Journeyman's The Raven Whiskey and Cornell and Diehl Haunted Bookshop!

SPEAKER_01 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_04 0:28

What are we smoking with this guy? Oh, I think we're going to have we might have had this last year. It's almost like become like my Halloween blend. Okay. There's other things that sometimes I throw in the mix, but I almost always have this on Halloween. I don't think I cannot have this on Halloween. It's haunted bookshop.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Yeah, we did have it. Yeah. Yeah. That's okay though. We'll we'll do it again.

SPEAKER_04 0:49

It might be like it every year. It might just become a tradition at this point. I just don't think I can do a Halloween episode without smoking this. And it's what I smoke when we do like trick or treat.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Is there any other company or any other name for a pipe tobacco that is anywhere close to like haunted or like yeah?

SPEAKER_04 1:06

I mean, they have like Sleepy Hollow is by a company in Kentucky there. And that's really good. It's more aromatic. Autumn evening, I've talked about that's a good one. There's there's other blends out there that are more fall. Sutliffe does a blend.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

But I guess when we're talking like Halloween, I feel like haunted bookshop just fits right with it. I don't know why, just fits the name.

SPEAKER_04 1:27

Yeah. And you know, and it even looks like an old haunted bookshop on the tin. But for me, when I hear haunted bookshop, I literally think of like an old, because you know, I'm a big book guy and a big reader, and I love going to used bookstores. Usually a used bookstore, the best ones are like under, like in those underground shops. Like you go to like a downtown and it's like the shop that you go down the old cement steps. It's kind of wet down there, it's dark. It's like old crappy carpet and a ton of bookcases, and they're just old, almost moldy books. Musty almost. Yeah, musty, and you're looking through them and you're looking for a deal. To me, that's what I think of when I think of a bookshop. I don't think of like Barnes and Noble. I think of like an old we rent this space by the month kind of a place. And I just think of like that on a on like a fall day with the leaves going, kind of dreary, kind of windy, something wicked this way comes, right? And I'm down at a bookshop and it's kind of spooky. Maybe I'm in a back corner somewhere looking for a book and it's kind of creepy. That's what I think of when I think of haunted bookshop. And this blend actually fits with that. It's just a no-nonsense, kind of straightforward blend, still very strong, not for the faint of heart. It's got, you know, a ton of burly. It's got some parique in it. I think there might be a little hint of Virginia. Not much. There's no flavoring to be talked about. It's perfectly like it's not too dry, but it's perfectly ready to smoke, even when you pop the 10. It's one of those blends that people will say it kind of smells cigarette a little bit, but it doesn't taste that way at all. Like the room note is cigarette? The room note. But it's just it's because it's just an American burly tobacco and it's without any flavoring, and it just burns. It's one of the best burning blends out there. And it's just an all-day blend for a lot of people. For me, it could be an all-day blend, but it is a little stout. It can kick you in the butt if you're not careful. It's great. And this one is a special one because this one was from 17.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Sorry, so this is a new tin. This is an old 10. We're popping a new, you're popping a new one.

SPEAKER_04 3:28

Yeah, popping a brand new tin. This is something, yeah, I smoke quite a bit. And this is one of the one of the old tens. Yeah. We're gonna pop an old one because it's it's let's let's do it. You know what I mean? This one's from 2017, from the beginning of 2017. So it's got some age on it. Okay, it's got some, you see those bolts, eight to nine years. So and yeah, hunting bookshop's great. Uh, an age hunted bookshop is even better.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

So nice. There we go. One of my favorite things to do if I need to kill time, if we're in a new town or something, I need to kill time. That's what I do. Like I find a bookstore. Usually, if you go to a small town, you can find a bookstore.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

You know, we have different ideas of killing time because you go for bookstores, I find the liquor store. Yeah, and I just walk around.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Yeah, I'm in Ohio. There is there's my bookstore, uh, that that liquor store, this liquor store, that's the same.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

I guess if you're dealing in Ohio, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

If I'm in Ohio, then what's a liquor store? It's the same as every other one. So I was in Zanesville. Why I was there, but I was in Zanesville for something or another, and I needed to kill time, and so I did a quick Google search, found a used bookstore, and I start driving, and I'm in a residential neighborhood. I was like, something's wrong. Like, why is this where is this store? And I get there, and it's just some dude's house. It's like a house all night, and I get in there, and it's like it's like walking into a uh like an episode of hoarders, like there's every it is nothing but stacked everywhere, stacked everywhere with a tiny little desk right next to the staircase going upstairs where there is more books, and it's all organized. Every room is like a different genre. It's fantastic. It's one of the coolest bookstores I've ever been to. Have you been to the one in the short in the uh is it Italian village? Yeah, down uh down in or German village, German village, yeah. The the book loft. Yeah, is it anything like that? It's very similar on a much smaller scale.

SPEAKER_02 5:19

Gotcha, because it's just some dude's house, and that feels like someone's house when I go into that one.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Yeah, and similarly, in Delaware, if you go up 23 going going north from Columbus up to like Marion or whatever, there is an old house uh on 23 past Delaware that now is I think it's like an event space or something, but uh when I moved to Delaware, it was a bookstore, and it's just kind of like a big house. Later on, it became a uh a uh you roll it tobacco store.

SPEAKER_04 5:50

I know what you're talking about. It's on the on the if you're going south, it's on the right hand side, correct?

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Yes, yeah, yeah. And like I never went to it when it was a you roll it store because I was very confused by that because like that's like in a strip mall, not in a nice, cool old house. But uh, so maybe it would have been cool. I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 6:08

Probably probably was sweet, probably had a lot of stuff in it.

SPEAKER_01 6:11

It probably did now. Like I said, it's like an event space or something, but before it was it was a used bookstore for a long time, and I loved going in there. They had a chess room on the second floor, you could go up and play chess, and so it was really cool. Probably held tournaments there, probably, but any used bookstores that are in old houses are my favorite because you you can find just really cool old houses, old stuff, but yeah, I'm I'm always going. There's there's a particular set of books that I am trying to complete without going to eBay, right?

SPEAKER_02 6:43

It was the the different the color ones, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Yeah, ones from from dad's factory. So anytime I find an old bookstore, that's that's always what I'm after. So I'm always going in there, talking to them, trying to find stuff. So one of my favorite things to do going to another town, and but they and they all kind of do smell old, musty, cigarette-y kind of thing. So I'm excited for for this blend and this bottle.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

See, it's funny. Again, you look for bookstores outside of Ohio. Mary likes to say that I'm like a bloodhound for liquor stores somehow. We can drive anywhere and be like, oh, liquor store over there. And she'll be like, How? How did you know? I don't know, just just knew there's a liquor store over there, you know. Yeah. When the bourbon boom kind of took off outside of Columbus and in different states, these small towns have kind of caught on. If they can they can get good bourbon, then they'll have people travel to come visit them. You used to be able to find like those old liquor stores, like the old, like in a house, you're talking like it feels like it there's dust everywhere. Yeah, that weird smell when you walked in, but you could find bookers on the shelves for 75 bucks with a lot of dust. Didn't matter. It'd be from like 2017, 2014, just sitting there.

