How Detroit City Distillery Built A Honey Whiskey Hit (Part 2)

Hot honey finished bourbon sounds like a dare until you taste it and realize the “heat” can drink like warmth. We’re hanging in the Man Cave Happy Hour with Dante from Detroit City Distillery to get past the hype and into the decisions that actually shape flavor, from barrel finishing to proof to what your palate notices first, second, and last.

We also zoom out to what’s happening in the whiskey and bourbon industry right now: generational consumption, the way cannabis and THC edibles change the party, and why the market slowdown hits high-volume regions hardest. Dante makes a sharp case for the tasting room as the new advantage, where community and human conversation matter more than another shelf talker. You’ll hear the real-world survival stories too, including the COVID pivot into hand sanitizer and how a “shutdown bourbon” became a time capsule bottle people still chase.

Then we get into the fun stuff whiskey nerds argue about: Pappy Van Winkle pricing, why blind tasting can humble your opinions fast, and how much rye on shelves is sourced versus made from scratch. Dante also breaks down a simple Old Fashioned method that focuses on balance, bitters, and orange expression, plus where their spirits are showing up across Michigan and Mackinac Island.

If you like craft spirits, Detroit whiskey, honey finished bourbon, rye whiskey, and practical cocktail talk, hit subscribe, share this with a friend who loves bourbon, and leave us a quick review so more people can find the show.

https://www.detroitcitydistillery.com/

Transcript

Happy Hour Kickoff And Guest Intro

SPEAKER_00 0:17

We're gonna drink a fine whiskey and smoke a really fine cigar.

Jamie Flanagan 0:25

It is time for Happy Hour. It is the Man Cave Happy Hour, whiskey, cigars, spirits, stories that go along with it. I'm Jamie Flanagan. It's an OG man cave.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Oh yeah. Matt Fox August is not here this evening. We miss him terribly. But it's an OG man cave because it was Jamie and I that did this, started this in 2018. Yeah, we've been uh out of his garage. We did definitely not in the garage anymore.

Jamie Flanagan 0:52

No, no, yeah. We've uh we've upped the game uh a little bit. And we are Matt. Yes, sir. Jamie, who who is who is the amazing person sitting across from the city. Yeah, Dante's with us from Detroit City Distillery.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

Dante's funny when I do my videos. Thanks for the intro, guys, and thanks for having me. Yeah, and having our brand on. This is great. You said the word amazing. I meant it. And we'll get you want to talk about it now with with the market right now.

Jamie Flanagan 1:18

Well,

Why Whiskey Sales Are Shifting

Jamie Flanagan 1:19

yeah, so let's shift gears slightly. And you wanted because we were talking about some changes and and and just the it because it's we got tariffs and and we got you know, Canada saying we're gonna let stuff go bad on the shelf before we in a fact in a warehouse before we sell it on our things.

SPEAKER_03 1:36

Newslash Canada, it won't go bad in the bottle, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 1:39

No, the beers though. Oh, the beers, yes, the beers. They pulled all the beers too, and uh, so yeah, the bourbon like, well, you can you can party with the bourbon all you want, but the beers are going bad. The American beer they brought over there, but they sell so little American beer over there, right? But I'm moles, so they pulled it, they pulled it off the shelf, and it's all it's all gone. But you said there were some, and again, like I said, Matt and I are really novices, and we we we looked to people, and you were we were talking as we were like pregaming a little bit, and you said there's like some really mess up stuff. What's happening in the whiskey industry right now that we we need to know about before we get to that second magical bottle under the table?

SPEAKER_02 2:13

The third one, you mean?

Jamie Flanagan 2:14

I haven't forgot about it.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Yep, the special one. Yeah, I think it's generational consumption, uh right. And you have generational consumption. So my step generations and what they're drinking and how they're drinking it, and how much they're drinking.

Jamie Flanagan 2:26

My son is 28. Okay, right, right. He he loves to smoke, right? He loves he loves the wacky tobacque. So he's smoking cigarettes, not vaping.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Uh oh no, oh cannabis, pot. Yeah, the the pot. We could say it. They do the pot. We could say fuck it.

Jamie Flanagan 2:40

The kids, the kids, the kids, they do the dude the the pot thing, yeah, they're crazy with the pot. Cannabis, cannabis. Um, but so it's culturally, because I mean, it's like I smell pot, and it's like I'm like, you know, I'm like because it was like right, you know, it's like are we cool? Are we cool? Are my eyeballs okay?

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Right, do they look like rampant galley roadmaps right now? Am I yeah, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 3:03

Holy crap, right? So it's like it's it's it's really it's interesting culturally. They the the the edibles, oh yeah, they don't have to be the cannabis edibles, yeah, they're so convenient. Culturally, they're drinking less, they're they're partying still, right? But the party is different, and the and the pot and the thc and the edibles and all that is is is legal-ish. It's well, it's not legal, it's not uh illegal, right?

SPEAKER_02 3:28

It's a it's a whole different euphoria.

Jamie Flanagan 3:30

So whole different so what's that doing to the spirits and particularly the bourbon industry for you?

SPEAKER_02 3:36

And I mean it's legal here in the state of Michigan, so have we seen have we seen a shift in certain generations? Of course we have, yeah. Because it wasn't legal when you started, no, no, and it was gangbusters when you started. Our our main demographic is 30 to 55 for whiskey and bourbon.

Jamie Flanagan 3:55

Oh, I was gonna say 30 to 55. That's kind of the women I'm after, too. Gen X, which we are Colleen does not watch this, so I'm safe saying that 30 to 50.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

I can say whatever I want. I'm in your wheelhouse age-wise.

SPEAKER_02 4:11

I mean, 30 30 to 30 to 55, 30 to 55 is where we're targeted. You're my son, who's 25, he drinks whiskey and bourbon. My daughter, who enjoys because of me.

Jamie Flanagan 4:25

Yeah, it's it's a learned listen. Colin Colin gets into it. He's like, right, you know, listen, I drinking beer was a learned behavior.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Yeah, either Bud or Miller, whoever hand you hand, and you stuck with it, right? That was my granddad.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

He was a Budweiser guy. He's like, I was three years old.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

Here, taste this, yeah, right. And but I think in the spirits, you know, in in the late, we saw this 50 plus years ago in the late 60s when cannabis, marijuana, yeah, the skunk weed, the only there was only one, two strains, and it was garbage, but but you had LSD, you had mushrooms, you had hallucinogens, right? We saw it then, and we're just seeing it again. Listen, there was it was on CNN, it wasn't Gupta, it wasn't one of the paid CNN doctors, it was someone they interviewed. And this is a doctor. I I gotta remember his name, but I remember the premise of what he talked about. He said, drinking is good for humanity, and let me explain why. That's a great sentence. Drinking brings people together, drinking sparks up conversations, drinking causes social events, whether it goes bad or good, it's still a social event. And when you take drinking out of humanity, you are gonna have humans in eventual evolution that are not going to be able to have conversations. And listen, technology is we already don't have conversations. Yeah, now you want to take drinking out of it. Like, how are we supposed to socialize? Yeah, yeah, yeah. When I went to Ireland when I turned 50, yeah, I was like an emotional wreck when I'd see people just come, the guys all playing in the corner with their music and the pub, people coming in from work. You didn't go home, you went to the pub.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

Yeah, one of the best things I really enjoyed about the original tasting room is that where there were no TVs or no TVs.

