, right?

And in fact, it's great when you go to a bar and you see a bunch of rare liqueurs on there, like even if it is just for show at the end of the day, right? Maybe they've used it once on one menu, but for your home, like nobody wants that. You don't need that shit. And no one's trying to impress anybody with their liquor collection that they're having.

So it's like, it makes a lot of sense to have substitute that with like fresh ingredients instead. I think that's really smart. Yeah. And you know, I also think it gets people, not to sound like my mother, but it gets people more involved with understanding seasonally.

And when you do that, it is cheaper. It's better for you. You know, I just, I think it just tastes better. And, you know, not to discredit anybody as a bartender, because, you know, people always ask me to always go into a bar and completely judge their menu and get it out.

And I'm like, no, I love it because these bartenders have so much experience that they're creating these incredible menus with like magical combinations of like lemon grass with like bell pepper and all these things. I'm like, I myself probably wouldn't know how to combine these, but because I tasted this because I was inspired by that, I can now bring it home and not dumb it down. I think that's the wrong word, but just kind of like bring it down a little. I'm like, how can you simplify it a little bit?

Yeah. Yeah. So it's been a really, really fun journey. And I try to keep things as simple as I can, but now that I've been doing this for God, I don't know, four years.

It has become this, you know, you get to a certain level and you just keep going up and up and up. So it's definitely a balance from trying to make sure I give recipes to people that are attainable, but also kind of take it up a notch too. So that's why I love being inspired by people. I follow bars.

I go to it's just like a never-ending exciting circle. Travel, there's a big travel aspect to your website as well. So, and I love that you said that because I love to travel and that's a long time service industry professional. That's what I do.

I go to bars and restaurants, right? And you kind of borrow some ideas from different spots and make them your own. And so how much of that then does come home into your stuff to bring on the website? I know you mentioned a little bit, but like.

Yeah. No, I mean, it is huge. I love traveling. I think it stemmed from my mom's show.

She had this tagline, which is so corny, but it's the show that goes where the food grows and like food can grow everywhere. And so she would go everywhere. So I always grew up tagging along as a kid or helping out and traveling to these really cool places. And now that I'm in the spirits world, I mean, it has just opened up this can of worms of like, you know, you have rocky in Croatia.

You have all these Italian appertiques. Like there are so many special things when you go and travel that it is so important to travel to not only understand like the spirits that are coming out of places, but also like the history behind it. And so like I totally nerd out and it's really helpful for when I come back because I can start to be that leeway for people to understand different cultures outside of like vodka and outside of, you know, you have things like your, you know, you have to be able to understand that. And so I think that's a lot more of the world than that, which those are great.

But I think traveling is so important to really understand the cultural effect of drinking. Not to be alcoholic, it can be alcoholic, like whatever drinking journey you're on. Like there's, there's so much meaning behind it in everybody's culture that I love going out as much as I can to experience it. I in the first one, when I go out to a new bar where I am sitting at the bar top, I'm not sitting at the table, I'm talking to the bartender and I'm just trying to understand like reasoning behind a menu or to understand the local ingredient or the local spirit.

And it's just like, it's so inspiring to see how environment, seasonality and flavors can completely change the way that people perceive drinks. And so for me, someone who works at home, I just like, I eat that up because if I give you that person to help the masses on a social scale, see this stuff, then like that's, that's my goal in life. You know, it's just like, let's try to get people out of what they know and out of their comfort zone to explore more things. So huge travel person and more specifically, I love traveling for spirits.

The history stuff is great. Don't be wrong. I'll go to museums. I love it.

But I think you can really understand, you know, somebody's culture by what they're making and the ingredients they're using. Especially drinks. So when you're trying to recreate the experience of Raka, when you get back to San Diego, are you just using rubbing alcohol or gasoline? You know, I have a bottle of the cherry rakya.

It's at my grandmother's house because you loved it so much. So I don't have one here and thank God I don't because I would have used it by now. But it's definitely one of those things where like I try to make it myself. I haven't nailed it down.

Like it's lemon cello I can do. Like lemon cello kinds of liqueurs I can do. I haven't nailed down like an easy at home rakya recipe because it is a very fine line from liquid fuel and like this almost palatable sweet flavored sauce. So there are certain things to where it's like you just I think it's helpful when you have somebody follow to when you do or if you do travel somewhere, you feel welcome to explore that thing.

