Rocket Rankings - "Bourbon Tasting 2"

Ten bourbons, one table, all the hype, and no mercy! Andy M., Chris, and Josh join Matt for another bourbon extravaganza! We lined up everything from a $20 Bottled-in-Bond workhorse to beloved Buffalo Trace labels, a sleeper single barrel, a stave-finished Maker’s Private Selection, and a cask strength closer—and let the flavors fight it out. With four palates in play, we tracked nose, finish, drinkability, and real-world use cases to answer the question that actually matters: which bottle should you reach for, and why?

The ride starts with contrasts: Bib & Tucker Double Char’s toasted oak and short finish against Noble’s feather-light four-grain profile that drinks almost like a blended scotch. Then we dive into the Buffalo Trace family where bias meets reality: approachable sweetness in Buffalo Trace, refined citrus-honey spice in Elmer T. Lee, and the soft-but-divisive richness of Weller 12. We pause to unpack how proof tolerance evolves, why wheat can smooth edges, and when “hard to find” becomes head noise on your palate.

Mid-show, the value conversation heats up. Clover Single Barrel brings classic vanilla and baking spice flavors at 92 proof, while Evan Williams Bottled-in-Bond earns respect as the 100-proof cocktail backbone you actually want behind the bar. We break down the Bottled-in-Bond Act and how it still signals quality: one distillery, one season, at least four years, exactly 100 proof. From there it’s an ascent: Baker’s 7 Single Barrel charms us all and a special Maker’s Mark Private Selection, brought by Chris, layers French oak complexity into holiday warmth. Brothers Bond Cask Strength closes with caramelized sugar and a lingering burn that begs for a spirit-forward cocktail.

Use the link below to send up your favorite bourbon or suggestions for us to try next! 

We tally the scores and determine which of our 10 bourbons comes out on top. We hope you’ll leave with a simple bar strategy: keep a dependable 100-proof mixer, a nuanced mid-proof sipper, and a special-occasion bottle that rewards slow pours. Press play, compare your top three with ours, and tell us what would move up or down. If you enjoy the show, subscribe, share with a bourbon-loving friend, and drop a review so more listeners can find us. Cheers!

Chapters

• 0:00 Bourbon Lineup And Ground Rules
• 3:00 Setting Expectations And Predicted Rankings
• 7:50 Tasting 1: Bib & Tucker Double Char
• 10:10 Tasting 2: Noble Four-Grain From PA
• 12:35 Tasting 3: Buffalo Trace And Bias
• 19:50 Old Fashioned Philosophy And Cherry Debate
• 22:01 Tasting 4: Elmer T. Lee And Control States
• 30:15 Pennsylvania Liquor System Deep Dive
• 35:05 Tasting 5: Weller 12 And Palate Drift
• 42:30 Mid-Show Reset And Clover Single Barrel
• 47:25 Budget Surprise: Evan Williams BIB
• 53:40 Tasting 7: Baker’s 7 Single Barrel
• 59:20 Maker’s Private Selection: Staves And Specs

Transcript

Matt: 1:17

Welcome to Matt and Friends, Drink the Universe. Welcome back everyone to Matt and Friends Drink the Universe. Our table today is full of bourbon. The room smells like bourbon. There's a lot of bourbon, and that's because we are doing some. That's my uh audition for the lead singer position for Black Sabbath, right there, since it's now vacant. Rest in peace, Ozzy.

Josh: 2:02

What a wild way to open.

Matt: 2:04

Yes. Giving away when we recorded this with uh plugging himself with Black Sabbath. That's all right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the phone call that will never happen, and I'm perfectly cool with that. So we have 10 bourbons that we are going to taste. And Drinking the Universe today with me, I have Josh, Chris, and Andy. And there's a lot of bourbon, fellas. Yo, it's crazy. All right. I have here the list of these 10 bourbons that I definitely brought into the room with me to get started here. Totally did not leave it out in the kitchen at all. Nothing but professionalism here. And we have these listed by proof. We're starting lowest proof, going to highest proof to protect our palates. So first off, we have Bib Tucker Double Char. We have Noble Bourbon from Nomad Distilling. We have Buffalo Trace. We have Elmer T. Lee and Weller 12, so that's our Buffalo Trace segment, apparently. We have the Clover single barrel. We have Evan Williams bottled in Bond. We have Baker's 7 single barrel. Ooh, fancy. And Brothers Bond, which is Cask Strength. This list was in order of ABV.

Josh: 3:15

There's only one budget-friendly bourbon on there, or budget bourbon, if you will, and that would be the Evan Williams. So convention would say that would probably be towards the bottom of our ranking list.

Matt: 3:25

I always like the surprises, though. I'm gonna hope that one comes in at like a solid five just to see what happens here. I'm thinking that the uh Elmer or the Weller are gonna end up towards the top.

Josh: 3:36

Russell's, I've never had anything bad from Russell's, so I wouldn't I wouldn't count that out uh being towards the top. I've never had the bib Tucker. The double char. Bib and Tucker. Bib and Tucker, sorry. That's gonna be pretty smoky because it's a super, super dark charred barrel on that one. Color on that one, definitely.

Andy M.: 3:55

Buffalo Trace more than likely won't be at the top of the list, I think, because it's all familiar to everybody for the most part.

Josh: 4:00

I mean, Buffalo Trace will probably be maybe somewhere in the middle.

Matt: 4:03

So we're thinking Evan Williams might be uh Sure.

Josh: 4:06

We'll call that last. All right, we're gonna call that last. If I was gonna go next, I would probably go with the Noble because it's made here in Pennsylvania and I wouldn't say we're necessarily known for our bourbons. Yeah, it it's nothing that's gonna wow anybody. I brought it because I think it is a really good example of what you can do in Pennsylvania.

Speaker 3: 4:25

Sure.

Josh: 4:25

You can find different rye profiles and mix them together and turn something really nice. Okay.

Matt: 4:30

I mean, aren't we the state responsible for the whiskey rebellion system?

Josh: 4:35

Wasn't that our state, our noble history here? This is tough. The makersmark private collection could be amazing. I imagine it's gonna be pretty good, right? Um, do you want to go with Brothers Bond Cask Strength next? I don't know much about that one. Yeah, or the Bakers. All right. All right. Put those two next in some order, eight and seven. All right.

Andy M.: 4:54

And also the Bib and Tucker. I mean, it all depends on how smoky this is. If you don't like that as a profile, you're probably not gonna like it at all.

Josh: 5:00

Sure.

Andy M.: 5:00

Put put Bib and Tucker, round out our our bottom five.

Matt: 5:03

All right, then what do we have left? So we have the clover, the Buffalo Trace, Elmer, and Weller. And are we gonna put Buffalo Trace stuff in our top three? The maker's private. I'd put Buffalo Trace next. Yeah, that's just gonna say definitely mid range. Yeah, all right. So Buffalo Trace five.

Josh: 5:21

The Clover is probably a curveball. I I don't imagine any of you have tried that before. No, there is. I think it's really good, but we can go with that next.

Matt: 5:29

Gosh, a little self-aggrandizing there. Out of the four. Okay. The Weller 12 out of three. And that would leave us the Elmer and the Makers private. I'll put the makers. Put the makers next, yeah. Yeah.

Josh: 5:44

That's not gonna wow anybody, but it was just a rare collection that piece that I had. Alright. Go ahead. Put your favorite at the top. What? The Elmer Teley?

Matt: 5:54

Put your predetermined favorite at the top. Yep. Hey, I am always open to I look, I'm just hoping I can still taste the things by the time we get.

Josh: 6:03

Yeah, we really need to blind taste these one day. We need to have somebody put them in front of you and see. We did that last time. Yeah. And we were surprised by a few things. Okay. Because I mean, Matt was already out there talking about how he got it at a good deal, but you know, in the secondary market, it's real expensive for the Elmer T. Lee. So I think that, you know, that plays into everybody's psyche. Psyche when they're tasting it. I like to, when I taste accounts on wines, I try and do it before I show them prices because sometimes a $10 bottle of wine really surprises people. And they're like, this is really good. I'm like, yeah, it's only $10. Like, okay, I'll buy that.

