291. Bourbon Highball Challenge

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.

Hey, this is Big Chief and you're listening to The Bourbon Road. You know what I love to pour in my old fashions? Is a little maple syrup. It can't be just any maple syrup. It has to be from seldom seen farms up in Ohio. He takes bourbon barrels. course his syrup in there and ages it for six to nine months making for some delicious just some delicious syrup that you can pour on pancakes you can pour on waffles chicken waffles like this fat guy likes but seriously you want to make a delicious cocktail with some maple syrup and not that old simple syrup check out seldom see maple.com pick up some stuff from there today we'd appreciate it

Hello everybody, I'm Jim Shannon. And I'm Mike Hyatt. This is The Bourbon Road. Today Mike is studio 1A in the basement at the bourbon bar. We needed a full bar today because we're mixing it up.

Yeah, we got six bourbons on the bar to drink through the show right here. And what we're going to do, Jim, is we're going to decide which bourbon makes the best highball.

Okay. So this is similar to what we did last year with Coke. Yeah. We said, well, I should say the Coke and bourbon is a highball. Yeah, I mean, it is kind of a highball. Coke and ginger ale is a highball. Yeah. Anytime you take an alcoholic spirit like bourbon or vodka or something like that, you mix it with a non-alcoholic single mixer. Kind of a carbonated. Carbonated usually, yeah. That's a highball.

Yeah, so initially the most common highball was made with scotch whiskey and carbonated water known simply as scotch and soda.

Yeah.

But, you know, I've been known to drink a lot of highballs. My main thing is with ginger ale. And it used to be Ocigarum 7. I loved them. That was my standard drink. I didn't know what else to really order. You know, you go into a bar, I didn't want to drink a white Russian or one of those drinks. I didn't like fruity drinks, and I really didn't like drinking Jack and Coke all that much. because I had some bad experiences with it, but I did know that ginger ale didn't make me feel so bad. So today that's what we're using for our high balls is ginger ale. We're using about four ounces ginger ale and about an ounce of bourbon in each one of these.

Which is a good combination. So just to be clear though, high balls don't have to be carbonated, right? Uh, they could certainly be a non-carbonated mixer of some sort. Um, like, uh, like a juice, right?

Yeah. Screwdriver. Uh, that would be considered orange juice and vodka. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, it's kind of a neat thing there, but I would say your typical, most of them, whenever you, if you'd go into a bar, say I want a high ball. most bartenders are going to pour you a whiskey and ginger ale.

Yeah, I think that's pretty much what it's going to be.

Now, have you you drinking whiskey and ginger ale a lot in your life? I have.

In fact, you know, when it's summertime and it's getting a little warm outside and I just not feeling a beer, I might have myself a mule, right? Yeah. Which is basically a bourbon and ginger beer or ginger ale. You may or may not add lime to that.

So a little spritz of lime in there.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So the first bourbon we picked and we, we tried to pick six bourbons that anybody can get their hands on. Um, I think we did a very good job of that. The very first one we picked though is a rebel, which is just there's straight, um, 80 proof. The rebel. Yep. And, uh, this is a weeded bourbon.

Yep. And it's currently mixed with the Seagrams ginger ale, right? Yeah. And then we've got a couple of different ginger ales, but we're not going to really...

I'm not going to focus too much on ginger ale. I would say this is... Seagrams is probably going to be the driest out of all the ginger ales. And it's probably has the least amount of sugar. Now these are just regular old... ginger reels, there's no zero, there's no diet or anything like that. Which I'm kind of breaking my rule here because I've given up on sodas, but for this episode, I'm gonna give it a little college try. Taking one for the team. Yeah, well heck, cheers Jim. Cheers.

Couple of cubes in there, four ounces of ginger ale, an ounce of bourbon. I would have to say in this particular case that the bourbon's not front and center for me. more ginger ale than bourbon.

Yeah, there's no kick there in this one. No, no kick.

I think that weeded rebel is kind of masked a little bit by the ginger because ginger ale is a spicy drink.

Yeah, I think if this would have been 100 proof or 100 thin, you'd be able to taste the bourbon, but it's really masked by the ginger ale.

But if you're just looking for a cool drink on a hot summer day, it's going to have a little bit of something there to let you relax. This wouldn't be a bad choice.

Or if you have somebody that, you know, like Viv, she sometimes she's like, I don't want to taste the whiskey. I want it to be masked. This might be a per alley right here. Or if you have some of these new bourbon. It's an easy way to get them into bourbon if you're looking for something that 80 proof is not overpowering. Whereas you got pure whiskey drinkers. We like that kick. We want to kick it up a notch.

I like to have that spirit shine through a little bit. I like to taste it.

Now, you've got this broken up very logically. We're going to do three and three, right? Yeah, three-wheated bourbons and then three rye bourbons. And we're going to go all the way from 80 proof. I think the highest proof whiskey over there is a 101. Everybody can guess what that is. So we're going to keep in that range right there. Like I said, they're all something you can grab. Yeah. You know, next whiskey up after this one is going to be old maker's mark, standard maker's mark. I think that's, that's a pretty fair bottle and stuff. We'll see.

All right. Well, I think this has been kind of enlightening. For me, personally, I probably wouldn't choose the entry-level Rebel for my ginger ale mixer, my highball. I think for me, it's kind of gets lost in there a little bit. Yeah, I'm with you, Jim.

