A Deep Dive Into Redwood Empire’s Haystack Needle Grain To Glass Single Barrel

Welcome And What’s Pouring

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Welcome to the Whiskey Chasers, where we talk about our passion for whiskey and its history, either amongst ourselves or while interviewing distilleries. All while enjoying a glass. I'm Steve. I'm Nick, and I'm Chris. Please enjoy responsibly while enjoying this week's episode of The Whiskey Chasers.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

So, what are we drinking today? We've got Redwood Empire. So it's kind of a weird series for those listening to us, uh, because we've done the ones we're about to have are ones that we've had before as far as distilleries go. But for example, this is one that when we did Redwood, they weren't distilling their own. Oh, the bottle we had wasn't their own, but they started distilling their own. So we've got some like new additions to the things that we've had before that fit kind of that unique grain or uniqueness that you you talked about January 1st at the beginning of the year. Of this is something to look out for for distilleries. So

Redwood Empire’s New Distillate Era

SPEAKER_01 1:08

we've got Redwood Empire Haystack needle, so needle in a haystack, but but haystack needle.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

This is the haystack's needle.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

The haystack needle, and this was an Indiana exclusive. They did two, it's the same mashable, if I understand right, different ages and different proofs, but their own distillate. We have had the higher proof one, I believe. Higher proof and lower years one is what we had before.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Yeah, we had the we had the lost monarch before, which is uh like the one we had was 116 proof. Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

So this is different from that. This is the one that we had at the club that we didn't we didn't get to bring on to the podcast. Okay, because we almost finished the bottle in a day. I think there might have been like a quarter left, and the club finished it that night.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

People came over and it was gone in like five minutes.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

It was done. So this is and that came as a recommendation from Tipsy, and that was his his first recommendation between the two. This was his second out of the two, and so I'm very interested to see what the difference is because the one we had was very good.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Single barrel, grain to glass, and it's 120 120.8 proof, yep, straight bourbon whiskey.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

And when we had Redwood Empire on before, they had just bought out Savage and Cook, they just bought out their distillery, right? And so this is their own just like this is Redwood Empire's own distillate, and this is an Indiana exclusive, Indiana exclusive, yeah. This is the first one they've done, to my knowledge, like single barrel.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

The bottle feels like an old tree, like a redwood, like a redwood, yeah. And it reminds me of these pipes that I have that are uh, you know, like this one. This is a called a new deer from Caminetto. This is a Caminetto. Do you see that? Yeah, isn't that like the same rustication? Oh, yeah. I love that. Rustication I was thinking of, yeah. It's like a craggy old knotted root tree type of deal. Yeah, just amazing. And we're gonna smoke with it. What are we smoking with it? We're gonna smoke, and I don't know if it's gonna go well together or not. I've just been wanting to smoke this, I've been wanting to pop this. This is king cake. I've been wanting to have it on the podcast for a while. Have you you've talked about king cake? I have talked about it. I want to say we've had it before a long time ago on the podcast, but I'm not sure. Is there another cake, like something cake? There's lots of cakes. Well, what's funny is this is a play on words. So king cake, it is it is a crumble cake, like in the like the the way the pr presentation. But king cake is and if you see the colors, see how it's

Pipe Talk And The King Cake Blend

SPEAKER_00 3:40

purple and green and and yellow. So that's Mardi Gras. You know, Mardi Gras with a king cake. It's one of the things that they and they put little Jesus, baby Jesus in there.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

Oh, well, sorry, is this a cake, like a legit cake? They eat it, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Yeah, they eat it, and it's all cut, it's colorful like this. Yeah, it's a very colorful cake. I've never heard of this. Never heard of a king cake? It starts on Epiphany, January or January 6th, something like that. And they have these festival, these festivals, and they eat these feasts and stuff. Okay, yeah, and there's this cake called King Cake, and it's there's little baby Jesus in there, but you eat it.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

And sorry, is the baby Jesus in the cake or on the cake like a topic?

SPEAKER_00 4:17

It's hidden in there, and when you pull it, if you get the if you get the beast has a baby Jesus in there, it's kind of like a big thing. It's like a good luck thing, yeah. Like a good luck and a hey I got it.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

I feel like I'd be the one to eat baby.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

There's a whole thing. How is this thing? I don't know enough about it. There's a whole thing about King Cake. Yeah, okay, and Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday and all this stuff. There's all this stuff, but anyway, this is well, you know, Cornell and Deal's from South Carolina. They have a lot of dealings with Louisiana, they're Parik, St. James. So this is kind of like uh they're paying homage to Louisiana, New Orleans, Mardi Gras, all that stuff. But what makes this interesting, so this is part of their seller series, so it's made to be made to age, it's made to be aged. But what makes this interesting is it's an aromatic, which Cornell and Dio doesn't really do traditional aromatics, so it's very much a tobacco forward aromatic. But this is like one of my favorite air quotes aromatics I've ever had. Because it actually tastes kind of like what it smells like, and it's very tobacco forward. But it's um do they do this anymore or is this done? Yeah, no, they still do it. Okay, okay. They still do it. But what makes this one special is so this is a seller series, it says estimated peak 10 to 15 years. Which so this is made to like you buy it and you don't touch it, right? And we didn't quite make it. This one's got nine years, just a hair over nine years of age. But it's it's it's about to pop on its own. You see how yeah, it's puffy. So this is black Cavendish, Oriental Turkish, Parique, and Virginia. So there's not really toppings per se in this, but I mean there they I think they put a little rum and plum and and what, but it's not and Cornell and Dill doesn't really do a whole lot of toppings per se. But you're wait until you smell this. Okay, this is unique. You're gonna be like, this is definitely aromatic, okay, but it's tobacco for it. Let's see if we can make already smell it. Man, this stuff is so so. Here's the thing: this there's no tobacco in the world like this, flavor-wise, even brand new, like like not even aged. Aged, I've never had it this aged because I always smoke it so fast because I like it. It's really good stuff. Oh my, that's almost beer, like beer smelling. It's it's uh wine and oh sour. That's a sour beer, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Yeah, sour beer, and the smell of that king cake is is like a a gose beer, a goose beer, like a sour beer.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Yeah, like a sour beer. It's got a lot of, it's got a lot going on. Wait till Steve smells it. I want to hear Steve's take on it. Because Steve's never had this. I'm sure you rub it out pretty good. Yeah, well, while we're loading it, you might want to talk, Nick, because me and me and Steve are gonna start focusing on our pipes for a second.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

I love the fact I looked over at your glass there, Chris, and you poured a nice hefty pour of this. I'm ready to have a good time. I really so we've talked about this before. Chris was not actually on the podcast that we recorded for Redwood Empire originally. But Chris, correct me if I'm wrong, this was one of the first bottles that we saw that was sourced, that we didn't really even care that it was sourced. Because it was so good. It but the look of it, it was so it was in that era where marketing was so big for the certain things.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

You're talking about like the original Redwood that we had.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Yeah, it was a white label with a chain. The difference was the the lettering. There was green, blue, and red lettering.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

I still have some of those bottles.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

It was the same tall bottle, like each Taylor,

Tasting Notes On Haystack Needle

SPEAKER_01 7:40

same tall shape bottle. It had the same.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

At a time where we weren't buying sourced stuff, we bought we bought this and really enjoyed it. Really enjoyed it. Not this bottle specifically, but this brand. And um, to this day, I always if I finish one, I replace them because they they're still putting those out. Right. There's a blue, red, and a green. Green, green is the rye. Green is a giant, what emerald giant, maybe? Um, I'm trying to think of what red is, and then the blue. I can't remember.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

But they've they've gotten so big and started doing their own stuff that now they have different offerings. I don't know if you know this or not. They've got cast strength ones of those. I mean, they they've they've really outdone themselves for that.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Well, you know what? I did know that because I got a cast strength one and I finished it like very quickly. It never even made it to the shelf. It's you know how I put it on my one bar and then eventually it makes it to the shelf if there's room. It didn't make it.

