Penelope Blackberry Old Fashioned

I’d like to thanks the folks at Penelope Bourbon and their PR team for sending this sample with no strings attached.

IMAGE: Bottle of Penelope Blackberry Old Fashioned ready-to-pour cocktail beside a rocks glass filled with the drink over ice and garnished with fresh mint. Photographed outdoors on a wooden deck in warm afternoon sunlight.

Hello my friends! It is time for a bonus post. I was planning to do this yesterday. I always do bonus posts on Friday, but I just plum forgot.

Tonight’s subject is actually something I didn’t plan to review. It was sent along to me by mistake as I had already turned down the sample thinking that you folks might find it a bit outside the norm for the focus of the site. But when it landed on my doorstep, I figured what the heck? I mean I’m not going to force y’all to read this, you are grown adults and can make that decision on your own.

So what is it? Well, it is a premade, bottled, cocktail. You open it up and pour it over ice. And while I know that an Old Fashioned is basically the easiest cocktail to make outside of two ounces of whiskey in a glass, they put a nice spin on it by adding blackberry to the mix. But before we get into the review, let’s let the producer talk about this one since they were nice enough to go through the effort of writing the press release. And since it is Saturday and I want to get back to relaxing.

Crafted for easy enjoyment, from backyard gatherings to relaxed evenings with friends, Penelope Blackberry Old Fashioned features a blend of straight bourbon and rye whiskey, orange bitters, and blackberry simple syrup for a vibrant, fruit-forward take on the classic cocktail.

So let’ss ee how this tastes.

Penelope Blackberry Old Fashioned

Purchase Info: This bottle was provided at no cost by the producer for review purposes. The suggested retail cost is $29.99.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $2.00

Details: 38% SBV

Nose: Strong blackberry with a nice sweetness.

Mouth: Thick and viscous with notes of blackberry syrup, baking spice, and a floral sweetness.

Finish: Strong blackberry

IMAGE: A hand-drawn smiley face that denoted I like the product.

Thoughts: For the tasting notes above, I initially tasted this chilled from the fridge and undiluted as that was one of the ways the bottle mentioned serving it. But because I wanted to make the photo pretty, I also made one with a large chunk of ice and a mint garnish. When neat, I found the Penelope Blackberry Old Fashioned to be way too sweet for my tastes. But take that with a grain of salt. Due to my lack of sweet tooth, I tend to use much less than the amount of sweetener that a cocktail recipe recommends. Basically I find every cocktail to be too sweet if I’m not the one making it. In this case, it almost reminded me of Grape Kool-Aid, if it were thicker and had a bit of a kick to it. Now, the pretty version over ice with a garnish was much better. The ice knocked down the sweetness and the mint sprig garnish added freshness to the nose which really enhanced the experience. Even with the added dilution, I still think it was too sweet for me but, if I went to a bar and was served something that tasted just like this, I'd be happy with it. So yeah, I like it. Now, since it is Saturday, I'm going to go enjoy the rest of this drink out on the deck.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Skeeter’s Nootkatone Flavored Whiskey, Tamworth Distilling

I’d like to thank Tamworth Distilling and their PR partners for providing this sample with no strings attached.

IMAGE: Glass with a whiskey cocktail beside a spray bottle of Tamworth Distilling Nootkatone flavored whiskey on a deck railing overlooking a sunny backyard.

As we are just coming out of Memorial Day weekend, a weekend full of dusty work in the garden, we are going a little lighter today than normal. I just didn’t have a lot of time to do the tasting, research, and writing involved in doing a full-fledged review. Plus, with noses full of dust and dirt, we couldn’t really breathe over the weekend. So we decided to wait a few days and look at a cocktail ingredient that showed up on our doorstep recently instead.

This is a fun one. And has been since the PR email landed in my inbox. See, this is another release from Tamworth Distilling. We know Tamworth from the absolutely divine 7-year-old Apple Brandy that we covered back in March. But Tamworth makes a few…less traditional spirits as well. After all, it is the home of a crab-flavored whiskey; a venison-flavored whiskey; a spruce-, plum- and roast goose-flavored whiskey; a whiskey flavored with the castor gland of a beaver; and a brandy flavored with elements of corpse flower and durian fruit. So it was with a little trepidation that I opened an email asking if I wanted to cover an, at the time, unannounced new product. I wrote back letting the PR person know that I was nervous to say yes without knowing what the product was. Once I saw the follow-up with a mosquito on the graphics, I noped right out of that. I didn’t want to even think about trying a mosquito-flavored whiskey.