Now I'm going to let everybody know Jim. Jim brought out the fine china for me. Yeah, we're drinking out of the good stuff today, Mike. We got some red solo cups in here. We just thought that this would be a fun episode for listeners. Kind of take a break from what we've been doing. We've been hitting the distilleries, hitting the guests. I mean, you really haven't had a chance to sit down. Shoot the shit.

Yeah, this was a fun episode last year with on the episode, you know, what bourbon makes Coke taste best. And that was a wildly popular show to get some criticism.

Yeah, but you're going to get that on social media or anywhere, even on the podcast. We got some emails and stuff, but we got more great feedback from that episode. Yeah. How many people say that, hey, we love that episode. We love that you guys are stepping out of the box. you know, maybe our, both of our palates, we'll give somebody some insights, say, oh, okay, I'm gonna start drinking it with this or that.

Yeah. And you know what? Just don't take yourself so damn seriously.

I mean, come on. It's just, we're just having fun. Yeah. You know what the nice thing is, Jim, is, you know, sometimes we have to go shopping for a bottle or something. So I texted you this afternoon and said, hey, what bottles did you got at your house? I'm gonna look through the bottles I have. And it was kind of nice going shopping for bourbons, right? Yeah. We're like, man, I'll have to go to the store. Don't don't leave the house. Just go shopping. Yeah. So I dug through and we came out with these six bottles. Hopefully everybody can find these bottles across the United States or in your local bar. And I think most of them you'll find.

I'll tell you what, Mike, even though I said that this wouldn't be my choice, I did finish it.

Yeah, I did. Alright, are you ready to move on to the next one? Let's do it.

Alright, so we got our next solo cup here and this one has this, the standard issue maker's mark. Yeah. 90 proof. Can't beat it. Can't beat it, get it anywhere. And a little bit more of that Seagram's ginger ale.

Yeah, probably one of the most recognizable bottles on a shelf with that red wax. You know, you go to a bar, you'll see that old black label, Jack Daniels. You'll see that Jim Beam and you'll see this Maker's Mark.

All right, two ice cubes, four ounces of ginger ale and an ounce of Maker's Mark in this case. Let's check it out. Cheers. Cheers. Now I can taste the whiskey in that one. You can? Yeah.

I'm still not there yet.

Yeah, no. I mean, it's not where I'd like it to be, but we're going to put them all at the same concentration, right? They're all going to be at the same ratio because that's the best way to do it. But I will say this much, that little bit of extra proof, that extra little bit of proof there has made it show up a little bit for me.

So you think that's that key?

Well, I don't know if that's the key, but I can definitely tell there's some alcohol in this one. The last one I had trouble even telling was bourbon in it.

Yeah. I'm still, you know, I guess this wouldn't be my choice right here. Yeah. I'm going to be with you there, Mike. I'm going to agree with you.

I think that, um, definitely not quite there yet. Not quite there yet. And you know, when you go to a bar and you get a pour, you're typically going to get an ounce and a half. And about six ounces, right?

Yeah, I guess it depends on the bar. You know, usually the high ball glass is nice and tall. You're going to have a lot of ice in them though. A lot of ice. Probably you said four to six ounces of some type of soda in there and an ounce and a half. So we're right there. We're right where we need to be. Probably a lot more ice in there and you get a lot more watered down drink.

Yeah, it's just not cutting it for me. I think I'll be honest with you, Mike. I think I make mine quite a bit stronger than this.

Four ounces of ginger ale, four ounces of bourbon. You got a hell of a mixer out there. I think that's about right.

What I usually do now, I'm just going to tell you how I do mine. So I'll grab any cup, whatever the cup is, it doesn't matter. And I'll put a good amount of ice in it, whatever that amount of ice is, say a third of the way or a quarter of the way up the cup. And then I'll cover the ice with bourbon, whatever that is. and then I'll pour in the other until I fill up the cup. A splash of soda. So let's say it's a third, which is probably what it usually is. So I'm usually at 30% bourbon and ice, and the rest is whatever the mixer is. Wow. That's about right. It's about the same as what we're doing, isn't it?

Yeah. It's not too far. I was thinking that we were at USA Cares that night, and we both had these gigantic rock glasses. I mean, them rock glasses are pretty hefty. And then bartenders, they did not care.

They were giving us four to six ounce pours of bourbon. Yeah. Oh my gosh.

By the end of that night, I was feeling pretty good. We, and we probably, we must have walked. Well, we walked one block, two, two blocks, city blocks. And then we walked back two blocks. So yeah, we, we did a little in a little blocks. I don't know how the standard length of a block is with city street. Yeah, I don't know. We walked a good long ways and it was hot out the other night. Yeah. I think it was a hundred degrees. It was a good hot night. Yeah. Hot night in the old town. I wouldn't recommend that people do without what we did.

All right, Mike. Well, I'm kind of in your boat here. I think that for me, the bourbon showed up a little bit more in this one, but it's still not quite apparent. I just feel like I'm going to just, I'm just going to say that I think that a weeded bourbon is kind of for so far, it's not proven to be the right choice. I don't know. I think the last time Last time around, didn't larceny win? Yeah, but that was with Coke. With Coke. That's different. This is ginger ale. Ginger ale is spicy. You think it needs spice with spice? I think it needs spice with spice. I wouldn't be surprised if a rye wouldn't be the right choice, but let's, let's see what we get.