SPEAKER_02 8:28

It's uh Emerald Lost Monarch is the one that's the rye and bourbon kind of combined. The rye is the pipe dream, pipe dream, emerald giant is the bourbon. Is the bourbon?

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Okay, I think I have all three of them. So we I mean, we found this and went, this is unique in the sense that it was it was plain Jane marketing, there wasn't much to it, but we'd never seen it in Ohio at that point, and figured, heck, why not? Um, I also found out from Steve in that other episode. Did you know that they they plant trees from these bottles? And they're named after actual trees, and they're named after actual trees.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

So, like Lost Monarch, Pipe Dream, Emerald Giant, all three of those are names of actual trees that they planted?

SPEAKER_00 9:10

No, they're they are redwoods, redwood giant giant, like hundreds and hundreds of years old redwood. Yes. Pipe dream in it's hundreds of years old. There must have been a new name, though. Old tree, new name, right?

SPEAKER_02 9:23

These these names have been around on these trees for a long time.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

So the term pipe dream's been around that long. Probably. I mean, what what's what do you think of when you hear pipe? What's the term you think? People used to smoke pipes a lot, probably. I would say that we'd have to Google it. I would say that that phrase came out in the late 1800s.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

Yeah. So I have pulled up our notes from the Lost Monarch one. That particular tree is this eighth 28th largest tree in the world, and it's 320 feet tall and 26 feet wide. Lost Monarch. That's a good name for a tree like Redwood State Park. That's for Lost Monarch. Give me a second, I'll pull up Pipe Dream.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

But yes, I'm pretty sure that Chris and I have talked about this, or or maybe it's just a thought that we've had that we haven't really shared with each other. Or just which could be. We do that. We think about all the time and not share it.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

We think that we talked about it, but we just we just had the same thought.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

I'm pretty sure that we've had the same thought of man, if Redwood Empire could only distill their own stuff. Yeah, because they're out of California. If they could only put them over the top, yes, if they could only distill their own stuff, age their own stuff, and use local, possibly local stuff there, it would put them over the top. There would be still retain their quality. Yes, there would there would be nothing out there like this. And I think when we again, this is folks, this is our second bottle of the haystack needle, just older. It's either older, younger, I forget what it is. That's different proof and maybe older between the two that we've had. I think the the one that we had before was younger and higher proof. This one was older and lower proof than the last one we had. You were talking about Lost Monarch, or are you talking about the other haystack needle that we've had before? That I don't know, yeah. Um, because that one that one was sweeter, but it had it had some unique, some you very unique sweetness going on. What is this one? 120? 120.8. So the other one was lowerproof, 118. So maybe the other one was older and lowerproof, but they're the same mash bill, a different, weird mash bill for Redwood Empire to begin with. Boy, that's good. But this is I remember drinking the first one, and we again we almost drank the whole thing in a day. We were watching a movie, so like an hour and a half, two-hour movie, and we almost finished the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

And that one had this like unique light sweetness. I was just about to say that this has the same syrupy kind of but this is dark, like a light syrup. But this is like this is like darker, like like coffee. Like if you ever put syrup in your coffee because you didn't have sugar. You ever done that? I have, and that's kind of what this reminds me of. Yep, it's darker, but still has that sweetness, but it's not sugar. It's not vibrant or syrup. Yeah, yes, and that maybe that's what I'm getting at. Because molasses is like a coffee, it's a coffee kind of like a dark kind of syrup. Yeah, almost burnt a little bit. Yeah, but it's still light because molasses is not light, but this is still light. It's eight years and one month old, and uh distilled grain to glass in northern California. So this is distilled in California. Hey oh, hey yo, which which the other one was too as well.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Uh the the Lost Monarch? That was MGP. It was the but aged in California.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Well, this one's distilled, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

This is their own distillate, but this was well, based off the age, they've they've uh they haven't owned Savage and Cook that long. They just did it in 2025, right? Hopper on my notes here.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

I got sidetracked by pipe dreams.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

And did you ever find out what we were the pipe dreams thing?

SPEAKER_02 12:54

Yes, it was uh that was named in 1996. 96. That's when they found that's when they identified the tree. It's the 14th largest tree, and it's actually taller than the Lost Monarchy. We're on the coast of of California.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Amazing that those things haven't been engulfed by the they have those fires out there.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

Yeah, I mean a lot of them are getting cut out by that, but not these ones. Uh, yes, they did join in 2025.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

So they distilled this prior to that because this is eight years and some. So do they have their own distillery on top of what they bought from Savage and well, unless this was hanging around Savage and Coke, yeah, unless it was already it was like there. Well, that would make sense. Maybe it's game with Savage and Coke, yeah. This is a four-grain, folks. This is a four-grain bourbon. I knew it. But it says on the back, it's a four-grain bourbon, which is not normal for them to begin with.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

Maybe that's maybe it was uh maybe these bottles were just kind of hanging out, or barrels. I mean, we're just hanging out. It's good. It's very good, really good. It's really good. I mean, that is yeah. I don't even care who it came came from. This is good. Like it's a burnt syrup. It's a burnt syrup. Like because it's light, yeah, but it's got this like he said coffee, but it's it's kind of like it's the way that coffee is like burnt a little bit. That's what it is. It's that head percolated, it's acrid a little bit. It's uh like the the Starbucks is bitter as shit. You know what I mean? Like it's like bitter coffee, kind of, but without the coffee, actual coffee. I don't want people to think coffee, but it's light coffee, yeah. But with this light syrup sweetness, and then and then also all your quintessential bourbon notes, like it's very much brown sugar and vanilla and and all that going on.

SPEAKER_02 14:38

A lot of caramel, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

Just just very like you said, it's that it's it's almost like burnt caramel. Burnt, yeah. Which who doesn't like a good burnt caramel? That's the only thing that improves by getting burnt caramel. I mean, caramel is basically burnt sugar. Yeah, it's burnt sugar and uh what milk? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, or butter, butter maybe, or something like that. You gotta be real careful with that. You gotta work it.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

Yeah, you gotta work it and you gotta watch that temperature because if you go. I only I wish I would have taken a sip of this before I started smoking because now I'm getting like like a fruitcake or like a some sort of a fruit. It would be the pipe tobacco to it, but I'm only getting it like at certain times.

SPEAKER_00 15:33

So I did drink a little bit before I lit up, and I think what you're talking about is from the pipe tobacco, the fruit cake part.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

The cake part, maybe the fruit part, I don't know. Yeah, because the fruit part is it could be both, it could be both. This is definitely fruity. Because we got fruity off the first one we had. That one was like a unique sweet fruity.

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Very much more fruity, but I think that one was more fruity than this one. Oh, a thousand percent. But what do you what are you thinking about this? This is pretty good pipe tobacco, right?

SPEAKER_02 16:03

This is very good pipe tobacco. This is a really good pipe, and it is working really well with this with this whiskey. It's almost like I knew. So, yeah. Turns out it is a good combination. Turns out even you weren't sure, but it was right, even when I'm not sure. I'm still because yeah, they go together really, really well. But yeah, I am a really big fan of this whiskey. That that burnt caramel flavor, and it's pretty deep, and it has a good finish to it. Yeah, it lasts for a little while.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

Yeah, it's not often that I'm like run run out and get this,

Price And Value For Indiana Exclusive

SPEAKER_00 16:40

but I think run out and get this. Yeah, how much how much is this? No, the whiskey. Is this expensive? Is this hard to get? Is this I mean it's an Indiana exclusive?