SPEAKER_02 6:21

There is still no TVs. I love that, and I love that fact. We have TVs for special events, if there's the derby, but there is not a regular TV in on all the time. No, it is you come into our place, you you it's human-to-human interaction. It's gotta be. You know, you get a craft cocktail, you sit down, you tell stories. I can't tell you, so generationally that's shifted, but it's not as bad as the media is saying it is. Okay. All right. My son's generation drinks, but they drink a lot less. Their spirit has to have a story. We have a story, right? They drink craft, they're not just going to if they're gonna drink less, they're gonna drink a lot better. Okay, right, and so is the industry down right now? It is. Who's seeing it the most? Kentucky. Who's seeing it the most because they got the most volume out there?

Tasting Rooms As The Golden Ticket

SPEAKER_05 7:24

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

But are we down a little bit? Yeah, we all are. But what we're doing with the tasting room, the whiskey factory, the whole uh personal experience is the golden ticket right now in the whiskey industry. We give our friends an ironfish, our friends a gypsy, they have these tasting rooms, yeah, and it's what's bringing people to their home. Right. I have a saying when I can't close a sales deal, I talk to Jamie and JP. And I'm like, I'm so frustrated, I can't get this guy to bite on this barrel. And then we came up with the saying bring them to the house. Sure. Bring them to the factory.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

It's almost like you're cultivating an environment. Exactly.

Jamie Flanagan 8:04

I I I can't tell you, I love the tasting room, I love the whiskey factory. Right, I've been to several parties there. You guys did like a couple blind tastings, uh, where you were picking like a barrel. We did a bunch of tastings, right? And and and that was that was fun. It's just always like a really just a culture good time. And then during COVID and coming out of COVID, you're like, okay, we can't do big events.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

You know, the Detroit gave us the street out front.

Jamie Flanagan 8:34

You had like you had like you did things like space tables, and yet you're like, we we could have people in, but you gotta be like 20 feet apart. It was great.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

You look back, it was so the shit we had to do we had to do to keep and that you know going, you know, and then the zoom calls.

Jamie Flanagan 8:51

We did

Shutdown Bourbon And Pandemic Pivots

Jamie Flanagan 8:52

I can't even tell you how many like wildly inappropriate Zoom calls.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

Oh, listen, uh, one of our I don't know you all right, one of our most sought after bottles was the shutdown. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

The shutdown bourbon, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

Because what happened is literally, I never I remember the day, it was a Wednesday we shut down. Yeah, it was a Wednesday, and two days later, I had a mutual friend that JP and I have uh called me up and he says, Dante, I got three semi-trucks full of ethanol. Do your boys want to make hand sanitizer? If they call me in the next half hour, they're theirs. If not, they're going to Perel. I've got three semi-trucks full of ethanol. I called JP, he called his partners and his friends, you know, the investors, and said, We're making sanitizers. We're making hands, and it kept us going. Yeah, we we gave that.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

You gotta find another small miracle, you know.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

Right, exactly. You gotta find another municipalities, the fire department, the police department, the city of Detroit, restaurants, all that stuff. We we were there, and about six months into it, you know, it was the guys, the production guys were all there by themselves. They were staying there, they were sleeping, they weren't moving. And they were like, fuck this, we need to release a whiskey. Like, so it was our four-grain, which it's it's being re-aged because I sold too many single boxes on the phone.

Jamie Flanagan 10:13

They hired you full time, and they're like, I think I got a four-grain on the shelf.

SPEAKER_02 10:16

They hired me full-time, and and they were like the you know, JP. Oh no, go ahead, sell, we got plenty. I'm like, okay, all right, here we go.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

And challenge accepted.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Right on a four-grade. No, but it was the shutdown, it was a four-grain derivative, and uh, we we released the shutdown. It was a two-year, six-month, it was young. And we did our we had 150 some people on a on a on a zoom that bought the bottle. I love that. When they picked it up, it was the stick to the car. Oh man. They all went home.

Jamie Flanagan 10:49

It's like all of it. Justin Hoffman and his outbreak, like handing shit over. And the shutter on his shoulder.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

And it's a spawn after bottle from the shade because it's so many, right? Yeah, and long story short, we released four years later, we released uh a six-year, four-month shutdown.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

Yeah, because the barrels kept aging, right? So you you said you had two stories. One was about you, and one was about your friend. I had a friend, and I don't know if this would have been an appropriate story for you to pull out your surprise at the same time.

Pappy Hype And Price Reality

SPEAKER_02 11:20

So a guy graduated with, we really didn't have much conversation. We talked via Facebook. You know, you have your Facebook friends from the cast, and oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He knew I was in the whiskey industry, so he messaged me and he was like, Hey man, I picked up a papy's, I'm so excited. I'm like, Oh, of course. Was this after your experience with papies?

Jamie Flanagan 11:38

Okay, like, oh, that's good for you. Good for you.

SPEAKER_02 11:43

I didn't even know that because I didn't ask him what he paid for it, I didn't ruin it for him, but I did tell him, Hey, special occasion. There's a lot of oh, my daughter's getting married next year. I'll crack it then.

Jamie Flanagan 11:54

There you go. I'm like, cool.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

You'll probably be three drinks in. Well, so obviously I wasn't at the wedding, and I knew the wedding was that coming up. We talked about it. You excited, oh man, I'm so stoked.

unknown 12:04

Blah blah blah.

SPEAKER_02 12:04

Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And the wedding came. The Sunday came, or the Saturday came, the wedding came, Monday came. Nothing. Hey, brother, what's going on? Nothing. Tuesday. Hey, hey man, what's going on? I'm curious to see what you thought about that. Pepe. He gets back to me the following Saturday, a week later. First word, bro. He's at bro or back in high school.

Jamie Flanagan 12:30

All right, fair play.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

I go, bro. Is this a bro? It was phenomenal or bro. He goes, What the F, man? I had to keep my composure when I sent it. And I go, I go, to Oki? Yeah. He goes, hell yeah. He goes, Dante, I cried in the shower on Sunday morning. I spent $3,200 on that bottle. I said, taste everything, my friend. Taste everything. Go, go taste it in the bar. I saved $3,000 because I paid $200. Now, mind you, another story. I went Ireland. Remember, I went from my 50th. Yeah. I had a 42 42-year-old talents. Okay. That's a sketch.

Jamie Flanagan 13:19

So then go and they got those boxes. Oh, they sing and angels jump out as you do it.

SPEAKER_02 13:27

It was 300 euro for a one-ounce pour. So you had to make it work. Like I had to, I had to cleanse my path. That's like 200, 250. Yeah. For a one-ounce pour. US.

Jamie Flanagan 13:38

I think you have to say a whole novena before you do that.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

So it's uh our father. And then the crazy thing is, I loved it.

Jamie Flanagan 13:46

Ah, are you a scotch guy? No. Oh, fair play. All right. I don't know the Pete. August. August is like Scotch can go fuck itself. He's like, that's a little bit. It's like he's like at all. So Pete, but you you don't like the Pete, but you enjoyed that. I enjoyed it very much.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

All right. Now I don't know. It was because 42. The bragging rights of a 42-year-old.

