Ole Smoky Salted Watermelon!

SPEAKER_03 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

So, uh folks, this might be the first time that Chris is not on the podcast. Uh, period, I think. We're starting. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

I got you. Steve was like looking at me like, what's going on? He wasn't on our trip to interview uh over in uh St. Louis. St.

SPEAKER_04 0:49

Louis. Yeah, that's right. He wasn't there for that one either. So he's missed uh one interview and then this guy. And he might be missing uh sometime down the road when he has another kid. Something about kids. Yeah, I guess. Whole pregnancy thing. Same lame lame reason. But uh and and in replace of him, we we've got our friend, good friend Ryan back on the podcast. We're uh we're starting a new interesting series. Yeah, this is this is a curveball. This this is a curveball. Uh, I've been wanting to do this series for a while. We just ended our bourbon 101 series, and I think this is perfect to go after bourbon 101. We are doing flavored whiskey.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

If you need a uh an 09 series, on the before the 101 is pre-rec. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_04 1:42

Yeah. Yeah. Have you guys really gotten into flavored whiskey before? Basically none at all. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:48

All right. I don't I don't think I've had outside of crown. Outside of crown. And I've never willingly gone for that.

SPEAKER_02 1:58

So yeah, I I mean I I mean I've had the you know the the honey, a couple honey whiskies and you know, uh a few things like that here and there. And uh I've I've had a taste of a a majority of the lineup from the distillery we're gonna talk about first here, because I've I went on vacation where they where they have been. But no, I mean I wouldn't say that this is like what I gravitate toward. There's yeah, I I feel a little bit conflicted, but we can get more into that more later. But like it's not that I don't like the flavors, but I do have a sweet tooth. I I admit that. So I like desserts and candy and different things, but I I I get some I have some conflicting feelings.

SPEAKER_03 2:53

Yeah, I just and I will qualify my previous answer. I kind of forgot about like all like the like the honeys and like those kind of the foolproof flavored stuff. I've I think I've had a decent amount of the honey options, so I I kind of forgot about those. I I've had fireball and I despise it.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

But you can call that flavored. That's it's like I don't like cinnamon flavors, chemical, you know. Of course, I don't like it, but I'm not real big on cinnamon either, but a light touch is nice. Yeah, and I I have enjoyed Fireball in a cup of cider, yeah, you know, something like that, as like a little just if it's in a cocktail, I think I think a lot of this kind of stuff kind of shines in that way.

SPEAKER_04 3:35

Like kind of a mixer kind of deal. Yeah, that's fair. I get that. And I I think there's such a um there's like I guess two trains of thought. You got the the guys that are like despise flavored whiskey because it's not all yeah, it's not real, it's not all natural, it's not the real stuff, you know. But then you got those that are like, I love you're like, you like whiskey? Oh, I love whiskey. I love my fireball.

SPEAKER_02 3:58

Well, we we just need more categories for people, you know. Coffee drinkers are the same way. There's some people out there, you pour some cream in that in the coffee, and they're like, You're not a coffee drinker. Right. It's like, okay, dude, I never said I was. I mean, like I hinted towards it, I guess, but not that. I like candy, I like uh coffee-flavored candy, okay? Like, just make a separate category. I won't step on your toes by claiming to be a coffee guy. But but like, give me some space, you know, to like the thing I like, you know. So yeah, there's the hardcore. Like, if you don't like it black or neat or whatever, or or barrel-proof, then uh if it's not taking the paint off the siding, then you're not a real. And I don't have a lot of uh yeah, I don't I don't really like that approach. That feels too like exclusionary, exclusionary and like snotty, yeah, like just pretentious. Pretentious and uh all all the things that I don't like. I I I approach I try to approach this stuff more with a spirit of connoisseurship than uh than snobbiness. But I'm in I'm in danger of violating my principles right now. But we haven't we haven't even tasted our tasted, we haven't even said what we're having.

SPEAKER_03 5:28

Uh sorry, that was all preliminary. This is Old Smoky, which is pr probably the most I don't know if it's the most, but but definitely up there in terms of flavored whiskies that people would know. It is the most visited distillery, really, and yeah, by like a long shot because it's in Gallenburg, which I mean there's a you know, there's four million plus people that go through there every summer. And so it's just that's the place for it. I don't know if they count just that location or all of their locations, because they technically have have four distilleries with a fifth one opening this year.

unknown 6:09

Really?

SPEAKER_03 6:10

Or next year, yeah. So so I don't know if that counts all of them or just their their main original one in Gatlinburg. Well, but in they have like I technically have two in Gatlinburg.

SPEAKER_02 6:23

I'm gonna say like two or three different tasting rooms on the strip.