SPEAKER_02 16:50

I think Ridwood Redwood Empire in general is a little bit on the pricier side. It it is, even their basic stuff. I'm assuming that this is going to be pretty up there. I hope it I want to say it's gotta be under 100, though. Nope. Under a hundred? Oh no, I don't think so.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

I was hoping.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

No, I I would put it like one. I mean, I think it's more, but I don't know what it's worth exactly yet.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

I was hoping it was gonna be around 90 something. But I think it's gonna sell for 140. Am I right? I'm looking because I won't point out. Oh, yeah, it's gonna be really well. It's Indian only. Retail, we gotta look at retail because we can't look at like the inflated price.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

Well, I mean, tipsy's been doing pretty good, but he's been doing a pretty good job at uh tipsy does, yeah. Yeah, that's where we got this was from from our friend Tipsy.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

Well, how much was the last bottle of redwood?

SPEAKER_01 17:45

The same price tag. Was that over a hundred? The haystack needle is is uh it gets up there. In the last monarch, was that over a hundred?

SPEAKER_02 17:54

No, no, last monarch is pretty cheap. That was under a hundred, yeah. Yeah, it was like ninety, wasn't it? Uh it might, I think it's less than that. Oh, really? Yeah, I think last monarch is is like in the 80s, maybe even 70s.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

Well, I mean, it is well, it is from their own distillery, right? Yes, or at least what we're thinking. We're we're at least it's from California. So they're gonna there's gonna be a higher price just for that. 119 is what this guy called. Okay, no, that's great. No, that's okay. 119 is cheaper than I anticipated. It'd be it's less than well. I mean, if it had been over 120, I feel like all of a sudden it sounds worse. But look, 119 sounds great.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

And both of them were 119, they're both at that same. They're both well. This is I mean, that one was good. Yeah, but this is even so. That's a funny thing. Tipsy was the he was like the other one, was better. And I remember Monarch? You no, the so the other haystack needle that we had. Oh, right, right, right, right. The the the Lost Monarch is the castring 60 bucks. Yeah, it was 70.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

That's the one that I have. I have that on the shelf. Yeah, that's their basic. Okay, I keep thinking the last bottle we tried was also needle in the haystack.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Yes, it was this one, but lower it was low proof, maybe older age, right? But that was still at 119 proof-wise.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

The last one was sourced. This one's not same name.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

So, no, the one that you and I had was not sourced, this was their own. I think this is their market research on like where does it do well, and do we start doing these ourselves? Because this is a single, both of them were single barrels. I didn't get that when we cracked it open the first time.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Yeah, now Last Monarch, which is what we had in the podcast. Yeah, last year.

SPEAKER_00 19:32

Part of their basics, and that's their basic offer. They have a lineup, yeah. So this is their specialty.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

I think it was one of those, like, would because uh you also gotta think this is a four-grain, both of them are four grains. That's not normal for Redwood Empire, but they do finishings on those basic offers, they've done finishings, some of them but like going from that to just a normal to a four-grain to then single barrel, high-proof, older age, and you're like, will it work? Will it won't work? You know, like that's worth the 119 sounds great.

SPEAKER_00 19:59

If it had been like 124, I would have been like, yeah, that's expensive. Honestly, it's worth it, but it's expensive. I hate to endorse it, right? But I feel like 119 sounds okay. Yeah, at this day and age, 119 is worth this this bottle just alone. Not even the liquid inside. It's not, I don't want to call it fancy. It's it's it's extra. That's what it is. Like this bottle is like a little bit. It'll look real good. It's nice, it's rustic, it's got a very nice tactile feel to it. It's not fancy, but it's like it's it's it's expensive in the way a rustic, very nice rustic uh ranch or cabin would be. That's what it looks like. It's it's fancy in those terms.

unknown 20:37

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

Yeah, it's nice, it's just quality. That it looks very quality without being over the top, but it tastes amazing. This is better than the last one by far.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

Yeah, last one is great, I mean, but this one's really good. They are drastically different from each other, and the only thing we're talking is age and proof. It's the same mash bill, same char level, same.

SPEAKER_00 21:00

But single, they were they're single. You just gotta think from bottle to bottle, you're gonna have variations, you know. And this one's good. They I'm glad they didn't mess with it. Yeah,

Sourced To Own Distillate Risks

SPEAKER_00 21:10

because if they'd pulled this out of a barrel and messed with it, it wouldn't, I don't think we'd have the same experience.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

So I guess the question is when we when we start off with a brand that is really good to begin with, but sourcing, that moves into their own stuff, is there anything to worry about?

SPEAKER_02 21:24

There's definitely stuff to worry about. I mean, it's kind of one of the one of the struggles of doing that, of starting out sourcing and then moving into your own stuff, is you have a free flavor profile of the sourced goods, and now you have your own stuff, and it's gonna taste different. Yeah, and so sometimes you can weather that storm, other times you can't. Like, I mean, Middle West started out as OYO, right, and then when they started releasing their own stuff, they switched their names to kind of differentiate themselves. And I think a lot of people probably do something like that if they.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Can well we can't we can't give them all of the credit just because we don't know. This could be like they uh they acquired barrels, and I mean if somebody tried it and realized what they had and decided to bottle it, I mean that's kind of something to praise. Like that's I'll give them credit there. They may or may not have like intentionally made the year, yeah. So this may or may or stumbled upon something and somebody was smart enough to taste taste it and be like, this is so good, we can't mess with it. And that that I'll give them credit for that. I mean, because pulling a pulling a barrel at the right time is an art. Yes, yeah, so there's that, but I don't know if they intentionally made this or if this was a happy mistake, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

And that would also explain why they're releasing it as a single barrel.

SPEAKER_00 22:41

And the fact that they did call it needle in a haystack or haystack needle or whatever could be that they had a ton of barrels. They pulled some and were like, oh shit, this one right here. These are so freaking these are good, you know. So they were literally the needle in the haystack. That's probably exactly what it is, and I rest my case. Well, am I right? Did you look it up?

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Redwood Empire officially started distilling its own distillate in 2016.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

Well, that I mean, that's how many years ago is that? Eight, ten? 2016 is is 10 years ago. Yeah, 10 years ago. Yeah, it's about 10 years ago. That's about right. Maybe that is their first batch.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Uh their first batch was uh Grizzly Beast and a ride called Rocket Top, which was in 2016. Rocket or Rocky? Rocket. Rocket.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

Like Rockets, Rocket, yeah, Rocket Top. Okay. Well, I was thinking Rocky Top, Tennessee, you know. But um So this could be their own. This could be their I never heard or tried of those other ones.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

Oh, they're hard to get. I've heard of the Grizzly. It's it's hard to do. I've heard of it, never happened. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

I want to like choose Grizzly Wintergreen and drink and drink that.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

This could be their own stuff. Sounds amazing. But I mean, I mean, you I could be wrong, and I'm happy about that. I love the fact that if this is their own stuff that they distilled in 2013, 2016, right? This this fits none of their other core, which I love. You you Steve, you mentioned it's either we break off or we figured out most companies are hey, we have this leftover product from MGP, or we resourced it. Let's blend it in with our own stuff, use it up, but people kind of get used to our flavor along the way. They said, fuck it. We're we're literally for lack of a better word. Yeah, for lack of a better word, like we're we're just gonna do our own thing. We're gonna do something drastically different. That again, I don't know why four grains are not more common. We've talked about that before.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