Jamie Flanagan 14:09

Because the 42 years like staved off some of the Pete.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

I don't know, but all I know is uh I don't know if you know how it works in Ireland. You've been to Ireland? Yeah. Okay. When you leave, you go through security, yeah, and then you go to the stores, and then there's duty free. Remember, on US duty free is in Ireland. So you're allowed to buy bottles, bring them on the plate. True. So, but the uh the Ireland, I think it's the Ireland Whiskey Commission or something, they have the Ireland Whiskey Company, all the stills, all the distilleries. They have to create bottles that only sell in the airport. They don't sell in Ireland and they don't sell anywhere else in the world. Really?

SPEAKER_00 14:45

Oh, really? So you can get some special red breast stuff going on.

SPEAKER_02 14:49

Yeah, nobody heard you. And when I was leaving, it was 4 a.m. here. So I am dialing my my store friends. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm like, bro, wake up. Bro, wake up. I have I have a red breast quattro. It's aged in four separate barrels. You can't buy it anywhere else. I'm like, wake up. Should I say, should I, should I? And then I got a McAllen's 18.

Jamie Flanagan 15:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:12

I got a red breast quattro. I got a Jameson single pot still. Only made for the airport. I've got I spent like $1,100.

Jamie Flanagan 15:23

Okay. All right. All right. I love that. I love that. But you wouldn't find it. I got it. Everybody has a tell. That's that. My wife didn't kill me.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

And she's only 410.

Jamie Flanagan 15:37

I may, I may murder you.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

This was really cool.

Jamie Flanagan 15:40

You're like, thank God I I've upped your insurance in life insurance because you're two weeks before we left for Ireland.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

I'm looking in my Delta app and I'm like, Delta One. What is Delta One? And I look it up, I'm like, oh my God, those are the pots. I'm like, Jen, look at the credit card. They upgraded us to Delta One. Let's make sure we didn't get charged. So what happened? We booked that trip a year out, a year before. Okay. We were the oldest reservation in Delta Comfort Plus. So someone wanted a seat, two seats in Delphar, Delta Comfort Plus, and there were two seats available in Delta One. So you got upgraded. So you have a little storage container. Oh my god. I'm like, oh, I can buy more bottles. Can I run back out? Can I go? Can I just want to say thank you for that insight? I just as a Delta passenger frequently. It's not a cheap ticket. Thank you for that because I'm gonna book further out now. It's a $3,500 ticket. Yeah, yeah. But you got the free upgrade. Yeah. Well, she's 410. She fit in the reclining bed seat.

SPEAKER_05 16:43

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

I was like, this is great.

SPEAKER_05 16:45

This is wonderful.

SPEAKER_02 16:46

Like, is this what death is like? Okay. But no, yeah, he uh he did not like it either. He didn't like Okie and he cried in the shower. Poor God. But you know what? He learned a lesson. He learned a lesson.

Jamie Flanagan 16:59

So I did uh we stopped in whatever the home of Colonel Sanders is. What is a Matt Google me? What is the home of Colonel Sanders? So Colleen and I are driving down. Yes, sir. Tell me with my story, sweetie. So we are driving down to Florida to see my mom, right? So sometimes we'll fly, sometimes we'll drive down. So we're driving down and we're you know, drive down. Ah, we're gonna need gas. All right, let's get some food, whatever. So we we just randomly say, Oh, McDonald's, okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:26

All right, so Colonel Sanders' most famous primary residence is Blackwood Hall, it's a 5,000 square foot Victorian mansion in Shelbyville, Kentucky.

Jamie Flanagan 17:35

So we go and we pull off to Shelbyville, Kentucky. Um so we're in Kentucky, and so they're having like some kind of big street fair. We're like, holy shit, right? As we're walking down the street, and I got this crazy white goatee, right? Because because I'm old now, you said it now, and I look at you and say, Oh, oh, you'll eat my chicken.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

Oh you puts an addictive chemical that makes you critley small.

Jamie Flanagan 18:00

Oh, yeah. All right, so anyway, so we pull off, and I'm like, Yeah, okay, I'll do some autographs, whatever. But so would you sign you signed Colonel Sanders? No, I didn't you did it, yes. They knew I would. Oh my god, so it came up 100%. I would so but there was this cool little bar, and we went, well, let's get a burger here, right? So we were gonna go to Lich Street Fair, right? Let's take a minute, right? Let's enjoy it, right? And so we walked the street fair a little bit, elephant ears, and just all the just a nasty state fair crapola you could possibly, but there was this quaint little like bar, but it was fun, yeah. But it was like, and we got in there, this is kind of odd architecture, and and as we got to read the menu and it had the little story of the space, it it was it was the alley, right? And they enclosed it, and it became like a thing. So there was a big sign, there was a big, like you know, lost sign on the wall was for Wrigley's gum, and so the place said it was Wrigley's, so it was like it's all faded, chipped off, you know, like our old Verner signs here in Detroit.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

By the way, there's there is a Verners party coming up at Eastern Market. I'll let you guys know about it, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 19:08

Oh my god, so Verners and Bourbon, we're in man, rock and ryan bourbon. Yep, holy talking about keeping up with Marrow, they're next to us now, so we'll get to that. So, but we were in so we're in Kentucky, though, but it's in Kentucky, and so they had a nice selection of bourbon, and they had a flight, you could do a couple flights, and one of the flights had a pappy in it, okay, and it wasn't that much, and it was a lower grade 15. Yeah, it was a lower grade of the papy, right? And I'm like, should I, shouldn't I? And I'm like, We're still driving to Florida, yeah. And I was at the wheel, right? And I'm like, All right, hey, honey, yeah, sweetie. Do you mind if I uh you want to take over driving? And the next eight hours, and she let me do it, but there was like an eagle rear, there's a buffalo, there's a papy, and there was something else. But it wasn't part of the Buffalo tribe, right? It was another one, and out of all of them, out of the four, the papy came in like third, you know. The I was like, okay, so it was nice, it was good, it was, but it wasn't like, oh my god, I need to like sell babies, take a bottle of screen drastically, take the labels off everything, and everybody will be completely confused.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

And guess what? That's the best thing you can do because your taste buds will tell you what you want.

Jamie Flanagan 20:21

So we Matt, let's talk about proper 12.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

I don't know what you're talking about. I I was so against proper 12. I hadn't it, it was just something in my brain. I'm like, I just don't like it. Fuck that guy. I never that whiskey never had it, I just knew I wouldn't like it. So we did it, we did a we did a blind taste.

Jamie Flanagan 20:41

We did a blind whiskey, uh blind whiskey taste of Irish Works. Right. And so, you know, we're and we kind of knew it's like, all right, there was like seven bottles out there. Okay, she poured five for us, right? And so we knew what was out there, and it but we didn't know what was what we were tasting, and we were guessing, and we had to guess which was which and which one we liked the best. Yeah, and then everybody had proper 12 as like their number one or two, right? Right, and and and Matt had it as his number one, but before we started, he's like, Fuck that proper 12. I hope it's not in there because I hate that bullshit. And it was like it was my number one, and it was like it was right up there at number one. I I love doing the blind tastings. Ready? Here we go.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

Ready, ladies and gentlemen.

SPEAKER_03 21:21

Taste everything.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

That's it. That's honestly. I mean, and and and that taught me a lesson where my palate is telling me what I like.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Like you said, take the labels off of everything, and you'll find out what the San Francisco World Spirit Competition is the oldest, most prestigious competition in the United States. And you do it naked, you they do it, it's very prestigious, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

They do it oh, they take the clothes off the they give all the judges doctor's coats, which I still don't understand about that. But they literally upside down. The first three rounds of my hands are just glasses with whiskey in it with no names. They have numbers, they have numbers, letters, yeah. They go off taste. Yes. That's how it should be. Listen, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, you could find Pappy on the shelves for 25 bucks.