SPEAKER_03 6:26

Yeah, yep. Well, there's so there's their main place in Gatlinburg, they have uh like a barrel aging place in Gatlinburg. Barrel aging? Yeah, because they do they do make their own, and so they have that there, and then in Pigeon Forge on the other side there, they have another one. And so they have like three of them in that area.

SPEAKER_04 6:46

Did they are they the ones that do the moonshine, like the flavored moonshine? Yeah, okay. All right, like the weird pickle flavored moonshine, like the weird like cookie dough kind of thing.

SPEAKER_03 6:55

Yeah, okay, all right. Them, and there's another brand that's also like right there that does something like that too. Yeah, was it the sweet it's uh sweet baby rays?

SPEAKER_02 7:07

Let me pull it up here. It's uh Sugarlands. Sugarland. Yeah, yeah, there we go. Yep. I went to both of those places.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

Yeah, I went to Gatlinberg, I saw them. I didn't go in just because there was a really long line, and that was the only reason I didn't go through it.

SPEAKER_04 7:21

This brings up an interesting topic for me then. Question as we get into this, yeah, because there's that train of thought that this is like the introductory, like friendly whiskey to get into. Is it whiskey though? You know, that's that's like a big question. Like, is it whiskey? And then the question of well, why? Why why do people go after this? Like there's flavored vodka. Why don't people go after flavored vodka like they do flavored whiskey? You know what I mean? Like, what's the draw to this kind of idea? There's not much history on this guy, I'm assuming.

SPEAKER_03 7:57

There is basically none.

SPEAKER_04 7:58

Yeah, it's like they just started up out of nowhere, but people go crazy.

SPEAKER_03 8:01

It is, it was started like by I couldn't even find a name of the person to do it. Uh, and I don't think is this or no, yeah, yeah. This is Joe Baker. And so that's there's another one I couldn't even find a name of a founder. This one has a Joe Baker guy. I found no history on Joe Baker. I don't know who this guy is, other than he is from this area. He uh went on to law school, became a lawyer for a while, and then had the money and decided to start this up. He it did become the first, one of the first distilleries in Tennessee uh after that started after Prohibition.

SPEAKER_04 8:44

And they started in 2010.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

They start in 2010 because it just became legal in 2009. No, yeah, and so there there was some legal stuff that had to pass. And so in 2009, some laws changed that allow new distilleries to open up. And that's just in Gatlinburg? In in Tennessee. So, like you had your pre-prohibition people that have already opened, they were fine. There was some sort of a new a law saying no new ones could open up. It might have been a quantity limit that made it like smaller distilleries couldn't open. Whatever the thing was, there's there's legal issues that didn't allow any new distilleries to open up in Tennessee. Is that area that conservative? I mean, Tennessee is generally a pretty conservative set country, state. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

My country is the average of their own business. This is number one, guys. I still couldn't manage couldn't manage a state.

SPEAKER_03 9:38

Uh I was without a sip. And like there's a lot of dry counties in Tennessee and stuff, so yeah. And I mean, most places had things like I mean, even in Ohio, you didn't you couldn't have the micro distilleries at that time. It wasn't until like 2014, I think, is when Watershed lobbied enough to get it in Ohio. So yeah, it fascinates me. I don't know why. I just so they were the first post-prohibition distillery to open up that wasn't already open. Sounds like a baseball statistic, right?

SPEAKER_04 10:20

But really does. Interesting. And so from 2010, we we really take off to now 2025, where we've got salted watermelon uh flavored.

SPEAKER_03 10:33

Salted watermelon. Salted watermelon. Yep. Uh which sounds like a great summertime drink. Like it, I like watermelon flavored stuff.

SPEAKER_04 10:43

Are you guys big watermelon people?

SPEAKER_03 10:44

I like watermelon. Okay, all right.

unknown 10:46

I'm into it.

SPEAKER_04 10:47

I'm not a big watermelon guy, so this should be real interesting.

SPEAKER_03 10:51

Just giving it a sniff. Seems like watermelon might be the forefront.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_04 10:56

It's uh it's like a Jolly Rancher, my friend.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

It is. Yeah, well, I I said before, just smelling it. I feel like I'm smelling the rind as well as well as the watermelon itself. I mean, it is straight up like Jolly Rancher.

SPEAKER_04 11:09

That's all I can think of. I feel like I should be sucking on some hard candy here. Kind of are.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Yeah. Watermelon Jolly Ranchers are some of my favorites.

SPEAKER_03 11:22

Okay. Yeah. So I bet you love this then, because that tastes pretty similar to that. Oh, Nick is not a fan. Look at that face.

SPEAKER_02 11:32

I don't even know. He doesn't even have a sweet tooth, though. He's biased already.

