Back in June of 2020, I ran a handful of sessions of Distilled at VGC, or Virtual Gaming Con, put on by the BoardGameGeek. This attracted players from around the country, and I had the opportunity to meet a number of new people and introduce Distilled to a wider audience. It was at one of those playtests that I got to meet Blake Tucker. Throughout the game, he was casually dropping tidbits about spirits that I had not hear before, and politely correcting my pronunciation on things, such as Baijiu (not being “Bye-Joo”, but instead “Bye-Joe“). After he pronounced Cachaça as “ca-cha-ssa” (and not what I ignorantly thought was “ca-cha-ka“) I realized that this individual knew a thing or two about spirits. I soon learned that Blake is a walking encyclopedia of knowledge surrounding all things spirits – from the history to the mixology behind alcohol, Blake has answers. What’s even better, he’s a board gamer as well.
A few months later, we reconnected over Discord, to simply have a chat while we had the latest TTS build open. Blake walked me through some amazing history behind different spirits, such as one of the origins of gin as a war-time elixir for soldiers in battle, or how a large part of the slave trade was started due to the desire that Europe and the colonies had for Rum. Blake also recommended books to read, such as The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart and Tasting Whiskey by Lew Bryson (I’ve drank up every drop of the Botanist, and am about to start Tasting Whiskey). After talking with him for over an hour, it became very clear to me that I simply had to have Blake as part of the team.
Shortly thereafter, I invited him on as Distilled’s official spirits consultant. His sense of humor, understanding of games, and vast spirit knowledge will help to breathe authentic and thematic life into the cards, components, and rules that you all will get to experience. I can’t wait to see what he does with the flavor text found in the cards and rules of the game, where he’ll be able to add his punny sense of humor with real facts surrounding these amazing spirits! As with our other team members, I asked Blake to provide a small bio, below:
While Blake Tucker has been a pun lover and avid board gamer since he was a child, as an adult he is better known as Dr Inkwell, the founder of Boozephreaks. Since 2009, Boozephreaks has brought people in the San Francisco Bay Area together to learn about their libations, meet their local distillers, and share the international culture of spirits. Blake has been the featured speaker at the Exploratorium’s Science of Cocktails, was the host of the “In The Know” spirits segment on local TV program CHN Now, and currently serves as Beverage Director for WBENC-certified Taste Catering. As a spirits expert, Blake advises distillers, creates cocktail programs, and enjoys sharing his passion for the taste, diversity, culture, and history of international spirits. His moniker is his mission: he doesn’t want you to drink more, but to drink well.
“I’m so excited to further the mission with Dave!” said Blake. “When I got wind of what he was planning with Distilled, I got so excited about the project. I’m thrilled to join the team, and can’t wait to shake things up, add a dash of flavor, and help serve up a game that’s as grounded in facts as it is fun to play. Hopefully we can also add more dad jokes. That would be neat,” he said, at room temperature, straight from the bottle.
Blake aka Dr Inkwell can be found on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube (see a sample of his channel below) and at www.boozephreaks.com
Please help me in welcoming Dr Inkwell to the Distilled team!