Walt's Corner

I had intended for this to be part of a previous post, New Year New Whiskey, but that was getting a little long in the tooth for a simple article so I branched it off into a this one.

Much like my food, whiskey will fall into one of 3 categories.

Category 1 – I Love This Shit! I’m definitely buying it again! In fact, I may only buy this for the rest of my life.

Category 2 – It didn’t make me gag. It was good. Palatable. But you know what? I’d rather spend equal to less money on that bottle of Weller’s Special Reserve, or that bottle of Evan William’s BiB. I will not be rushing out to buy another bottle but I’m glad I tried it. This is where most bottles that I buy these days fall into. Good stuff, I don’t regret buying it, but I’d enjoy something else just as much or more. I’ve bought enough bottles of these over the last 10 years to stop buying every new brand on the market.

Category 3 – That made me gag. I regret my purchase. Ain’t no way I’m buying that bottle again. Ever. Those bottles end up going to someone else who can appreciate it the way it was meant to be. In all seriousness, I have never gagged on a whiskey. I’m just being a drama queen. But you get the point. Meh. It tasted of whiskey, just not like any whiskey I appreciate.

A Perfect Example

As I’m finishing up this post, I’m sipping on a pour of Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel, Heritage Barrel (100 proof). I’m somewhat of a Jack Daniel’s whore. Love Old No. 7 for when I want that classic Jack flavor without the high octane. Love me some Jack Bonded and my favorite is the Single Barrel, Barrel Proof. I had my first opportunity to buy the Single Barrel, Heritage Barrel today and I did. 100 Proof. Aged 7 years (min) in a special location. Extra toasted barrel. $69.

Category 2. Good stuff. But if I had to choose again and some of my Barrel Proof is sitting there next to it for $55? Or some Bonded for $37? It’s gonna be Barrel Proof or Bonded all night long.

Her first full-length novel, Karma, by Bridgett Nelson (winner of two Splatterpunk Awards!), is a fast-paced story of good old-fashioned, Old Testament, (brown)eye-for-an-eye revenge. If you don’t catch my drift there, you certainly will by the time you finish. A sequel to a shorter story by her, Jynx, you can read it on its own merit without missing a beat. But being the classy author she is, Jynx is included after the story in case you haven’t read it yet.

Bridgett tells her tale of unbridled revenge giving us plenty of characters to love and hate. I would not say there is a twist at the end, but there is an eye opener for sure that will provide extra closure for some of the means that Kali, our protagonist, used in exacting her comeuppance. Plenty of gore to absorb, so read this on an empty stomach!

Forwarded by none other than Jeff Strand, when asked if he read the novel as Bridgett wrote it, and if so did he fear for his life, Jeff replied, “Yes, I read Karma chapter by chapter as she wrote it. I never truly felt I was in danger, but I did improve my behavior, just in case.” Good call, Jeff.

The Moneyquote: “Should we offer her Chianti and fava beans?”

Karma can be had in the usual places. Kindle, paperback, hardcover, and of course you can order them directly from her website signed however you like. I hear the luxury edition hardcovers from her website have almost all been spoken for.

I’ve heard of this despicable trend starting – Dry January. Fuck. That. I’ve also heard of Bender ‘til December. That’s more in line with my way of thinking.

I really appreciate the opportunity to try a sampling of fine whiskey without the attached price tags. That’s why I recently participated in a top tier whiskey sampling opportunity. I’ll leave the fine art of swirling, exposing it to oxygen, adding water, and trying it with ice cubes/rocks etc for those who are just getting into this or who are seasoned aficionados and continue to enjoy participating in these various ways of sampling whiskey. That’s the purpose of this – enjoy the whiskey in whatever manner you desire.

Me? Not so fun anymore. I quit doing that about 10 years ago. Already know what I like and how I like it. Trying to manipulate the drink to find its many aromas and flavors is not my goal anymore. I just want to relax, enjoy the sip, include a fine cigar, and enjoy some tunes from my jukebox for an hour and a half every night. Once I’ve sampled all 13 bottles, I’ll post what they all were and where they fall in my rating scheme.

To that end, I provide some additional advice to those still experimenting.

Some Advice to Add

1. Buy an aerator. Run your pour through it, which will expose greater amounts of your whiskey to oxygen at a much faster rate. Either replace your 5-10 minute wait with that or combine it. Try both ways. I won’t tell you what kind to get. You can google that shit yourself and buy one from Amazon.
2. Adding water is great. To up that a level, try to get yourself some branch water. That is, water from the same source that the distillery in question uses to produce their whiskey.
3. Make ice cubes from branch water.

Lessons Learned

Taste is a preferential sense. Subjective to the individual. Therefore, anything I have learned does not apply to you. You must go out there and discover your own tastes and preferences. That’s the really fun part! These are the lessons that I have learned.