SPEAKER_04 8:00

Well, those types of stores only regulars go into. Yeah, and they might may or may not be buying that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

And they'd be like, we don't know what this is, no one wanted it. So if you want it, go for it. Those are some of the best ones to find. Those are like I go to small towns to look for the liquor stores just for that reason. Like, can I get you before your your boom? Like can I find some good stuff?

SPEAKER_04 8:20

Before people realize what you got. Those are my favorite. And I didn't think about it when I picked this blend for this bottle, but actually, this blend goes with this bottle because we're talking about bookshops and books and Halloween time.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

We haven't told what bottle we're doing yet.

SPEAKER_04 8:35

Exactly. It's going along with this one, which is the Raven from Journeyman. And it's kind of an egg roll and po kind of a theme here. Which is hilarious. And put, you know, books, Honda Bookshop, Egg Row and Poe, which um I actually have found some of my like favorite eggell and poe like books in an old bookshop. So it's uh it kind of goes along with what we're drinking. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Now we've we have d had Journeyman on the podcast, not just as a bottle, but as an interview. And when we did the interview, we specifically went after the the whole last feather rye and having R R in the back for Ravenswood and why it was crossed out. And we found this bottle when we did the barrel pick for the club. And Chris, do you remember looking at me and even looking at the guy and going, How did you get away calling it the Raven? Yes, because I love how petty they were about it. I'm so petty about it, and they call this the Raven, and apparently there's no issue calling this the Raven. Or there hasn't been yet. Because he was kind of like, uh, that's a good question. For me, I find it hilarious. I wish that the majority of this is a big blend of different things. There's a reason why they did this, but I wish that there was a I wish within the blend, if they secretly made the majority of it the last feather rye, that would just kind of push the pettiness level a little bit more. And I would be like, yes, I like this a whole lot more.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

I think it should also be finished in a red wine blend.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

Oh, that would be great.

SPEAKER_05 10:04

I think that would be awesome.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

If they could finish it in the uh the Ravenwood Ravenwood wine barrels, that would be good.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

But just a a wine.

SPEAKER_04 10:14

I think it'd be cool to finish it in a uh in a uh the uh a a Montilado cask or whatever, because like like Edground Pove. You know what I mean? Like cask of a Montilado. Yeah, if they were going for the Edground Power thing, that's if they were, yeah, which they weren't exactly, but I well I asked him and he said it was it's kind of like that too, but it was it's mostly for the you know because if you look at it, it's not just a raven, it's kind of a Poish Raven. And he was kind of like, yeah, that is kind of like Raven tap tap tapping on my, you know.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

And uh to remind everyone what we're talking about, the whole Raven thing, Journeyman uh started off as Ravenwood, is that right? Uh Last Feather Rye was the Ravenswood rye. It's because of like the street they were on or something, yeah. But Ravenswood is a fairly popular wine brand. Apparently, and they got a cease and desist. They got a cease and desist. Sounds familiar, yeah. They actually fought it. They did, they fought it for a while. It's a last feather, and they they unfortunately were not able to bait it, so they had to change the name. But they do keep an R on the back of the bottle. They keep R R. R R. Yep, and it's crossed out, yeah. As a reminder of where they are, as a token of the past of it. And then when this one came out, this is a combination of a lot of their particular bottles as their 13-year-old and this is the 13-year bottle.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

Yeah, this is their 13-year anniversary bottle that they came out with.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

Yes, yep, and so it is a combination of it's uh 10 uh Silvercross four-grain, 20 high rye bourbon, 20 last feather rye, and 50, of course, it's whips and whiskey. All between four and seven years, give or take, between the between all four of them.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

Which is super interesting because as I taste this, I go, Oh, this is this is weeded. This is well, that's every bit of nice weeded.

SPEAKER_04 12:10

You can taste that it's blended, yeah. And it's amazing that they work that well together, those those different components.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

It does, because it's it's well, a couple of ryes. It's it's a four-grain, it's their weeded, it's all of it. So because of course it's is a weeded, but we've done uh let's see.

SPEAKER_02 12:29

Did we have did Watershed release a a bottle for their 10-year anniversary that we had? Uh, I think they did do a 10-year. I don't know if we did it though, but it wasn't 10 years old, was it? No, yeah, but they released so uh I'm thinking of the ones that we've had on like the podcast or we've talked about, they've released like an anniversary bottle. This they went above and beyond, in my opinion, because they kept everything 13.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

They did, yep. The price is related to it, the years are related to the eight, like the is it the proof points the years that they added up to.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Is that what it how they get to 13 or what? Uh years added up to not equal 13.

SPEAKER_02 13:08

But it was 113 and 13. It was 113, 113 proof, yep. Their anniversary of 13 years. So they they tried everything they could to do, like 13, 13, 13.

SPEAKER_04 13:22

People think it is an unlucky number, which it kind of again, it kind of fits the Halloween vibe. Yeah, yeah. And the bottle is the coolest bottle I've ever seen. Dude, it's so like it's like wild turkey bottles on steroid, like the old wild turkey like style uh decanter bottles.

SPEAKER_01 13:38

Yep, it's a ceramic bottle, looks like a raven, the cork is the head, which twists off. Yep, which twists off.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

Which cracked me up. Do you guys remember when you guys bought this? Did she tell you scared the shit out of us thinking we broke it? Uh-huh. Yep. And I remember she twisted off the the top for for me when she was wrapping it and looked at me and goes, You have to keep this guy upright in a box. I was like, Okay, it's corked. Why does that matter? And she goes, The cork's not that sealed, like it's not that good of a cork. Like it's very much like a it adds to the charm of the bottle. It it is very much like an artwork masterpiece. Like, this is a top shelfer for people to see and be like, What is that?

SPEAKER_04 14:20

But it's not just a cool looking bottle because the whiskey uh the juice is good, really good.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

I I uh dare I say this. Since we had the interview with them, this might be the best release and offering that they had that you could get that wasn't like a barrel pick or wasn't like a single barrel. As far as they're like from their standout, like standard offerings. Granted, this is a blend of their standard offerings, but this is the best of the best that they have to offer.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

Uh, it is still for sale, as far as I know. Uh as long as they still have it. Are they still producing it? They're not producing it, it's just if they have it, they they'd made a lot of it, and it's only for sale at the distillery. So at both locations. So they're there are two distilleries now. It's available at both of them. For $113. For $113.13. Yep. I love the $13.13.

