Organizing Habits & Cocktails | A Soothing Sleep Podcast for Overthinkers

Looking for a sleep podcast to fall asleep fast, reduce anxiety, and quiet an overactive mind? This calming episode of The Insomnia Project is designed for insomnia relief, stress reduction, and gentle nighttime unwinding through slow, soothing conversation.
Marco Timpano and Nidhi Khanna explore organizing habits, daily routines, and simple systems that help bring order to everyday life in a relaxed, low-stimulation discussion perfect for bedtime listening. From managing small tasks to creating calm, functional spaces, this episode offers cozy and familiar content that helps settle the mind.
The conversation gently drifts into favourite places to enjoy a cocktail, adding a light and easygoing detour while maintaining a soft, meandering tone. With unhurried pacing and gentle storytelling, this calming podcast episode helps ease racing thoughts, reduce anxiety, and create a peaceful environment for sleep.
Whether you’re searching for a sleep podcast for insomnia, calming background noise while you work, or a gentle way to unwind at the end of the day, The Insomnia Project offers a comforting, reliable escape.

Celebrating with Cocktails | A Calm Conversation on Drinks and Memories (Episode 99)
Welcome to the Insomnia Project. Sit back, relax and listen as we discuss the mundane
Marco Timpano: Welcome to the Insomnia Project. Sit back, relax and listen as we have a conversation about the mundane. One thing that we can promise is that our conversation will be less than fascinating so that you can just feel free to drift off. I'm your host, Marco Timpano.
Nidhi Khanna: And I'm your co host, Nidhi Khanna.
Marco Timpano: And Nidhi, this is episode 98, so we're approaching 100.
Nidhi Khanna: We are.
Marco Timpano: And what are ways that you celebrate occasions?
Nidhi Khanna: Oh, good question. usually I mark them with some sort of social gathering of some sort.
Marco Timpano: Okay.
Nidhi Khanna: yeah, throwbacks reminiscing memories.
Marco Timpano: Some sort of sweet cake or pastry or something.
Nidhi Khanna: Always. Although I need no reason to celebrate in order to have some m. Sort of sweet thing.
My favorite cocktail is like a Dark and Stormy with ginger beer
Marco Timpano: What do you like to drink to celebrate? Is there. Do you have a particular, say, cocktail or drink or so.
Nidhi Khanna: Not necessarily a celebration drink, but my favorite cocktail is like a Dark and Stormy.
Marco Timpano: Oh. And that is a Bermudian cocktail that I believe is ginger beer.
Nidhi Khanna: Hm.
Marco Timpano: And it's supposed to be Gosling's Dark Rum.
Nidhi Khanna: Oh, is it?
Marco Timpano: Yes, I believe so. I believe so. I. I'll look it up as we talk. But I believe that is the Dark and Stormy. What a lovely drink. And I believe it has lime. I think it gets lime too.
Nidhi Khanna: And for me, Dark and Stormy really like the ginger beer. And the quality of the ginger beer makes a huge difference. I like the ginger beer to be very, like, spicy and, powerful.
Marco Timpano: You like a spicy.
Nidhi Khanna: Yes, I do. I love it also when it's homemade ginger beer or it's, something that's, more than the store bought one because I find the store bought one tends to be a little bit too sweet sometimes. Okay. but yeah, that's my favorite. But on an everyday occasion, I usually enjoy my wine. I'm a big wine person.
Marco Timpano: Oh. Well, it is a Bermudian drink and it is rum on the rocks, poured over ice with a lime wedge in a highball glass. And ginger beer.
Nidhi Khanna: Well, look at that. That's pretty much.
Marco Timpano: And Gosling's Rum. Gosling's brother. Yeah. Of Bermuda. That's the rumor.
Nidhi Khanna: I guess they made the Dark and Stormy.
Marco Timpano: I don't know. I guess that's the rum of Bermuda. So I guess whoever invented the drink was using the local rum. Oh, I heard. Or the local dark rum. They'll often put that rum into soups. When you have soups, like seafood. soups.
Nidhi Khanna: Oh, beauty.
Marco Timpano: Yeah, it's pretty awesome.
Nidhi Khanna: That's amazing.
What's your favorite drink? I love dark rum with a twist
What's your favorite drink?
Marco Timpano: I love dark rum, so don't get me wrong, I love a dark rum. I'm not a big fan of sparkling wines like champagnes and Prosecco. Are you. Do you enjoy them?