But then I did what so few of us actually do these days, I read deeper than the headline and image. When I did that, I was intrigued. What they were offering was not a mosquito-flavored whiskey, but a whiskey designed to keep away mosquitos. Specifically away from your drink. The whiskey comes in a spray bottle that you spritz over the top of your cocktail to deter mosquitos from trying to take a sip and drowning in it.

So how does a whiskey keep away mosquitos? Well, that comes down to the flavoring in this one. Nootkatone is a compound derived from both the skin of a grapefruit and Alaskan yellow cedar trees. It is widely used in the food industry to flavor foods and in the fragrance industry to make perfumes and colognes. It is also responsible for some of the smell and taste of grapefruit. I get it, I can already hear you saying “so what?” Well, the other thing it has been found to do is repel and even kill ticks and other insects, including mosquitos. It has been registered with the EPA, and the info above comes from the CDC (from before the current head of the department decided to try to crater their reputation). If you want an in-depth and way too complicated description please feel free to read the following article from Current Biology.

Does it work when put in a whiskey? I was never good at chemistry. There was a reason I started studying astrophysics only to end up with an art degree. So me, I’m just going to trust that the scientists know what they’re talking about on the chemical and focus on how it tastes for the drink.

Skeeter’s Nootkatone Flavored Whiskey, Tamworth Distilling

Purchase Info: This bottle was sent to me at no charge for review purposes. It is selling on the Tamworth Distilling website for $24.99 for a 100 mL spray bottle.

Nose: Straight out of the spray bottle you get a strong hint of lemon/lime citrus and juniper-type notes.

Mouth: I should note that this wasn't necessarily intended to be consumed neat, but I felt I owed it to everyone to at least take a sip. This is filled with bitter citrus and that same juniper-type note. I'm guessing that is what nootkatone tastes and smells like.

IMAGE: A hand-drawn smiley face denoting that I like the product.

In a Cocktail (as intended): I made two identical, simple Old Fashioneds. Just rye whiskey, a bit of honey, and a dash of Angostura bitters. The control was left as is, the test got 2–3 sprays of Skeeter's over it. The Skeeter's was most notable on the nose and finish of the test cocktail. The nose seemed maltier for some reason. Like, I'm straight up smelling an earthy forest smell and some Malt-O-Meal hot cereal. It's weird, but not off-putting or anything. The mouth has added notes of the bitter citrus notes, but nothing that would be noticeable if I had garnished with an orange peel where I'd expressed the orange oils over the drink. The finish is where it was most noticeable, bringing a lingering citrus note that wasn't there in the control. All in all, if it really does work as advertised to keep the bugs out of your drink, then this is a fun thing to toss in your camping gear. So, let's see how it does for that.

Well, after one hour, neither of the cocktails had any mosquitos in it. There was some sort of beetle-type bug swimming around in the test one, but not a mosquito. I should mention that we do treat our yard for mosquitos so I really didn't expect any. Plus, the odds of a drink lasting around me for an hour are almost nil. But, hey. This is fun. It tastes pretty good. Adds a nice citrus note to your drink. And, most importantly, it's fun. I like it with whiskey, but I really can’t wait to try it with a gin cocktail. It seems like it would be a match made in heaven.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

My Wandering Eye: Tamworth Garden V.S.O.P. Apple Brandy, 7-year-old

I’d like to thank Tamworth Distilling and their PR team for providing this sample with no strings attached.

IMAGE: Tamworth Garden VSOP Apple Brandy bottle, 7-year Napoleon, 50% ABV, made with NH Cortland heirloom apples, Calvados style, on an outdoor wooden surface.

It has been quite a while since we last did a My Wandering Eye post so I thought that I might start with a reminder of what we are doing in this series. My Wandering Eye is an ongoing series reacting to the continually rising prices in the bourbon world. We’ve reached a place where even average products have hit the range where they compete price-wise with other types of aged spirits. If I’m going to be asked to drop $40 to $75 on a mid-range bourbon, I might as well see what else I can get for that money. I hope to see if another spirits category offers something downright tasty in that price range. The goal isn’t to find cheap spirits but to maximize the quality I’m getting at a particular price point. The reviews in this series will all be written through a bourbon drinker’s lens.

