Up next in 10
I'm reviewing Elvis "Tiger Man" Tennessee Whiskey & "The King" Indiana Rye Whiskey while talking about other upcoming releases - including American Highway Bourbon from Brad Paisley and Bardstown Bourbon Company, the next Old Forester 117 Series "1910 Extra Old." I'm also sharing breaking news about the new live-action Halo TV series coming to Paramount+ and the officially licensed Super Smash Bros. esports tournament from Nintendo coming in 2022. Chat about this week's episode on the Bourbon Bytes Whiskey & Gaming Lounge Discord server at http://www.BourbonBytes.com Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BourbonBytes Subscribe on YouTube for live streams and more: https://www.YouTube.com/BourbonBytes Leave a voicemail with questions or topic suggestions: (818) 660-5782
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On today's episode of the Bourbon Bites podcast, I'm drinking Elvis whiskey, talking about
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Brad Paisley's new tour aged bourbon, and sharing some exciting news about a first from Nintendo
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Hey everybody and welcome back to the Bourbon Bites podcast. I am your host Clifton and I hope you're having a fantastic week so far
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Today is Friday, November 19th, the weekend before Thanksgiving. So hopefully you are gearing up for those celebrations and maybe some Black Friday shopping
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which will be next week's podcast episode. We'll be talking about deals in whiskey and video games
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But we got a lot of cool stuff to talk about today because we have two whiskeys that are
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based on musicians. One I am drinking tonight and one was just announced
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So lots of cool news there, but there's also some really cool gaming and maybe some TV
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news coming later in the episode. So stick around. So before I get into the news, I got to get something in my glass
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So today I thought it was very appropriate to drink Elvis whiskey
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So this was actually sent to me by the brand. But there is a Elvis Tennessee whiskey, which goes by the name Tiger Man Tennessee whiskey
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And there's an Elvis rye whiskey called The King Rye Whiskey. So these are both coming out of the South Carolina-based distillery, Grain and Barrel Spirits, which y'all know I have a love for South Carolina
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That's my home state. But it's the same distillery that's making Chicken Cock and Virgil Cane
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So they have a pretty wide repertoire of brands under them. But this is a brand new brand for them
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But it seems to be a long-term deal because they have a license agreement with the Elvis Presley Enterprises
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which is the organization that manages the estate of Elvis Presley. And so it sounds like this Elvis whiskey is going to be a thing for a while
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So again, shout out to Grain and Barrel Spirits for sending these over. And I can't wait to get into them
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So I'll start with the Tiger Man Tennessee Whiskey. We do know that this was distilled and bottled in Columbia, Tennessee, which we know is where
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the Tennessee Distilling Company is. They're the same ones that make a bunch of products for Costco
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They do a bunch of contract distilling out of Tennessee. So don't just assume George Dickel when you see a Tennessee whiskey
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I know I'm definitely guilty of that. I had to do a quick Google search and I do see that Tennessee Distilling is based in Columbia
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So I'm excited to try this now that I know for sure that it's not dickle. Let's go and get that poured
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So both of these come in at 90 proof. They are at $50 MSRP
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So this one's called Tiger Man. So Elvis was known by many different names
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But one of these, which I actually was not aware of, was Tiger Man or the King of the Jungle
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And I think this is a reference to a song that he had. He performed it a lot in Las Vegas, according to the bottle
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he performed it first in 1969 apparently he sang it over 150 times on stage so the mash bill of
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this one is 80 percent corn 10 percent rye and 10 percent malted barley let's go and give it a nose
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oh yeah that high corn mash bill is very very obvious it's very sweet but there is some like
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toasted oak element there too almost kind of reminds me of like a honey nut cheerios on the
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nose um but yeah it's very approachable in the nose i'm excited to get into it so cheers okay
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So two and a half years at least age. It's a little, I guess, harsh is a harsh word, but it takes it a minute
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I mean, it's only 90 proof, but that drinks a lot higher proof on first sip
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Again, this is the first thing I've had today. So, you know, you always got to give it a second sip before you judge anything too harshly
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But to me, there are some sweet toasty notes that are still there. It maybe leans a little bit like vanilla or like a vanilla cream dessert
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Let me get a second sip before I give my notes on it. So that's actually a lot better on a second sip, I'll say
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It's not quite brown sugar, but it's like a little bit of like a burnt sugar
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I mean, even like creme brulee, I guess I would say. It has like the vanilla, the sweet vanilla, but there's like a toasty element
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Not quite marshmallow. It almost is going that direction. But it's still, it's very sweet, very deserting
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Not as corn forward as I thought it was going to be on the palate. because sometimes I've had a high corn mash bill in really young, and to me it literally just tastes
