Matt and Friends Drink the Universe
Welcome to Matt and Friends Drink the Universe, the podcast where comedy and great drinks collide! Join host Matt and a rotating crew of friends as they sample unique beers, wines, cocktails, and spirits, diving into the stories, history, and science behind each sip.
Packed with laughs, hilarious anecdotes, fun trivia, and drinking games, our show offers a laid-back yet enlightening experience for anyone who enjoys a good drink with great company. Tune in for “Stellar Sips” and “Cosmic Chugs” as we explore new flavors and share memorable stories along the way.
Whether you're a casual drinker or a cocktail connoisseur, sit back, relax, and let’s drink our way through the universe—where anything is possible! Cheers!
Matt and Friends Drink the Universe
Rocket Rankings - "The Kentucky Hug"
Matt is joined by Chris, Dan, and Rob. Bourbon! Bourbon everywhere! Including Rob's pants! Get ready for our all new episode format, "Rocket Rankings. "Rocket Rankings is a blind-tasting and drink ranking extravaganza. The crew is excited to have Dan and his extensive knowledge of bourbon onboard the Bottle Rocket as they embark on a cosmic journey to taste and rank 8 different bourbons. This episode pushes Matt and his friend's palates to the outer limits!
The featured bourbons are:
Larceny
Calumet
Weller
Wild Turkey
Whistle Pig
Bakers
Elijah Criag
and E.H. Taylor Small Batch
8 bourbons in an hour. Who thought this was a good idea? Going to need space Uber!
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Cheers, and thanks for listening!
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Rob:We have liftoff. Welcome to Matt and Friends. Drink the Universe, Burn, burn, burn.
Matt:Welcome back everyone to Matt and Friends Drink the Universe, Season 2. The theme for today's episode will Rocket Rankings . That's one small sip for man, one giant taste for mankind, yeah.
Chris:Oh my Lord, we are going like high brown now.
Dan:Yeah, right man, that was pretty metal.
Rob:We just put that together before you guys showed up. That's awesome.
Matt:I want to talk about the fact that I hit that high note Three times. Throw that out there Three times.
Chris:Three times. Hey man, anybody can be taught what's the? You can always teach a new. You can't teach a dog. I don't know what I'm talking about. Something about new tricks?
Matt:I think that's what just happened.
Rob:Well, you know what? I think that's a great hard transition to what are we \ here today, man. Blast us off into season two.
Matt:We're going to try out a brand new theme called Rocket Rankings. You can think of Rocket Rankings as a three-stage rocket launch. The lift off is going to consist of a completely blind tasting. The second stage will reveal what we tasted in the first stage and we will continue on with a semi-final round. And in the third stage we're going to see which contestant goes the distance and makes it into orbit. We are going to be tasting and ranking bourbon today, and we have eight bourbons lined up, so we're going to taste them head to head and go right down the line until we have tasted all eight. Very cool Once again. I have some great friends drinking the universe with me today, all of whom might be familiar to you from season one, so let's go around the table and have them introduce themselves Hi everybody, welcome to season two.
Rob:It's Rob back again.
Chris:Chris, I'm back again as well. Glad to be here drinking some whiskey today.
Dan:I'm Dan and I seem to show up when whiskey's involved.
Rob:Yep, good time to do that. It's not a bad thing there's nothing wrong with that at all.
Rob:And Matt. I do believe that we want to let the people know that we are going to be trying to guess what whiskey and we're going to have some points totalage associated with that. So there's eight total. We'll read off the list here of what eight whiskies are about to be tasted. We have the Calamette, a Bakers 7, EH taylor, small batch, Weller, Elija craig, craig, elijah oh my God, elijah, elijah, craig, small batch Wild Turkey and Whistle Pig. So those are our eight choices. We're going to be scoring these things head to head but also trying to guess what brand is what as we move through the tastings.
Matt:Yep and scoring will be out of 25.
Rob:Out of 25.
Matt:For a possible 100 points.
Rob:All right, We've got Dan pouring yeah number one's poured.
Chris:I can say that this is a very classic bourbon color caramel, not too clear. But number two, as it's coming out here, is a lighter in color.
Matt:There are again eight bottles of bourbon, and part of the hope for all this is that we live to the end of this episode.
Rob:I'm going to say number one's got quite an oaky nose to it, that old oaky nose I gotcha.
Chris:Maybe a little bit of vanilla to it as well. I'm getting some sweetness but is it?
Rob:maple. Maybe it's vanilla, maybe it's maple from like Canadian Canada.
Matt:All right, I'm ready to dive in.
Rob:Cheers Slanja.
Chris:Ooh, that's nice.
Rob:It's very nice, it's very nice, it's strong though. Yeah. We're starting off with a real bang, I feel like it is a higher proof because there's that little bit of burn that you're getting in the back. But man, I could have this on a Cuba ice. This is very tasty.
Matt:My gums are tingling.
Dan:So you got a lot of brown sugar on that. I'd guess the proof on this probably 105, 107 tops.
Chris:Yeah, definitely into the triple digits, I feel.
Dan:I'm pretty sure I know what this one is, even though I poured it.
Matt:Oh boy.
Rob:Okay, all right, I'm going to get nose here on number two.
Chris:I'm just ready for Dan to spank us on all the guesses?
Rob:I'm ready for Dan to spank me any day. Let me tell you I just met the man.
Dan:It's going to take a lot more than whiskey to get to that point.
Rob:Oh, number two smells drastically different.
Matt:Yes, it does, Whoa whoa.
Dan:I definitely know what this one is. I couldn't tell from the bottle, but this was these bottles. It's very much like one of these things is not like the others.
Dan:Yeah, oh yeah, these are on polar opposites, yeah so this is going to be one of these things, really not like the others. It's a much drier whiskey I won't say it like pulls all the sugar out of your mouth, but it definitely dries it out a little bit. For me. There's a high rye content in this because it's got that nice little rye burn to it.
Matt:Sucking the joy out of the first one.
Dan:Yeah, it kind of is, yeah it doesn't have any of the oiliness that I typically like in my bourbons or whiskies that I drink Like. I want something almost like coach your mouth and it's got like a buttery ness to it. That's okay.
Chris:Yeah, I was about to say I usually use the word buttery for that. When you get that mouth, feel that just stays. Your tongue feels like it's got something on top of it still, even though you've swallowed.
Matt:Definitely number one better than number two in my opinion Am I sipping wild turkey 100%.
Chris:Am I sipping?
Matt:wild turkey in the second one.
Dan:I don't know. This is the one of those not like the other things.
Rob:Shall we go around and give our guesses and our scores?
Chris:Yeah, and what I think we should do is we should always have the person who poured guess last.
Rob:Okay, all right. So, matt, let's start with you, then we'll go clockwise around, so we end up with Dan.
