E194 Jenna Elie

This meets guest is Jenna Eli, who joins us from Atlanta, Georgia. Jenna jumped into the whiskey industry about eight years ago and started Whiskey a Go Girl. Since that time, Jenna has been featured in film, worked with spirit brands around the globe, and judged cocktail and spirit's competitions. We had a great time talking with Jenna about how she initially got into Whiskey when her husband had purchased the bar program off of a bar that was closing down.

After dealing with a number of crates of alcohol and finding a place for the mall, Jenna tried a dram of a Kallen 18 year old and she was hooked. This led to Jenna starting an Instagram page. Jenna would talk about Whiskey and the page evolved over time and turned into a career. We also discuss about what goes into and the challenges of judging out whiskey tasting as well as we cover some of Jenna's personal favorite whiskeys.

Make sure you check out our website, whiskeyagogirl.com, or you can find Jenna on Instagram at whiskeyagogirl or as always check the show notes for all the links. Enjoy the show. We're back to another episode of the industry podcast. My name is Kip.

This is Dan. How are you doing? Doing very well. Thanks.

Doing quite well. Great. Yeah. And yourself, how did you go with your house?

The weekends at the bars? I was picking up a little bit, picking up a little bit. So hopefully we'll have a couple of slow months, but hopefully things are turning around. Yeah, that's a nice spring weather.

It's actually pretty warm, actually, this spring. Like usually we get used to some sort of bizarre snowfall, but if I'm being perfectly honest, it helps with the least sort of the playoffs now. So that one's bring down your bars from the last comments from the last comment. Well, actually, I would have just come live today, right?

So well, it's still got time. We'll find out by Tuesday. You're going to find out if I'm more bar ourselves. Still got time.

Yeah. So those bars are, if you are in the kitchen or want to do area, should have run downtown, Kitchener, speak easy. That should run bar to find out everything that's going on there. And then of course, Babylon Sisters, up town, Waterloo at Babylon Sisters bar.

If you want to see what's going on at that location, if you're in the area, come visit us. Always lots of fun stuff going on. DJs, live music, speed dating, or less. Yeah, just follow the pages and you'll figure it out.

Nice. And for Babylon, I know there's a patio there. It's a patio open yet? We have not got the go ahead from the city.

Technically, our patio is on a city road. So the alleyway is back behind the bar, which is pretty cool, actually. Yeah. So I work back there.

It's great when we are allowed to open it, but we can't do it until they say so. Well, we know city tends to work. Yeah. They're always working with the utmost speed.

Yeah, I can share everyone. And efficiency. That's our game. That's the motto.

I don't know. Let's put this to our steering committee and then we'll decide. Exactly. Definitely.

Come visit us. Hopefully that patio is going to be opened by the end of the month. So it comes to end, of course, sugar, I'm being speak easy. No patio there.

Yeah. But great cocktails. So come visit us when you're in the area. Should also mention that if you are a fan of the show, the best way to support us is to subscribe or follow, rate and review, depending on what platform you listen to us on.

And if you want to be a guest on the show, the best way to get a hold of us is info at the industrypodcast.club or you can DM us on the Instagram at the industrypodcast. That can is the man responsible for all the artwork on the Instagram page. Does a terrific job. That's at za cana.co to check out all the great work he's doing and to hit him up for all of your graphic arts needs.

And as always, I do have all the notes in the show notes, all the links that we talk about during the episode. All right. Great. Well, enough about us.

Let's get to our guest today. We have Jenna Eli with us from Atlanta, Georgia. How are you, Jenna? I'm Pichy.

How are you? Nice reference. Thanks for having me. Thank you for inviting me.

I feel quite special to be here. So I appreciate it. We actually haven't had too many people from I think we maybe have one previous guest from Atlanta. That was years ago.

I can't even remember who it was now. So we're excited to have you. So let's talk a little bit about what you do. Why don't you just tell us?

That'll be easier than me trying to explain it for you. I'm going to go out and let him say you know better what you do than I do. I mean, half the time I'm doing, but we probably be pretty equal in that. So I have a, I guess it's a consultancy kind of business called Let's Give a Girl that I've had for eight years now when I jumped in Twiski.

And then I also am the Eastern brand development manager for a small boutique import company called Shand Import based out in California. And so I came on in August from my previous position as a national ambassador for the Scott and Mott Wissie Society of America. It was for about five years and jumped into this and we import, you know, our biggest kind of family tree would be Duncan Taylor's Notch Wissie if you know that kind of spreads wide to blended molds to you know single cast, because single molds. And some mezcal, tequila, konyaks, lots of gins, vodka, all kinds of stuff.