Matt: 6:37

Yeah. We know what we're drinking today. All right. So we have the Bibb and Tucker Extra charcoal number one.

Josh: 6:44

That is not what it says. Double charge. That's going to make up new things about every one of these. Wonderful. Yeah, we did drink charcoal. Here we go. Well, Andy, you want to read us, don't you have a little bit of a description or something?

Andy M.: 6:57

Yeah, so this is one of mine that I brought in. Uh the Bibb and Tucker Double Char bourbon. It's exactly what it sounds like. And it's the degree to which a distiller chars a fresh white American oak barrel before filling it with a spirit meant for maturation. It has to be a minimum of five months. This is 88 proof, which is actually kind of low for bourbon. Cheers. Cheers. Plancha. Cheers. Oh yeah, it hits.

Josh: 7:23

Not too smoky though. Not gonna lie to you. I get more of the smoke of the back end. Yeah. I'm gonna go a sip and then I'm gonna put like two drops of water in it and then take another sip. I feel like often that first sip you take is just the alcohol burn in jet mostly. Yeah. That's a good idea. And you'll open up a lot more flavors on the side.

Andy M.: 7:39

See, like I like the smokiness of it. I'm a fan of that.

Matt: 7:41

I'm just tracking on my phone so you all know where I'm ranking things, so I'm met up doing so. I'm gonna do the same. Sure. You're ranking this first so far? Josh is sticking water with spoons and stuff like he's drinking English tea over here.

Andy M.: 7:53

Listen, man. He's gonna start reading a book to us now, how this goes.

Josh: 7:56

And what's the uh price on this in Pennsylvania?

Matt: 8:00

$54.99, it looks like. Not horrendous. I mean middle of the road. There is definitely that char taste. It reminds me a little bit of like Johnny Walker double black. This is more punchy.

Andy M.: 8:13

It's like a little bit of sugar maple, like almost like a little not overbearing.

Josh: 8:18

Yeah, but I mean it's low proof for what I want as a sipper. It's just with the low proof, it doesn't really stick with you. The the finish isn't really um memorable, if you will. Yeah, I mainly like the finish to me is just the burn. I don't really have that palette flavor. There's nothing off-putting about it at all. It's um it's solid. Alright, I'm gonna take down my ranking.

Matt: 8:46

So far, it's in first and last place for me, as it has no competitors.

Josh: 8:50

Alright. So what do we have second, Matt?

Matt: 8:52

That's the noble. I will I will say I enjoy this. I like a uh a smoke or a little char on mine.

Andy M.: 8:57

Yeah, same here.

Matt: 8:58

I enjoy that.

Andy M.: 9:00

Very, very m moderate sweetness too.

Josh: 9:02

Alright, our next one here is uh Noble Bourbon. I brought this one. Uh this is the PA one, right? This is from PA, yeah. We got this up in uh Jim Thorpe. Um, although where did we say they they're Williams Port Williamsport? Yeah. Which uh is fitting because the Little League World Series is going on there right now. Yep. Oh no. I'm gonna read this off their website because it it's really interesting. So uh it says while other bourbons commonly make do with just three grains, we use four in our blend corn, wheat, rye, barley. Selecting a high rye and weeded bourbon to blend yields something truly unique, and we believe you'll immediately see why that four grains makes a difference. It's smooth with a touch of spice, making this bourbon perfect for sipping. Take a load off and enjoy. All right.

Matt: 9:49

Like spinal tap vibes, this bourbon goes to four grain.

Josh: 9:53

I mean, first thing I notice the color is wildly lighter than the last one. Now the last one was a double charred barrel. But even I would say this is very light for a lot of bourbons. I wonder how long they age this for.

Matt: 10:08

That is such a right turn from the char. Yeah, it really is.

Andy M.: 10:11

Yeah, it is. Very mild tasting.

Matt: 10:14

Yeah, very scotch-esque, which you said there's barley in it, right? Super light. Doers vibes? Anybody else with the doers vibes? Maybe a little bit. Which is a blended scotch. Yeah.

Josh: 10:25

Yeah. I find that I've I've started really liking blended's because they're easier to sip. You know, you you're not getting punched in the face with the burn. They have a little bit of spice to this particular blend, which is nice. Yeah, I don't think the bourbon enthusiast is gonna go for this. I I think, like you said, it it drinks more like a blended scotch or a blended whiskey. It's nice. It's just not what I want when I want bourbon.

Andy M.: 10:52

Yeah, it seems like more of a mixer to me.

Josh: 10:53

I also don't know, so that's what I was about to say. I don't know that it would stand up in in a cocktail because it's so delicate. That's a good point, yeah. Uh yeah, I I would not use this in a cocktail. Yeah, this would be a sipper. Just not a sipper for people that are like bourbon, hardcore bourbon drinkers. More of a, hey, you're a Scotch guy, try this. You might like this.

Matt: 11:13

I could see this being like a bourbon and water situation. Like that kind of thing, cut it with a little water, smooth right out. You get all the alcohol, very little flavor. Yeah. We have water right now.

Josh: 11:28

It opened up nice with uh with a drip or two of water in there.

Matt: 11:34

All right, number three. Number three. Number three on my ranking sheet. We're not doing transitional material today, folks. We're uh we are at Buffalo Trace here. This one's going for about roughly thirty dollars in the great state of Pennsylvania. If you're outside of Pennsylvania and trying to find it on the secondary market, it might be a little bit more than that. But if you're paying a lot more than that, you're probably paying too much for it.

Josh: 11:55

This is the elusive Buffalo Trace. For no real good reason. Yeah. Yeah. One of the key behind the counter at the liquor stores. That was it. That's your whole description, what the cost is? That well, okay.

Matt: 12:09

So as Chris pointed out earlier, my homework doing, you know, back in the day was not always on par with expectations. So yesterday Josh said, Can you you all prepare like it'd be a good idea if we put like one or two sentences about our bourbon together? So I grabbed ChatGPT as we sat down and said, give me some sentences here. I verified ish. So Buffalo Trace. He just threw it right out.

Josh: 12:36

Oh my gosh.

Matt: 12:37

So it Buffalo Trace is one of the oldest continually operating distilleries in the United States, traces its roots back to about the 1700s, became known under its current name around 1999, and is producing a wide range of acclaimed bourbons. This is their kind of generalized flagship, if you will. It is the Buffalo Trace. They also own Weller and uh Elmerti and what else is my E.H. Taylor. E.H. Uh Pappy. Blanton's. So all of that. So they kind of own all the bigwigs in the bourbon industry. Pretty much, yeah. If you can't find them on the shelves, it's probably owned by Buffalo Trace.

Josh: 13:12

I believe they're owned by Sazerac as well, which has a bigger giant footprint. So yeah. And it's all the same, just in different boxes. I need you to do something for me while we're tasting this. What? Type into Chap GPT, explain Buffalo Trace bourbon to a five-year-old and see what comes up. I've seen this trend on Reddit. Some really funny stuff. Yeah, it was like people that are like, some guy was a data analyst, and he was like, his kid was asking him what he like how what his job is. And he asked Chap GPT, explain my job to a five-year-old. And and and he wrote on Reddit, he's like, I've I'm having an existential crisis now. Because the the chat G Chat GPT basically said a data analyst counts things for people who don't want to count things themselves. And he was like, and I sat back and thought about it, and I couldn't refute any of that. It's like that was about as as concise as it could be.

Matt: 14:05

All right. This is actually pretty good. Okay. Buffalo Trace is like a grown-up's special juice made from corn, wheat, and barley, which are grains, kind of like the ones in cereal. The people at Buffalo Trace have been making it for a really long time, letting it sit in wooden wooden barrels so it picks up yummy flavors like sweet caramel and vanilla. Grown-ups drink it slowly, kind of like how you'd enjoy hot cocoa. But it's only for adults because it is very strong. I love it.