I used to make hard cider every year. I've been traveling during apple season for the past few years, but it really is a fun project to do at home with friends or family. I got really into it too. I'd travel to rural Wisconsin and pick up apples straight from the orchards (the more rural you get, the less expensive the apples get). I had my own blend of apples that I liked to use. I'd calculated over the years which apples yielded the most juice per bushel, how each affected the flavor I wanted, all of that. Like I said, I was into it.

Because of my interest in both distilling and cider making, it wasn't surprising when I discovered that I really enjoyed apple brandy. It's just hard cider all grown up. And so when the PR folks for Tamworth Distilling reached out to see if I was interested in taking a look at their apple brandy, my answer was something along the lines of "yes please!" And when the bottle showed up, I was ecstatic to see that the variety of apple used to create it was one of the cornerstones of my own cider experiments: the Cortland apple. This was one of my family favorites growing up. I'd travel with my grandparents to the orchard (coincidentally in the same area I went to as an adult) and we'd pick apples. I don't remember all of the varieties, but I remember Grandma getting McIntosh and Cortland for sure. Cortland would last in the cellar for a decent amount of time, so we'd get to have one every now and then when going down for something else.

So that made me just a little predisposed to be happy to taste the product. Of course, the other thing is who made it. I'll quote the PR email for this bit:

Tamworth Distilling founder, booze baron Steven Grasse (AKA the father of craft gin), is known for creating brands including Hendrick’s Gin, Sailor Jerry Rum, Narragansett and more – but he is also a historian and author whose passion for American history underscores the craft-forward approach of his distillery and his spirited books, including Colonial Spirits: A Toast to Our Drunken History.

So now that we know the pedigree and why I was excited to give this a taste, let's get on with the tasting, shall we?

Tamworth Garden V.S.O.P. Apple Brandy, 7-year-old

Purchase Info: This item was sent at no charge for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $75 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $5.00

Details: 50% ABV. 7 years old.

Nose: Cinnamon, oak, apple, brown sugar, and vanilla.

Mouth: Juicy apple, almond, cinnamon, and vanilla.

Finish: Warm and of medium length. Lingering notes of juicy apple and vanilla.

IMAGE: A hand drawn smiley face. This denotes that I like the product.

Thoughts: Yum, yum, yum. Yumyum. Yum, yum, yum.

As you can see, I really like this. Unlike many apple brandies I've had, this tastes less of dried fruit and more like a juicy apple — which, I'll be honest, I really enjoy. There is a whiskey-like amount of heat and spice. This is a warm one, but not overly so. Fruity, baking spice, vanilla. It's delicious! It also makes a wonderfully apple-forward Sidecar with Grand Marnier and lemon juice. Big fan. So big, in fact, that before I even finished the tasting, I was on the company website ordering the XO 10-year-old version and a few other goodies that may or may not make it into future posts. I adore this brandy.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Oakspire Bourbon Barrel Ale from New Belgium Brewing and Four Roses

I’d like to thank Four Roses, New Belgium Brewing, and their PR teams for providing this sample with no strings attached.

IMAGE: Four-pack of New Belgium Oakspire Bourbon Barrel Ale, a special release collaboration with Four Roses, sitting on a wooden deck rail with green trees and a sunny backyard in the background.

I may have adopted Minnesota as my home, but my formative years were spent in Wisconsin. Home of beer, cheese, and those who consume lots of both. And let me tell you, boy, did I. Before I moved away twenty years ago, beer was the only alcohol I consumed. Occasionally, a glass of wine, but beer was my drink of choice. But then I moved, and a funny thing happened. Since, at the time, you could only buy beer in a liquor store—and liquor stores were forced to be closed on Sundays (well, if you didn’t want 3.2 beer)—I was forced to branch out. And branch out I did. There’s a straight line between Minnesota's lack of Sunday sales pre-2017 and the birth of this site.