Jamie Flanagan 22:10

Right, right, right, right. They pulled it back on per 20 years ago.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

They pulled it back. They pulled back blands, they pulled them back and they made them limited.

SPEAKER_05 22:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:19

On purpose didn't do anything different. They just made them limited.

SPEAKER_05 22:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:23

And I just tell people like it, it don't let anyone tell you what's going on. Well, they were going to Japan. Oh, for sure.

Jamie Flanagan 22:31

They were shipping them all out to like you know Kuala Lumper in Japan.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

Listen, speaking of Asia, we're getting some legs in Asia. No, no, no, no pun intended. So, all right, we didn't we need to

Michigan Liquor Changes And Local Community

SPEAKER_02 22:41

be able to do it.

Jamie Flanagan 22:41

Detroit City distillery is so we're at Meyer, we're at Kroger, we're at the Meyer, we're at the big box stores, we're at the big stores, but and and you're at the local party stores.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

All my local friends and and smaller stores.

Jamie Flanagan 22:55

We are pretty well covered here in there's been there's been some some contention in Michigan because like they allowed gas stations to expand themselves to liquor, yes, and like like convenience stores are like killing me small.

SPEAKER_02 23:11

That was that was it's kind of I I equate it to giving out as many uh dispensary licenses as possible for the state to make money, and then they yanked them from them two years from two years later.

Jamie Flanagan 23:23

Oh, aren't they pulling them away from the gas stations? No, but oh those did it hurt the liquor stores?

SPEAKER_02 23:28

Hell yeah, it did. Yeah, because you're required to carry a minimal amount of product, yeah, but the product is not always liquor, you gotta have so much value in the store. Right. One of the stores was trying to explain it to me, but yes, like I don't think a small gas station should have liquor. I think it should be that's personally what I think. Yeah, it should be beer and wine. Yeah, yeah. Should be beer and wine. Yeah, that's fair.

Jamie Flanagan 23:51

It's weird. It's uh the industry is strange, and because I I you you as we were you were started up and you're doing a Facebook Live, you're like, oh, the guy from Piccolo's here, and you know, we love him, and then there was another A and B A and A and whatever, uh whatever. There was another cat on oh yeah, from another liquor.

SPEAKER_02 24:06

Oh no, Albert's up there in the Casanado Casconada.

Jamie Flanagan 24:09

Casconada, yeah. And and it was like it was awesome that they were they were checking in. We got buddies A and B liquor, Yvonne A and B liquor. I love wevon.

SPEAKER_00 24:20

We'll we'll we'll share that.

Jamie Flanagan 24:21

Oh, yeah. He brought in like he score pick after score pick after score pick one day. He brought in good for that.

SPEAKER_02 24:30

He's good. He can bring in he can start and shut a party down real fast.

Jamie Flanagan 24:34

Yeah, he did. He hevon heard us. I love love love that man. Yeah, he heard us, and that big Tony at the wine garden garden.

SPEAKER_02 24:42

No, he's got uh he's got the uh best kept secret. I was with him today. We were uh he had what you're about to have under this table.

Jamie Flanagan 24:49

Oh my god, yes. So, but we used to do we've done the podcast. We almost before I bought this space, before we bought into this space, yeah, we almost opened up podcast your voice in Tony's back room before it was the best kept secret. Yeah, it was it was on the table, but when he had his he's had his almost done bottom vision, no, that wasn't even on the table back then, but because I have a lot of people come in right because I have about here at the podcast your voice studios, the palatial podcast your voice studios available. It's amazing, but uh you know, I got about 12-15 shows that come in here right and record, and Tony's like, Oh, you know, he's like he goes, it was like it was like happy days, right? Yeah, with with us and Tony. He'd be like, All right, you guys are recording. It'd be like Arnold throwing you the keys, going, All right, lock up when you're done. Seriously, and he left us back there with all that boo.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

Love Tony, love Tony, love his dad. You get the he's got the kitchen in the back, his dad's always cooking it. Oh my god, get in there and get fish, uh randomly get fish on a Tuesday, right?

Jamie Flanagan 25:49

So it's just brilliant. So he was like, He's such a good people, and it's like, but so then he opened up the best cat secret, and it was like, We're like, Oh my god, this is so much better. Um this is like so gorgeous. Were you ever in the previous background? Yeah, so it's like it was fun. It was fun. That was man cavey, labeled bottles and stuff, and you know, watch football with his friends on big sports nights.

SPEAKER_02 26:12

That was his that was his man cave.

Jamie Flanagan 26:14

So yeah, but now it's a thing. So if anybody met your Detroit, the best kept secret, go to the wine garden and St. Clair's shores and go to the cash register and say, Somebody said something about a best kept secret and a good cocktail. What? And they'll tell you to go to the beer cooler and you figure it out from there.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Just make sure you know your history. That's it.

Jamie Flanagan 26:32

Yes, yes, history questions are a must. There's a there is a skill testing question without a doubt. No obstacle.

SPEAKER_02 26:40

And I said, God, god forbid, you thank god you don't have people answer questions to get out of there. You'd never get out of it, right?

Jamie Flanagan 26:48

Right. So, but there's so many local places doing so much good stuff. It's just just astounding.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

I don't know how we got out this rabbit hole now, which is we're talking about the glue to this whole spirit game.

Jamie Flanagan 27:00

Yeah, and it's just like everything community, and yeah, it's great. But there's something you're hiding so you're hiding.

SPEAKER_03 27:08

You keep yeah, yeah, we keep prolonging the conversation.

Jamie Flanagan 27:11

Yeah, I might I may do a boarding house reach, grab another one of those, or no, no, not gonna have to.

SPEAKER_02 27:16

All right, probably last year. Brian

The Hot Honey Bourbon Reveal

SPEAKER_02 27:19

and Brian from Bees in the D's they came to us and said, Hey, we're making a different honey. Would you guys want to possibly create another bourbon out of this recipe? Different honey.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

That was a good thing.

Jamie Flanagan 27:33

What is a different honey? Because you have because right now you got honey is from hollow here, there, and wherever. Does the bee buttons a little bit higher on the act of higher?

SPEAKER_02 27:42

Different honey would be a different flavor capacity or flavor note.

Jamie Flanagan 27:47

Okay, all right, all right.

SPEAKER_05 27:48

So I'm just gonna get the bottle.

Jamie Flanagan 27:50

Get the bottle.

SPEAKER_05 27:50

What are we doing here?

Jamie Flanagan 27:55

All right, so what are we?

SPEAKER_05 27:56

Oh, what do we got here?

Jamie Flanagan 28:00

Read it, tilt it back. Oh, weeded nope, no, read it, read it hot honey.

SPEAKER_02 28:08

Oh, hot honey in the CN.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

Not hot proof, no, but hot honey. Last last Friday night, my oldest daughter and I, we were walking down, we were in Oak Park, and we went to handsome handsome brothers.

Jamie Flanagan 28:24

Is it a bar?