Josh: 14:34

Done well. Fantastic. And it's absolutely right because you when you smell the nose of this, you get the vanilla, like the sugary caramel vanilla. Yeah. Oh, yeah. This is like vanilla extract. You get a ton of it. It's one of the reasons why I love it so much.

Matt: 14:48

Yeah. It's been said on this podcast 6,000 times. Matt likes sweet things. This is why this is one of my favorite.

Josh: 14:54

Maybe we're just five-year-olds. That's why you prefer bourbon over a rye, right? Bourbons are going to be sweet because they're made from corn mostly, and corn has a high sugar content. So we get these sweet notes out of bourbon, and that's why I like ryes in my cocktails more because I can get more punchy notes that'll actually stand up to all of the ingredients I want to put in a cocktail.

Matt: 15:16

I will say this is normally what I use when I make old fashions.

Josh: 15:20

Yep. Mm-hmm.

Matt: 15:21

And it makes one hell of an old fashioned compared to some of the other stuff. Absolutely.

Josh: 15:25

Now, how do you make an old fashioned?

Matt: 15:27

Walk us through Matt's old fashioned. Matt's old fashioned? Uh oh. Do you want precise measurements? Because I have to look.

Josh: 15:33

I've been precise measurements.

Matt: 15:36

So bourbon, I like to muddle up a sugar cube at the bottom. Of course you do. I have used simple syrup, but I just like to go with a straight sugar cube. Sometimes I'll do like two. I like mine very sweet. So we'll on top of that, I will do orange bitters and regular bitters and a peel of orange. Love it.

Josh: 15:56

I was afraid you were going to say you smash a cherry on an orange and uh bright red cherry in the bottom and do the Midwestern old-fashioned.

Matt: 16:05

Well, as I No offense to anyone in the Midwest who's listening. Well, as I was just pitching up a storm about yesterday, my Luxardo cherries that I had went bad, and I did not use them in enough time. It went bad. I don't I don't believe it.

Josh: 16:15

He tastes source. I had one. Are these good? I said, open them and if they're moldy, they're not they're they're fine. Uh I said, if they're not moldy, they're fine. And he opened them and he said they smell sour. And I was like, just taste one.

Matt: 16:28

I tasted two. They tasted sour. I was like, sour.

Josh: 16:31

They are cherries.

Matt: 16:32

Yeah. I think they were probably fine, but he's away. Weird. I do need to leave the jar open at one point. No, it's been sitting in this room.

Josh: 16:40

He did have them in this room, which is approximately 900,000. Do they need to be refrigerated enough for opening?

Matt: 16:45

No.

Josh: 16:46

Uh the thing is though the good ones, right? The good ones will like crystallize if you put them in the fridge. Okay. But but room temperature is generally pretty good for. You don't want them to be like in a hot room. They say that you're only supposed to use them for like a couple weeks after you open them, but there is such a high sugar content in there that nothing can live in there. Yeah. I mean, you you can't grow bacteria in there if you try. Yeah.

Matt: 17:07

So they're they're more likely to ferment then thanks.

Josh: 17:10

Not even. You can't get yeast to live in there. Well, there'll be a whole bunch of the cherries left. This goes straight to the top of the list out of the three that we uh the three that we had so far.

Matt: 17:21

Trevor Burrus, Jr. To add to my old fashioned just so you know, I normally throw uh a maraschino cherry in there and a little cherry juice, not a lot, just dribble, like whatever I pick up. No, no, no, like the maraschino cherry, like the juice right out of the like I'll pick one up. Those are the bright red ones. Those are the bright red ones, the cheapo ones. No, no, no. The the Luxardos.

Josh: 17:39

Luxar. Well, you said maraschino. Those like the I was picturing on the picturing the bright red ones. No, not no, not those. The the ones that go on top of your ice cream sundae. No, not those. Yeah, give me a little bit of a two sugar cubes and the cherry syrup, which can I like more sugar?

Matt: 17:57

I said I like them sweet. My goodness gracious. Drinking candy. Not a lot of the cherry syrup, though. Whatever I get, which comes out with one cherry. Not a lot. He likes a little table with his sugar.

Josh: 18:08

He uses one tablespoon to get his uh cherry out, and he's like, little syrup left in there. I got it. I'll just pop it in there. I use a serving. I kind of need to try one of these.

Matt: 18:16

I use a serving spoon. Thank you very much.

Josh: 18:18

He brought a drink over to my house last night uh and it had Kool-Aid in it and a Kool-Aid rim. And he did it on purpose. It wasn't a roll-for-cocktail thing. That's sweet. It was too surprisingly not bad. The Kool-Aid drink we made was the best, one of the best ones. Gin-based, like cherry limeade situation. Ooh.

Matt: 18:37

Okay. I'm putting that in between the uh the bib and the noble.

Andy M.: 18:41

Also, shout out to uh Cody's Eats and Sweets in Nazareth because we um ate an incredible lunch beforehand of the cheesesteaks, Ruby cheesesteaks and tomato pie before the podcast. Yeah. Great seeded rolls, ton of meat in those things. The best cheesesteak in the Lehigh Valley, hands down.

Josh: 18:58

And a tomato pie that you could put on top of a king-sized bed and use as a comforter.

Andy M.: 19:02

It was so big.

Matt: 19:03

Apparently, I thought we were we could eat at least 15 slices a piece, but yeah, it's all good. Who wants to explain tomato pie for those that aren't from Pennsylvania?

Josh: 19:10

Corpole's is that who we were talking about? Yeah, Corpole's is the one from Philadelphia. They used to always advertise that on like I listen to sports radio. Sure. Yeah.

Matt: 19:19

So if you don't know what tomato pie is, it is pizza sands cheese served cold, and it is delicious.

Andy M.: 19:25

Room temperature.

Matt: 19:25

Yeah.

Andy M.: 19:26

I went to we went to visit some friends in New York, and um the one friend didn't know what tomato pie was and was kind of offended, and they actually got melted and they actually got uh deli cheese to put on top of it. I was like, oh my god, no, that's not that's not what you do.

Josh: 19:39

Uh all right, so Matt, you said you're putting it in between. What what do you have as your top, right?

Matt: 19:43

I have bib as the top right now. Buffalo trace after that. Yeah. Interesting. Maybe I'll maybe I'll move it around. Although the Buffalo Trace, I like I said, I people are gonna judge the shit out of me for this. I like to use it. I I like to use it as a mixer, so take that for what you will.

Josh: 19:58

I I think that's perfectly acceptable. Yeah. Yeah. No no one is fighting you on that yet, by the way. I feel like there's some purist out there that's gonna be deeply and morally offended by that. Listen, I sat in a conference call once with the master distiller of Balvini, and he was talking about how whiskey people can be thickhead gatekeepers, right? And oh, you shouldn't do this, you shouldn't do that. And he's like, I make what I consider one of the finest single malt scotches in the world, and if you want to pour it over Coke and drink it that way, you drink it that way. I want you to drink my product. I don't care how you drink it. If you like it, drink it that way. I'm not here to tell you. So, in my opinion, if that guy says that I can drink Balvini single malt scotch with Coke, then you can drink Buffalo Trace however you damn well please. And people can be mad about it if they want.

Matt: 20:50

My dad's a huge Balvini fan. If you heard that distant sound of a man falling over in Florida, that would be my dad thinking about pouring that over Coke right now.

Josh: 20:57

Well, too bad. Maybe he hasn't tried it yet.

Matt: 21:01

Okay. So that brings us up to the Elmer T league. Oh boy. This was the pre this is the predetermined ranking in number one, was it? Yeah, this is where I feel that us not doing these blind would potentially hurt us because I have a bias for Elmer. I love Elmer T League. It's really good. That's my opinion. You may all take a sip and go.