I don't know why people don't go after four grains more often. And coming out of California, just a it's a solid mash bill.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

It is, it's solid, but I I can see it being very finicky and difficult. It could be. I mean, when it turns out, it's like a souffle. When it turns out, it turns out.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:57

But I could also, I mean, I could see that thought process going into the aging, not so much the distal of the white dog distillate, which makes sense for like a single barrel, because if you're on, you're on. If you you missed, you missed, right? That's the same thing for any single barrel, and maybe on for one person and off for another. We we talked about for Liberty Poll. They they did theirs that people try and they're like, oh, it's I think what she they said was people said it tasted moldy or mildewy. Herm and I tried it, and we're like, this is 100% sweet corn on the stalks. Like, I feel like I literally just parked in a field for my fare, and there's corn all over sweet corn just all around me. I got it out of the car. That's what I get when I taste this. Yeah, and everyone else is like, how, why? If single barrels can be hit or miss, I will say that.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Depending on who is this one, I mean it's proofy in a good way. But I don't think that this would scare off anybody, and it's so good. The flavor is so well married together, it's so perfectly balanced that even if it even if it being a higher proof, like even most people that don't drink a high proof, like a higher proof like this, I think would still be like this is really good, approachable. It's for as high a proof as it is, it's friendly. It is, agreed, yeah, but it's got enough there to keep it interesting as well. Like it's not ho hum, you know what I mean? Like you get with a lot. I hate to call it blands, but you know what I mean, where that can just be too friendly, like just it's good, but like that's it. It's an everyday note thing. Right, it's good. Nobody doesn't I mean everybody likes vanilla ice cream because it's ice cream, ice cream's great regardless. But this is like you know, friendly like that, but it's got more depth to it.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

Yeah, yeah. I was gonna say the the proof to this doesn't add a bite at the end, it adds a density to the whole thing. Density, yeah, that's the word. It just makes it really dense and thick, and it lingers a lot. There's lots of layers if you leave it in your mouth for a minute. Yeah, like it it's really, really good.

SPEAKER_00 27:04

It's like it's very comp contemplative, but also you could, and for it being so high-proof, you probably shouldn't, but you could drink this, and this is why what's why we did that the last time. You could just keep drinking this for something as heavy as it is, you could still keep drinking it. Oh, the fact and and and empty the bottle, you know.

SPEAKER_01 27:24

This is a this is a thinker, but it also leaves you wanting more. Yeah, exactly. So you drink you're like, wait, what what did I just try? Let's do it again.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

It's like peach cobbler. Yes, you can eat your weight in that stuff, and then you eat the whole thing, and you're

Four Grain Mash Bill Breakdown

SPEAKER_00 27:40

not like sick to your stomach, even, but it's thick. I mean, that stuff's bread, you know. I mean, I like peach cobbler, dude. But like I can eat a whole tray of that stuff, and I'm not like sick, you know, but I probably should be.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

So, what's interesting is their mash bill 72 corn, 18 rye, five wheat, and five barley. Good, that's a good percentage.

SPEAKER_00 28:03

But I I feel like you get a lot of that, like it's a high amount of barley, actually, for a four-grain wheat.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

What is it again? What is 72, 18? So 72 corn, 18 rye, five wheat, five barley, five wheat, five barley.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

And normally the wheat is a little bit higher and the barley's a little lower, but that's it's an interesting thing that they went even, Steven, with the wheat and the barley.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

But I also feel like that wheat kind of pulls through like the like mouth feel of like creaminess. Yeah, like it kind of coats it along the way.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

Is pulling its weight, yeah, for a moment. Which is crazy. And honestly, for you know, for the majority of it being corn, it's not like and maybe it's because the rye content's a little higher. I feel like it's not like too corn, you know what I mean? Right, because that's a good amount of corn.

SPEAKER_02 28:50

Yeah, that is a lot of corn. And the rye, I'd be interested to know more about California rye, because this is a grain to glass bottle, so I don't know if they're growing it there or or what, but um yeah, where they get the rye, what kind of rye is? You know, we we talk a lot about rye and how sometimes it's really peppery and bitey, and other times it's kind of smooth and creamy. So this one kind of has more that's smooth and creamy. It doesn't have a bite.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

Which is interesting because all the noise has pepper.

SPEAKER_00 29:22

Well, I was gonna say it's kind of like if you ever had eggs and then you didn't put pepper on them.

unknown 29:28

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

Well, you put salt, maybe, but then when like it might I don't know, I do this. I I'll go like a few weeks without putting any pepper on my eggs for some reason. And then every now and then I'll get like, I'm gonna put pepper on these. And it does change the flavor of eggs, but subtly. It's not like holy cow, pepper, you know what I mean? Uh, I feel like that's the rye in this. It's like there, but it's not like like the way rye takes over. It's not taking over, but it is adding maybe it's balancing out that corn. You know what I mean? It's just breaking it up just enough, like it's like pepper, it's like a condiment, but it's not like changing the whole dish, kind of a deal. It's just adding to it.

SPEAKER_02 30:07

Yeah. And I don't know if maybe that is also adding, like, we keep talking about this this molasses or or sweetness or or whatever, but I don't particularly think it's incredibly sweet.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

It's uh it's sweet in the sense of um like a light syrup. Yeah, but a corn syrup.

SPEAKER_00 30:24

You ever had corn syrup? Like a corn syrup, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

We used to put that on our pancakes. I would also say it's yeah, exactly. It's the stuff. It's sweet, like if you take uh Sumatra coffee, like a very dark roast, and you put sugar in it, it's sweet like that. Like it contrasts the the bitterness of the extreme coffee. That's what this is from for sweet for me. It's it's like or syrup in the coffee. It just barely it barely touches that sweetness, but there's there's enough you're like, oh, that's unique. Like that shouldn't be there.

SPEAKER_02 30:54

Like like sugar water. Yeah, that's why. That's caro.

SPEAKER_00 30:58

Um we grew up eating that on our pancakes.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

Wait, I my great grandma did a lot of people don't know.

SPEAKER_00 31:02

None of us did other my great grandma did, and I love butter and we still have some, and I actually use it quite often. That are molasses. I don't really do a whole lot of maple syrup.

SPEAKER_02 31:10

Yeah, I'll do real maple, but not the fake stuff.

SPEAKER_00 31:12

Yeah, we do real maple.

SPEAKER_02 31:13

Um well, we do Costco, right?

SPEAKER_00 31:15

Which is something, yeah, it's mostly real.

SPEAKER_02 31:17

I think it comes from Canada, which is pretty much real. So basically, but yeah, so it like it has a sweetness to it, but it is like like a dark syrup, kind of like a syrup, a molasses, something like that. It's not sugar, it's not white sugar.

SPEAKER_00 31:32

No, it's it's like if if molasses was lighter somehow, but still retained its base. I don't know how you do that, but it like if you diluted molasses, but it still kept the same amount of like base to it. I don't know how that would work, but that's what it reminds me of using a light brown syrup, sugar. And I get a lot of molasses, so I mean that's that's what I'm getting. Yeah, I don't know. It's good. We just keep saying that. It's good. I don't know how else to say it. I I'd say run out and get it if you can spend $119 on something and you can find it. I mean, this is one I recommend. I don't recommend a whole lot of bottles over a hundred bucks. This one is totally worth getting for $119. And we've had two of them now.

SPEAKER_02 32:13

Yeah, so did you we've we've said they were these are different. This one is better than the other one. Is the other one also worth it?