You know, so we were taking on your website before we started recording and also the website you went with the listeners now. That was the best way to reach it. Yeah. Yeah.

So it's just join JYN Jules JULS. Join JULS. Join Jules.com and that is that's our home base and actually you guys I am redoing my website. So I think come August.

It's going to be a completely new experience that is going to be so much easier to click through. Okay. Great. We're not even going to talk about that.

Yeah. This has been a long time. You guys I built that website myself like three years ago. Yeah.

Good job. I mean, it's very detailed and it takes time to do that though. You just kind of got to plug away at it a little bit till it gets to the point. And up the end of the pain in the rear.

Well, that's just it. I mean, I've had so many recipes in the last couple of months that I know I'm doing this big website rebrand where I'm like, I said, he'd been worth it to put anything in here. So I have been slacking on the website recipes. But I feel like a lot of people can find me most active on Instagram, which is at join under Sports Jules.

That's where I live. Yeah. All those like some of the show notes as well. Yeah.

So when someone goes to either your website or your Instagram page or your TikTok, what is the experience that you're hoping that they're going to get out of it most of all? Inspiration. So my whole philosophy has always been chefs will always say you eat with your eyes first. We drink with our eyes first.

So I want to create something that looks so visually captivating that you're like, Oh my God, what is that? And then you go and you look at the recipe and you're like, Well, wait, I can do that. And that's what I want. I want people to first feel inspired visually by what they see.

And then when they go to the recipe, they're like, This is something I can do. Let me go and do that. Like I think that they're on social media specifically. There's been so many recipes that I've seen around like, there's just no way.

There's just no way I can do that where I want to be where people go on. They're like, Okay, this looks delicious. And I actually have other ingredients. So let me go real quick and make that and see if I like it and then I'll comment and tell her it was great or that was not good and you need to change recipe.

Like that's what I want from people is like this community to where everybody feels included. I will say I have been slacking on the non alcoholic community. That is my bad, but there are mocktails on the website. But at the end of the day, I just want everybody to feel welcomed into my space and feel like this isn't something that's unattainable for them to create in their home.

I think it's a good model because especially and this is how your whole concept was given first as well. But like during the pandemic, a lot of these bartenders or wannabe bartenders even got on Instagram doing these very elaborate, photo friendly cocktails, but not something like the average person can recreate in their house. Certainly not. Nothing you're ever going to try and recreate in a bar.

So it's good to have like someone like you doing something that's more like your entire focus is something easy for people to do with their house and not just like something that makes a great picture on your all the cocktails will be as well. But like that's not the main focus of what you're doing and trying to make cocktail recipes that people can recreate in their homes easily. No, absolutely. And I think, you know, and maybe this is a bold claim, but I feel like there's a few other creators out there.

There's two things that I have a point to make. And the first one is when I first started this, I felt like a lot of the recipes that were out there, whether they were professional or from at home bartenders, they were so masculine, like they are like the gnarly old fashions or the Manhattan's. And I'm like, I don't want to drink that. I want something that spritz and beautiful and light and refreshing.

And so I felt like there was a feminine need on social media for women to feel included, which is funny because women, I think statistically by more alcohol than men from the store. So I'm just like, why isn't there more? Why isn't there more? We'll say we're going to meet these women.

I know. Well, I mean, it makes sense, right? Because I feel like women do most of the shopping for their house. But yeah, I read that statistics somewhere.

Maybe I'm wrong. I'm pretty sure. So that was one point that I wanted to make is I felt like there was a need for a feminine approach to home bartending. But then that brings me to my second point of I will never claim to be a professional bartender.

But I will always claim to be a professional at home mixologist because that's what I want to be. I want to be. And this is where I think it's a bold claim. I want to be the home chef before it was popular to be a home chef, right?

Like you had your food network stars. You had your chefs in high-end restaurants and they were like, they were the shit, right? And then you had all these home cooks that were starting to come up and create these recipes and do all these things. And it's like, I want to be that home bartender for people.