Well, we only got, well, when we got, I'm looking at several rye bourbons or rye whiskeys over on your shelf, but we got six whisky or bourbons picked out for today's show and stuff. Well, heck, let's move on to the next one, Jim.

All right. Let's move on. All right. So in this cup, we have larceny at 92 proof. This is also a weeded bourbon. So the proof has climbed just a little bit more.

Yeah.

We have changed our ginger ale this time. What do we got, Mike? Some of that Schweppes. Yeah. Schweppes. Yeah. So in the first two bourbons, we had Seagrams. Now we've got Schweppes. Gotta change it up a little bit. Change it up. Now, some people might say that's not fair, but you know what? This is our damn show.

Well, I just, you know, there are so many different choices of ginger ale out there, Jim. You know, and you might be in a different region. Trust me, the drink I wanted to use was LA1 because that's a Kentucky thing. But I'm not positive everybody across the nation or across the world can get L8-1 or even if they know what it is. You know, I got some L8-1 in the fridge up here. You know, we were talking about another one was Verner's and I believe Verner's is an Ohio ginger ale.

Yeah, I think you can get it in the store here though. I've seen it before. In fact, I've bought it by mistake. Melody, my wife, is kind of partial to Canada Dry. So, when I brought home the Werner, she's like, oh, that's not the same. I think a ginger ale is a ginger ale, but obviously to somebody who knows their ginger ale, it's not the same. I guess Verner's is Detroit. Okay. Close enough to Ohio. That's right. All right. Well, let's check this one out. Okay. Now, each step we take, the bourbon seems to stand out just a little bit further. It's like Simon says, and this bourbon steps forward one step.

We moved it up three proof points, but historically, larceny has been known as a good mixer. Yeah. You know what?

It did win our Coke challenge, right? Which we were both shocked at. We kind of did that blind. We're not doing this one blind. That was blind. That was completely blind. And we were both taken by surprise. But certainly, Larseny and Coke was our winner. And I have to say, it's definitely standing up in this a little bit better. Now, the ginger ale has changed. The ginger ale did change. And I don't know if that has a major thing to do with it. Yeah, this is a little less spicy. This ginger ale is a little less spicy, a little more sweet. Got a little sweetness to it. A little more sweet. So I guess that would allow the bourbon to shine through just a little bit more. But I could tell this larceny is just holding up. I looked in the glass and I was like, this is a little darker. Yeah. I wouldn't complain. If somebody poured me this in a bar, I wouldn't complain a bit. Well, man, we did pour it in the bar.

Yeah.

No, you're right. I wouldn't complain. I'd be happy with this right here. You know, the other night I had, I told the bartender, I said, just make me whatever, you know, and she made me up a, um, some kind of a cherry bourbon something. And I gotta say it was one of the worst bourbon drinks I've ever had before. I took a couple sips of it. Viv took a sip. I think Mel took a sip of it and we all agreed, uh, Cruz's wife, Chris Cruz's wife was there with us, uh, Amber and, uh, None of us liked it, but everybody's like, what is this? And I said, she made some kind of cherry bourbon thing up. And I learned my lesson right there. Never go up to a bartender and say, make me whatever.

Well, and honestly, there are different levels of bartenders, right?

Oh yeah, for sure.

And when you go to an event that has a open bar, that person standing behind it's not necessarily a mixologist. or, you know, right?

Oh, for sure. She was working on a great event that we were at, but at the same time, she was having fun trying to make it something. She was. And, uh, God bless her heart. She'd poured a lot of drinks at night for a lot of hours. She stood there. A lot of bourbon got poured, but I, what I should have done was stuck to the maker's market.

Now, afterwards, we did go out on town, hit a few spots, and you did have one heck of a whiskey sour.

Yeah, I did a pre-prohibition whiskey sour called the 1870 sour, made with old Forster's 1870 bourbon. Really, really good. If you want one of a more tart whiskey sour, a sweet, probably right up your alley. The thing I'm about is if it's going to be a whiskey sour, I always ask is it pre-mixed or is it a real whiskey sour with egg whites? I probably will never drink another pre-mixed whiskey sour in my life.

You got to have the egg whites unless of course you're vegan and there are also alternatives there. Sure. But definitely the egg whites make a difference in whiskey sour.

Now what I did learn the other night about a whiskey sour As traditionally, they also had some red wine in them. Oh, do they? I did not know that. I didn't know that either. You learn something every day. The first whiskey sour mentioned in any articles or anything was in 1870, Jim. which just happened to be the same year as that whiskey was in that whiskey sour of the night. I kind of felt that was cool. Um, but the whiskey sour is really not that old.

Well, I have to save this one for what whiskey, what bourbon makes the best whiskey sour.

Well, maybe that that's next year's episode. Next year's episode.

For now we're talking about ginger ale high balls. And I would say so far, From the three we've had, we started out with Rebel, then we had Makers, now we're having Larseny. I'm going to say the Larseny is taking the game so far. It's been the king of the Wheaters for sure, most certainly.

You know, going back to that Whiskey Sour conversation, Jim, and talking about a show for next year, maybe we can get our good friend Heather Webbles. to do that show with us. She can throw down on some cocktails. I bet she can make one hell of a whiskey sour. She said she could. I believe her. So folks, if you want to hear a show like that, let us know. If you enjoy these shows like this, let us know. We really appreciate it. Well, in this first half, Jim, we got one hell of an event we're about to go to, right?