Matt:All right, Number one, I'm going with a 22. And by clockwise.
Rob:I meant counterclockwise A 22.
Matt:22. I thought it was great.
Rob:And what do?
Matt:you think it is? Oh, the EH, taylor, okay.
Dan:I don't even know what to say to you right now, because when we get to the EH Taylor which this is not- Thanks for that spoiler.
Rob:Now I will be guessing that.
Dan:Maybe I ruined it for other folks.
Rob:It's okay, it's all right, that's all right. And number two your score for number two.
Matt:Yeah, hosts are not in this podcast. I'll be the first one to admit that my tongue is not a seasoned bourbon tongue.
Rob:Like I'm enjoying the different flavors, I'm enjoying learning tonight Not where I thought you were going with that when we were talking about your tongue there.
Matt:No.
Rob:I was concerned.
Matt:Number two, I'm going to say 15.
Rob:I mean, that's respectable. Okay, and what do you think? Number two was.
Matt:Well, I had said earlier, I thought it was the wild turkey, but Dan said it's absolutely not the wild turkey.
Dan:No, I thought you were saying number one was the wild turkey.
Matt:No, no, I thought number one was the EH Taylor.
Dan:Oh, right, right, right.
Matt:All right, the number two man.
Rob:Any day now, we don't have all night.
Matt:Yeah, I'm just gonna say whistle pig, because I don't, I'm not sure, I've never had it before.
Rob:Okay, you know what I'm just gonna piggyback off of what he's saying, right?
Matt:now, well done.
Rob:I think number two is also the whistle pig. I'm gonna rank that, though. A 12 for me. Gotcha, yeah, and number one, I wanna leave room for improvement. Sure, yeah, because it's the first one, but that may be one of the best whiskies I've had in a long time, so I think that it's something that I've not had before. So my guess is going to be the calamet, and I'm going to give that a 21.
Chris:Nice. All right, I'm thinking here. I'm along the same lines of you, rob. I wanna give this a high score, but I don't wanna waste numbers, as they say, so I want some ceiling room right yeah, absolutely so I'm gonna also go 22, like Matt did. Okay On number one. Number two I'm gonna go pretty low, so I'm gonna go a 10 on that, okay, I really just don't like it that much.
Rob:Yeah, I'm looking at it and wondering if I should even finish the sip that I have in there.
Chris:Yeah.
Matt:Because I don't necessarily wanna come back to it, but I'll just take a bottle of number one and call it a night. I'm cool with that.
Chris:I was also gonna give or guess, the first one being calamet. Okay, I haven't had that either, so it's something that was really dark, so I'm hoping for that. But number two, wow, I really hope it's not the whistle pig, because that's the one I brought and I don't remember it being that bad, but it was kind of lame when I had it, so I might jump on that bandwagon. That way we're all wrong together Getting on that pig.
Dan:Yeah.
Chris:I'm gonna get on the pig wagon as well. Woo pig Sui. All right, dan, what'd you?
Dan:get so it's over to me.
Rob:Well, hang on one second. What did you give for the score of number two, 10. I didn't hear you, okay, cool.
Dan:I've been on the pig wagon for a lot of years at this point and I really feel like at this point I can kind of pick out different things with different mash bills and you know, different distillers use them. So when I say like number one is not like number two, like I 100% agree that the number two is the whistle pig. It's a completely different originating mash bill and distillation time than what number one is, I would, I would be willing to bet the number one is the larceny.
Chris:Oh, that was my second guess.
Dan:In terms of scores, I'm going to say the larceny is probably like a 19 for me. Whistle pig, I'm going to say it's an 18, but it's an 18 on a rise scale, like I mean, we're comparing bourbons to rise right now. So, like your typical bourbon is going to be a lot sweeter, a lot, you know, smoother mouth feel, whereas your rise have a little bit more of a bite to them. You know they tend to do it's a little drier. But as Rye Whiskies go, I think this is a pretty good one. I'm typically not usually a huge fan of whistle pig, but it is good for what it is.
Chris:Okay, very nice.
Rob:I think with this larceny I will feel very stupid because I brought that and I drink it often and I would think that I would recognize it immediately. Oh yeah, Interesting, yeah, but that tasted maybe it's just in comparison to these other one. It tasted a lot better than the larceny that I'm used to having. I don't know.
Dan:I don't know. I mean it definitely. You primed your palate because you went from that larceny, which is that again, it's that it's a weeder Like it's got a lot of wheat in the mash bill, so it tends towards sweeter. You know, you primed it, then you hit it with that Rye which is drier, and then you went back to that sweetness again, so you like almost overbuilt it at that point.
Rob:All right, gents, clear your cups. We're going to pour number two here, round two, if you will Clear your cups as we all poured some extra into one cup.
Matt:What do they call that? Isn't there a name for that? When you like take a bottle and you pour a bunch of the same thing and kind of sit a while, it's called an infinity bottle.
Dan:That was it. I have one at home. You know what? I should have brought some of that up with me so you guys could give that a try. It's literally like the bottle remnants of probably like 70 bottles of bourbon that have come through my house over the last couple of years. Whenever I get down to like that last little bit where it's like, all right, that's kind of a glass but not really a glass, I usually just dump it in the infinity ball.
Rob:All right guys, pass me your number three cup.
Matt:Chris, did you happen to add those up just out of curiosity, or yes, it did.
Chris:Yeah, we have number one coming in at a total of 84 and number two coming in at 55. All right.
Rob:So number one is going to be moving on. Math E equals MC Hammer. We're talking about numbers, wow, yikes. I have no words for this season.
Matt:We played around with the drops in the off season quite a bit.
Chris:We're going with STEM school here. We got science, now we got math. Yep, I don't know what T and E stand for, oh God.
Matt:If we're doing any engineering in here, I'm going to get real impressed real quick. I almost engineered this all over the place.
Chris:I'm just going to say, jen did some engineering for us, trying to hide the bottles.
Matt:Yes, shout out to my wife who put the bottles in blind tasting number B Everybody. This one. She wrapped in foil so we couldn't see the top, the tin foil made it shoot all over my pants. At least it was the tin foil, it's unfortunate. He's familiar with things shooting all over his pants.
Chris:Thanks, thanks for that. The pants.
Dan:Don't waste good bourbon.
Rob:From under bourbon. It's from Australia, bourbon from down under All right.
Chris:So, as Rob's pouring these, the first one has the lighter color this time, not quite as light as number two was, and then number four is going back to that darker caramel color. Why?
Rob:I didn't mean to why Rob?
Matt:Why.
Rob:I didn't mean to, is that?
Matt:number two. It's most of the bottle in my cup.
Dan:So much whiskey on my pants, See you've got them out of water here in comparison to what you know.
Chris:Chris and.
Dan:I have got going on here.
Rob:All right, switch those around.
Matt:There you go.
Rob:Number three is the lighter color.