However, even though I drank a lot less beer overall, I still really enjoyed trying new ones. If I hadn’t had it before, I wanted it. Though I’ve greatly tapered off in recent years, I still have over 1,500 unique beers checked into my Untappd profile—just over 100 new beers per year on average. Not too shabby.

Anyway, all of that was to explain why there’s a beer review on a bourbon blog. Mostly, because I like beer. And since Four Roses was nice enough to offer a sample of their recent collaboration with New Belgium, there was no way I could say no. One of my favorite bourbon makers and a brewery that I enjoy a lot of beer from. It seemed like it was made just for me. That is, if I liked barrel-aged beers… but we’ll get to that later. Here’s what the press release has to say about the process behind this beer:

  • Four Roses collects charred oak chips from inside their bourbon barrels, which contain caramelized wood sugars that add notes of brown sugar, vanilla, and toffee, and add color to the whiskey while it ages.

  • A barrel maker in Minnesota toasts a custom blend of oak spirals which are then soaked in Four Roses’ bourbon.

  • New Belgium's master brewing engineers spent months figuring out exactly how to construct a series of custom, stainless-steel vessels to hold the charred oak and wood spirals to infuse the beer.

  • New Belgium's high-rye base ale is circulated through these vessels during maturation, imparting the beautiful flavor notes from the charred oak and bourbon-soaked spirals.

Ok, lets pour a cold one and see how this tastes.

Oakspire Bourbon Barrel Ale

Purchase Info: This sample was provided at no cost for review purposes. It is available at my local liquor store for $13.99 for a six-pack.

Nose: Very biscuity with caramel and a faint hint of pine.

Mouth: Caramel, malty, biscuity, nutty, and you can certainly taste the bourbon and barrel influences.

IMAGE: A hand drawn smiley face which denotes that I like the product.

Thoughts: Ok, so first thing to get on the table: I don’t usually like barrel-aged beers. I find them too sweet. I like a bitter beer with only enough sweetness to balance it out a bit. My go-to pour these days is still a hazy IPA. I like that tropical flavor. That, or a sour. I love a good sour beer. They’re very refreshing. But the good news is that my wife really enjoys barrel-aged beers. So, in a break from tradition, I decided to ask her to give her thoughts:

I like it. While it’s still sweet and boozy, what I particularly enjoy about this one is that it isn’t nearly as sweet or boozy as other barrel-aged beers I’ve had. It’s got a hint of bourbon, but you can still taste the beer. Sometimes they get overwhelmed by the barrel.

There you have it. Wife approved. And I have to agree, I also like this more than other barrel-aged beers I’ve had. Especially ice-cold. Once it warms up, it gets a bit too sweet for me. I don’t have the biggest sweet tooth, though.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Char & Stave Coffee Liqueurs, Classic Coffee and Cafe Amaro

I’d like to thank Char & Stave and Bluebird Distilling, along with their PR team, for sending these with no strings attached.

IMAGE: Char & Stave’s Café Amaro and Classic Coffee Liqueurs, crafted by coffee roasters, are showcased on a snowy day, ready to elevate cocktails with bold flavors.

Busy day today. I had some work to do, plus I needed to change the light bulbs in my microwave. You’d think that would be easy enough, right? Bulbs burn out. Manufacturers should probably give you easy access to them and maybe even tell you what replacement bulbs to buy. Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?

Well, not so much. I spent the entire morning trying to figure out the correct parts on the manufacturer’s website. They were willing to sell the bulbs to me (though they were out of stock), but they weren’t willing to just tell me what bulbs I needed so I could buy them elsewhere. Naturally, I ended up taking the burned-out bulbs to Home Depot, comparing them to what was on the shelf, and picking out a couple that looked like they’d work. Luckily for me, they did. I’m not very happy with GE Appliances right now—it shouldn’t take all day to change two light bulbs—but whatever. Let’s just say I’ll be having a cocktail later.

Speaking of cocktails, I’m taking a closer look at a couple of cocktail ingredients tonight. These were sent to me by the producers for review purposes a couple of months ago. I’ve been sitting on them for a while, waiting for their turn to come up in the queue. Well, today their turn arrived…just in time to soothe away a frustrating day.