Nidhi Khanna: I do every now and then. Like, for me, it's a starter thing. So it's like, if you're gonna start the night, have a glass of Prosecco or. I mean, I won't say no to a glass of Moet or something if someone offer it to me. and for toast, obviously it's nice. However, I wouldn't spend my night Drinking that because I find it too sweet.
Marco Timpano: Oh, I see. So you like it but dark and stormy.
Nidhi Khanna: Sweet too, but not like. I find like sweet wines tend to give me like a headache.
Marco Timpano: Okay.
Nidhi Khanna: I don't know the sugar content.
Marco Timpano: Sure.
Nidhi Khanna: Dark and stormy. Sure. however, I don't tend to have multiple dark and Stormies the way I would like a glass of wine. You know what I mean?
Marco Timpano: Like what's your wine of choice? What's your go to wine?
Nidhi Khanna: you know what, actually it's very funny you say that because I just bought a ah, bottle of wine from
Marco Timpano: the lcbo Nitty's going to get the wine right now and you actually offered it to me and I'm like, no, I don't feel like wine.
Nidhi Khanna: So what I like about it is the size of the bottle because I'm one person and sometimes you don't want to open a whole bottle of wine because $7.50. Sure, yeah, you're going to. You know, it means that I have to be drinking a glass of wine every day of the week, you know what I mean? In order to finish that wine. And even after a couple of days it's not going to be that great. So this 250 milliliter bottle is great because it gives me like a glass and a half.
Marco Timpano: Sure. Perfect.
Nidhi Khanna: And I can have it with dinner and then I'm done. And I haven't wasted a whole bottle. and it's called fat, bastard wine.
Marco Timpano: It's a French wine. It's a Shira or Syrah.
Nidhi Khanna: Syrah, yeah. And yeah, I mean it's quite nice. It's like a very regular wine. I.
Marco Timpano: Was it expensive? $2.50?
Nidhi Khanna: No, it was like five bucks.
Marco Timpano: Oh, that's great. That's fantastic. That's a great price for a really affordable. Oh, I thought it would be. I thought they would have sold it for more, but it's like less than what you would pay for a glass of wine at your local bar or whatnot.
Nidhi Khanna: Exactly, exactly. So yeah, so I'm into that now. Great drink on a better occasion. but I enjoy, I enjoy fuller bodied wines. I find lately like the tannins of wine tends to give me a little bit of headache.
Marco Timpano: Okay.
Nidhi Khanna: Which never used to happen before.
Marco Timpano: I see.
Nidhi Khanna: It might also be that I need to be drinking more water too.
Marco Timpano: Fair enough, fair enough.
Nidhi Khanna: how about you? What is your.
Marco Timpano: There's a few drinks I like. If I'm celebrating. I'll probably celebrate with a cocktail that I never really had. Before, just to try something new in honor of the birthday person or whatever it might be. Once again, I'm not a huge fan of Proseccos and champagnes. It's not my thing.
Nidhi Khanna: you know what we need to do is make a cocktail with that cardamom syrup that I gave you.
Marco Timpano: Oh, yeah, that'd be great, actually. That'd be a great, a great cocktail. In fact, I had cardamom honey, today, I thought of you, and it was fantastic. They're making a cocktail or something. Oh, I keep hitting this spoon, so I'm going to move the spoon because it's making a very loud noise. but, you know, I love Negronis. We had a whole episode on Negronis. It was episode 50 or something. And I'm just making more noise by trying to move the glass. I'm putting it on change right now. and, I love. I love, Cuba Libras, which is, dark rum and a cola. In my case, Coke with lemon with lime, I should say.
Nidhi Khanna: Okay. So it's like a rum and coke.
Marco Timpano: That's a rum and coke. But it's actually. The cocktail is called a kuma.
Nidhi Khanna: yeah, I. I find I used to love, like, having, like, vodka soda and coke and stuff like that. Oh, sorry. Vodka soda. I still like, actually vodka soda. If I have to be out drinking a cocktail, like, for the night, let's say I would go for vodka soda. What if I didn't feel like wine or something like that? The one thing I can't have is beer.
Marco Timpano: Oh, you're not a beer drinker?
I've never seen you drink beer. Why is that? I don't enjoy the taste of it
Oh, I've never seen you drink beer. Why is that?