Josh: 21:21

Very similar nose in this to the Buffalo Trace. Yes.

Andy M.: 21:25

Someone has my number four somewhere. Oh, here it is. Shit, you saw me. I was trying to keep it for myself. Mother.

Matt: 21:30

So while you are sipping, the Elmer retails in the state here of Pennsylvania, depending on when you can get it, sometimes between like 40 and 80 bucks, the secondary market for this. We said 200 plus. I've normally seen it for 300 plus, but uh this one's rather popular. And I'm telling your wife you spent $300 on this. She knows she knows that is not the truth. So Elmer T. Lee joined Buffalo Trace in 1949. He revolutionized the industry by introducing Blantons in 1984. Fun fact the first commercially available single barrel bourbon, and later had his own namesake bourbon released in his honors. This is really in honor of his history as the master distiller for Buffalo Trace for many, many years that brought Buffalo Trace into the prominence that it is today. It is known for its balance of honey, vanilla, and a light fruit with a soft, spicy finish.

Josh: 22:25

So this is 90 proof. I think the last three were all 90 proof. I think we started below and then we're at 90 proof on these last three. Um, and this is a single barrel.

Andy M.: 22:35

Yeah. I normally I couldn't tell you see what the difference of the taste, the tasting profile was between that and the buffalo trees, but when you said that that spice, it's that little subtle kind of spice to it.

Matt: 22:45

To me, it's more the mid to back end on this one. You get that spice coming off the back. This stays around much more than buffalo trees does. Oh, that is fantastic.

Josh: 22:54

I get some citrus like orange peel on the nose.

Matt: 22:57

Yes. This one is uh if I could find it on a regular basis, I would make it my go-to sipper, but this one is really hard to find. Maybe twice a year in Pennsylvania, you'll get it through an online release through the Wine and Spirits. Okay. Find Wine and Good Spirits, as they like to refer to themselves. I take issue with that title. But the uh state run liquor cartel will only put this one up twice a year. Keeps the prices cheaper.

Josh: 23:27

Don't get me started on the PLCB.

Matt: 23:28

I will go off on a Chris, however, is correct. You get it at MSRP. That's what you get it at.

Speaker 3: 23:35

Yeah.

Josh: 23:36

So And they still discount stuff occasionally. Now you're not going to find rare stuff discounted, but you know, they don't discount it. The supplier discounts it. The supplier eats every piece of discount cost. Uh see, you're getting me started here. But it's a whole thing. It's a whole thing. And and Josh is rolling up his sleeves on his sleeveless t-top right now. You can get um bourbon when you can get it at a decent price compared to some other states, but you also pay more for most wine here than you would if you just jumped over the river and went to New Jersey. Yeah, wine, wine is a whole different thing. Yeah, it's so Pennsylvania fun fact, Pennsylvania is the largest single wine buyer in the world. Really? Mm-hmm. Because every single bottle of wine that you drink here in Pennsylvania, whether you buy it at the liquor store and bring it to your house, or you go to the restaurant or bar or a venue and you buy it, it's already been purchased by the state. And then if you get it at a restaurant, the restaurant had to buy it from the state, and then you buy it from them, which is why it ends up being more expensive because it's been purchased multiple times and it's not the same. So in New Jersey, right? It's really interesting. The liquor store owner in New Jersey buys wine directly from the winery and they mark it up one time. Here, the state buys it, marks it up, then you buy it, then mark it. Is that because we're the only state that does that? No, there are about, I think like 10 or 12, maybe 13 control states. It's called a control state. It's just, I mean, the revenue for the state is crazy, which is why they'll never give it up. Um, it kind of sucks for consumers because we don't have any variety, right? Like you can go to a liquor store in in New Jersey that specializes in French wines because that's what the owner likes. And you can go to one here that specializes in rye's because that's what the owner likes. Well, all of our liquor stores have one buyer and everything goes into every store. Okay. With some small changes. There are a couple different tiers of stores. There's like the really high-end stores that have some of the higher end wines that that some of the you know lower, lower end stores don't have, but but in general, it's all the same stuff on the shelves.

Matt: 25:40

So before we get too far off track, does that mean if I go to like the grocery store here, which is like Giant or Wegmans locally, they have to buy from the state the stock though shelves? Yep.

Josh: 25:49

Unless it's made in Pennsylvania. If the spirits are made in Pennsylvania or wine is made in Pennsylvania, then a licensee, a retail store, and or a licensee, even just a regular person, can buy it directly from them.

Matt: 26:04

Yeah, that's why we can go to the distilleries and buy bottles of it. That makes sense. So that also makes sense as to buy things or two-ish dollars more expensive typically at the grocery store. So they have a very thin margin then.

Josh: 26:15

They have a very thin margin. Like paper thin. It's it is crazy because they have to buy that bottle of barefoot that they are selling in the grocery store has already been bought at retail price. Now they get a licensee discount because they have a license so that they get like 10% off. But off of a $10 bottle, that's a dollar off.

Andy M.: 26:32

But you see that you see like a winery like I just locally, like Franklin Hill is in Wegmans. That's why it's like $12.

Josh: 26:37

Yes, exactly.

Matt: 26:38

Yep.

Andy M.: 26:39

Okay.

Matt: 26:39

So I'm learning shit right now. Look at us.

Josh: 26:43

But the the whole model was built on a convenience model. So when they started doing the licensees for grocery stores and and uh subsequently gas stations now, it was made to say to the residents of Pennsylvania, you're gonna pay more, but now you're able to do the convenience of grocery shopping and get your liquor or and getting your wine rather in the same store. Which is what every other state around us is is like anyway. But the I will say this the PLCB and the Pennsylvania government, they fought that as hard as they could. They didn't want that. No. Anyway, that's our little aside on the PLCB, love them or hate them. I won't tell you which.

Matt: 27:20

And back to the bourbon. Next up, we have Weller 12-year-old. So this is W. L. Weller 12, part of the weeded bourbon family, originally crafted by William LaRue Weller, which if you can find a bottle of William LaRue, good luck you're gonna pay over $1,000 for that one in the 19th century. It is celebrated for its smooth, rich profile and serves as a key component in the mash. The bill lineage also gives rise to Pappy Van Winkle. It delivers deep flavors of toffee, dark fruit, oak, with a long and mellow finish. And if you can find a bottle of papy, clearly there's none on my table today. So that tells you the state of that in Pennsylvania. This is the first weeded bourbon of the day, right? It is. Also, the state is our budget.

Josh: 28:00

No, I mean Chris has had wheat in it. Had wheat in it, yeah. They call this, it says it right on the bottle here, the original weeded bourbon. So it's right, it's bourbon, so it's got to be at least 51% corn. I would just assume that uh, well, what's it say on the back here? He used wheat rather than rye as in the mash bill. So I'm assuming there's just corn and wheat in here. We're gonna have another one when we get to Maker's. Makers is a traditionally weeded bourbon, even their their private stuff, they're not really changing up their mash bill for that. Makers is probably like the most well-known weeded bourbon, but wheat tends to like soften the palate, I think. Very much in this.

Speaker 3: 28:35

Yeah.

Josh: 28:36

And it's funny because the nose, like in the last three, with all of the Buffalo Trace ones, the nose of them doesn't change, but then the palate hits completely different in all three of them. Yeah. You don't think the nose is different on this one than the Elmer? And I apologize. I'm gonna uh change what I said. So the first one was what was the proof on that? Bebentalker is uh 88. And we went backwards. I'm sorry. I messed it up when I put them in order. The Noble Bourbon was 86%. It was lower. Yeah, okay. And then the last three now, all three were ninety, ninety, ninety, ninety. Okay. I think we start to quickly climb after this one. Yeah, we're we're we're gonna take a right turn.