So then when they do go to a bar, when they do go to a restaurant, they're educated in what to order and what good should taste like where I feel like right now a lot of people and specifically women don't know how to order cocktails, right? They go with their standard martini or standard gin and tonic. And even men will go with like, well, I don't want to get a girly drink. I want an old fashioned.

But I think, you know, if I can be that educating factor of, you know, how to am make them at home, be feel inspired, but then also see when you do go out to these professionals, you know what to order and you know what to ask and you can have that conversation. So I kind of want to be that home bartender, home chef, if you will. And I just don't know if we're there yet. Like, there's a lot of us online, but I feel like a lot of the people online have that professional background where I feel like not having that is almost that relatability of it's okay.

You don't have to have professional experience to make a great cocktail at home, you know? Yeah. And if you're trying to make a good cocktail at home, we can recommend the great liquor from Allure Dilling Company, right in our neck of the woods here in Allure. They make handcrafted premium product grain to grass products that they're distillery right here in Allure and they're using a lot of ingredients from the specific area.

We do actually source all their local grains and whatnot from the Wellington County area. So that's kind of good. It's a very localized operation. Go support your local distillery.

You're bringing them out or where you might happen to be. We are specifically enjoying the great expectations Jim. It's like a belt of that right now, Ben. Why not?

Why not? We're having a drink here. So the great expectations. Yeah, exactly.

It's an herbal balance gin from Allure D is Stilling Company and it's available in the LCBO right now. If you want to check that out, assuming that they don't go on fucking strike next week. All right. Thank you.

Province of Ontario. You can also order directly from the website as well. So if you live in Ontario, if you go to allured distilling company.com. That's right.

Allure D is Stilling CO on Instagram. If you want to check them out there. But these are available in the LCBO. You can go directly to the website.

Royal Rum Spice Black is soon to be available at the LCBO. Right now direct to bars and restaurants, a whole sale. So if you're watching the LCBO right out of the mix is my suggestion and go right to the website. Allured distilling company.com to get all of their products and get the LCBO right out of the mix there.

We don't need them anyway. But this is a delicious gin. Very balanced notes of Juniper, Sumac, Sweet Gate and Berdok. It's a flagship brand.

The great expectations Ontario, Terroir, Gin. You should also check out the Royal Rum Spice Black. It's a dark smooth rum with hints of vanilla and warming spices. That is going to be available to the LCBO soon.

But again, you can get it directly from the distillery at allured distilling company.com. You should also go check out the distillery. They got indoor seating, outdoor seating. They have cocktail menu.

You can enjoy while you're there. So if you're in the allure area, just go check them out. Yeah, and once again, that's allured distilling company.com or at allured distilling co on Instagram. Check them out allured distillery.

We're fans. You will be too. Okay, back to you, Jules. I call you Jules.

Are you prefer Juliana? It's Jules. I think I'm locked in with that now. Okay.

Yeah. Well, you're on fault. That's you. Yeah.

So. Actually, I got a question about the website. What not. You mentioned that TikTok was where how you gained a lot of followers.

Is that still your number one platform? Okay. So it's interesting that you bring that up. So TikTok is my most amount of followers.

Instagram is my most loyal followers. So I think in the beginning, it wasn't an oversaturated market on. So you could be found very quickly, very easily. You're thrown in the mix.

Now there are so many people on TikTok that you're just constantly competing and unless you're posting like three times a day, it's just the juice is not worth the squeeze. Instagram is where I put my focus because I feel like people care there. Where TikTok, you may hit your community that does care. But a lot of times you hit like younger people who just want like those punches and long island iced tea recipes.

And it's just like, sometimes you know, you'll have one go viral and it's just, I would rather focus on a community, if that makes sense. Sure. I think it does a lot of work. It's a lot of work for TikTok for hopefully decent return, but it's not guaranteed at all.

Where it's a lot easier to build up your Instagram followers and they keep coming back. Totally. TikTok has said this before. It's like a toxic relationship where they treat you poorly and then they try to come back and you know, they're really sweet and then they do the same thing over and over again.

And so that's what happens. You know, you get, you know, out of the 10 videos, one does really well. And I actually, I think TikTok does it on purpose where they let one or two go viral and so it makes you keep wanting to have that. Yeah.