SPEAKER_04 15:16

You know, what's interesting is, and I didn't think about this when I said it, but on the last episode, I was talking about this time of year is great for whiskeys, like, not not, you know, exactly like rice or bourbons. And that's what this is. It's again, it falls into a whiskey category because it is blended and it's so well blended with different things that it almost does impart that air quotes flavored type of a feeling. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 15:40

Well, it's crazy is so I had that in mind when I tried it. I also had a mind this is Halloween. This is when we come over and we have we make the cider, right? So we make the the the hard cider or the like a homemade hard cider, like a real cider, and it's spiked, and then we do a cocktail stand and and then we have like offerings for people to drink. And I normally have a thermos or a uh a yeti with some whiskey in it. Libation. Yeah, that's what I drink out of the entire night. And I kept thinking, man, this this is perfect. This is perfect for Halloween, like that night of Halloween. It's not it doesn't lean towards rye, it doesn't lean towards a bourbon, it doesn't lean towards just a weeded whiskey. It's it's everything combined. It is just a nice blend of I've got so much happening that I could I could sip on this and not go through a ton of it and I would be satisfied.

SPEAKER_04 16:37

Well, that's what's that's what I like about it, is it's it's air quote smooth, but it's sweet, it's friendly, but it's got some hard edges that also leave some aggression uh that that's in the towards the back end, uh almost into the finish.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Yeah, you can definitely, I mean, like this feels more like a rye than even the old overcoat we did last week. This feels has more of the rye spice going on, and I mean that's partly because there's two ryes in here uh and a four-grain, and four grains also tend to be kind of on the spicier side. All of those are a little bit spicier, and it's it proofed up a touch, so it has some punch to it, which is a good thing. I think it's working for what it's supposed to be doing.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

You know what disappoints me? Not for the company, not nothing to do with Journeyman itself, but a caveat for Journeyman. So the owner loves Buffalo Trace. That's kind of where all this weeded stuff comes from, is his love of Buffalo Trace. Could you imagine if this was Buffalo Trace? Could you imagine if Buffalo Trace decided to do something that was a little bit more oomph and flavor, but still weeded?

SPEAKER_04 17:46

That would be cool. But I will say, what this has that Buffalo Trace doesn't have, and it actually is working towards the flavor, is that small distillery kind of dusty, you know, like heavy corn kind of you know the flavors I'm talking about. Yeah, more hand-touched, more raw. That's what it is, raw. And you don't get that with Buffalo Trace, even if they tried to get that flavor, they couldn't get it. And you get that with Journey Men, you're getting it on this bottle, but along with that sweetness, and then along along with that, like those aggressive rye spices, it actually kind of reminds me of the way, not the way the flip actual taste is, but the way green apple stuff is, where it's like sweet, but then also kind of sour, kind of kind of sweet and kind of punchy at the same time. That's kind of how this is. It's got those sweet touches, and then it's got some hard edges that kind of punch you a little bit. It's like the sweet, sour candy, you know what I mean? And I think that goes along with that kind of Halloween theme, witch's brew type, you know, that caramel green apple, caramel apple, kind of green apple, kind of a sweet, kind of spicy, kind of sour kind of thing going on. And I again, along with those small distillery vibes, which give it that those edges too. That you would you wouldn't get that with Buffalo Trace. And I I just don't know if Buffalo Trace could pull something like that off. I just don't think that they can. Because they are friendly, but they do have some rye stuff. But I just don't know if you could pull all of those flavors through without having some of those small distillery vibes, you know.

SPEAKER_02 19:15

You know what's crazy? Sorry, I just thought of time, right? So Buffalo Trace has been around for a while. Maybe length of time has something to do with that. Maybe it's not, maybe it's just popularity, uh commercialized. This is 13 years old. They had their 13-year-old, you know, anniversary kind of thing. We are now five years old as a podcast at this point. Oh, we really wow crazy. And we did an interview with them two years in, so three years ago. So they were 10 when we did this, uh, did an interview with them. What's crazy to me is their milestone at that point, and they even said was not good, was nothing that they did. The Eve's blind. Do you guys remember the Eve's blind for that interview? That was kind of their like on the map milestone. Because they partnered with no one. They really liked it.

SPEAKER_04 20:08

Yeah, it didn't go off the way they thought it would.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

But three years from that, they put out this, which is all their own stuff. They did all their own, and they did maybe pretty much did an Eve's Blind. Yeah. Like, which isn't it it's insane to think about. Like, right, right.

SPEAKER_04 20:22

Well, and I think it's also a big credit to them that they were able to, like I said, they were able to take what they have and blend it in a way that was good. It's kind of like taking leftovers out of the fridge, yeah, putting them all together. That doesn't always come out, you know.

SPEAKER_02 20:36

Which is crazy to me to think about like, okay, he the the owner modeled after, wanted to model after Buffalo Trace, a huge popular commercialized company. 13 years down the road from him doing like wanting this, starting this idea, he comes up with this that even the thing that he idolized, that he was like, put it on a pedestal, this is what I want. They could not even create this. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 21:02

They become something other than what he set out to become, right?

SPEAKER_02 21:05

And I don't know that people, even let alone him, realize that. Like, that's huge. You've become something more, you become something more than Buffalo Trace, something more than a commercialized popular brand, and that can't be sold in a lot of states. They've struggled to get into Ohio. I still can't figure that one out. Yeah, it's weird. It's Ohio. Ohio is a weird.

SPEAKER_04 21:29

It's Ohio, but like Ohio's weird. How well would this do in Ohio? I think journeyman in general would do well in Ohio, but I do think the problem with Ohio is there's a lot of people here that are only going after kind of the name brand kind of things. And uh I think that they've done and you could see it with the lottery and everything else that they do in Ohio, but there's a lot of people that are kind of they were the bourbon boom kind of people, you know what I mean? You know, not so much drinkers as collectors kind of a thing. And I think that that makes us struggle a little bit with uh That's why they've come in and regulated it so much because people were just going net so for that stuff. And uh I think if there was more actual people like connoisseur or like a people that appreciated whiskey, craft stuff struggles in Ohio.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

Do you think it needs to? Do you think people would enjoy it if they could try it?

SPEAKER_01 22:16

If they could try it, yes, they would enjoy it. I don't know that they would buy it though. Uh and so, like I they may, I mean, I don't know that they would try it. I don't know that they would buy the first bottle. If they wouldn't make the investment, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:29

I've had this idea for a while that I would love the podcast to work with the state if possible to put on this this uh whiskey expo and have all craft distilleries wanting to get into Ohio to come in. Sure, it's a price tag, right? There's a ticket to get in, but you gotta try anything and everything under the sun that they have to offer. But how does that work with the regulations?

