Merry Christmas from the Whiskey Chasers!

SPEAKER_03 0:09

Welcome to the Whiskey Chasters, 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 Chasters. Cornell and Deal Pennington Gap. Pennington Gap. Newly opened just now. Freshly opened. You've never had it before. We just popped. Right? And you've never had this blend before.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

No, oh no. Like I said, it's been sitting there waiting since uh 2017. 2017.

SPEAKER_03 0:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Just opened. I love how you say it's just been sitting there waiting. Just waiting for us. Right. Like its whole lifetime is like, I can't wait to be picked.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Yeah. I know. Pick me, pick me. You'll get your time, young one.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

My purpose is just to sit there and wait until I get used.

SPEAKER_03 1:06

It's so moist.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Like in a in a like the perfect level of moisture. There's something to be said. If if you've never, if you're into pipe smoking and you've never had or or aged your own tobacco, there's something to be said for that. Because some people think the whole idea of cellaring is is nonsense. But if you've never had a tin that was cellared or or you've never done cellared your own and like the patiently waited for it, you've just never really been rewarded in that kind of way. You know, like it's it's a reward. It's a patient game. Like it's a waiting game, but it's also like a you're just giving the tobacco a chance to do its thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:41

And like we were saying, it has a smell of like a butterscotch kind of thing, which is gonna go great for our Christmas episode here. So Merry Christmas, everybody. Happy holidays, merry happy guanza.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

Was it uh was it Brendan that we convinced him that Blake was Jewish, yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

I I think I came up with that, didn't I? I don't even know why I did that, but it was funny.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Because I think at one point he's like, Okay, the fact that you guys are messing with me, I think he is Jewish, but you're trying to make me think that he isn't. I remember like looking him dead in the face, and I was like, his last name. And then he he Brendan was like, uh, oh yeah, yeah. You've ever seen him wear a I was like, he wore a yarmulke the other day. He did, and I was like, You didn't notice? Totally didn't.

SPEAKER_03 2:28

No disrespect to our Jewish friends. No, no, not at all. We think Judy is but it was funny, yeah. But uh it was funny to make them.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

It's been over a year, and it's still a thing. Yeah, we still make sure we say hyp, happy, happy uh Hanukkah though around this time of year. We all ought to pitch in and give him you get him like a yarmulke or something like that with his name on it or something.

SPEAKER_03 2:51

Is the dreidel normally used? That is a Hanukkah thing, yep. Yep. There are markings on it. I think it's like uh I think it has it it has a religious purpose for Hanukkah. I don't know if it's a like a dice kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 3:07

There was a game, I thought you think it was a tr traditional game played, but yeah, it was around that what however many days that the oil was burning in the lamp. Yeah. Do you you remember the story?

SPEAKER_03 3:19

I think it's a set I think Hanukkah is seven days. Yeah, it's because of that.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

The oil burned and it just kept burning, and and then while they were, you know, then they played the dreidel and they I don't know enough about it, but I just know just enough to know more than nothing.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Than nothing. Yeah, yeah. I don't know a whole lot, but I know just enough.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

A lot of people don't know that. I didn't know that until I did.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

It's kind of how knowledge works. I didn't know about it until I did. Then we're good. But yes, uh our our nice little holiday holiday episode. Holiday episode. Uh, we got some bourbon cream.

SPEAKER_03 3:55

So we started with our tobacco, but we also have bourbon cream. We have our first one here is the Buffalo Trace bourbon cream.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

The Buffalo Trace bourbon cream, which I think uh we'll get into it in a minute, but I think it tops all the bourbon creams out there, which there are a substantial amount. A decent number bourbon creams out there at this point.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

I want to say that there's a big, almost cult following for bourbon cream, buffalo trace bourbon cream. There's others out there, and some people are like, no, Jim Beam has one that's mine, or you know, benchmark is mine, or this is mine. People, people will go after like hunt down bourbon cream.

SPEAKER_01 4:34

I will say real quick, I haven't lit mine up yet. You just lit that pipe up, dude. It smells like Christmas in here. It smells like a Christmas campfire.

SPEAKER_03 4:43

Yeah, the the butterscotch and stuff that's in here is is going into the smoke, into the aroma, and it's very sweet smelling.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

And it's it's because this is not an aromatic, it's not, but there's a lot of tobacco and wood smoke and fireplace, but all spice and sweetness in the room note. It's it's very much like very like like Smoky Mountain Christmas.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

Yes, it's like uh like the smoke coming off of like a fireplace in your house kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

Yeah, with what with the trees sitting there and the and the yeah, and uh all that like Chris this Christmas decoration. You and there's Christmas cookies sitting on the counter. That's what that smells like because it's very subtle, the sweetness is subtle. It's in more in the background. But what you do get is a lot of that wood smoke off of that. It smells fantastic. Since I haven't lit it up, I can smell that room note. Something about once you start smoking, you don't get the room note as much. But from being across the room, I can smell it, and that smells fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 5:41

It's a very good smell. Like, this is one yeah, for for anybody that smokes pipes and or is married to somebody who does not smoke pipes, you have to like room note's important because that will that is what gets you away with being able to smoke in certain areas. I have uh like a closed-in porch that I can smoke on if the windows and stuff are open, but but it does it does leave a scent, so you have to be careful. And uh room note matters, and this has a fantastic room note.

SPEAKER_01 6:10

Smoking out of a mirror, Sean. Should give me an unadulterated smoke here.

SPEAKER_03 6:15

I'm smoking out of the uh Peterson I got for Christmas last year. Yeah, pipe suit you. It's a good bend on it, has kind of the Sherlock Holmes bend. Uh straight pipes tend to burn me more, and so I I prefer to go with with a uh a curved pipe. Plus, I just like the look of it.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

I feel like you like to hold it in your mouth.

SPEAKER_03 6:36

I don't. You like to clinch on your pipe. Yes, it doesn't.

SPEAKER_01 6:39

I pinch my pipe, yeah. You like to hold it. Yeah, I only like to clinch uh certain pipes at certain times. It's because it comes down to I do like straight pipes and it comes down to weight. I really don't like clenching bent pipes. Uh it comes down to weight, and um I have a a couple featherweights that I clinch. Uh that's like my one golf pipe. Oh, yeah, is a featherweight Peterson, and uh it's perfect for clinching. So I clinch the crap out of that one.

SPEAKER_03 7:06

I have a really small, like a small bold straight pipe. So because that's light and I like to walk and smoke called lunting. Lunting. And uh, which when you do that, especially when it's cold, I don't really have hands to do it, so it's a lot of clenching because of that. So I use that both ways when it's cold.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

You clench you clench both ways, right? But I do like to, I think you're right. I do like to hold it in my hand. But pipe smoking, we've talked about that before. There's so much more that goes into it than just the smoking. So the holding in the hand and uh it's gives it occupies my hands. Uh it should probably occupy my mouth more. Then I wouldn't talk so much. It's more of a fidget than a more of a fidget thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

I do find it interesting to watch people like just observe those with pipes on how they hold the pipe and if they clinch it, if they don't, and if they're gonna hold it in their hands, do they hold it like you do, like around the the yeah, around it? I never thought about that. Do they clinch the stem? Like some people hold it almost like a cigar or like a cigarette, like it's very like that.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Yeah, like yeah, up on the stem like I've seen, yeah, I've seen people that smoke their pipe like that all the time. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:13

No, I I hold the bowl, and it's partly because I want to feel the heat on it. I like if it's getting too hot, yeah. Like I'm not doing it scientifically necessarily, like to make alterations, but just the warmth in the hand just kind of feels nice, especially when you're lunting. Exactly. Yes. Who needs gloves when you have a pipe? Fire. That works wonderfully.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

This is a very smooth uh tobacco blend.

SPEAKER_03 8:36

It is, it's very nice. And uh who Cornell and Deal, right? Cornell and Deal. Uh what was it called? Painting Gap. Painting Gap. You read the side of that again, the what we read earlier?

SPEAKER_01 8:47

It's got like a picture of a of an old bar tobacco barn. What what's funny is so when I said Smoky Mountain Christmas, it's funny because when I lived in Tennessee, these barns were everywhere. And I actually worked on a couple farms where they had tobacco barns like that.

SPEAKER_02 9:02

So well, okay, what's the difference for the idiot here between a barn and a tobacco barn?