Yeah. We're like, okay, I just, I don't know, Instagram is, I think people care more people, you know, genuinely ask questions and are more involved in the community. And I like that. I like that a lot more.

And you know, TikTok is still there. Who knows if it's going to get banned? I don't know. It always goes around one time a year, you know, but it was my start.

So I'll always keep posting on there, but it's just, it's toxic. You know, it's just too much. So it's a goal at some point to obviously monetize this situation for yourself. Maybe you already have, I don't know.

But if so, how do you get to that point? Do you think? Yeah. Okay.

So I'm going to do a selfish plug here. I have my first cocktail book coming out July 23. It's available for preorder right now. Thank you.

It's my first ever cocktail book. It's called Pretty Simple Cocktails. And it is supposed to be the cocktail 101 book for the home bartender of my favorite part of this book is in the intro sections. I have like your tools, which every cocktail book should have.

But what I did was I created, I created like a in a pinch section. So, you know, you should have a cocktail shaker, Boston shaker. If you're in a pinch, you can use a mason jar with a lid or you can use, you know, your Yeti shaker and like there's, there's ways to wear like if you're at an Airbnb or if you're just a cocktail and you don't want to invest because you don't know if you're going to like it. Like there's, there's something to where anybody can do this at home.

Like it's like, no excuse cocktail book. So cocktail book is the first step in the right direction. I am hoping to position myself correctly because Instagram, TikTok, social media, the internet, it could all just like go away in a second. And so I'm trying to make sure that I position myself correctly and book is a first good start.

I would love to eventually make my own spirit. I can't say too much about that. But that is something that has been a goal of mine. I also would love to come out because I'm so visual.

I would love to have my own glassware line and work with like an artist there. I just think that there's there's something so beautiful about that. So like little things like that. But then eventually, I know I said at the beginning of this podcast episode that I didn't want to be like my mother.

However, I would love to have my own cocktail show, whether that's you know, kind of like Ina Barton at home cooking, but it's for cocktails, Martha Stewart. I mean, the wish would be a travel show, but I think being in the kitchen, being at home and showing people that way. I think is something that I would love to do down the line. So little things here and there to continue this brand to grow outside of social media.

I'll be it. I think I'll forever be on social media if it's there. But yeah, definitely want to be smart business woman with the brand, but not take away from it. You know, it's a fine line.

Right. Yeah, because you started out like in every grassroots way. So you don't want to lose that aspect of it by getting like to what the word is for it. But yeah, and then you have people in the industry, right?

Where they're like, who the hell do you think you are, which is so fair? I totally was going to ask you about that because that is I'm sure you get a lot of pushback on that because I we've been to people on the show, even talking about people who are just starting an Instagram page with no bar tank experience, et cetera, and look down at that aspect of it. So how how do you like, what do you say to that group of people? You know, it's a fine line, right?

I try to play my cards right. I try not to piss anybody off, but I definitely think there's a fine line between sticking up for yourself, but also taking criticism. There's been a couple of people where I've just like, I've unfollowed them if they're just going to talk shit. You know, it's like, at a certain point, I get it.

However, you know, I think people get angry that you do have these influencers that are in the cocktail space, come on and almost like take the spotlight. That's and that's why I always try to position this. I'm like, listen, I am just trying to be a liaison for home bartenders. I'm not trying to take anything away.

I'm not going to be in any cocktail competitions. Don't worry. I'm not going to be on Frank Masters season two. So I think that there's a line where I would hope and I have actually had a lot of people do this before because I've I've come a long way.

You know, if I make mistakes, like let me know and then I can like fix it, right? Like if you are in the space and you see me do something wrong, please let me know, let my community knows, then we can all fix it together and we understand why my biggest pet peeve is when you have professionals who are in the space who come and just like come for your neck at like a post. It's like, that's fine. But give me a solution and tell me why it was wrong.

So then we don't do it again. Cause like this is the community that wants to not make mistakes. And I think that there's a difference between mistakes in bartending and then just like personal opinions in bartending. So I think it's a fine line.

Yeah. And it's also probably less about that than it's really about the these lifelong bartenders. It's a jealousy thing in a way because they see that you have gained all these followers without the experience in the industry. And so they look at that and be like, who the fuck is this chick?