Chris:Okay, correct.
Rob:Let's give that a sniff.
Chris:I'm not getting a lot. Definitely not a lot of punch to it, no.
Dan:Nope, I'm going to go low proof on this one, probably in the 90 range.
Chris:Maybe even lower, yeah.
Dan:That's got a little bit of like wateriness to it.
Rob:Yeah, I'm not. I'm not loving it, ba-da-ba-ba-ba, it doesn't.
Dan:I'm not loving it it doesn't have a whole lot of burn either. I feel like I could drink this like straight for a while and then try to stand out.
Rob:But I'm not sure that I like what's going on in my mouth.
Dan:Yeah, as Anish said.
Chris:It's just not much there.
Rob:Yeah, I don't know. I'm finding it difficult to find the flavor in this.
Dan:And maybe it's because we're overwhelmed already Only three whiskeys in but. I feel like it's pretty muted in comparison to even the whistle pig I feel like had more of a distinct flavor profile than what that did?
Matt:It got to be a gobbling turkey. It has to be.
Dan:I'm not 100% convinced. It's not the calum.
Matt:Oh boy, I feel like you're putting on a masterclass over here and I'm flying a plane blind with no windows. I feel like that's what's going on. That's the fun of this the smell of number four.
Rob:Again coming back to something that I think I'm going to really like Wow, I'm excited.
Matt:Caramel.
Chris:I like this one.
Matt:Sweetness.
Chris:Vanilla, but without the punch of number one. Number one really had the punch and this doesn't hit you as hard without yeah.
Rob:This one not as sweet. On the taste, I do like it.
Matt:That's a lot stronger. I will bet anything.
Dan:I know exactly what this is.
Matt:Well, that was definitely stronger.
Dan:We're going to find out and if I'm wrong, I'm going to be really embarrassed.
Rob:We're going to start with Chris on this one and go around. I will weigh in last.
Chris:All right. Number three I'm going to go with an eight and I'm going to guess that that is the turkey. I'm not sure about that, but you know, I'm just flying by the seat of my pants. Number four I am going to go oh man, I'm going to go with a 20 on that, and then I'm going to guess that that is the weller.
Dan:All right. So I'm really torn. I think that number three very well could be the wild turkey. I'm going to work under that assumption Because I brought the helmet and I liked it more than what I like this. So I'll say scoring wise, 13, 14. It really just didn't bring a lot to the table I could see using that. I mean, if it turns out it is the wild turkey, it's wild turkey one on one. It's $20 a bottle. You know, if you're making bourbon cocktails, that's your go to it. It's solid. Number four, though I'm almost a hundred percent sure this is the itch Taylor small batch and for me, like this, hits almost all the high notes pallet wise, you know, 23, 22, 23. Score wise this Interesting.
Chris:Okay.
Matt:All right. The first one, I definitely think, is the wild turkey and small sidebar. When I went to the liquor store, I know one of the guys and his name is Mike Marillo Shout out to you, but I said to him I want the worst bottle of bourbon. You have to enter into this tasting. And he asked me why I hate my friends so much and I said I don't hate them, but I enjoy comedy and I want to see what happens. This is not the worst bottle?
Chris:No, this is not, by by any stretch of the imagination, the worst.
Matt:No, and that's the follow up to the first part of the story is, I looked at what was available and what could have been considered the worst bottle on their shelves and I did think I like these guys way too much to do that to them. So I'm at least going to pick a brand that we like. That three was the wild turkey and I'm going to give that an eight. It tasted like it would go really great with Coke over ice. That's what I felt about it. That's fair. This second one, I think, was the Elijah Craig, but I'm not sure. Okay, it's definitely higher proof. I feel like it's higher proof than anything else we drank so far, which is what I'm conflicted about. A little Bernie for me personally, but I'm going to give it a 20. I enjoyed the flavor of the nose tongues, little numb. Okay, I'll do that Over to you, rob.
Rob:Yeah, I'm going to go. Number three my guess is wild turkey as well. I'm going to give that a nine. Didn't really like it. Number four I enjoyed it. I still think I enjoyed number one better from last round.
Chris:Yep.
Rob:I'm going to go. Did I give number one a 20 or 21?
Chris:You gave it a 21.
Rob:Okay, I will give this a 20. It is not a large margin and I'm going to guess the EH Taylor as well. Cheater.
Chris:No, I'm just kidding.
Rob:I mean, I'm not guessing it because he guessed it. I'm guessing it because Matt's an idiot.
Chris:Yeah.
Rob:For those of you listening, Matt just launched water all over the place. I'm just launched water all over Dan.
Matt:I'm not sure why, but you know how I was going to wave Thanks you, and then things went wrong.
Chris:Sorry, sir, the wires in his arm. Yeah, number three definitely the lowest so far, at 38. Across the board, turkeys. Number four was a close second to number one, at 82. 84 versus 82.
Rob:All right, who's got five and six? Let's move it on. I got five and six.
Matt:Who's taking a sip of that cup that everything's going into at the end?
Chris:Oh, my God, that was a very satisfying pork pop.
Matt:Chris, you and I are the only ones that haven't spilled anything on ourselves yet or spilled something on somebody else, so I feel like it's only a matter of time, wait, what did I spill? Well, you got something spilled on you, oh, okay.
Dan:See. Well, that's not my fault. I'm the victim here, Matt, I'm the victim.
Rob:Oh my, quite a poor there, Christopher.
Chris:Trying to go just above the bottom line.
Dan:I see what you're doing, Geez you're driving me home, right, I am Well, let me rephrase that, if you're going to pour like that, I'm going to need you to, okay.
Chris:Moving on to number six, on the poor, the logistics of this we thought were brilliant, but not as much.
Rob:Yeah, turns out there's probably a better way to do this.
Dan:You just end up juggling so many cups. That's the challenge.
Matt:Well, when you start drinking bourbon.
Dan:But by the second round, when the hand I coordination is not what it should be, yeah, that's what it gets real tricky you mean when you still water on somebody right, yeah, okay. Well, I'm taking a shower while on the podcast.
Chris:All right, both evenly colored this time, or at least very close, very similar in color.
Rob:All right, I'm going for number five.
Dan:Oh, definitely a different nose on the two oh yeah, number five is decent. We're back to that nice oily mouth feel with number five.
Chris:Again. For me it has that like vanilla smell to it, something that's sweet, but not really like sugary sweet.
Dan:Yeah, I mean it's definitely got that, that higher wheat content that you typically pick up, that sweetness, so it's got a little bite to it, not too bad. I'd say 105, 107 proof, something like that.
Chris:And so, Dan, you're going to kick us off here if you're ready. I know we're still sipping and smelling.
Dan:What is this? This is the first one. Six is the second right.
Rob:That's correct, all right.