SPEAKER_03 9:07

Are they the same? It's got if you well, if you if you're here in Ohio, anytime you see a male pouch barn, those are tobacco barn. Or like that that kind of style. That the the picture in your head of a barn is a tobacco barn. You like open part, yeah. Yeah, and so because they're they're tall generally because you're hanging tobacco, hanging it, and they're open. Exactly. You have doors on both ends and probably windows in order to let air through to circulate.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

I mean, you can tell pretty quick if you know anything about farming and stuff, the the difference between like a livestock barn and what would you consider like a hay barn or like a tobacco barn or anything, like an all-purpose barn. But a tobacco barn specifically, you always know because the doors are always open because you are drying it out and stuff, and they want the air to flow through there and stuff, and it's and it's like it looks empty, you know what I mean? And it's very tall, like like Steve said. Like this one. This is a tobacco barn for specifically. You can tell, and then it's on that hill with the clouds on the back, and it looks like it's in the Smoky Mountains. I just I just grew up with so many, like driving down the road, you'd see this everywhere, this picture. So that's what I think of when I see that. But I don't, I don't, I don't know anything about Pennington Gap. I don't know what that means, but might be some place in Canada for all I know.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

Is it is it Peddington Bear?

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Is it Paddington? This is Pennington. Well, it says from the tip of Virginia, so I'm guessing Pennington Gap is in Virginia.

SPEAKER_03 10:30

That'd be my guess, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

An all-American blend with a southern accent, nutty Kentucky cube cut burley, and a rich black and Cavendish. Balance the unique aroma and flavor of Louisiana Parique. Finished with bourbon for the touch of southern hospitality. So it's got a mixture of things going on here. It's a burly base, but it has that Cavendish. Yep, cube cutly, and it's got Cavendish and Pirik and bourbon. So it's all the south. All the south. All the best parts of the south. Yeah, I like it. It has the nunnies. I think this is very good. And for it to be uh the base is mostly cube-cut burly. Uh, for that burly to be so smooth, yeah, uh, and not like you know, a typical burly. I like burly, but it's harsh, you know what I mean? This is not that like you said when we opened the tin, it's a pretty dark blend. Like and it's not the Cavendish that's making it that way, it's just the age.

SPEAKER_02 11:23

The smell. So I've been trying to figure out what the smell reminds me of, like a specific thing. I don't think it's a specific thing. I think it reminds me of like a cocktail bar. Like that smell when you walk into a cocktail bar.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Yeah, it's got a little bit of that incensey quality too, like what you're talking, like not church incensey, but like like bar incensey. Yeah, like kind of like what you smell when somebody has has got some sort of candle lit. Like again, not like a fru-fru candle, but like an incense type candle, and like a tiki bar, like or like torches going on. It's that that almost acrid kind of uh incense.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

This is Christmas time, right? Do you guys have a tobacco, a pipe tobacco for Christmas, like just for that time of year?

SPEAKER_03 12:10

I do not. Um for me, I usually use Christmas as I kind of use a gift mentality of open something new. And so it like it's let's try something I've never tried before or a like a favorite. But usually for me, it's it's try something new.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Uh last couple years I have not. Uh, but what I typically do is I fall into the the uh and anybody in the in the pipe community would know that this time of year is yeah, crink Kringle Flake that comes out every year. Uh so every year Sutlift does a new addition of a Kringle Flake, which is their Christmas blends, you know, Santa, Kris Kringle.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

Okay. I I thought the Kringle was the style, and I was like, I've never heard of Kringle. No, okay, all right.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

It's Kringle as a Kris Kringle. Um they do a new edition every year. I don't know if they're gonna keep doing that because I've heard there's big talks in the pipe community right now. There's a big upheaval because Sutliff may or may not have gotten bought out, but I I really don't care who owns it as long as the quality and and stuff doesn't change for the worse or anything like that. But we'll see. But yeah, normal normally I do that. And then also uh Cornell and Deal, they do a couple of holiday blends every year that I try to get my hands on, and they do uh new additions every year as well. So what these blends, holiday blends, are they like flavored? Are they more on the so usually they're aromatics of some sort? I hate I hate to say aromatic because corn Allen Deal doesn't really do aromatics in the true sense. Um when people hear pipe smokers hear aromatics, they cringe. Uh uh, but corn alonand, they do aromatics right, they use real leaf, uh, and their stuff is touches of sweetness here and touches of topping there. So they are aromatic in the sense that they do really smell great, but they still have great smoking capabilities. They don't just throw Cavendish in a thing with artificial flavor and call it Christmas. You know what I mean? Uh We Three Kings, they do, I don't know if they do that anymore. They used to do it. That's a fantastic um holiday blend. And it's got like a picture of like the three wise men walking up to like baby Jesus, which is pretty cool. Uh that one smells phenomenal, but you're talking vanillas and cloves and cinnamon and uh, you know, all the Christmas types of smells. They try to make that into flavors.

unknown 14:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Um, and they and they wrap it around their burley and their Parik and their Virginias and their like their good quality tobacco leaf. So they do it well. Uh, I should just, I don't think I have any ready to go, but I should just get a couple and and uh we'll sit down and smoke them. And anybody in the club wants to smoke me should, but you should do that every year. Uh it's like St. Patty's Day, they do the same thing. There's always a couple companies that do their own St. Paddy's Day blend every year, and I try to get my hands on one of those. Just every year I try to do the what's the new thing, but it's a race because that stuff sells out because it's all limited, it's you know, this time of year. So like a Kringle Flake, if it hasn't already, it's it's probably sold out. People buy it up. Same thing with the fall, the fall blends. So you get into fall blends, like Halloween one-off stuff, and then Christmas does the same thing, and then St. Patty's Day. Those are the only three that I can think of that are really like big, like, you know, this year's edition type type stuff. And they usually do labels.

SPEAKER_03 15:31

I know I have like a Peterson summer tin.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

Yeah, I but I think that they they make that throughout the year. It's not like a not like a limited run like like these other companies will do. And then they they they'll limit the they'll label the you know tens a lot of times. So you this is one out of however many we made, and and it'll say 2021. Now, m McClellan, when they were in business, McClellan was big about doing that kind of thing. Um, and they came out with like the 15th edition this and the 16th edition that. And so it was very collectible, very collectible. And then they also did some really good holiday blends as well. I think Cornell, like I said years ago, I think Cornell and Deal has stepped up to kind of fill that gap a little bit. They'll never be McClellan, but they've stepped up to kind of fill that gap a little bit, and and they do really good with putting out stuff that pipe smokers are gonna want to pick up. And they do it with enough quantity that it doesn't sell up that quick.

SPEAKER_03 16:25

And this uh bourbon cream is going very nicely with it. It's just kind of nice and sweet, which just goes goes along the lines of this.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Almost has uh nuttiness to the flavor. So I can imagine if the pipe, if the tobacco is kind of nutty, I could see that.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

Yeah, netting very well. It's not as spicy as some bourbon creams out there, but it's also not as neutral grain spirity-y, you know what I mean? Yeah, you don't uh you can taste the bourbon, taste the quality bourbon, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 17:01

And uh doesn't taste like junk. I also I haven't had a lot of bourbon creams, so I don't know all the different flavors of them, but this is very eggnoggy, and I don't know if that's normal or not, but I'm a big fan of eggnog, so that's a that's a positive for me. And that might just be the nutmeg going on.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

It's very noggy. I don't think it's eggnoggy. I think it's very very noggy.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

I feel like that's a very common thing for big name distilleries, the brands that put out uh bourbon cream.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Yeah, it's it's very eggnoggy kind of. I think some of them are more even more like eggnog with uh junk like liquor. And this one's got a lot of the nog without that that like I don't know how you would describe without the egg if you've never had eggnog, I don't know how you describe it. It's the egg that part that makes it that kind of custardy, custardy type of thing. Yeah, yeah, it doesn't have the same texture that an eggnog does. Yeah. But this is I think it's very good for um what for a Christmas drink like that, you know what I mean? Oh, because uh we have had a few, and most of the time what you get is you just get kind of that eggnog with some bitey nastiness. This you can definitely tell is I I wouldn't be able to say this is Buffalo Trace bourbon, but it's got it's a it's a higher quality alcohol that's in here, it's not overpowering, and uh it's it's a more of a subtle, uh it's not too over the top, like the eggnog part of it, like the the cream part of it. It's not over the top where you could have more than one glass. Whereas like some eggnogs, you're like, okay, I'm done after one. Like, you know, I'm done. Like that was just good, but too much. Like I think this one you could actually sip on uh quite a bit throughout the day on a Christmas morning or something.

SPEAKER_03 18:43

Yeah, I'm uh like I said, I really like eggnog, so I usually make a badge and buy batches or whatever else too. Do you make your own? You make your own. I have made my own before, only like once or twice. Because it's kind of complicated. Like there's a lot going on with making eggnog.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

I gotta think that it would be.