Matt: 29:19

Uh-huh. This one's not my favorite overall. Maybe it's just me, but yeah. It's it's the again, the back end on this one is different. So Buffalo Trace clearly has something going in. Yeah. They've agreed on a barrel type, and then you get to the back end, and I don't maybe it's just the heavy wheat in this one, but it's not my favorite. I would put this one down below the bib as well. Right now I'm going Elmer bib weller. That's that's where I am right now.

Andy M.: 29:40

I don't taste anything like you said, with the back end, it's so smooth. I don't that's not my choice. You don't taste anything. It's very basic. I see where you're going.

Josh: 29:46

There's a little bit of harshness on there on the back end, I get. I don't know. I don't know what I would call it, but it's just it's strong. It sets heavy on my palate, even with a little drop of water in it. I just feel like it sits really heavy. Yeah. Again, the nose is really light, but then it's like much heavier. Which for a weeded I I wouldn't have guessed for that. Yeah, which is probably why some of the bourbon bourbon enthusiasts like that. They like, I mean, you talk to a lot of these bourbon enthusiasts. They want you to I need a hundred and five proof or more. Yeah. You know, I need it to be really punching me in the face, which I think is part of like if you always just sit bourbon neat, eventually your palate just gets used. Like a 90-proof bourbon, you just want a thing for you. It's like cigar smokers, right? Somebody who starts smoking cigars is going to start with something really light, and eventually they are going to graduate to medium-bodied and then fuller bodied cigars that that if they smoked that when they first started smoking a cigar would knock them out. And I think it's the same with bourbons. Your palate starts to get used to those lower proof, and you need more. It's kind of like the evolution of beer drinkers, right? Oh, I hate IPAs five years later. Oh, yeah, I'm drinking IPAs now. You know, you just needed more.

Matt: 31:01

No, I haven't graduated to that point. If I ever get there, I'll let you know.

Josh: 31:05

I know that's because you like sweet stuff.

Matt: 31:06

We know that. I'm a I'm a logger and a stout and a porter guy through and through. He's a Line and Kugel guy. Yeah, he sure is.

Josh: 31:12

I do like my He's on his second barrel of it downstairs. I am well okay.

Matt: 31:16

They're sixth in my defense. He drinks Lawn and Kugel and honeydews and uh excuse me, high C's. I'm sorry. If I'm working out in the yard in the middle of summer, I don't want to be down in Guinness, so I'm getting a little bit more two yards from this guy.

Josh: 31:26

He gets somebody to come mow his lawn. He's not working out in the yard.

Matt: 31:29

All right, that's also a fair statement. I hate it.

Josh: 31:33

Yeah, this guy. Oh, working out in the yard. Yeah, okay.

Matt: 31:36

Some men take great prides in their lawn. I look at it as something just continually regrows and I want to replace it with astroturf, so that's where I am.

Josh: 31:44

He means if I'm sitting in my really hot recording studio editing podcasts, I need a nice refreshing summer shandy. There you go. All right, so we're through the first five here.

Matt: 31:58

Anybody want to give us a roundup of kind of where they are?

Josh: 32:01

Keep them quiet. Jeez. Yeah, Matt's the one who's spilling the beans left and right, but you can just ask AI to rate uh rate yours for you. You don't have to cheat off of our papers.

Matt: 32:12

So since we passed five and I have this drop, I'm using it.

Unfiltered Studio Guy: 32:16

Drinking spree.

Matt: 32:19

I I will never get tired of the Chef Steiser sound effects. And we're back with the second half here. Thanks again to Cody's for some phenomenal cheesesteaks, which we scarfed down in between here to try to cushion all the bourbon. The one I had was cheese steak and bun, and it was absolutely delicious. Yeah, really good.

Josh: 32:44

Wow, what a description. Yeah, it was cheese out. Cheese steak and bun. Thank you, Matt, for that. Hold on a minute. Did AI write for you? The food critic, the critic Matt Wellsser. Yeah. So Cody Sweets and Eats, Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Come get some. They also make beef tallow fries that are rumored to be very, very good.

Matt: 33:01

I'm gonna have to try some of those.

Josh: 33:03

Yeah.

Matt: 33:03

Okay. Number six on the list is the Clover Single Barrel. Okay. Coming in at $45.85 here in Pennsylvania. Which is very specific.

Josh: 33:17

What do you want to have? Some penny pitchers. Yeah, right. So the Clover Singer Single Barrel comes in at 92 proof. It is listed as a straight bourbon whiskey, and it has a embossment on the bottle that says the Bobby Jones Collection. So anyone who is a golf fan will know of Bobby Jones and a little bit about the clover. It says right here, the Bobby Jones collection sustains the legacy of golf's greatest gentleman and champion, who was said to enjoy three fingers of the finest local whiskey after each competition. Crafted of exclusively single barrel expressions, the clover refers to the four leaf medallion Bobby's mother gave him for good fortune. So let's tuck into this.

Matt: 34:06

Oh vanilla on the nose. Yeah. Yeah, really nice.

Josh: 34:09

Vanilla and cinnamon taste wise. Yeah, she's got a punch to her. Yeah, but I mean even ninety-two proof is not super high. No. It's not very hot. It's got a nice smoothness. It's got some it is very smooth. Yeah. It's got some lingering notes. But yeah, vanilla big time right up front. Those baking spices that you were talking about. Yeah. Probably more than cinnamon twos.

Andy M.: 34:31

That's a fantastic zipper though.

Josh: 34:33

Yeah, that's really good. Shall we move on to number seven? Yes, sir. Hold on, I gotta put this in my ranking button, yes.

Matt: 34:45

Is this the next one? The budget bourbon. We are up to the Evan Williams bottled in bond. Coming in at $21.99.

Josh: 34:54

Yep, and it's currently on sale for like $19.99 in the State Sorse. So you can find this for a $7.50 uh for under $20, which is wild.

Matt: 35:04

Now we do have this as our potential $10. I'm just gonna throw that. That's true. We'll see how this does.

Josh: 35:11

We'll take that back already because I've tasted it before and I've tasted five, six other bourbons already, and I can tell you that it's at least above a couple of them, in my opinion. Got a little uh honey on the nose. So, Evan Williams, bottled and bond. This is their their white label. If you watch like whiskey channels and things like that on YouTube, this is kind of a lot of people's dark horse. This is their their daily driver. This is one that I keep in my house for making cocktails with. I like hundredproof whiskies for cocktails because, like we were talking about with rye before, sometimes bourbon tends to be soft and kind of disappears in cocktails. Hundredproof stands up in a cocktail. This is the second largest selling Kentucky straight bourbon. Let's talk a little bit about bottled and bond. Bottled and bond is aged for four years under U.S. government supervision to meet the exacting standards for bottled and bond. First enacted by Congress in 1897 and is still on the books today, Bottled and Bond Act guarantees quality and assures consumers the product is bottled at exactly 100 proof. The product is of one distilling season at one distillery and is aged for at least four years. It has to be clearly labeled with the name of the distillery who made it and distilled spirits plant DSP number in which it was made and bottled. So essentially that came about because pre, what did I say, 1897, it was really hard to know what was in your bottle of whiskey. A lot of people were making whiskey, aging it for a couple of months in oak, and then adding things. Adding caramel. Adding caramel coloring, but probably not even that back then. Things that were grosser, like tobacco and leather, anything that they could get some color into the bourbon with, they would do that to give you the impression that it's been aged for a long time. And then other things to flavor it. Throw grandpa's belt in there. Let's see if it turns brown. I mean, there are stories of like tobacco spit and stuff being used. Oh, sure. And there was no real quality control. So this was the government's way to say if you pick up a bottle that's got the stamp that says bottled and bond, you're gonna know at least these four or five things about it. You're getting a hundred proof, you're getting it aged this amount of time. It's coming from one distillery. It doesn't necessarily mean this is a better bourbon than other bourbons, but it means you're getting what you think you're getting.

Matt: 37:23

Does does this work in this case?

Science Sound Effect: 37:27

Science. Science. Yeah. Kind of shooting warning and sound effect.