SPEAKER_04 22:53

We would have to work closely with the state to figure that one out. Yeah, because if they can't technically sell it, and you're technically you're technically selling a ticket and then they get to try things.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

Well, the expert would be put on by the state and by the distilleries, yeah. So there'd be no there'd be no price tag for the bottles, just a price tag to get in. And the samples are technically we're not paying for the yeah, okay. So maybe that would be a way to work around. But the idea being like, can we show the state that there's buy-in for this if people try it and they go, Holy crap, this is wonderful. I'll pay 113 bucks for this. Right. Like, no, I would pay 150 bucks for this. Like, why not? Like, this is wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

Yeah, I think if they if the state said, hey, we're gonna do a uh a whiskey expo of only bottles are only companies that are not available in the state of Ohio. These are companies that want to sell in Ohio, but are not currently selling in Ohio. That is an interesting idea. That's what I want. It's a trial and error. And you can't buy a bottle while you're there because the state is not available in Ohio. You can try it though, and your price of admission is high. It's gonna be expensive to get in 150, 200 bucks, whatever. And with that, you have to tell us what you think. Yes. I want to know what's the best bottle you tried while you're here. And that way, that's for the state to decide. And you're you're essentially crowdsourcing palette. You're trying to say what would actually do well in Ohio.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

Because instead of them having to like, uh, we'll we'll not do this, not do that.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

What the state would do if that actually happened, how the state would do this is they would do that, and the winner would get an OHLQ exclusive. Yeah, and CLO still wouldn't be available in Ohio because the way then through that explosion.

SPEAKER_04 24:44

The way that Ohio does it is they bring in however they decide, I don't know, but they bring in certain things and then they give it a year or two trial, and then they only go after like the way that it sold. And if it didn't sell, then they put it on the last call and that's it, and phases it out. That's how they do it now.

SPEAKER_02 25:00

That's what we found out with Jeff the Green.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

Yeah, and I mean it's the reason that when I do samplings for Wat Shed, even though Watershed is an Ohio brand, I'm buying a bottle every time I do a sampling there. I mean, watershed is, but yeah, but like a bottle is being purchased every single time. I'm not bringing a bottle in and like resampling it every time I do it or whatever. It's a new bottle every single time. And the reason for that is it's a sale in the books. I mean, that's a lot, that's a big part of it. And a lot of times what I'm sampling is dependent on that. Like they, you know, Arjun tells me what to sample based on a lot of that, and we'll alter some, you know. Every once in a while, I'm buying like leaders for these sales and stuff when it's like I'm not using a leader, it's not that happened. Yeah, like that's it's kind of silly, but we're doing it because it makes sense on the back end.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

But to bring him back to Halloween, sorry, that was a little tangent that's a little bit of a little tangent about it. Yeah, oh H L Q, if you're listening, reach out to us, please reach out to us. They're for sure listening. We have the details, we have all the details. We'll do it. We have a plant, yes, yeah, yeah. But the raven, why does it fit so perfectly for Halloween?

SPEAKER_04 26:07

For me, it's it's egg or Alan Poe. I mean, that doesn't get I think just ravens in general are always kind of ominous, kind of creepy, kind of omens, kind of you uh you talk about Odin, right? You're you know about Odin's ravens? Oh uh like Odin the gods. Odin the god, yeah. I don't know about Odin's ravens. So what's interesting about Odin is it's not just like when people hear Odin, they think of uh Thor and all that crap. So Odin actually was an older god than all that stuff, like he had different different names. Thor's dad, right? Basically, but or Odin's actual like he was the all father, okay? So in a lot of like way back in the day, in a lot of other cultures and stuff, Odin is considered Zeus level god, the god, all father, the god of gods, the head of gods, right? So like you have like all the different gods, but Odin's always depicted as the god, and also that he there's different things that he did. Basically, he killed himself, he offered, he sacrificed himself to himself to become himself, right? So like he's like a god of himself, even. But anyway, going back to the ravens, he had two ravens on his shoulders, and one is truth and one is memory, I believe. And I think truth gets sacrificed at some point, but memory, so the the raven of memory uh sees all and remembers all, basically. But you see these ravens depicted in different things, they're always kind of creepy, kind of kind of ominous, kind of like good but bad. Like, you know what I mean? Like they're not always all good, but they're not all bad either. And I think that ravens are depicted throughout history in in those types of lights, kind of like, you know, ominous, creepy kind of thing. And I think that's egg roll and poe kind of uses the raven as well as that same kind in that same kind of vein of kind of like memory, right? Like, like there's something you look at a bald eagle, you think there's something regal about it, right? When you look at a raven, you think there's something kind of other about it. Yeah. Not it's not just a bird, right? It's almost like they can see through you, right? And that it clearly that's been the case for a long time because they've been depicted throughout the ages as these other things, right? And I think when Egar on Poe talks about if you've ever read The Raven, it's more than just a raven tap tap tapping on the on the door, on the window or the you know, the door or whatever. It's it's more like fate or something is tapping Egar, right? And and saying this or saying that or whispering to him, or is it death? Death is depicted with ravens as well. Uh, there's all sorts of things about these these things. And I think so. Anytime you see a raven in the wild, you kind of it brings you back to this spooky Halloween fall kind of a vibe. I've never seen a raven in up and like, ooh. I mean, crows are kind of like that, but they're crows are like a country version of raven, you know, they're not, they're less, but they're just not like an average bird. That's what it comes down to. There's something other about them, right? And I remember like seeing them as a kid growing up. It's like almost like seeing a black cat, you know, in Halloween time. You see a black cat, you're like, ooh, spooky, right? You know what I mean? Raven, same thing. I think so. And I think that that's kind of what Edgar Allan Poe was kind of pulling when he's talking about the raven. And it's just this bottle really represents that the the way it looks, the way it's kind of standing there. The you can cock its head the one way, it's it's all black and gold, kind of lettering. It's not just like the last feather rye. You know what I mean? It's something other, which again is what a raven is, it's something more than a bird.

SPEAKER_01 29:55

And Ed Gren Poe is kind of known for his kind of mystery detective-like work.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

Gothic. He's the one that invented he invented detective stories, yes.

SPEAKER_01 30:06

But it also led into a lot of sci-fi, and it's because of the mystery behind it. And and he was so good at that that mystery type writing in real life kind of stuff, but it led a lot of people to sci-fi, it it because of how almost otherworldly it was, which is is kind of Halloween-y. That that transition from real life to sci-fi is pretty scary, usually. And so it's not horror thing.

SPEAKER_04 30:36

Yeah, I mean, and sci-fi actually is is along the same lines. If you ask people, like it's been in list, but like some of the best scary movies, horror movies, whatever you want to call them, predators on that list sometimes. So is Alien. Alien is very much on that list. That is more sci-fi than it is horror. However, people find that like a like a horror movie, yeah. Uh like a scary kind of a movie, you know what I mean? You see, you know, Jason walking out, you know, with the uh hockey mask and stuff. And if you were to see some raven, you know, kind of come up behind him, you wouldn't you'd think that that's part of it. You know what I mean? It just fits that theme, and it's almost kind of to the point where have you ever even thought about or seen a raven other than that time of year? I haven't.