So yeah, that's an initial. And so when you said that you like jumped into whiskey, like exactly how do you get into whiskey like as a profession? That is a great question. And I just truly believe that I got very lucky.

And I am just very grateful that it happened in the time in my life that it did. So yeah, about eight years ago, my husband, we were living in Los Angeles at the time and my husband's attached to artists and he would frequent the bar downstairs from his tattoo studio. He made really good friends with the bartender there and bar manager. He's can make best friends.

He has everyone's best friend. So he made really good friends with them and they were closing down the bar. And my husband ended up buying off the bar program for like heneys on the dollar. They were just like trying to get rid of it.

And so when I he showed up in our tiny little house in Los Angeles with a bunch of crates full of booze. And I was like, bro, what are we going to do with it? I don't even really drink. I would have some wine or like a beer Christmas and I'm like, that's like the extent of it.

And it was like, what the hell are we going to do with whiskey? And I think it was mostly whiskey, but there was like, I think there's some ever clear in there that we still have been just collecting dust in our cocktail cabinet. But it was just kind of like a wide variety of things that he brought home. And I was kind of pissed about it, to be honest, because I didn't want it.

I was not going to drink it. I'd have to dust it, find a place to put it. And then one night, he just reminded me that it was actually Christmas that he was just drinking McCallen 18. And it was like an 80s McCallen 18.

That was part of that collection. And I was the year stuff. And I was like, it tasted it. And I did.

And it literally changed my life, like changed my life. I was like, what is happening? Why do I feel this way? I'm never my palette.

My at the time, I didn't even know the word palette, you know, I'm tasting things I never tasted before. And I feel this very strange way. And this is a whiskey because I've had whiskey before and it doesn't taste like this, you know, and it just I was just totally just caught up guard and enamored with it. And I was like, I gotta know more about this.

Like, but I need to know why I'm feeling this way. And I'm enjoying this so much. And so long story short, I started an Instagram page because at the time I was running a vintage resale business that I ran strictly through Instagram. And so I knew that there was community there.

And I knew that whether it was I was getting into whiskey or cars or, you know, cooking, whatever the case is, like, I knew I could find community. And so I started with Gago Girl. And I just started kind of going through the things that he brought home and posting about it and asking questions because I didn't know what whiskey was made up like literally could tell you nothing. I just knew that I tasted this thing.

And it was fantastic. And it just totally blew my mind. And so I started that and it just kind of very quickly evolved and kind of snowballed. And I had opportunities to meet some really incredible humans in the industry who, you know, guided me, assisted me, you know, helped me in so many ways, inspired me in so many ways.

And the rest of these three. And that's crazy. So literally just from starting an Instagram page, you ended up with all these other crazy positions like the explainer ambassador position again. Yeah.

So I was a national ambassador for the Scott and Mollesky Society of America. So if for those who aren't familiar with this got you on whiskey society, it's essentially the world's largest whiskey club, but they're also an independent bottler. And so they bottle whiskey from over 250 gosh, they're probably like at 350 now 350 different distilleries around the world. And then they bottle those in single cast form.

So no water, no chumpletration, no even 50 none of that just whiskey. And so I jumped on with them also funny story because of Instagram. So the gentleman that's been D direct he's the director over there. And he and I he lived in Chicago.

I lived in Los Angeles at the time. And we would nerd out over our love of Brooke Lottie. That is like, like, we're gonna be my whiskey baby like Brooke Lottie just I think that was the one distillery that really just kind of made my reach go like really far as to like what I wanted to know about whiskey. And so we would kind of nerd out about Brooke Lottie and we had an opportunity to meet in Vegas from like a whiskey conference kind of thing.

And he like interviewed me on the spot and was like, we want you to come on board. And I was like, what do you mean? He's like to do what? I have no idea what I'm saying, you know?

And I was with them on offer. Yeah, about five years and loved loved it so much and learned so much. And I am very grateful to Ben over asking them all the clients for, you know, interviewing me right there in Vegas a little hungover. So what is it that you did do as a ambassador?

Like what were your responsibilities? Yeah, so responsibilities were, I mean, in that position, you wear many hats from, you know, kind of back and things like processing orders, talking with members, you know, on that kind of side, it was very education forward. So we would do a lot of online tastings because with the special whiskey society, these bottles aren't in stores. I think in Canada, you guys have Kensington Wine Market, I think is the only place and outside of the UK that you can actually buy bottles in a shop, you still have to be a member.