Matt: 37:31

I think so. Yeah, we're good. I do not enjoy that one. I'm gonna throw that one out there. Chris was looking at my funny face across the table.

Andy M.: 37:38

For me, it had a the initial taste was a little bit overpowering, but it was I think it was definitely it was decent. I'll give it that. Overpowering taste of what?

Matt: 37:46

Wood. I'm going with wood. Or is that woody taste.

Josh: 37:49

Overpowering taste of wood. All right. Plenty of things.

Andy M.: 37:51

I did not dislike that. I had that ranked actually above other ones as well.

Josh: 37:54

So yeah.

Andy M.: 37:55

Surprise. There's a lot of flavor there. Yeah.

Josh: 37:57

It is, yeah. And yes, it's higher in proof than what we've had so far, but it hits the nose. This is the first one that hits my nose. And I know that's like gonna happen more and more as we keep going up in ABV. So I don't think it's unpleasant at all. No, and I for sure have it above a couple.

Andy M.: 38:15

If we did that with some blind taste test things, I think that would surprisingly be ranked up there as some too.

Matt: 38:19

There again, that's why I think we lost out a little bit on not doing this blind. But I'm gonna put this. I'm not gonna tell you where I'm gonna put it, but it's and that will take us to eight oct for our German friends. This is the bacon's this is the bacon's the bacon. Literally, we've corrected you 20 times on the pronunciation. Go ahead. I know. It's I mean, look how I have it written. It's not even English. So this is the Baker's 7 single barrel, which if you go back to one of our previous episodes, this did appear in that listing as well. And I'm interested to see where this stacks up, and maybe I'll go back and do a comparison, see where it landed in that one. The Baker's Kentucky Strait Single Barrel bourbon comes in at 107 proof.

Andy M.: 38:58

When I picked this up, it had like a description on the back of it register uh registering the serial number threw it on James Beam Distilling. So I registered the serial number and it was bar it was barreled and aged on the fifth floor rack 36, and it was filled in December 2016, and the barrel was emptied on February 2024, and so that therefore the bottles aged about seven years and two months.

Josh: 39:18

I love that uh technology is starting to like bleed into this industry so much. Because like it it's easy to keep track of all of that inventory information now, and you can get really hyper specific now because there's some like craziness going on with like trying to rapid age whiskey now, and so like for them to be able to say like 100% this was barreled at this date and was emptied at this date. Rack 36.

Andy M.: 39:45

We were in this who cares like about it, but it is super cool.

Josh: 39:48

Maybe you're an insane person and be like, I only like stuff on rack one. If it's too high up in the in the racks, it just never started flavoring somebody like that.

Andy M.: 39:58

There are people out there, people like that, yeah. Must be rack one, position three. So again, this is uh Baker's Kentucky Straight Single Barrel. Favorable nose for me. I like this a lot. Yeah.

Josh: 40:08

107 proof here. Well, I like that. Really toasty on the nose. That is much easier to marshmallows.

Andy M.: 40:14

I was trying to think of what that's exactly what I was thinking. I got like toasted marshmallow in there. Yeah. Much easier to sip. Yeah, like a subtle s'mores kind of thing almost too. Like graham cracker. You think that's much easier to sip?

Matt: 40:26

Oh, I think that's much easier to sip than seven was. Absolutely. I do too.

Josh: 40:31

I think you guys are allowing the price to get into your brains. I mean, I'm not saying that this isn't a better whistle. But I think if I blind tasted you on both of these and didn't tell you the price, I don't think you would say one was much easier to sip than the other. I felt like the Evan Williams had a massive. Yeah. I'm not saying that one's not better than the other, but I don't think they're that far apart. Yeah, I I wouldn't say they're like ease of sipping. And I'm I'm being very hard on myself and putting down. Numbers like only using the same number once. One to ten. Okay.

Matt: 41:06

So I was putting mine in order, like how I think they all stack up against it. Yeah, I'm just plugging them in where I think they go. What you're saying, Chris, is you're not you will give it a number, but you're not gonna move it once it's in that position. Okay. That's crazy. You're doing blind rankings.

Andy M.: 41:20

That's good. I wish we would have done that in the beginning too.

Josh: 41:23

It's the uh marching arts competitive judge in me. Oh my gosh. But are you giving them scores or are you just ranking them? I'm essentially ranking. I'm giving a a number one through ten, because we have ten. So if the second one you ranked you thought was gonna be number two, you would have gave it two and then it couldn't possibly move. Yep. That's crazy. Yeah, that's that's not a marching arts way of doing it. The last one could still jump. Like if you if you thought we use numbers in marching arts, once you put a number down, you can't put it down again. Yeah, I I should have gone to 20, I honestly. You know, so I had room, but yes, okay.

Matt: 42:01

So Chris's are ranked nine, nine point one two, nine point one seven five.

Josh: 42:07

There's no points here. There's no decimals. This is a wild ranking system now. He's very specific. We should have discussed how we were ranking these before. Mine will be in order by the end. Yeah.

Andy M.: 42:18

I can't wait to see how this devolves.

Josh: 42:20

Oh yeah. I do think this is very nice.

Andy M.: 42:22

Yeah. I enjoy this much. Are we allowed to do comparisons too at the end? Like go back? Yeah, go back. Sure, why not? Oh, why not? We have 10 balls of bourbon. So there's no rules here.

Josh: 42:32

Chris has predetermined which one is his favorite already. No, no, no, no, no, no. He already put the number one down. It it literally meant that I wasn't gonna put one or ten down for like the first two because I'm not gonna be that bold. Ah, sucks.

Matt: 42:45

Sucks to be uh double char and noble, but double char noble. Didn't that happen in Russia?

Josh: 42:51

No. Oh, the silence was killer there. I can't believe it. I broke the silence. I let it be. I'm gonna kill that.

Unfiltered Studio Guy: 43:00

Yeah. Oh, that's a new one.

Andy M.: 43:02

Boy, oh boy.

Matt: 43:03

That that joke.

Andy M.: 43:04

We could put some Rocky themes. We're gonna put jokes at their first.

Matt: 43:07

Wow. All right, we move it on. Number nine is the Maker's Mark Private Collection. So this one's a little interesting.

Josh: 43:15

I got this from That's good or bad. Uh a vendor of mine. I will keep it nameless, but I I work in technology, and so one of our vendors did an anniversary thing with Maker's Mark where they get to select their own mash bill, essentially. I'll I'll read the little pamphlet that they have on the bottle here. They call it the the process. So our private selection program is the one and only time we hand over the keys and let fellow bourbon lovers craft their own taste visions for Maker's Mark. The one of a kind experience begins with selecting a bespoke combination of ten Virgin Oak finishing staves from among five choices. So they have their baked American pure, Cuvier. Maker's Mark 46, Mendiant and Spice. So each stave accentuates different naturally occurring notes in our bourbon. The folks who operate this are very established personally selecting this combination of staves to create their own customized taste profile. So there's a 1,01 different possible combinations that someone could do when they're selecting this. So it's not the mash bill though, right? Not the mash bill, it's the staves. It's the finishing. Yes. Basically, you know, to boil down all of that fancy talk. Uh if you want to do this, you pay a lot of money and you go down to Maker's Mark and you try all of this stuff, and then you get to play chemist and mix it all together and make your own barrel of bourbon. So this particular blend is three parts of baked American pure, two parts seared French cuvet, one part maker's mark 46, four parts roasted French Mendiant. There's also the toasted French spice, but there's zero parts of that. So apparently the people who did this didn't like that. Really interesting, as super unique. None of us will never taste this particular thing again.

Andy M.: 45:10

So they make like a barrel specific to somebody's what they choose. Yeah. Or in oh wow, that's incredible.

Josh: 45:17

So I'm sure they paid a ton of money to do this, but it was a special promotion for an anniversary, so the company decided to do this, and then they handed out bottles to some of their customers, and I was lucky enough to uh snag a bottle.

