95. Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel Straight Bourbon Whiskey

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.

We would like to thank our friends at Premium Bar Products for sponsoring this episode. If you're ready to step up your game at your home bar, check out premiumbarproducts.com to choose from their wide selection of glassware, all of which can be custom engraved with your personal message or logo. And there's no minimum order. So after the episode, head over to premiumbarproducts.com and check out everything they have to offer. Now let's get on with the show. Hello, everybody. I'm Jim Shannon. I'm Mike Hyatt. This is the Bourbon Road. And Mike, today is another Craft Distillery Monday.

Yeah.

We're drinking. Well, can you call them a craft distillery?

Heck, no, you can't. Maybe back in the early 1700s.

Well, what they do is a craft. definitely a craft but they're not a craft of story so to speak but nevertheless who do we have today so we got Elijah Craig toasted barrel this is the toasted barrel this has kind of been on my radar on your radar how'd you get a bottle of this you know when you know people you know people and our friends over at paradise liquor and wine James he's

Told them I needed a bottle of it. And knowing you're nice to people, sometimes they're nice back to you. Now to be, for all our listeners out there, I'm going to tell on Jim, we've already reviewed this once.

So we've already recorded a full episode, well, Crafty Story Monday episode on this bourbon.

I don't get away with anything, Mike. I'm going to tell everybody. So Jim was like, we're recording and we have some lavalier mics when we get a little bit lazy and we're just like, we're in a rush. We'll have a small recorder with lavalier mics. We'll clip them on ourselves, do a little test. So we, and we do these in batches. We'll usually do three, three of them at a time.

Oh my God. People, people are getting to see behind the curtain now. Wizard of Oz. Yep.

I'll pull it back, Jim. So we'll do, let's say two to three sometimes. And you got up, took your lavalier bike off. Otherwise it's going to pull me halfway across the room too. And I think you actually got up to give us some water to rinse our glasses out. We sat back down and never put that lavalier back on. We pressed the cord and we thought it was a great episode.

It was a great episode because I actually listened to it and struggled with whether or not we should go ahead and like do the best cleanup on it as possible and put it out. But you know, standards are just a little too high for that.

There's nothing wrong with that though. Hey, mistakes happen. I'm fine with it. I'd rather us be honest with each other and say, Hey, you know, we messed up and I can mess up all the time, Jim.

So I'm still pretty excited about this because it has been probably a week since we did that. Maybe a little bit longer.

Yeah, I think it was last week.

Okay. And since then, we've had just a few bourbons. Just a few. And I've kind of forgotten this one. So this is almost like a first sip anyway. I'm sure it'll kind of bring back memories, but nevertheless, we're talking about Elijah Craig, toasted barrel. What's the proof on it, Mike? 94 proof. Same as the standard Elijah Craig, same bottle as the standard Elijah Craig, a little bit different labeling.

Yeah, you'll see above all the proofing and everything, you'll see the, not the toasted barrel. And then on the neck where you might see on Elijah Craig barrel proof, you'd see that little black band with gold around it. It would say barrel proof. This one says toasted barrel. So yeah, I think it's a, And it even says our small batch bourbon finished in toasted new oak barrels. Okay.

So we've got a small batch bourbon. How small? We don't know. Cause small batches can mean anything from a barrel to 200 barrels, depending on who you're talking about.

Well, this is heaven hill. So they, did they go a thousand barrels?

I don't know. It's still a special release. So I don't, I doubt very much that it is, but you never know those guys are, No, they're making 1300 barrels a day of whiskey.

1300 barrels. 1300 barrels a day. That's a lot of whiskey.

Well, that's the number I heard on a visit a long time ago talking to Danny Potter. Danny Potter has been gone a while. It may be very well much more than 1300 barrels a day now.

That's just crazy. I know it.

Well, anyway, so on the shelf, it might appear to be the same. It's definitely a little bit different. This is a special release of something that we've both been looking forward to. We have tried it already, but my brain doesn't work as well as it used to, and I'm already forgetting it. So Mike, let's check it out. Cheers. Cheers. Yeah. So the nose on it is sweeter for sure. It's picking up from sweetness from that secondary barrel. It's that campfire s'mores. Yeah. Toasted marshmallow. Yeah. S'mores. Absolutely. Got that graham cracker in there a little bit.

Honey graham cracker. But I'm not getting the chocolate. No, I get you on that.

