105. HoneyDew - Texas Honey Infused Bourbon from Garrison Brothers

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts, Jim and Mike. So grab a glass of your favorite bourbon and kick back.

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Hello everybody.

I'm Jim Shannon. I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is the Bourbon Road and Mike, it's another craft distillery Monday. This week we've got another Texas bourbon on.

This one's a little bit special though. Yeah. Garrison Brothers, we'd had them on the show several months ago and they'd brought up having their honey barrel, which is Garrison Brothers honeydew. And they said when they released it, they would send us a bottle. So they did. They sent us a bottle. I did a video on it and stuff. I was super excited to get it. I mean, you both have tried this before.

We have. And this is a bottle that people line up for at the distillery, right? I mean, they line up down the road to make sure they can get a bottle of this. Oh yeah. Yeah. Big deal. But we wanted to wait until this was a little bit more out there and available to everybody else before we talked about it. It's one thing for a distillery release to be available at the distillery. If we're talking about a bourbon on the show and we're tasting it and nobody else can get it, that can be a little discouraging sometimes. Don't you agree?

It is a good thing that we do that. Um, so everybody, they don't have to really search for it. So if you could buy it online, you know, and it's available to your state, then we want to review it. Um, we don't want you to have to search and search and search and search. Um, so, you know, this is available almost everywhere now. You saw it in total line up here.

So, so I guess once we started seeing it on the shelves, We said, okay, it's time. Let's, let's go ahead and do a review of this or let's, let's, let's talk about it. So this is garrison brothers, honeydew. This is a special release. This comes out once a year, right, Mike? Yep. And honeydew. So that kind of reminds me of the honeydew list, right? Is that list that wife gives you that things when she's out of town or something, all the things are supposed to get done or your husband. I don't know. I'd never give my wife a list of something to do. I do. I give Vivian List all the time. Do you really?

Well, she asked me. She's like, hey, can I do anything for you today? And I'm like, yeah, could you help me out? It's team Hyatt over here. I don't know how you guys do it, but it's team Hyatt over here.

That's pretty impressive, Mike. I'm very impressed with that. That's having your homestead in perfect balance right there.

I would say me and Vivian are in pretty good balance. She does what I need her to do and I do what she needs to do. And it just, you know, we're in our 20th year of marriage. There you go.

So your honeydew list goes both ways. Yeah. All right. Well, anyway, today we're tasting Garrison Brothers honeydew. What's the proof on this, Mike? This is only 80 proof. This is an 80 proofer, but this is a Garrison Brothers whiskey that has been finished in honey barrels.

Yeah, by busy little Texas bees.

There you go. Well, let's get right to it. Now, the nose does not speak honey to me.

Maybe just a tad. Now this honey is a wildflower honey. Probably got a little Texas blue bonnet in there.

So what's the honey around here? Mostly clover honey.

I would think so. Clover would be a very natural honey for Kentucky, but just down the street here is a lavender farm. You come to Shelbyville to visit bourbon country. You should stop by. They have a lavender shop down there and they have, they sell lavender honey in there and it's very dark. Oh, okay. It's great in tea. So we need a, we need a cask of that so we can age some whiskey. Yeah, that'd be awesome.

Well, anyway, on the nose on this one, I am getting a little bit of a corn flavor to it, a little bit of corn note, but I am picking up that kind of Texas nose. It's so distinct. I get it almost on every Texas whiskey, Texas bourbon that I knows. It's that, uh, it's kind of that profile that sort of stands out a little bit. Are you able to pick out a Texas whiskey on the nose, Mike?

I would like to say I could, but I don't know if I could. Um, I think when I taste it, you know, then I'm going to know that it's a Texas whiskey because of that, that smokiness that comes out of it. Just definitely a different whiskey than most.

Okay. I haven't tasted this recently, but I'm expecting a very sweet palette on it. Let's hit it. All right. And it is very sweet. But it's a Texas whiskey. It is a Texas whiskey. No doubt about it. Texas whiskey stand out. I think they're a category of their own. No doubt about it. This has definitely got some peaches. Yes. This has that peach pear stone fruit kind of palette to it. It's definitely different. I'm getting a little bit of that honey tea, but a very sweet honey tea.

Little bit of spice in there. Just a tad bit. Yeah.

Would you call this an overly sweet bourbon?

No, I've had a lot sweeter than this. I have too. some that are just too sweet, but this at 80 proof, I'd like to see this about a hundred proof.

You say that a lot. I do. Two things you say a lot. I'd like to see this a little bit higher proof. I'd like this one to stay in the barrel a little bit longer, but I think we all feel that way.

Well, I'd rather be honest about it. The reason I'd like to see this at a hundred proof, is to make it a little bit more viscous, a little bit more oily, that way it sticks to your mouth like honey itself and stuff. I'm not saying it doesn't, but it doesn't. It's just not there for me when it comes to that. You're not saying it doesn't, but it doesn't. But it doesn't.

