S5, E32: Feel-Good Fridays | The Viral World Cup Food Obsession and a Very American Bourbon

It’s the last Feel-Good Friday before host Aislyn and producer Nikki take a summer break. And they’re sending the season off with two of summer’s great pleasures: a viral World Cup food obsession and a very American bourbon.

First, why international soccer fans are falling hard for ranch dressing—and getting stopped at airport security over it. Then, a first-of-its-kind whiskey blended from all 50 states, arriving just in time for the Fourth of July and America’s 250th birthday.

Transcript

Nikki: Hi. Welcome to Unpacked by Afar. I’m Nikki Galteland.

Aislyn: And I’m Aislyn Greene and Nikki, today is our last Feel-Good Friday episode before our summer break. So it’s just the 2 of us today.

Nikki: So we decided to lean into the really summery vibes and talk about some of the best ways to celebrate the season.

Aislyn: Yes. And you know, I would say food and drink and travel are right up there. In fact, I just found this recipe that I want to make. It was an orange sherbet ice cream cake that was on the cover of a magazine. And, you know, sometimes you see something and you’re like, I want to make that.

Nikki: Are you gonna make it?

Aislyn: Maybe this weekend, if it’s sunny, it needs to be hot. It has to be hot for an orange sherbet ice cream cake.

Nikki: Very true. I agree. So that does sound delicious. I don’t know if it goes well with my topic for the day, but I’m also very excited to talk about the World Cup ranch smuggling conspiracy.

Aislyn: That was perhaps, a topic I didn’t think that would ever make it onto any of our of our podcasts, but I can’t wait for it. And I have the bourbon to toast to that or to the 4th of July, which is rapidly approaching.

Nikki: Orange sherbet, ranch and bourbon. That’s my kind of meal. So that’s all coming up after the break.

Aislyn: Well, Nikki, obviously we have to start with you because I just I have to hear about this. This tasty ranch goss.

Nikki: Exactly, exactly. It’s amazing. It’s like the sweet little summer news story that made me happy this week. Obviously, the World Cup is in full swing, which means there’s a lot of international visitors to the U.S., and some of them are really appreciating ranch dressing, which I think is lovely. I mean, it’s, you know, the crown jewel of American cuisine, right?

Aislyn: So wow, you’re coming out with a very strong statement there, I love it. We’re going to get some emails.

Nikki: I know the great ranch debate, but yes, lovely, funny people from abroad have been posting online about how much they love ranch and how Europe needs to have and discover ranch, and how ranch can improve any meal. People have gotten so into it that they’ve been trying to take, like full bottles home in their carry on luggage, which led to, I think, one of the most glorious PSAs of all time, to please do not chug your ranch in line at security.

Aislyn: Is this from the actual TSA? Did they put that out?

Nikki: Yeah. And I don’t know that anyone actually was chugging their ranch in line at security, but apparently there was enough of a trend of ranch showing up in luggage that they decided to make some silly posts about it.

Aislyn: Doctors around the world would also say, please don’t chug your ranch.

Nikki: Please, please don’t chug ranch at the airport.

Aislyn: And I’m sorry. Europe, what’s coming your way? I apologize in advance on behalf of all Americans.

Nikki: It’s just cultural exchange. It’s really, really what the World Cup is all about.

Aislyn: Yes. You’re right. I wonder if we’re gonna start seeing, like, ranch pasta in Italy, you know?

Nikki: Oh, interesting.

Aislyn: Sounds disgusting.

Nikki: Probably not. I don’t think so. I mean, it’s just a sauce. It’s a dressing like. It’s. It’s fine.

Aislyn: And I have to be, I want to know what you think of it. But I know this is kind of a blasphemous thing to say as an American, but I don’t get it because I don’t like ranch at all. Like I’ve never liked ranch dressing unless it is in like, a Cool Ranch Doritos. Do you like it? Are you a fan?

Nikki: I do, I am a ranch fan. Like I’ll do like a garden salad with ranch. I like carrot sticks and ranch as like a snack, I think is very tasty. But for all the people trying to bring it home, I’m like, there’s such a thing as like packets of dried ranch seasoning that you can get. Like there is no need to take liquid, potentially very messy dressing liquids into your luggage. Like that just seems like a disaster waiting to happen. So find, find the packets.

Aislyn: Could you imagine if like the bottle of ranch exploded all over your suitcase, like that suitcase is dead to you now it’s gone.

Nikki: Worst case scenario, even like it’ll be so oily, like you’ll never get the stains out. And it will never stop smelling like ranch. Like I do not believe that you could get the smell out if it exploded in your luggage. So. So proceed with caution, everyone.

Aislyn: We’re going to see a tide commercial at next year’s Super Bowl about how to get the ranch dressing smell out of your, I guess, targeted to the, the Europeans. Well, I have to admit that I was listening to you talk, but I was googling World Cup Ranch at one point because I hadn’t seen the ranch side of things. And apparently Kraft has come up with a TSA approved travel kit.

Nikki: Like little mini bottles of ranch to take it through the corporate, quick advertising pivots are amazing. Apparently Tabasco is like our sauce meets the travel requirements. Jack in the box is like we have ranch packets, like little like single serving like every. Everyone’s getting in on the ranch craze.