S'mores minus the chocolate maybe.

That chocolate part's a messy part anyways. Yeah. Can't ever get it melted properly.

But it does, it does have that, that kind of an almond, that almond flavor, that almond nose to it that I get from Heaven Hill products sometimes.

Yeah. That's that standard expression, right? That's that something they're known for. A little bit of Florida's on this, that toasted barrels coming out, a little bit of oakiness is coming out of that nose. I got to taste this. Yeah.

It's a rich nose. Mike, I tell you, I, you know, I've always been a fan of Elijah Craig. This one's got a little something extra to it. Let's taste this thing. All right. Yeah. Definitely amped up the sweetness on this one. Who sings that song?

I'm in heaven.

Is there only one song that says that?

I don't know. It's probably several, but I'll tell you what, this is pretty damn good. Yeah. It's a, it, the nose matches the palette.

And this is about an eight year bourbon. I would expect it. I mean, it's got some nice darkness to it. And if the second barrel is toasted, I would imagine it wouldn't pick up a great deal of color off that second barrel. Do you?

I don't think it would pick up a whole lot, but I think this is a little bit darker than the standard expression though.

Boy, I tell you what, after tasting it, you go back to the nose again and it just sort of amps up that marshmallow, that toasted marshmallow nose on it.

The pallets really good. Very sweet upfront.

First, first impression on the front of the pallets. Yeah, that's a lot sweeter than I remember Elijah Craig being. Elijah Craig's always been that cherry bomb for me.

Getting a little bit of Rice Krispie treats in this. And that's that marshmallow coming through. Yeah. With that cereal and that Rice Krispie treat is that toasted part probably.

Yeah. I'm getting a little bit of that sweetness that you get from a, uh, Rebecca Ruth bourbon ball, that, that, that white center. Oh yeah. Um, I'm not getting a lot of the cherry that I get from a normal Elijah Craig. Uh, but I am getting that bourbon ball and I kind of like that.

Well, you can't go wrong with some bourbon balls, right? That's right. Especially the boo-boos.

I'm getting a hint of cocoa on the pallet. I wasn't getting it on the nose. So that pallet's almost completing that s'more, giving it that third part it needs. Like cocoa powder? Yeah. Yeah. Definitely not like a chocolate, more like a cocoa powder.

A little bitter, not too bad, but a little dry, a little bitter, but definitely cocoa. Which your mom would have put in those no-bake cookies. Yeah, there you go. You remember those, your mom make those? Yeah, I've had no bakes before. That's like my favorite cookie of all time.

Absolutely. Yeah, the color on this is a bit darker, like I said, and they've definitely enhanced the standard Elijah Craig will release a little bit here, I think.

Yeah, I think it's wonderful. It's like going back to those no bake cookies when my mom would bake those or she'd make them, right? She put them on tin foil on the counter and she'd leave them there. They wouldn't last very long because me and my brother tear them things up while they're still gooey and good.

You know what I'm talking about? I do.

I do. Did you get your hand slapped a couple of times? A few times, a few times. That's some good childhood memories though and stuff. And my mom used to make this stuff called pink salad. And Vivian knows how to make it to this day. She sat down with my mom over Thanksgiving and learned how to make it. And every Thanksgiving I'll say, Hey, can you make that for me? And even if my brother comes, cause his wife doesn't know how to make it. Um, he'll ask Vivian like, Hey, are you going to make that pink salad for us? You can make some of those no bake cookies. You're going to make this other stuff that my mom would make when I was growing up is Mississippi. Mississippi mud cake and it would be like fudge and chocolate cake and that marshmallow. I don't know what even that stuff's called puff or whatever it is. That jar of marshmallow goo all into one. Stay puff. Is that what it is? Something like that. I don't know. It is deliciousness. They put all that into this bottle of bourbon right here though.

Yeah, so this marshmallow is definitely centered around s'mores, campfire, marshmallows, graham cracker, not so much in the way of like a fruity kind of palette to it. Um, but it does carry a little chocolatey bitterness towards the back of the palette, but I kind of like it. I mean, I kind of like that.

There's no Kentucky hug to this though.

Very little, very little.

Um, but what I would say, I'll just go ahead and tell you, Jim, if I see another bottle of this somewhere, I'm going to snap it up.

Yeah. You're going to give it to me cause it's, That's a good bottle to gift, isn't it?