So here in the US, the only way you can obtain these bottles is the other website. So we do a lot of online, you know, master classes and tastings, and we would also do in-person tastings in select cities throughout the country. So we'd kind of head up that and the whole kind of education side of the business. And it was, yeah, it was just about trying to get the word out to as many people as possible on this kind of world of single cast whiskey.

And that's really what I cut my teeth on and really learning about the world of whiskey because you have to know a little bit of everything about over 250 different distilleries, you know, all from so other than a lot there. So when you say when you got that job, you were self-taught enough that you were pretty strong with your knowledge of whiskey and that's how you got the position or like, did multiplication come out to your position? Yeah, so it kind of evolved into that. In the beginning, when I first jumped on board with them, I was part-time and because I saw homeschooling my kid at the time, and so I was part-time.

And you know, it just kind of evolved into a full-time position and then the role kind of changed. But at the time when I jumped on, I was like three years into whiskey, maybe. And you know, I just threw myself in. I just wanted to know as much about as every aspect of whiskey that I could just get my hands on.

And so I did have a really good knowledge base. But being put into that position to have to know about all of these different distilleries, you know, it just kind of forces you on the fast track in a way. I just learned about distilleries I've never heard of about techniques I've never heard of, just all sorts of things. And I'm very grateful for my time there.

It taught me a lot. So previous to your getting into whiskey, is that would you describe yourself as a type of person who gets immersed in something like this regularly? Like if you find it interesting, you just sort of go all the way with it? Yes, I have like that kind of obsessive behavior.

I didn't want to diagnose it. So I was just like, no, I don't know. I do it with food too. Like I taste something that's really fantastic.

Like I'll just eat it until I'm sick of it. Because that's just kind of who I am in that way. But prior to getting into whiskey, I was home schooling our kid. And before that, I wanted to be in the music business when I was like, you know, in high school, I was like, I got an internship at 14 actually here in Atlanta.

And I was like, this is what I'm going to do. Like I'm going to be on a bus full of much stinky dudes, like going around the world, like managing these tours. That was really what I wanted to do. And I was obsessed with it.

And I did literally anything and everything I could possibly do to get 10 steps ahead of everyone else. Gradually high school got an internship with Sony record dot Los Angeles, took the tiny car and went out. And my first night there, all my shit and car were stolen. But yeah, once I like really find something that I love and you know, something that I'm really interested in, I'm just like, I go 10,000 percent in.

Right. So basically the home schooling was just you drinking whiskey with your daughter? It was very separate. I think it's very separate.

But you know, once you know, she was getting into going into middle school, we were like, okay, it's time to get back into public school setting. And then COVID hit and she came back to school, which was great. You already know how to do it. So but that's when I jumped back on with S and W.S.

full time was right. Literally like two days before Tom Hanks said he had COVID and the world went to shit. Right. So what sparked the move back to Atlanta?

A couple of things. So we were on Los Angeles for about 13 years and we just got tired of it. You know, it's just it's expensive and it's busy and like I grew up in the South and like, you know, played in the dirt as a kid and playing in the woods. And like, I just missed that aspect of it.

My husband was raised out in California and very successful, you know, artist out in California. So we just were just ready to kind of make a change after COVID and all families over here on the East Coast and we were the only ones out there. So it's also nice that both of you have jobs that you can kind of do anyway, right? So yes, it is.

It is really cool. He gets to travel all over the world, you know, to tattoo people. And sometimes I'm as lucky as he is to travel all over the world's whiskey. So it's a pretty cool.

It's a pretty cool gig. So what in Atlanta area are there any cool distilleries that maybe the average person doesn't live in Georgia wouldn't know about? Yeah, that's a good question. So for kind of the first, we've only been back here for about two years and we're just now starting to kind of explore what's here.

And the reason for that is because for the last two years, my husband was commuting between Atlanta and Los Angeles every two weeks. So yeah, so he saw how to client base out there kind of backed up from COVID because in state of California, as a tattoo artist, he wasn't able to work like you're not leaving your house, you're not touching anyone, you know, you know, you kind of had a backlog. So he was commuting every two weeks back and forth from Atlanta to LA. So, you know, I was like kind of just wanting to like trying to get settled, you know, get a kid in school, that sort of thing.

But just in December, we are finally here together. Oh, nice. Yeah, and like explore things. But I know that there are a couple distilleries here that I actually haven't even been to.

Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. You haven't been back that long. So, yeah.