SPEAKER_01 31:24

I can't think of I've seen crows and stuff. You don't see them. Yeah, you don't see them outside of Halloween time or or the fall. Um, if it's not during that time, I mean, you don't really even see crows outside of that time too much. It's black blackbirds, but not not crows. Yeah, they're either uh either just blackbirds or gachels or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 31:47

Crows can be kind of ominous as well. They can be, yeah. But raven's kind of the next level up, it doesn't have the yellow beak, you know what I mean? Like a raven is like an all-black bird, and again, it's something there's something to do with its eyes. It's the same way that a bald eagle just looks at you like he's royalty. The raven looks at you like he's he knows more than he's letting on. Almost godly. Yeah, almost, yeah, almost or or a servant of a god, a servant of a god, which is with Odin, that's what it was all about, you know what I mean? And and that's so that's part of it, if I remember the lore correctly. So Odin gives up his eye, which was truth, I believe. So he loses his eye, which is truth, and that's why he had wears the patch and whatever, but he keeps his eye, which is memory, I believe. Something like that. So basically he can see through the raven of memory. I can't remember. There's something, something happens and he has to sacrifice that. It's not when he sacrificed himself, but it's he sacrifices his eye or he loses his eye. I can't quite remember what it is, but it's very Odin's very, I mean, Greek mythology in in general, but Odin is very interesting because I always like with this new superhero stuff, these movies and stuff, you see Odin and whatnot, and and it's kind of like whatever. But then when you actually do some research on Odin and the old gods, it's very much different from what you see in like the Disney superhero kind of crap. You know what I mean? Like it's much darker, way more dark, uh, way more different stories, way more metaphorical. And when you when you read, and some of it doesn't make sense, only it only makes sense in a metaphorical sense. Like it's not realistic what they're explaining happened, but it makes sense in kind of a metaphorical way or an allegorical kind of way.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

Yeah, I mean, anytime you have religious text, whether it's Greek gods, Indian god, any any of the sets of, especially multiple gods, especially not not the mono gods, but the the other other world religions that have multiple gods, they tend to be incredibly like that. Like, like there's a lot of metaphor involved because every god has its own place. It's almost its own section of of theology, whatever it may be. And so, yeah, especially those ones that and with that comes a lot of ways to relate it to life and and like the ways to connect it to different parts of and different things, because you have a a god of uh soil, a god of a god of good farming, you know. So if you have a good year, you can say that we did good this year. Uh we were good people to this god. And a lot of them thought the reverse.

SPEAKER_04 34:22

You know, what what what harm could it do? And you have to remember that we're talking about, I think Christians especially have this way of forgetting that we're talking about gods that were venerated or whatever before Jesus' time. I mean, if you think of like like Moses, the time of Moses, which is if you do your research, it's a long time before Jesus came to the world, there's gods that they talk about then and there, and and they venerated these gods. And you're talking about people who didn't know Yahweh, they didn't know God, like the way we know God, the the God of Moses, right? There was the God of Moses, and then these other people were like, but there's the God of this and the God of that, and the God of this. And Moses is like, no, there's only the one. And they're like, What are you talking about? For hundreds of years, we've been talking about these gods. Now you're saying there's one, like, yeah, and we forget that that was a whole different concept for yeah, the the Jewish God is one of the first gods that of a monotheistic.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

Monotheism, monotheistic. Where there is just one god versus multiple for different things.

SPEAKER_04 35:24

Before Odin was even like kind of invented. And Odin was even, like I said, around way, way, way, way, way long time ago. Like I be they might even have been talking about Odin when Jesus was walking the earth. You know what I mean? Like how that's how long ago we're talking. So it's just interesting when you talk about that old, old religion that people kind of forget that has been around for that long, and then the different stories and stuff that have been brought through, like what you're talking about. Yeah. But not that you know, I believe in any of that, but it's just interesting, it's just interesting history. Yeah, it's fascinating. And like you said, it was real-world applications that these gods slowly, you know, through hundreds and thousands of years came about, you know.

SPEAKER_02 36:03

Have we ever talked about on the podcast how Halloween came about? The uh so listening you guys talk about this. Have we ever talked about that?

SPEAKER_01 36:11

We touched on some of the pagan religions and stuff last year on how Halloween came to be a little bit, but if you know uh more about it, please I don't know that I do.

SPEAKER_02 36:21

I'm just curious.

SPEAKER_01 36:22

Yeah, there's lots about it. There, yeah, there's lots with the different pagan religions and and where uh where the different sections come to be. Most religions have much more of a death story, uh, or like a lot to do with when you die, where you go, but also if you don't behave here, bad things are gonna happen. So you have a lot of you have a lot of ghost stories and things and spirits walking the earth, yeah. Spirits, you're you're not going to hell, you're walking the earth and staying here as like a goblin or a a ghoul of some sort. And so that those those stories kind of add together.

SPEAKER_02 37:02

When you said uh death stories, yeah. Are you guys fans of all always sunny in Philadelphia?

SPEAKER_01 37:08

I I have only seen a few episodes of it. I do like it though.

SPEAKER_02 37:12

Yeah, there's a moment where Charlie gets to meet his real dad in Ireland, and his dad takes him to see the graves of his ancestors, and it's all the women. And he goes, Well, what happened to the men? We throw them off cliffs. Okay, so yeah, when they die, we throw them off cliffs. Yeah, he's like, Well, why what about the women? We don't throw them off. Nope, those are witches. All women are witches, all women are witches, we throw the men off cliffs. Yeah, that's why they're buried and men go into the water.

SPEAKER_01 37:50

I I really like history of the world part one. I think I love that movie. So uh Mel Mel Brooks or no, wait, I'm I'm confusing things. Uh I'm thinking of uh Monty Python. Oh and uh they they come out and they're trying to decide if this lady's a witch or not. Uh and they come up with some way of like yeah, if if she yeah, and so if she is a witch, then she'll float. Uh if she's not, then she'll die.

SPEAKER_00 38:19

So if she's not, then she'll die. So either way, like they're they're rid of her. Yeah, they're rid of her.

SPEAKER_01 38:26

Either way, either we're gonna burn her burn her a stake because she's a witch and she lived, or we just killed her. Yeah, and like those are kind of like the things that you which one is that is it's not holy girl.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

I think it's life of Brian. Life of Brian. I think it's life of Brian, yeah. Which is just ridiculous. And um, it's so sacrilegious, but still funny, still funny.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

Yeah, but yeah, and like, and even just looking back at uh you US history, looking back at Salem and our witch trials and stuff, but we did a lot of that kind of stuff in terms of like proving whether or not you're a witch. And if you fail those tests, you're just gonna die. Like, so we're either gonna kill you now by thinking you're a witch, or kill you after we prove that you are a witch. Either way, you're dead.

SPEAKER_04 39:11

We've always and we brought up hysteria, like hysteria. We've made that a thing. We've always been kind of, you know, we've had our issues with with things in the past, especially when there's a chance that sexism is real.

SPEAKER_00 39:23

That it's a real thing. That's a real thing.

SPEAKER_01 39:25

But yeah, and and when it comes to Halloween, there is a lot of that, like witches and wit, which witchers more than wizards. Wizards hold their different place.

SPEAKER_04 39:34

I never think of wizards and Halloween, I think of wizards and Lord of the Rings. Yeah, but I think of witches, I think of like Halloween and save us. I never think of a good witch, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

But I think of good wizards, yeah. Why is that? Right, because sexism. It's it really is real.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

It's deep. It's a deep thing, seated thing, yeah. But if it's that deep-seated, could it be that it's more than you know, I don't know. I with they're apparently evil. That that that's it. We'll just write it off. That's our forefathers were correct. Obviously, that we don't even need to think anything more about it.