Aislyn: Oh, Tabasco. Don’t even try. Well, have you ever tried to smuggle something either, like through a security line or take like a potentially disastrous liquid in your carry on?

Nikki: My, my biggest mistake was trying to take a bottle of wine into checked baggage, but it was like a big hiking backpack. I had a bubble wrap. I had clothes all around it. It was like in the middle. But, um, I got my, my bag off of the carousel and it was dripping red, red liquid out of it. It was, it was not great.

Aislyn: Did you just want to, like, walk over to the trash can and put it in like, okay.

Nikki: I wasn’t even 21. So I was like, I’m gonna be in so much trouble. I mean, obviously nobody cared at all, but it was funny.

Aislyn: Did you have to go very far with like a wet bag? Like, because, you know, if you’re at the airport.

Nikki: It wasn’t too bad. Got some paper towels. And, you know, luckily, my clothes absorbed most of it.

Aislyn: Yeah. Luckily, luckily for you. Oh, and it was probably a really nice bottle of wine.

Nikki: Yeah. Sad day. But it was all right. It was a gift, so it was like a sorry, mom and dad. It was going to be very nice.

Aislyn: The label? Yeah. From this one. Here’s the t shirt we can squeeze. Like, squeeze a little bit of wine out of your t-shirt into you.

Nikki: That’s way worse than ranch.

Aislyn: Well, I did have a similar situation when I was coming back from Argentina with a group of people a couple of years. Well, this was many years ago now, and we all bought wine. I accidentally bought a very expensive bottle of wine because I didn’t do the peso to USD conversion correctly. And so it was like a celebratory wine that we saved, but mine made it back fine. It was a hard shelled suitcase. And I followed the same method, you know, clothes and then bubble wrap. And I think with a hard shell, you’re a little safer. Yeah. But another woman had purchased, like, 3 or 4 bottles of wine and put them all in the same suitcase. And as the belt was coming toward us, it was a similar situation where it was just like, like red, leaking out of the suitcase onto the conveyor belt. And we were all like, oh.

Nikki: Oh it’s so Embarrassing. Like, you do not, I don’t know, everyone knows what you did. And you just, you’re just feel shame. It just feels shame.

Aislyn: But we all try. Like I’ve done it a million times since then. I’m like, is this gonna be the time that I’m going to be shamed by the conveyor belt? Nope. Okay.

Nikki: All right. So maybe we’re not going to be having any wine with our summer barbecues. But Aislyn, I think there’s something else that we might be able to pair with our burgers and hot dogs.

Aislyn: Yes. Hopefully not with our ranch. So there’s this company called Lost Lantern that one of our coworkers actually turned us on to. And basically, they don’t distill spirits themselves, but they blend and bottle from unique distilleries around the country. It’s so cool.

Nikki: So how do they find them?

Aislyn: So the founders, their names are Nora and Adam, and they’ve been in the whiskey business for a long time. And during Covid, they took an 8th month road trip around the US and visited more than one hundred distilleries. Like that is a lot of, a lot of spirits to be tasting. So they took that combo of travel, meeting new people in their background, and they created Lost Lantern.

Nikki: That is so cool. And it sounds like they have some sort of a special bourbon for this year.

Aislyn: Yes they do. I know, and I actually wish that I was tasting some right now, although I probably would, you know, slur my words because it’s 11:42 am where we are, but cheers. I’ll pretend my tea is the Lost Lantern United States of Bourbon, which is what they created. And it is a combo of 50 different Bourbons to honor the Semiquincentennial, aka the 250th anniversary of the U.S.

Nikki: So that means that they have Bourbons from all 50 states mixed in. Yes. Wow. I mean, oh my gosh.

Aislyn: I know it really. So distilleries from like Hawaii, Vermont, I mean every state, right? So I really cannot picture what this tastes like. I’ve been trying to the tasting notes are like normal bourbon, normal whiskey notes, you know, like tobacco and orange peel. And I’m like, but this is 50 Bourbons in here. And they made 3 expressions, as they say. So there are 3 different types of this United States of Bourbon. So there’s a 100 proof. There’s a cask strength, which I didn’t know what this meant, but it means a spirit is bottled exactly as it comes out of the aging barrel, so you don’t add any water to dilute the proof. And then there is a 1776 edition, which is a blend of 13 different Bourbons. You know, to honor the former British colonies, aka the first states. So again, really want to know what this tastes like.

Nikki: You’re gonna have to track down a bottle and let us know.

Aislyn: Hello, Lost Lantern. Feel free to send us a bottle.

Nikki: If you said, I’ll take one too. I mean, you know.

Aislyn: We promise we won’t drink it with ranch.

Nikki: On my honor, we’ll.

Aislyn: Keep those 2 passions separate.

Aislyn: So happy 4th, everyone, and happy Summer.

Nikki: This was a Feel Good Friday episode of Unpacked by Afar.

Aislyn: You can subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast player and follow @AfarMedia on social.

Nikki: And don’t forget to subscribe to our Behind the Mic newsletter at Afar.com.

Aislyn: This show is part of the Airwave Media Podcast Network. Music from Chris Colin and Epidemic Sound.

Nikki: Have a great summer!