SPEAKER_00 28:26

It was a bar slash pizza joint slash cocktail place, coffee house. I think I know what you're on you're talking about. It's handsome something. I can't remember the name off the top of my head. But they have a pizza and they use hot honey on the pizza. So this is a whiskey bourbon with hot honey.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

Yes, and that's they did a hot honey, and we aged it in the barrels. Oh, that was a nice pop. That was a nice pop.

SPEAKER_01 28:52

It's just a repeat with the hot honey in the barrel and then the bourbon barrel.

Jamie Flanagan 28:57

Straight bourbon whiskey finished in honey and red pepper flaked red pepper flakes. So what tell me red, what what can what uh red pepper flaked barrel? What's a red pepper flaked barrel?

SPEAKER_01 29:10

Basically, it was when they did the honey, they used the red pepper flake. So when the honey went in there, I mean it was the red pepper.

SPEAKER_02 29:16

So they did a hot honey, they did a hot honey first.

Jamie Flanagan 29:19

Okay, so they they blended, they blended the honey and the red pepper flakes, and then it was aged it in one of your barrels, and then we put it back, they cleaned it out, sold the honey, and then you have that barrel, and you're like, let's have a fucking party with this. This is incredible.

SPEAKER_02 29:32

All right, we released it twice last year, and what that's what's really so this is pretty limited. Is this tasting room only, or what is this? Last year it was only a tasting room. Last year, last summer it was only a tasting, but it was only 250 bottles, which would lead you to believe it's sold out.

Jamie Flanagan 29:47

You ready for this? It sold out in like an hour and a half, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then like that, like the Yeji thing was gone.

SPEAKER_02 29:54

We brought it back for Black Friday, same thing, sold out. Don't call it a comeback. So if I wanted to find this now, I couldn't. No, that's not until we're we're releasing it first time in distro.

Jamie Flanagan 30:07

Oh, so it's coming out in distro, okay. Which means they got a couple extra.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

Ah, that is a week and a half away.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

Fourth of July. Fourth of July. I'm sorry, we're not you are excited, young man. Dude, calm down. You have no idea if I'm having the slightest clue.

Jamie Flanagan 30:24

It'll take me four weeks to edit this, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:27

I would say I've been pre-selling, guys, and I'm up there in cases, guys. Really? All right.

Jamie Flanagan 30:35

Look at him putting the cap back on that, like it's not gonna hit again.

SPEAKER_02 30:38

We are, I know, right? We are he knows what he's doing, Jamie. We are we are six packs, so we're not 12 packs in a case. Yeah, I think we're around 250 pre-sold already.

Jamie Flanagan 30:48

All right. I'm doing I'm doing that. Are they telling you, hey, pump the brakes, make sure we got enough barrels to cover that? Right. Well, we're laid down, so we know our number. Okay, nothing burning on the nose. No, no. This is this is as pleasant as the other two. Yeah, I think it what's what's the proof on this? 100. Just okay. All right, so yeah, it's it's just like the blow. It's not quite the single barrel. It's like the yeah, because the single barrel was like giving you, it wasn't burning, but it was you could feel the all right.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

I'm a hot honey fan. I'm really curious about what I'm about to experience now. For me, look at the legs on this. I just did.

Jamie Flanagan 31:25

Look at that, it's like curtains. It does, it's it's not the gold of the it's kind of a reddish tint to it. It does have it's not quite the caramel, but it's it it is uh something a little deeper than caramel. This is gonna stick for me. Dante, these these are this is gonna stick for me. For me, it's something deeper than caramel. I'm not going red. No, but yeah, no, yeah, yeah. Now I'm just fucking with you.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

Now this is it's a dance. It's I I for me, it's three phases.

SPEAKER_02 31:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 31:54

What's the what's the second phase?

SPEAKER_02 31:55

Second phase is second phase is honey. All right.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

First phase is bourbon.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

Okay. And uh some people for some people's palate, the heat gets them in the center and tapers off. Now, I'll watch you two do this and I'll tell you when the honey, when the heat's gonna hit. Right now, for you, one, two, three, heat. One, two, three, heat. Now it's steady heat. Now, this you this is the one you have to rinse your you have to cleanse your palate with this one. Because people who don't like heat step away from it instantly. But you're gonna keep going back to this. I gotta pour you more. I tell you, down Francis.

Jamie Flanagan 32:38

Listen, that first nip he's splitting the G on his freaking over here.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

No, no, the first nip.

SPEAKER_02 32:47

I I like it. Look at him. No, no, you got it because you got it. No, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

No, but that my first nip of something I've never had, it tends to be a little bit more because I want it to fill my that's like now it's I've it.

Jamie Flanagan 32:59

I'm like I'm like a good 90, 180 seconds after, and and then I just finally got a red. I wasn't getting any red pepper.

SPEAKER_00 33:07

I wasn't getting any red pepper until red pepper is starting to happen.

Jamie Flanagan 33:11

Until I'm like breathing after both of you, you notice it's not going into your chest, it's all up here. It's here, it's a side and tip of my tongue.

SPEAKER_02 33:19

I'm a very side going first batch, it's not hitting first batch, it was a different story, ladies and gentlemen. So we have the whiskey club, which you've heard of, right? Yeah, yeah. So we had our whiskey club members try batch one. Holy shit, they were being very nice. Yeah, this is great. My son walked out of it now. He's uh he is a hot food kid. He goes, Dad, you can't release this. I go, What's wrong? He goes, This is like some one chip challenge. You cannot release this. It is very hot, and we realized it was hot coming out as well. So we realized batch one was the experimental one. Batch two, I think we hit perfect, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:59

So it's like it's not hitting the the lungs, it's not hitting the the trache, the the trach, it's not hitting the honey barrel, not the single bear, but the honey barrel.

Jamie Flanagan 34:09

Like I said, it was like a hint of of honey in it. This is like a hint of the red pepper, but it's it's sticking around because of the honey, it just stays, it just it just staying in there, but how pleasant is it?

SPEAKER_02 34:23

It is not overbearing. No, I haven't taken a second sip yet because it's still lingering now. Your second sip, what's crazy is because your first was ginormous. I don't know what you're talking about. This guy's out here drinking bottled water, whiskey like it's bottled water. No, yeah, yeah. So my water, I know subconsciously when we would sit around and drink this, we would just be talking, and you keep visiting the glass, and it just gets better and better and better. I was just at today, I was just at Wine Palace with Louie.

SPEAKER_03 34:55

Okay, and he absolutely loved it.

SPEAKER_02 34:58

And he's like, This is fun, this is really fun. Because people are like, there's one other company that did a heat heat whiskey. Ricky from TJ's market showed me the picture. I can't believe it. But he says, bro, it's no nowhere close to what this is. Like, you guys are pretty. I I can honestly say, even though I work for Detroit City distillery, I I I in my heart believe that we have perfected honey finish. I don't think there's anybody like Green River just came out with one, it's half the price. I'm gonna tell you right now, it's half the burden.

SPEAKER_00 35:31

For a hundred proof and the warmth that you get. I don't the the word heat has got a negative connotation. I like the word warmth. Yeah, you think Mr. Keiko at Joe, yeah, Joe, I love those guys. They like warmth, and I I kind of gravitated towards that for a hundred proof and the warmth that you get off of this, for a hundred proof, right, and it coats so nicely and it's not overbearing, you don't choke on it in any way, shape, or form, it just sits.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

It's comfortable. I don't eat hot food, guys. I don't like hot food, but I'll drink this.

