An Interview (and Blind Coffee Tasting) with Bianca Bosker - NYT Bests

Join us for our most recent podcast interview where we talk to Bianca Bosker, New York Times Best Selling author of Cork Dork: A Wine-FUELED Adventure Among The Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste. We talk about Bianca's journey writing Cork Dork, the myths about being a naturally talented taster and ways to improve your sense of taste, and how to buy wine to impress. There is also a live blind coffee tasting! The perfect thing to listen to if you want actionable ways to improve your palate or just want to know more about wine and how it relates to coffee. Our favorite quotes include:

I embrace a philosophy that I’ve applied to wine and it’s something that I learned from Paul Grieco who runs Terroir and I ended up working for him. And he used to make people promise to never try the same wine twice and when I first heard that piece of advice, I thought it was crazy. You know, like people collect deep into specific vintages and winemakers, but, the more I got to thinking about it, the more I realized that he was actually completely wise...I’m always trying something I haven’t had before.

I’ve always been obsessed with obsession so it was really for me, I think I started obsessed with the people that obsess over wine and by the end of it, I was a person obsessing over wine and I continue to be and that was something I hadn’t expected.

You go back to that two pieces of information strategy: what do you want to spend, what flavors do you want, and if the answer is that you don’t really know what flavors you want or what flavors your host might want, get something with a story.

I think you’ve answered your own question. Now I’m really not going to be able to drink coffee the same way, right? I think that’s so exciting. It’s all just words unless you have your own association. Now I’m going to be on the looking for “what is the natural Ethiopian”. We have whole parts of the world who’s coffee I haven’t tasted and I want to.

Big thanks to Bianca for joining us and being open to new experiences, we had a great time enjoying wine, coffee, and cheese together! Bianca's book is beautifully written and great fun to read. You should grab a copy before you forget, it's $9.02 well spent.