Tell me how to tell people how to make cocktails. I've been doing this my whole life. And that's where it comes from. But to me, it's like, there's space for all of this.

Yeah. And you're trying to do something very specific, which is basically doing exactly what you're doing, which is someone with zero experience in the industry trying to learn how to make cocktails for the better cocktails for themselves at home. And now you're just spreading that knowledge to someone else. So I don't really see what the issue is.

Well, I agree with you. I think a lot of it. And, you know, again, I'm not in it. Like, I I follow a lot of people on social media that are like in it and go to these competitions and go to these shows outside of being professionals in the mixology bartending space.

But they're also influencers like both. So like, I see what goes behind the scenes. I'm like, that this isn't saying I would never want to take that away from anybody. But I have found a lot of times like, and this is no offense to you guys.

But I think a lot of times the bartending space is so male dominated that it almost makes this this weird kind of aggression towards women in the space because they really aren't that many. Like on social media, like I feel like, and if they are, it's definitely judged harder. I think that that's the problem right there, because like, there are certainly plenty of women in the service industry now and plenty of women are dead is that is really changed. But they're probably less likely to do the whole Instagram thing because of the vitriol they might get for being a woman.

So that is probably just like, it's not fucking worth it. Right? Also scary. Like, I feel like being in the space, like actually being not like me, actually being a bartender and then like trying to put yourself on social media and you have all your colleagues there and they're like, what the fuck are you doing?

Like, I just, I don't know. I definitely feel like there's that. Like, I never had that, right? Like, I started with nobody in the space.

Like, I didn't know anybody, but I couldn't imagine, you know, you have all these people who, from what I'm learning, it's a small industry. Like it's big, but it's small. Everybody talks. Everybody knows each other.

And so it's just like, it's a fine line of you. You don't want to mess up. But like, at the end of the day, I think if you mess up, that's what makes you better. And so I'm like, who are they kidding?

They all got better by messing up at work. Totally. Yeah. And that's why I'm so honestly, that's what I'm most jealous of is like when I go and I see all these bartenders like behind the bar, because like, I make friends, I hope with everybody at the bar, they're probably just being nice to me too.

But I just love talking to them. They take things from the kitchen that they're going to throw out or, you know, they're experimenting with this. And like, for me, sometimes I'm like, you know, I don't want to use that nice bottle that I just invested into like experiment on X, Y, and Z. So there's definitely like selfishly.

I am jealous. The fact that there is such an exploratory, like, there's such an exploration of flavor that you can have within the bar you're in, where I feel like a lot of times I'm just like grasping at straws here. I'm like, I don't want to use this, but I want it to be approachable where I feel like you guys can just like mess around at a bar. And I'm like, that's the one thing.

That's the one thing I get really jealous about. Yeah. But I think that that goes with like, we've come full circle to what we were talking about at the beginning, which is like what you're trying to do is show people at home how they can make awesome cocktails without having to blow their budget on a million different bottles, right? Or whatever bidders or syrups that you buy in the store show them how to make it themselves in a cheaper way and in an accessible way.

Yeah. And then like, it's supposed to be fun. Like, I have a lot of people who come at me in the comments. They're like, this is wrong.

You're not doing this supposed to be served this way. I'm like, Oh, yeah. That's who too. Yeah.

Just like, you need a drink, like make yourself fun. But like at the end of the day, it's not rocket science. It's supposed to be fun. If you mess up, it's fine.

Like, I think that people need to be okay with making a mistake and understanding why that is because at the end of the day, everybody drinks, you know, whether it's soda, whether it's a water, you will always like, if you're walking down the street, you will always see somebody with a drink in their hand. Like we truly enjoy the action of drinking something. And so it's like, if I can help people with that, that's my goal. And like, it could be a mocktail.

It could be like, like, I just, I love the idea that like you have all these professional chefs and like people always want new food recipes. But it's like, let's just like, let's really have fun with their drinks. Like it doesn't have to be so boring all the time, you know, it's not to be the same old fashioned every time. Right.

And it's both for you anyway, because like I like it can be a really toxic space, even Instagram, which is probably the nicest one of all of them. But like, I remember a few years ago, a bartender at a place that I was working at, they showed a picture of her boring draft beer and the glass was touching the tap. Which you're not technically supposed to do is supposed to leave a little space there, whatever. But the fucking comments, well, it was like just a photo of a woman pouring a beer.