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like corn. This isn't the case here. This is actually pretty well-rounded in terms of flavor
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There's not much spice, though. There's not much rye spice. The only spice I'm getting is from the actual alcohol itself. So I think that's something that kind of I've come to learn when you're taking
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a young whiskey, a lot of times that harshness expresses itself more, especially, you know
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even at lower proof. I think a lot of times that evens out with age, and when you have a younger
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product like this it kind of is in full force so i'm just thinking like the target audience for
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this is probably you know maybe not the biggest whiskey drinker in the world maybe they're just
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like you know they like their jack daniels and they also like elvis so this would be a cool gift
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for them i do think they may find it a bit harsh though because it's a little young like i said
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for 50 i mean again novelty but i wish this had a bit more age on it because i think that's the
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only thing holding it back because it seems to work really well the flavors are there they're
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really nice and the nose is great I just think it has a bit of harshness that I wish wasn't as
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present but man I mean overall it's it's not bad it's definitely headed in the right direction
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especially if this is going to be a long-term product that they're going to put out I'd be
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really interested to try this again at you know four years old five years old I think that might
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be where it shines but again it it not bad I personally you know I not I like Elvis don get me wrong he made some incredible music He very obviously appreciated in the music community and the Tennessee you know community in general I know there like the whole Graceland all of that So I do think
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you know, this is a cool product. I'm excited to see where it goes. However, you know, it's not
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quite for me. It's a little young, but it's again, for the Elvis lover in your life, I don't think
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they're going to really care. They're going to like it anyways. Now I will get into the rye whiskey here in a bit, but I do have some more whiskey news to share. So let's get into it. So staying
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on topic with the music theme, Brad Paisley actually just announced his new American Highway
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Bourbon. So this is a collaboration with Bardstown Bourbon Company and Brad Paisley, who of course is
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a country singer-songwriter, very, very famous, similar to Elvis. Maybe not quite Elvis status
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but you know, you never know, maybe legendary. But so this is called the American Highway Bourbon
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So this whiskey actually aged in barrels that were stored in a 53-foot semi-trailer that followed him on his coast-to-coast tour in 2019
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So he went across 25 different states, 7,314 miles on this nationwide tour, and he brought these barrels with him
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So interesting experiment for sure. I know Whistlepig did something similar called Roadstock Rye, I believe, where they traveled with their barrels
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But this one apparently followed him along his entire tour. Again, 25 states. That's a lot of variety and climates
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Of course, the movement from being in a truck is definitely going to influence the whiskey
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I think it's going to cause a lot more rapid impact with the oak
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Not necessarily the climates. They try to push, you know, like, oh, it went through all these different climates, which is true
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But I really think the biggest thing is going to be the whiskey swishing around in those barrels in the back of the truck
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I think that's actually a really cool idea and a really cool concept. And Varsel Bourbon Company has always been really innovative
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So I think I'm really, really excited to learn more about this American Highway bourbon
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I do know that this batch of barrels was actually blended with other whiskey in addition to what was in the back of the semi-trailer
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There are two different three-year-olds. One's 28% of it and one is 25% of it
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I assume these are Bardstown Bourbon Company distillate because the mash bill doesn't quite match up with other distilleries
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So, but especially being three years old, I mean, I think it's likely that one is a regular bourbon
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mash bill and one is a high rye bourbon mash bill, but it's also blended with 24% 13 year whiskey
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And if you look at that mash bill, it pretty clearly is Barton, which is, you know, a commonly
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sourced distillery for ultra aged stuff. And there's another 23% of a 15 year whiskey
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Now this is a bit of confusion because they do say they give you the mash bills of all
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of them except that 15 year. Now, I don't know if that means it's also Barton and it's just a 15 year expression of that, because if that's the case, we're almost at 50 percent Barton and then 50 percent, you know, Barton Bourbon Company's blend
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So I don't know for sure. It seems very, you know, on par with Barton Bourbon Company, the way they tend to blend