Jamie Flanagan 36:04

Yeah, this is on the second sip.

SPEAKER_02 36:08

Yeah, but you notice that heat is not going if the heat goes to your chest, there's a problem, right? If it goes to the lower end of the drinky out of it, yeah, yeah, yeah. You got heartburned. Yeah, you can drink that. I mean that's what I take medicine for. Yeah, you can drink this and not get heartburned.

Jamie Flanagan 36:22

Yeah, yeah. This is yeah. You keep going back to it.

SPEAKER_00 36:29

Yeah, I do. I have to because it's great. Yeah, it's I'm not gonna you were use that word. I'm gonna use the word don't use the word, I'm gonna use the word extraordinary. Extraordinary.

SPEAKER_03 36:42

The phrase.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

No, that's a that's a tasty treat.

SPEAKER_03 36:48

And it's it's gonna be the same MSRP as the regular honey.

SPEAKER_00 36:51

Oh wow, okay. And when and you guys are working on releasing that the week before July 4th.

SPEAKER_03 36:58

Flipping the label over with the feds in the state right now, because it was the label was only for distro out of the TR in paperwork.

SPEAKER_00 37:07

Uh, but that'll be ready uh the week before we want to have tomorrow 4th of July. It's great, it's fun is amazing.

SPEAKER_02 37:12

When I tell people it's hot honey, they're like, What are you doing? And then they drink it, and they're like, You are doing some great stuff over there, you know. Like, this is crazy how I actually enjoy this.

Jamie Flanagan 37:23

But yeah, and so then, but then there's like a nice it's still bourbon, yeah. And there's it's very bourbon, bourbon, and there's a little sweet in it. Yep, from the front. It's not, but it's not candy sweet, it's not manufactured. It's finished, it's a finished sweet, it's not manufactured. That's the thing. A lot of times you get that, and it it you get a sweetness, it's like manufactured.

SPEAKER_02 37:44

Listen, I work, I learned at Garden Fresh Salsa that the word natural in the food industry is the worst word to use ever. Arsenic's natural, yeah. Yeah, well, everything's natural in its own state, you know.

Jamie Flanagan 38:00

You know, so how about some organic arsenic? Yeah, there we go.

SPEAKER_02 38:04

Yeah, there you go. Good for it. Still arsenic, but it's organic.

SPEAKER_00 38:08

Garden fresh had some amazing things, too. So right, yeah. The chips were amazing.

SPEAKER_02 38:13

Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's uh so yeah, this is this is coming out, so you'll have clean, you'll have the option of buying B's and the D's honey from our butcher. B's and the D's the standard blended bottle, which is a hunterproof, and it's around year-round. These come out now. They used to come out, they used to come out in the fall, but we realize that they're better for the spring, the single barrels. And the hot honey, it's its first distro release here by the fourth of the year. I

Restaurant Collabs And A Rye Standout

SPEAKER_02 38:40

am excited to indulge in myself. I'll tell you, it makes an amazing old-fashioned. I would imagine it would. Awesome. I have restaurants that are bringing it in to create hot chicken sandwich or hot dish. As a matter of fact, a big shout out to La Haciensi in Southwest Detroit.

SPEAKER_05 38:57

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 38:58

Mexican restaurant on Vernier there. It's a market and restaurant, family-owned. They've got mom, dad, the kids, they all run it. Leslie, the daughter, is the bar manager. She makes all the cocktails. She caught my attention because she was using our rye whiskey. Oh, another bottle on the floor. All right. Bottles on the floor. Let the bottles on the floor.

SPEAKER_05 39:19

Let the bottles on the floor.

SPEAKER_02 39:20

So um, not we've never had a product to bring into Latino Mexican restaurants. We don't have tequila, we don't have Moscow. And and last year I noticed that Leslie made a cocktail with our rye whiskey. It was called Chica Fresca, which it was their fresh strawberry syrup that they make in-house. Chocolate what's that uh chocolate dish. I forgot it, but it was a Mexican chocolate dish that was powdered, and she put it on the top of the drink with the rye whiskey. You guys, when I tell you, mole, mole. Oh, mole, mole, mole, mole. Yep. And she made this cocktail, it was phenomenal. It was with your rye whiskey. With the rye whiskey. I've never had the Latino community embrace our whiskey. Oh, she was at the factory this week, and they're gonna be the exclusive restaurant to create the cocktails for the hot honey release. Oh my god! And she told me secretly that the Latino community they love whiskey, but they like low proof. Oh, low proof whiskey. The hundred.

Jamie Flanagan 40:26

I think again, like the Irish. Yeah, I we want to make it, we're gonna start drinking in the morning, go all day. We gotta we gotta keep it real.

SPEAKER_02 40:32

Leslie is so excited to create these cocktails. So, what we're gonna do is I'm gonna take that cocktail menu, and when I sell into restaurants, it's gonna be the La Halle with La Haciente cocktails, and they have to name them in honor of them for creating the menu. Plus, we're gonna do a takeover where she and her bartenders take over the tasting room. Oh my goodness, release, and they're gonna come make tacos in the street. It's gonna be a real good time. You let us know when that happens. It's gonna be a fun party.

Jamie Flanagan 41:00

Yeah, yeah, we'll come set up and record in the corner.

SPEAKER_02 41:03

You guys had our rye whiskey, right? Yes, we have. Yes. So that's my favorite. Personally, people always have to know what's your favorite. The rye whiskey is absolutely my epic favorite. And we're the only 97.3 rye in the entire United States.

SPEAKER_00 41:19

93?

SPEAKER_02 41:20

97 malted bars. Okay. No corn. All right. No corn in there. All right. 70% of all your rye whiskeys labeled and sold in the United States are produced by MGP.

Jamie Flanagan 41:34

Yeah, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 41:35

Wow. There are some major Kentucky rye that they don't make themselves. They buy it, they bottle it, they sell it. Yeah, it's okay. It happens. No, it's it's fine. MGP makes incredible juice. They've got some really good stuff out of there. They can't. As a matter of fact, Greg Metz was a freaking rock star. Penelope. Penelope used to buy from MGP. Yeah, yeah. That's the first brand MGP bought. Because they source so much. I have to tell my son-in-law that was just a good thing. We are in the 10 percentile of rye producers in the United States that grow in the state and make their own rye from scratch. Ironfish being another one of their own rye. Oh my god, those guys got good rye. And uh, but we grow the same rye, we've grown the same rye strain, which is the bono strain, for the past 10 years out of Dexter, Michigan. There are three farmers in Dexter that grow our rye. So it's a different, it's a whole different ball game. I've had distillers from Kentucky, I won't say where they work, have told me personally when I bring when I go down there and I bring bottles in my parking lots like a drug dealer.

SPEAKER_05 42:46

She's gonna open up the trenches.

SPEAKER_02 42:49

Hey, hey, I've had people tell me in Kentucky that we possibly could be making the best ride in the United States. Ah and this ride, and one other rye, which is what is it? Uh it's us and Rittenhouse single barrel. Oh yep, Rye. My ears perked. What are the only two Ryze in America that have won the Platinum Award at the San Francisco World Spirit Competition? Wow. In a hundred plus years, only two Ryes have been awarded platinum. Going platinum! Rittenhouse and us. That's great. So we're very proud. I'm proud of you should be very proud. So yeah, guys, I'm feeling good. This was this was great. So the honey, the honey is on the table. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 43:33

So at the uh at the top end of this, we said about an hour? Yeah, about an hour and a half from it now.