Yeah, I'm real excited about it. So August the 6th, Mike and I are heading south with our wives. We're going down to Franklin, Tennessee.

What's the event, Mike? We're going to be at the Southern Whiskey Society put on by Maid South, our good friend, Chris Thomas. It's going to be at a place called The Factory there in Franklin, Tennessee. Tickets are still available. You can go get them.

Yeah, and Southern Whiskey Society is not. Well, it is kind of a club. It's a club where you buy your membership once a year with a ticket to the event. Well, one hell of an event too, Jim.

Ten shifts. over 30 distilleries. He's added a couple since the last show we did with him. Just the 10 chefs alone, I'm excited about. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I've been before, Mike, this will be your first trip, but absolutely amazing. Some of the small bites that these chefs put forward, but the Bourbons have got me real excited also this year.

He's not only got four picks, but he actually added a fifth pick from a maple barrel, which is a bourbon barrel that had maple syrup put into it by our good friend up there in Ohio, Seldom Seen Farms, old Kevin Hotley.

And they took that maple barrel back, poured whiskey into it, aged it,

I don't know, two or three months, four months. It's been a while since we did that pick and it's still aging. Some amazing whiskey. Some really good whiskey.

Now, those bottles will be available at the show. A few lucky people are going to be able to buy some of those.

Yeah.

You can certainly buy a ticket to this event and there are two different tickets that are available. There's a ticket with a bottle with a pick and an event entry only, which doesn't include a bottle, right?

Yeah. Another person that's going to be on site possibly with us listeners is our good friend, Chris Cruz and his wife. I think they're going to try to be down there. Jim, we're going to have our gear set up on stage. Yeah. We're going to try to get a couple of people on the show. If you're a roadie and want to be on a show, buy a ticket, buy a ticket to the Southern Whiskey Society down in Franklin, Tennessee on August 6th. Come hang out with us. Come eat some amazing food. Come drink some spectacular whiskey We'll have a hell of a time. We will have a good time.

All right, Mike Well, let's take a short break and when we get back three more, sir Man Jim, you know what?

I've really been enjoying lately. Oh, you're gonna tell me oh some of that seldom seen farms maple syrup that's been aged in bourbon barrels. It is absolutely delicious. Not only in a cocktail, but you can cook with it, right?

You can, you absolutely can. Now, Mike, Kevin just sent me a new shipment. So I got a little bit more and I've been making some beef jerky lately. Really? Yeah. Now I know you're the meat master, but I tried my hand at it. I said, you know, I want to make some beef jerky and I've got a pretty decent beef jerky recipe and it's got a little bit of soy sauce, a little bit of Worcestershire, a little bit of, you know, onion powder, garlic powder, those kinds of things. But I always put brown sugar in it. Well, this time Kevin sent me a bottle of his granulated maple sugar. Wow. And I decided that I was going to substitute the maple sugar for the brown sugar. Oh, game changer. Let me tell you. Total game changer. Total game changer. Some of the best beef jerky you've ever had. So I'm going to make another batch here in about a week and I'll be sure to get you some.

Man, that sounds delicious. Vivian took and we just got an air fryer like most people got these days, right? And she took and soaked fresh pineapple in that maple syrup and then put it in the air fryer and it kind of crisp up a little bit. Oh, sounds good. It was just magically delicious. And people probably wonder why we love it so much. Kevin competed in the Maple Festival last year, 2021, and he was named grand champion. That's saying something.

So Salem Seam Farms. grand champion of the 2021 Maple Syrup Festival.

Yeah. Wow. That's saying something. Yeah. You're going up against some heavy hitters in Maple Syrup. And I know we're talking about just the syrup, but that's something to be proud of. Hats off to you, Kevin, for winning that. Kevin's also competing in a couple other competitions. Make sure you check out his website. Check out his social media on Instagram and Facebook. You won't be disappointed. If you want to buy something, from him. Where can they go, Jim?

You can go to seldomseenmaple.com and Kevin and his crew, they've got a great website, very easy to navigate. They've got all their products on there. You can buy their maple syrup by the bottle. You can buy it by the case. You can buy that sugar. Oh my goodness, Mike, that stuff is so good. And they've got some other gift sets there too, so you definitely want to check it out.

Well, he's also going to be in some distilleries pretty shortly here. Some distilleries that I love and I know you love. He's going to be down Leapers Fork. You could find a syrup down there aged in their barrels. Trudy Oak down in Dripping Springs, Texas. I was just out there. His syrup is going to be there. Awesome. And at Garrison Brothers in Texas, if you think you love some maple syrup, make sure you go to Garrison Brothers and pick up a bottle from them also. Kevin appreciated. I know he loves people. You're supporting a local farmer, a local product, a small family. This is no factory place that's putting out maple syrup, right, Jim? This is a good man doing good work. Yeah, gotta love it. Well, make sure you check out his site, like Jim said, seldom seen maple.com. Pick up the bomb good day.

All right, so next solo cup and we have Four roses. This is the 80 proof. Yeah. But four roses has a little bit of spice in it. We're still drinking the Schweppes ginger ale in this one. Same as with the larceny. Yep. So I'm ready to check it out.

