375. Christmas Cocktail Edition

Welcome to another great episode of the Bourbon Road with your host, Jim O'Brien, where they talk bourbon and of course, drink bourbon. Grab yourself a pour, kick back and enjoy another trip down the Bourbon Road.

We're very excited to have Blanton's bourbon shop.com is a new sponsor for the bourbon road podcast. In fact, this podcast is brought to you by Blanton's bourbon shop. Blanton's bourbon shop.com is the only official merchandiser for Blanton's original single barrel. Looking for a unique gift. Blanton's bourbon shop has got you covered. Blanton's bourbon shop.com is your home for all Blanton's gifts. The Bourbon Road is excited to have pintsandbarrels.com as a sponsor of this episode as well as our official custom apparel provider. Be sure to check out pintsandbarrels.com and browse their ultimate online store for bourbon loggers. Oh, welcome back to another episode of the bourbon road podcast. I'm your host, Jim Shannon. And today we're hanging out over at Brian and Leslie's house. They really got Christmas going on over here. They, they brought out all the decorations. They got the fireplace going. We've got cocktails. It's going to be a great night. Actually, this is our first annual Christmas cocktail edition. We think Brian.

I'm excited. I've been researching and researching and trying to come up with those perfect recipes.

Absolutely. So you have made a cocktail. I've made a cocktail. The ladies, Leslie, welcome to the show.

Hi, everyone. So glad to be here.

Yep. Melody, welcome back once again.

Thank you. Hello, everyone.

And so we've got four cocktails tonight. We're going to do kind of a little bit of a challenge. We're all going to see who comes out on top. This is nice to kind of compete a little bit, right? Absolutely. Sorry we didn't get to show out last week, folks. I was a little bit under the weather. Brian was unavailable, and we just could not make it happen. But we're going to make up for it this week with a better than ever show, first annual Christmas cocktail edition. And so this is the way the show's going to go. We're going to drink through two cocktails in the first half, two cocktails in the second half. We're going to talk about like who we think might've won the show. We're going to hand out the grand prize. I think it's just a pat on the back, right?

That's right.

But we'll make sure that all four of these cocktails get out and posted both on the website and on social media. So you'll have the recipes. You can try and make them yourself. I think these are four great cocktails. It's going to be a lot of fun. Some of them have bourbon. Some of them have a Tennessee whiskey. Some of them have just plain whiskey. That's right. It's not all bourbon, but that's okay. We're going to have a great time tonight. It's going to be a lot of fun. Merry Christmas, roadies.

Merry Christmas. It's a good way to get it started. It is.

Well, as always, we're going to get straight to that first pour. And what do we have? And this would be Melody with her cocktail.

Yes, this is called Wuthering Sunrise.

Wuthering Sunrise. Can you tell us a little bit about the recipe? Sure.

I have some larceny bourbon in there, mango, and other fun stuff. Oh, IPA beer.

Oh my goodness, IPA beer.

Yes.

So this is larceny, an IPA bourbon, a little bit of mango. There's some other stuff in there too, like?

Agave nectar, some lemon juice, and a dash of bitters.

Wow. Wow. All right. So let's check this one out. It really looks good. It's got kind of a tequila sunrise look to it. It looks like a sunrise. It does.

You had me at Mango.

Mango. You like mangoes?

I do.

Well, this particular drink was supposed to get the mango puree, but you cannot find mango puree in the store. I mean, it's pretty hard. So we had to make mango puree.

Mmm, like a little scavenger hunt.

Yeah, like a little scavenger hunt.

We'll all be on the hunt now.

So how much, how much, uh, larceny bourbon is in this drink?

One and a half ounces.

Okay. So typical one ounce pour, one and a half ounce pour. Cool. Cheers y'all. Let's taste it.

Cheers.

Oh my gosh. You definitely get that IPA beer in there.

That is delicious.

Yeah, it's really good. I don't know that I've ever had a cocktail with beer in it before. Have you, Brian?

I have not.

I have not, believe it or not. I've done like a Boilermaker before and I'm trying to think of what else. Like an Irish Car Bomb. Oh yeah. You know, that kind of stuff, but not like a fancy cocktail like this. This is like a, I guess it's kind of the color of a whiskey sour or like a tequila sunrise without the sunrise, right? Without the orange, I guess it would be.

It looks really nice up against the fire.

Yeah, it does.

It's a similar like toasty color.