SPEAKER_02 40:11

So somehow, with all this, there's tradition within Halloween, tradition of being sexist, I guess. Tradition of getting candy, tradition of it's tradition of being scared of death. Is it what it is?

SPEAKER_00 40:26

Yeah, I guess in order to be a good thing.

SPEAKER_04 40:27

Or thinking about the other yeah, whatever death is an equal explainable things, which there are plenty in the world. Yeah, and I think Halloween is a time that those things are kind of brought more to the forefront of your mind, and that's why people see more things that time that in that season. There are a lot of unexplainable things. I'm sure you can bring up personal stories. I can bring up personal stories. A lot of people can't. There's things that happen, and the longer you live, you will see things that don't make sense that you can't explain. I could tell you stories that people be like, Well, that's not real. You know what I mean? I'll be like, Well, that happened to me, and I don't know how to explain that. It's not normal or it's supernatural, you know what I mean? And I think that we live in a supernatural world, yeah, and I think that it's that time of year that those things are brought to the forefront, and maybe you notice them more than you do other times of the year.

SPEAKER_01 41:18

Real quick on that, because you you just said that we live in a supernatural world, which means you believe that we live in a supernatural world. You're also a Christian and a fairly devout one. So, how does that square? Oh, easily. Easily are ghosts real? Well, here's the thing.

SPEAKER_04 41:33

Or is this a different or is ghosts different than supernatural? I think there's spirits. And I I there's in the Bible they talk about spirits. Uh, there in the Bible they talk about there's there's people that have died, or not died. There's people that have never died, there's people that have left this world that haven't died, and that's in the Bible. And those people will come back at some point. I mean, tell me what those are. Those are not spirits, those are not dead people, those are not living people. I don't know what they are. There's something other. They were taken up. Real quick, there's people that have left the world. Well, uh Elijah that are not dead. Elijah and Enoch. You know what I'm talking about, Nick? Yeah, they never died. There's two specific people that in the world that God said. There's no recording of them dying being taken away. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 42:14

So the body, there's no body. Elisha, maybe Elisha. He was the one that went up to the city. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_04 42:20

And so him specifically, uh, he was out like hanging out with people, and and God said, you know, you're coming home. So God sends down this this chariot uh of fire and and angels and stuff, and he gets on board, flesh and blood, gets on board and goes up to heaven. Okay, got it. So that dude did not die.

SPEAKER_01 42:39

There's a story. So the story is his physical body left this earth. Okay, so the story is somebody so some other person saw this. A lot of people. Okay, a lot of people saw this.

SPEAKER_04 42:49

Okay, okay, got it. Okay. Uh, and he wasn't the only one there. Enoch was as well. I think it was Enoch, right? Right, or yeah, it's I think it's Enoch. But but basically, with that, it brings up a lot of questions. Uh, those specific people that the fact that we have a physical body that now transcends time and space, right? That's kind of an interesting thing. You tell me that's not supernatural. I don't know what it is. They talk about demons, uh, you know. Uh Jesus many times talks about demons and things and and and spirits and things not of this earth. Angels fell to the earth or you know, and and they became demons. Those things went somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 43:23

Yeah, so it's not necessarily ghosts, it's more so, more so angels.

SPEAKER_02 43:28

It depends on the uh I'll preface this with it. It depends on the denomination for ghosts. Yeah, so the so there's spirits, I'm not talking about actual human beings. Right.

SPEAKER_04 43:38

There's there's quite a few. But that doesn't mean that that's not the case. We don't know what what the demons can and can't do. And and those were just former angels. When we think of demons, we think like the worst of the worst, and maybe they are. But you gotta remember at one point they were literal angels created by God that were up in heaven, like the highest, you know, higher than you know, human beings. You know what I mean? Without a soul and everything else, they were different. They were other. And the only thing that really made them bad were was that, you know, they they turned away from God, which is funny because we look at demons and we are like, uh, right? Because they are. But what do we do as human beings? We we do worse things even than what those those demons did, really. And we turn away from God all the time. You know what I mean? So it's interesting, not to get too spiritual, and we're getting we're getting awful, uh, you know, uh biblical, but I just think it's interesting that that even people that are non-Christians will think of demons and think of like, oh, you know, and they are. I mean, they're but what do we do as human beings? Right? And these things were actually created with the sole purpose of serving God and doing all these things. And I mean, they are like angels, right? You don't think of an angel, you think, well, these people are, you know, yeah, yeah, these things are. It is interesting. It's an interesting kind of a concept.

SPEAKER_01 44:52

Weird place for me, because like as a Christian, I I I understand why ghost, like a like the idea that we have in our head of a ghost, may not make a lot of sense, other than maybe like a purgatory sort of situation.

SPEAKER_02 45:05

Again, that's the denomination.

SPEAKER_00 45:07

Like, you know, that may or may not be right for you.

SPEAKER_04 45:10

But to go into that is the before Jesus came to to earth and died and opened up the gates of heaven, basically, everybody that did die when it where did they go? They went into Abraham's bosom, which was a place not like a purgatory sort of situation, sort of situation. So to say that there's not souls, spirits, people, whatever you want to call them, in in another place at one time in the world, there were, there were absolutely were. And then Lazarus, I mean, just with Jesus' words, came back from wherever he was at, because Jesus hadn't died yet, so he wasn't in heaven either. Lazarus was not in heaven. People are always like, He was in heaven, he nobody was in heaven, and so Jesus did that. So wherever Lazarus was, yeah, he comes back to life like that, right? And I I'm not saying that people when they die don't walk around or they do walk around. What I'm saying is there are souls, there are spirits, there are yeah, and even Jesus, when he came back to earth, he was no longer conformed to a physical body. Right. It even mentions how he disappears here and he shows up there. So he is no longer, he's transcended a physical body, however, still has a physical body because Thomas touches his hands in the holes and everything else. Yeah, so physical transcends physical into spiritual spirit. I don't know what you want to call it, but it's an interesting concept. Have I seen things where there's been like legitimate what I would consider what you're talking about, ghosts? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I could tell you stories that legit, like and I'm not talking about like I'm talking about like people like I knew. You still like there's some things, you know. I I can't explain it, right? We'll never be able to explain it. That doesn't mean I believe that there's people like walking the earth spirit, like in spirit form. Maybe does it take a little bit to get where you're supposed to go? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what that's about.

SPEAKER_01 46:59

Okay, so I can't wait until some sort or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 47:03

But I can tell you that, and I'm not the only one that would be able to tell you that there are unexplainable things that happen in this world that are spiritual. And again, we don't talk about these things unless it's Halloween, right? We're talking about it now because we're sitting in the spot, yeah, and we're we're bringing this stuff up. We don't talk about it in um May or July, you know, for whatever reason.