Yeah. A lot of people don't see this four roses, but you will see it as a well whiskey. About a 20, $25 bottle. Um, you'll especially see it around here in Kentucky, but mainly over in Japan. Um, that part of the world, you will see this bottle a lot. Very, very popular over there. Cheers.

We went downhill a little bit. Yeah, I think we did. 80 proof. I think we're starting to get the idea of what's going on here. I think proof is in the pudding. Is that funny? No, proof is important to a high ball.

Yeah, I think it is. I think you need to be that north of 90 for sure. This is just a

You know, it wasn't just the weeded. It was... No, and you know, I was starting to think that it might be, but then, you know, the larceny kind of showed us that a weeded bourbon can make a decent ginger ale high malt. So, I'm guessing that now that we've had this first rye bourbon and this four roses, and we find out that it's a step down.

Little bit. Now listeners out there, this is going to be our fourth pour and really it's our fifth pour because we did a review before this show. So if we start getting silly, let us know. Well, I was going to lead into Jim is listeners go onto our website and read the blogs or articles that we write. Um, I actually wrote an article about how to kind of properly set yourself up to, uh, to drink like this, what we're doing right now. Jim, you fed us one hell of a meal tonight. A big old gigantic steak. I think that thing was two inches thick. Costco Costco's got the stakes now, don't they? Uh, with some asparagus, uh, some roasted, uh, potatoes. And then you fed me some cheesecake. So you made sure. that I follow the truth of that article and that make sure you eat before you drink and stuff. We drank a little bit of red wine out there tonight, but one hell of a night. I can't thank you enough. It's always nice to break bread here at your house with you and have a great conversation up there.

We talked about all kinds of stuff. It's always nice to have you in Vivover. We have such a great time when you're here and we have such a great time. We come to your place. We were talking about taxes, though. We talked a lot about taxes tonight.

You know, both at that age where, you know, taxes matter.

Yeah, they do.

Taxes. I hate to say it, but they do matter. Oh, yeah. What you get for your taxes really matters. That's what we're kind of we're talking about. What kind of services you get for your taxes.

One of the other things that you mentioned in your article, Mike, is how much or how important it is to hydrate.

Most definitely not. We're not talking about hydrate with soda or fruit juice or anything like that, or hydrate with a high ball. There's water in that ginger ale for sure, but it's not the same. Yeah. Make sure you're drinking plenty of water. Make sure you drink two cups before you go out drinking. You know, one of the things you always stick to is you're like, Hey, I'm gonna have a drink and then that'll last me an hour, but also have a water. Um, You know, I see a lot of people like something wrong with you because I'm always, if you see me drinking somewhere, I usually have a cup of water with me. And I think that surprises a lot of people that I always have some water with me.

I mean, if you, if you just have a simple rule that, you know, equal volumes of whatever you're drinking and water, you won't have an, you'll feel so much better the next morning. Yeah. And it doesn't mean you're drinking less. You're just keeping hydrated.

A lot of people were surprised by that though. They're surprised that, I would drink so much water. And then at the end of your night, make sure you drink two full glasses of water before you go to bed. You know, if you get a little older like us. You gotta get up at three o'clock. You gotta get up three o'clock, take a pee. That's just, that's just the way it rolls. But yeah, make sure you hydrate, make sure you eat properly. I put on there the food that you need to eat or what I like to do. And the charcuterie trays are, um, They're there for a reason, usually, if we're drinking and stuff. I want to make sure everybody has a good time, but the food is there for a reason. Yeah.

And if you're out and you're drinking and you're, you're keeping up with your water and you're keeping up with, you know, taking care of yourself, but on the way home, you stop at Taco Bell, make sure you take that Prado sec.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I tell you what, there was, I think we both needed something the other day. We'd eaten something at a place and It didn't settle too well. Burnt. Pressel.

I don't even want to talk about it, Mike. I mean, it just it just brings up back all kinds of bad memories. I'm not going to name the place because maybe they were just having a bad night. But man, sometimes you get nasty bar food and it just leaves a lasting impression in your mind.

I won't go back there for a while. I have never seen anybody fry the inside out of a French fry before.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh. It was disgusting. Those were almost square potato chips.

It was after midnight and that cook wanted to be at home, but it was nasty.

Oh yeah. Yeah. It was bad stuff.

Well anyway, well let's move on to our next one. Let's move on. All right, all right, all right. So in our next solo cup, we've got, we changed ginger ale this time. We did, we got Canada Dry. All right, this is Melody's favorite. And it's the one that's in our house most of the time. This one right here is? This is the one that's in. Now, we normally have the zero calorie version of it. And for me, you know, there is a big difference in the flavor between the zero cal and the regular. But like with any diet drink, once you drink it for a while, you just don't pay attention to it. And I would say most of the time I drink ginger ale, just the can of ginger ale.

I mean, I'm just having a soda. Sure.

Every now and then it'll be with a bourbon in it. But this time we've got very old Barton 100 proof. 100 proof. Now this is not bonded. I'm not sure what happened to their bonded. I haven't seen it in a minute.

The bottles almost look similar. Right on the very top, it would say bottled bond, but this one says crafted. So, there's a little bit of difference there. I mean, I guess just the age probably is what...