So, what are these ingredients? Two takes on a coffee liqueur. The Classic Coffee is exactly as it sounds—essentially a sweet cup of alcoholic cold brew. The Cafe Amaro, on the other hand, is more like a cross between the Classic Coffee and a traditional amaro. It’s nuttier and more coffee-forward than the Amaros I have in my cocktail stand, but it offers more depth of flavor than a standard coffee liqueur. Before I dive into my tasting notes, let’s see what the producer has to say about them.

Char & Stave Classic Coffee Liqueur is crafted using Char & Stave Arabica Coffee and Bluebird Distilling Vodka, one batch at a time with no artificial flavors. The spirit presents a velvety smooth mouthfeel, with savory chocolate notes up front followed by tinges of citrus, and a finish of slightly sweet dried fruits. Shines in an Espresso Martini, White Russian, or “Night Cap” (3 oz. on the rocks).

Char & Stave Cafe Amaro Coffee Liqueur is a bittersweet coffee liqueur blended with a balance of citrus and botanicals spanning Oris root, angelica, cardamom, chamomile, lemon peel, gtrapefruit peel and gentian root – made one batch at a time with no artificial flavors. Shines in a Coffee Negroni, Char n’ Tonic, and more.

All Char & Stave coffee beans are roasted in-house, with beans sourced from small farmers and microplots worldwide. Both spirits are made with Char & Stave Arabica Coffee (62% Peru Cajamarca, 20% Costa Rica Central Valley, 18% Natural Papua New Guina Wahgi Valley). After the beans are roasted, a two-day Cold Brew method is employed to ensure maximum flavor and velvety smoothness.

Let’s see how they taste, shall we?

Char & Stave Classic Coffee Coffee Liqueur

Purchase Info: This bottle was sent to me at no cost for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $34.99 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $2.33

Details: 30% ABV

Nose: Rich and roasty coffee notes (think a medium to dark roast, not a bright acidic light roast)

Mouth: Sweet and chocolaty coffee notes with a hint of a burn from the alcohol.

Finish: Gentle and of medium length with notes of caramel and chocolate lingering.

Char & Stave Cafe Amaro Coffee Liqueur

Purchase Info: This bottle was sent to me at no cost for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $39.99 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $2.67

Details: 30% ABV

Nose: Coffee, nutty, gentian root, and a touch of citrus.

Mouth: Coffee, caramel, and gentian root.

Finish: On the longer side of medium and bitter with notes of coffee, cardamom, and bitter citrus peel.

Thoughts:

IMAGE: I’m so happy with these that they get a smile!

Both of these are very nice. Super tasty. I LOVE coffee. I love it even more than bourbon. And the Classic Coffee is just like drinking an alcoholic glass of cold brew. I could easily see myself having a pour of it one lazy afternoon. The Cafe Amaro would make a good sipper if you like to sip Amaros. Not many do. I like to have an Amaro and Soda now and then but I get that I’m an unusual person in my love for bitter drinks.

But where these will shine for people that are not as weird as I am is as a cocktail ingredient. I didn’t know a recipe for a cocktail that used both coffee liqueur and bourbon so I asked ChatGPT for a couple of recipes. They are as follows:

Coffee Old Fashioned

2 oz bourbon
1 oz brewed or espresso coffee (chilled) or coffee liqueur
1 tsp maple syrup
A few dashes of bitters (optional: coffee or chocolate bitters)

The Revolver

2 oz bourbon (preferably a rye-heavy one)
0.5 oz coffee liqueur
2 dashes of orange bitters
Orange peel for garnish

The Coffee Old Fashioned is based on a recipe from Happy Honey Kitchen. The Revolver is from Serious Eats.

Both of these liqueurs work great in both of these recipes. I’m extremely happy with both. The Old Fashioned is pretty basic when using the Classic Coffee, but that’s to its benefit. The Cafe Amaro has just a little too much going on for me when used here. The Revolver is amazing with either, and I am completely floored by how well bourbon, coffee, and orange flavors pair with one another. So good. That’s the one I’m having tonight to round the rough edges off of a frustrating day.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Drinks by the Dram "Bourbon and American Whiskey Advent Calendar" from Master of Malt

I‘d like to thanks the folks at Master of Malt for sending this to me with no strings attached.

IMAGE: The front cover of the Master of Malt Bourbon and American Whiskey Advent calendar, featuring a burning barrel. Inset phtos of the 30cl wax sealed bottles.