SPEAKER_04 11:38

So it's it's more than just the sweetness that uh the flavor that throws me off. It's like the consistency.

SPEAKER_03 11:44

Okay. Yeah. It is kind of syrupy.

SPEAKER_04 11:47

It is very syrupy. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 11:48

Yeah. Uh, for those of you at home, we are attempting to figure out maybe how video might work with all of this. And you can see my face and all that. I'm sure that this is not gonna make it live, but if we can get a close-up of your face from when you first did that to throw on the Tiki Toki or something, we should do that. It's pretty rough because that was a good one. So, I mean, we're talking man, it's 60-proof, so it's underproofed. This is underproof, this is available at the grocery store.

SPEAKER_04 12:22

So that brings up a good question because bourbon has to be, in order to be bourbon, has to be at least 80-proof. But it's Tennessee whiskey. But in order to be whiskey, even just whiskey, right? Has to be at least 80-proof, or to be sorry, to be considered American whiskey.

SPEAKER_03 12:38

Um, I mean, I don't know. There there has to be some wiggle room in there because, and I only know that because we live in Ohio, and you can go to like a gas station and get certain alcohols, certain spirits that are underproofed, and like Fireball makes a 60-proof version so that they can sell it in different places in Ohio.

SPEAKER_04 13:00

So well, I know that they underproof certain things. Chris is always big on uh not going to Meyer and buying liquor from Meyer because he he got a few underproof bottles back in college and was really upset thinking that it was foolproof. I was really upset about that.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

Yeah, I I've yeah, I made that mistake one time with beer, like buying like 3.5% or whatever, and it's like, why the crap does this exist? This is not what I want who decided. This was okay. It's it's a trick, it's almost like a trick.

SPEAKER_04 13:36

It is so my biggest grief with uh underproofed alcohol that's flavored is I feel like I'm just drinking cocktail, but that's been sitting there for a hot minute. It's like the bottom of the cocktail, and it's just been sitting there with all the sugar and all the sweets, and it's just like syrup at that point. Yeah, I have a hard time with that.

SPEAKER_03 13:58

Yeah, this is uh I I would not want to drink this straight. So look at what we're doing, yeah, like this. But I can see it shining through in a cocktail. So if you wanted to make some cocktails that were of a higher proof or more alcohol in them, using this instead of a watermelon liqueur or a or something like that, then this might be a good substitute in order to up your alcohol content. Could you in your cocktail?

SPEAKER_04 14:29

Could you see drinking this like on the beach with like some ice?

SPEAKER_03 14:34

And other things and other things like put this in some lemonade or okay, lemonade, even just I like I'm not super opposed to the flavor of it. So even some Sprite or something would really help.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

I appreciate that would really help out with this guy. Yes. I think I would say if I was gonna do that though, if I had a choice between pouring this in or pouring, I don't know, I assume whoever absolute has a watermelon vodka that I haven't tried yet. I'd probably pour the vodka first. I I would I would think it would just work better that way. The I think the flavor would be more pure. There's something I mean, the it's this is thicker, the body is thicker, and that might help some drinks to have a little uh add a little bit of thickness to the body, but I think the the watermelon flavor probably would come out purer in a vodka, if I had to guess.

SPEAKER_03 15:41

I think you're probably right, and I don't know what the benefit really would be in using this versus the vodka. Like if those are your two options, I don't know which one would be like, yeah, I don't know why you would go with this over that, other than maybe to add color. Like maybe you wanted the color in there.

SPEAKER_02 16:05

Maybe if you were going for some kind of tropical Manhattan and you weren't gonna add any sugar, you weren't gonna add any cherries, you weren't or you know, something like that. Right. Like you're it's sort of like uh sort of like a poor man's like tropical Manhattan where you're like, we don't have any ingredients except we've got this. We have this and we've got like uh you know, whatever, a splash of tonic water, lemonade or something. You know, like yeah, because this is almost all of it in one, but it definitely needs something else.

SPEAKER_04 16:45

Yeah, it it does. Uh so I maybe more salt. It's salted watermelon. Do you guys taste the salty uh actually?

SPEAKER_02 16:52

No, I think you're right. Yeah, I think I think if it was a little more on the had a little more savory to it and a little less syrupy, I think that would enhance it. The syrupy doesn't help no for me at all. Um there's yeah, there's something besides watermelon here. There's something else going on. And I suppose it's whiskey. I don't really know. I suppose it's whiskey. I hear that it might be whiskey. That's that. That's but I don't it it's weird.

SPEAKER_04 17:19

So I'm gonna ask some really pointed weird questions uh that'll be a lot of fun to answer for you guys. So you guys are pipe smokers. You what do you what are you guys smoking with this?