SPEAKER_00 32:21

The last one I was telling everybody how good it was, but I don't think I was that excited about it as as I am about this one. I just think this one's like like I I don't know. I feel like the last one I was like, this is so good, you gotta try it. But I wasn't like saying like go out and buy it.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

No, I feel like the last one I'm saying, like go out and buy it.

SPEAKER_00 32:40

Like if you saw this on the shelf, spin the money.

SPEAKER_02 32:42

This is the danger of a single barrel, though. Is you know, these are the same, these those are the same bottles.

SPEAKER_00 32:48

Well, we should probably put the what number is this one?

SPEAKER_01 32:50

We probably should tell people in case barrel number, yeah. Uh barrel number is two eight two four Indiana exclusive. That's funny.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

If you actually go out and looking for it, this is the one we're drinking.

SPEAKER_01 33:00

Um, I don't want to have the other one be like, oh, it's all right. So I remember the first one we opened. I was it was kind of surprising. Both Chris and I we like open it and we try to like it's good. It's different. I think it I think the fact that it was like this weird sweetness that we got off it, we're like, we enjoy that, but it wasn't the same conversation. Like, even for the club, like this was not the same conversation. There was guys that are like, wow, this is good, but there was all there was almost like a butt involved when they were talking about how much they liked it.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

I don't think I think it was good. They were glad they got to try it, enjoyed it, but I don't think it was like, I need to go out and get it.

SPEAKER_03 33:36

Right.

SPEAKER_00 33:36

Whereas this is, I think you've tried and like if if they had this at Giant Eagle, I think I would go out after this and get it. Yeah, so that's

Tobacco Pairing And Aromatic Debate

SPEAKER_00 33:45

how good it is.

SPEAKER_01 33:45

Uh, you asked about their rye, the grained glass rye. So uh Sacramento Valley is where they apparently they get it from a family farm in Sacramento, Sacramento Valley is all their all their grains.

SPEAKER_00 33:55

Sacramento, yes, which is no big ag agriculture place.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

Yes, there's really like two places to do it. Silicone valley, I guess. Most likely it's their uh cereal rye, which is like an heirloom rye, but it does give you more of a bready flavor, it's more potent, more like normally it's it's like in your face, but it's more like bready in your face. So I wonder if that small amount of rye, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:23

Because this pipe tobacco is bready. I hate to be like that, but you know, when you try an aromatic, it never translates. But the way I describe this aromatic, or just even the name king cake, if you've ever had, I've had king cake, but it is very like a fruitcake, but a light like a lighter fruitcake. Have you ever had it? No, yeah, it's very much like a lighter fruitcake with there's a lot of dyes that make it cut, but you can also use fruit that make it colorful as well. It's actually really good. Uh it's not made to be like super good, I mean, because they eat the crap out of it, but it is good, it's a good bread kind of and it's it's almost like a bread pudding, but it but not quite pudding. But this tobacco tastes like a lot like it, which is amazing for any tobacco to translate to flavor, like it's smell-wise, or even the name of it. But this does. I mean, I think you could have you could have called this figgy pudding and gotten away with it, you know. Like I think they could have gone a different way with it, as far as the name goes. But it's very much bread pudding.

SPEAKER_02 35:23

It is, it's very bready, it has a lot of like uh realm or fruit sort of notes to it. Dark fruit. Yeah, dark fruit. So, yeah, it is, it's very good, and it's going really well with this whiskey. And it smells like that on in the out of the tin and in the air, and it tastes like it, tastes kind of like it smells, it really does taste it, and you're right, you don't normally get a lot of the flavor of an aromatic in in it in the actual flavor, but this is barely an aromatic, also barely. I mean, barely.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

I mean, I don't know what they're putting in it or on it, uh, but it's mostly their tobacco, you know. So that's how Cornell and Deal does it. They're I always do air quote, air quote aromatics. They don't have anything that's aromatic that's not like real, you know what I mean? Like it's not it's it's real in the way, like if you were to use like fruit for like say you were trying to get something a certain color, instead of using like an artificial color, you used a fruit or a flower or something to get it to that color, you know what I mean? That's a natural color. That's how they do their aromatics. It's like they use the tobacco or maybe the process of the tobacco to get it to that flavor. They are not adding chemical artificial flavors, yeah, like a lot of companies are to get to that smell or whatever it is, right? Which is just I'm I just think that that's a testament to Cornell and Deal's like artistry. I mean, and they and they do it with all their you know, air quotes aromatics, like their um autumn evening. It's literally like smells like like pancakes or waffles, and it tastes like pancakes and waffles. It's translates completely to the flavor. It's amazing, but it's still but it still tastes like tobacco, and it's not artificial. They don't put anything artificial in there. It's not artificial. If anything, they would use real ingredient, like they'd actually use maple syrup, you know, and they might they might. I don't know, they they probably do.

SPEAKER_02 37:14

And I'm re-lighting a lot, but it's just because we're talking, yeah. But it's burning really smoothly, it's going down to a nice white ash.

SPEAKER_00 37:20

For something that just got opened, it's burning really well, it's not smoking hot.

SPEAKER_02 37:24

This is also

Zippo Vs Butane Vs Matches

SPEAKER_02 37:25

my first time using this lighter. Oh, yeah. I went ahead, I've had this lighter for a while, but I got a butane pipe lighter. I was looking at getting one of those. Is it working well? It's it's working okay, but the hole's only on one side, yeah. It doesn't go to the other. So like the zippo. So you have to make sure to it's it has I have to be right-handed. I got a couple of torches like that, and they do okay, but I didn't know how the the pipe ones work.

SPEAKER_00 37:47

Yeah, so it works okay. Like I said, you get that from what Amazon? I got it from Zippo.

SPEAKER_02 37:52

Zippo from Zippo because the Amazon was out of it, yeah. So I went ahead and just bought it straight from Zippo. Well, they and they warrant you all their stuff, they do, yeah. So um, but yeah, so it seems to be working okay for me though. Yeah, I'm gonna be one of those. I got so tired of uh running out of fuel on my Zeppo. You know, and that's the thing I think that that's I wanted to switch it out.

SPEAKER_00 38:12

Stupidest thing I've ever seen in a movie because if you ever seen people pull out a zippo from 20 years ago and they'll light it, yeah. That it's 24 hours, right? You get if you fill it up to the brim, you get 24 hours, that's it. If you I mean, three days later, you try to light that thing, no, no, no, absolutely don't realize that.

SPEAKER_02 38:33

And I you can't fill up a zippo and have tried some of the tricks they you know they they have out there of like redoing the code, do redoing the cotton, putting putting some like a plastic or bag or something on it, and like it might help a little bit, but barely.

SPEAKER_00 38:46

If that what they need to do is come out with like a tank in there with what you put actual lighter fluid in there, and somehow it works. And honestly, I'd buy that even more. Like, and I know that's not a traditional zippo, but like that's what it needs. It needs like an actual tank with lighter fluid in there, and somehow like a kerosene lamp would be, and you light that thing, and then you snuff it out, yeah, and that would last. I mean, that would last forever, yeah, you know. But this this cotton thing, it just yeah, you have to anybody use a zippo like regularly, you have to fill it up every day, every time, yeah. Yeah, and I mean I don't mind it because like I usually plan at plan ahead, like I'm gonna smoke, but I mean, come on, dude.