It’s Friday, and I’m here, so that must mean it’s time for another bonus post! This week, we’re diving into the Drinks by the Dram Bourbon and American Whiskey Advent Calendar from Masters of Malt. This was sent to me in celebration of the fact that Masters of Malt is finally able to ship to the United States again.

The last time we talked about Masters of Malt was back in 2018, just before they had to stop shipping to the U.S. At that time, I had a fantastic experience with them. They were a great resource for purchasing bourbons that were available in Europe but unavailable stateside. I took a quick look at their site now, and while they do have a few items I can’t get in Minnesota, it’s probably not quite enough to justify the cost of international shipping. However, their Drinks by the Dram program still stands out—it lets you purchase 30 mL (about 1 ounce) sample bottles of spirits you might not otherwise have access to. If you want to try a variety of spirits but don’t want to commit to a bunch of full bottles, this is definitely something to consider. Personally, I don't like Scotch so I skip it and stick to bourbons, other whiskeys, or even brandies.

Which brings us to the Advent calendars. Master of Malt offers a wide range of them—more than I could possibly list here. They’ve got calendars for gin, rum, Scotch, vodka, and even niche options like Peaty Whisky or Spiced Rum. Prices range from $52 to $260, depending on the spirit category and how many days your calendar includes. You can even build your own, though let’s be honest—half the fun of an Advent calendar is the surprise!

The one I received is the Bourbon and American Whiskey Advent Calendar. It’s priced at $136.85 plus shipping, and so far, I’m having a lot of fun with it. Without giving too much away, I’ll say it’s a solid mix of widely available big-name brands, smaller niche distilleries, and even a few gems from UK independent bottlers—like a 24-year-old bourbon from That Boutique-y Whisky Company.

So, should you rush to their website and grab one for yourself? Well, that depends on your situation. For me, $137 plus international shipping is a steep price for the equivalent of 750 mL of whiskey. But if you’re looking for an awesome gift for the whiskey lover in your life? Absolutely. This is a unique and entertaining gift that would last the recipient 12 to 25 days, depending on the calendar you choose. I can think of plenty of people I’d spend that much (or more) on, and I’d grab this as a gift for them in a heartbeat.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.

Blind Barrels Craft Whiskey Subscription Box

I’d like to thank Blind Barrels for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

Tonight’s bonus review isn’t about a whiskey, per se, but rather a whiskey subscription box experience. Blind Barrels reached out and asked if I’d be interested in taking a look at their offering. Since this doesn’t easily translate to just words on a page, I decided to have some fun and make a video about it. For those who’d rather read than watch, here are the key points.

Blind Barrels Subscription Box

Purchase Info: I received this sample box from the producer at no cost for review purposes. Individual boxes and quarterly subscriptions are priced at $69.99 each, plus shipping. An annual subscription for four boxes is also available for $199.99.

Details: This subscription showcases craft whiskey and includes four blind 50 mL samples per box. More information is available at BlindBarrels.com.

Thoughts: I go much more in-depth on my thoughts in the video above, but here’s the bottom line. As someone who’s practically drowning in whiskey bottles (not a bad problem to have, right?), this isn’t something I’d personally buy for myself. If you’re a whiskey veteran with shelves that look like a distillery showroom, you might feel the same. But if you’re in that phase where you’re still itching to try all the whiskey—where every bottle you haven’t tasted feels like an unsolved mystery—this could be right up your alley.

Blind Barrels sends you four surprise samples of craft whiskey every quarter, wrapped in a little mystery and a whole lot of fun. You need to click a QR code just to find out what you are tasting. Back when I was a wide-eyed enthusiast chasing every new release and suffering from serious FOMO, this would’ve been exactly what I’d have wanted. And let’s be honest, we all go through that phase in our whiskey journey—where discovering new, obscure whiskeys is like unearthing hidden treasure.

If that’s where you are, this box adds a touch of adventure to your sipping routine. Or if you have a whiskey lover in your life who’s already hard to shop for, this might just win you gift-giver of the year. Hell, even now, I’d love to get one. Because let’s face it, blind tastings are a fun little game where everyone wins. And this one? Definitely no exception.

If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.