Matt: 45:28

Uh yeah, exactly. I was gonna say, Chris, here's my tongue-in-cheek salute to your vendor.

Josh: 45:38

We don't use this anymore, Matt.

Andy M.: 45:40

Is this bad joke number two? Yes. Okay, Matt, you're you've got to stop out your head.

Josh: 45:43

My goodness gracious. Stop while you're ahead. Was he ahead? I don't think he was ever ahead. Yeah. Anyways. Had to get the full dial-ups down. What's it called when you stop while you're behind? Losing. Yeah. All right. Sorry, Matt. You lose. I think the uh That's the new one he should have. The the Gen Z alphas call that taking the L.

Andy M.: 46:05

Oh, okay.

Josh: 46:05

Oh, okay. Nice. Soft on the uh on the nose. What's the proof on this, Chris? Uh 110. 1110. No, no, no.

Andy M.: 46:12

110.2.

Josh: 46:14

Excuse me. Get that point two in there.

Andy M.: 46:15

So you gotta be specific. Be right.

Josh: 46:17

And for anybody wondering, the bottles are still hand dipped. So they still uh bottle it in their regular process through the line, and they are still hand dipped. That's fantastic, right? That is absolutely so much flavor. We we kind of I'm not gonna uh peek behind the curtains here. We kind of wasted this a little bit. So like we opened it and we drank it a little quick, uh huh. And then we started mixing it in cocktails because we were like, eh, whatever. And then halfway through the bottle, I was like, where did the bottle go? Yeah, well, it was free too, right?

Andy M.: 46:51

Yeah. This is a very complex flavor, but it's incredible. Like I can't really figure this out yet. Like I think a little bit of like a little bit of oak, a little cinnamon up.

Matt: 46:59

Yeah, definitely cinnamon. Vanilla, spicy, like holiday vibes. Good. Definitely good. Yeah, that's that's damn good. It opens up as you drink it. Like there's layers on that one for sure.

Andy M.: 47:11

That is taking over a new ranking in mine.

Josh: 47:13

Yeah. Everything's falling in line for me.

Andy M.: 47:17

Chris's evil plan is coming together.

Josh: 47:19

Psycho. Except now this last one gets whatever spot is left, right? Yep. Yep. Brutal. I'm confident. You better hope for it to suck. Or am I hoping for it to suck?

Matt: 47:31

Oh, yeah, who knows? I'm having a hard time picking a spot for the biggest.

Josh: 47:36

I'm actually gonna pour the last remaining into my glass.

Andy M.: 47:38

So don't do that.

Josh: 47:38

Yeah, get those last drips. Yeah. I can't believe so. For the listeners at home, I brought the perfect amount. Yeah, exactly. Honestly, I poured three drips of that. I thought it was gone. And then like three days ago, Siobhan's like, oh no, there's a little bit left in the bottle. You can bring it along. And I was like, I don't even know if that's enough for us to taste, but it was perfect. We were doing half ounce pours, and he had two ounces exactly to the milliliter or whatever is smaller than that. We're being moderately resistant.

Andy M.: 48:10

I think that point two percent is gonna get me in the end, you know.

Matt: 48:14

Okay. Before that happens, last one is the brother's bond, and this is cask strength. Lord help us all. By the way, the price for Chris is listed as question mark, question mark, also known as free. Free. Free ninety nine. Yep. If you have a wealthy friend who likes to spend money on bourbon, exactly. That's how you get one of those. The brothers bond here is uh listed as $77.85. So again, very specific in the pricing.

Josh: 48:43

What else?

Andy M.: 48:43

Well, it depends on where you live in Pennsylvania. You know that, friend. 85 cents can make or break you.

Josh: 48:48

All right, so Brothers Bond, I'm gonna read it right off the bottle here. It says distilled and crafted in the tradition of all great bourbon. Brothers Bond straight bourbon whiskey, original cask strength, bottled straight from the cask at 57.55% alcohol or 115.1 proof. This is bottle number 06018, and it says it is the founder's limited release. They say they use 70 hand selected barrels blended together and then bottled at cask proof of 115.1. They say this is a bold and sophisticated bourbon on the palette with a long and lingering finish, which I imagine it will be long and lingering at 115 proof. So this will round out our 10 for the day, and uh we will go from here and see who liked what. Do we have to let it linger? Darken darker in color. I smell alcohol. Yeah, but it's not as like overwhelming on the nose for the proof level. That's true. Which the maker's mark was the same. It like it it didn't burn my nose.

Matt: 49:50

Yeah. Both of these. The Williams just opened up my sinuses. Like I took a sip of it and I was like, I can breathe now. Like Yeah, that doesn't hit as hard as I thought it would. No, no.

Josh: 49:59

There's some heat that goes through the nose right away. Yep. But the back end of the alcohol burn just comes off quick. A lot of like caramel and toffee in that one. Yeah, I don't get a lot more than just a caramel. Yeah. Like a like a burnt sugar, caramelized sugar. Yeah, yeah. Kind of. It's not super complex, no.

Andy M.: 50:19

I was anticipating more, honestly.

Josh: 50:21

It's good. It's definitely good. No giving a reasonable.

Matt: 50:27

Yeah. It is strong. Yeah, it is strong.

Josh: 50:29

Was it 115? Uh 115.1. Yep. Matt's typing into his phone. Where do I rank but brothers bond bourbon? No, I think I have my ranking set. Yeah, I don't I don't get a lot from this, but uh that almost works in its favor for me. You know, it it it it feels alcoholic, got that caramel. Yeah. I think it's pretty solid. I agree. I would love to try this in a cocktail. Yeah, like a like a bourbon forward cocktail, not you know. Yeah, like a bourbon smash or a no, I was gonna say not a blackberry smash or something like that. More like uh like an old-fashioned where you're only putting a couple in. Where you you want the alcohol forward. Yeah, I would go less of the ingredients. I mean, you could because you'd still get the alcohol through there and in some of the other ones, but like an old-fashioned with a toast and marshmallow or something.

Andy M.: 51:16

This would be freaking incredible. Oh, yeah. And also be able to start in the chocolate there.

Matt: 51:20

It would go nice with the toffee and caramel. It would be able to start an indie car also.

Josh: 51:24

Ooh, it burned. I just took a big sip foolishly. And it's got a burn to it. Yeah. Yeah, it's a sipper, not a not a pounder for sure. Okay, so we're gonna go around the table here. I'm gonna read off the bourbons. I'm gonna keep some track of the scores here. If you if you ranked your bourbon one, that will be worth 10 points. One is in your your favorite, uh, all the way down to your tenth ranked bourbon, that will only be worth one point. Well, let's let's start. You're gonna go in in that. I'm gonna go in the order that we tasted it, and everyone will tell me their their ranking for that. All right. And then we'll get scores. Each one will have a score. Obviously, the highest score would be if if all four of us pick the same as their top, we that could score 40. Yeah, yeah. And we'll we'll then say we'll we'll do some math.

Andy M.: 52:09

And then we'll see uh where we where we are. That was the but honestly, God, take us taste and all those. It was really very minor differences between them all, but they're the tasting differences, but they're very clear.

Josh: 52:19

The same thing we had happen last time is bourbon is so minutely different.

Andy M.: 52:25

It really is. But only you can only taste it, in my opinion, when you were tasting multiple of them.

Josh: 52:30

You will hit something that you really like and you know that you really really like it, but then from there, other stuff is just like all about the same. Let's get into it here. The rankings. I'm just gonna go around the table as I keep track of these. Matt, can you give me where did you place Bib and Tucker double char fourth? Fourth for you, Andy? Three. Third. Like your third favorite?

Andy M.: 52:54

Yes. And that was your fourth favorite. Yes. Okay. Is that some judgment behind those questions? I don't know. I know.