SPEAKER_02 43:39

So yeah, we're going on an hour forty five here in a second. I have a washer at home that's throwing water all over the place and soap. So I know when I get home, I'm Gage, my my future son in law. I hope you got the problem solved.

Jamie Flanagan 43:53

Right, right. I just grabbed another or a filling barrel again. I was like, I just I just the hunterproof though. I just ah they're all pretty brilliant. Oh, you grabbed the hunter proof? I did.

SPEAKER_02 44:06

So out of the okay, between the I mean so of the four, Jamie, you went back to our first I thought you would now for the two for the blended.

Jamie Flanagan 44:14

There's a lot. There's a lot going in. I'm not gonna do more than one of the at a time of the the the hot honey. The hot honey. Yeah, the hot honey. Yeah, I'll I I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it all the way through. Right. And actually, I think the bourbon taste on that comes through nicest. On the hot honey. Yeah, but the linger and the linger is barrel. The linger is is is is is a lot. The linger's a lot. Right. So guys, the rye is yours. Oh my god. Enjoy it. All right. That's going up on dad's shelf.

SPEAKER_02 44:48

That's going on daddy's shelf. Make an old fashioned with that. You'll never put a bourbon in the bottom. I need a warm pig for my feet. But no, I I appreciate it. It's it's honey season for us. I'm glad we focused on honey. I did. I wanted to talk about the honey for sure. Yeah, for sure.

Jamie Flanagan 45:01

We didn't try the raw honey.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

We don't have to at this point.

Jamie Flanagan 45:04

At this point, it's a moot point at this point.

SPEAKER_02 45:06

It's uh yeah, it's it's it's dead. Plus, this is going back to going back on the shelf.

Jamie Flanagan 45:10

So going back on the shelf, yeah. So but uh so that's cool that you can buy like the honey. So where where are we coming in?

Pricing Pressure And Mackinac Island Plays

Jamie Flanagan 45:17

Because it was like 59, right?

SPEAKER_02 45:19

Yes, the standard blended bottle of the honey is 59. Single barrels are same price, but store owners raise them five dollars here and there. These guys' margins, single barrels, yeah. Unfortunately, the guys' margins in the state are oh my god, yeah, very much, and again, it's like and then party stores or gas stations are selling right. It's a yeah, party store owners are the the hot honey is gonna come in at the same price, too.

Jamie Flanagan 45:44

The 59. All right, so and that that's kind of like I'm a cheap SOB. I really am, right? I mean, my ceiling is is is 50. I gotta really, really want it if it's over 50 bucks. And the the economy all the time.

SPEAKER_02 45:58

The economy right now is forcing that. I'm gonna tell you.

Jamie Flanagan 46:00

Well, a loaf of bread ain't 10 cents anymore, right?

SPEAKER_02 46:02

Six no six months ago, six months, six months ago, up until uh eight months before the six-month mark, we were in the sweet spot at 49.99. We were at the sweet spot, gas went up to five dollars a gallon. Now the sweet spot's $34.99. There are people walking in the stores right now that's that you know, take vodka. Vac is vodka. It's a clear spirit, it's a neutral spirit. Yeah, yeah. But they would drink Tito's, they are going to to like pop off. I've I've I've I've been in stores where like, hey John, you Tito's. No, I'm gonna I'm gonna go with a little lesser, but for those that have standards, right?

SPEAKER_00 46:39

They'll stick with the Tito's, they'll stick with it.

Jamie Flanagan 46:41

Yeah, so and that's a like that's a standard, yeah. Where's the belt? I'm talking about my there it is. If Tito's is a standard, oh Jesus, Mary and Joseph, help us all. But yeah, so I did I'm gonna nip this one more time. Perfect. It's like back to the single barrel. It's like Colin, it's like don't drink cheap booze.

SPEAKER_00 47:02

No, stay away from the sombrero.

Jamie Flanagan 47:04

If it yeah, if you're if you're if you're if your bottle's coming with a party hat, you're probably in trouble. I tell people all that.

SPEAKER_02 47:11

I tell people that a lot. Like if you're if your bottle's gorgeous, there's a good chance the juice is shit.

Jamie Flanagan 47:19

Oh, the the lusty, lusty claw. Let's see, we got a lot of this shit laying around.

SPEAKER_02 47:23

How do we sell it? Let's put it in a sparkling bottle with a sombrero on it. August is gonna hate me for this.

SPEAKER_00 47:29

Limited, he's gonna hate me for this. Would you like some Melort?

SPEAKER_02 47:33

Listen, I they got a you know they got a candy out now? Melort candy? It's a candy. They had a whiskey. Did you have I had I I made the mistake in saying it the first 30 seconds it tasted like a toe, and that got into a whole different conversation for me. Why do you know what a toe to me? It tasted like a toe to you. I'm like, ooh, it happened, it was an accident. I turned the toe, went in. It was all right.

Jamie Flanagan 47:59

College was weird, all right.

SPEAKER_02 48:01

Forget it. There's a malort candy out there. Listen, there's a bar, uh, Jesse at the Pink Pony. Uh is it the pink pony? Yeah, Jesse would do a barrel age finish malort, different flavor every month because he was just a crazy Mackinac Island guy. Like, and people would come in to try what's the flavored malort? No, there was that, and then there was the wicked sister in Sault Ste. Marie, they do kind of different flavored malorts too.

SPEAKER_00 48:26

So I'm I'm I'm going to Mackinac Island for the 4th of July this year. Okay, perfect. All right. Will I be able to find the hot honey up there?

SPEAKER_02 48:33

Maybe not right away. Right, okay. I got some places that are interesting. But they're doing the other honeys. They got some. Where would I want to go to? Because you were just there, right? Right? Where did you visit? Because I would like to visit where you were. If you go to the grand, they're featuring the honey bourbon. Oh, it's a great meeting there. You get in there, it's like, okay. Tom, the beverage manager, showed him everything. Iron Fish, our friends at Ironfish actually uh bottle their single barrel Mackinac Island bourbon and their rye whiskey. All right. So I showed him everything. And he goes, What would you want in here? I go, to tell you the truth, I pulled the bourbon and the rye back. I said, Too much competition. I'll get lost. Yeah. He said, Yeah, um whiskey or vodka's vodka. We do have a horseradish vodka that was great. You were on bloody marriage.

SPEAKER_00 49:19

Was it channel four or channel two?

SPEAKER_02 49:21

We were on Fox Two. Fox Two, okay. So I I kept the horseradish forward and I kept the honey forward. I go, I got absolutely no competition in your seven liquor licenses you have here at the Grand with this. He goes, That's exactly what I want.

SPEAKER_00 49:36

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 49:37

So I brought in the honey.

SPEAKER_00 49:38

I can't wait to honey burrow there.