SPEAKER_03 17:29

This is just a black Cavendish, right? Is it is it anything other than that, or is it just like a straight black Cavendish? Just a straight up black Cavendish.

SPEAKER_04 17:36

Okay, okay. Um, I don't smoke pipes, but in talking to Chris and with you guys, trying to understand the differences with uh English Cavendish, uh Preek, Virginia, Virginia Preek? Yeah, like exactly there's also aromatics involved. When I grabbed this uh or thought of this idea for flavored whiskey, my mind initially went to this will be interesting for pipe tobacco conversation because from what I've gathered, again, as a non-pipe smoker, these flavored whiskies really fit that aromatic pipe tobacco world.

SPEAKER_03 18:14

I would imagine they probably would, but none of us are aromatic smokers. So we don't have a lot of those.

SPEAKER_02 18:21

Well, I I am.

SPEAKER_03 18:22

You are you are?

SPEAKER_02 18:23

I would say I I always have uh some black Cavendish on hand, and usually some cherry Cavendish, and I just kind of rotate through, but I also have other things like I don't exclusively smoke cavenges, I also have English, full English, and then a variety of other like I think where where like all the like gradations of of flavors come through is like by uh messing with Virginia's and burlies and doing like blends of those. And so my exposure to the vast range of possibilities there is growing. That's not where I started out, but with like straight up like primary color, bold flavors, black Cavendish, cherry cavendish, full English, uh those kinds of things is what I've I've had the most of in my life. So I don't exclusively smoke Cavendish, but I do like it. Chris doesn't like it um because it's it's uh it burns kind of hot and and gets uh he says goopy. But um uh but anything can get goopy at the end if you if you let it. The reason I like it is because it is uh it is milder, the the smoke is usually thicker, and I like a thick, thicker velvety smoke, and the room note is good, so you know the wife doesn't have much to say about that.

SPEAKER_04 19:52

Is the room note nice for you guys as the smokers or for those around you?

SPEAKER_02 19:57

I I think the people around you get more of it than you do, but I but the forest.

SPEAKER_04 20:05

Yeah, okay. Would you say that it like this flavored whiskey is is kind of the equivalent of like a a generic baseline aromatic blend?

SPEAKER_03 20:14

No, no, well, aram aromatic's hard because it's not really necessarily like a baseline thing, it is it is by definition a baseline with with flavors added, so it's it's more it's a above that. So uh and this is a bold flavor, like it's er, it's it's a a very bright singular flavor. It's watermelon all the way through, and I think you can get that with some of the cherry Cavendish stuff, or that, or maybe vanilla or or some of those, but I feel like usually you have some other flavors added to it that that don't have this one singular thing going all the way through. And so um Cavendish, the black Cavendish we're talking about is burly type tobacco that has been processed a little bit and so like kind of like uh cooked or whatever to make it sweeter.

SPEAKER_02 21:10

And it's more of a vanilla sweetness, although you if it it's sort of a vanilla anyway, but if you you might see black Cavendish vanilla, they might have that's probably a little extra if it says vanilla.

SPEAKER_04 21:21

Would you guys say that aromatics are kind of the uh good for beginners getting into pipe tobaccos?

SPEAKER_03 21:26

Yeah, I think it generally is the opening to pipe smokers. For me, it paused my pipe smoking because it burns hotter. And if you don't you don't know what you're doing, especially at the start of it, you end up burning it really hot and you give yourself tongue bite. For me, I get tongue bites even today if I have aromatics. So they kind of like burn my mouth, and I have this like I almost have like a bump or something underneath my tongue that I get after smoking a lot of aromatics that I don't get. If I smoke non-aromatics. Do you get that on the first bowl though, or is that no? It's usually the next day. It's usually the next day that I feel that you feel the tongue bite? Yeah. Or well, I feel the tongue bite right away, but I have like a weird growth thing underneath my tongue that I get after smoking. I don't know if it's like burned and then and something like that. It is weird, and I don't know really what it is. Maybe you're allergic. There's a chance I'm allergic to tobacco. So or whatever the whatever they put in the whatever the flavor is, yeah. Because I don't get it if I smoke like it's a non non-aromatics, or definitely not as bad in any way. So because after my first couple of pipes, I stopped smoking for a long time because of that. So aromatics, I think, maybe are a little bit harder to smoke because of that, but the flavor and room out note make it so that people don't yell at you.

unknown 22:55

Right.

SPEAKER_03 22:55

You know, so you can you can get buy-in from your those that you live with. Yeah, those around you. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

That's no small thing. Yeah, that's a big part of it.

SPEAKER_04 23:05

Would you guys say that this bottle is uh the equivalent in the sense that it being an introductory kind of whiskey?