SPEAKER_03 19:01

If you're making it like a glass for yourself, it's not it's not awful, but if you're making like a pitcher or something, there's there's a lot going on with it. What all goes into it? Uh it's it has to do mainly with the egg. And so you have to you have to separate out the whites because you only use the oak or the yolk in it. And uh there's a certain like temperature and whisking style to like get it get it smooth all the way through. And then also just a good quality alcohol. And you throw it in the what milk or something, right? Yeah, yeah, like a heavy cream.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

For most bourbon creams I've seen and tasted, it it tastes like their product. Yeah, Buffalo Trace, their bourbon cream, doesn't like you said, Chris, it doesn't remind me of Buffalo Trace. Like I don't I don't know that I could pull out, oh yeah, they use their stuff. Yeah, you know what I mean? They use actual Buffalo Trace in it versus something else that they make.

unknown 19:53

Right.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

But it doesn't surprise me that they do because uh Buffalo Trace type bourbon would be the best type bourbon to put in a thing like this. That that that very friendly, very sweet, very uh bourbon, bourbon-esque, uh classic bourbon profile would be perfect in uh in a eggnog type of drink. Whereas I I wouldn't be throwing uh I don't think Jim Jim Beam's like uh harder, like uh you wouldn't want bookers in a thing like this, you know what I mean? Right. I mean you might, but most people would not like actually I kind of want to try something like that, but I don't think most people would like like something that strong in a in a beverage like this, you know.

SPEAKER_03 20:35

I tried to do some research on where bourbon cream came from because there's like a lot of big name brands make one, so somebody had to have the idea. And I couldn't find a thing, like in terms of like if it was a cocktail and now they're bottling it up. Uh, if if somebody just came up with the idea and threw it in, there's pretty much nothing. It's what happened was in the 70s, Bailey's came out. So uh which was popular, yeah. The Gilby company in Ireland came up with figured out how to bottle Bailey's because before that they couldn't figure out how to bottle a cream-based liqueur and make it last. I wonder how they even came up with that.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

So right. Who was like, yeah, we should make we should mix cream with this.

SPEAKER_03 21:22

I guess it's like an Irish coffee, yeah. And that's what it was, yeah. So Bailey's to this day is still the top-selling liqueur out there. It's number one. But around that time is when they can't figure out how to bottle a cream-based liqueur, and then after that, Ramchada came out and yeah, Kahua. So I think it just kind of came about because the technology was there and they wanted to make an American version of a Bailey's.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

I never really thought about it until now the idea, the struggle of trying to bottle like a cream. Yeah, because you have to make it last. Right. Like, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Know why I never thought of that before until you it's uh you know pressure and uh pasteurization because you think condensed milk, yeah, condensed milk and stuff. It's canning in a bottle instead of a metal tin.

SPEAKER_03 22:11

Would the alcohol not keep it stable or it will for a time, but not not with if it if it's exposed to air. And so then you can then it creates bacteria, and there you are.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

So that's not enough alcohol in there to fortify it, I don't think.

SPEAKER_03 22:29

Right. And so, yeah, this is 30 proof, 15. Yeah, 15 alcohol. Um, and so I don't even know that you could freeze it. Uh and so this would freeze, yeah. I think so too.

SPEAKER_04 22:42

It would explode, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:43

Yeah, the only thing I could find. I have a I have uh the Oxford Compare Companion to Spirits and Cocktails. And it was this big book that came out in 2022, and that was the only thing I could find any information on. It beat the internet. I tried the internet, and I couldn't find a thing about anything to do with cream liqueurs. Prohibition is when they started adding cream to alcohol, and they did it because the the booze was just kind of bad. So you have your brandy Alexanders and stuff that came out around that time. A brandy Alexander? Oh, they're fantastic. Um, in terms of a Christmas cocktail, man, they're really good. Uh, it started with gin, though. It was a the original Alexander was gin. Uh they I did find uh in that book a name, uh it was uh it was called uh a cowboy drink. Yeah, cowboy cocktail, which was raw whiskey and cream. Oh that's a breakfast delight. Now, raw whiskey, does that mean white dog? That's what I'm trying to think about. Or does that mean just straight whiskey?

SPEAKER_01 23:51

It's either a white dog or like or just just whiskey. That old rot rot gut that they used to have back in the day. Raw whiskey. No, no, then that bottle. I want it from that barrel.

SPEAKER_03 24:05

Straight from the barrel, raw. And maybe it means no ice. Maybe that's what it means. Raw, raw, like rot, well, yeah, just like straight essentially. Straight, not with any protective uh any kind of protection? Yeah, it was a prohibition drink. And that was the closest thing I could find. That was prohibition. That was prohibition, yeah. The cowboy was cowboy cocktail, yeah. Interesting. Not one that's made anymore or followed or anything, but that's what we should do it.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

We should make it. We should find out exactly what they mean by raw whiskey and do it. Just figure out what that means. Is it moonshine? Maybe, yeah. Maybe it's more. Well, moonshine is corn dog. You know what I mean? It's that's what it is. It's on unaged liquor, corn, corn mashed liquor. You know, I don't know. It's white dog, it's raw dog. No, I mean it's raw whiskey. It's different. That's different.

SPEAKER_03 24:56

That comes after whiskey and before kids. Uh, yeah, so Gilbies of Ireland is the people that came up with Bailey's in 1974.

SPEAKER_01 25:03

Gilbies. Gilbies. Gilbies. Gosh, those guys really because you're right, it became a big thing. Bailey's is still huge.

SPEAKER_03 25:10

Like in the 80s is where it really took off. Uh, it was introduced to the U.S. in 77.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

All the Southern Comfort people were like, hell yeah, got something for holiday now.

SPEAKER_03 25:23

But I mean, I can see this, and throwing this in a coffee would be amazing. You know, that'd be a great way to have your Christmas morning coffee.

SPEAKER_01 25:32

Like an Irish coffee. So the way we did Irish coffees is we would take a coffee cup, a big coffee cup, and you fill it halfway with black coffee, and then you basically fill up the rest with Jameson's. And then there's usually like just enough space for like two tablespoons of Bailey's, like cream. That's how we made an Irish coffee. So I'd like to make like a bourbon coffee. So you get some black coffee, and then you would you would fill it up with bur buffalo trace, maybe, and then um top it off with just a pour of uh like a dollop of this. That'd be cool. I mean, you could add more of this if you wanted.

SPEAKER_02 26:09

This I feel like Irish cream has its purposes for coffee. Like people kind of I think Bailey's, I think coffee, right? Yeah. When I think bourbon cream, I don't think coffee. I I just think Christmas time. Yeah. Like that's that's the time it should be around.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

That's the time that I never really thought about using this with coffee because it's there's something about Bailey's that goes with that coffee flavor. You know what I mean? Like, I'm not sure what that is. If it's the Irish whiskey versus the bourbon, I don't know. But there's something about, but I've also just done Irish coffees where you pour half Jameson's and half black coffee. We've done many of those. Like, and we used to do that with Scotch too, but I think Irish works even better. Something with that Irish, yeah. We used to do them with clam clam McGregor. Me and my brother Tommy, oh Lord, we'd get like a half a gallon of clan McGregor, and we would pour, and then by the end of it, like it's less and less coffee.

unknown 27:03

Right.

SPEAKER_03 27:04

Yeah, that's a splash of coffee at the end.

SPEAKER_01 27:06

But uh, but there's something about, and you think maybe Scotch would go better with coffee, but it does there's something about that Jameson, like the Irish whiskey flavor that lends itself to coffee bean flavor. I think the two really pair well together. Something about it. More so than bourbon and more so than Scotch, I think. And you'd have to have like an iron, like a real Irish coffee to try that, like the half Irish whiskey and half coffee. We should try that sometime and see what you think. It's not for the faint of heart because it's it is it tastes about how you'd think.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

But it's good. It doesn't sound delicious. It's it's not bad. It's not bad. It's and it gets the job done. If you want to get up and going, but also want to have a good time doing it. That's that's a combination.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

That's a combination of champions.

SPEAKER_02 27:52

Breakfast of champions, right there.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

Yeah, a couple of a couple of eggs and bacon and three or four Irish coffees. You're ready to take on the world, dude. Pipe on the way out.

SPEAKER_03 28:02

So that was what Buffalo Trace bourbon cream tastes like. So kind of your run-of-the-mill always available, kind of or not out of the way, during during the this season. It used to be hard to get. It used to be very hard to get. Now, I will say I was at a couple of different liquor stores this week, and the first one I went to did not have it, but the one I went to yesterday did. And so, and they had like a stock of it. There was there was multiple boxes.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

They put it out now because it used to be when we first got into it, I want to say it was like 20, 16, 17.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

You could hardly find it.

SPEAKER_01 28:37

It's hard to find. And Bob, like we give it to Bob and he loved it. And he was like, We need more. We couldn't find it.

SPEAKER_02 28:42

I used to have to go down to Kentucky to find it, but now it is it is prevalent.

