Ep 36: The Hidden Ingredient Linking Beer, Coke and Chilled Reds

Why do cool drinks feel so refreshing? And how did coldness become an essential selling point for drinks?

The link between chilled drinks and refreshment is so common today that it feels natural — but it took 2,000 years of innovation to get there.

In this entertaining, Freakonomics-style episode, hosts Felicity and Lulie trace how drinks went from being served at room temperature, to being so cold it’s hard to distinguish the flavours. Their story takes in snow-cooled water, a Bostonian entrepreneur who built a global trade empire from pond ice, and an Australian printer who noticed that typeface became cooler after he cleaned it.

Along the way they race how Champagne ended up in silver ice buckets and how Coca-Cola’s decision to sell branded $12 coolers to store owners changed the world of drinks forever — and what this means for refreshment in a heating world.

Meet Your Hosts:

Lulie Halstead founded and led international consumer research and strategy consultancy Wine Intelligence, and led it to a successful PE exit. Today she is a renowned global beverage alcohol and wine sector specialist, focused on consumer behaviour, strategy, retail and hospitality. An accomplished keynote speaker, she has spoken at more than 70 international events over the past 20 years.

Felicity Carter is an award-winning wine and drinks journalist, editor and content strategist. She led Meininger’s Wine Business International to become the world’s most must-read wine trade magazine, and was founding Executive Editor of The Drop/Pix, which the Wall Street Journal named one of the most trusted sources of wine information. A regular keynote speaker, she was named a 2024 Industry Leader by WineBusiness Monthly. Her Drinks Insider podcast won the 67 Pall Mall Global Wine Communicator Award for Audio.

Chapters

• (00:00:04) - A Question of Drinks
• (00:00:30) - A Question of Drinks
• (00:01:53) - Cold Drinks
• (00:03:36) - Why Does a Cold Drink Feel Remarkably Good?
• (00:06:39) - Wine transport in the 1980s
• (00:07:49) - Cold Drinks
• (00:10:05) - Seneca on Cold Drinks
• (00:14:58) - Cold Drinks in the Habsburg Empire
• (00:15:58) - The Ice King
• (00:20:32) - Refrigeration
• (00:25:34) - How did pasteurization intersect with refrigeration?
• (00:26:02) - Wine and the changing tastes
• (00:27:25) - Ranting in the World of Wine...
• (00:28:12) - Chilled Off: The Science of Wine
• (00:28:48) - Coca Cola: Cold Drinks
• (00:34:50) - What is the appeal of Extra Cold?
• (00:37:28) - Temperature and refreshment
• (00:41:46) - What do we lose with the ritual in drinking wine?
• (00:43:28) - A Question of Drinks