Yeah, I have to agree with you, Mike, that I think 80 proof is probably below the bar for me. You know, anytime I've gotten an 80 proof whiskey, I've always had the same thought in my mind. Why couldn't this have been 90? Why couldn't this have been 94? Why couldn't this have been 96 or a hundred? Probably should have been. I think a lot of times with bourbons, the 80 proof choice is made for financial reasons. You agree?

Yeah, that the stretch, that barrel, you know, there's not a whole lot of this. Um, now they didn't stick this in barrels. What they did was they cubed up a barrel. I cut it up in cubes and stuck that honey and let that absorb in there. And then they dropped those cubes into the bourbon. Okay. A little bit different. And you can read that on their website. What I do get out of this, I'm sitting here thinking about it, Jim. You ever had a dry date? I have. I'm getting dried dates out of this. Okay. Very sugary. Yep. Um, but I get that date taste and maybe that's that Texas bourbon coming through that oakiness we always get.

Very sugary, very sweet. The honey is, the honey is right there. I mean, it's kind of gives you that, that honey, that, that, that tea, honey sweetened tea is what I'm getting on it. Honey sweetened tea. What kind of tea? I'm not a big tea guy, but I don't think it's like a, it's not like a black tea or an Earl gray tea or anything like this.

It's more of like a hibiscus tea. Like a Lipton?

Uh, no, I think it's a little too. Ah, a little too dark. This is a lighter tea.

Sun tea. Sun tea.

Yeah. Maybe a sun tea, but with, uh, with tea leaves that aren't real dark.

Yeah. You ever make any sun tea? I have made sun tea before. And that was a big thing when I was growing up, we'd have a big old gallon jug and put that sucker out on the front porch and about an hour later you'd have some tea. Yeah. Can't let it sit overnight though. You got to drink it then cause it'll be spoiled.

So is all Texas tea sweet or you guys have unsweet tea?

I don't know. My mama had about a 50 pound bag of sugar. I don't know. Usually when you go to Texas and you order tea, you better tell them you don't want any sugar in it because when you order tea, you're going to get sweet tea.

Tea comes sweet in Texas.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Now, if you order a cola, they're probably going to ask you or a Coke.

Is that what you say? Cola. I want a Cola.

No, I don't usually say that. I say Dr. Pepper and Big Red, but they'll, if you ask for a Coke, they're going to ask you what flavor you want. Yeah. They'll tell you what flavors they got. They usually say they got Dr. Pepper and Sprite. It'll mess you up a little bit if you don't know what to expect.

Yeah, I grew up in Ohio.

We had pops. You can't go down to Texas and ask for a country fried steak. No such animal down there.

Well, what is it called in Texas? Chicken fried steak. Chicken fried steak. Now chicken fried steaks got that white gravy on it, doesn't it?

Oh my Lord. Yes, it does. That thing will make your tongue drill a hole into your head and beat your brain to death. So good. You know, that's good Southern living right there. Yeah.

Chicken fried steak. Yeah. So is that cube steak?

It is a cube steak and it's, uh, I don't know. My sister would be able to tell you better than I could, but she takes and double dips hers. Um, puts it in flour, egg, more flour, throw it in a skillet. piping hot and they're fried. It should be about the size of your dinner plate.

So how do you, how do you make your cube steak, Mike? Cause I heard you saying you made some cube steak.

I actually have a tenderizer and um, a power tenderizer. No, it's a little hand crank one. Okay. You just crank it through there and it's got these, I don't know, you wouldn't want to stick your finger in there. I know that it'll chew your finger right up. It's got a crank on it and got little knives and pokes holes through it and kind of stretches your steak out and stuff. If you got a tough steak. And what I'll do is I'll cut steaks out of a rump of a deer of a roast and then I'll tenderize that. Now, Vivian made some of that the other day for me. She made some, um, venison parmesan. Oh wow. This is delicious.

So this is, this is exactly why bourbon podcasts are in the food channel.

Well, yeah. Yeah. You come in the house today. You were like, something smells really good, Mike. What are you making today? Uh, barbacoa for barbacoa tacos. Barbacoa tacos.

I'm ready for some tongue. Do you ever cook tongue tacos?

Vivian will do that. Does she? She does it different though. She doesn't cube it up. She, she'll take it and, um, shred it, shred it. Yeah. That's why I like them. She's, she's, she's good cook too. See, we do that, that honey do list like that.

Yeah.

She said, if I said I like this for dinner, she'd,

She'd whip it up. There you go. All right. Well, back to the whiskey, Mike, the food network. We're going to turn off the food network. We're going to go back to the bourbon network here. It's got some good dark color to it. I'm pretty, pretty used to that from a Texas bourbon. It's usually pretty dark. I think this is something nice to try. It's a little sweet for me.

This would be a good spring time or summertime here in Kentucky. Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. That 80 proof. It's that sweetness. This is not too hot to drink on a hot summer day.

Would you call this dessert bourbon? I would.

Yeah. It's got a savory note to it. This would actually be good to drink with some like peach cobbler with some vanilla ice cream on top, some blue bell ice cream. See, I'm getting back on that food again. Good Lord.