I like my whiskey neat. No added water. No ice cubes. Room temperature. Definitely not in an old-fashioned.

I’ve learned that spending $80 on a bottle of Blanton’s is going to taste pretty much the same to me as buying a $24-50 bottle of any Weller’s. So why waste my money. I’m enjoying that pour of Weller’s just as much as I enjoyed the Blanton’s but I saved myself $60 to spend on – yep! You guessed it. Another bottle of Weller’s. I’ll never buy another bottle of Blanton’s again but I’m glad I tried it. Same goes for COL Taylor. Eagle Rare, on the other hand provides me with a different expression from the same origin, that I can appreciate enough to pick up a bottle when I see it. Same goes for Van Winkle.

I’ve learned that I prefer the higher proof version when offered. That’s why Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel, Barrel Proof is my go-to Friday whiskey night sip-n-smoke. The octane usually clocks in between 128-134 proof at my base Class Six. This is also why I generally like all Bottled-In-Bonds. Guaranteed to be 100 proof.

What I’ve Settled On

For me, the following will cover all flavors that I enjoy and are usually in Casa Basil Cigar & Whiskey Lounge’s inventory, from least to most favorite:

1. Maker’s Mark
2. Buffalo Trace
3. Wild Turkey 101
4. Evan Williams BiB
5. Jack Daniel’s Bonded (BiB)
6. Weller’s Special Reserve
7. Weller’s 12 Year or Antique
8. Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel, Barrel Proof

Additional Notes About Me

My usual pour size is 4 oz.

I buy a bottle to drink, not collect. I’ll never buy a bottle to flip and make money.

You won’t find a bottle in my bar that is over a year old. If I don’t care for it too much, I’ll give it away. If I like it, I drink it. I will not die with a full bottle of Pappy in my bar. I didn’t spend that money to watch it collect dust.

Happy New Year and happy sipping!

This was a secret feature, at least for me. I figured it out on my own because it practically reach out and slapped me in the face.

For those who don’t know, an iPad can magnetically attach to an Apple Magic Keyboard and you get the full “laptop” experience of keyboard and trackpad. At least I can. My computing power requirements are quite low. The most computer intensive thing I do these days is this blog. Matter of fact I haven’t owned or used a real personal computer or laptop in over 10 years. Feels kind of liberating.

Which brings me to the subject of today’s post. The mouse – or trackpad pointer, whatever you want to call it – can be easy to lose for my aging eyesight. Where is that thing? So you know what you do – you shake the finger back and forth real quick-like so your eyes might pick up that movement and reveal the secret location of your pointer.

There I was moving my finger back and forth over the trackpad, when lo and behold IT GREW! Faster than a 20 year old’s penis on boner pills. In the picture above, I took a screenshot of the large pointer and held my current regular pointer just underneath for size comparison.

Well done, Apple.

Been wet shaving for years. Lately I’ve been doing some interweb sleuthing. Deep diving into the seedy underground of wet shaving. Broadening my shaving horizon by trying out other shaving soaps.

One artisan company that caught my eye was Phoenix Artisan Accoutrements. Phoenix makes their own soaps and other accessories and there are many to choose from.

I’ve always wanted to try a menthol-laced shaving soap but had my reservations from past experiences with Amazon purchases. Before Phoenix, the best mentholated experience I had was Proraso, however, I wanted more cool. It was basically a cool-tease.

Enter Frost Byte, from Phoenix. Fans praised the icy-coldness. One telling me “This stuff is super strong! But I love it.” Another, “Frost Byte, let’s just say we hope you like it cold, because Frost Byte is super chill.” My normal shaving soaps can run from $2-12. Frost Byte weighs in at just south of $21 but I broke down and waited.

How did it stack up? In the words of Sub-Zero: Your blood runs cold. Your teeth will shatter. Cold enough for you? Your bones will freeze. Let the cold be your tomb. Ability: Freeze.

I think you get the point. This shit is amazingly chill. First pass I was like, alright now. I can feel that cold. 2nd pass? I was expecting my brush to stiffen and freeze to my face like tongue on a frozen lamp pole while singing Christmas Carols at Fort Wainwright, Alaska. By this time, the shave was already BBS (Baby Bottom Smooth, for those not versed in shaving lingo) but I had to know what that 3rd pass would feel like in terms of the cold. It did not disappoint. In fact, it was shocking! After a hot rinse, followed by a cold rinse, hoooo boy! It felt like I was holding a slab of ice to my cheeks. The final splash of some icy cool Aqua Velva was the final touch. A most satisfying shave.

Other aspects of this shave? Razor is a Rockwell T2 SS with Rockwell DE blade. Brush is a Simpson T2. The Rockwell razor is a new edition to my razor collection. More on that in a different post.