Well, you guys are so festive for Christmas here. I mean, I see the tree and the fireplace and all the stockings and you got the fire rolling. You had the snacks out for us tonight. Couple little snacks. You guys like to do it up for Christmas.

We believe in being merry.

Merry.

No, we do. And it's so close to Leslie's birthday. It's kind of the birthday present to start decorating and all that good stuff.

So my birthday is actually right around Thanksgiving. OK. And I live for my birthday to be on Thanksgiving Day.

OK.

It is lovely to have a birthday around the holidays because it just feels very amplified. And I always like to pretend that around Thanksgiving we're just getting together to celebrate me and all the good food, all the family, all the good stuff. And it truly is the kickoff to Christmas in my mind.

Is it easier to get people to come to your party?

Oh, they don't have a choice.

They don't have a choice.

They're coming for the turkey and all the good stuff.

We usually do it two day. Thanksgiving event. And you guys came last year. I know this year you had plans and everything, but we usually do a two-day event. And the second day is just hanging out and having some nice boars. What do you call it though? Let's talk about that. Thanksgiving hangover.

Yeah. So Friday after Thanksgiving.

For years, we've called it the Thanksgiving hangover. And it actually started because my sister and brother-in-law were always committed on the day of Thanksgiving to his family. And so we would all kind of split on Thanksgiving. But then the Friday after, we made it a point to always be together. And so we started calling it the Thanksgiving Hangover. And now even all of our kids, everyone calls it the Thanksgiving Hangover. And for the first time this year, my oldest daughter, Lauren, was telling us that she was at school talking about not only how great Thanksgiving was, but how great the Hangover was. Oh my goodness. And I thought we're getting a letter. We are getting called in to the school. But thankful everyone was very understanding that it was just the name of the day after. But yes, we always do have Thanksgiving and then the Thanksgiving hangover.

So what do you think about this, Brian? Do you think that this has got something you can't quite put your finger on? I mean, I've got this, there's some kind of background flavor in this. I know it's the IPA beer. Which beer did you use in this? Founders All Day IPA, I think it was.

Yes, that was it.

I really like it. Yeah, I mean, I guess mangoes used in a lot of beers nowadays because there's a lot of fruit beers and I guess you get a lot of mango beers now. I know that one of the places we like to go has like a mango blonde, pretty popular. So I guess beer and mangoes kind of go together and you throw a little bourbon in there and some bitters. Why not?

I would definitely order this up, Melody.

Well, good. I'm glad y'all enjoy it. I thought it was good. I also thought with the name of it, Wuthering Sunrise, I thought this is a good New Year's Day hair of the dog drink.

Oh yeah.

I can totally see that.

Absolutely. Yes. When you called it Wuthering Sunrise, I thought about that book by Emily Bronte, right? Wuthering Heights. And then you looked it up and you said that was her one and only novel that she ever wrote.

That's right. One and done. She delivered a winner and...

Winner, winner, chicken dinner, and I'm done. I think we're going to need this on New Year's Day. That mango for me takes it over the top. Yeah, you like it? I love it.

So we use the Vitamix. And we took frozen mango and turned it into a puree.

Oh yeah.

I was hoping that they would have like a, you know, when you go to the store and you go to the frozen food section and they've got the frozen orange juice in the can, I was hoping they'd have like frozen mango. Okay, that'll be easy, right?

Ready for you.

Nope.

Melody, you know what, might even take this up just a festive notch, drop like a cranberry or two in it, just to give it some more color.

Yeah, or even I thought of a paracino cherry. Yes. Yes.

Spot on.

What is the mixer? There is actually a mango puree that's very good. It's Real. And that is a puree that is made actually over in Indiana. And they do all kinds of cool purees, coconut and all that good stuff. But it's like a really kind of a step up from what you would buy in the cans and different things like that.

Good to know, we're gonna have to go get some.

That may be what I try out on New Year's Day.

Well, I wish I had known that before I went shopping to help pick her stuff out today. She gave me a shopping list for a cocktail and I went out and I was like, mango puree, where the heck do you get that?

Now we know. Good thing that we learned.

Yes.

Well, this is a great drink. I think I'm ready to get on to number two. What about you guys?

This is a great pick, Melody. Yes, thank you.

Okay, write down your scores, keep track.

What's the range? One to 10? Just a winner.

It's your own scoring.

Good. All the way to fabulous. Whatever we pick. Yeah.

Okay.

We have our own scoring section.