SPEAKER_03 23:14

I don't know. I don't know if introductory is the right word for it. I think it's definitely a college kid sorta sort of bottle because it's a mixer, but I don't yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:28

So what what place does this have on the whiskey shelf? Bottom. I mean, like in all honesty, it says flavored whiskey, right? So um uh the as it says is uh it's salty watermelon whiskey, whiskey with artificial flavor and caramel color. So the base is whiskey, but what yeah, what does this have to do with whiskey, right?

SPEAKER_03 23:54

Yeah, uh to me, this this ball only this bottle should be bought for a particular cocktail that you're like trying to make, and probably that's it. Like, I don't know this is uh something they keep on even like a cocktail shelf on a regular because like this is a pretty weird flavor. There's not a lot of cocktails that I can think of that would go with this.

SPEAKER_02 24:14

Jolly rancher shot with whiskey. I would I would say this isn't even the best of what old Smokey does. I I think I've okay. So you've been there. Are you ready for the story? I'm ready. I'm ready for the story. It's in real, it's really not that much of a story.

SPEAKER_03 24:30

Let's hear about Old Smoky.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

It was Gatlinburg in mid-July, and I just stopped in, my throat was dry, and I thought I'd stop and have myself a whiskey.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

So I was on vacation and we went down to the strip, and it's like a roadside attraction, like a like a mutant version of a roadside attraction. Gettysburg is a wild place. Yeah. I mean, there's they're like, it's so like over the top and gaudy, and there, and so like there's something fun about that because like they're I mean, they have like go-tart go-kart tracks, and they've got like downtown, yeah, yeah. All over what? Yeah. If you if you've never been to Gatlinburg, they yeah, they've tons of restaurants. Yeah, a lot of these places will have like a large, I don't know, like a dinosaur or an ape, like a King Kong or something on the front of the building, like hanging off. They've got like all these different things down there. So, like, especially for kids, they're like, oh my gosh, you know, like they've got like a Ripley's Believe It or Not museum down there. There's all kinds of stuff. Yeah. So there's a lot to do down there. You could say that it's kind of gaudy and tacky, but if you're going for some gaudy tacky fun, it's fun.

SPEAKER_03 26:01

It's the best.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

Yeah, it is the best at gaudy and tacky. But but you have to know that going into it. Yeah, and I'll tell you right now, I like some B movies, I like some Godzilla, you know, some things like that where you can tell like it's fake, but that's part of the fun of it. Right, you know, like I don't need everything to be like smooth, seamless, like perfect CGI for me to enjoy it. So I can enjoy B movies, I can enjoy some Gallenberg, you know, but but you have to know that going into it, you're gonna be like, what? What is this? Anyway, okay, so I'm there. I I the the family was uh the in-laws were um you know squabbling over where to eat or whatever. I had decided to uh to to go off on my own and avoid that. And uh so I went to all what two or three different uh tasting rooms for the because I was looking for whiskey.

unknown 27:02

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:02

So uh I probably went to like four or five different tasting rooms at different places down there um just in that afternoon where I was wandering around by myself. And um so they've got like a five, it's like five dollar five dollars for for like a spread of tasters that they'll do. And they got all kinds of stuff. I mean, they've got the flavored whiskeys, flavored vodkas too, right? They've got like mint moonshine, yeah. Moonshine. Yeah, not vodka. It's the same thing. Flavored moonshine.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:36

I mean, it's like mint chocolate chip and it's watermelon and it's habanero mango and it's all these different things. And so they'll pour you a little thing, and like the the the uh bartenders who pouring, um, they're like funny and charming. They like have they make jokes while they're pouring it and stuff like that, and it's kind of fun, and you're tasting all this stuff, but like by then I was already in the whiskey club and I was hoping for like something substantial, and I couldn't find it at Old Smoky? At Old Smoky, and so I was feeling a little dirty because I was like wanting some like real stuff, you know, and all I got was that, and I'm like, okay, this is fun, but but it wasn't it wasn't hitting the spot that I was trying to fill, and so I was feeling conflicted already going into it. I did end up buying a bottle of the James Owenby reserve, which is like a real whiskey that they sell. It's still Tennessee whiskey. It was not so it's not gonna wow you, you know. It was okay. Um I felt a little sad that that was like the best that that they had to offer, yeah. You know, but it wasn't it. I I drank the whole bottle, you know. But yeah, I I kind of came to the conclusion that this is for people who don't really want to drink or they want to they they want to pretend to drink with their friends, or it it's like it's kid stuff. Yeah, I mean it's so it it it's it's gosh, it's like this is like scented markers. Yeah, yeah. It I could see like college kids who don't really like alcohol, but they wanna they wanna be at the party and drink a little bit, and this is like all they can handle. And it's not it's not really for people who care about whiskey, it's for people who and so I don't see this as like here's your intro to the to the wide wonderful world of whiskey. This is a dead end. This is this is a cul-de-sac for where there are only like sororities on the cul-de-sac. This is not for people who want to drink, this is for people who are pretending they won't or the or they want to get drunk without having to actually work for it. That's the kind of the conclusion I came to. So I felt a little dirty, but I did have fun. The people there were cool, charming, funny, but I still felt a little bit sad and frustrated. But then I went over to Sugarlands, yeah, and they have they have their fair share of the flavored moonshines and stuff like that too. But at the back of their shop, they had a barrel set up as like I don't know, like a tasting stand or whatever, and then they have all these little bottles of like for real whiskey, like cast strength and and like 114 proof, and and they're smaller bottles, and the prices are a little bit higher, but but that was real stuff. So if you if you go to Gatlinburg and you do want some like real whiskey because you're not just there to drink cotton candy, um they do there is some to be found.