It could be or that this just doesn't meet the requirement for a single distilling season, single master distiller. So, they couldn't label as bonded. But nevertheless, we're dealing with what we know to be a very spicy bourbon. Right? One that is 100 proof, which is the highest proof yet tonight. Yeah. And one that probably has the best chance so far for standing out in our ginger ale.

Now what a lot of people don't realize is that very old Barton is a Sazerac product, right?

Yeah.

They own the business, don't they? So what else do they own? That big distillery right over in Frankfort? Buffalo Trace.

Yeah. So the Barton distillery in Bardstown has been one of my favorites to go on tours on. They probably have my favorite white dog coming off the still of any distillery I've ever been to. Well, you can't go to it anymore. You can't go to it anymore. It's done.

Yeah.

Now, I understand that. They've had a couple of incidents down there with failures of structure and so forth in the buildings and they've had some problems. So, I understand why they've had to stop that. But nevertheless, Barton is a good solid whiskey and I'm really looking forward to trying it in this ginger ale.

Now, me and you met this fella the other night, Jim. And he swore to both of us that Sazerac was bottled at Heaven and Hill.

He did. Well, you know what, Mike, sometimes we just have to nod our head and move on. Yeah.

I couldn't take it, Jim. I probably had too much makers in me and I was like, well, no. And we went through the whole thing, said, hey, Sazrax, I won't buy Sazrax. And, you know, why it probably is bottled in. there could be bottled in Bardstown at Barton 1792. They got a heck of a bottle in there. It's definitely not bottled over at Heather Hill. Yeah. I can't imagine it would be.

No, I don't think, I don't think they would allow that, but nevertheless, you know, sometimes we just, sometimes we don't say nothing back. Sometimes we have to, we can't help ourselves, but I had too much bourbon in me.

I had too much. All right. So very old Barton and

Canada dry ginger ale. Cheers. Cheers.

Yeah, that's pretty good. That's pretty good right there. That's the best one so far. I like that. That's spiced that. And we changed our ginger ale up a little bit this time. We're trying to do is also kind of figure out, Hey, what's the best ginger ale? But usually when you go to a bar, you're only going to get one. You don't get to choose. Yeah. They usually only have one or they'll have a Sprite or they have a seven up. Yeah.

Well, you know, I'm, uh, I'm partial to Canada dry only because it's what's, it's the house ginger ale here. That's what Melody chooses. And she picks a ginger ale for this house.

She's wearing those pants when it comes to ginger.

When it comes to ginger ale, she's wearing the pants.

This is a, I like the Barton in this, that hunter proof. A little bit of rice spice from that Barton.

Yeah, it stands out. It's a, yeah, it actually pairs very well with this ginger ale. Makes a good high ball. I think that this is overall probably by far, by a big leap.

This is my favorite one tonight so far. It's pretty good. Yeah, I like it. I like it a lot. A lot of whiskey news out there that has surprised us in the last couple of weeks, Jim. Jacob Call, the master distiller at Green River Distillery, is going to go ahead and leave them.

Yeah, and you know, things like that happen. So the distillery just sold. It was purchased by Barstom Bourbon Company, who was just recently purchased by an investment group out of Chicago. A lot of change going on there, and I can understand why there might be a little bit of a shakeup inside.

Yeah. And they, nobody really knows where he's going. I guess he's got a non, uh, compete until I think it's October 31st of this year. Um, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him show up somewhere else. Yeah.

Yeah. He's got a lot of experience. He's definitely got a great resume. I would definitely expect to see him pop up on our radar here in the near future.

Yeah. Uh, Jackie's I can, she had left old Forester. She's already with her new distillery, new bourbon.

What can you tell me about it, Mike?

So Jackie joined a team, almost like a little community of, I don't know what else to call them except for whiskey nerds, really. And they share a passion, and it's called Head Barn. You know, I drive down my road and I see all kinds of bars, right? But to them, it's all about fellowships. They've got Royce Neely, he's their partner and master of stiller. A lot of people know that Neely distillery. Neely family distillery, yep. Yes sir, yep. Royce is gonna be their master of stiller. And then Jackie, she's gonna be their master blender. You got Nate Winnegar. He's going to be their brand ambassador. Everybody sees him out there in social media. You know, you might notice him as 5280 Whiskey Society. Make sure you check them out. And then you got Matt Danker. He would be their operations lead. So he was a co-founder of 5280 Whiskey Society also. Pretty neat. I think hidden bar to me means something. It means something to them. I can't wait to taste their whiskey out there. I'm excited for Jackie kind of stepping out there with a new team and stuff. And I'm excited to see what they can do. You know, Roy Sneely, he's a big name in whiskey.

He is. Yeah. Royce, a lot of respect for Royce. We haven't had him on the show before, which we have. We certainly had Jackie on the show a couple of times. Yup. Yup. I would say let's work on getting her on the show and figure out what's going on here.

Yeah. Maybe we can get Royce and Jackie and Nate all together, three people, get them on the show, taste their whiskey. I'm excited about it. Yeah, me too.

All right, Mike. So, so far, I think we've got a winner here. Maybe not the winner, but the winner so far.

Yeah, it's a real close one between this and the larceny, but this right here had that spice to it. The hunter proof was there.