SPEAKER_03 28:46

Uh, we also have here a bit more of a uh niche bottle that's not not as available. Uh Journeyman, American Holiday.

SPEAKER_02 28:55

Yes, they do their own with their featherbone bourbon. So they they actually put on their I've I found like local like craft distilleries tend to put a bourbon cream out, and they'll tell you, like, this is our stuff. Like, here's exactly what we used for it. Whereas the more popular name brand ones are you gonna guess. Yeah, go ahead and guess.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Like, you gotta guess what's in it. I gotta think, uh, so I've not tried this, I don't think. I bought this based on Nick's recommendation a couple years ago.

SPEAKER_04 29:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

I gotta think this is fantastic because Journeyman does not put out crud products, like all of their stuff is good. And I gotta think this is gonna be more booze forward than burst.

SPEAKER_03 29:38

I don't know what the uh it is slightly higher alcohol content, it's 20%. I bet they put a little bit more juice in here. So 40 proof versus 30 proof for the Buffalo Trace.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

I just wouldn't that wouldn't surprise me with Journeyman.

unknown 29:49

Right.

SPEAKER_03 29:49

Uh when I was at the store, I did see Middle West had theirs, and they've they've become pretty popular around this area. Have you tried that? I have not. And I I thought about buying it just as the comparison. I'm glad I didn't now since we have this.

SPEAKER_01 30:03

It's uh uh I like and I like um Middle West, but it is good, but even Laura will tell you because we had it the other day. Um they had samples of it actually during which funny, they had it during uh Halloween downtown Dublin. But uh she tried it for the first time. She said, you know, it's not bourbon cream, it's not. She goes, it's good, but you can tell there's a quality difference here. And I said, Well, that's interesting coming from a non-bourbon drinker to say that yeah, bourbon cream is quote unquote air quote smoother and less bitey and stuff than the Middle West. I love that bottle. I we'll we'll put a photo.

SPEAKER_03 30:40

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Our our uh our uh thumbnail here will have both the Buffalo Trace bottle and this bottle next to each other. So you'll see a mess.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

That that cream colored bottle, the actual bottle is the color of the egg knot with like uh orangey red kind of wax on it, and then a blue label. It's just I love those cut that those cut the color combination is perfect.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

They're always on point with their color.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

They are their marketing is so fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 31:04

But I would agree with you. The uh Middle West Spirits is not bourbon cream, it's more like a cocktail.

SPEAKER_01 31:09

Yeah, like it's almost like uh cherry forward, uh like amoretto kind of yeah, more amoretto forward, but also you you it's more what we were saying earlier. It's that bitey kind of neutral grain, less like very not aged uh spirits in in a thing of you know, and again, not to say it's bad because it has its place, but ooh, this is whiter looking, very much whiter. It looks more like milk.

SPEAKER_02 31:36

Now that's the kind of um combination uh mixture I would want for bourbon cream.

SPEAKER_03 31:42

This is more alcohol forward, it's not subtle at all. Yeah, not subtle. You can taste the alcohol on that one.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

Oh, yeah, yeah, but it's good alcohol.

SPEAKER_03 31:50

Yeah, exactly. It's it's it's not neutral grain. It's you know, it's it's it's a whiskey, a bourbon.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

This is a bourbon cream for people who drink bourbon. Whereas, like, if you don't drink, uh you would look forward to drinking bourbon cream the buffalo trace bourbon cream because you're like, this is gonna be good. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 32:09

Yeah, buffalo trace bourbon cream, anybody can pick that up and drink it and not be like afraid of the alcohol.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

Right. Nobody's gonna think like, oh, you know, but this I think people would be like, ooh, oof, that's proofy, you know. It's not that it's strong, but you can just it's just it's bourbon forward. You can taste the alcohol. If you're not used to drinking alcohol, I think it's better because I am used to drinking alcohol. Right. But all that being said, I think the bourbon cream would hit more of the masses.

SPEAKER_02 32:39

The big name brand.

SPEAKER_01 32:40

The non-drinker, the people that only drink on special occasions would be fine with bourbon cream. This they'd be like, Whew, I might need to mix something in this mixer. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 32:50

Let me throw some more cream. It doesn't have as much of the eggnog flavor, it has more of the spices.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

Like I feel I like it gets more of the nutmeg, allspice kind of thing, and regular old-fashioned cream. I actually think this would go better in coffee. Yeah, because it's it's more flavorful all around.

SPEAKER_02 33:13

It is, and I think this is well, I think bourbon cream, I think Christmas time. Yeah, this is Christmas. Yeah, this is very Christmas. Uh Middle West Spirits, theirs is Christmas. Like those two, I I I drink and I'm like, this is this is Christmas time. Bourbon cream is like all year round. Any anytime. It's not like it just fits for Christmas time. It the flavor fits any time of year. You know, hot outside, throw it in ice cubes and you're good to go, kind of thing. But this is very like Christmas.

SPEAKER_01 33:41

We thought about using the bourbon cream on St. Paddy's Day. Remember that where you said a little American with the Irish, you use Irish whiskey with that. We've thought we talked about doing cocktails with bourbon cream, yeah. Uh just to see the contrast between the and I actually think that that's a good idea. Something to think about. I've also thought about incorporating scotch into it.

SPEAKER_02 33:58

You know, it's interesting. Uh you keep saying scotch with coffee, and I can't, I just for some reason I can't picture that together. But but as I think about bourbon cream or like the Irish cream, there's no scotch cream. They don't do it, they don't do it like a scotch cream.

unknown 34:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:16

I think it'd probably do it, just people would not like that. Most people would not like that.

SPEAKER_03 34:20

I think it'd be cool. Scotch already has some weird flavors going on with it that I think that I think that's why there's not a ton of Scotch cocktails, is because it doesn't really go with a lot of things. It it's kind of its own thing. It's got a lot going on.

SPEAKER_01 34:34

I think one of the best Scotch cocktails out there um is a very basic got the Godfather with the with the amaretto scotch. Yep. That's a good one. See, I prefer Rob Roy. Rob Roy's are good. That's what I I like. You're right, there isn't many Scotch cocktails, aren't they?

SPEAKER_03 34:49

Is there a rusty nail?

SPEAKER_01 34:50

Is that Scotch and Rusty Nail?

SPEAKER_03 34:52

Scotch and some another it's another brown liquor, just whiskey or rye, or uh that's not the one where they use uh uh drambue, is it?

SPEAKER_01 35:04

Because drambuey is a scotch-based liqueur. I think that might be a drambue that they use in that rusty nail. Similar to like a hot toddy.

SPEAKER_03 35:12

Yeah, you're right. Jambue. Yep, scotch whiskey and dramboe. I do not know when bourbon cream really came about. Uh like is that the 70s is when Bailey's showed up? Nobody is claiming the mantle of the first bourbon cream. But it was the A better. So it would be in the 80s, I'm sure. Uh, maybe maybe later than that, but not in the 70s. It would have it would have came a little bit later.

SPEAKER_02 35:34

Do you think that no one's claiming it because they don't care as much? Like it doesn't fit it doesn't fit the bourbon world. It does, but it doesn't. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 35:42

Like, yeah, I think that this is uh this is something to put out during the holidays to boost boost sales uh uh uh during the Christmas time.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

And you can throw your like like one off barrel, like if you have leftovers, you know what I mean? Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 35:55

Yeah, throw that in there in there. Like yeah, it's to use the extras, get rid of stuff. And so I just I I don't think there's a whole lot of pride in terms of the bourbon cream world. Like whatever you buy, you buy, they all taste similar, they can all be done for the same thing, especially when it comes to the big name ones. Yeah, I think the small name people will put it out because again, it's it's kind of an easy way to use product. Um, it's probably in terms of a profit margin, probably higher. And so good way to just just work through things, especially for the holiday season.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

I feel like the smaller guys, the craft distilleries, they seem to be more proud of their bourbon cream. If they do it, they seem to be way more proud about it and vocal. Like they're they're very vocal about this is we do bourbon cream, this is our bourbon cream, it's this time of year. You have to like it's good. You have to try it. You know, it's not like it's not Buffalo Trace, it's not Beam, it's not benchmark where it's it's there, you know it's there, but bourbon drinkers aren't going for it. It's a it's a strange cult following for bourbon cream.

SPEAKER_03 37:02

And I think the following are are people that are not super big whiskey drinkers.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

Yeah, I was gonna say Laura and Mary love it. Like we've gotta have bourbon cream around the holidays, they love it, and not just you're right, not just Christmas, like other occasions too. But they're not like bourbon drinkers, you know what I mean? But they like the bourbon cream.

SPEAKER_02 37:22

Well, I think of like Bob. Bob loves his bourbon cream. I I remember like the first time having bourbon cream, and that's really really what we do now is like on a hot summer day, he wants a glass of bourbon cream on ice, like that's his thing, which he does like his whiskey, but this is something different for him.