SPEAKER_02 49:40

Now the Iroquois makes a killer bloody merry with our uh horseradish. Okay. And up until corporate bought a bunch of makers bottles or barrels, the rye whiskey, Iroquois was our number one rye whiskey selling account in the state, and they're only open five months. So but that's going to volumes. They they bought it in the Mite Makers, that's fine. I'm cool, but they're killing horseradish. Now, Pink Pony, the household fashion, butcher's cupboard. You're gonna love it. Now get up to mission point. Mission point, their 250th anniversary centennial cocktail was going to be makers. Knocked them out. Oh, nice, knocked them out. Right on. Uh Liz, the owner, was like, you know what? We were drinking at the Mustang, we were having dinner, we're just talking. She goes, you know what, Dante? You know what? I already have makers in there. And she's like, you know what? The word Mackinac Island, we should be pushing Michigan forward. And she goes, Your butcher's is awesome. You got it. I'm like, oh, spit out my water. I'm like, spit out my makers. Cheers! That's an amazing cocktail. One of the the COO, I got a I got a text from the beverage manager. The COO absolutely loves that cocktail. I'm like, Well, that's a good, that's a good thing. But no, those are some places on Mackinac you can enjoy our spirits. Do you mix cocktails yourself? I play one on I play a bartender on TV.

Jamie Flanagan 51:01

You play the bartender on TV with you? Yeah, right. So when you make an old fashioned, make me an old fashioned. And you can just

Old Fashioned Method And Whiskey Rules

Jamie Flanagan 51:07

walk through.

SPEAKER_02 51:08

I make it. I don't know. Do you use a jigger or do you eyeball it?

Jamie Flanagan 51:12

What? You make it in a tin or or a do you use a jigger or do you eyeball it? I use a jigger. All right. So what do you what do you got? Make me uh make me an old dash.

SPEAKER_02 51:21

Spending on the glass, two to three ounce pour. Okay. Okay. I do the bourbon first. All right. I do two dashes. Heavy, two heavy dashes of Angostora. All right. I do one regular regular Angostore bitters. I do one heavy dash of orange bitters.

SPEAKER_05 51:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 51:35

All right. And then I express the orange peel in there.

SPEAKER_05 51:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 51:39

I run it around the rim. And then I run that orange peel around the the uh halfway around the glass. All right. Because when you touch that glass, I want the orange expression on your fingers. Nice. If I make it in the tin, I spoon 25 times right.

Jamie Flanagan 51:55

I'm 20. I'm 20. I'm 25 and 25. Now I'm like OCD. I count one, two, three, four, five, six, and then.

SPEAKER_02 52:04

Oh, all right. Your the heat from your hand will pull away from the what the spin. You have to put it on the top of the tin. You'll notice 25 right, 25 left, the outside of your tin is going to chill. Sure. It's going to get cold. You get your screen, I double screen it. I've got my cube or my ball, whatever ice is available, but I prefer a cube and a ball. You like the cube. I double strain right into the cocktail. Then I do the orange expression around the glass boom. Absolutely no cherry in the old fashioned cherry. That was added. That was added in the 70s. Yeah. Yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 52:39

I like I was on me some luxe stories. I like the, I like the I like the I like the cherry. Yeah, I can eat a peach all day, Matt. Eat those all day.

SPEAKER_02 52:52

The maraschino cherry or the uh Luxardo's Amaretto $7,000 jar of cherry. It was a market. It was a market boy. Come on.

Jamie Flanagan 53:02

No, here's the thing. I go into Kroger, right? I go, I usually drive by the uh dented meat shelf, right? Dented meat shelf. Right. The the the and there was like all these Luxardo jars on the dented meat shelf for like half a third of the price. This guy went and grabbed an extra cart. He did. I bought 10 jars of Luxardo cherry.

SPEAKER_02 53:25

Like that customer you see at 10 and 3, 4 at a time in a per cocktail. They were nine bucks a piece. Oh god, I I probably would grab see. See if I don't eat them. I would that's black market pricing.

Jamie Flanagan 53:38

I'm like, holy shit. I'm like, what the fuck? I'm like, who in here is drinking?

SPEAKER_02 53:43

I'm like, did you ever see the big spaghetti can of those? Oh yeah. You know those it was a hundred dollars at one point. You know those expire, right? They do not expire.

SPEAKER_03 53:54

Not all that sugar.

Jamie Flanagan 53:57

They're they're they're gonna shell the neighborhood to get through all the time. Guys, I'm taking one of these coasters for my neighbor. Oh, you can take you can take more than one, more than one. Yeah, so yeah, no, we got we got plenty here in the man cave. We got plenty. We don't we go through the cherries here in the man cave. I'll end that

Collecting History And Closing Toast

Jamie Flanagan 54:13

on this.

SPEAKER_02 54:13

Yeah, Easter Market has history, and we love our neighbors and we we love the history of Easter market.

Jamie Flanagan 54:18

Oh my god, I love it.

SPEAKER_02 54:19

And uh, I found on Mark, I was I got in the in the black hole, which is known as Facebook Marketplace the other day. Um I found a 1942 original steel keg from Ian B Brewing. Nice with the original brass pump tap on it. Wow.

SPEAKER_05 54:40

I was really hoping, but I have that in my man cave now, and I sent it to JP and he's like, Oh man, I'm like, I already bought it. He's like, how much you want for it, JP? How much you want, JP?

SPEAKER_02 54:54

Like he's like, that's what it's like.

Jamie Flanagan 54:55

Uh twice my Christmas bonus and work.

SPEAKER_02 54:58

Well, I thought I had a gentleman come up to me a couple weeks ago in in in uh total wine tasting, and he goes, Hey, you guys are in the old Goebbels factory. He goes, Yeah, I've got a 24 pack from 1958 unopened. Why from his father, Jesus and why lots of questions. So the so the the dare was who's drinking the factory. Well, you know, JP, who is the biochemist, said you will all get listeria if you drink this beer. Like, so I took the is that a good thing? I don't know, but no, he said you'll all get botulism.

Jamie Flanagan 55:34

I saw that listeria, that movie Java Bowie was in it, right?

SPEAKER_02 55:38

I go that's like a scene from similar babies we got. Does whiskey kill botulism? Because we're good, right? We'll just chase it with whiskey and we'll just cure it. We'll run it away. But no, yeah. So with that said, I mean, this was great. I appreciate you guys asking me to come on. This was fun, and I'm glad people will be able to see the honey, the honey perspective of what we do with the history and and how the honey bourbon came along. Dante, you are welcome back anytime. Yeah, as things develop, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 56:06

You know, we can do again. We've done it live at the factory, we've done it live in the tasting room. Anytime, anytime we will come and we will we'd like to party.

SPEAKER_00 56:16

Have you got nowhere to go on a Monday night? Because that's typically when we do record, is on Mondays. If you have got nothing to do, you just come in and hang out with us.

SPEAKER_02 56:23

That'd be great. I appreciate it. No, I'll see. I'll talk to JP. Maybe we'll get him in here. Yeah, we're going to love how it all started. The Palacious. Yeah, we'll leave stores some stories for the future. Yes, please. Podcast your voice.

SPEAKER_00 56:34

Save it for the show. Shecky.

Jamie Flanagan 56:36

That's it. All right. So, like, subscribe, leave a comment, do all the podcast things in all the podcast places. This is uh Jamie Flanagan. Oh, that's Matt Fox.

SPEAKER_02 56:47

You know, and I'm the whiskey McDagel.

Jamie Flanagan 56:50

I'm I'm serious. I can put that on a t shirt. I really can. Yeah, and uh so thank you, everybody. Appreciate you being here with us. Uh do it all everybody. Thanks, Dante. Cheers, taste everything. Ah, taste everything. I love that. That's that's going on a shirt.