Josh: 52:59

I feel like that's not true. No, I want to make sure because Chris said he did them backwards. I got you. So I'm I'm converting for you. Where do you have it? Tenth place. Tenth place. That's your least favorite. Wow. Yeah, I didn't like it. That's awesome. And I have it in ninth place. So far, we're not doing pretty good here. I listen. Hey, it's all good. Everybody's palettes for different folks. Everybody's different. I don't think we're all gonna be that far off on the next one. Where do you have, Matt, noble bourbon? I have that in ninth. Ninth place. Tenth. Andy has it in tenth. Chris, eight. Eight. And I have it in ninth. No. I have it in tenth place. Yeah, so like I said, I thought we were gonna be pretty pretty similar on that. Alright. Next up we have Buffalo Trace.

Speaker 3: 53:51

Matt? Sixth. Sixth place. I have it in sixth, too. Sixth place. Fourth for me. Fourth for Chris.

Josh: 54:04

And I have it in seventh. Buffalo Trace fans are gonna not be happy with me. Yeah. Elmer T. Lee. Matt, where do you have it? Second. Second. Oh, I have a feeling I know what jumped it for you. I have that at number one. Andy has it at number one. Chris? Third. Third. I have it in fifth. Fifth. Sorry. Hey, I know. I return your judgment from earlier. It's hard on me to judge each other. Return your judgment from earlier. All right, now we have Weller 12. Fifth. Fifth place. Andy. This is the seventh. Seventh place. Fifth for me. Chris, fifth. Now the Buffalo Trace people are pissed. I've got it in third. I've got it in third. I thought it was very good. Next we tasted the clover.

Speaker 3: 54:51

Matt? That would be eighth. Eighth? I have that a four. Fourth. I have fourth as well. And I also have fourth.

Matt: 54:59

Yeah, you didn't suck. That didn't do it for me. I'm sorry. That one just didn't do it for me.

Josh: 55:04

Then we have Evan Williams, bottled in bond. Matt? Tenth. Yep. Saw that coming.

Andy M.: 55:10

I have it a ninth, but if that was I mean, that was stacked up against very good bourbons. That was I was surprised by that. It's a ninth. Fair enough.

Josh: 55:18

Nine for nine. And I had it at eight. So pretty solid across the board on that. Pretty similar. Uh what did we taste next? Baker. Seven year. Matt? First place.

Speaker 3: 55:32

First place for the baker. Yep, I have it a fifth. Fifth.

Josh: 55:36

Chris? First. First. And I had it in second. That's pretty high. That is high.

Matt: 55:44

That's up there.

Josh: 55:45

Okay. Next we tasted the Maker's Mark Private Reserve. Third. Matt with a third place. Second. Second place. Third. Third place. And I had that as my number one. I really liked that.

Matt: 56:01

And you will never have it. I know I'll never have it again.

Josh: 56:04

Chris, do you have any friends that have other bottles of that laying around?

Andy M.: 56:08

It's possible my boss is. If you said you poured that into drinks, I was cringing. I was like, you maw.

Josh: 56:13

Are you serious?

Andy M.: 56:14

But you didn't know, man.

Josh: 56:16

Whatever. Alright, lastly we have the brother's bond. Uh Matt.

Matt: 56:20

The brother's bond, I have in seventh. Seventh place. Andy?

Josh: 56:26

Eighth. Seventh, eighth. Seventh. And I had it in sixth. All right. So give me a moment. Pretty consistent. Give me a moment to do some mathing.

Unfiltered Studio Guy: 56:39

Math. E equals MC Hammer. We're talking about numbers.

Josh: 56:45

Alright, so I'm back after doing math, multiple maths. I did a lot of maths here, as I say. Your degree's in mathematics, right? Nope. It's in culinary arts. Which involves math. Yeah, true. True. I can do conversions pretty quick. So the way I did it was if you ranked it first, that was ten points. If you ranked it tenth, that was one point. I added them all up, and we have our rankings with a big tie. So in tenth place was the Noble Bourbon. I don't think anyone's surprised by that with seven points only. Again, we had a tenth, a tenth, a ninth, and an eighth. In ninth place. A tenth, a ninth, a ninth, and an eighth, with eight total points. So only one more point was the Evan Williams. In eighth place, with double the amount of points, so all the way up to 16 was the brothers' bond.

Matt: 57:29

We have a jump.

Josh: 57:30

Yeah, a big jump. Uh in seventh place, edging out the brothers' bond by two points with 18 points was the Bib and Tucker. Sixth place, we had Buffalo Trace. I think a lot of people are gonna be surprised by that. Sixth place, Buffalo Trace with 21 points total. In fifth, we had the Clover. There was one eighth place ranking and three fourth place rankings on that. So they had 24 points. Oh boy. In fourth, we go to the Weller, the 12 year with 26 points. Where did we think that one was gonna be? Oh yeah, that's a good point.

Matt: 58:03

You should look at these. We thought that one would be second. At least the group's opinion on that one. So it actually landed fourth. In third place with 33 points was the Elmer T.

Josh: 58:14

Lee. And we thought that one would come in in first. And in a big tie for first place with 35 points each is the Bakers 7 and the Makers Mark Private. Wow. So we can't even have a taste off to break the tie. In my opinion, I think this would be how they do college football playoffs and things like that, or Heisman's. Um the one that has more first place votes was the Bakers. That had two first place votes, and the Makers Mark only had one. So I would be inclined to give the Bakers the win there, but I'll I'll leave that up to the group. I think that's fair.

Andy M.: 58:50

I think of a celebratory too. We all drink another pour of the Bakers too, just to cheers. Yeah, perfect.

Josh: 58:55

Just a note of interest because of the it being the bakers. The last time we had this, it made it to the final. Wow. What was that? And it was the winner last time. No way. Okay. And I want to point out that two of us weren't there for that. And I would also also nominate this for the nicest bottle of the day. That's true, yeah. I like the look of this bottle the best. Makers is classic with the wax dip and things like that, but I just think this is a very cool bottle with the metal top. Metal top is stamped.

Matt: 59:24

Baker's comes back for a repeat performance.

Josh: 59:27

Wow.

Andy M.: 59:27

And it was cool too to look at the serial code on them online and see the whole process of the distillation and everything like that.

Josh: 59:33

I'm pretty sure last time we did rankings out of 25, because there are four of us, so that would equal 100. And so the Bakers scored a 72 in the opening round, uh, which moved it on to the second round. Wow.

Matt: 59:49

So for the Bakers. Stellar Sip.

Josh: 59:54

Matt, where's your number eight cup? It is in here. It was empty. That's Bakers. Give it to me. I'm gonna pour you some more. We're having a celebratory repeat champion. I'm taking that home tonight and I'm drinking that guy. Two-time champion. Actually, never mind is 110 proofs. Baker 7. Yeah, how much of this guy were you planning on drinking tonight?

Matt: 1:00:13

That was very good. Andy, thank you for bringing all of you. Thank you for bringing. No, everybody. That was awesome.

Josh: 1:00:18

Well done, everyone.

Matt: 1:00:19

Well, we have drank a lot of bourbon. This room is about 10,000 degrees, so we're all sweating to death right now. I want to thank you all for listening. We're gonna finish our Baker 7 here and enjoy the rest of our afternoon. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.

Unfiltered Studio Guy: 1:00:33

This podcast is a production of Unfiltered Studios. If you would like to know more about joining Unfiltered Studios, please visit our website at unfpod.com for more information.

Matt: 1:00:44

The boost quote for this episode comes from Indian writer Ashwin Stange, who said, While I can't walk on water, I can certainly wobble on whiskey. Would you like to suggest something for us to drink? Give us some feedback, or have your brand featured on Matt and Friends Drink the Universe? Love to hear from all of our listeners. Please check our episode descriptions down below for links to send us a text, support the podcast, and visit our merge store. To keep up with our latest news or share your stellar sifts with us, please like and follow Matt FriendsDTU on Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, Threads, Blue Sky, and Reddit. For more information about the podcast and links to all of our episodes, please visit www.matfriendsdtu.com. That's Matt and FriendsDTU.com. Cheers, friends!