There's nothing's less than average. So average to amazing. How's that?

I mean, we'll see how this one tastes. I can't promise anything.

Well, I don't know. It's pretty amazing looking. That's for sure. Leslie, what do you call this thing?

So we are calling this one the Charlie Brown's peanuts Christmas eggnog. Wow. And it is as fun to look at as I am sure it's going to be fun to drink.

It is pretty cool. So how did you make this rim on here? This is pretty cool.

So that is peanut butter, just a good dollop of peanut butter around the rim and then dipped in graham crackers.

Wow.

The presentation is very awesome.

I'm so glad you like it.

It's pretty cool. So what's in this drink?

So there is screwball whiskey, rum chata, my personal fave, at least right now. And then eggnog. And then again, the rim is peanut butter and graham crackers.

Wow, pretty awesome. Cheers y'all. Cheers. Cheers. Are you supposed to like eat stuff off the side as you drink it?

I think it's totally up to you.

Okay. That's pretty amazing. I'm trying to turn away from the mic because it's definitely a, a lip smacking.

You're crunching a little bit. Crunching. The peanut butter definitely.

So what is rumchata? Do we know? Is it just some magical thing that comes out of the South?

It's horchata. And I feel like it is of some kind of a Mexican origin or something. I have no idea. It's sweet and super creamy.

Wow, so I'm actually looking it up right now. It is a blend of Caribbean rum, Mexican spice, and Wisconsin dairy cream.

Oh, wow.

So there you go. That's cool.

Well, that is a fancy little mix.

So I've never had eggnog before in my life. Is that the cinnamon taste I'm getting? Yes. It's from the eggnog. OK. Yes. This is super good.

So eggnog is heavy whipping cream, eggs, cinnamon, and vanilla. Is that correct?

That's right.

I believe it's only egg whites though.

Is it actually? No. So I've made some eggnog several times and I can't say that I've had any real success. I tend to be the only one that drinks it. But, you take the eggs and you separate the yolk from the white and the yolk and some sugar and different things. That's what you mix first. And then you get your, I think it's heavy cream that goes in with that and you kind of boil that. And then you take the whites and you beat those kind of like very similar to what you would do for meringue or something of that type of consistency. And then you fold that in to the other mixture. And then you drop in your rum or your whiskey or bourbon or whatever it is.

In this case, it's rum and then rum chata and peanut butter whiskey, right? Rum chata has rum in it. It does. So rum and whiskey both in this one. Double shot. Who knew? Cheers.

And this is a pretty original recipe. So we, we saw something that was similar and then we did our own spin on it.

I will say, I think that this one would be best served chilled. super cold.

Now normally eggnog is served kind of chilled, right?

It is. And actually some people make it and you can actually let it sit for a very long time before you ever open it up and drink it. Um, but then when I think about eggs and I just, I, I can do it. Give me three days and it's going out.

Now I wonder what kind of whiskey they use in screwball.

That's a really good question.

That'd be a question to find out. I mean, I'd really like to know that because whiskey needs to hit a barrel. We know that for a fact. So I just wonder, it's probably some kind of a light whiskey, I would think, or something along those lines.

Yeah. And we got turned on to screwball when we went to Naples, Florida and Leslie just, she couldn't find something that she really liked to drink. And I was talking to the bartender, probably spent a little too much time talking to him, but he was awesome. And I said, I just can't find anything my wife really likes down here. Like, what do you got? And so he made a, what was it, Leslie?

A peanut butter pina colada.

Oh wow.

Which does not sound exciting until you have the first taste. Absolutely knocks your socks off. So good.

Unbelievable. So is it like, so a pina colada is typically rum and then cocoa kind of like coconut

Very coconutty.

Coconutty kind of stuff. So what do they do? They replace the rum with peanut butter whiskey? With the screwball whiskey.

I have to be really honest, Jim. I asked no questions.

Yeah, sure. I get it.

I just grabbed the straw and ordered a second and a third.

That sounds pretty good. Now, I know Melody likes to drink the peanut butter whiskey with a Pinot Noir mixed.

Yes. Oh, wow. It tastes straight up peanut butter and jelly.

That sounds very sophisticated, Melody. I bet I would really enjoy that.

You're going to try that, aren't you?

It's on the list.