What about what about what about out in California? Are there some of your favorites from Los Angeles area? Oh, gosh, out there in Los Angeles. I'm trying to think if I even I mean, there are some distilleries out there.

It's a little different out in California. There's one called Los Angeles, it's stilling or Los Angeles distillery company. They do it's like a really kind of small, tiny distillery. They do some kind of old things.

And God, what is that one up in there's one up in Oxnard, again, really kind of small operation. But you don't have distilleries out in California, like at least in Los Angeles, like you do, lucky or, you know, it's weird here because like craft distilleries have really sort of exploded in our area right here. Like for a long time, it was just new craft breweries opening everywhere, right? And then I think the market got over saturated.

And now people are starting to open up a lot of distilleries. But one thing I find is much like a lot of the craft breweries, when a lot of them are opening all over the place, it's very hard to get your product to stand out from what other people are doing. So what are you being a more of an expert on? I am like, what are some of the characteristics of a great whiskey that make like from a smaller distillery that would allow it to stand out in like a exploding market?

I mean, it's so hard to answer that question because I feel like whiskey is something so different for everyone, right? And I never want to be like, like I can send a lot of whiskey, like just for review or for opinions or things like that. And there are a lot of these that I end up not kind of talking about because they don't suit my palate. And I never want to like be like, this is shit.

Don't worry. Because that could be your favorite whiskey. Right. So maybe this is a better question than than like saying that.

I give you, is it always like, okay, this could be for someone's palate or have you actually had one where you're like, this is just poorly made liquor? Yeah, I mean, they're definitely whiskies. I believe that are poorly made. And yes, I definitely find those like for me personally, like I like to like textures really important to me in a whiskey.

So I don't like whiskies that are like really thin on the palate. And so I like, you know, a lot of kind of like heavy oils and texture and whiskey. And I like kind of have this little checklist in my head to, you know, make a whiskey complete for me. You know, the nose has to be, you know, something that I want to keep my, my nose in the glass for longer than, you know, five seconds.

If my nose is in there for, you know, anything past five seconds, I'm like, okay, okay, I'm into this, you know, and then when you taste it, it's kind of that same thing like, okay, I've tasted this. And if it's kind of sparking, you know, my brain to kind of jump over the place like, what is it that I'm tasting? Like, I'm getting a little bit of this. But then there's this, like, if I'm having that kind of conversation in my head, then I'm like intrigued, right?

So I kind of just, and then the finish, like, is the finish kind of like, is everything fantastic? I just have a short finish. Like, that's a great whiskey to me. So I just kind of go through this little checklist in my head to make it feel like a complete whiskey.

And but it's like my own thing, right? And everybody's palette is different, right? Like that is, like, I do teach a lot of, I used to teach more whiskey courses back in the day, but now I'm teaching more wine stuff. But that's what I always tell people is like, everybody just because I like it doesn't mean you're gonna like it and it's okay to like something that I don't like as well.

Like, you know, everyone's palette is different. And you can also recognize that something's good if it is not two years specific palette. Like this is well, well crafted, just not for me. Absolutely.

I completely agree. So like, for me, I lean more into scotch and Irish, those are like, totally my wheelhouse. My husband is a bourbon head like through and through. And like, he's old foresters biggest fan.

And that's good whiskey. But like, for me, like, is it good whiskey? Yes, is it for me? Right?

Well, like, drinking, like if someone's in glass, I'm going to drink it? Yes, absolutely. And I kind of had a kind of foot in mouth moment with old forester. Gosh, like seven years ago, I was judging whiskey of the world in Texas and we get there and they do this kind of like, you know, pretty little party thing the night before and the judges get together.

And we did like a blind kind of flight just to kind of see what the process was going to be like and things like that. And so there was like five different whiskeys and we had to judge them all and oddly enough, the whiskey that I chose as a mess was old forester. And I was like, like, you know, and going into a blind, it totally just kind of changes your perspective on things too, right? I think it's a great whiskey.

It's a very well crafted whiskey. But it's not what I would like go to pour, you know, on any given night, like by choice. Right. I always look at like, especially at the price point that old foresters at is it's a great table whiskey, you know what I mean?

Like, it's like an every day whiskey, like, because it's totally affordable. Yeah. What do you wind up doing with all the bottles you don't want to drink? Because I'm going to get to end up with quite the large volume of booze over time.

Yes. There's a lot of whiskey in this house. There's a lot right behind your head. There's a lot of friends who like this too.