Hunter proof, I think is the key. I definitely believe like it is. So let's check out the next one. Let's do it. All right. So next red solo cup. We're still on the Canada Dry Ginger Ale. This is the last solo cups, Jim. This is it. This is it. We've got a whole bunch of dead solo cups over there. Yeah. Yeah. But this time we got 101 proof. What could it be? Wild turkey. Wild turkey and Canada Dry Ginger Ale. Now you think some people drank this before? I think I drank it before. Oh, you have? I guarantee it.

Well, those days the cheers.

Oh, I like that.

That's pretty good, Jim. That's really good. You know, it kind of rings a bell for me because that's exactly. I hate to say it, but that's exactly what I've had from time to time. That's my that's my house whiskey.

Well, I'd say, you know, I was telling you about this, you know, we're talking about me kind of shopping today. I pull out one wild turkey and then I pull out another one and then I pull out a third one. I'm like, I had three damn bottles of wild turkey over here at the house right now.

Yeah.

Which is weird for me to have, right? Yeah. It's not your go-to. All right. Trust me. They've all been drank out of a lot. I was like, man, this thing's got a lot of whiskey left or gone out of it.

Man, that's, that's a pretty darn good, Mike. I would say it's just, it's just a hair better than that Barton.

Like one proof. It's not a hundred percent proof. I think a little bit of the spice. Wild turkey is a little bit more of a sweeter whiskey than Barton is.

Yeah. I don't know. I, for me, these six whiskies, three different ginger rails, bunch of different mash bills, a bunch of different proofs. I'm going to say, And this is my jam right here. This is it right here. Yeah. Now you pick your jam.

Don't be, no, I, I, to me, this right here, surprisingly, um, to me, this is it right here because wild turkey paired good with it. I, like I was saying, I think while Turkey is a little bit sweeter of a whiskey than that Barton is, um, you know, two totally different distilleries, two totally different mash bills. Now, while Turkey, they say it's a high, Rye, but we know it really today standards.

It's not, it's not a high rise. So yeah, definitely not. I mean in its day while Turkey was the spicy high ride whiskey, but today it's just, uh, it's not even close. Yeah. It's not even close.

Well, Jim, we're going to be at some other great events too, right? We got the Kentucky bourbon festival.

Absolutely. Yeah. So, um, of course we've already talked about August the 6th, we're going to be in Franklin, Tennessee. Then in September, we're going to be at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. Mike and I will be present and accounted for.

I think it's 16th through the 18th down there. Still take tickets available. Make sure you go online. KY Bourbon Fest. Get your tickets now. wear that bourbon bullshitter t-shirt down there, I'll have one on. Jimmy, you'll probably end up with a bourbon road t-shirt on or something like that.

Something like that, but we may have a backpack or something with a few things to hand out to people we notice are wearing our swag, right?

We might have a recorder with us, try to get an episode out of it. But come down there, say hi to us, stick your hand out there, give us that old fist bumper and shake whatever you want to do. Hell, come up and give us a hug if you have to.

We'll be happy to introduce you to a few folks that we know and have a good time down there.

Yeah. I would recommend if you do buy tickets and there's VIP tickets available, make sure you get a VIP ticket. You won't be disappointed in the food in the VIP lounge or the whiskey that's up there.

Yeah. I mean, if your wallet can support it, a VIP ticket is definitely the way to go. It'll make a world of difference in your experience. If you're already spending a lot of money to travel to Bardstown, to get a hotel, to drive, to fly, to get a mission into the festival and experience all the things on the Bourbon Trail, if you're already putting all that cash forward, that little bit extra to get that VIP ticket, you'll be glad you did. Heck yeah, you will be. I mean, it's going to be a hot day. There's going to be a lot going on there, and it's a great thing to get into the VIP area and enjoy those pores, enjoy that food, enjoy that rubbing shoulders with the who's who.

Yeah, we got some good friends. I'm sure they're going to be there. Dad's drinking bourbon. John Edward Zeke. I know they'll be down there. Well, if our good friends over there at the bourbon lens, they will be there. Jake, Scott, Mike. Big Mark Rucker from Bourbon Life will be there. I don't know if Jason from the Master Drum is gonna come. If he's not, he better. He should. You got Mack and Logan from Basement Rick House over in Frankfort, Kentucky. I know they're gonna be there and having a great time with us and stuff. There's so many other people to list out that'll be there at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. And then on October 1st, Where are we going to be at, Jim? October 1st, Frankfurt, Kentucky. Yeah, for old Bourbon on the banks right there on the Kentucky River. Over 60 distilleries are going to be there. Yep. And mingled amongst them 60 distilleries is going to be this gigantic tent. Called the Bourbon Road Lounge.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And it's going to be full of roadies. It's going to be full of bourbon. There's going to be two bars in there. Yes. There's going to be one bar where

Leapers fork is flowing. You will actually get to meet royalty that day too, because we're going to have April Weller can trail in there pouring whiskey for Leapers fork. Absolutely. So part of the Weller family. Yeah. And then we'll have the Brody bar in there. You don't want to miss out there with that. If you want to help out with the bourbon road lounge, you want to help us sell some swag in there. It's a big sell for us that day. Last year, I don't know how many t-shirts we sold Jim.

We almost sold out hundreds of t-shirts, hundreds of t-shirts, hundreds of flats and decanters and camp mugs and Glenn Cairns. And it was a great day to see our swag going out there because we know everybody. is going to enjoy that stuff when they get it home. Yes, sir. And the Bourbon Road Bar was pretty much wiped out. Everybody got to drink from it who could show that they were a roadie. We're going to bring more bottles this year. More bottles.