SPEAKER_02 39:25

Yeah, well, this little I mean, I keep this little can of Zippo fluid in my in my bag, yeah, because like every time I never fill it up. I just kind of do a couple of quick score because it's gonna be gone anyway.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

There's no point. That's another thing. Anybody listening, don't ever fill your zippo up like to the brim, thinking like, oh, I'm gonna have it for no, just just fill it up a very little bit because honestly, you just need to reactivate it. Yeah, you're gonna use it a couple times, you're not gonna use it for a week, and then you're gonna have to refill it up again. That's why I mean, honestly, like I always go back to matches. I always do. Yeah, I mean, I like and I and and the and these butane ones get finicky too. At the end of the day, I always go back to matches. Yeah, I just do. The only thing bad about matches is if you're trying to smoke outside because of the wind. Yeah, I mean a little bit of wind and you're done. There's tricks. The the biggest trick to a match outside is as soon as you light it, you gotta stuck stick that right in your pipe, like in the hole, like in the in the chamber. And that that'll kind of guard it. Yeah, are you gonna burn your pipe a little bit? Yeah, that's gonna burn your hand a little bit too. You always gotta burn your hand a little bit, yeah. But I mean, at the end of the day, matches will will always be the king when it comes to lighting pipes. I just don't think that there's anything better out there, in my opinion. But that being said, what were you you were researching something, Nick?

SPEAKER_01 40:44

So, you know, we

Unique Grains And California Sourcing

SPEAKER_01 40:45

always talk about well, we're not always we've talked about unique grains. We talked about grains. We know that there's different types of corn white corn, red corn, blue corn, yellow den corn. We've had red winter wheat uh and several different things. There's different types of wheats that they use. Same with the the rye, right? Yeah, yeah. So I was very curious. This is a four-grain. Obviously, the corn is gonna be yellow dent. The rye is that unique cereal rye for California. The wheat is a red winter wheat, is what they believe.

SPEAKER_00 41:18

It's a red winter, it is a red winter, and the barley, they it's just barley's barley, they don't really do much. Does that mean it's coming from California? You think it is?

SPEAKER_01 41:26

They do red winter, and there's two different though, there's two or three different types of wheat that they do. So the hard the hard red winter wheat is the dormant type, so it's it it withstands a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 41:40

Yeah, yep.

SPEAKER_01 41:41

And I mean, these guys are in the northern part of California, so we're getting into and then you've got like Pacific Northwest drum wheat, uh, which is slightly easier to grow, and then heritage and artisanal wheats. That's kind of what you have, why you know what you can grow and work with. So, but this being a red winter wheat, we've had journeymen that uses red winter wheat, and that that same kind of like red winter, yeah. But there how many distilleries, craft distilleries have you had that uses red winter wheat that gives off that same creamy, like coating the mouth feel outside of like Journeymen?

SPEAKER_00 42:21

Doesn't Jephtha use a red winner?

SPEAKER_01 42:23

But they also malt theirs, so that gives off a very unique. Yeah, but theirs is also very unique in that aspect. Shout out to Jephthah, yeah. I love I love those guys.

SPEAKER_02 42:34

It's not I mean, not that not that red winter wheat is not common, but I I mean this this is this is this is what what I appreciate is that so far we know that they've you they're using some sort of a hairloom rye, right? They're using a red winter wheat, and neither of those things are in the bottle.

unknown 42:57

Right.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

They're not advertising that in order to in order to enhance green glass. That's interesting. Yeah, they're they're just making it.

SPEAKER_00 43:04

I would say that what's interesting is if if we are talking about maybe the ingredients is what's making this somewhat that's kind of what we're talking about, right?

SPEAKER_03 43:12

Right.

SPEAKER_00 43:12

Um, and they're coming from California. I mean, California's not known for the ingredients, and nobody's really using California ingredients in their bourbon, you know, or whiskey. Um, is that an untapped thing? Is this a one-off? Is it you know, like that makes me wonder because these ingredients is what making is what's making this amazing, and it's coming from California. This could be replicated.

SPEAKER_02 43:38

Yeah, right. I also wonder though, if there isn't isn't the production amount they're not known for because they don't have enough. So when you get a farm that will let you take their whole crop, essentially, to do this, um then you can do you can play around like that.

SPEAKER_00 43:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:55

It I mean, it is artistic.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

California.

SPEAKER_02 44:01

Whereas if you did it in in Iowa, like your option is yellow dent corn because that is what we do. And there's not a lot of people doing hybrid or well, there's lots of people doing hybridloom things.

SPEAKER_00 44:13

And the yield probably isn't super high.

SPEAKER_02 44:15

Exactly. Yeah. All these heirloom things, the yield is pretty low. So that kind of gets rid of your factory farmers.

SPEAKER_00 44:21

But because they need a high yield. You could potentially like people caught on. If if it is if it is the ingredient and you caught on, it's like go out there and do this. Like like on a big scale. Yeah. Like, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 44:37

This is you could do that, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:39

I mean, because let's be honest, if this was something that could be had on the shelf regularly, I think it would be pretty popular.

SPEAKER_01 44:46

I think it would be too. I yeah. I was uh yeah. So one of the conversations of the topics that was

California Aging And Wine Influence

SPEAKER_01 44:55

was brought up on the last uh Redwood Empire was this idea that uh distilleries, companies coming out of California that may not be distilling their own, but aging. Anything aging out there, it has this like wine-esque feel to it.

SPEAKER_00 45:14

It's a Napa Valley, you know, they do so much wine stuff. Right, but like all they're doing is just aging it out there. But is that but is that mental? I don't know. Would you get that if I didn't say it was from California? That's a good question. I don't know. And I and I'm right there with you. When I hear as soon as I hear California, my mind starts going there.

SPEAKER_02 45:30

Suddenly this is gravy.

SPEAKER_01 45:33

Yeah, yeah. It's it's one of those, like, oh, this is this is a great, like wine-esque kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 45:38

I feel savage and cook. I mean, they were what they were wine. But it was wine before wine people, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:43

Prisoners, prisoners of wine, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:44

Yeah. And same with that is funer group, you know, in your mind now that it's like, okay, okay, you know, especially if you read on there, like, you know, from the minds of of wine enthusiasts, it's like all of a sudden it's starting to plant this seed of is this gonna start tasting a little bit like Bordeaux, or is it you know what I mean, or Merlot finish or whatever it is, you know. And then if they do do a finish like that, all of a sudden it is that is super wine, you know. Very wine forward. Bordeaux finishes, not enough of those out there. It's a good wine to finish things in. It is a solid wine to finish things in, and there's gotta be casks laying around.

SPEAKER_01 46:22

What does Bordeaux wine taste like?

SPEAKER_00 46:24

Is it more dry? You never had Bordeaux wine? I don't know what I have. Yeah, it's kind of dry.

SPEAKER_01 46:28

I was thinking about this the other day. I I should probably get into wine more, like just try different types of wine.

SPEAKER_00 46:36

You gotta be careful, you can't get too into wine. You get a little raising your pinky, you start raising your pinky and smelling your own farts, things like that. No, but like different types of wine. You can get a little into wine, but you can't get you can't be a snifter.

SPEAKER_01 46:47

Yeah, so there's a little, there's a lot, and then there's too much.

SPEAKER_00 46:51

There's too much, and very quickly you can be too much. And a lot and too much is a real if you really are particular about how you aerate your wine, you're too much. Yeah, you're just too much. Yeah, I think that that's too much. I I don't I don't decant my burden.

SPEAKER_02 47:07

If you get to a party, you open your wine, yeah, and then you go chat for a while, yeah, and then you come back to pour your wine, you're too into wine. Yeah. If if if you make a deal about it, well, there's people they don't pour the wine, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:21

They just open the wine.