Dan:So I'm going to say this number five is the Baker seven. It's got a really smooth mouth, feel on it. I assuming I'm correct, I'm a huge fan of that particular bourbon. I'd say this is a 20, 20, 21, or 20, between a 20 and a 21. So we'll call it 20, just for yeah, yeah, it's sanity's sake. Number six Number six.
Chris:I didn't like that one as much.
Dan:Now this one doesn't have that sweetness. This one feels like it's got a little bit more of a rye kick to it and it doesn't have that oily mouth like that buttery oily mouth. Feel that you know I really look for and like bourbons that I tend to reach for. I'm going to guess and say that, knowing what's, you know what was in the contest, I'm going to guess this one at the Elijah Craig and I'm going to put this one at about 17.
Chris:Okay.
Dan:Matt, what do you get? It's not bad, but it's not yeah.
Matt:The second one I also thought was the Baker seven and I'm going to give that one like a 16 overall. The second one, I think, was the calamet, and that is a pure and total guess based on the fact that I've never had it before. I didn't quite enjoy that one as much, so I'm going to put that one at like an 11. Okay.
Rob:Okay, what do you got, rob? Number one, I'm guessing the bakers. I'm also going to give this a 17, and I actually liked number two a little bit better this time around. Interesting, I think. Number two is the larceny, so I think this is the one that I brought. I think that the larceny is an 18. They're very, very close for me, the two of them, but the number five has a little bit of an aftertaste that's a little bit oaky to me, like a little smoky oaky, and I prefer more of like a sherry, like sweet type of aftertaste in my bourbons.
Dan:I mean, if you're wrong, you can at least hang your hat on the fact that they're made by the same distillery.
Rob:Hey, so you know, there's that Good to be. What do you think?
Chris:Yeah, I was with Dan on this one, that the first one has that like buttery mouth feel that I really enjoy, didn't burn too much but still had the burn which I like. So I'm going to give that a 19. I'm just going to stick with the rest of the group and say that's Baker, I haven't had that before and then I don't recognize this. So the second one I'm pretty sure I've had this before and so I agree with Dan. I think it's the Elijah which I didn't really like. It burned a little too much, which is rare for me to say, because I really do like the single malt scotches which really burn. But I'm going to give that one a 14. So with that we have number five at a total of 72, not too shabby and number six at a 60, which is kind of ironic.
Rob:So number five moving forward out of that one.
Matt:All right, jen Booby trapped this one as well. There's a little bit of foil around the top, so yeah, look at that, it's a good wife.
Dan:She hid the characteristics on the top of the bottles that might give them away as to what they are.
Rob:Yeah, my pants are finally drying.
Chris:In case the audience was curious that was a lot, that was a lot. That was a lot, that was a lot it was a pants party.
Matt:You always party my pants. Clearly enjoys your pants.
Rob:You know, I do have surprisingly delicious meat as proven in season one. One time One episode One quote hey, man quotes matter.
Dan:Oh, definite, color difference already oh yeah. Two of those.
Rob:Oh, seven smells like pure gasoline Rowe. I'm thinking number seven might be the wild turkey. Oh, I don't know. I don't know, I'm going to taste it.
Dan:No, it doesn't have that hard. I think we all called that wild turkey, right? I'm going to be really surprised if it turns out we were collectively wrong on that.
Rob:I do not like number seven. It's almost got a peatiness to it.
Dan:There it is, number eight.
Rob:Okay, let's get to number eight Now. It seems that I tend to prefer the darker of the two on the poorest, so let's see what's going on here.
Dan:You could end up just being a victim of a heavier char and the barrels Like that. Heavier char leaves a darker whiskey.
Rob:I don't like either of these. I'll be honest with you.
Dan:Really.
Rob:Okay, no, woo Woo, okay, woo Woo. Well, I'm gonna have to double guess here because I've done something wrong.
Dan:I think that's acceptable.
Rob:Yeah, I'm gonna go with. 7 is Wild Turkey and I'm gonna give it a 9. And number 8, I will say is the Weller, because I don't believe I've guessed that yet, and I will give the Weller a 13. I definitely like it more than number 7, but I still don't love it. It's kind of got that like campfire too much of a campfire taste for me.
Chris:Interesting. Okay, I definitely didn't like the number 7. So I'm gonna give that a 12. Okay, and just for the odds, I'm gonna say that's the larceny. I don't want to double guess.
Dan:I think it's okay to double guess, as long as you're not doing it in the same round where you're saying both.
Chris:Oh, both are the same thing.
Dan:Yeah, this is both the larceny. Clearly it's not, like you know, both larceny. That being said, seven's not larceny. Okay, that's all right. That's my guess anyway.
Chris:Well, I'm gonna number eight. I'm gonna go with 17 because I like it. I don't like it better than some of the other stuff we've had.
Rob:Okay.
Chris:My only one that I haven't guessed is the EH, so we're just gonna put that in that spot, okay. Process of elimination.
Rob:All right.
Dan:Dan, what school is. So I like number seven. Like I'm a little surprised that you guys don't enjoy it as much. It's not the best bourbon that we've had or best whiskey that we've had by far. I'd probably put it around a 16 or 17. I'm almost positive. This is the calamit that I brought, which was a calamit nine year, so it's an age statement. Whiskey has been distilled and barreled for nine years. It's got a little butteriness but then it dries out a little bit and it doesn't have that, doesn't have that Kentucky hug that they talk about, where it like settles in your, in between your lungs and just sort of like burns a little bit.
Rob:Is that a sexual?
Dan:move. No, that's what they call it Like yeah, you go on the you go on the tours down there. They'll talk about, like you know, the whiskey and like the whole experience and everything. And they're like you know the Kentucky hug, which is that that hot, warm feeling you get like right here between your lungs when you take a big sip of whiskey.
Chris:Number eight does that to me. And number eight, it's like wham.
Dan:Number eight. This has got to be the Weller antique, the Weller 107. So it's 107 proof. I'm fairly certain, in looking at the bottles that we brought here today, this might be the highest proof out of all of them. I could be wrong about that, but I think it's the highest proof out of what I brought For me. I really like this bottle. This is one that, like people go crazy trying to hunt this down and, like you know, you can buy it for 50 bucks in Ohio and you know, try to find out online it's $200.
Dan:So for me like that price knowledge, though doesn't really impact my overall enjoyment of it, like it's still a 20. For me it's not a 25. It's not like you know the stellar thing, but I do enjoy that little higher proof because and I think I might have talked about this doing the new riff episode my preference is that 110 to 115 proof whiskey that's where I like to hang my hat.
Dan:Um, for you know, it just seems and it was never intentional. Like you know, you start drinking whiskey. I wouldn't think, oh yeah, I want higher proof stuff, but I just found myself going back to the bottles that were in that proof range and really enjoying that.