Nidhi Khanna: I, find I don't enjoy the taste of it. although I've had, like, darker ales. not Guinness, but, like, the brown ales.
Marco Timpano: Okay.
Nidhi Khanna: and those have been. Okay. but I find it just makes, like, I don't feel good when I drink beer.
Marco Timpano: Okay.
Nidhi Khanna: I don't know if it's, like, the wheat of it.
Marco Timpano: Okay.
Nidhi Khanna: Or what it is, but I've just never really.
Marco Timpano: It's not your thing.
Nidhi Khanna: Enjoyed it. No. Like, if I. If it's a hot day, instead of getting a beer, I'd probably have, like, a vodka soda.
Marco Timpano: Okay. I'm not a beer drinker. That's not my drink. I'm not a big drinker, but I'm. Beer's, not my thing either. I love, like, if it's a hot day, the draft is pouring. Nice. I'll have. I'll have a beer with friends.
What's the most unique drink that you've had
Nidhi Khanna: What's the most unique drink that you've had?
Marco Timpano: Oh, that's a great question.
Nidhi Khanna: Or like, the most unique ingredient?
Marco Timpano: Oh, that's a really good question. Yeah. Like, what's yours?
Nidhi Khanna: You know, I've noticed, like, that there's some trends going on. Sure. So I, like it and I haven't had it because it just kind of doesn't puts me off. But, like the egg white.
Marco Timpano: Yeah, I was, you know, it's funny, I was thinking egg white, but I thought that's not strange enough. But yeah, there's cocktails made with egg whites.
Nidhi Khanna: Yeah.
Marco Timpano: And, I don't know. It's not my thing either. No, I have a friend who loves it and she made this, like, classic old cocktail that has egg whites in it. And, everyone loved it and it wasn't bad, but it just. And I love eggs. It's just. It just doesn't. Doesn't do anything for me.
Nidhi Khanna: And then I've had one with like, like Earl Grey tea.
Marco Timpano: Infused.
Nidhi Khanna: Infused. But I find that a little bit strange because it feels like. It just feels like alcoholic tea.
Marco Timpano: Okay, sure.
Nidhi Khanna: but, yeah, I don't know. I don't tend to go for, like, the more spoiler flashy things. We've talked about this place, in Toronto called Bar Chef.
Marco Timpano: I finally went.
Nidhi Khanna: Oh, did you?
Marco Timpano: Yeah, I. It's. It's funny you should say that because I remember when we had. When we talked about it, I hadn't been.
Nidhi Khanna: Yes.
Marco Timpano: And then since. Since that episode.
Nidhi Khanna: What did you think?
Marco Timpano: I thought it was neat. I thought it was really neat. Now, like, they smoke a lot of their drinks and I don't like things that taste of smoke. it, I think if you use liquid smoke, it really affects me in a way that, like, my body doesn't like it. But not to say that they use liquid smoke. They use proper smoke and they bring it to you under a glass case so that the smoke remains and all that kind of business. Right. And no, I didn't have one of those. I had something that had, like, pine needles infused with pine needles and whatnot. And I really enjoyed it.
Nidhi Khanna: I did.
Marco Timpano: Yeah.
Nidhi Khanna: Like a tisane type of thing.
Marco Timpano: Something. It was just fantastic. And, I guess that would be one of the stranger things I've had. Like, it's infused with pine needles or things that you wouldn't traditionally think of as part of.
Nidhi Khanna: Yeah, it's true. they now have like a. I think a dulce de leche vodka.
Marco Timpano: Okay.
Nidhi Khanna: So I'm curious I don't know. I don't know. How do you feel about these flavored vodka?
Marco Timpano: I think they're. I think. I personally think it's kind of gimmicky.
Nidhi Khanna: Yeah.
Marco Timpano: Just, to get you to drink something really sweet and whatnot. I like. So for example, if for me, rather than doing that, what I would do is I would get vanilla ice cream and pour some Baileys on top of it.
Nidhi Khanna: Oh, yeah, Beauty.
Marco Timpano: And I love that. Or creme de menthe or something that goes well with ice cream. Tia Maria. you know, any coffee flavored liqueur? You know, Nidhi, it's just appropriate that we were talking about this on this episode.
Have you ever had an espresso coretto? No. Why have I not
Have you ever had an espresso coretto?
Nidhi Khanna: No.