SPEAKER_01 37:41

He's always like liqueurs as well. Yeah, what does he call them? Cordials, cordials, cordials, yeah. I never appreciated cordials until I'm at Bob. But he's right. There's a time like after a good dinner, you throw a little um he likes his drambue. He likes drambue, but he also likes he likes Di Cerono, but he also really likes Frangelico. Oh, which I've learned to love. You know, a little kind of that sweet cordial after eating a big meal. It's like dessert and a cocktail all wrapped into one.

SPEAKER_03 38:09

And that's what I think that's really the use of this, or was the use of this in the past, is is as a dessert drink. This is an after dinner drink.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

And it would make sense if we're talking this came out in the 70s.

SPEAKER_03 38:22

Well, that's when Bailey's showed up.

SPEAKER_02 38:24

So we're also talking everyone wanted smooth. Like that was very much like the thing, like very easy drinking, very smooth. That this fits that bill.

SPEAKER_03 38:34

Like this is and I think that I I think that Bailey's or the idea behind Bailey's or the idea behind any of this, it's been around forever. They just couldn't bottle it. So it was it was so before that it was just a cocktail. Like you would have to go to a bar and and order a bourbon cream or whatever else, which that's what I was looking for. When I was in terms of trying to study this and trying to figure it out, I was trying to find the root of it. Like who who thought of adding cream to whiskey and thought that was a good idea? I mean, they killed it, but I wouldn't have done it.

SPEAKER_01 39:08

Would have been a thing that I thought of. I'm wondering if it was just that time of necessity as well as because like there's people used to drink booze out of necessity, too. You know what I mean? Not just for the you know, like there was times. Times were hard and they needed, you know, maybe they needed a stiff drink, you know what I mean, or something for for whatever to fortify a cold or to do this or that. I mean, you read books and stuff, and back in the day, they if someone got sick or something, they'd give them a shot of something, you know, like put that down, it'll be good for you, you know what I mean? Like it's they used to use it more medicinal, I guess, is what I'm getting at. So I'm I think adding this idea of adding a uh nourishing nourishment along with a medicinal spirit has an idea that maybe they did this way back in the day too, with uh, you know, cream, you know, that was churned or whatever and then fortified with a fortified spirit. Something to think about, like way back in the day, if that's where that the origins of it came from. Yeah, and it would make sense to come out of Ireland because maybe they were doing stuff like that way back in the day. Lots of milk, yeah. A lot of cream and stuff. That's they used it, yeah. And that that fat and everything else that had the benefits of the cream back way back in the day, then the benefits of of the spirit, you know. Maybe, maybe not.

SPEAKER_03 40:27

No, I think I think that's fair. And it's I think cream is a good it's a good cover-up. So in terms of like having a crappy booze locomotion that you can that you need to sell and get rid of, and and it's a good way of covering up that bad flavor.

SPEAKER_02 40:45

I will say I feel like Chris and I have had our our fair share of bourbon cream, like variety of bourbon cream from different companies.

SPEAKER_01 40:54

From different companies, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:55

Buffalo Trace is probably the big name brand that does it well. Yeah, they do theirs very, very well. They like you said, they cover up that bourbon flavor very well. I think they use good bourbon as well, which helps. Beam used to have one back in like the 70s. They used to have their bourbon cream, they stopped doing it for a while and then they brought it back two, three years ago, maybe. Um, it's not as good.

SPEAKER_03 41:21

Like it's good, but it's not as good. Beam also makes theirs a little bit difference. Yes. And so because they use a another liqueur inside of it. And so it's uh I almost think it's like a vanilla liqueur, maybe or something like that. It's uh Jim Beam. Yeah, they have they have Jim Beam in there, but then they also have this other liqueur and then the cream.

SPEAKER_01 41:41

Benchmark has its own, which is also technically Buffalo Trace. Uh, and there's a few other ones. I had one a year or two ago. Do you remember what that one was? Laura got it for me.

SPEAKER_02 41:52

Oh, uh I can picture it's it's Ezra Brooks. Ezra Brooks, yeah. I was gonna say Luxro, Ezra Brooks has theirs. Um, but then it's either mixed with something or it it it doesn't come across as pure and as friendly, right? Buffalo Trace has definitely it's the Baileys of Bourbon Cream. Yeah, they've they've kind of cornered that market, and I think everyone else is now trying to figure out how do I do that? Like I'm not better bourbon, I like it's it's it's it's almost like they're not it's just not proud of it, they just don't care. Like it's not gonna bourbon drinkers don't really go after bourbon cream, so it's not meant for their normal audience, but they've also realized, like you said, the profit margin's probably pretty high. Yeah, so now they want to try to figure out how do they how do they get into that market, right? And they really struggle with that because you either got smooth or you've got craft local, like something that's a bit more proofy and you're gonna taste that good quality, or we got ones that's kind of like we used really crappy stuff, and now we have to mix it with other things to try to make it worth it, you know, bottom of the barrel kind of thing.

SPEAKER_03 43:05

Yeah, I think uh Bailey or uh Buffalo Trace, their their labeling and everything, it it kind of reminds me a little bit of Bailey's, like it's kind of going fairly plain.

SPEAKER_01 43:15

The bottle shape is very Bailey's.

SPEAKER_03 43:18

So I think that that's the reason their look they just looks like it does. It's because they're trying to do it. The American Bailey's Bailey's uh Jameis Middleton, right? Yeah, yeah. I think it's Middleton's Middleton. Yep. I'm surprised that the bar bourbon creams don't have more flashy labels. Because I feel like I feel like the people buying bourbon cream is the grandma who wants to have an alcohol in the house for Christmas. You know, not a drinker necessarily, but somebody in the family is gonna like it. And so instead of beer, this is our holiday beer.

SPEAKER_01 43:53

And see, even Middle West, I like their bottle because it's that like it's that white crop. Almost rock looking, but even that is not what you're describing. And you're right. I think you could go more Christmas flashy and people would even buy it even more.

SPEAKER_03 44:09

Like more like the Cleveland Christmas, like the trees and the lights and like the thing. Yeah, why not? I was gonna say Journeymen has their label, though, is actually more of like a Route 66.

SPEAKER_01 44:26

It is very kind of 1950s uh malt malt uh uh malt shop malt shop with hamburgers and uh going to the drive-in.

SPEAKER_03 44:38

Yeah, and even the label there has like the marquee lights around it and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 44:42

It's that blue with the cream and the it looks like white wall tires on a Corvette. Yeah, yeah. And so uh and I like that, but it it is very American 50s, right?

SPEAKER_03 44:53

Yeah, and it's even called American Holiday, and so it's it's not, and if you read the back on it, it is taking a holiday, like taking a break. And so I think they're leaning more into Americana all year, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 45:07

This is uh because they put this out all year, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:09

Now the colors are Christmasy, but it can pass for all year round. You could just as well open that on the fourth of July. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 45:18

And this is uh off topic-ish. But one thing that Chris has always said that yeah, one thing that Chris has always said and appreciated is the handwriting on bottles. Like you can tell that Journeyman's is very small batch, very craft. Because unlike the bourbon cream for Buffalo Trace, they've got which batch number this is, and you've got batch number three. Batch number three, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:43

Not to boast, but this is batch number three, guys. It's good too. I like it. The more I drink it, the more I like it.

SPEAKER_02 45:51

But again, I think we're talking about an audience, two different audiences. We're we're talking the bourbon cream is like you said, it's for the grandmother. It's it's the it's the mom that wants to have something there for her kids to enjoy. It's not journeymen's journeyman's.

SPEAKER_01 46:06

You have a couple of the bottles or glasses of this.

SPEAKER_02 46:08

I actually could sit down and drink like more of it. Yeah, I could say because this is this doesn't fall into the background. Like this is a white noise.

SPEAKER_01 46:16

That's white noise, like it's not clawingly sweet and creamy either. It's a little thinner, yeah. And I I feel like uh it's more of a drink that I could consume.

SPEAKER_02 46:26

And it's not that proofy compared to but it's proof of your like it's got it's got the extra edge. Yeah, you can tell, okay, I'm drinking some bourbon right in this.

SPEAKER_01 46:37

If I drink enough of this, you know what I'm gonna get a holiday buzz, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 46:42

Maybe but but at least it makes you think you might, you know what I mean? Whereas the bourbon cream, you'd get sick to your stomach before you'd get any sort of, you know, or maybe the average drinker wouldn't have that issue, but like we would all be sick to our stomach.

SPEAKER_02 46:56

I would be I wouldn't be able to do that. No, that would be gross. Bourbon cream, the Buffalo Trace is like I could drink it like milk in a tall glass. And I don't know that I'd like to say I would I wouldn't think anything of it. This I I I don't think I could do journeyman's in a tall glass like I would milk.

