What are you drinking?

[Eric the .5b]

I got a couple of new tires, and on the way back, I stopped by the new Specs that opened up along my drive home. There, while getting some more Botanist and other sundries, I grabbed a couple of little two-packs of airplane liquor bottles.

I'm sipping the contents of one of those little bottles, WIld Turkey American Honey, as the laundry runs. With a dash of cold water to keep my tongue from going numb...I like it. I may have to experiment with honey and other bourbons.

Try the American Honey with a Jones Cream Soda. It's pretty damn tasty.

What kind of proportions?

[tr0g]

I got a couple of new tires, and on the way back, I stopped by the new Specs that opened up along my drive home. There, while getting some more Botanist and other sundries, I grabbed a couple of little two-packs of airplane liquor bottles.

I'm sipping the contents of one of those little bottles, WIld Turkey American Honey, as the laundry runs. With a dash of cold water to keep my tongue from going numb...I like it. I may have to experiment with honey and other bourbons.

Try the American Honey with a Jones Cream Soda. It's pretty damn tasty.

What kind of proportions?

Uh, lazy drunk ones? Pint glass, fill with ice, pour in 2 oz or so of the whiskey, add Cream Soda, stir. For a simple drink like this, I usually wing it.

[Warren]

I got a couple of new tires, and on the way back, I stopped by the new Specs that opened up along my drive home. There, while getting some more Botanist and other sundries, I grabbed a couple of little two-packs of airplane liquor bottles.

I'm sipping the contents of one of those little bottles, WIld Turkey American Honey, as the laundry runs. With a dash of cold water to keep my tongue from going numb...I like it. I may have to experiment with honey and other bourbons.

Try the American Honey with a Jones Cream Soda. It's pretty damn tasty.

What kind of proportions?

Uh, lazy drunk ones? Pint glass, fill with ice, pour in 2 oz or so of the whiskey, add Cream Soda, stir. For a simple drink like this, I usually wing it.

Perhaps a dash of bitters?

[Andrew]

Noah's Mill bourbon. There is some serious hipster buzz about this bourbon, and my brother saw it going for $20 a shot in Austin (and that's just for a random bottle, not a particularly in-demand batch). I found a bottle of batch 15-18 (very lucky find in a dive liquor store), which one major critic named as his best of 2015.

Having tried it, I made a huge mistake in opening it. I should've sold it at an outrageous inflated price to someone. I foolishly assumed that most of the bourbons that people are obsessing about are actually good, if just overpriced. I mean, I would think Pappy Van Winkle 20-year is good and doesn't just taste like a bottle of ball sweat. I don't assume it's good enough to justify the astronomical price (especially with my palate), but I'd guess it's pleasant to sit and drink.

Not so with the Noah's Mill. It's incredibly hot and doesn't have that much going on. I don't have the greatest palate, but there are quite a few basic bourbons I'd rank far above this one. It will be something of a chore to get through this bottle.

[JasonL]

There's a lot of gimmicky junk in bourbon these days. Market's overheated and you can sell anything to a japanese businessman. Sorry, but it's true. They buy up everything and love gimmicks. See: Jefferson's Voyage. I've had 3 of the voyages and none of them rate much above meh.

Elmer T Lee is very good if you can find it.

[Andrew]

There's a lot of gimmicky junk in bourbon these days. Market's overheated and you can sell anything to a japanese businessman. Sorry, but it's true. They buy up everything and love gimmicks. See: Jefferson's Voyage. I've had 3 of the voyages and none of them rate much above meh.

Elmer T Lee is very good if you can find it.

Very true. Usually, I've been good at avoiding the nonsense with doing research and ignoring hype. Noah's Mill is bottled by KBD/Willett, so it didn't set off any alarms (unlike crap by Jeffersons, Michters, Diageo, etc.). I'll be more skeptical of them in the future.

At this point, the trusted list is down to Four Roses, Heaven Hill, and Wild Turkey.

I assume Elmer Lee is something I'll never see in person. The demand and hype is just too high.

[Mo]

Booker's, Willet, and Weller are on the common and non-gimmicky.

[JasonL]

I've said it before. Just get things bottled under Buffalo Trace. Find one you like.

Weller is my favorite by a long shot, but Rock Hill Farms is certainly a top 5 for me. It's a rye but does not taste like it. I thought someone was lying to me about the mash. It is very smooth and has a hint of wheated sweet but less than weller.

[Andrew]

Out of the huge Buffalo Trace product line, there are only two things I can reliably find: regular Buffalo Trace and Blanton's. A number of their products don't get distributed in Arizona (Rock Hill, Sazerac, Hancock's, etc.) and the others are the subject of such whiskey mania that they can't be found (Pappy, Antique Collection, any of the Wellers, Elmer Lee). Even Eagle Rare 10 has gotten tough to find. It makes me annoyed at the Arizona distributors and Buffalo Trace.