Marco Timpano: Oh, what is that? Why have I not?
Nidhi Khanna: I don't know. You teach me nothing. You give me nothing.
Marco Timpano: Michael, I'm telling you. So nespresso corretto. In Italy it translates to a, corrected espresso.
Nidhi Khanna: Okay.
Marco Timpano: And what they do is they put a little bit of an alcohol in it.
Nidhi Khanna: Okay.
Marco Timpano: So you make the espresso and it's not even an ounce. It's just a little topper to. I'm sure there's an amount that you're supposed to do, but it's just, you can do it in the home and just put a little bit of alcohol. Holiday. Now, traditionally speaking, if you're in the northern part of Italy, you'll get grappa in your espresso corazo. If you're in the southern part of Italy, you'll get some buca in your espresso. And I've also heard or seen traditionally you can also get, vecchia romagna in it, which is, an Italian brandy.
Nidhi Khanna: Okay.
Marco Timpano: Which I love that brandy, by the way. Usually inexpensive. And if you see the bottle, it's like this. She looks like a hag with like, grape leaves as her hair.
Nidhi Khanna: Amazing. I love sambuca, by the way.
Marco Timpano: Do you?
Nidhi Khanna: Yeah. I know it's not for everyone, but I like, like the taste of licorice. So.
Marco Timpano: Yeah, it stands to reason that you'd like it though because, you know, you cook with a lot of spices, right? And anise and licorice is a spice. I love it too. I love those, stair. You've seen these anise seeds covered in like candies that you get at like, Indian restaurants. Indian restaurants, whatever. Well, I went to an Indian market in Toronto and I saw a bag of them for $4. Needy. I ate that bag in like a week. I just I had in the car and I just kept Poppy. I loved it so much. Right? I love it. I love that.
Nidhi Khanna: Yeah.
Marco Timpano: But yeah, I like Sambua too. Sure.
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Nidhi Khanna: Speaking of Bailey's and Kahlua, actually I went to So you know how there is, ah, a retail store in Ontario called, the Wine Rack.
Marco Timpano: Yes.
Nidhi Khanna: And it sells like Ontario based alcoholic beverages.
Marco Timpano: We should clarify this for our listeners because I know a lot of my American friends often get confused by this. So the laws in this province of Ontario are such that if you want to buy alcohol, you have to buy the alcohol from the lcbo, which is, stands for the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. If you want to buy beer, where do you go?
Nidhi Khanna: Nidhi, the beer store.
Marco Timpano: Which is very strange for a lot of people. So you go to a store that just sells beer.
Nidhi Khanna: Now wait, to clarify, the LCBO does have. You can purchase beer at the lcbo,
Marco Timpano: but you cannot purchase wine, wine or liquor. Spirits at the beer store.
Nidhi Khanna: Exactly.
Marco Timpano: All you can buy is beer and beer related products.
Nidhi Khanna: Yes. And then you have the Wine Rack, which is wine and liquor or spirit based alcohols that are manufactured and grown in Ontario.
Marco Timpano: Right. So Ontario wines. Ontario, alcohols, all of it. And you'll find some of these wine rack types. So Wine Rack is one of those, is the brand of one store. But you'll also find in some grocery stores, they'll have a section where they sell Ontario wines and Ontario, let's say infused creams with wine or spirits.
Nidhi Khanna: And that's a newer legislation.
Marco Timpano: What's this?
Nidhi Khanna: So at, the Wine Rack, you know, the Wine Rack. Because there's always someone standing outside with a, sampler. And so I was in, the mall the other day with my mom and we were passing by and they gave a sample of this alcohol, called Irish Cream. And so their pitch was, do you like Bailey's? And I said yes. They're like, well, this is, our version. But instead of whatever the alcohol base is for Bailey.
Marco Timpano: Whiskey.
Nidhi Khanna: Whiskey. It's a, wine base. So, we tried it and it was wonderful. I will give you some of this.
Marco Timpano: You don't have to open it for me.
Nidhi Khanna: It's not. It's already open.
Marco Timpano: Oh, then, then pour me a glass. Okay.
Nidhi Khanna: Well,
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Nidhi Khanna: during the podcast.
Marco Timpano: Yeah, of course. I need to taste it to tell people what they think. What, what, what it tastes like.