Matt:That's my gift. All right Round of sale, man, Since I didn't pick it and it's the only one that I'm not sure about. Number seven I think it's the larceny. I know that's wrong.
Rob:I'm going to throw that out there and say eat my hat. I know that's wrong, I know that's wrong, but it's not, you're okay, okay.
Matt:I'm going to give that one overall a 17. I didn't, oh wow, just like it strongly. I didn't like it real it was. It was nice. I thought it had a nice flavor to it. It didn't give me the Kentucky hug, which I think involves two large men and somebody's cousin, yikes.
Dan:It's a real down home experience for you Listen if you've never been to a Kentucky distillery. You need to go to Kentucky at some point you can take a tour of one of the distillers.
Rob:I mean, I'm sure you're right, but if you want a true Kentucky hug, I think you need to wind up at a truck stop in Kentucky.
Matt:I might now be banned at the border.
Dan:I have absolutely met some of the nicest people on the planet in the state of Kentucky, and I'm not going to agree with you because I need to go back to Kentucky at some point I was going to say he clearly wants to go back.
Matt:No, no, no, no. I believe I'm no longer welcome across the border.
Dan:No, it's there. It is a completely different cultural environment. It's different experience, different place of life.
Rob:I have nothing against anybody from Kentucky. I'm just trying to pick the low hanging fruit here.
Dan:If somebody's going, to throw me a softball. I might as well try to hit it out of the park. They can make a damn good whiskey. That's what we can all agree on.
Matt:I'm going to also guess. Number eight is the Weller, and I'm going to give that one a 21. I enjoyed that quite a bit. It's definitely a higher proof for sure.
Dan:If that's not the Weller, I'm going to leave you the bottle of Weller as a like. I don't deserve to own this bottle because there's no way Strong words from. Dan strong strong words Okay.
Rob:So, chris, what is?
Chris:moving forward. Moving forward, it will be number eight with a 72, and number seven was only a pithy 54. All right, gents.
Rob:Now, before we get into the second round of tastings, why don't we reveal one through eight, what the brands are, and we'll taste?
Chris:not blind going forward. As we're doing that, let me quick recap Our number one rated was number one, which is ironic at 84. So let's reveal what that is.
Dan:Are you going to let everybody know who got it right at this point too?
Rob:Oh yeah.
Dan:Cool, so number one.
Rob:Oh, my God Wow.
Dan:Number one is the.
Chris:Lose.
Dan:That was a sleeper, it really was.
Chris:Wow. Well, again I said before we started, you and I both were like this is a really good bourbon we drink it a lot and we use it to mix, we drink it straight, it's just a good bourbon.
Dan:So yeah, so, and I think it's important to note like these are in, like Did anybody guess that correctly? Yeah.
Rob:Yeah, my guy yeah.
Dan:So it's probably important to let everybody know these are in like canvas bags you can't see what the bottle is in there.
Matt:No, and.
Dan:Matt's wife, jen, was devious. She like wrapped the top of the bottle in aluminum foil. I don't even think she took off some of the caps that were like identifiable, so we couldn't see what if there was a logo on her. So number two Whistle, whistle.
Chris:All right. So we all nailed that one.
Matt:All right Okay.
Chris:So it's the lowest, but it is the third to last.
Rob:Okay, so that's technically number six. Then Correct In the full list, okay.
Dan:So the larceny advances, it sticks around.
Rob:I will reveal number three.
Chris:Gentlemen, Come on Turkey yeah.
Rob:Tis the wild Turkey Gobble gobble gobble.
Chris:All right, so both number two and three, we all across the board nailed correctly, okay.
Rob:Nice. So I'm holding a lead now because he's the only one who guessed larceny Correct. Number four, my friends is the EH Taylor Wow.
Chris:Anybody get that. You and Dan both hit that. Oh okay, all right, my apologies.
Dan:And this is another one she hid the top of the bottle by sticking a wine bottle saver on it.
Chris:This one was also number two overall. Number two overall, all right.
Rob:Okay, very good. Cool Chris, would you like to reveal numbers?
Chris:Five and six. All right, number five here. Number five is the Baker.
Dan:All right, baker seven.
Chris:Another one we nailed across the board. All right, okay.
Matt:So the moral of the story is if we listened to Dan, we did really well. Well, no, we.
Chris:That was how that went down. We didn't only. That's why. I wanted us to rotate what we answered in.
Rob:So is Dan perfect as of now so far.
Chris:Yeah, you, son of a being which only means his odds of being totally right are getting better and better, which is ridiculous.
Rob:I am very afraid. All right, here we go.
Chris:So we were all right on Baker.
Rob:And was the Baker's the one that moved on out of these two, it is yes, okay, number six, elijah Craig.
Chris:Dan, and I got that one right. Unfortunately, that one was 60. So I think that was in fifth place.
Rob:Okay, and Matthew number seven, please, all right.
Dan:These are the ones I was really not 100% sure on.
Chris:Yeah, but you've got to have the, except for the Weller. You know the Weller, so that has to be the Kalamit.
Dan:So Dan is going to have a perfect score here. That will never happen again. We could do this again.
Matt:Wow, dan, I am impressed, I am impressed, I mean this was another one.
Chris:I should have double guessed with the Weller at the end. There we go Weller 107.
Rob:After the Weller 107.
Dan:All right, okay, so really wish we hadn't unveiled these, though. Like, well, actually, you know what you guys are a great group to do this with, because, if you ask, like the super, like crazy whiskey guys, the ones that like drive around all over the place, these are the two that they're going to go after, and by that I mean the EH Taylor small batch and the Weller 107. And they're going to tend to ignore the Larsonie small batch and the Baker seven, and that's a real shame, because both of those are fantastic bourbons.
Rob:And I'll be honest, I don't know enough to be snobby about it. So I'm going to give these all a fair shake, now that we know what they are heads up. Do we want to?
Chris:do like. I feel really good, though, that we put Wild Turkey at the bottom.
Matt:I got to hop in for a second. Dan just scored a perfect. It's Mortal Kombat. Flawless bourbon victory you know what.
Rob:Let's go our step for that. Yeah, absolutely, stelers, thank you. Do we want to do one versus two and three versus four? Are we going to do?
Chris:it. It'll be one versus four.
Rob:One four, two, three.
Chris:Yeah, so that's the way to go. We're going to have the Larsonie versus the EH.
Matt:I'm still enjoying eight.
Dan:See, I am definitely biased and I'm going to actually ask that one of you guys pour mine while I turn around because in my head I am a huge fan of EH Taylor. I love everything they've done, like I've tried all their whiskeys with the exception of, like, the super rare stuff. So I'm not 100% sure that I'm going to be able to give you a completely unbiased like take on it.
Rob:Chris, do you want to pour for Dan?
Dan:If you wouldn't mind, sir, I almost spilled that would have been bad, we're good.