All right, Mike. Well, okay. So garrison brothers, honeydew bourbon, I'm going to say definitely a sipper. Definitely want to share it with my friends. Don't know that I would give a bottle away.

If you were a really special friend and I had a bottle and I really liked you and I thought you loved honey and you would appreciate this and know how to drink it, I'd probably gift a bottle of this.

Okay. So we differed a little bit on that. So I'm kind of a share on this one. You're a give, you're a gift. All right. Well, this is available. I like it. Like Mike said earlier, I saw this on a shelf at Total Wine. So it's out there. If you, if this is something you want to try, Go get it.

It's kind of a rare item in Texas. So they'll line up there for this. Yeah.

Now here we've got a Greenbrier distillery, right? I mean, they, they've got a Bell meat honey, right? They line up there for that too. They line up there for that too, but you can't find that on a shelf.

No, you're not going to find that on a shelf at all.

I think we're far enough away from Texas here where it just, it just, it makes it to the shelf and nobody's like running out for it.

No, probably because they don't know what it is. Right. Maybe after this review, they'll do it. Now, I think we should give a sample of this away, Jim. I think we should too. So the first person that says where that honey comes from, which city in Texas does this honey come from? I'll send you a sample. Did we say it on the show? Okay. So they got to do a little research. You got to do a little research. I'm not going to tell you where you find it at, but you definitely have to research it.

All right. Well, you can't miss this bottle on the shelf. It's bright yellow wax.

Yeah. Got that big star on the front of it too. Got that big Texas star on the front. Our bottle doesn't have it, but on the bottom it's got some silver. I don't know what you'd call that silversmithing and stuff. His bottles are absolutely beautiful. Yeah. Um, that wax, that yellow wax, like you said, you're not going to miss it. So if you see some and you really want it, I would get it why it's there. Yeah.

Yeah. I think the reason it's on the shelf, particularly here in Louisville, it's sitting on the shelf in the store. Nobody's grabbing it. They just don't know what it is. If they knew what it was and they knew what an item it was, it'd probably be off the shelf pretty quick.

Great dessert whiskey. That's what I would call it. Um, I'm a buy on it. Like I might go give me another bottle of it just to have it. Don't tell Vivian.

Well, Mike, I think you're well past that. At over 400 bottles, you just need to keep on trucking. Well, I guess I'll just have to keep doing honeydew list.

That's right. All right, Mike, where can people find us? Find us at Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook at The Bourbon Road. You can also, we have a private Facebook group called The Bourbon Roadies.

And on the bourbon roadies, you will be asked three questions before you can join. We want to make sure you understand that you're getting yourself into a bourbon group, that you must be 21 years old. And once you're in there, we would appreciate if you would play nice.

Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. Just be nice to everybody. Share your whiskey. What I've said this, if I send you whiskey or Jim sends you whiskey or you win some whiskey, make sure you pass it on down to other roadies and you share your whiskey with them. We've had several people do that. They're following what we are asking them to do. I think that's our bourbon culture. That is the culture of the bourbon roadies. Giveaways. Like I said, I want to keep giving our whiskey away.

That's right. There's a lot of groups out there where bourbon selling is happening. That's not us guys. If you want to sell bourbons or you want to buy bourbons, there's other places to do that in the roadies. This is where we give it away. This is where we share it. This is where we, um, love on each other with a little bit of bourbon, right? Yeah.

That deep. Berry white. So we also have a website. the bourbonroad.com. We write blogs on there, put some photos up on there. You also buy our Glen Caron's shortly. Hopefully we're going to have some more swag on there. It's coming. It's coming. We're at that point where we're fixing a bust open and do some new stuff.

Things are getting crazy for us. We've had a lot of success lately. Things are growing. Users are growing. Listeners are growing. Things are happening. It's, uh, it's been kind of a whirlwind. Hasn't it Mike?

It most definitely has. Um, you know, both of us kind of take a little bit of a break the last couple of weeks. I haven't seen this whole lot. We've kind of pulled back off social media a little bit. That's because Jim has started a new job and it's hunting season for me. So we both kind of enjoyed life, enjoying fall, the weather. Jim's down seeing his grandbabies a lot. Me and Vivian will be on the road, seeing some friends. Got some family coming into town. So just bear with us. We're going to get this thing rolling back again, hot and heavy. We promise you. And you'll see some new stuff out of the Bourbon Road.

Absolutely. Well, I am JayShannon63. I'm OneBigChief. And we will see you down the Bourbon Road. We do appreciate all of our listeners, and we'd like to thank you for taking time out of your day to hang out with us here on the Bourbon Road. We hope you enjoyed today's show, and if so, we would appreciate it if you'd subscribe and rate us a five-star with a review on iTunes. Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, at The Bourbon Road. That way you'll be kept in the loop in all the Bourbon Road happenings. You can also visit our website at thebourbonroad.com to read our blog, listen to the show, or reach out to us directly. We always welcome comments or suggestions. And if you have an idea for a particular guest or topic, be sure to let us know. And again, thanks for hanging out with us.