So like, everything like I'm of the school that if it comes in this house, I want to open it, I want to taste it and I want to share it. And we were lucky that we do have a lot of friends who like the tea. So if maybe it's something that doesn't see my palate and they like it, it's theirs. They can take it.

Yeah. So we are we are of the school of I mean, we don't waste anything. There's not there's actually been one whiskey ever that I spit out because I could not actually drink it. It is from a pretty famous distillery.

I will not name it. I will not do it. But so everyone that comes over and like, taste doesn't see if you like it. And if you like it, you have it.

For me, and this might just be a pal thing too. But like the ones that I reject are like the ones that are just way too hot. It doesn't need to be overpowering with the liquor. You know what I mean?

Like I want to be able to taste all the complexity of the spirit. And it's really hard to put water in it and that will help. But if the alcohol content is overpowering and that's all you're tasting into is burning when it's going down. And I just find it really takes away for me.

But I also love that. So what's so easy to go about just like proof for ABB, which I find so fascinating in when I was working for SNWS, we would have everything with that cash drink. And so sometimes you have with geez coming at 52.7 and then you have some at 67.7. You're like, I'm going to drink this.

It's going to like put here. I'm going to change. You know, the thing is going to like really be intense. And sometimes you'll have whiskey at such a high ABB.

And you're like, wait, where is like the burn? Like this is like silken butter in your mouth. Like this doesn't make sense. You know, and then there'll be times that we'll sit and have a whiskey at night.

And it's a 52% whiskey. And I'm like, this is so hot. Like I have to put some water in this, you know. So it's your palate is such a just fantastic magical little thing that, you know, some days it could be working great and everything tastes great.

And some days you can taste your favorite whiskey and it'll taste like shit, you know. And I just I find that so fascinating that. I think I was so super crazy interesting as well, not only because everyone's different, but also how yours, your own palate develops over time, right? Like you started like in one thing and then a couple years later you'd be like, I would never drink like not that it's bad now, it was just something you would never choose to drink anymore because your palate has changed.

And now you're into something different. Right. Yeah. It's I remember when I was like very early into my whiskey kind of journey.

One of the bottles that was in that collection that my husband was home was a kill home in Mocier Bay. And I was like, okay, like cool bottle. Like I don't know anything about this. I'm gonna taste it.

And I taste it. And I was like, Oh my God, like, why would anyone want to drink this? You know, yeah, Petey just like, I was like, this is not for me. But I also have this like mentality where I was like, look, if I'm going to want to be in this industry in some capacity, if I want to know everything there is to know about with me, I need to learn to drink this, right?

I need to learn to love it, essentially. And so like there are many times I would be like vacuuming our house and I would see that fricking bottle out. And I would just take us way right out of the bottle, I'd suffer as I'm vacuuming. Like God, it's still terrible.

And it wasn't until this was like maybe 2018, 2017, 2018 that Brooke Lottie used to do these tastings called micro provenance tastings where they would basically send like samples out of, you know, certain whiskies that they they call like their micro provenance series. And I remember the first time I ever got that was like, this is the coolest thing ever. I can't believe they sent this to me and I get to sit here and listen to Adam Pan at talk about these whiskies. I was like, Oh my gosh, like, you know, at my kitchen table, totally out.

And one of the whiskies and this was an optimal more so all Peaded whiskies and I was like, I'm not gonna like any of these like this is not, but I'm gonna do it because like, that's a fucking slap in the head with Pete. What this is the cool part is that there was an optimal and a reef salt task that I tasted and I take it was like that going back to that moment with that McCallenate team blew my mind. I was like, it's one of the most beautiful things I've ever tasted in my life. Like it was the most just like beautifully it was like a work of art.

Like it was so beautifully complex and that Pete was just like it wasn't aggressive. It was just this like elegant weaving of Pete through all of these layers of flavor. And I was like, I love Pete now. Yeah.

It's like a light switch just went off and you just got it, right? Like, but sometimes it takes somebody who's using it in a more subtle fashion and then you can kind of get like a like a little fog later, right? It's just like, okay, now I get it. Like, and you know, I remember years ago, when I was I letting they were all drinking the furaway and I tasted it.

I was like, y'all are mental. Like, I can't suffer and do this yourself. And you know, long story short, now I've Peaded Whisky is like, I love Peaded Whisky. I think there's so much wants and you can just dig into those like profiles for hours and it's just, they're so fun to explore and to drink.

