Sam Slaughter is the Food and Drink Editor for The Manual. Born and raised in New Jersey, he’s called the South home for the better part of the last decade. His bachelor’s and master’s degrees are both in English Literature and he is the author of two collections of short fiction, as well as the forthcoming cocktail book ‘Grown Up Drinks’ (Andrews McMeel 2019). His literary fiction and nonfiction work have appeared in over 40 publications while his food and spirits writing has been featured in the likes of ‘Maxim,’ ‘Bloomberg,’ The Bitter Southerner, InsideHook, Tales of the Cocktail, Supercall, Thirsty, Southern Kitchen, Chilled, and more.
Sam is Wine and Spirits Education Trust Certified in Spirits (awarded with high honors) and an honest-to-goodness Kentucky Colonel. He has been the judge of four national cocktail competitions, served on the World’s Best Bars 2017 voting panel, and had a cocktail he created featured at the Lincoln Center Theatre for the 2016 season. Sam gets around, having visited over 500 breweries, wineries, and distilleries on four continents.
Sam is one of the hosts of The Manual’s podcast, Beards, Booze, and Bacon, a weekly series that has interviewed a numerous high-profile industry people, including chef Hugh Acheson, chef Angie Mar, Reverend Nat West (Rev Nat’s Hard Cider), chef Anthony DiBernardo, author of Rosé All Day Katherine Cole, and Old Forester Bourbon master taster Jackie Zykan, among others. He’s been featured on Oregon Public Radio’s The Four Top, We Like Drinking, Drinking Dirty in Jersey, The Whiskycast, The Writer’s Bone, The Saftacast, The Yemassee Podcast, Trends With Benefits, YEAH That Soccer Podcast, Citizen Lit, The Drunken Odyssey, and This Podcast Will Save Your Life. He’s also appeared on Cheddar and the online series, Drinking While Interviewing, in addition to The Manual’s own video and Facebook Live content.
