Drinks experts and comedy duo, The Thinking Drinkers, provide a wonderful interactive entertainment.  It is the perfect solution to creating outstanding live and online events. “Terrific” – The Scotsman.

Theatre

Ben McFarland and Tom Sandham, aka the Thinking Drinkers, are award-winning drinks experts, writers and comedy performers. They have had several award-winning sold out drinks-based comedy theatre shows in the West End, Edinburgh Fringe and national tours.

Corporate entertainment

In addition to their theatre performances, The Thinking Drinkers have always provided entertainment for organisations through their tasting sessions. The Drinkers have adapted to our post-Covid world by moving their tasting show online and can provide a hosted drinks event via Zoom (or other video platforms).  How does it work? Simple – running 40-60 minutes the tastings involve the Drinkers taking you and your staff/guests through a tasting of up to five drinks. This is generally a beer, three spirits and a non-alcoholic drink. Clients order the drinks as miniatures or cans from online drinks providers (they can recommend providers) and get them delivered directly to guests.

This isn’t a dry, boring tasting – the Drinkers still host it with their trademark irreverence, but the participants will come away with a greater depth of knowledge about all kinds of alcohol. The Drinkers have a vast repertoire of material and knowledge that they can tailor to specific events and situations. If your company has a certain heritage or ownership there may be an opportunity to tailor a tasting to your company. Examples of previous themed content shows include:

• Germany – a German drinks themed tasting for the London subsidiary of a German company.
• America – an American drinks themed tasting for the London subsidiary of an American company and the same delivered for an American corporation to a group of their senior management.
• Literature – a literary themed tasting for a publishing company.
• Film – a ‘drinks on film’ themed tasting for a DVD distributor and a ‘drinks on film’ themed tasting for a film producer and clients.

Background

Two of the UK’s leading and most respected experts on all aspects of alcohol. Ben McFarland and Tom Sandham met in their twenties.  They co-wrote the award-winning Good Beer Guide West Coast USA.  Both leading drinks journalists, they contribute to a wide range of magazines.  Ben and Tom have written for The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, Independent and The Spectator. They both regularly appear on television and radio as leading drinks experts and have guested on Sunday Brunch (Channel 4), Simon Mayo (BBC Radio 2), Jamie Oliver’s Drinks Tube and a variety of regional BBC radio shows.

Ben McFarland is the triple-crowned “British Beer Writer of The Year” – the first as the youngest ever recipient. He is the author of the award-winning World’s Best Beers and the recently published Boutique Beer.

Tom Sandham was the editor of leading industry spirits and cocktail magazine CLASS. He launched the World’s 50 Best Bars and House Tonic for the Soho House Group. He is the author of the Gourmand award-winning book World’s Best Cocktails. Tom is also a two-time winner of the WSA Drinkers Communicator of The Year Award.

Their latest book, The Thinking Drinkers Almanac, will be published in 2021. Ben and Tom’s new live show The Thinking Drinkers Pub Quiz will, Covid allowing, is set to tour at some point in the future.

Feedback includes

“Fantastic drinks, with fascinating discussion from funny people.”  THREE WEEKS ★★★★

“This is brilliant. I love this show.” – THE SKINNY ★★★★

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