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In 2012, a routine inventory check at a warehouse in Saint-Louis-de-Blandford, Quebec, turned up barrels of water where syrup from the Quebec Maple Syrup Producers Federation's strategic reserve should have been. The Supreme Court of Canada later described a theft of 9,571 barrels worth over eighteen million dollars.

George prepares a Maple Leaf cocktail while tracing the evidence behind Quebec's great maple-syrup theft: how the syrup was swapped for water and moved through a network of intermediaries and buyers, what published reporting alleges about the people around the warehouse, and how Richard Vallières's 2016 conviction turned into a fight over his fine that ended at the Supreme Court of Canada in 2022. We keep court findings, the Federation's statements and reported allegations separate, including recovery figures the sources don't reconcile.

In the glass: George's modern Maple Leaf variation with 2 oz Canadian whisky, ½ oz maple syrup and ½ oz fresh lemon juice.

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“Slip someone a Mickey” sounds like it should have a neat origin story. The history of the real Mickey Finn is messier.

In 1903, Chicago saloonkeeper Mickey Finn faced accusations that customers were secretly drugged at his Lone Star Saloon. Police seized bottles for testing, city officials revoked the saloon’s liquor licence, and Finn denied the allegations. We follow what contemporary reports establish—and what they leave unanswered—including a separate robbery at the saloon, the distinct 1918 “Mickey Finn powder” scandal, and a later cocktail that shares the name. We keep the documented events, allegations and later lore separate; the sources we found do not document a criminal conviction for Finn in the 1903 drugging case.

In the glass: a later Mickey Finn cocktail with gin, dry vermouth, absinthe and white crème de menthe.

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In August 1905, Jean Lanfray killed his wife, Marie-Louise, and their two young daughters in the Swiss village of Commugny. He had been drinking throughout the day—but two glasses of absinthe became a defining detail in the story that followed.

Over a Necromancer cocktail, George follows the family's story, the murder trial, and the campaign that helped turn absinthe into a national prohibition issue. How did a crime in one household become an argument for banning a drink?

Content note: This episode discusses domestic violence, the murder of children, and suicide.

Hosted by George Logue. Narration uses an AI model of the host's voice.