Yeah. Yeah, it really is good. I think it does taste a lot like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Pretty good stuff. You know, screwball is a big seller. I mean, there's a couple of really big sellers today. One is Fireball. Fireball's huge, right? And then any cinnamon whiskey is doing really well these days and peanut butter whiskeys are doing pretty good too. And, uh, I'm, I'm not a huge fan, to be honest with you. I'm just, I'm just setting it straight. This drink is amazing. I do like it a lot, but as far as like taking a shot of peanut butter whiskey, not my thing.

What about you, Brian? I can't take a shot of it, but it's really good when you use it as a mixer. I don't think Leslie's taking a shot of peanut butter whiskey anytime soon. Are you?

I do not have plans to do that.

All right, so Christmas is coming. You guys have got this place really festive here. What are some Hyatt family traditions? What do you guys love to do at Christmas time? What's a big deal for you guys? I can see the stockings up on the mantle, fireplaces going, decorations are up, trees are up. Do you guys do anything special at the holidays?

I could give you a list of a bazillion things. We are so big on traditions and really creating memories and helping things really last through the years. One of my favorite traditions is Christmas Eve. Right before the kids go to bed, we all have hot chocolate and somebody very important reads The Night Before Christmas. I look forward to it every year. I can't let the night end without making sure that it happens. It started for me as a kid. And my dad read it every year. And not only did he read it, but the morning of Christmas, Santa would leave all the kids a note of the highlights of the year and what Santa had been watching us for. And over all the years of our childhood, those letters are actually what stood out. to me and my siblings the most as what we looked forward to and what we really found magical about Christmas. And now that Brian and I have kids, he reads The Night Before Christmas.

Very important person, by the way.

Very important person. And so the girls now, our kids, and even Brian's boys look forward to it as well.

That's awesome.

That is definitely one of my favorites.

I thought for sure you were going to say that I can't hold the present and always give it to you like a week before Christmas.

Oh, that is also definitely become a tradition that I'm a fan of.

I cannot hold on to it.

As soon as I get it, I'm like... Like you really want to see her open her gift, right? I do. Yeah. You know she's going to love it so much that you got to put it in her hands early.

All it takes is a little twinkle of the eye and I'm done. Do you like that, Leslie?

You know, I'm not big on surprises, so the earlier the better.

Yeah, absolutely. What about you guys?

Well, I think, you know, we have, we've kind of gone through the gambit. So we're, we're a little bit older than you guys. Our children are all in their late twenties and as old as 40. So we have grandchildren around now. So we've kind of gone through all the, the possibilities of Christmas. And, uh, what would you say the thing is that we have done that's kind of impacted you the most, Melody?

I mean, just getting our family together and sharing a meal and spending time, you know, trying to get everybody at the same time.

We've changed it up a few times. I mean, one year we adopted a family as a big family. We adopted another family and we all kind of took what we would have gotten for Christmas and donated it to that family. The little ones don't quite get it at first, but they do kind of figure it out afterwards when they get to hear about how wonderful a Christmas the family had. We've done that and we've kind of migrated from doing a lot of gifts to doing like a gift exchange, you know? And I think this year we're doing the gift exchange again. And we like to graduate the grandchildren to adults at 16. Not always a popular thing, but we do it. And, uh, yeah, it's not, it's not really about the gifts with us. It's more about just getting together and having a great time and enjoying family time together. And I would say the whole gift thing lasts about 20 minutes and then we're onto other things. Yep. But, you know, we've been through the whole gamut. I mean, we started with kids young and did the whole way too much for Christmas thing, you know? And I just think you just go through phases as you go through life and you kind of modify things. Do you find what works for you?

Yeah, we go through some of that. We're definitely, we've transitioned to doing Christmas Eve here at our house in Louisville instead of going to Lexington for three or four days.

Yeah.

So, and that's been, I think we've enjoyed that.

Yeah, I think when you're, when you're younger, you tend to, you tend to go to your family's homes, your family's, your parents' house. And then at some point you have kids and you have to do your own thing. And then like us, you get to the point where you're hosting all the time because you've got kids with kids and you just, that's just the way it works, right? It just kind of migrates through all that. It's, it's a wonderful thing. And I think we've enjoyed all phases of it. But wow, it's always fun season.

And Jim, I so agree with you. I do think that traditions can change over time, but it's the togetherness that really is the special and meaningful part of the holidays. And even when COVID hit and everybody kind of split up and went their own ways, I think that even just as us as a culture now are craving that togetherness again. So I'm looking forward to that over the next coming weeks.