SPEAKER_01 47:24

We Easter on a kitchen, we bring it up Easter on a kitchen, but we bring it up around the fall Halloween time and like this time of year, and it's again, I equate it to a lot to death.

SPEAKER_04 47:34

Yeah, I think what Nick was saying too, it's that time for you know, centuries and stuff, people have been kind of like thinking about that this time of year.

SPEAKER_01 47:43

It is, and it's because the world is whatever it is, it's it's like all the crops and everything are dying. Like this is like good things. This is this is the time of death. This is when when every all the leaves are falling, the harvest, the tops are dying. So like the all the greenery is gone. And so it is like a time of mourning, a time of death. Dead year's death, you're right. And then spring is is the time of life, and that's when everything is coming back, and that's when you start thinking about it. I never equated it to that.

SPEAKER_02 48:12

That should be the new year, it's spring. Well, you're absolutely correct. You know what?

SPEAKER_00 48:16

And Steve, I we're on the same boat, and yeah, that it's all messed up. If the the calendar got changed a few times, the Gungorian calendar March is actually should be the start of the year, which is when Jesus yeah, died and came back to life. There's a whole thing about there. Used to be 13 months in the calendar where all messed up.

SPEAKER_04 48:33

The calendar's cool. It's not actually, it's not actually 2023.

SPEAKER_01 48:37

That's why December DESA 10, but it's the 12th month. Sept September Sept is is is what is that six? I think. Uh so like the the dates don't line up anymore. We added a few extra for July for Julius season.

SPEAKER_04 48:53

Yeah, go back into how crazy, real quick, yeah, all this talk about old gods and all this stuff, and then we're like, we don't follow that. Wednesday is named after Odin. That's the all father we just talked about. So, like, and Wednesday's been around for a long, long time. Wednesday is the all father. So we literally, every time we talk about Wednesday, we're kind of venerating Odin, which is a pagan god. Yeah, there's so much that goes into like what we do that if you're like a Christian and you knew about it, you wouldn't you wouldn't even celebrate Christmas.

SPEAKER_01 49:23

A lot of our dates and things are around Roman. And so Romans were the ones that create a lot of that, which there's a lot of Roman gods, and so it makes sense that it all goes to the months named after men that were kings, Caesars, you know what I mean? Like it's so it's ridiculous, it's all crazy, it's all it's all nuts, and so but like for me, I I'm an atheist, so like so, like god, like spirits and stuff. For me, it's a very simple yes and no. Whereas for Christians or any other form of any whatever religion it may be, there's a lot of weird gray area to like try to decide what is what is a God, angel, demon, and what is a ghost, and what and where does that place itself is fascinating to me. And so hearing you guys talk about the the two people from the Bible, they're like, Oh, well, this is this is a good way of incorporating this and making this work, and being able to say that you can have a ghost-like encounter, yeah, but have it fit into your religious paradigm is is interesting. It's like a fascinating way of working it all in that makes a lot of sense. Like it's very logical and it works. Well, I think that that is cool, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:35

Something important to bring up because I think a lot of times people get so protective of their religion that they will either try to make something fit, they can't have holes, or or they will dismiss it outright. And the the problem with that is there are things, and I don't care what religion you are, but there are things that you could that no religion can explain fully. If we knew everything, we wouldn't need religion, and you wouldn't need things like faith, which is like really the main focus on ever any religion.

SPEAKER_01 51:04

Yeah, and to say that everything can fit into the Bible is ridiculous. Like there's gonna be things that are outside of that because there's things that we don't know. Uh you know, if if we did know it, we would be God. So there has to be right.

SPEAKER_04 51:19

And that's why I've always said atheists are people that maybe haven't quite figured out what they believe yet. I what I don't understand, and I don't think anybody truly is agnostic, because you cannot tell me when you've lived 30, 40, 50 years, that there's nothing.

SPEAKER_01 51:36

Well, that's Agnes, you're you're confusing the two atheists means I I believe there is nothing. Agnostic means that you're not sure. Oh you don't know.

SPEAKER_04 51:44

Maybe that's maybe that's yeah, yeah, I see you're reversing. We've talked about this on the podcast, but I always get it mixed up. But I I think when you get to a certain point, that any human being, regardless of religion, gets to a point where they say, There's something more and I can't explain it. Because I've seen things, right? I've been around 40, 50 years, whatever. You get to a point where I have seen things that I cannot explain, but those things, even if it's 1%, make me believe there's something more than just we we were cells and we die and there's nothing. And when you get to that point, it opens up a tremendous amount of space for something. There's lots of options, right? So I I I get when people say I haven't quite figured it out yet, but I don't, it's hard for me to understand anybody that's lived on this earth more than 20 years, right? To say there's nothing.

unknown 52:35

Right.

SPEAKER_04 52:36

Right. So that and that's always for me, uh, and again, not pushing a religion on anybody, but that's enough for me to be like, well, I think we should talk about something, right? Because there's something. And, you know, I don't think I have all the answers. And I don't think the Bible has all the answers for everybody. But I do think that that's what's cool about having, you know, friends and stuff you can talk to, or just groups like this or podcasts or something to bring out, like throw it on the wall and see what sticks. Because there's there's something. Uh, and like that's what comes I always come back to that when people are like, I don't try to make it fit. There's definitely things in that going back to this spiritual thing, uh, with Halloween this time of year, there's things that I cannot explain. There's things that I've looked into the Bible for answers and I cannot explain. But I do like that the Bible does have things in there that kind of make you scratch your head and go, well, hold on. That kind of challenges what I'm yeah, what I'm thinking a little bit too, and that they were dealing with that way back in the day. You talk about witches. Uh, there's scripture in the Bible that say, do not hang out with witches. Not that don't hang out with people that think they're witches, but like don't hang out with witches. It means witches are very much, according to the Bible, a real thing. And I think that that's interesting because that challenges a lot of people's viewpoints.

SPEAKER_01 53:48

So yeah, that's the beauty of this time of year. Yeah, absolutely. Is it makes you think about a lot of these spiritual things? Yeah. Whether you look at it from a spiritual lens or from just like a supernatural lens, supernatural, yeah, which I think is very similar. Whatever you want to call it, very close to the table. Very much, yeah. It's also the beauty of whiskey and pipes. And then this is uh if you're sitting on a porch and smoking a pipe or drinking a glass with some people around you, for one, you're outside, which means there is no TV. There's nothing to like this is your entertainment. And so it just it's just sitting around and talking until you can get into like these cool philosophical kind of conversations and stuff that make it really interesting. And this time of year is just built for that. The weather is right for it, the the feel in the air around Halloween and thinking about those things. It just it's the right time of year for it, and this pipe tobacco is a great one for it. It's it's it fits really well in terms of uh Nick being the being the one not smoking. Do you get the cigarette kind of thing in the air or not so much?

