If you’ve been following along in our journeys, you know we enjoy a good adult beverage, or two. So it’s no surprise that I jumped on the opportunity to do an interview with Jack Maxwell.
Jack is the star of the Travel Channel’s ‘Booze Traveler‘. For those of you who aren’t familiar, the show follows Jack around the world as he explores it’s cultures through alcoholic beverages. Over the last couple years, Jack has been affiliated with the Travel & Adventure Show, a series of annual travel inspiration events. Due to the pandemic, this year’s events are being hosted virtually, by Jack in the comfort of your own home. “It’s been fun!” he says of hosting the virtual event.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, Jack has been laying low in Scottsdale, AZ. His mother moved the family to “this one horse town” in 1975, to escape the Boston, MA, D-Street Projects. He still has family and friends in Boston and sayd he’s “long overdue for a visit.”
Of course, I can’t start the interview without asking…
SAB: “So Jack, what are you drinking?”.
Jack: “A Dark & Stormy!” Rum is one of Jack’s prefered spirits. “It’s one of my favourites because of the emotional connection I have to it. For me, for reason of escapism. When I was a kid, Boston was the opposite of the Bahamas, it couldn’t get any more different. Lousy beaches, cold weather, overcast and I would read tales of fantasy, and adventure and pirates! It was so warm in these other places. And there were white sandy beaches, bright blue ocean waters, dolphins and pirate treasure. And they always drank rum! So I connected to it so much when I was a kid.”
SAB: ” In a sense, you’re kind of a pirate right? Only your ship is an airplane!”
Jack: “Oh ya – that’s great. In a sense I guess I am!”
He goes on to describe an incident where his mother brought home some rum cake from a wedding. “Along with those little jordan almonds that were tied up in a net, there was a huge piece of rum cake. And I thought, this is great! I like cake and I like rum.” Which he hadn’t tried at the age of 7 or 8, but thought he did becuase of the pirate tales he loved. “I ate the whole thing and got really nautious,” he recalls. “I got so sick from that, that rum wasn’t the first, second or third thing I tried when I started drinking, because I had such an unpleasant experience. But I soon forgave it.”
SAB: “What’s your favourite island?”
Jack: “I love everything about the Caribbean. I loved St. Lucia, Barbados, Jamaica, Cuba, Domenica. But I want to see more!”
SAB: “What do you love most about travel?”
Jack: “For me, it’s never been about the monuments and the mountains and museums. It’s about the poeple. I always come back with stories that I tell my friends and family, of these wonderful people that I got to sit with and learn about them and their family. And they were so generous in lending their time and their food.”
SAB: “Are you drinking any other international beverages at home in these times?”
Jack: “I have some stuff that I have cultivated from around the world, though I’ve given most of it away.”
SAB: “What kind of souvenirs do you bring home?”
Jack: ” I don’t come home with little chotchkis. I stick with the gifts from the people that I meet – Vikings, Sumo wrestlers… I never buy stuff. When we were filming Greece (S2E2), we were in a little market and a guy said “Where you from?”, I said the U.S., and he says “Here I want to give you this.” It was a souvenir shop we were walking past, and he gave me a folded up Greek flag. and he said “This is so you can remember me. And when you go home, maybe you could send me a flag from the United States.” Jack says he sent one when he eventually returned to the States after filming abroad.
“And I started bringing gifts to hand out from the States – sports jerseys, USA olympics stuff, basketball jerseys, Bruins pucks [to the Nordic region]. It sounds goofy, but I think the best gift you can give is of yourself. Staying for family dinner and to tell more stories and drink. It’s a real joy. I wish I could have stayed everywhere longer, because I enjoyed it so much.”
SAB: “What culture were you most surprised by when it came to drinking?”
Jack: “You have these pre-dispositions and notions of what these cultures might be like, and that’s one of the beauties of travel. I was shocked at how much alcohol South Korea drinks. They lead the world and it’s not even close in total alcohol consumed per capita. They crush everybody and I witnessed it!” he laughs. “And maybe partook as well. Everything’s fun and partying and outdoors. They have little plastic bags [Capri Sun like] they make you whatever you want and you just walk around with it. I’m sure it leaches the chemicals right out of the plastic but we don’t have to talk about that. It’s constant drinking all the time. It’s really wild. And they are just the sweetest people too, it’s not like they’re a bunch of hooligans or anything.”
SAB: “Are you familiar with the ‘Sourtoe‘ drink in the Yukon? Have you tired it?”
Jack: ” I am familiar with it but have not tried it. When we were in production, it always came up as a suggested ‘fan favourite’. It would have been fun. That thing is so sterilized by now, and I’ve definitely had worse. The idea of it of course, I would do it in a heartbeat. Because it’s funny and it’s interesting. And it means something to the people. – it’s become it’s own legendary thing. Plus, it’s can’t be as bad as being the guy with only 9 toes!”
SAB: “What’s the strangest vessel you’ve taken a drink out of?”
Jack: “There were a few… one in particular that comes to mind was a domestic episode where we were in Florida. There was an alligator skull and you poured the drink from the back of his head towards the mouth and you do the shot.”
SAB: “What’s your favourite bar scene in the U.S.?”
Jack: “There are so many. It depends on who I’m with, to fit the vibe.” He immediately lists off the following boozy destinations:
- New Orleans, LA “How can you go wrong?! It’s so fun. It’s for my friends that are a little crazier than others. “
- Memphis, TN “Beal Street is another great one.”
- New York City, NY “Walking through East Village.”
- Chicago, IL “Logan Sqaure and Lost Lake Tiki
- Prescott, AZ “Whiskey Row”
- Austin, TX “East 6”
- “… I got way more than you have time for.”
SAB: “How about the most effective hangover cure?”
Jack: “That’s tough to quantify. It really dependson how much I drink. Cures work differently, whether is was the mixers I use or if I don’t get enough sleep, so it’s hard to compare. It’s not like a double blind test or anything, although there are a couple times I was blind drunk.” he laughs. “It’s time really. Drink lots of water while drinking. Before bed, I try to drink powdered vitamin C & B and get my electrolytes. Sleep! Avoid light. Then I wake up and spoil myself with a big, fatty, high calorie breakfast, ice cold orange juice and a pot of coffee.”
He continues, “I did like the sourplum soup in Japan. Nothing magical though. I think I’d rather take the hangover than try to explain to my friends, “you take the rooster testicals…” And fermented shark [in Iceland] was easily the worst thing I’ve ever put in my mouth. Tastes like amonia. It’s half as hard as a hockey puck so you can’t chew it to swallow it. Your body convulses and your stomach sends up alarms, ‘what are you doing to us’?! I ended up eating four pieces as a good guest. I wouldn’t eat it again on a bet.”
He goes on to explain how interesting it is that these cultures enjoy such “hard to swallow” drinks and food items. “It’s crazy how people around the world have adapted to their environment so wonderfully. I really appreciated learning about their differences. I went into it looking for the commonalities, and discovered all these physical and biological differences.”
SAB: “Where do you hope to travel when it’s safe to do so again?”
Jack: “I want to go to the Bahamas and Bermuda which I have not gone to and would be first on the list.”
If you enjoyed our interview with Jack Maxwell, check out my interview from earlier this year with Pauline Frommer, travel queen and co-president of Frommers.
What country does your favourite drink come from?
What an amazing job he has – to see the world thru drinks!! Great interview!
Isn’t it though Kristina?! Would absolutely love to spend some time in his shoes. Cheers!