Oh, absolutely.

All right, so we're gonna take a short break here. Brian and I have got some cocktails to mix up. When we come back, we've got the second half, two new cocktails, lots of fun. Stick around. Looking for a unique gift? Blanton's bourbon shop has got you covered. All of their hand-crafted wood products are made in their in-house wood shop with authentic bourbon barrels. Specializing in barrel-age potent treats, they use Blanton's barrels to age their own maple syrup, honey, and coffee. Find the most unique gift ideas for your golf lover, cigar connoisseur, avid coffee drinker, and Blanton's fan. Want to win an authentic Blanton's barrel head? Make sure you sign up for the giveaway on the home page of their website. Blanton's bourbon shop dot com is your home for all Blanton's gifts. If you're a bourbon drinker, and I bet you are if you're listening to this podcast, you need to head over to pintsandbarrels.com and check out the ultimate online store for bourbon lovers. Pints and Barrels Company was started by bourbon lovers for bourbon lovers. From spices to t-shirts, you'll find the perfect bourbon gift. Pints and Barrels proudly supports the bourbon road and invites you to visit pintsandbarrels.com. You need a custom apparel or swag for your bar, distillery, maybe even your bourbon society. They can do that too. As a matter of fact, they print our apparel. We're so happy with the quality and fast turnaround, pintsandbarrels.com, the ultimate bourbon lovers gift shop and branding specialist. We are back. What a fun half. Leslie's playing movie director over here, creating elf movies of all of us. I'm sure they'll end up on the Facebook page.

I will not deny you to see these dancing elves.

Well, we're definitely in the Christmas spirit for sure. All right, Brian, so we've got two more drinks for this half. You and I are now presenting. I think we both did a play on a mule, right?

We did.

Yeah. But let's start with yours. What do you say? Sounds good. All right. So what do you got for us today?

So I am actually using Jack Daniel's Single Barrel for this one. And it is a Tennessee Christmas mule.

Tennessee Christmas meal. Okay.

So we have, uh, the Jack Daniels single barrel, and then we have half of a lime. And then we've actually got the Sprite cranberry drink. So I don't know if you've had the Sprite cranberries, just Sprite with a cranberry flavor mixed to it. So, and that's it. Awesome. That's all I got.

Sounds delicious.

Let's check it out. Cheers y'all. Cheers.

Cheers.

Oh, that's tart. I like that.

It is tart.

You know, sometimes, sometimes drinks can be sweet and sometimes they can be tart and I like them both ways. This is nice. Yeah.

So this recipe normally calls for just the, you know, the regular run of the mill Jack Daniel's, but I had the single barrel. I thought I'd step it up a notch.

What's the proof on the single barrel? I'd have to go look. It's, it's, it's pretty high. No, it's up there. Yeah, it's up there.

Yeah, that's, that's really good. It is tart, but it's so refreshing.

Yeah. Kind of cleans your palate a little bit after that peanut butter. That peanut butter kind of coated your palate, right? It was really a nice, creamy, sweet, delicious drink. And then this one's kind of resetting us just a little bit after that.

You can almost have this on a really hot summer day. Or if you go to the beach for Christmas, it'd be great for that.

It's super fresh.

Yeah, it is. I would almost think a mint leaf would be good in this. What do you think about that? I think it would be too. But you've got a nice lime slice in there, really sets the mood. This is kind of a traditional meal, more or less, but it's got a little bit of that cranberry fun in it. Brian, when you were growing up, what was your favorite part of Christmas?

Probably for me and my brother both, it was going to the Christmas Eve service at church and then going to my grandparents' house. And my grandparents were phenomenal. They were so much fun. One year, they gave me a corn cob pipe and a pocket knife. I don't think you could do that these days, could you?

Corncob pipes, I think when I was young, it was kind of a thing, right? It was kind of a thing. I mean, you didn't smoke them. You just went around like Popeye.

I loved it.

Yeah. But a pocket knife. Yeah. I would say a lot of kids don't get pocket knives anymore.

No. You know, in my, I used to get a lot of pocket knives, a lot. And my mom always jokes. She's like, yeah, when y'all turn 18, I'll give them to you. She's still got them to this day.

What about you, Melody? Favorite Christmas memory?

My favorite Christmas memory as a child would have been to, well, we always had a lot of extended family over, but on Christmas Eve we got to open one gift and that was always fun. Something to look forward to.

So you got to open like a pre-gift, something before the morning.