SPEAKER_03 31:25

And as a weird surprising note, it also has a fantastic pipe shop in Gatlinburg. And so there's a really good, it's I mean, you know, most of these places have pretty much become cigar shops. But when you walk in there, the owners and stuff, they're they're they're very knowledgeable in their pipe stuff, also, and they have loose, loose pipe that you can buy by the pound and or buy by the ounce or whatever. So so very, very good tobacco there as well. It's called I think Gatlinburg Tobacco, I think is what it's called, and it's situated in this weird little mall next to like a glass fairies and and dog clothes.

SPEAKER_01 32:04

So because that's what Gatlinburg is, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:10

Oh, you know what else though is kind of fun? There's a a shop, maybe in that same little mini mall area. Hot sauces. Oh, yeah, all kinds of hot sauces, and some are like I mean, yeah. So if you are a hot sauce connoisseur and you like the challenge of like how how much will it take to like burn my tongue off, you got a place to go there.

SPEAKER_04 32:34

It fascinates me that we have that, but then you have this. Like why why is old smoky so popular? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 32:45

Like, well, like I said, it's not the target audience, it's not the most popular alcohol, it's just the most popular distillery. And it's and it's just because it happens to be in the right area.

SPEAKER_04 32:56

Okay, so you don't think it's anything about the flavor, you think it's just area.

SPEAKER_03 33:00

This is this is purely because it's on the strip in Gatlinburg, and this is the right place for it. Now the company knows who they are. Yeah, uh, I mean, like is we like I said, there's four locations so far. There's three there in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, which Pigeon Forge is like a step up, a step down, a step more tacky.

SPEAKER_04 33:19

Step up to the side somewhere. Dollywood is right there too.

SPEAKER_03 33:22

Okay, all right. Um, but their other one is Nashville, is their other location, and that one is partnered with a brewery, and same with the new one that's coming in 2026 in Myrtle Beach that's partnering with Yihaw Brewery. Yeehaw. Yeehaw Brewery. So they're they're aligning themselves with beer, which I think is the right move. I think if you're a beer person, you might be a little bit more apt to like something like this because it's you're not really a spirits whiskey person to like this.

SPEAKER_02 33:55

I mean, I would say I don't know what Yihaw brewing does. I don't either.

SPEAKER_03 33:59

I don't think it's like I don't think it's like a fancy craft distillery or traffic brewery.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

Yeah, I would say craft brewing is different, is parallel to like the whiskey world, yeah, the bourbon world. But this I would say is a parallel to but like but light. Corona, yeah, yeah, yeah. The wannabes like safe for pregnant pregnant mothers to drink.

SPEAKER_04 34:27

This this is safe for your kid to drink, people.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

I'm pretty sure some the the bartender, one of the bartenders made a joke about you know, like, you know, this is this is a good babysitter or something like that.

SPEAKER_04 34:42

So do you think they know who they are and they're standing in their lane kind of thing and they're all right with it?

SPEAKER_02 34:46

Yeah, I don't want to be insulting, but it does seem like they know who they are. They're targeting, yeah, they're targeting like underage college girls.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

Right.

SPEAKER_03 34:56

I think they do have just a straight bourbon. Like I think that they do have one of those. The owner. But you you can tell that that's like not their aim. Like that's not what they're looking to do.

SPEAKER_02 35:06

Yeah, it's like one of those, yeah, or two of those, and then the rest of it's this. The rest is this.

SPEAKER_04 35:12

If you know you're in your lane, so you're staying in your lane, your thing's flavored, underproof stuff. Why go to the extent of calling it flavored whiskey?