SPEAKER_01 47:15

This one you know you're drinking something with alcohol. But it's good, uh they're both good. Do you think it has its place within the bourbon world?

SPEAKER_03 47:24

I think that uh I think that you could switch out the alcohol for any other whiskey and it would accomplish a very similar thing. Like I don't know that bourbon is the thing that's making this what it is, other than the fact that we need an American version and American's bourbon. So therefore bourbon.

SPEAKER_01 47:42

Did we need it though? I don't think enough. I think I think you're right. I don't think I think the idea of I don't think enough uh bourbon has gone into it for it to be like, oh, this bourbon needs to be used. Yeah. Um, but I think the idea of what bourbon is, along with the idea of what like a cream beverage is go together.

SPEAKER_04 48:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 48:01

I just don't know if there's enough bourbon in there to be like, oh, it needs to be bourbon. Like could this be yeah, Irish? Well, yeah, I'll look at Bailey's, you know what I mean? Could this be something else? Probably. But it's an American cream we've got now. Yeah. I I'd like to try a rye version. I don't know, they've never done that. But uh journeyman would be the people to do it, and I want it to be rye forward. I wanted this to be for like this is like more of a cocktail cocktail, you know what I mean? That would be kind of cool. I don't know if it'd be good or not, but I think I think it'd be cool. Yeah, worth trying. Journeyman if you're listening. Why wouldn't you? And they're already the rye king. Right. Exactly. But yeah, I don't I think it's got its place to answer your question, Nick. I think it's got its place in the I wouldn't even say whiskey, uh, the cocktail, the spirit world, the alcoholic beverage world. I mean, doesn't Manhattan have its place? You bet your ass. So does bourbon cream, right? I mean, a white Russian's got its place.

SPEAKER_03 48:55

I think that this is uh I think they're they're playing marketing by keeping it only for Christmas. I think you could have it all year round, especially like the Journeyman one, which is available all year round. This one, because it's more eggnoggy, you just kind of feel or more noggy, you kind of feel more Christmassy because of that. But I think you could cut back on the nutmeg and have it all year round.

SPEAKER_02 49:18

Speaking of uh Christmas, with this being a holiday episode, we uh we normally talk traditions, like different traditions each year. Do you guys have a tradition for drink? Like, do you have to have eggnog? Do you have to have like a certain kind of drink there at Christmas time for it to be Christmas for you?

SPEAKER_03 49:36

Uh I don't know that there's a drink that like has to be there, but I I generally do drink eggnog on Christmas Day. I like eggnog, so I like it. I'm one of the only ones in my family that likes eggnog, so I'm usually the only one drinking it.

SPEAKER_02 49:52

Now, is it eggnog, like alcoholic eggnog, or like the eggnog you can get at the store that's like just uh if I get it from the store, just regular stuff, I I usually add alcohol to it.

SPEAKER_03 50:03

I I usually don't buy the pre-made alcohol eggnogs. I'll just buy my own, uh just a regular eggnog and then add add some whiskey to it. And I usually use maker's mark. Uh that's just kind of uh it's it's just a good kind of basic one. I've never done that. I've never actually added alcohol to eggnog. Oh no?

SPEAKER_02 50:24

I was gonna say I've never had an alcoholic eggnog.

SPEAKER_03 50:27

Like I said, I've never bought the pre-made ones. Uh I I figure if I did, I would still be adding more alcohol to them anyway, because there probably isn't enough in there to make it because I want the journeyman version. I want the I want to taste the alcohol. So I think if I bought the you know, the Jim Beam or Evan Williams eggnog that's out there, it probably wouldn't be what I wanted.

SPEAKER_01 50:49

I'd end up adding to it anyway. See, growing up, I was a really big eggnog guy. Um, and I feel like the last couple years, not so much, but there was something about this year um that I was craving it real bad. And uh the day before Thanksgiving, I wanted it. And it was like you we couldn't find it. So we ended up waiting. Laura ended up getting a bottle of it like a couple days ago. It's funny, she actually got a Southern Comfort eggnog, but it's non-alcoholic. I don't even get what that's about. Uh but she just picked it up because it was the only one there, because it's not quite Christmas yet. But I don't know what it was. I was craving it so bad uh that I I opened it yesterday and poured me and the boys a couple glasses of it. But I was like, it it's so good. I don't remember being that thick though. Yeah, I don't know if I like how thick it is. I I think it needs to be a little bit thinner, just because I want to like drink it maybe faster than I should. I don't know. But it is good. It's funny that you mentioned that about eggnog because growing up, I was the only one that drank it in the house. Yeah, and I always loved it. But for the last couple years, uh I'd say for the last like 10 years or so, I really, or even more, I haven't really drank it or wanted to drink it, but we've had bourbon cream and stuff, but I've not thought like eggnog. I need eggnog, yeah. But it is effing good. If you haven't had eggnog in a while, um it's that's it's what we don't have here, that egg-y in the like eggnog. It's very much what makes it that thick. Yeah, it's the texture of it.

SPEAKER_02 52:14

Custard, yeah, the custard. See, we never growing up, uh we never had the eggnog during Christmas. It wasn't it wasn't a Christmas thing. I don't know why. I don't know how the tradition started, but every year on Black Friday, we go, we we go cut down our own Christmas tree. So we always get up early, go have breakfast, go cut down a Christmas tree. And one of these years, I don't know why. My my dad being a boy, maybe, and having three boys, like this sounds like fun, decided to get two half-gallon jugs of eggnog. And what turned into the tradition was every year he gets a half-gallon jug of eggnog. We don't have glasses or anything, we just drink straight out of the jug as we're going to get the Christmas tree. Pass it around, just pass it around in the car, and that's what you you drink it then. It's not a Christmas thing, it's just like a that's a Christmas quote unquote Christmas tradition because you're cutting down a Christmas tree kind of thing, but that's that's how I'd grow up with eggnog. You just drank it straight out of the jug.

SPEAKER_03 53:18

I would say for my Christmas drink, it's hot chocolate. And I don't know if that's the the the kidness of Christmas, but like I usually don't drink coffee in the morning on Christmas Day. I drink hot chocolate instead.

SPEAKER_00 53:33

I love that about this too. I could just see that sitting in his pajamas with his legs crossed and like whipped dial.

SPEAKER_02 53:41

I was gonna ask if it was whipped cream or marshmallows.

SPEAKER_01 53:43

That's a good thing to have. I might do that this year for the for the boys, just because that's a good memory to have like big old hot chocolate with whipped with whipped cream or marshmallows or whatever.

SPEAKER_03 53:52

Like I said, I think I think it's it's going back to being a kid and stuff, like as my parents didn't drink coffee, so we didn't have coffee in the house at all. So, because of that, like hot chocolate was the only hot beverage that we had. Um, because our tea was always iced.

SPEAKER_01 54:08

Be sure to drink your oval teen.

SPEAKER_03 54:12

So chocolate, chocolate or chocolate milk, hot chocolate, that kind of all. Do you have like Nestle's or oval team or whatever? Uh we we would buy Nestle usually. Yep. Yep. Um, as I've gotten older, uh I usually think that those kind of get too sweet. So I won't use a whole packet a lot of times. Um and I will it for later on in the day, I'll add, I'll I'll throw a shot of whiskey and the hot chocolate too. And that's always really good. Um, but when I was growing up, every time when we stayed in my grandma's house, uh my my grandma and my grandpa didn't go to the restaurant together for breakfast. Uh they went to the same restaurant every day for breakfast, but they went at separate times. My grandpa went earlier and he would sit at the bar, and this was this was when I was a kid, so we're in the 90s. Yeah. Uh, so there's still smoking sections. My grandpa was a smoker. So we would go to the bar and he would sit there with his war buddies and talk about stuff and and drink coffee. And me and my cousin Joe, if any of if we stayed the night, we went with grandpa and sat at the bar and had hot chocolate. And then my sister or any of the girls went with grandma a little bit later on, which went to the restaurant part, and they'd go over there and talk with the ladies, and all the ladies ate in there together.

SPEAKER_02 55:30

Why did they go separate?

SPEAKER_03 55:32

Different times of day.

SPEAKER_01 55:33

I don't really know. That and uh when you've been married 40 years, you start doing things like you start doing things like that when you've been married that long. That's how you stay married.

SPEAKER_03 55:43

But it seemed like everyone in this town did that because a lot of the because all the ladies were together for breakfast there, and their husbands weren't there, so they didn't so either they the husbands left early or or whatever, or they came early and sat with my grandpa.

SPEAKER_01 56:01

I think you know you're also talking about a generation uh where they grew up separated pretty often. Look, there was boys this and girls that, and right, and it really that time there was a lot of the men went here and the women went here.