And I love them. And it's not necessarily like an everyday whiskey, but it's kind of like when you're in the mood for Pete, that's what I find for me. It's like, you know, I might not choose to drink it every day, but like when I'm in the mood for it, I love it. And you know, there's one way that you could sort of introduce yourself to it because they're using a lot of Peaded Whisky and cocktails now.

Are you aware of this? Yeah, I was not. Yeah, it's a new thing that it's very popular right now. But a lot of people don't know what the fuck they're doing when they're making cocktails.

So yes, the best thing you could probably do is talk to our friend that civil pours because they are making pre crafted cocktails in bottles and kegs. Oh, really? What kind of flavors are they making? Well, they have a whiskey sour, they have an old fashioned Margarita, a Jalapeno Margarita, the Cosmopolitan is out now espresso martini, of course, several different flavors.

And this is great if you're at a high volume cocktail bar as well, because you can do them right out of a 20 liter keg. Like if you're pumping out cocktails at a high volume bar, you know, you've already got your signature cocktails. So why not have the expert team of bartenders from civil liberties, the top ranked Canadian bar and 50 best bars this year, their expert team making these cocktails for you, pre-bottled or pre-keg, and you can pop them out that way. They're priced in a way that you're not going to screw up your margins because you can mark them up still, sell them at a reasonable price.

And it's all sustainably produced. So they're reusing orange peels, avocado pits, et cetera, et cetera. And of course, the kegs save on many bottles. So and these also available, you know, for special occasion permits and one other question.

Yeah, you can just you can get a case right to your heads right now, which is probably a good idea because I've tasted cocktails you've made and you don't know what the fuck you've made. That's right. Mine are 100% booze. Yeah.

These are expertly crafted pre-bottled pre-keg. And if you want to add this to your bar or to your home or for a party or whatever, you just want to reach out to our friends at civilpours sales at civilpours.com is the email address to get a hold of them. And it's a wide array of products and they're constantly coming up with new stuff. They have their own distillery right there in Toronto.

I've used these products in my bars, the espresso martini is fantastic. All you have to do is pour it into a shaker or a stirring glass, depending on which cocktail it is and fire it right off into the glass, into your patrons' mouths and their money into your till. Give me one more reminder of what the various concoctions are at the end of the hill. Yeah.

So espresso martini, old fashioned margarita, jalapeno margarita. They have whiskey sour and of course the cosmopolitan is the new one. Fancy. And once again, what kind of vessel do they deliver?

It's 750 millibottles or 20 liter kegs, your choice. Sales at civilpours.com, reach out today. Perfect. I'll put a link to that in the show notes.

Okay, great. Getting back to you Jenna. I'm sort of interested in the judging that you do, because we're talking about this whole thing about how it is kind of difficult to judge a whiskey when everyone's pals different. So like when you actually are forced to do it for a competition, how do you approach that?

Well, I just approach like, I don't know, everything's a blank slate, right? Because you're going completely blind. And so you literally have no idea what it is you're drinking. So you're just relying on your nose and your palate.

I like to also rely on how the whiskey kind of makes me feel in a way, like when I drink it or when I taste it, because you're not drinking 60 plus samples in a day, but you know, like, is it like, are you becoming curious? Are you are you just like, okay, this is like, all right, I just want to spit it out. Or it's your mind kind of going all over the place of, well, where is this from? Maybe I can figure out where this is from.

Like, is this a Scotch whiskey? Is this a, you know, like, it's, it's all of those things that I kind of those, that's at least what I look for. So knows of how it obviously have to be good for me. But what does that whiskey kind of making me feel?

That's really how I approach all whiskey, even if I know exactly where they're coming from and how they're made. And you know, I give every whiskey a fair chance. Yeah, you definitely don't seem like a really critical person. So do you find it difficult to do?

No, and I think great about these competitions is, you know, you're having so many different people from all different walks of life. You're having, you know, career incredibly talented, like, you know, award winning mixologist and partenders who are judging, you're having people, you know, who just happen to really like whiskey, you're having, you know, people on just all different sides of the industry kind of come together and give their input, which, you know, I think is probably the fairest way to do it, right? Like, the stuff completely blind and you're getting people, you know, who's, you know, who come from all different kind of aspects of the industry. And yeah, I think that's a, I think that's a pretty cool thing.

Like, if I tasted a whiskey and it made me get emotional and I thought, you know, tasted absolutely delicious, and then you told me some guy made it as a bathtub, I'd be like, hell yeah, like, let's get back, I would have gone the whole time. And yeah, that's, that's how at least I approach just whiskey in general. I think it's a very humble drink, you know, made by people just like you and me. I think that it's incredibly special.