SPEAKER_03 35:21

What does it call it? Does that disappoint them? What do you what do you call it then? That's the thing. There's no other word for it.

SPEAKER_04 35:27

Well, there's no other word for it, but uh so we've had a lot of whiskey. We we've had over four years at the club, we've gone through a lot of bottles of whiskey and a vast majority of like just range, right? Does it rub you the wrong way to see a bottle like this hold the title whiskey on it or the name whiskey on it?

SPEAKER_03 35:48

It does. I I feel like anything that's under 80 proof should have a different name.

SPEAKER_04 35:52

Okay, but not the flavor or anything, it's just underproof.

SPEAKER_03 35:55

I think underproof is my main thing. Okay, all right. Because I I I think there's lots of flavor, and I mean, because then you can get into real dicey territory with your even your even finishings and stuff that you'd have to really be careful on how you want to work that all out. But I think if it's underproof, you need to there needs to be something else on it. I don't know. I we whiskey liqueur the Scots take out the E. Maybe we add an extra E at the end for the underproof stuff. Whiskey whiskey? Yeah, I don't know. Just there needs to be some kind of uh distinction to it to say that this is what we're doing here, and it's not what you're looking for.

SPEAKER_01 36:43

Guarantee you didn't know what you're looking for, but we carry it. It's here.

SPEAKER_04 36:47

What do you think, Ryan? I'm just curious. Does it does it rub you the wrong way to see something like this have a whiskey in the title?

SPEAKER_02 36:55

Well, not because I feel honor bound to defend the term whiskey from desecration, but more just because uh it does feel a little misleading. I mean, there are other flavored whiskeys out there that are more substantial and and um can please a whiskey drinker. That's the that's the real thing for me, I guess, would be I don't want to be tricked into uh uh buying this when I'm you know what I mean, when I'm looking for something that is worthy uh of like drinking uh by itself.

SPEAKER_04 37:39

Yeah. When you mentioned the uh the velvety uh the velvety smoke, like the velvety kind of smoothness of smoke or that that that thicker smoke for aromatics, that's what I think of when I drink this. It's it's it's it is the disappointing factor of the face uh reaction for me wasn't necessarily flavor as much as it's it's thick. I mean, is she thick? She thick.

SPEAKER_02 38:01

Yeah, so when it comes to tobacco, I guess there you know you've got your uh you've got your like uh gas station pouches that are like pretty low quality, low shelf, and then you've got your like pipe store bulk blends that are uh that are up a few steps quality-wise, and then you've got your tins, which ought to be even better quality than the bulk blend or equivalent, right? Because some tobacco makers uh do offer bulk blends of their tin stuff, but this is more like the gas station pouch. The that you're just like, oh is this the swisher sweets?

SPEAKER_01 38:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 38:54

Yeah, this is the swisher sweets of the cigar world. Yeah, yeah. So um, so I'm not against flavored whiskey. I would just want the the actual whiskey to be better than what it is and not not this. Yeah, this is this is kind of cloying, and uh the actually I th I think the yeah, the watermelon, I said it before, doesn't taste quite as pure, pure watermelon as I would want it to be. I think I would enjoy a watermelon moonshine or a watermelon vodka more than I would enjoy this to drink straight.

SPEAKER_04 39:35

We've uh we've got a few more bottles coming up with flavored stuff. So I'm very curious. Uh we we've got another one that is lower proof but different flavor. They're all different flavorings, by the way. Yeah, uh, and we got a few that uh kind of hit that higher proof that you guys might might be uh might scratch your itch when it comes to whiskey. I I struggle. I struggle with calling this whiskey.

SPEAKER_03 39:58

I almost wonder if because of that, uh Ohio makes it a little bit easier because there's whiskey, there's liquor stores. And if it's not in the liquor store, then I know it's not 80 proof. Uh so like anything that's at Meyer or whatever here in Columbus that doesn't have a liquor store, I know that it's not 80 proof. I know it's probably 60 proof, that's usually what those are. So that makes it kind of easy for me. I feel like if I was in a different state and there was fireball 60 and fireball 80 both in there, I'd be real pissed off if I took home the 60 by accident. Yes, you know, and so and I don't know, so that's that's where I'm like, you need to say underproofed on the label or something. Oh yeah, just a warning. Just call it underproofed whiskey. Yeah, uh just something like that, just to differentiate it. And maybe this isn't a problem in other states. I don't know if other states really sell the 60-proof versions of those things. I don't know if this goes above 60 proof. Well, yeah, that one doesn't, but for the ones that they tone it down for us Ohio and so they can sell it in more stores. I don't know if it classifies as a beer and wine license, essentially. I don't I don't know how that works. We like low-proof stuff. So I would be curious if for anyone that's not in Ohio or not in a controlled state, if you guys even have that issue, text us. Yeah, I'm very curious. But yeah, I would be I would be curious about that. See if that's even a thing.