SPEAKER_03 56:16

And and during these breakfasts, there was lots of talking. Yeah, there wasn't a lot of like sitting around, like it was they were they were talking about the news of the day. And I don't think grandpa was real interested in what grandma and the ladies were talking about. That's yeah, there's that, yeah. And and vice versa, and and vice versa, yeah. So because of that, I think they went separate just because they like they had friends, which was also something that's different about the time.

SPEAKER_01 56:42

That thing, you know, at the end of the day, it's the the guys because we still do stuff like you get a little big party together, the guys end up in the garage or something around the back, and then the girls are all sitting around like the living room or the kitchen. It naturally happens, it just naturally happens that way. But it's because conversations are different, you're right. Guys aren't gonna sit around and talk about, you know. Did you hear what happened with Becky and quilting, whatever it was? So quilting, yeah, back in the day, quilting and pet petticoats and petticoat junctions and all that.

SPEAKER_03 57:11

Yeah, so because of like hot chocolate holds a special place in my childhood, and so I like that.

SPEAKER_01 57:16

I think because of that, Christmas time brings that out. Our tradition now, uh, we've done this for the past god how long, Nick. Long time. We um me and Nick are uh drinking scotch or yeah, with liquor of something usually scotch while we open presents and stuff. Like that's just what we do. I mean, we open, we will open a bottle uh as we're eating, like we're getting ready to sit down and uh everybody's pouring coffee. We uh not not that we're like getting drunk or anything, but we we will start drinking our because we usually have a bottle uh that we drink on Christmas. A new bottle that we've we try to get something that we neither one of us have ever had, and uh we open it up right then, like first thing in the morning.

SPEAKER_02 57:57

But yeah, that has become the the tradition.

SPEAKER_01 57:59

It's the tradition. We've done it for a long time at this point, long, long time.

SPEAKER_02 58:02

We have. I think it started randomly because uh we had Bob and Rosemary's old house. I don't know if you remember the Toledo in Toledo, and uh I think it was decided we uh I think at one point we haven't done for a while now, um, because the girls were like, we can't do this again. The guys had the guys and the girls had the girls, like that's the gifts that we got. The gifts, yeah. Yeah, and uh and so all of us guys got each other bottles of something.

SPEAKER_00 58:28

That is what happened, you're right. We all got boosted we all got boos for each other, yeah. But yeah, but yeah, you're right. And we all opened it right there. You're like, oh, let's try this.

SPEAKER_02 58:37

I think that's how it got started. We're like, let's just do this every year, then you're right.

SPEAKER_01 58:40

And then ever since then, it wasn't the guys versus the girls.

SPEAKER_02 58:43

No, I think the girls decided uh we should probably make it random. Yeah, you're right. It was all bottles, it was all bottles, and Bob got us, I think it was that year, he also got us a bottle of lemon cello.

SPEAKER_01 58:56

Oh, he did. You're right. You got lemon cello. I think he also gave us a couple cigars. I think that's how that tradition started. You're right. I forgot about that. That is how it started. But ever since then, ever since then, man, it's uh and it's always usually a scotch. Yeah, I don't remember last time it wasn't a scotch.

SPEAKER_02 59:12

I don't either.

SPEAKER_01 59:13

If it's ever not been a scotch, honestly.

SPEAKER_02 59:16

Because it just goes perfect on Christmas Day. I don't know. It's it's hardy, maybe you know, like cold.

SPEAKER_01 59:21

Thanksgiving, it's not a like we usually open something on Thanksgiving, but it's not always sc you know, yeah, it could be anything, but for Christmas it's scotch usually.

SPEAKER_02 59:30

My family was never big in like holiday drinks. Like I said, eggnog wasn't Christmas thing, but we always had like a holiday meal. Me, like we had like three meals on Christmas Day kind of thing. And it was like my parents would go all out of like, we're having breakfast, but we're also grilling stuff for breakfast, and we're we're gonna have this or that, like it's an all-out thing, kind of over the fire we'll cook. So it's not like anything to drink, it's more food. It's more food, like stuff your face with it.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:00

We did um, we would do uh like Christmas cookies, like specific. So, what we would actually did growing up a lot of times is we had our own gingerbread contest. You know how we do that now? Oh, yeah, we did that in our house. Um, but what would you do is that morning, because by one would make really good quality gingerbreads and stuff, we would use quality ingredients. So that morning when we ate open presents, we would have coffee because we were coffee drinkers. Um, even the like little ones, like five. Like I started drinking black coffee at five. Like that's just what we did in that house. Like we all drank coffee. It was never like you can't have that. It was at how you want another cup, you know, here you go. Um, but we would drink coffee and we would eat our gingerbread that we made, or gingerbread man.

unknown 1:00:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:44

We didn't do houses, we did men.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:47

Um, so that's what we would, that's what we would have. But then for lunch and dinner, it was snack day. So we would make dips, rotel dips, and all those different different types of dips, and we would have all my mom's baked goods, but she would make a crap load. Um, and then we would have shrimp and like shrimp cocktail, we would have any like finger food you can think of. We made all of it. And then we would have it spread out, and we would just kind of like what do you call that? Graze all day. We would just graze on it with the Christmas movies plan. That's all we would do. We and we wouldn't have like a traditional meal, we would just eat throughout the day.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:28

That's what we do for New Year's. We call it our Apathon. Apathon? I like it. It's always just appetizers or sugar fan. I love that, dude. But for Christmas, for us, our Christmas was always weird growing up because we opened presents like immediate family mom, dad, my sister, on Christmas Eve, not on Christmas Day. Yeah. But my mom always worked on Christmas Eve, so she got off at noon. So because of that, we would go to lunch with my dad. And when we came back, the presents were there. So Santa came in the middle of the day on New Year's Eve.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:04

Conveniently when you're when your mom came home from work.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:07

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:09

That's funny.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:10

Well, did you go to a specific place for lunch or did you mix it up?

SPEAKER_03 1:02:13

It was usually like Wendy's or something, like it wasn't anything fancy, it was just you know, fast food or something. Um, the problem with it was when we were kids, is we figured out that when we went to lunch and we came back, presents were there. So suddenly we wanted to go to lunch at like 9 a.m.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:28

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:29

I love that.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:30

It's like I love it how it's like it's not a time. We're not even open, but yeah. It's the fact that we're leaving and Santa has to wait till we leave. So he goes, that we just gotta leave as early as possible. And so dad would have to like hold us back until as close to so we'd end up going to Wendy's for like an hour and a half.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:47

I never realized until like this year why we even do all that Santa stuff. Like uh, like, well, I mean, obviously I knew why you did it, but like the whole you better watch out. You bet so and when you have kids, you use that. I'd never used it till this year. But say Henry's been asking questions about Santa and stuff and naughty list this and naughty list that. And you I could see the worry in his face a little bit. It's like the other day he was acting up, and I'm like, hey, dude, does Santa want you to be naughty or nice? Nice. I was like, What do you what happens if you're naughty? He was like, You get put on the list. And I was like, Yeah, dude, do you want presents or not? Like, you need to knock it off. And he was like, Okay, dad, okay. You you think he you think he knows that I'm gonna be okay? I was like, You tell me, dude. I don't know. In my head, I'm thinking, holy crap, no wonder, no wonder.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:34

This is fantastic. I mean, you can use it for the whole month of December, like, and that's worth it.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:39

Like, that's worth all of it. It's such a creepy song, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:42

It is creepy until you use it in the right, and then you're like, Oh, this is great.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:46

Like, he sees you when you're sleeping, so get get to bed, you know. He knows when you're awake, you stay in bed, right? Like, like whoever wrote that was definitely a parent. Like, I'm gonna come up with this whole thing, and uh it's gonna work out for my benefit for at least a month and a half because you could really start it around Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:04

Like, see, my my family was big into stockings. So you talk about you guys went out for lunch and you're crit and sino would come and give you all the gifts and put it on the tree. Stockings are huge for my mom for some reason. They are for rosemary, too. Yeah, she loves like I like the stocking, goes all out for stockings, right? And so as a kid, we learned mom always asks when we're going to bed so that she can prep for laying out the stockings. And as the family got bigger and bigger, it took longer and longer to do. Well, in high school, we've we kind of figured this out, you know. We we wanted to see, like, well, if we stay up long enough and mom doesn't know, she would always put it on the steps leading up to our bedroom. Like, we can walk up the steps and we can see what we have. Like, we we could have find out before anyone else what's in the stockings. And so we try to stay up longer and longer and longer, and it never worked. Because my mom would always check, like, you guys going to bed, you guys going to bed. We'd have to go to bed before she'd actually pull out the stockings and and take care of that. Yeah, and she still does that, like, that's that's her thing, like stockings, but only when people are in bed, yeah, then I will do the stockings. You can't fool the parents with that.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:14