And it's insane. Like, why do you care so much? Who cares? I know.

I will say it does help the algorithm. So I'm like, sometimes I have noticed, I don't know if you guys have seen this creators will do it on purpose. We know what we're doing. It's like, I haven't been that intentional.

There hasn't been anything super crazy, but creators will literally in the drinking, but honestly, any industry where they will do something that they know will piss people off. And that way, if you get a lot of negative comments, you also get more people commenting at the negative comments, which just build you up and up. So it's really such a fucking crazy world. And that just goes for that goes all the way to cable news.

Now, right? Like it's just people saying and saying or doing something that's intentionally going to cause. No, it's crazy. Yeah, controversy.

So that, yeah, which is the classic, any publicity is good. That's right. Yeah. I'm too scared.

I'm like, there's just, I haven't had enough years on me to do something like that. So I'm sure if there's any massively pro supporters of the LCBO who listen to our podcast and they're probably posting comments on us. Maybe that would help our other kind of quite a few comments about the LCBO. Hey, before we let you go, Jules, let's talk about your podcast.

You also have a podcast. Yeah. What's it about? What's the concept?

Where can people listen to it? Yes. Okay. So this is full circle.

So I have a podcast that's with my uncle. It's called The Art of Drinking with Join Jules and your favorite uncle. And we go through a new cocktail every episode. So every start of a season, we start with the old fashioned and then we kind of work our way.

So, you know, season one was old fashioned margarita, whiskey sour. And so we take classic cocktails. And my uncle is the one person who helped me get into bartending because I was with him. He lives in Minnesota.

I was with him for one of the Christmases and he was the one who actually showed me how to make a cocktail for the first time. And I believe it was a sidecar. And I just like, I made it and it was the first time I'd use like a cocktail shake and I was just like blew my mind. And so he's kind of always been my liaison towards classic cocktails because he got stuck in like the nine to five grind, but he always wanted to be in the space.

And so we call him our cocktail historian because he just like knows the history of so many cocktails. And he has always made cocktails the right way because and he would tell you this too. He's not he doesn't have that like creative behind where I have like the seasonality. So he's always made cocktails by the book.

And so we thought it'd be fun if every episode we go through a classic cocktail, he shows us how to make it the right way. I come in and I riff on it, whether it's how to, you know, make it easier or how to make it seasonal and just like add a fun twist on it. But then after we go through those recipes, he takes us through the cocktail, where it came from, who made it, how it evolved like all of that. So we go through the recipes, the history, and then we go through tips.

So we recently, we actually had people submit their questions, which has been really fun. Like, how do I batch a cocktail for summer parties? So it's about 35 to 45 minute podcasts. But it's really fun if you have a specific cocktail that you like and you want to learn more about, or, you know, if you just want to drink with us on the weekend, we set it up on Wednesday.

So then you can buy the ingredients to make it for the weekend ahead. But it's really fun. It comes out weekly. It's called the art of drinking.

It's streaming everywhere. But yeah, so that's our podcast. It's a good time, you guys. That's cool.

Yeah, amazing. That sounds fun. I'll check it out for sure. Well, thanks for joining us on our podcast.

That was a super fun conversation. Tell us there's one more time where to find you what the website, the Instagram, the TikTok, anything else. Yep. Yep.

So forever jewels, you can find me at join jewels.com. Instagram TikTok is at join underscore jewels. My new cocktail book is called Pretty Simple Cocktails, available July 23rd. It's available for pre-order now.

So if you can pre-order, that would be awesome. And then the podcast with the art of drinking with joint jewels and your favorite uncle. That's it. That's everything I got for you guys.

Well, that's a lot. That was exhausting. I don't know how you're doing it all, but I'm impressed and congratulations on all of it. The book sounds awesome.

We'll be looking out for that and love your website, love the Instagram. And we really appreciate you giving us some time this afternoon. I guess this afternoon for you, right? Yeah.

Yeah. It's really happy our time. I'm going to go have a cocktail. All right.

Thanks again to all the pleasure meeting you. Thanks guys. Thanks very much.