SPEAKER_02 47:22

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:23

Oh, it's to let the air. There's people that will like scream, let it aerate. It's like chill. I will pour this to drink it. Pour this wine, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:31

Until after it has been sitting open for about 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 47:35

It's people like that. People are like that with tea a little bit too, like steeping of the tea. Like, I I think you need to steep your tea, but I'm not like a gonna be a like look, you do it the way you want. If you want to dunk it in there, and uh I mean, real tea shouldn't be made with a teabag anyway. Yeah, but if you're I mean, again, and I'm not gonna be like, if you want, if you say you like tea and you use a tea bag, I'm not gonna judge you, you know what I mean? But I'm not gonna be like, oh my god, you've got to steep it for a certain amount of time. It's like chill out, dude. At the end of the day, it's tea.

SPEAKER_02 48:03

I'm a bit of a heathen when it comes to to teabags. Uh, I will just put the teabag in my w in my in my tea and start drinking it. And start well, I'll I'll let it sit for a minute, but I'll leave the teabag in there the entire time. I don't think it's a heathen, but I think that's more like um pretty tea.

SPEAKER_00 48:19

Yeah, it's more like a savage. Because everything's hitting me in the face the whole time. That's where they got that expression teabag in. I mean, because you start drinking it, and the thing's just it's going willy-nilly all over the place.

SPEAKER_02 48:31

And then and if I decide to have a second cup of tea, yeah, I'll leave the first bag in there and add the second cup of water to the third one. You're drinking it as concentrated as you can get. I'm just yeah. Now the first half of the glass is pretty dull. Oh, so wait, you have you have two teabags. Yeah, then the second cup of one. I have like a double tea. I never expected a double teabag kind of guy. And if it's a three teabagger, it's had been a rough day.

SPEAKER_03 48:58

That's that's where you draw the

Wine Snobs And The Spit Bucket

SPEAKER_03 49:00

line.

SPEAKER_00 49:00

I can't take three. That's too much cash. Yeah. There's no more room in the cup, no more room for water. I got I got a layer of teabags. That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah, I I think uh I think wine can get very quickly, can get very uh, you know, but too much.

SPEAKER_02 49:20

I do like going to a winery. I do like wine are fun, and I feel like you got a lot of good good charcuterie.

SPEAKER_00 49:27

Yeah, I'm I'm a big wine guy. Yeah, I've never had wine I didn't like, honestly. Uh, and I like anywhere from a super dry Merlot to a dessert wine. I don't, I don't discriminate, but I'm not gonna be a pretentious about it, you know. But we're not pretentious about drinking whiskey either. Some people are swirling and have you ever seen where they're like they swirl it and they sniff it and they like throw it out and then they pour it again. It's like, dude, you throw out whiskey and you actually are going to hell. Yeah, like like they there's people, there's spots in hell for you. Yeah, at least that's weird.

SPEAKER_02 49:57

Like they they they said, or they spit in or that is like they spit it, yeah. Yeah, what are you doing? The the people that are like tasting barrels, like tasting like 30 barrels in a day, like they have to spit because don't take that much.

SPEAKER_00 50:11

I don't think the guys at Jim Beams spit. They do. I think they swallow.

SPEAKER_01 50:15

I think I think they don't take as much as of they just a sip, even a small amount. If you're if you have to dump your glass or spit it out, you poured too much.

SPEAKER_00 50:26

You poured too much, or you need to man up. Man up.

SPEAKER_03 50:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:31

Like I just, yeah, when they were like, Oh, here's your dump glass. I'm like, uh, dude, what? I'm not dumping. Like, I'll I take a dump in the bathroom. Thank you very much. I don't want to use a glass thing that I dump it.

SPEAKER_02 50:42

When when I was growing up and we went to had the Attica Fair, our little independent fair, there was a wine tasting competition there. There was a competition, like people people brought their homemade wine. Okay, I figured it was just the tasters that were competing. And the tasters were like trying it all to to greet them. And they had the spit bucket and everything because they were trying 50 bottles of wine.

SPEAKER_00 51:03

Well, and so but you but here and hear me out. And I could be wrong on this. Yeah, so you tell me if I am, but I don't think you get the full taste experience if you don't swallow it. I think that's true for whiskey. I don't know if that's true for wine.

SPEAKER_02 51:19

I don't know if a finished matter is all that much for a wine.

SPEAKER_00 51:22

Yeah, I mean maybe, but for whiskey, a finished. But yeah, I need to feel the air coming out after I drink it. I need it in my nose. I need it like in my I need to feel what it's like in my chest. I need it in my soul. No, yeah. I mean, I do, I do. I feel like if you were to take a take it in your mouth and spit it out, you're not gonna get the full effects of what that is. And I don't think you're gonna get the actual flavor of it. And then the the you, I mean, if you get any after like a finish, like a I don't think it's gonna be like what it would be if you swallowed it. Because I mean it's been a minute I since I took a sip of that, but it's still coming up in a good way, in a good way. Like I'm feeling it, I'm breathing it in all my faculties, it's in my nose, it's in I I just don't think you'd get that if I put it in my mouth and I spit it out. I just don't think that you'd get the full effect of it. I just don't know. I don't think I can trust somebody's taste if they're dumping it out and they're not swallowing it. I just don't know. Like you said, take a take a smaller sip.

SPEAKER_01 52:22

Yeah, just take a take a smaller glass. It's fine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:27

But it would be like eating food and chewing it and then spitting it out. I mean, if you're not swallowing everybody swallows the food. Yeah, I don't I don't know of anyone that just chews and then spits. Yeah, do you does anybody chew and spit?

SPEAKER_01 52:40

Well, I mean, cows do, and then they chew it again.

SPEAKER_00 52:42

But I mean, like a taster, like a taster, you know?

SPEAKER_02 52:45

No, taster's probably yeah, yeah, it's a it's a full eating experience.

SPEAKER_00 52:51

Yeah, it's a full take, you gotta get down past the finish the meal. What I get only taking, yeah, you take a bite. Because if you were to eat a whole piece of cake after 15 pieces of cake, you can't do it. Same thing that I'm getting at with these wine people. Take a sip, just a sip, and move on. You gotta dump it, then I mean, build your tolerance, dude. Like, that's look, 15 sips of wine is not that big of a deal. Like, we're talking sips, really, not that big of a deal, you know. Fair that's my thing. What are you gargling with this stuff? You gotta spit it out, you got so much in your swish it a lot.

SPEAKER_02 53:25

I swish it's a swishing thing, it's a whole swishing thing. But I did like growing up, and and that particular day was one of my favorites. Did you get to drink it even if you were under a afterwards? So they they were all open. He drank the dump stuff. Give it a book. He took the bucket.

SPEAKER_00 53:44

He was back and drinking the bottle. Tastes good to me. Yeah, no, did they let you drink it though a little bit? Yeah, yeah. How about you weren't spinning it?

Food Tangents And Closing Thoughts

SPEAKER_02 53:57

Was in there. You didn't spin it. No, I know. I I'm not I'm not sampling. This isn't a job. This is this is pleasure. What did Grandma finish to make it look good? Grandma made uh lots of flavored wines, so lots of strawberry wine. I love strawberry wine. She likes it, she had strawberry rhubarb wine. Oh, I think it's a big one. But she didn't countertop, right? Dude, I am countertopine. I'm a rhubarb fanatic. Yeah. Rhubarb pie? She had she had rhubarb growing in the garden, and so we would get that all the time. A strawberry rhubarb pie. Dude, nobody. Yeah, it's because it just it adds just a really nice bitterness to the strawberry pie. It's a tart sweet. You would like why do you not like it? I don't like rhubarb. Have you had a rhubarb pie? Yeah, I don't like things.