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That kind of is their specialty, especially at this point. Now, this does retail at ninety nine ninety nine. You can buy it on Sealbox
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This actual first release is ninety six proof and it will include thirty thousand bottles
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So I think, you know what, Barcelona Bourbon Company, that's kind of in line with their prices
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There is some older stuff in here, kind of similar to like a Discovery series. So they're actually already working on their next batch, which will be released in 2022
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And it was aged on the Rolling Rickhouse, which I guess is what they call the truck. And it followed Brad Paisley's 2021 tour
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So they're already working on their second batch. So I'm assuming they're expecting this to sell very well
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I would definitely try it. I mean, a hundred bucks, you know, I'm not a Brad Paisley fan. I mean, I appreciate his music, kind of like the Elvis thing, but I would definitely try it
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I mean, it sounds like a good blend. I like stuff coming out of Barton's Bourbon Company, and Barton actually works really well in blends
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So it's definitely one I would try before I buy, for sure. In other bourbon news, there is a TTB label for Old Forrester's latest addition to their 117 series
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which is something they started last year. They had the Angel Share one, they had a Warehouse K release
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This new one is called 1910 Extra Old. So if you're familiar with Old Forrester 1910, they take their traditional Old Forrester mash bill and they finish it in heavily charred barrels
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And that's normally seven to nine months for the standard release. However, this is a batch of 15 barrels that they finished for 18 months, which is crazy, crazy long for finishing, especially with the extra heavily charred barrels
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So I imagine this is going to have tons and tons of, you know, maybe smokiness, definitely a lot more oak than the standard release
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this is bottled at 93 proof it's coming february 2022 according to the ttb label and of course this
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was selected by master taster jackie zykan amazing you know taster in the whiskey industry and very
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very well respected so i would definitely give this a try i know a lot of people really love
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the 1910 because of that extra you know double barrel aspect to it i don't know if taking it for
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a full 18 months is gonna you know improve it or hurt it but i would definitely give this a try now
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I don't know pricing on this. It's probably in line with the other releases. I do know that this
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is bottled in a half size 375 milliliter bottle. The last release was $50 in a similar size bottle
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So that sounds probably pretty appropriate for, you know, this limited release. I don't know if
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I would personally buy it without trying it. But that's because I have not always been an Old
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Forrester fan. Some of their single barrels, barrel proofs are great. But in general, I'm
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definitely a try before I buy old Forrester guy that rhymed so I do want to get into some gaming
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news but before that I gotta get something else on my glass so let's go ahead and try the Elvis
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rye whiskey so this one is called the king it is an Indiana straight rye whiskey so we all know what that means That means this came from none other than MGP This one age it is still
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pretty young. It's aged at least three years. But I have had young Indiana rye before and I've not
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disliked it. So I do have high hopes for this one, maybe even more so than the Tennessee whiskey
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so let's go and get that poured so the name the king is a little bit more self-explanatory
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elvis has been known as the king of rock and roll also the king is also pretty synonymous with elvis
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in general so this name makes a little bit more sense than the tiger king or i knew i was going
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to say tiger king tiger man which is the tennessee whiskey although to be fair you know if you're an
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elvis fan you probably know him by both but for someone that's not super informed in the elvis
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fandom. I did not know he was called a Tiger Man, not King. He was called the King. That's the
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confusion. So this one's called the King. The other one's called Tiger Man. Easy to get those mixed up
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especially after the release of Tiger King season two. So like the other one, this one is 90 proof
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Mash Bill is 95% rye, 5% malted barley, typical from MGP's Indiana rye. So this was distilled in
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Indiana, but it was blended and bottled in Tennessee, of course, with the Elvis theme
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that makes a lot of sense. But let's go ahead and give this a nose. MGP Rye. Now, it's been a minute
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since I've had younger MGP Rye. I used to buy one of my favorite budget bottles when I was first
12:37
getting into whiskey was George Dickel Rye, which sounds a bit contrasting, but it's actually sourced
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from MGP as well. I think that one was two to three years old, but it was, you know, a $17 bottle
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That was one of my entryways into rye whiskey. Oh yeah, on the nose, there's absolutely no doubt
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this is a rye whiskey. It presents itself in kind of a, I guess some would say grassy kind of way