Chris:All right, I'm doing the Larsonie and the EH right, that's correct.
Rob:That's correct. And then you know what they are and hand it to them, and then, before we taste, Pour them both into both classes.
Chris:Or pour the wild turkey into one.
Matt:Something else Before we taste.
Rob:Let's let Dan taste yes, and give scores not knowing what's what. I think that that'll be fun.
Matt:Yeah.
Rob:Because then he won't know what's going on. All right, mr Dan. All right, turn around and pick either of them up. We know what's what here.
Dan:So you guys should know that originally, when Matt came to me and said, hey, I want to do a bourbon podcast, I offered to let him do it at my house and instead of eight we'd have been doing like 16. Like everybody would have needed to Uber home.
Rob:Listen, I have to get up at five in the morning and drive into work tomorrow. That's a use.
Dan:So it would get called out sick the next day for that.
Rob:Yeah, or you recorded on a week which one is your pick up there, my friend? Which one? The one on the left? All right, so I started with your left, okay.
Dan:Yeah, it's got a good. All right, if I had to guess right now, the one on my left hand is the larceny. Don't say anything.
Rob:I'm saying nothing. Nothing is being said. Silence.
Dan:All right, I'm going to the one on the right Larceny, he is Damn Okay.
Rob:That's, that's his guesses. But before we reveal we need to know what his scores are.
Dan:I mean, they're both great Like I am a huge fan of heaven held distillery, which produces larceny. I like Buffalo trace, which makes the age Taylor yeah, I give the age Taylor the lead, but it's like by a point.
Rob:Okay, so like 19 and 20.
Dan:19 and 20 larceny is such a solid product, I'll tell you, you are correct. You are correct, yes.
Chris:Yes.
Rob:Okay, so now now the rest of us noobs will. We'll get in. Yeah, but I'm sorry, okayllä. Thanks, yeah, right, yeah, oh man, yeah, what are you doing in there In?
Dan:here, hi, atically Alright. Okay, I'm actually gonna be a little disappointed if this comes down to Weller 107 versus each Taylor I was. I brought some of these because I wanted to kind of highlight the the distinct differences with Burbans that you could really get everywhere, which like the Baker's 107 and I'll be honest with you.
Rob:I still like the larceny more these are.
Chris:They're different though, which is funny.
Rob:They're very different now that they're head-to-head. It's tough to pick, because I like both of them for different reasons yeah so the larceny has that sweetness for me, mm-hmm right, and it doesn't quit on me. So for me the larceny is a 21, each Taylor 19.
Dan:Okay.
Rob:Like it's. It's super close.
Dan:It's interesting that you like the larceny so much to give it like a 21, but you weren't a fan of the Weller 107 because they're both weeders like the.
Rob:The primary element in the mash bill is Primarily it might be because it's the proof difference though, yeah, it might because of the higher proof, because I think that larceny is like 90 or 92.
Dan:It's 92 92% out. Oh well, 92 proof, 46% alcohol by volume and the 107 is yeah one, oh seven, yeah, yeah, I mean you definitely like. You tend towards the slightly lower proof, which you know. There's a lot of people that really like that. That's where they hang their hat. They can pick out more flavors like they can drink more.
Rob:I'm not, I'm not explored enough to really know.
Dan:You know, I I'd say that this is, this is my, my largest or a into the, the land of whiskey see now, blame that for that, because if we were again, if you think, brought the stuff over to my house, we'd have done the podcast there, we'd have been doing 16 instead in three, bro.
Matt:Yeah, there will be a season three.
Dan:We gonna happen and we didn't even bring in the crazy whiskey I have that I didn't want to transport.
Rob:Chris, what, what do you think?
Matt:so that wasn't transport friendly.
Chris:I'm kind of sticking with Dan on this, where I like the eh Slightly better. Okay like I said, I like them both, but for different reasons. Okay so I'm gonna give the larceny, I'm gonna give that an 18 and I'm gonna give the eh a 20.
Rob:Okay, all comes down to you, matthew.
Chris:Yeah, did you give me numbers, rob?
Rob:I did. I'm sorry I missed them. What we're? 21 and 19 21 for the larceny, 19 for the eh listeners to double check those numbers against what he said previously.
Dan:I.
Rob:I'm not. It was a two-point difference, it's completely.
Matt:I'm telling you oh, boy, okay.
Dan:We have so much good whiskey in this room. Right now it's really do yeah, I'm not invested in the school's war. It's more of a like intellectual thing where I'm like, oh, which one did come out, you know my palette for what it's worth.
Matt:Amateur hour Felt like. One of these had vanilla and caramel in the front and the other had vanilla and caramel on the back end. I Prefer the vanilla and caramel on the front. When I'm drinking these I don't mind the burn on the back end, because then I can Just take another sip and kill it. So I liked the larceny quite a bit. I'm going to give the larceny a 21.
Dan:I really wish I'd have brought the barrel proof larceny and I could have turned you on your head.
Chris:Next time, man, that one. I'm sure it kicks you in the balls, though you know it's not bad at all, really, I'm gonna have to bring it up. All right man, what, what so the eh.
Matt:H was really great. I didn't dislike it at all, but I got to put it down at least two notches.
Rob:So I'm gonna say 19 From from tell me this is a stalemate that wounds me.
Chris:Tell me, this is a stalemate. We just had damn close.
Matt:Oh.
Chris:The larceny is gonna win by one point.
Dan:Larceny snar about small batch wow unseats. Eh, taylor, small batch.
Rob:I mean for the price man. I mean I don't know what the age runs, but well for availability like I mean we haven't, we haven't discussed at all.
Dan:They're about the same retail price but like, oh, okay you won't find this in the store. Yeah interesting it's when it gets sent, sent to a store it ships out like that day. I mean MSRP is pretty close. What's this like? The larceny is like $30 32 about 30.
Rob:Yeah.
Matt:Yeah, each Taylor's 38. It's such an amazing thing when you start to understand the demand for different bourbons. Well, I mean, I just looked at the PA bourbon lottery that we do up here because we can't find certain things and I didn't win and a little unhappy about it. I was really hoping for my bottle of pappy, but that's just not gonna happen.
Dan:Yeah, I was really disappointed in the outcome there too.
Matt:And it's just absolutely amazing the amount of people that register for that sort of thing, that are willing to pay the amount of money as any. You look at the retail on some of those or the resell on some of those bottles and it's astronomical.
Dan:Well, I mean, you know these two bottles are both, then I'm indicating the well or antique and the eht Taylor small batch. They're both around the same price within it comes to MSRP of like 40 to $50. But you know, realistically, you see them on the shelf they're gonna be at $100, easy, like it's not even close. I think it's pretty important to note at this point. We all had DD arrangements made for this evening.