There is a company that bottles liquors in Ontario called Dylan's
Well, Niddy's on this episode. She's off her chair more than she's on it, but she's doing it for a good cause. She's grabbing me a glass of this Irish cream. now I will say this and Niddy can hear me. There is a company that bottles liquors in Ontario called Dylan's and they're near Niagara Falls. On the way to Niagara Falls, Ontario. They have this distillery which I so want to go to. I'm really anxious because I love their gins. And Niddy, I am not a gin drinker. I've never liked gins. Gins have never done anything for me. And I've tried like, you know, the premium brands of gin like the Bombay Sapphires and the Tanquerays and the, what's Hendrix? And all those ones that people really recommend and just not my thing. And then I buy a cherry gin for, a friend of mine for their birthday. It was in the summertime. I brought the cherry gin over as a chair. It's it. And I'm gonna say the company. It's Dylan's Cherry Gin. And it was by fluke because I went in to buy their Rose Gin. Because they also have a gin that's infused with rose. And I mean, Niddy, you know that I love rose flavored things, right?
Nidhi Khanna: Well. And that rose gin I have had before and we buy it, in my household because it's so wonderful. So I bought it and actually my mom came to stay with me for a few days. And my mom's not a big drinker, but, you know, as she gets older, she's like, I want a cocktail.
Marco Timpano: Why not?
Nidhi Khanna: So I made her a cocktail with this rose gin.
Marco Timpano: I don't understand what age has to do with drinking cocktails, but I love it.
Nidhi Khanna: Well, I think it's just that she didn't. We never grew up with like cocktail hour in our house. Right. But as my mom gets older, for some reason, cocktail hours just started to happen.
Marco Timpano: Amazing.
Nidhi Khanna: so I made her a gin and tonic, but instead of regular gin, I put this rosehip gin. And then I actually had a few sprigs of rosemary left.
Marco Timpano: Oh, nitty, this sounds great.
Nidhi Khanna: from some cooking that I was doing. So I kind of infused it with that as well. And she took one sip and she fell in love with this gin. And by the end of her three days here, my bottle of gin magically vanished.
Marco Timpano: Hey, listen.
Nidhi Khanna: And so for Christmas she was like, can you get the rose gin? So now it's the big item. Big item.
Marco Timpano: So I went to buy rose gin and they didn't have rose gin, so I bought this cherry gin. So nitty, I bring this cherry gin over my friend's house for my friend Rosalba's birthday. And don't we polish it off maybe, let's say an hour and a half to be safe. But she was having it with tonic. I, was having it on ice. Her sister in law was just having it with I don't even know what. And we were just having a great time. I'm telling you, it was like the best time with the best gin at the best friend's house. Like, I don't know what else to say because it was just so much fun.
Nidhi Khanna: And it's quite affordable, like for the gym. Like you wouldn't think usually sometimes those specialty liquors are quite a bit more expensive. And you're like, oh, I'm not gonna get this. But in comparison to like the regular gin, it's actually, it's a really nice gift. A really nice, like night out.
Marco Timpano: Oh, it's great.
Nidhi Khanna: You know what? I'm having people over next Saturday. Maybe I'm gonna make something out of
Marco Timpano: that roast we should see if we could record a podcast in their distillery, because the distillery is like a barn or something. Have you been. It's. We should go, Niddy. I've driven to it many times, and I always go there when they're closed. And so it's kind of like my. What do you call it, when you want to get somewhere and you never get to do it for whatever reason you're, I can't think now. It's a literary thing or something. But anyways, my Waterloo, for lack of a better. Better thing. But I can't. I. I so want to go there. I so want to, you know, just see how they do stuff, because I think it's really phenomenal. And that's. Oh, so I'm going to try this.
Nidhi Khanna: So I didn't put any ice in it because I would make too much noise, but, it's cold, so.
Marco Timpano: Well, with the. With me hitting the spoons. No hitting the spoons. And your dog hitting the bowl. Cheers, ninny.
Nidhi Khanna: Cheers.
Marco Timpano: As we approach our hundredth show. There you go. So. Oh, it's nice. It's not like Bailey's. It's its own. It's its own flavor, which is nice, because if it tried to mimic Bailey, Bailey's or another Irish cream, I don't think it would be, as good.
Nidhi Khanna: No, it's, like, still got that milky kind of thick consistency, but, like, the base, you can tell, is a little bit more sweeter. Spicier.
Nidhi Khanna: Yeah.