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It's less of the dill, maybe dill spices, but not like pickley. Sometimes people are opposed to rye
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whiskeys because they think they taste like pickles. I actually love pickles, so I'm not opposed to that note, but I get what people are saying when they say that. This though is definitely
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more grassy. It smells like, you know, wet, like morning dew on grass. I know that's very specific
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but grass is always an interesting note with whiskey because it can either mean, you know
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what I just described, or even fresh cut grass, some people may say. But it could also mean like
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dry grass, like, you know, hay, barnyard. I get that note on some whiskeys too, but to me
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this one's definitely leaning towards the fresh grass. Maybe not cut grass, because I feel like that's such a very specific note. But like, you know, after it rains and you're, you know
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laying in the field, this is kind of what it smells like on the nose. It's actually, you know, a note that I don't, I don't dislike. So let's go and give it a taste. Cheers
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Oh man. It's been a minute since I've had young MGP rye, but I see why I loved it. That's so
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sweet. Definitely sweeter than most older MGP Ries. Up front, it's just an absolute, you know
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caramel, butterscotch kind of really bright, bright flavor. I will say mouthfeel-wise
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this definitely feels a bit thicker than the Tennessee whiskey. Even though it's young
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it has a lot better consistency, and I think that contributes to a longer finish
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because that's what was kind of leaving me, you know, not loving the Tennessee whiskey. It was very quick, and it didn't have much going on other than the alcohol burn. This one, though
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the finish sticks around. There's a lot of sweetness and a lot of depth and a lot of
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richness. I will say this now, I do prefer the rye whiskey over the Tennessee whiskey
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I think, yes, it is only three years old, but this actually is really, really nice. I could
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I could drink this all day. I think it would be fantastic in some cocktails as well
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Now for both of these, let's, let's just speak about both of them. $50 each. I do not think
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these whiskeys, you know, I hate to say not, they don't deserve that price point. Because again
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it is a novelty whiskey. The Elvis lover in your life will absolutely appreciate these as a gift
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However, as a whiskey drinker, I don't think either of these drink that price. I mean, I would
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say, you know, if these were more $25 to $30 each, even with that novelty factor, I think they would
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be a lot more, you know, well-received. I don't know what the rest of the world is thinking about
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I haven't read any other reviews of these. So maybe people are loving them. If so, you know, good for them
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Whiskey is subjective. But for me, with no, you know, personal connection to Elvis, even though he was a very handsome
15:21
and great musician. Yeah, I don't think these are for me. I just think for the $50 price point, you could buy a lot better whiskey, but it won't
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have the Elvis pictures on the front. But before we wrap up, I do have two pieces of gaming news that is huge
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So stick around. Don't leave yet. Trust me. it'll be worth it. So first up, Microsoft revealed the first teaser trailer for the live action Halo
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TV series. So this has been talked about since 2013. Steven Spielberg actually announced it
15:55
at E3 2013. And you know what, that makes total sense. Because when I heard about this, I'm like
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hasn't that already been done? But no, it hasn't. It's just been announced. So it was just announced
16:04
back then. It was originally going to come on Showtime. But this time, it has been announced that is coming to Paramount Plus and it's coming in 2022. The trailer didn't show us much. You know
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it was only 27 seconds long, which is, you know, I mean, it is a teaser trailer, but at least it
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let us know that it is actually coming. And the trailer seems to be focusing on, you know, special
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effects. You do see Master Chief there, who's actually played by Pablo Schreiber from Orange
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is the New Black. I have not seen that show, but my husband loves it. And not much is known about
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the actual TV series itself. Um we do know it is a nine episode series The pilot was directed by Otto Bathurst who actually did black mirror which I am a big fan of So that super exciting He did the pilot in a few of the episodes as well We do know it
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contain both familiar characters and new Spartans. There's a little bit of info about that. Now
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I will admit, I'm not, you know, a big Halo player. I have played it before. I just didn't
16:59
really get into it as much as a lot of people because y'all know, I mean, y'all may not know, but I have one arm. I am, you know, I was born with my left arm. My right arm had to be amputated
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when I was a few days old. So I have never been quite good at first-person shooters
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especially in multiplayer. So that's the only reason I don't think I got into Halo
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as much as other people did. Same with Call of Duty. You know, the other week I had my friend Brandon on
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to talk about the new game. Yeah, multiplayer first-person shooters just don't really work very well if you only have one arm