SPEAKER_02 41:30

Yeah. Speaking of going into stores and stuff, I was just thinking, you know, there's like a nice restaurant and you can get a nice dessert there, and it's good. I would say that's more like a, I don't know, like maybe a knob creek that offers like a maple, which we Nick and I have talked about before. Like, I I like that and I liked it as a mixer. It's too sweet for Nick. But I say still respectable, it does not diminish Knob Creek's cred at all. And then you've got like maybe like a candy store where you go in there and all they have is candy, but it's like really cool and fun, and all the candy is like really fun. I would say, like, maybe that's like I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 42:15

American honey.

SPEAKER_02 42:16

Maybe American honey, or maybe like the absolute lineup of their flavored things, you know, something like that. But this is a little bit more like somebody invites you over for dinner, and when you get there, you find that like all they have are like Twinkies and fruit roll-ups and Jolly Ranchers and stuff like that. And you're like, wait, what? Like, this isn't like real food, and it's not like what are you doing to me, man?

SPEAKER_04 42:43

Like, I'm glad you put it that way because I'm like, I'm thinking uh someone invites me over for a cookout and I go over and they've got like roasted cauliflower. I'm like, what happened to the burger? Like, this is a burger, it's cauliflower burger.

SPEAKER_01 42:55

Like, what's in a burger?

SPEAKER_04 42:57

This is not a cookout. Yeah, this is pure disappointment right now.

SPEAKER_02 43:01

Well, that may be good, it's pure disappointment. Yeah, but if I was just hanging out at somebody's house and they were like, hey man, you want a Twinkie? I'd be like, sure. But I'm not going over for dinner for a Twinkie. But right, yeah. So maybe the context in which I encountered all this stuff for the first time has put like too much of a stamp on my feelings about it.

unknown 43:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:23

But at the same time, it's like they really don't have any anything else, you know.

SPEAKER_04 43:32

I mean, I struggle to suggest this for any whiskey drinker.

SPEAKER_03 43:39

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 43:40

Yeah. When it comes to a flavored whiskey, there may be others that we try later on that I'm like, yeah, I could, I could recommend this, but this one I struggled to be like, Ryan, you like your whiskey? You're gonna love this guy. I mean, come on, you're gonna love this.

SPEAKER_03 43:54

I think if you're spending time listening to a whiskey podcast, I think this might be about beyond you might be beyond this spot.

SPEAKER_02 44:01

You're done with this. Yes. And and like I think the more likely scenario as opposed to uh like what we talked about earlier with like only buy this if you have like a very specific cocktail in mind. It's more like, oh crap, now I have this bottle. I have to figure out a cocktail of some sort to use it in because I do have to use this up and I I I still don't want to just pour it out because I paid money.

SPEAKER_04 44:30

Right, exactly. Now, granted, this is a really cheap bottle.

SPEAKER_03 44:34

It's like what, 22 bucks or something like that?

SPEAKER_04 44:36

Like on sale, you can get it for under 20 bucks. Like it's a really cheap bottle, but still it's still for an aneffective drain cleaner.

SPEAKER_01 44:45

So it is a little rough.

SPEAKER_02 44:49

It is a little rough for that, but it is cheap. I wonder if you could I wonder if you could put this in like a hummingbird feeder or something like that. Instead of that like sugar water that you put in the hummingbird feeder, sugar whiskey. Yeah, yeah. That could be fun to see what the hummingbirds could be fun to see what happens.

SPEAKER_04 45:07

Cody's a big bird guy. Maybe we can get him to do that.

SPEAKER_03 45:10

There we go. Yeah. Well, it's a good stuff.

SPEAKER_02 45:12

I'm trying to think of other possible uses for this. I'm stretching, I know.

SPEAKER_04 45:17

I mean, ants really like sweet stuff too, right? That's true. Do you need do you need to call some ants? Just pour this on the ground. You'll be good to go.

SPEAKER_02 45:26

Yeah, yeah. We'll summon all the ants in the whole yard to this one spot.

SPEAKER_04 45:30

Well, I'm really excited for the next one then, because we're going into uh breakfast of degenerance. So we're gonna see what happens with this guy. Are we a degenerate enough to enjoy it? Or are we gonna make it? Should we have gotten this around at like eight in the morning?

SPEAKER_01 45:48

That's another early morning recording.

SPEAKER_03 45:52

Well, folks, we'll see you then. Till next time. Cheers. 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, whiskeychaserspa.com, with any ideas for the show. Thanks again.