Yep.

That's pretty cool.

Yeah. And then just family and food.

Oh, family and food. Now you're from Iowa. You had a pretty good sized family in Iowa when you were growing up.

Yes, I was one of five children. And then we had some extended family as well. So yeah, we usually had 15 or so people at our house.

Leslie, a fun memory from Christmas when you were a child. A gift that just like you still remember today, something that just happened that still sticks in your memory.

So I remember one of my favorite memories from Christmas from being a kid was we would always go to church the night before Christmas and then we would come home and similar to Melody, we would get to open one gift. And it had to be limited to one gift, but you could choose anything under the tree. And I remember looking forward to that with so much anticipation. But in terms of one of my favorite gifts, My aunt and I, Marianne, for several years in a row kind of jumped on the gag gift train. And I remember one year I got her Depends.

Oh my god.

And she thought that was hilarious. And then the next year she got me some very large bras. that we again thought was hilarious and just for a couple of years like it was just the back and forth of you know what was going to be funnier and what was going to be more kind of cheeky and it was just I still remember getting excited when she would come over and waiting to see what was I gonna open, what was she gonna open. I swear I laughed more at the gifts that I gave her just because I myself thought they were hilarious. But I still remember doing that with her for several years.

That's pretty cool stuff.

Yes, it was really fun. And I'm trying to think of some of the other ones that we gave each other. Oh my gosh, she would be so upset with me if I could not remember the really, really fun ones. But it was ongoing for several years. We should probably pick that back up. We should probably pick that back up.

I can remember one year our extended family came in for Christmas. That was not something that happened very often. my mothers, brothers, and sisters. And it just seems like everybody like descended on our house for Christmas one year. And it only happened one time in my life during that one time. And there was probably 30 people in our little three bedroom ranch house. You know, it was just crazy, but it was so much fun. We were sleeping in corners on the floor, wherever it was. That Christmas, I got this little toy. It was a, It was kind of a bazooka looking gun, but it took pictures. You pulled the trigger and it would take a picture. And the picture would be like a round frame. Instead of a square frame on the picture. And I went around the house taking pictures of the whole family. And we still have those somewhere. I have to find them. But that one Christmas when everybody showed up, it was pretty cool. And I had gone dove hunting and pheasant hunting like two weeks before and all my uncles were avid hunters, right? And I was a city boy, but I had gone dove hunting and pheasant hunting and I had bagged a whole lot of doves and pheasants and we cooked them up that dinner when they all came in and they were all in heaven. They loved it because they were all You know, Kentucky country folk, so pretty cool. That's awesome.

Lots of fun. Yeah.

That is fun. Good memories. Well, this is a great drink, Brian. I really enjoy this.

It's very good.

It's different than what we had the first round, so I think my palate's trying to get used to it. Well, the ladies were sweet, definitely.

They definitely brought the sweetness. We're bringing the tartness. I don't know if mine's going to be any different, but we'll soon find out. Um, I kind of hate to put this one down though, cause that, that lime is really starting to release its magic into this drink.

I agree. I feel like this is very delicious.

Brian, you might be on the short list. I don't know. I don't know. I wasn't expecting a lot. I was like, you know what? I'm just going to go simple, keep it pretty, pretty short and sweet. And, uh, Jack Daniels.

Yeah, awesome. Are we ready to move on?

Hold on. Let's do it. One last drink.

Yeah, one last swig of this wonderful mule that Brian made. The Tennessee Christmas mule you said, right?

Don't worry, folks.

All these recipes are gonna make it to social media. They're gonna make it to the website. We'll make sure that you get a chance to repeat these if you want to.

All right.

Next on our list is the drink that I brought this time. And this is also kind of a play on a mule, but it's not called a mule. This is called a buck. And if you go way back in time, way back to like episode, I'm going to guess I'm going to say episode four. Wow. We had Chef David Danielson on from the Old Stone Inn, which is no longer there, unfortunately.

That was a great restaurant.