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People are way better than you. So that's why I haven't gotten into it
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I do know that there is a huge, huge following on Halo
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everything you know from the games all the way up to you know collectibles all people people
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freaking love halo so i'm sure i'm seeing that they are pretty excited about this there are
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pretty positive you know reactions other than people saying like um why is this like 10 years
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after it's supposed to be announced uh which totally makes sense but yeah that's all we really
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know about it now we just know that it is coming in 2022 but that's not all because something else
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is coming in 22 this was actually just announced thursday morning which is actually the day i'm
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recording this, Nintendo is finally creating an officially licensed eSports tournament for Super
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Smash Bros. This has been a very much long-awaited decision by the brand. They're actually teaming
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up with a Detroit-based eSports brand called Panda Global, and it will be the first officially
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licensed championship circuit in North America. Not only will it be Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
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which is for the Nintendo Switch, but there will also be a competition for Super Smash Bros. Melee
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which came out in 2001 that is the GameCube game so this is the first time there's ever been an
18:36
official Nintendo sponsored North American championship which is crazy I was doing a
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little bit of reading on this and people say you know most other brands are really involved with
18:47
their tournaments but Nintendo has notoriously you know not really been involved at least in the US
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and a lot of people say you know it could be because the fact that a lot of the the smash
18:56
tournaments, there are very specific rules and modifications to the game that aren't quite
19:02
you know, the official ones from the Nintendo game. They definitely change up some things. They allow
19:06
certain items while they don't allow certain items. So they think that, you know, maybe that's why
19:10
Nintendo hasn't gotten involved because it's such a modification of how they originally intended
19:14
the game to be played. So we don't know yet. Are they going to, you know, stick to the traditional
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gameplay method as, you know, you can play at home? Or are they going to kind of start implementing
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some of these new techniques and tactics that you see in the individual tournaments
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Now, they haven't announced anything about the actual competition or the prizes or anything
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like that. So stay tuned to Nintendo for more news on that. And of course, as that info comes out, I'll definitely let you guys know as well
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So I think that about does it for this episode of the Bourbon Bites podcast
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I do want to say thank you. Thank you very much for everyone that has tuned in so far
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See what I did there? Hopefully you got that reference with the Elvis whiskey. But I know this is going to be the last episode that comes out before Thanksgiving
19:57
So I hope you and your family and your friends have a fantastic holiday
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I will be putting out a Black Friday episode, like I mentioned. I might put out a couple hours early next week so you can get in on all the Black Friday deals while you're out hunting
20:11
So I just, again, I want to say how thankful I am for, you know, not only those of you that, you know, listen to the podcast week to week
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but those of you that support me on Patreon and YouTube membership. Seriously, you guys
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You guys allow me to do so much with this Bourbon Bites, I guess brand I want to call it
20:26
I don't know if it's a brand. But seriously, I'm so thankful of where this channel and this podcast is taking me over the past two years, especially with COVID and lockdown and stuff
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It's really given me a creative outlet. And I look forward to, you know, recording these episodes every week and doing my live streams
20:40
It's just an absolute great time. And it's all because of you guys
20:44
If you guys weren't there, you know, I would still be enjoying the whiskey, but I wouldn't enjoy it quite as much as sharing it with friends
20:49
Which, by the way, if you do want to support the show or, you know, come to our after-party hangouts, you can join us at patreon.com slash bourbon bites
20:57
For as little as $2 a month, you can get access to behind-the-scenes posts and polls and things like that
21:02
$5 a month gets you your monthly hangout where we do some gaming
21:06
Those actually tend to go on really long, so those are a lot of fun. And then $10 or up a month gets you our after-party hangout, which is after every Thursday night livestream, I hang out on Discord with my patrons
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seriously it's so great to finish up a stream and just get to hang with my friends and just drink
21:22
some more finish my samples that I poured for the stream it's so much fun of course there's higher
21:25
tiers as well like the $50 tier that gets you access to a private tasting box every month so
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right now we only have one person at that tier so they're technically getting a private tasting
21:35
every month but I do intend for that tier to be a community thing so I'm limiting it to only five
21:40
people so if you want to get your private tasting box which includes samples of whiskeys I've had
21:45
on the channel over the past month, and a few surprises as well. There's also an open Bourbon
21:49
Daddy position for $100, but check out Patreon for the details on that. So with that, this has
21:55
been Bourbon Bites Whiskey Reviews with a gaming twist. I'm Clifton. Cheers, and I'll talk to y'all
22:00
next podcast
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