Every year, I go on a canoe trip, and I find that a complete disconnect from the world is a good time to reset my brain and refocus on what comes next. And there is a lot of good stuff to work with when it comes to flavour. But for the next week I’ll be “out-of-office,” and where I’m going, there is no connection to the modern world. I’ll get to your questions when I return. Now for a peek at what is coming.
Though I’ve been a bit quiet the past month, there is a lot happening behind the scenes. I’ve started building out a second studio set. The room I call the “studio” is just a 12×27-foot room; one end is where I currently make videos, and the other end was storage. Well, I’ve cleaned up the storage end and started to create a second look. It has been five years of shooting with a singular look, so changing things up might help create different video styles that could improve engagement. And if you want more behind-the-scenes stuff, let me know. I do like the video production side of this project, and there’s a lot of interesting stuff that you may find interesting as well.
To date, I have made most of the popular soda formulas, though there are a few that are still being worked on that have bigger issues, like Mountain Dew and the weighting agent that it incorporates (SAIB, formerly BVO) and Irn Bru, which had quinine, but I have figured out a solution to make it work. Beyond that, everything else is less popular and way less engaging on YouTube, and my channel was already pretty low in engagement. It never really caught on with a wider audience, so thanks for being a Patron, your support genuinely keeps this content alive. This type of content is more expensive to produce and requires a fair amount of research.
In September, I will post a poll to decide the direction of this content. I do this yearly, and your advice has always been good. The plan is to start demonstrating how to work with flavours in day-to-day beverages. For example, the recent dairy videos do have a purpose, and one of them will be to add dairy flavour to coffee to see what we can create. A lot of my ideas aim to draw people from other communities, like coffee drinkers, with an easy entry into the world of flavours. I may even do some food-related topics, though that requires a kitchen, which I’m still figuring out.
Five years ago I bought a 12-acre farm, with plans to plant grapes on it and make a small vineyard. That took up a lot of time, especially in the summer. In the spring, I decided to sell that farm because the time commitments (and effort; it is a ton of work and expensive) were too much, considering all the other things I have going on. I’m still a one-man show here, so video research, production and editing are still all me. Making the flavour sheets and answering your questions require time, as well as working on the Flavour Calculator and other tools that help you with formulations. I spread myself too thin in the past few years, and selling the farm will free up a lot of time and help me refocus on Art of Drink, allowing me to put more effort into it. It was fun, I enjoyed working outdoors.
So that is the update; by the time you read this, I will be on my way to the great outdoors. I hope your summer was enjoyable, and your winter not too harsh. I’m excited about September and the things to come.
Paddling with my daughter in Algonquin Park (September 2025)