And yeah, I just approach it like, like a new friend, right? Like, either we're gonna be best friends or we're just gonna be acquaintances. Right. When you're at these competitions or you're like, when you're judging, you have to taste so many.

Like, I think that would be a challenge for me. Like how, like the first couple of, obviously your palates in perfect condition, but like whiskey 20 or whatever, like, talk to us about the challenge of that. Yeah, you definitely, there is pal, pallet fatigue is definitely a real thing. So typically the competitions that I've judged it's all right.

So you're gonna taste 60 different samples today, whatever the case is, right? Obviously you're spinning all of those out. You're not actually eating. So you're obviously spinning all of those out, but in between, I'm always drinking water, I'm always cleansing my palate.

You know, there's always like crackers or water crackers, there's some kind of neutral, you know, there's coffee beans, like everything is there to try and neutralize your palate in between, you know, all the different samples that you're taking. But yeah, pallet fatigue is definitely real. So yeah, maybe the whiskey number one and whiskey number 50, you know, aren't gonna have the fair shake, you know, pallet is going to be somewhat fatigued. But it's never like a rushed process.

It's like, it's an all day process for a reason. At least what I've been a part of, they've done a really great job of, you know, making sure that, you know, when we eat lunch, it's kind of a neutral lunch. And you know, again, you have all of those things with you at the ready, the water, the room temperature water, the seltzer water, you know, all of the kind of just neutral, boring crackers and things like that. But it's, it's been fine and all the times that I've done it.

And I was just, yeah, I would just imagine that like, if you got one that was like super hot or super speedy, and then you had to follow it with one that wasn't because generally there's a reason you drink things in certain orders, right? Right. So typically the PEDA whiskeys are at the end, okay, at your kind of tasting segment. They do a really good job of making sure that they don't want you to like, you know, flavored cinnamon whiskey is the very first things that you're tasting.

Right. Yeah. That's cool. It's a must be an amazing experience though.

Yeah, it is really cool. I think this whole world of whiskey is just really, really special. And it is the coolest thing that somehow I landed here, just getting to talk about this. I already never in 10 million years would I have ever thought that I'd be doing this?

Yeah, right. It's pretty fucking good gig I gotta admit. But there's a reason for it because your passion clearly comes through like even an interview like this, you can tell like it's something you're really passionate about. So obviously you're in the right job for yourself.

And that's why you got it. That's why you still have it. Before we let you go, I talked to us about some of your favorite whiskeys. We've touched on a couple of them, but you have our listeners that run down of Genes, say top Irish, top single molds, top Peded ones.

How are you doing? All right. So Irish whiskey. There is so much good Irish whiskey.

We can have a whole episode about Irish whiskey because I love it so much. Okay, actually, I have a good idea for this. Why don't you tell me in every category what your favorite one is that I'll tell you mine and then we can discuss. All right.

So what's our English? Okay, you go right now. My favorite Irish whiskey is from a distillery called Kilo in Distillery in Northern Ireland. And it is truly some of the most fantastic, magical, just, just like I can't even get the words out.

It is just the most special, beautiful, well-made, with love and heart whiskey. It's the best. Okay, so mine are going to be dumbed down a little bit because I haven't tried nearly as many as you. So let's just let it go that way.

But I'm a big fan of green spot and yellow spot. Okay. All right. Those ones I think are just unbelievable, like very delicate and like, but complex at the same time and they're not too hot and like you can just sit those things forever.

Yeah, I love, I love yellow spot. I think every time I get to remind somebody of like the holidays, like it tastes like quality to me. There's just something about it that is just like very nostalgic. And even the blue spot, the cast strain.

Oh, I know that one. Yeah, really, really fantastic. I think the spot whiskeys are. Yeah.

Okay. All right. Well, I'm doing all right then. Then let's try a single malt that's like not Petey.

Okay, you go first. Okay. I like I'm a big fan of like Highland Park 18. That's probably my favorite, but Highland Park, what's the there's one the 12 is also unbelievable, I think.

But anyway, that would be my choice for a non-Pee-D one. Okay. Yeah. Highland Park is fantastic.

They're 15 year for me for like the first like five years of maybe whiskey was like my like just I'm stranded on an island somewhere whiskey. What's your whiskey of all time is just so beautiful. I think they do a great job for me non-Pee-D single malt. I mean, I, that's smart.

That's not right. Right now, I mean, what I've been leaning really into right now is the original from the Glazco Distillan Company, Distiller Company, and Glazco. They're fantastic. They're newer distillery and they're making just some really exceptional malt.