I don't know why. Our Christmas Day was full of travel. So I was going to my dad's mom and grandma. That's there. We had uh breakfast pizza. She would make a breakfast pizza. Gravy? Uh yes, there's a little bit of gravy on there, eggs. Was it white or brown? Uh white gravy.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:32

That's what I'm talking about. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:33

White gravy, and then a uh a bacon one and a sausage one. Brown gravy. So a bacon one and a sausage one, and then uh and baked apples. Baked apples were the thing. And whole or cubed up. They were cubed up, and she made it every year, and and it was it's by far my favorite thing. And this is uh, well, she she passed last November, so it's it's been a year now. And uh I Have tried to make it multiple times. Like since I moved away from home, I've tried to make it, and I have her recipe, but I can never get the consistency right because she uses uh tapioca pearls in the liquid, and so because of that, it like jellifies it a little bit, but she doesn't have a measurement, she has like cover the bottom, and I tried covering the bottom and I got jello, like it was really thick, and then I tried less, and then it was really soupy, and I I I have yet to figure out the consistency or the placement of it because if you if you if there's too many in a corner, then that spot ends up real jelly, and so because it's a it's in like a casserole dish. And so there, yeah, you have to get the placement of it right. I get I have yet to make it the way she made it.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:48

You gotta keep working on it, Steve.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:50

If it was easy, it wouldn't have been that quickly. And I have her recipe, I have the same thing, but but she didn't use it. That's the problem. She didn't use it.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:57

She went by uh by feel.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:59

Exactly. There's no measurements on any of her stuff, but yeah, so that was always our that was our our breakfast. Lunch, we went to my grandma Snyder's, my mom's mom, and would have lunch there. And it was usually just something small, just little sandwiches or whatever else. And then back to Grandma Hyman's for dinner, where uh the extended family, her other two sons and their families came to grandma's and we had open presents there then. So in the morning there was no presents, it was just breakfast. Afternoon presents with grandma's breakfast, right? Afternoon, open presents with grandma on mom's side, and then evening back to grandma hymen's for opening presents with everybody there. Now, luckily they're all in the same town, so like it wasn't like a ton of travel, but still.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:42

You know what's uh a dish that really is not uh made often anymore is baked apples. I remember when you mentioned, I was like, you know what? Growing up, we used to we used to have baked apples, like but we'd do it whole. Yeah, yeah. Like my my mom would cut up the center of it and peel it and then put it, you know, bake it that way. And I remember that. Yeah, but I don't know why it ever stopped.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:03

Yeah, yeah, they're they're not near as popular anymore. And the way my grandma made them, like they were they were sliced up and the skin was off, and like you know, so but uh yeah, I've had other people where they've they've corded out and put all this stuff inside of it and everything, which those are great. I I do enjoy those. Um, but yeah, uh, I but you don't get those very often anymore.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:24

Yeah, Crackle Barrel has uh baked apples, but but that's like the only place I can think of that still doesn't like bold peanuts, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:31

Nobody knows what those are, man. I I'm craving some bold peanuts. Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:36

I've never enjoyed boiled peanuts. I haven't either.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:39

You remember when we were driving and we could have gotten some and then we didn't? Yes. Well, that was gotten it. It was sketchy, but ever since I saw that, I was like, man, because I grew up eating those. I mean, that's a southern thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:49

Um and in true southern fashion, it was in a gas station and it was kind of like in a crock pot and salt served.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:55

And I almost then we were like, man, I probably should. I don't want to like have the bruns. I didn't want to have the shit driving at 14 hours. But I was like, oh man, I they had Cajun ones too. And I was like, ooh, damn, I really want to eat these. But uh I haven't had any in a long time. And Laura's never had them. And I was talking to a guy the other day that made who was making his own bowl of peanuts, and uh, we were both like reminiscing about it. And Laura was like, I gotta I want to try these. And I was like, Yeah, they're they're good. They're people don't really you shell and all, you just that's how you do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:25

That's why uh that's why I don't really like it. But I also had a co-worker. I was probably when I was in high school, I had a coworker that was from the I'm pretty sure he was from like Louisiana, like it very thick, like southern accent, very, very southern guy. He would always have a can of boiled peanuts at his work still, like his workbench, and that's what he would eat as like a snack. And I tried it once and I was like, this is this is disgusting. I don't want this. It might have just been his. It could have been his.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:57

Yeah, you gotta the one at the the sketchy ones probably were good. They probably were they just can't not be sketchy looking, you know what I mean? Like, I don't know if you guys remember this off a little off topic. Well, it's on we're on the food topic now, people. Just deal with deal with our segues, right? Um it I was living in Tennessee at the time, so I don't know if this was a Tennessee only thing or if this was everywhere, but there was a time where Arby's had venison biscuits.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:22

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:23

Do you remember this?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:24

They they did it for like a hot second here. It was very short.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:28

So good. And I would eat these all the time. Uh I we'd get up when I used to paint how uh cabins in Gatlinburg for the summer. That's what was my stubborn job. And in the morning, I'd get up and we'd go to Arby's and we'd get I'd get two venison biscuits. And it was like good quality biscuits, like homemade biscuit quality with a venison, like steak venison inside, like regular old venison. And that was it. There was like no cheese, no sauce, no nothing, but it was just probably butter, you know what I mean? But it was oh man, it was hardy too. Like you'd eat this and you'd like two of those things, and you were like stuffed.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:00

Arby's was always underrated, in my opinion. Because back in the day when they were when they were like kind of new and fresher, all their stuff was good quality, like good quality, fresh.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:11

It's still expensive compared to some other fast food things out there, but you're right, it was even more real food.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:18

Yes, and it's price tag. It was it was pricier.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:21

Yeah, my my problem with Arby's is it's never been something I can I can eat and drive because I'm I'm a real big fan of that Arby sauce, and I'm gonna be I'm gonna be saucing every bite.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:32

And I'm a horseradish guy, and they have horseradish sauce. So, like, hell yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:37

Yeah, the horsey sauce that they have, yeah. That's what I'm talking about. So, yeah, so like I can't have it well, like I haven't gonna have to stop and eat inside uh with them. So, because I just don't get it very often.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:46

See, that's what I I don't eat fast food anymore for all the the gluten stuff. When I used to, the best thing is you get it through the drive-thru. Uh-huh. And then you eat in the comfort of your yeah, you eat in the comfort of your own car while you listen to your audiobook, and when you're done, you light your pipe up. Yeah, that is like that was always like my go-to thing. I'd spend like an hour in an Arby's parking lot by myself because you can, you know what I mean? It's great.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:09

Like, but I I have always loved their curly fries. Yeah. Oh, yeah, the fries. Curly fries are that's where I can't eat Arby's in the car because I have to get their cheese. They can get their cheese cups, and I always have to have the Arby's curly fries with the cheese cup. Yeah, and I have to dunk those two things. I I can't no good by the ketchup doesn't work for those fries. There's nothing else other than that cheese and the horsey sauce.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:35

Yeah, I think for the fries? Yeah, so I do like cheese, cheese, horsey, cheese, cheese, horsey. Two cheese bites, one horsey bite, and the back of the cheese. Breaks it up. It's fantastic. Yeah. Oh yeah, dude. Those fries are, and then you get some some that were massive. Like you're like straight.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:54

You're like, this would be the biggest thing in the world.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:00

This thing is burning really well. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:03

White ash, fine white ash. And I have not had a trouble keeping it lit. No. And uh the only thing is you do have to ash it. There's some pipes where you don't. This one you do, because it burns so well that you have to dump it, dump it out.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:15

Um is it the moisture content?

SPEAKER_01 1:13:17

Because you said it was uh it's it's not it's not too wet, it's not too dry, it's uh I think it's burning really well. It is it's a very enjoyable smoke. Yeah, I remember this is gonna burn all the way to the bottom of the bowl.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:29

Yes, yeah with no problem. Yeah, I had very little left at the bottom uh when I when I dumped it there. So yeah, that was uh that was a very enjoyable pipe to talk about Christmas with.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:41

I'm excited. I like opening up new new tins on the cast. Yeah, on the podcast. On the cast. On the cast. Open up a new tin on the cast, popping tins.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:53

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:54

Yeah, I like it, man. I'm glad that uh I just uh saw some the other day. I was like, I haven't tried this, I haven't tried that, and we need to start. And then today, I mean that just seemed like the that would ring the bell for this, uh for the bourbon creams, which have been fantastic. Something I never thought we would do.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:10

I didn't think so.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:11

It was a good idea.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:12

It was well worth it.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:13

Well, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas and happy holidays, and happy Hanukkah Blake. I hope Blake is listening.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:19

All right, all see you next time.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:30

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