Marco Timpano: Ah, it's got a little bit.
Jigger measures the amount of alcohol that you put into a drink
It has a hint of spice and it has, like, it's. It's got more of a smooth flavor, I guess, is what I would say. Because of the wine. Yeah.
Nidhi Khanna: Yeah. So I quite like it, actually.
Nidhi Khanna: Good.
Nidhi Khanna: start putting that in my coffee, actually.
Marco Timpano: Oh, I love. I love putting. Then you're gonna have a cafe corretto, depending on which type of. If you use espresso, it'll be an espresso corretto.
Nidhi Khanna: This is true. This is very true.
Marco Timpano: I heard that there's a drink, and I've never had it, called, Cafe La Valdostana, where instead of using water to make your coffee, you use grappa to make your coffee. Coffee.
Nidhi Khanna: Oh, my goodness.
Marco Timpano: And it's supposed to be, like, strong as.
Nidhi Khanna: That's gonna keep you up for, like, days.
Marco Timpano: Oh, man. Yeah. You don't want to be drinking that and listening to this podcast. But, you know, nitty. Do you have jiggers? Do you know what a jigger is? No, it's the, item that measures the alcohol that you put into a drink.
Nidhi Khanna: Yes, I know what you're talking about. So like the out, like the shot.
Marco Timpano: Yeah, yeah. It's not a shot glass.
Nidhi Khanna: It's a. I know what you. It's kind of almost like a mini, It's got a spout. Right? Like the little mini with the spout.
Marco Timpano: It can like it certainly. I'm not saying that it doesn't. The jiggers that I'm aware of, they kind of look like hourglasses.
Nidhi Khanna: Okay. Yeah.
Marco Timpano: So like one side, you'll see bartenders all the time use them, but there's some, I'm sure, that have like spouts so that you can pour more accurately. So we didn't have a jigger in my house and my wife pours a heavy drink and what I said to her was like, you know, you're. You're not really pouring a gin and tonic. You're pointing gin with a splash of tonic. And it's really strong. Right. And she gets into this whole, we're from New England and that's how we do it. We do a strong drink. And I'm like, I get it.
Nidhi Khanna: But it pretty much explains a lot about. There's also the reserved families of New England.
Marco Timpano: Exactly right. But. But there's a beauty. Like you said, like, you like your dark and stormy at the top of this episode, and you like it because the proportional rate of alcohol to ginger beer is such that you can enjoy both. Not when my. I'm. You've got to get this away.
Nidhi Khanna: It's just going on with m. You touching that.
Marco Timpano: I'm sorry. And it's just gonna disturb you. No, it's like this glass with a spoon in it had tea and this and this. Anyways, the jigger measures the exact pour that you want.
Marco Timpano: So I went out and I bought a shiny copper looking.
Nidhi Khanna: Oh, I know what you're talking about.
Marco Timpano: Yeah, you've seen it at my house, right? 15 bucks. And it makes me so happy when I use that I recommend a jigger to everyone.
Nidhi Khanna: And so now when Amanda pours a
Marco Timpano: drink, she doesn't use it. She does her own thing. The drinks are far too strong.
Nidhi Khanna: Okay, fair enough.
Marco Timpano: If, when. When you come to my house, I will just ask for me to pour the alcohol because.
Do you have signature cocktail? I made some great Negronis this summer
Nidhi Khanna: Do you have signature cocktail?
Marco Timpano: I made some pretty great negronis this summer.
Nidhi Khanna: Yeah, you did.
Marco Timpano: And I used the rose gin that you were talking about. It was fantastic. I need to do one with the cherry gin. It'll be a Sweeter Negroni, but I think it'll be great.
Nidhi Khanna: Yeah. What's the other base of Negronis?
Marco Timpano: Negronis are equal parts of Campari Gin. And once again, again, I don't like gin. But in a Negroni it works perfectly fine. And a sweet vermouth.
Nidhi Khanna: M
Marco Timpano: and here's the thing. I only like Negronis made with Italian vermouths because I've had it with a French vermouth. Now the French vermouth on its own I have no problem with.
Nidhi Khanna: Okay.
Marco Timpano: But it doesn't belong in a Negroni.
Nidhi Khanna: Oh.
Marco Timpano: And it might sound like I'm making a racial divide, but it's not. I just, my preference is the Negroni with con Campari and an Italian vermouth.