What a great restaurant. And what a great chef. So he was the executive chef of Churchill Downs. And he actually had a small restaurant out in Simpsonville, out where we're from. And we went there and we interviewed him. And we had a wonderful time at his restaurant. But one of the things that his bartender introduced us to there was what was called the corn buck. So it was made with mellow corn. Mellow corn is a corn whiskey. And honestly, the history of Kentucky is sort of rooted in corn whiskey, right? So the corn buck was a drink that was popular back in the 1800s in Kentucky. So if you had a cocktail in the 1800s, there wasn't a lot to choose from, but the corn buck was one of them. A little bit of ginger beer and some corn whiskey and that was it, right? So this is called a Christmas bourbon buck. All right. All right. So this has an ounce and a half of, and this has got a Cedar Ridge full proof whiskey in it, barrel proof whiskey in it. Cedar Ridge is barrel proof bourbon. It's got a little bit of cranberry juice, some lemon juice, some crushed cranberries that are floating on top. Add a little, yeah, like I said, a little bit of cranberry juice. It's got a little simple syrup to add a little sweetness to it. So it's probably not gonna be as tart as yours, but let's check it out.

Jim, I have to tell you, I think that this is a beautiful drink. I am a fan of all things pink, and the cranberries give it just a hint of a shadow of pink, so thank you for that.

I muddled the cranberry, you're welcome. I muddled the cranberries, and as I was muddling them, they kept popping out of the glass. Because when you try to muddle a cranberry, it kind of squirts out. It's round. Yeah, it's round. It wants to pop out of the glass. It was a lot of fun, but this is, Well, let's see how it is. Cheers.

Cheers. Jim, that is killer.

Do you like it?

Yes. This just swept my vote.

Oh no. Are you serious? She's giving it away.

Clear winner.

Oh my gosh. You're not supposed to vote yet, but thank you. I appreciate that. That is very good.

That is, this is a really good drink. And I will say, if we're looking for a holiday cocktail drink, this actually captures that because there are cranberries floating and it's pink and red and very pretty. And then of course, Leslie and Brian have these beautiful glasses we're drinking. So that also helps.

Oh, sorry, Jim.

Actually, I've got the one odd glass, but it still looks fine in there. What does that glass say? It says, can't spell bourbon without BBN. Okay.

You're in a Kentucky household.

Go cats. My oldest son gets me glasses like that almost every year.

It's thoughtful.

It is very thoughtful. It is. This is a great drink, so I agree, Melody. This has a lot of holiday to it. Yes. And also, like, it's a little bit thicker. You know what I mean on the palette, the, what am I trying to say? Viscosity.

Yeah. I think when you muddle a fruit in a cocktail, I think it tends to add that extra something to it. Now this barrel-proof Cedar Ridge bourbon is 116 proof. Cedar Ridge is a distillery we had on about a month ago or so. And they loaded us down with a number of their expressions, uh, when we left and I'm glad to introduce their barrel proof bourbon in this cocktail tonight.

So, and really for one 16, it doesn't hit that hard. Like you're not Leslie. I mean, could you say that this is a really a higher proof? bourbon or whiskey, can you really like taste it? Does it come out? Does it, is it burning your palate? Like, does it taste strong to you?

It doesn't taste strong. It tastes strong enough, but it's not overpowering.

It's at the limit. You don't want it to be any stronger than that, right?

And that's pretty good for a 116. I think it's impressive.

116 proof is it's up there. No doubt about it. I'm just surprised that the cranberries, they add that kind of, almost like a, I don't know, like a.

Like a Christmas flair.

Yeah, Christmas flair, but I was expecting them to be overpowering in cranberry flavor, but they're not. They just add sort of a little bit of a sort of a nutty fruitiness to it. It's funny how it comes across.

When I think everything in there, it blends well together. It all plays nice.

Yeah, it's very good. Yep.

Wow. Four cocktails, all pretty darn good. I mean, I have to admit they're all very, very different. Even Brian, even yours and mine, both kind of plays on a mule. Very different drinks. So I'm, I'm excited to, uh, to get these recipes up on the website and let the listeners take their try at it. Hopefully we can get some pictures. That would be nice, too. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, we need to get that peanut butter rim.

That was pretty to look at.

We need to get a good picture of that. That's definitely best in show, right? I mean, that was pretty awesome. The presentation was nice. Yeah. So we got a couple more episodes that are coming out this year. We're going to have a blind bottle share still. We normally do one of those. I think we have done one of those every year on or about new years. Just before new years, we do a blind bottle share every year where we have a number of guests on the show. We're going to have a couple of roadies on this year. We're going to have a great time. Each guest on the show will bring a bottle. Brian, you were a part of that before. Yes.

Always a lot of fun.

Always a lot of fun. Each guest will bring a bottle. We'll taste through those bottles and we'll pick a winner. And then the winner is the kind of the, you know, the champion of the show.