Chris:Yes, yeah, I'm purposefully not drinking a whole lot. I was telling the guys earlier Spoiler alert this is recorded in the spring time and I have horrific spring allergies and as soon as I have alcohol, allergy meds are like hey, it was nice to know, you see you later and so I'll die. So I'm just sipping everything. I'm not really going too crazy, yeah.
Rob:I'm doing the same. Gotta get up early tomorrow, so rough life.
Dan:Not me. I'm drinking full samples and I'm got. Chris driving me home Dan and Matt are going in.
Matt:Oh yeah, Matt lives here. That's true, Mike. I true turns out.
Rob:Matt lives here. My commute is across the hallway which is very convenient.
Matt:It's about 10 minutes away. What a cheater.
Dan:So Chris is gonna have to listen to me ramble about bourbon, for you know the 15, 10 minutes.
Chris:I'm fine with that.
Matt:All right, Dan, which one of those was the weller?
Rob:I'm going for the bakers. First that one, thank you. I really liked the bakers bakers seven.
Dan:It's made by knob creek, you know, seven years old. It's a hundred and seven proof. Interestingly enough, we got a head to head here and I didn't. We didn't set it up this way, but they're both a hundred and seven proof. Bourbon and they have similar, if I remember correctly, what's in a baker seven? They have similar mash bills. Baker seven is actually each statement, whiskey Meaning. The actual distillation time is written right on the bottle. You know, this one that we're sampling today is eight years and 10 months old, whereas the weller. I actually don't believe there's an age statement on the weller.
Rob:Well, I'm gonna go right in and say that I'm enjoying the bakers more personally. I agree with that. I think Matt and I have similar bourbon palates because, I'm guessing that these two are gonna like the wellers more.
Dan:Honestly, this is a tougher decision for me than the last round, which was the small batch in the. You know, small batch larceny versus small batch eh Taylor, because you know I feel like baker seven Is an incredibly underrated bottle in comparison to the weller 107.
Chris:Rob, what do you?
Rob:got for your scores. Bakers, I'm going with an 18 and the weller I'm going with a 16. They're, they're all like super close. You know, you know it, other than you know the wild turkey, which was clearly bad. Yeah, everything who brought that? Who do you think? The guy who lives here?
Dan:I'm giving them side.
Chris:I want. I'm saying All right, I'll jump in here. I'm gonna go similar to you, rob, because Although I really like the weller, I like them for totally different reasons, so like it's hard to say that I like one over the other.
Rob:But I didn't realize how much nuance there was right in this.
Dan:That's the crazy part, Well how many times do you sit down and try like a different bourbon samples?
Matt:Never in the space.
Chris:Tonight. The nuance thing is funny because we didn't have two bourbons that are so similar that it was tough To know that there was a difference. Like Again, if we had all of these back to back to back to back, I would know that all of them were a different. Yep, uh, bourbon, I wouldn't be like, oh, maybe two and three are the same thing, uh, that being said, I'm gonna go 19 For the baker, okay, and 18 for the weller, okay.
Dan:I'm actually gonna switch those go 18 for the baker, 19 for the weller. It's interesting, though, because I am fairly certain I scored these both higher the first time around, but when you compare them to each other, I feel like the standard is a little higher.
Chris:Yeah and and you can't, you can't go off of your old scores anyway, because we're doing head to heads, right? We're not doing overalls, so I'm sorry, what was that number 18 and 19?
Rob:18, the opposite of what you had. Yeah, exactly exactly the opposite, so your your two scores cancel each other out, so matt got him for a tie, is what? Matt is the tiebreaker here.
Matt:I'm gonna say that the baker's 19 the weller 16.
Rob:Oh and the baker's moves on.
Matt:Wow, okay, the weller for me was burn on both ends, and I just felt like the baker's had more flavor to it.
Dan:See, and and I sure that's fair, honestly, that's fair the baker's has a very prominent flavor up front.
Chris:I I like the burn, though, and that's why I was saying like they're so different that I would drink them for different reasons.
Matt:Yeah, I was gonna say the both being 107. One of those to me is I had a good day and I'm celebrating the others. I've had a bad day and I don't like myself, if you want to have an I'm.
Dan:I've had a bad day whiskey. I've got 132 proof Canadian stuff at the house.
Matt:You know what I should? Yeah, I turns in now. I'm gonna have a bad night. You know what?
Chris:It's crazy, though, because you drink that stuff and it's like this is 132 proof, like this could like light on fire and I'm like it's not that bad and I will say Rob said earlier Uh, I would put the weller with a nice cube of ice and so, as you're drinking it, it would stay cooler, it would dilute a slightly as you're drinking it and I think that would really, I think it's important to note to everybody that we're just drinking these room temperature Straight no water, nothing, no mix, no, water, no ice like room temp, everything you know so.
Dan:It'd be interesting to do a comparison like yeah, yeah maybe that's something for down the road sometime and doing.
Chris:Ice cubes like actual water. Ice cubes versus whiskey stones.
Rob:Where it only affects the temperature versus it starts to water down about like a myth busters episode, when you know, you know we've got Dan three and I'm a science man Open bottle.
Dan:the open bottle is a big one, that's the other one.
Chris:Yeah, myth boozers.
Matt:Like oh, there you go, love it.
Chris:Dan is our Jamie Heineman who that's right drank all the vodka's and named all of them.
Matt:Yeah, there you go. Yeah, I'm doing it.
Rob:I mean, listen, we can set up control groups Like. I'm super into this idea.
Dan:Well, unfortunately, the open bottle myth is gonna be a challenge, because these luscious have managed to kill most of these bottles that are actually open at the moment.
Rob:Well that's fair, but we don't need to drink any more of the EH, so Dan are you shocked that we've got the bakers in the larceny going head to head for the top dog in this particular head to head challenge?
Dan:I'm surprised, but I'm happily surprised because the reason that I brought the Baker 7 is because I knew it could compete. Like you know I have. You know, my personal collection of bourbon is probably 70, 80, 90 bottles, something like that something crazy.
Dan:But I brought up bottles, like I brought a couple that were like harder to find the EH Taylor small batch one and the Weller 107. And honestly, those aren't the most hard to find ones but they're kind of entry level, accessible ones to people that are like getting into bourbon as like their drink. But then I brought the Baker 7 and I brought the Kalamit which, honestly, like the Kalamit did not do as well as I anticipated it would. But I brought those because I felt like those would be ones that could compete and you can find these bottles pretty much anywhere. There's no need to like really hunt down the bakers in the Kalamit, you can find them.
Rob:Well, you know that's really cool because you know here we have bakers and the larceny very readily available going into this final round.
Dan:Larceny Bourbon is an interesting story. Do you know the story behind this?
Rob:I know nothing of it. I was just in a liquor store and I was like I want to try a bourbon. I don't want to pay a ton of money and this bottle looks kind of cool. Got it home and I was like why have I never had this before? I was so impressed by it and now I buy it all the time.