We're going to have somebody actually attend in the Bourbon Road Bar this year. And that's what I was saying. If you want to help us sell swag, if you want to help us pour whiskey that day, October 1st at Bourbon on Banks, it's only five hours long. We can set up some shifts or something, but if you want to help out, send me an email, send me a DM. We would really appreciate your help. It allows me and Jim to get the experienced burger on the base and get the experienced listeners. It also frees up our lives a little bit, lets them enjoy the day a little

Yeah, this year I'd like to see them enjoy themselves and just, uh, you know, last year they worked so hard. He did such a great job for us.

We're too lucky news to have two beautiful wives, uh, that supports, uh, our hobby of the bourbon road. You couldn't meet two better women that just push us on down the road and say hey Let's get this this bourbon road thing going. Let's sell some swag. So come help us out roadies If you can let me know I might have some extra tickets extra passes to get you in for free Just let me know if you want to do that. Well, Jim Man wild turkey 101 Canada dry That's the jam it's a jam and I think both of those brands

both the Wild Turkey 101 and the Canada Dry are available nationwide, all 50 states. Probably worldwide. Worldwide. Worldwide. You can get it anywhere.

It's kind of like us.

Yep. Worldwide, you know? Yep. And if you only drink bourbon straight, neat, and a Glen Caron, cheers to you. But if you're willing to have a highball once in a while on a hot summer day, get off that lawnmower, get off that tractor, come inside from trimming the bushes. You're just wiping the sweat off your forehead and you need some ice cold drink to relax to. And it's not a beer for you. If it's a mixed drink, I say go for it. Ginger ale, bourbon. In our case, Canada Dry Wild Turkey 101, it's a winner.

Yeah. Jim, one more shout out to two guys that have helped us out this past year. It all kind of started with the festivals last year as Kevin Holley at Seldom Seen Farms and Chris Cruz at Cruz Customs Flags. They've been our sponsors for this entire year. And we can't thank them enough.

Yeah. Thank you to our sponsors. It's so great to have companies like that stand behind the bourbon road and believe in what we do. We're proud of what we do, but it's nice to have a company stand behind us and say, you know what? We love your listeners. We love the message that you're putting out there and we think our product's a good fit. So definitely thank you. to Chris and thank you to Kevin for trusting in the Bourbon Road. We wish you well. We hope to see you at all these events.

And man, what a great show, Mike. Yeah. Yeah. Man. Well, listeners, you can find us on all these social media platforms these days. You can find us on YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, main place. Facebook. Facebook. Don't forget Facebook. Well, I was about to get to it. We have a private Facebook group on there besides our main page is the bourbon road. We have the bourbon roadies You want to go in there and join gotta be 21 Gotta like bourbon, come on now. You also have to agree to play nice as we always like to say, whether you drink from the bottom of the shelf all the way to the top shelf. If you drink your damn bourbon with some ginger ale, we want you to go in there and be part of our group. You know, no rudeness.

We do two shows every single week. We do a craft distillery Monday episode every Monday where we highlight a single expression from a craft distillery. Sometimes it's a big boy, but usually just a craft distillery. We'll drink it. We'll talk about it. We'll give you our opinion. We'll let you know whether or not you ought to add it to your bar. Every Wednesday, we have a full-length episode like today's where we'll deep dive a subject like what bourbon makes ginger ale taste best. Sometimes we'll have a guest on. Sometimes we'll have several bottles. We'll give you some good conversation, give you about an hour worth of good content, 30 minutes to get you to work, 30 minutes to get you home every single week. Mike, two shows. How can they be sure not to miss a single one?

Well, listeners, you want to scroll on top of that app, hit that check sign, that plus sign, that subscribe sign. That'll make sure that app tells you, hey, these two jokers have a show out today and you need to listen. Well, we'd also like you to do a screw on down to the bottom of that hit that five star review and leave us some comments. Very, very important. If you don't, you know what's about to happen. A big bad booty daddy, a bourbon is going to come over to your house, drag in a wagon full of bourbon and another wagon full of ginger ale. You need two buffalo to haul that one. Just two big old buffaloes dragging them or the big chief just dragging them along by himself. Hey, We're going to drink it all night long. By the end of the night, I guarantee you'll leave us that five star review and some comments. But seriously, those comments, those reviews, open up doors to distilleries, get us inside to interview great guests. It also gets great bourbon in our hands to give you great reviews. We'd surely appreciate it.

All right. Well, Mike and I are very approachable. Make sure you reach out to us. And if you see us out in town, if you see us, at a distillery, you see us at a local liquor store. If you see us at an event, make sure you walk up to us, shake our hand, introduce yourself, tell us your bourbon story. We'd love to hear it. If you've got an idea for a show, if you've got an idea for a guest or a bottle or your local town has a distillery that's doing it right, make sure you let us know. We need that information. We need that content. We'd love to reach out to them and get a show going. You can hop on our website, go to the Contact Us page, Send us a note, Mike and I'll get right on it. You can also send us an email. I'm Jim at TheBurbanRoad.com. He's Mike at TheBurbanRoad.com. But like we always say, hit up our DMs on Instagram. I'm Jay Shannon, 63. I'm Big Burbin Chief. And we'll see you down. The Bourbon Road.