That's right.

And, uh, I think we're going to try and have Stan Holder on. Oh yeah. Pints and barrels. What a great guy. Great guy. Sponsor of the show. He's going to, he's going to be up here sourcing some barrels during the Christmas season. We're going to try and get him on the show, drink a little bit of bourbon with him and have a great time.

Might laugh once or twice.

I think we'll laugh quite a bit. He's quite the character, is he not? Oh, he's so awesome.

He's a lot of fun.

Yeah. So got a few great shows left for this year. And next year, we've got a lot planned for everybody. So we hope you've enjoyed this show. We're definitely going to sit down here. We're going to contemplate and figure You know, I guess we're going to take a vote. How are we going to do that, Brian? Just raise a hands or? I think raise a hands. Perfect.

Well, we already know what who Leslie's already been raised.

I spoiled it. So do you want me to start it off?

Yeah, you can start it off.

Okay. What was this one called, Jim?

It's called the... Something Buck. Christmas Bourbon Buck.

Bourbon Buck. Okay. All in for the Christmas Bourbon Buck.

That's you.

Me? Anybody else? I'm going with that one.

I am not voting for myself. I'm sorry.

Well, a fun fact is I was going to make this drink and he stole it.

Cause I said, I said, I'm going to make the Christmas buck. And she said, I was going to make that. Oh, really? Yeah.

Great minds. Great minds.

Right. Right. All right.

So my inspiration behind it, Melody. That's right.

My vote is for the, uh, the peanut butter, Charlie Brown's peanuts Christmas.

I feel so flattered.

That was so awesome. I really enjoyed that a lot.

I'm so glad it was fun.

It was really good. It was really good. Well, we'll get some pictures. We'll get some recipes out there. We'll make sure everybody gets a chance to try and reproduce what we've done tonight.

Did you guys have a great time? Such a great time. And make sure to look on social media for the four of us as dancing elves. That'll be a fun little extra goodie to toss in for tonight.

So are we going to post that on the roadies page or is that going to be like, that's not going to be internet wide, is it? Is that going to be like tech talk?

I would just hold it on social media. It's an exclusive watch.

Yes.

Well, Brian, you're in charge of that. I would limit the reach.

Leslie can tell you, I am the least cheesy person on the face of the earth and that's a stretch for me, but we'll do it. Let's roll.

It's fun. It's fun. It's Christmas. Yes.

Well, thank you ladies for joining us tonight. We've had such a great time. It's been really fun to sit down and drink some cocktails together, celebrate the Christmas season. Get back from the funk of last week just a little bit. It was really nice. Like I said, folks, sorry we didn't get an episode out last week.

I think that was the first one we've missed in five years. Wow. Isn't that something?

But you know, when it happens, when it hits you, you just gotta take care of yourself.

Yeah. Life happens and the roadies were so gracious.

They were, absolutely.

It was lovely to be here tonight. Thank you.

Thank you for hosting. This beautiful Christmassy house. So wonderful. The fire is roaring. Oh yeah. Might be able to hear it a little bit.

We are alive with Christmas spirit.

Absolutely. All right. Well folks, you can find the Berman Road on all social media outlets. You can find us on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, threads. Oh my goodness. Twitter. Twitter. What else? X. X. Sorry about that. We're on all the social media outlets. We also have a website called the bourbonroad.com on there. You'll find all of our articles. Brian's been pumping out a few blogs here. You'll find our swag on their t-shirts, glasses, all the good stuff that helps us get down the Bourbon Road. Bourbonista. The Bourbonista t-shirt.

Absolutely. Check it out. So good.

All right. So we hope that you enjoyed this show. And we hope if you have an idea for another show, like a guest or another whiskey you'd like to see on the show, you'll let us know about it. You can hop on the website. We've got a Contact Us page. Just hop on there and type Brian and I a little message. Let us know what you're thinking. If you've got a distillery in your hometown that's doing it right, let us know about it. We'll reach out to them. Every Wednesday we put out an episode, every Wednesday except last anyway, right? Every Wednesday we put out an episode and we hope you'll listen to every single week. And one way to make sure Brian, that they don't miss one. Click that subscribe button. Go to the top of that app you're on, hit that subscribe button. You'll get a notification letting you know that The Bourbon Road, Jim and Brian have put out another episode. You won't want to miss it. But until the next time, we'll see you down. The Bourbon Road.

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