SPEAKER_02 54:57

So I love this haunted bookshop because it's ball. I mean, this this is Halloween at its finest for me. This is leaves burning in the air, kind of feel more than anything else that we've had. This this is like scarecrows in the field. Yes, yep, yep. And growing up in the country, this is this is bringing back a home memory. Oh, yeah. So we went to visit my parents weeks ago, but we sat on the porch, my parents and I, and it was it was very much like fresh cut hay nighttime. Like it was just the smell was a mixture of bonfires, uh, burning leaves from the last year, and hay. And it was it was this, you know, it was country, you know what I mean? Like, I don't I don't know how else to describe it for someone that's not from the country, but it was very, very country-esque. Yeah, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 55:50

Like welcoming, very homey. And uh a point about this bottle that goes along with this is because it's a blend of like the four different kinds, it is kind of like you're trying to figure out which one it is that you're tasting all the time, right? It's kind of rotating, yeah. It kind of rotates around a little bit, and so it does kind of get you into that philosophical kind of mood a little bit because you are trying to like, oh, is that was is that is that Silver Cross or is that corsets? What what am I tasting right now at this point? It cultivates conversation.

SPEAKER_04 56:24

It does, it's like bobbing for apples a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 56:26

What's interesting is there's only been one, maybe one other episode, and you were on it, Steve. You were not on it. Chris was okay, it was a little buck and Cody was on it, and he said the same thing where it's so well blended together that you still find yourself going, here's the next one. Okay, here's the next one, here's the next one. Like it there's no like jutting between the two, it just it blends so well that you're like, Oh, am I here? Oh, am I here?

SPEAKER_04 56:57

Well, and that's what I'm doing because and I can think of and this might be the only time, there might be other times, but it's like what you said, Steve, it cultivates that conversation because like I can't think of many, and we do this a lot where we either do the podcast, we're always talking, right? The three of us, or even off podcast, we talk, but there's not been many times on the podcast where you're almost like the hell with this, let's keep talking, you know what I mean? And like we had a conversation a minute ago, we had almost had to stop ourselves because we're like, we can't, you know, just keep you know going on and on. But we but that like, and that's what's so cool about it. Like it, and I think it is the because we do this all the time. Like, what's the difference, right?

SPEAKER_01 57:35

I think it is this this whiskey that is kind of you know, it just like leads you to the next topic and the next topic, and and and huge kudos to to to journeyman to be able to do that because blending is a very different skill than distilling in at 13 years, and and so like yeah, and so like this is I don't know, I don't I'm not I'm not entirely sure who at Journeyman was responsible for this. I don't know if their master distiller was the one that blended this or if somebody else did, but do you know about it?

SPEAKER_03 58:06

Because they have a master, they have a blender and a distiller, don't they?

SPEAKER_02 58:09

I sorry, I don't think of that. I think they're about the same age as Watershed, but could Watershed do this?

SPEAKER_04 58:16

Could many companies because they're they're showcasing all their different kinds of things, but they blended it in a way that's just it's not we like they didn't just throw it all in there, they just blended the right way with the right comp compounds and the right amounts that is done where it flows really well.

SPEAKER_02 58:32

So I it's not easy to do. So you talk about like do they have a master blender or master this? I I don't think of that. I think of someone around their age, 13 years, who could do what distillery could do this at 13 years old?

SPEAKER_04 58:45

Well, and how well does how well do they know their product?

SPEAKER_01 58:48

Right, yeah. I keep thinking about that. Like, holy cow. I mean, because yeah, on your point on that, I mean, if you think about Scotch, which are are kind of the the master blenders, you know, those people are spend their whole lives trying to do that. And they learn it from their dads, who learned it from their grandpas, who learned it from their grandpas, like this is handed down. It's an American company, and Americans don't really do the blending thing. So this isn't like a skill handed down, or or even something they learned from cobalt or or whatever else when they were getting their start. That's kind of an interesting topic. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:21

American blended whiskey. Yeah, it's not like blending bourbons together the way that they blend scotches together. That's kind of different idea. This is not blending just bourbon.

SPEAKER_01 59:31

This is blending everything. Brendan rice, a foregrain, a bourbon.

SPEAKER_04 59:35

It's blending all of it. But they're made in America, so they're you know, you but that's an interesting concept. Yeah, that uh we I don't think many people have really ventured into. I mean, some things are blended, but there is not very many interesting idea to blend different blending pros in the US.

SPEAKER_01 59:50

Like there's a few out there. There's a there's a few brands out there. There's there's one called uh broken pages that had does some does some blending of different companies and stuff. Los Lanta was a lot of things.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:08

Like different, completely different from each other.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:10

I I have there's there's part one and two of of that broken pages that I have at home, and it's uh watershed's in one of them. Watershed, cobalt, I think Journeyman is in one of the two. I I'm not positive on that, but I know Watershed and Cobalt both are, and um, and there's a few other ones, but they're they're blending other different brands together that's doing a thing, and they're pretty good, yeah. They're pretty good, like an intentional infinity bottle coming up. Exactly, yeah. But in terms of blending skill, I think this is better than those two, and uh both of those.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:42

This is this is little book skill level, yeah in my opinion. Uh blending, yeah. Yes, a blending, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:48

Yeah, and so the the the fact that there's somebody there that was able to do this bottle makes me really hope that they may maybe do some some sort of a blending type bottle in the future.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:00

In the future, that like they should continue this with one iteration. They're very good at blending, whoever it is that was responsible for this. Whether they keep it with the last feather and just scratch the 13 and just say this is what it is, right? It's a blend of our best things or what or whatever it is, but they do need to have a bottle available of a blend of of their things. I think that's a great idea. I think more companies shouldn't really do think they really think about doing it.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:23

I mean, yeah, but again, it's it's it's hard to pull off, unless they might be able to pull it off. Yeah, right. So I'm I'm impressed that this bottle is as good as it is, because I'll be real honest, and I think we were all kind of in the same boat when we bought this. Uh, we bought it for the look of the bottle. Like, this is a cool looking bottle. And we wanted to support Journeyman. We like Journeyman, we wanted to support them, but I had fairly low hopes for the juice inside of it because it is a blend like that, and that's just not really an American thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:52

Especially for a craft distillery, that's not very that's not very common.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:55

That's a pretty unique idea, but they really did incredibly well with it.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:59

I think if you strip away the marketing and you strip away the 13 and all that, if you were to strip all that away and you say this is an $80 bottle of their blended stuff, I think that's 100% a great, great bottle. Um which means you're paying a little bit for the marketing, but are you also paying for the support of like you're kind of supporting Jeremy? So I'm fine with the fine with that upcharge a little bit. Yeah, the support tax. Yeah. But I think that if they had this, if in a regular bottle for $80, you'd we'd be talking about, we'd be singing its praises for sure. Uh, even just as much as we are with this.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:31

I would agree. This is great for Halloween. This is great for a lot of things. It really is.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:36

It's gonna have been one of my one of my favorite episodes we've done in a while.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:39

Yeah, this is a very good one, yeah. So uh happy.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:43

Happy Halloween.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:43

Happy Halloween. Enjoy all the whiskey and pipes.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:51

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 tasterspumba.com, with any ideas for the show. Thanks again.