SPEAKER_01 54:39

I don't, but I something about rhubarb. I just rhubarb. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:43

It's like gooseberry. You ever heard of gooseberry pie? When grandma, when we sold grandma's house, that was like one of the last things we did before we sold it was to go out and like just uh take as much of the rhubarb as we could.

SPEAKER_01 54:56

Maybe because rhubarb, even in pies, looks like but it looks like celery.

SPEAKER_00 55:02

It it's a red cell. It does look like celery.

SPEAKER_01 55:05

So maybe that's what throws me off, is like but celery's good too. Do you want it in a pie? Not in a pie, but right.

SPEAKER_00 55:13

Just just just grass water. Celery is grass water, but but if you dip it in a shitload of ranch, like uh or uh French onion dip, it's great. Ranch French onion, peanut butter, yeah. Uh you know, yeah, I'll use it as a utensil that I using it as a utensil, it's an edible utensil. I'm fine with that. Then I'm cool on its own, it's worthless. Yeah, you drink water, yeah. It is very like what it what are we doing here? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:38

So it's ants on a log with raisins.

SPEAKER_00 55:41

But it's a great catalyst for like other things.

SPEAKER_01 55:44

But if it's ants on a log for peanut butter and raisins, yeah, what do you do with the French onion dip? What's it called then? Do you put anything else on top of it? Just a spoon.

unknown 55:52

Just a spoon.

SPEAKER_00 55:53

I mean, it's a cucumber, is the same way. I love cucumber. Yeah, but those are now tomatoes on their own are great. But cucumbers, like a raw cucumber, it's a it's a it's a utensil. Yeah, it's good by the way. You gotta put something else on it. Yeah, it's great with hummus. Do you view it the same way about tomatoes? No, tomatoes are great. I love tomatoes. I eat tomatoes plain, I eat them raw, I eat them cooked, I eat them on sandwiches. Dude, tomatoes and eggs, like in the for breakfast, is great. Sliced tomatoes. I like tomato juice. I'm a tomato guy. Fried green tomatoes, you better believe it. Have you ever had green tomatoes outside of frying them? Yeah, I've eaten them plain. Are they just as good as normal? So a big misnomer is people think uh fried green tomatoes or green tomatoes are ripe, unripe tomatoes. Well, they're their own thing. There's actually like green tomatoes. Yeah, people don't realize that. They're like, oh yeah, they're you know, no, that's you you wouldn't eat those. Like you could, I guess you could, but they're like green tomatoes are like green apples, like there are green tomatoes, right?

SPEAKER_01 56:51

But I mean, is it the same flavor as like a normal tomato? Like same texture, same flavor? They are a little tart.

SPEAKER_00 56:57

Okay. And you bread them, bread them, and you fry them, and they're made.

SPEAKER_01 57:00

If you've never had a fried and green tomato, like there, I love fried green tomatoes, but I I can imagine like a green tomato on the.

SPEAKER_00 57:06

But even though I put some ranch and stuff, roast beef sandwich with some horseradish and then green tomato. So the best breakfast breakfast sandwich you can have, in my opinion. And I've can't I've come up with this. But it's a croissant.

unknown 57:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 57:19

Okay. Then it's an egg. And I'm gonna say this wrong. Gorir. Did I say it right? Cheese? Gare, gorilla. Okay, and then tomatoes. Just normal? Normal red tomatoes, and then butter. Try that. That's all you need.

SPEAKER_02 57:36

How is the egg cut? You can do bacon on it, you can do bacon on it.

SPEAKER_00 57:38

Is the yolk over medium? Okay. So it's not hard, but it won't drip on you. You know what I'm saying? It's the perfect gel jelly kind of. Now I've had it with bacon. It's good with bacon. You can go without bacon. I'm not gonna say bacon's a must, but it's a thick slab of career cheese, and then two tomatoes, usually on a croissant with butter spread. It's amazing. Try it. Dude, it's it's in my opinion, it's the best breakfast sandwich out there. And the croissant is just, I mean, come on, it's a croissant. Everything's good with the croissant. That's buttery, flaky, it's light, it's airy. It's good. Croissant. Croissant.

SPEAKER_02 58:19

Yeah. For me, eggs have become a big thing in my household lately. My wife is not a fan of eggs, and she's decided recently that she is a fan of eggs, which is huge. That's a big deal because I love eggs and I love them in a hundred different ways. I want I want over easy. I want I want to hard boil that it doesn't matter. I like I like there's time and a place for all of them. Yeah. Uh Amy is soft boiled. Soft boiled. I like them soft boiled. I I love a good jellied.

SPEAKER_00 58:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:45

You want eat them in the in the egg cup. Yep, yep. Amy is still scrambled only and like scrambled to death. With cheese? Like, uh, sure. Yeah, cheese or with that. Doesn't matter. I do a great soft scramble with butter. But see, but I don't like them overcooked. She wants them like bullets. Little tiny pieces of it. You know, at least she's eaten the eggs. Exactly. That's it. That it just means I can have eggs in the house. Yeah. And I can eat them and they won't go bad. She had hard boiled? Yeah, not a fan. Devil?

SPEAKER_01 59:10

Does she like your steak well done?

SPEAKER_02 59:12

No, huh? But does she like your steak well done? No, she does not. So at least she's she's got bad. I just married her.

SPEAKER_00 59:20

Oh. Because that's a great combo. You know, that is a great combo.

SPEAKER_02 59:23

And that might get her into Mike over hard at least, maybe. I mean, and so because yeah, like she doesn't even like eggs in her like potato salad or anything. Like it has to like tuna fish. No, no.

SPEAKER_00 59:35

If there's chunks of egg in it, she knew she doesn't like it. I'm a big debt, like hard-boiled egg in my tuna fish. Some people don't like that. I'm a big hard and then relish. So some people don't like that. And I don't know what those people their their problems are, but I don't know. I I like it that way. I think it's good that way. Some sweet relish and some hard-boiled eggs. That's the way tuna fish should be. And I'm gonna put my line right in the stand right there.

SPEAKER_01 59:59

I've had we're gonna have to eat this at your funeral.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:01

Yeah, because I've had this conversation with some some people and they don't like it.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:05

Yeah, I'm I'm I'm pro egg in pretty much anything.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:08

Yeah, I mean, why not? It adds to it's just takeaway from extra protein. I don't think it really like makes anything worse. I don't think I've ever really had it where it makes anything worse. It's like butter. Yes, more, yeah, it's fine, it's great. Like, I'm not gonna no butter, hold the butter, please. Yeah, what like what's your problem? Butter's good all the time.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:27

Yeah, I don't know. Well, this has been a fantastic bottle. And I don't know how we got to eggs, but but eggs are fantastic, and this bottle is even more fantastic. Eggs with this bottle, steak and eggs bottle.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:41

Steak and eggs with this bottle would be amazing. Breakfast for champions. Throw a little bit of this in the in the steak.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:46

It's actually like steak and eggs actually sounds good right now. It does. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:49

With this, I might go home and throw a steak in the fridge.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:51

Yeah, might as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:52

Get out of the freezer for for tomorrow morning.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:55

Yeah, just just cook it up with some eggies.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:59

Just have yourself a good good old breakfast.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:02

Yeah. Sounds like a great breakfast. All right, gentlemen. Well, till next time. Till next time. Thank you for listening to the podcast. If you want more great content and other perks, be sure to support the show by clicking the link in the show notes. We can be reached on our website, whiskey tasterspomma.com, with any ideas for the show. Thanks again.