It would be a good bottle to gift. You'd do something pretty special for a bottle like that. No, if I saw a bottle and you know, if I still have a bottle, I'm going to give you a bottle of it for sure. But I'd say this is something you need to have on your shelf. And you know, I like those toasted bourbons anyways, mickters, you know, I'm big into their toasted bourbon. You know, I remember when you went over there, I was like, pen of stuff is delicious.

That was a toasted sour mash, right?

I think, I don't know if it was the toasted sour mash or the toasted bourbon that I've had, but heck either one of them, you can't go wrong with them.

Yeah.

That toasted barrel just had something special to it. Maybe it is that marshmallow sweetness that I'm getting.

Well, Mike, I'm going to say this one's a little bit special. I definitely am a big fan of Elijah Craig. They're standard, you know, 94 proof on the shelf release. You can find it anywhere in the country. I'm never shy about picking up a bottle of that if I just want something to drink. This is a step up. No doubt about it. They've added another layer to an already great bourbon. And I think that, you know, this one is, well, I would hope that it's going to get some pretty good reviews out there. I would think that it would because I'm pretty impressed with it.

I think it will. The only thing I think is lacking is the finish on it a little bit. Exactly. Yeah. It's that medium finish still, but it doesn't hold it back.

Now, some people may not like that kind of dry, semi-sweet chocolate sort of back into it. Personally, I like that. I kind of like that. So, it may just be a preference for me. I think I agree with you that the finish is medium at best. It's not a long finish, but it is a pleasing finish for me. Some people might not like it. I like that.

Heck, I really like it. I wouldn't have got a bottle if I didn't think it was going to be good. One thing I would say to everybody, before you buy a bottle, look at reviews, see what people are saying about it. you know, don't take a bad review as a bad thing. Look at several reviews across the board and put those together. Um, I always say there's, there's three sides to a story, right? It's, you know, if I was arguing with my wife, it's her side, my side, and there's really the truth. Well, same thing about bourbon reviews or whiskey reviews is read several of them before you purchase a bottle. It's going to tell you the truth about that bottle of bourbon. It'll help you out making that decision, whether you need to pull the trigger on it or not.

Yeah, and the more you drink bourbon, the more you'll understand how to take somebody else's notes. For example, I said, hey, this has got sort of a dry, semi-sweet, chocolatey back into it with sort of a medium finish. And the more bourbon you drink, the more you'll realize whether that fits your profile or it doesn't. Doesn't mean it's bad. Doesn't mean it's good. It just means that's what I like. That may not fit it for you. And if it doesn't, so be it. Go find another bottle. There's plenty of them out there. Sure.

Well, Jim, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube at the bourbon road, right? Where else can you find us at?

At the bourbonroad.com. So that's our website and you know, it's got our podcast on it. You can listen to our episodes right there on the website. You can read Mike's blog. He's got about a hundred articles on there and they're all pretty good. I have to say, Mike, you got a little bit of talent there. Oh gosh. And also, you know, if you need some new glassware for your bar, you can pick up a Bourbon Road Glen Can right there on the website. Quick and easy checkout. Our friends at Distillery Products and Premium Bar Products are doing a great job for us there. And yeah, and our private Facebook group, right?

Yeah, the bourbon roadies. That's our private Facebook group. If you listen to this, you're probably going to want to join it anyways. You got to answer three questions in there. You know, do you like bourbon? Do you agree to play nice? Are you 21? We don't sell no bourbon in there. We don't tolerate any rudeness.

Because you know what, you need a comfortable place to go where you can just talk about what you think about bourbon or a particular bottle of bourbon without somebody coming down all over to the top of you, telling you what an idiot you are. You don't experience that in the bourbon roadies.

That's definitely right. And you're going to get some people that are in the bourbon business, master distillers, distillery owners, people like me and Jim. We've got several other podcasters, YouTubers in our group that they're there for you to help answer your question. I love that about our group. They share their bourbon with each other. They're like our little family we have. There's a thousand of us now.

A thousand of us now. And I'll tell you what, Mike, when things get better and we can start gathering in groups again, We're going to get together.

We're going to have a family reunion? A family reunion. Oh man, a roadie reunion. Roadie reunion.

The great bourbon gathering in Kentucky.

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You can find me at one big chief. I'm Jay Shannon 63, 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 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.