[JasonL]

Rock Hill is similar to Blantons. A bit less bite.

[tr0g]

I picked up a 6 of this. Let's see if it lives up to everything else associated with Will Ferrel by being decidedly mediocre.

[Andrew]

I picked up a 6 of this. Let's see if it lives up to everything else associated with Will Ferrel by being decidedly mediocre.

Unless they improved the recipe from the last time I had it, it's decidedly mediocre.

[tr0g]

I picked up a 6 of this. Let's see if it lives up to everything else associated with Will Ferrel by being decidedly mediocre.

Unless they improved the recipe from the last time I had it, it's decidedly mediocre.

Yeah, it's not bad, but there's absolutely nothing to recommend it. I mean, if you're gonna tout all the ingredients you put in it, maybe I should be able to taste them?

[Kwix]

Cardenal Mendoza brandy de Jerez.
First time trying a brandy de Jerez and man is this stuff hard to pair. Tastes of brandy, sherry, old oak mixed with black raisins. Not good for sipping neat.

A solid cocktail that is basically an old fashioned substituting Gran Marnier for simple syrup worked well.
Interested to try others, maybe a sidecar or other sour style.

[Andrew]

Elijah Craig 12. Now that's a nice bourbon. Reminds me of the Old Weller Antique, but unlike that one, it's not subject to whiskey mania (yet), so I can find it for under $30 most everywhere.

[Andrew]

Junipero gin and Fever Tree Bitter Lemon. It's ~80 degrees out, there's a light breeze, and all the windows are open. All the chores are done and dinner is cooking. The perfect drink for a relaxing Sunday evening.

[dbcooper]

2009 Trinity Hill Homage Gimblett Gravels Syrah, Hawke's Bay, New Zealand.

Apparently this is about US$100 to 110 per bottle on the internet. Turns out that my brother had a case of it stored at my parents' place in old New Zealand. Light fingers have revealed that it's pretty good, but not better than a EUR50 bottle at a good bistro in Paris. Hmm.

[JasonL]

$50 bistro price not $50 retail? Here restaurant mark up is at least 2X. A $50 bottle at a restaurant here is probably a $20 bottle retail. If the $100 retail bottle tastes comparable to a $20 bottle, that's not good. I'd expect quality at $50 retail per bottle to be not super different from quality at $100, which is why I don't spend much in the near $100 zone except for certain things I know I like and can't get otherwise.

ETA:
A $20 bottle of CA Cabernet is the ubiquitous Mondavi Napa Cabernet or Estancia or something.

A $100 bottle of CA Cabernet is something like a Nickel and Nickel single vineyard cab.

That's a big spread. If I can go to $45 or $50 I can grab lots of options close in quality to the Nickel Nickel.

[JasonL]

French labor thugs, vin edition:

https://munchies.vice.com/en/articles/a ... -the-drain

On Monday, French farmers protesting at a border crossing between France and Spain ransacked five Spanish trucks attempting to transport wine into the country. As The Daily Telegraph reports, the angry farmers poured the equivalent of 90,000 bottles of Spanish wine down the drain and wrote the phrase “vin non conforme” (“non-compliant wine”) on the side of the trucks

.

[lunchstealer]

I don't want Germany to solve the Greece problem, but there are problems in Europe they can solve...

[Warren]

I don't want Germany to solve the Greece problem, but there are problems in Europe they can solve...

Alright lunch, come wipe off my monitor.

I read that intercepting and dumping Spanish wine has been going on for a long time and is on the rise. The Spanish are getting quite miffed about it too.

[JasonL]

Farmers in rich countries are the worst. I'm sorry, they are. Every time you turn around it's farmers defending some bs magic price level that's hurting poor people across the globe. Scare people about GMO then create fake premium product lines such as organic and whatnot. Put corn in your cars. Impose tariffs on the poorest people on earth.

[Warren]

Farmers in rich countries are the worst. I'm sorry, they are. Every time you turn around it's farmers defending some bs magic price level that's hurting poor people across the globe. Scare people about GMO then create fake premium product lines such as organic and whatnot. Put corn in your cars. Impose tariffs on the poorest people on earth.

Indeed. I understand the subsidies to french vineyards and wineries are substantial.

[Warren]

O'Fallin 5 Day IPA
Now that's the way you dry hop.

[Sandy]

O'Fallin 5 Day IPA
Now that's the way you dry hop.

That just hurts my tongue thinking about it.