Nidhi Khanna: What's the difference between Italian and French vermouth?
Marco Timpano: because the vermouth base is a wine. Right.
Nidhi Khanna: Okay.
Marco Timpano: And clearly they're going to use a French wine, so it's a little bit more, it's got a harshness to it that I don't particularly like. I think harsh is the wrong word. But it's not as sweet and delicate as an Italian vermouth.
Nidhi Khanna: Can I ask you a question?
Marco Timpano: Of course.
Nidhi Khanna: When you go to pick out a bottle of wine at the lcbo.
Marco Timpano: Yes.
Nidhi Khanna: Do you automatically go to the Italian wines? That's the first part of the question.
Marco Timpano: Okay, so let me answer that.
Nidhi Khanna: Okay.
Marco Timpano: Or do you need to ask the second question?
Nidhi Khanna: I need to ask the second.
Marco Timpano: Okay, sure.
Nidhi Khanna: The second question is, do you ever feel like if you don't get an Italian wine that you're somehow like, do, like almost cheating on Italy?
Marco Timpano: No, not at all.
Nidhi Khanna: Okay.
Marco Timpano: Not at all. I, I, I am so not about wine snobbery.
Nidhi Khanna: Okay.
Marco Timpano: I'm not about that at all. I know wines, but I've always, I've always found it off putting when people are snobby about wines. Because it really is all about your taste.
Nidhi Khanna: Yeah. Because it's very subjective.
Marco Timpano: What you like is what you like. Just because a bottle costs 300 doesn't mean you're gonna like it. It's not to your taste. Like you said before, wines that have high tannins, it are starting to give you a headache and you're not enjoying them. So a Barolo, which has a lot of tannins in it, is not going to work for you.
Marco Timpano: Now, my favorite wines are from California.
Nidhi Khanna: me too.
Marco Timpano: I find for the price point and what you get, I've really rarely ever been disappointed by a cow. I can actually say I've Never been disappointed by a California wine. And I think that goes for the whole, whole west coast of the United States. California, Oregon, Washington.
Marco Timpano: I love their wines. So if it's not going to be a Californian wine, chances are I'm going to get an Italian wine or I'm going to get a new wine, so I'll get like a Australian. It'll also depend on what the occasion is and what wine I want to bring. M. One of my favorite wines to bring bring to a party with friends is a, Oh, I can't think of the wine now. It'll come to me.
Nidhi Khanna: It'll come to you. Yeah, I'm sure. And so what is. Why are Amarones so expensive?
Marco Timpano: I mean, they're. They're usually a wine that needs to be a little bit older, so they have to be sort of cellared for, for a bit.
Nidhi Khanna: Okay.
Marco Timpano: They're, you know, they're a stronger wine, they're a more potent wine. They've got more heart. The grape itself, there's so many reasons why it's. It's also a prestigious wine, so, you know, that drives the price up. There's so, so many factors that sort of dictate, the price of wine. And I'm certainly not a sommelier and I'm not an expert, so even what I'm saying, I'm sure there's more complexities to it. And, and, if anyone who listens is a sommelier, I'm sure they'll be like, margot doesn't know what he's talking about, but I know what I like.
Nidhi Khanna: Well, and you know what, if you want to learn about sommeliers and what they go through in terms of learning how to be a sommelier, you should check out that documentary song, Psalm.
Marco Timpano: Is it a good one?
Nidhi Khanna: Oh, my God, it's amazing. You have to see it. It's actually both hilarious, insightful, and terrifying.
Marco Timpano: Actually, you know what we're going to do? We're going to have your friend Jen come on and do an episode because she's a sommelier and we can talk to her about wines and specifically with regards to pricing wine and whatnot. I think that would be a great episode.
Nidhi Khanna: Perfect.
This is our 100th episode. So tell us which episode was your favorite
Well, on that note, we are actually going to wind down this episode. See what I did there?
Marco Timpano: Yeah. I love it.
Nidhi Khanna: we want to thank you all for listening and, please do look us up online and rate us. Review us on iTunes on SoundCloud and
Marco Timpano: tweet at us watching our 100th episode. So tell us which episode was your favorite.
Nidhi Khanna: Please do. You can find us at. Listen, Unsleep.
Marco Timpano: And I, want to thank you for joining us as we sort of drank our way through this episode. As always, we're produced by drumcast Productions, and this particular episode was recorded in Toronto, Canada.