Dan:Well, larceny is made by the Heaven Hill Distillery. It is one of their newer releases by Heaven Hill. The story basically goes that like there's a tax assessor that was assigned to distilleries in Kentucky that was responsible for making sure that the distilleries pay their taxes, and you know, the Heaven Hill Distillery noticed at one point that there was a significant amount of bourbon that was missing from their inventory and they decided to try to figure out what was going on with that. And you know your viewers may realize I'm kind of wriggling this story a little bit because I'm pretty drunk right now, but on a bottle of larceny there's a key shape on the bottle and what that basically signifies is they figured out who had keys to the warehouses where the whiskey was aging and had accessibility to steal the whiskey, and it was actually the revenue assessor, the tax assessor, that was stealing the bourbon from larceny.
Dan:Amazing oh from Heaven Hill, rather, and that's where the kind of the name came from.
Chris:Look there's. Sometimes I think to myself man growing up in like the 20s and 30s was probably pretty damn cool. It's like you could just break into a place and steal a bunch of whiskey, apparently, and no one's gonna know for like 10 years. And that's a pretty good life to me.
Rob:Well, you know.
Dan:Yeah, they got away with it for a while.
Rob:I'm gonna try the bakers first.
Matt:You know a mental image of Chris in an old Ford with like five or six barrels in the back, puttering down the street 20 miles an hour.
Dan:I don't know that we'd be old Ford. If you did it now, you'd make some money off that. True Not that it's recommended. Don't do that.
Rob:Still like the bakers, but I'm gonna try to be unbiased here and give it a real shot against this larceny, because, God, it just smells so good. The larceny.
Dan:You really hung your hat on that larceny. I feel like if we do this again, you're not allowed to bring larceny, that's fine. I'll bring larceny barrel proof to really throw you a curve ball Crap man Head to head.
Rob:I'll tell you, the bakers has given this a run for its money.
Dan:Honestly, for me the bakers would, and it's not because I brought it Like I've really like I mean honestly, if I had to pick one out of the ones I brought to this tasting like the EH Taylor would have been the one that I picked and that didn't even make it out of the last round.
Rob:All right, chris, do you have a score already?
Chris:I do not Hit me with yours.
Rob:I'm floundering at the moment.
Matt:You want me to go Go ahead? All right, I like them both quite a bit, so this is really really tough.
Chris:He's like 15s across the board, yeah.
Dan:I'm from the.
Matt:Russian judges 15.5. No, I am going to give the larceny an 18, and I'm going to give the bankers a 20.
Rob:The bankers, bankers, wait, who brought?
Matt:bankers club. I'm going to give the bankers a 20.
Rob:Okay, so we're going bakers 20.
Dan:Did you let your wife know how drunk you were gonna be at the end of this episode?
Matt:No, I didn't, For the viewers at home looking around the table right now. Chris is the only one.
Rob:Rarely ever would I Rob is pretty close but, Matt.
Dan:Matt is sourced.
Matt:Rarely ever would I quote Jar Jar banks for anything in life, but my tongue, my tongue is numb.
Chris:That's funny. I thought I was going to throw a Misa in there. I was going to flip the table.
Dan:I think you automatically cancel your own podcast if you do a Jar Jar impression.
Matt:I don't know. I wasn't going to do one.
Chris:All right, rob, you're forced to answer. Okay, okay, gun to your head. What are you picking?
Rob:Larsonie 20 bakers 19.
Dan:Oh, you held true, Okay.
Rob:I have to Like it's so close. I would almost go 19 and a half on the bakers, but I feel like that's cheap.
Chris:To put it on a razor's edge.
Rob:That's cheap, so I'm going to go one point between them. I like the Larsonie.
Chris:I'm up, my palate holds. I like the bakers better, I think. Now, head to head, the Larsonie sweetness starts to lose its allure. To me, right, because you're putting it next to the bakers. Yeah. So I'm going to go Larsonie a 17 and I'm going to go bakers a 20. I'm honestly right there with Chris.
Dan:I would say 2019, I mean or 2018 rather. I like Larsonie bourbon, I like Larsonie small batch, I like Larsonie barrel proof. I like the bakers better Like in this kind of like. That's certainly fair. I put them farther apart.
Chris:You know, like in the earlier rounds I put them really close to what they were against. But now the gap widens for me because I want more of just like the whiskey flavor. I don't need everything else I've got to know, or your new quality versus quality of this, but I will say for someone who's not into that, into the really heavy smoky ethanol flavors of a stronger bourbon, the Larsonie is the way to go. It's really easy to drink bourbon.
Rob:It's so accessible yeah for sure. And that's the way I'll describe it, and maybe it's just because I have a very young bourbon palette like I've not been into it for a long time, tasting different things, and I feel like the sweetness helps me to kind of carry myself into that a little bit. I'm the same way with wines, kind of sort of Like when I first started drinking wine which I'm not a huge connoisseur of. I would always gravitate towards sweeter wines, because I was like I can at least palette this, you know.
Chris:All right, the grand champion, drumroll Rob, please. The bakers at 79. Wow, larsonie at 73,. A very close call, absolutely.
Dan:I will honestly say I think it's respectable that the four of us, through samples alone, finished half a bottle of Baker seven while we were doing this one, was that brand new? That was. I cracked the seal when I gave it to Matt's wife to put it in a bag. So that gives you an idea of how much whiskey the four of us have drank in the last hour and 10 hours or 15 minutes, three rounds, four samples a piece.
Rob:Well, that's a half all right. So okay.
Dan:This bottle right here, which the age tailor was right here when I brought it in the door.
Chris:Oh no, yes, it was All right.
Rob:I'm sorry Granted like a sixth of that is on my pants.
Dan:Oh no, that's $50 for the bourbon on the floor, oh no, oh no man down.
Rob:Let's go up to a third of that on my pants.
Dan:Oh, I'm sorry about that.
Rob:It's okay, you know All right, there's worse things on my pants.
Matt:Why is it all my fault? It's your fault. It's not my fault, it's 100% your fault. All right, so for the Bakers, for the Bakers victory.
Chris:No, that's not the right, that's the wrong button Drunkie.
Dan:See, this is what happens when you drink nine shots of whiskey in the space of an hour. Could not have been more perfect.
Chris:See, we had the podcast. We're ending it right there, you, no, no, no.
Matt:No, we're done and on that note, the boozy quote for this episode comes from Mark Twain, who said too much of anything is bad, but too much good whiskey is barely enough. On social media, please like, follow and push all the buttons for us. That's Matt and friends DTU. At Facebook, instagram threads and TikTok For more information about the podcast, as well as links to our merch store, social media and all the places you can listen to us. Visit our website mattandfriendsdtucom. That's mattandfriendsdtucom. Thank you again for listening to Matt and Friends Drink the Universe.