They do a peated they do a triple distilled and then the originals. So they kind of have this core three whiskey that they use as kind of like their base DNA for everything else that they do. They do a lot of experimental tasks and things like that. But yeah, probably the 1770s Glazco, Glazco, the original is probably what I'm leaning the most toward and non-Pee-D single malt that moment.

Okay. We'll just do a couple more. We'll do like your peated scotch and then like a blended scotch. Okay.

So for Pete, that's that's hard because there's a lot. I so I really love Lechegg. There were two whiskey that I picked up, peated whiskey that I recently picked up from Lamey's onto whiskey in Paris that they did exclusively for them. One was Douglas Lang over particular Lechegg and PX that is just absolutely stunning.

And then another one was from actually a French distillery that Celtic whiskey, distillery company or Celtic distillery company, Celtic whiskey, yeah, distillery in Brittany, France. And they have a peated line called Cornog. And this whiskey very recently has probably been like, like I almost cried ringing like bull's up. It is just actually I can't even explain it.

It is just an exquisite piece of like liquid art. So yeah, so Lechegg I'm really into at the moment. And this Celtic whiskey distillery, Pieden malt is really exceptional. So for Pieden for me, I still like the classics.

I saw like a good log of bullen or it does cab land cow. Do they have a Pieden? Are they? I've never had one.

I think they have one that was like, I remember one that was Pieden or seems Pieden. Yeah, but I had a long time ago and it was fucking delicious. But that's a good distillery. Okay, let's go blend.

I mean, I'm happy with the Johnny Walker Black to be honest. That's such a good answer. We're big Johnny Walker fans. We've tried a bunch of, I've been obviously Johnny Walker Blue's delicious too, but I love all the Johnny.

Except for Red, I'm not a big fan of. But the green, I think is very underrated. Yeah, but yeah, Johnny Walker Black is amazing. Yeah, I have it in my house all the time.

I think it makes a great high ball. And yeah, it's even double black. I'm always happy to have that in my glass. I did have a bad rep for like the average person who's not like super into whiskey just because the red seems like it's the shit you get on the airplane and you know what I mean?

Like yeah, and it's an area. It's in your hotel room. But Johnny Walker Black, you can get that anywhere, especially at the price point. It's time.

Yeah. And have you had their high ride, the Johnny Walker High Ride? No. Yes.

So that's like here, here near me, it's like 32 bucks a bottle and it's high-rise content and it's fantastic and it's delicious. So I'm happy to have that too. Do you have a bourbon or? Yes, I do have a bourbon.

So um, Windmill out in Windmill, Washington, they probably make my favorite ride in the world hands down. A 100% cash drive that is just absolutely exceptional. And I love their bourbon too. They do like a MOSC telefinish.

They do some kind of cool finishes. And they do some really cool stuff, but I think that their bourbon is just, is really fantastic. Yeah, I like for like smaller ones. I like Koval in Chicago.

They make awesome whiskey and Hudson baby. But like for more national brands, like I'm an angel's envy guy. I love that whiskey. It's so good.

I could drink that every day. Anyway, thanks so much for coming on the show. This was super fun to talk with. I can honestly talk whiskey with you for like days.

So but unfortunately, I don't know if I'm going to listen to that but. And before you go, where is the best place that someone can find you online? Get in contact. You can check out your social media links.

So I can be found at whiskeyagogirl on Instagram and Facebook and it's whiskey with no E. And yeah, that's probably best place though. If you want to get in touch, feel free to my email there against a medium. Whatever the case is, I'm always happy to talk whiskey any day of the week.

Well, I'm not doing this super fun. And honestly, like the I'm just so happy for you that you managed to carve this like career for yourself out of something you just got passionate about that you didn't even think you were interested in. It's a cool story. Thank you.

I feel very blessed and very lucky. And you know, this world of whiskey is full of such fantastic humans. I do feel that overall that everyone's here to just help one another, right? Like we all rise together.

And I think that it's a really special thing to be a part of. So if you're an asshole, don't be a part of it. But if you're cool, if you're cool, please don't be a part of this. Because it's a really special little place in the world and it feels even luckier to be a part of it.

So well, thanks again, Jenna. Yeah, like honestly, yeah, this was super fun conversation and best of luck going forward with everything you're doing. It's you don't need my help or well, which is you've got it covered, but it seemed like a good thing to say. Anyway, thanks again, we really appreciate you coming on.

Yeah, thanks again. Thank you.