RobbieTheWagner 
Charles William Carpenter III 
Adam Argyle [00:00:00] Robbie: What’s going on everybody? Welcome to the seventh Advent of whiskey. If my math is correct.
[00:00:07] Chuck: It’s probably wrong.
[00:00:09] Robbie: Yeah, it’s somewhere between one and 10 cuz that’s how many we’re doing. Um, I’m pretty sure it’s not one.
[00:00:18] Chuck: it’s just literal
[00:00:19] Robbie: Yeah, no, I think it’s seven. Um, today we are doing whiskey’s 15 to 19 from the Laar. Uh, whiskey Advent Calendar.
[00:00:29] Chuck: Nope.
[00:00:31] Robbie: What’s that?
[00:00:32] Chuck: We’re gonna do five in one or are we gonna
[00:00:34] Robbie: Oh no, sorry.
[00:00:35] Chuck: one?
[00:00:36] Robbie: Um, yes, sorry. We’re doing 15 to 17
[00:00:40] Chuck: have another Mr. Wagner.
[00:00:41] Robbie: Yeah. We may or may not have recorded a unrelated to Advent of Whiskey podcast right before this and had some whiskey and I don’t know my brain. Um, alright, so. I don’t think I even said this is Whiskey Webb and whatnot. I’m Robbie.
[00:00:58] Robbie: That’s Chuck. [00:01:00] Um, all the
[00:01:00] Chuck: your hosts.
[00:01:02] Robbie: of whiskey.
[00:01:02] Chuck: I really feel like I’m the passenger to this podcast anymore, so I’m no longer the host. Um, great. Let’s get into it. Number 15, product of USA. Looks like it’s 45. Uh, percent. So 90 proof. It’s a blended American whiskey. Um, oh, looks like it’s matured in black brandy casks. So I’m guessing like a, uh, like, um, some sort of, uh, blackberry or fruit, darker fruit, non age stated.
[00:01:30] Chuck: Um, it’s called blackened, which immediately makes me think of the Metallica song. So I don’t know if that’s something you’re familiar with, but, um, injustice for All.
[00:01:42] Robbie: I’ve heard of them.
[00:01:43] Chuck: Injustice for All was definitely a part of my youth. And Blackened was a song on that album, fairly sure. Hopefully nobody calls me out otherwise.
[00:01:52] Chuck: Um, see here. It’s metal,
[00:01:56] Robbie: To me, um, now that you’ve mentioned all of the [00:02:00] black keywords, I would say a little bit of, uh, current perhaps. Um, let’s see.
[00:02:10] Chuck: I’m getting a little clove. On the scent for me. Cloves. Yeah.
[00:02:16] Robbie: I don’t know. My nose never works.
[00:02:23] Chuck: Yeah. I’m getting a little like
[00:02:25] Robbie: something.
[00:02:26] Chuck: a little, little berry. Yeah. Current. I could see current or something.
[00:02:32] Robbie: yeah, I think, um, I think the clothes, I don’t know if I’m getting clothes exactly, but something, um, medicinal, Herby, um, kind of thing, minty along those lines.
[00:02:44] Chuck: Ooh. Yeah. Like, okay. I could think of that in terms of like, like Afer, neti kind of herley mix. You know, I’m not getting mint, but herbal, I definitely forget that. So, right. We should taste it.[00:03:00]
[00:03:01] Robbie: mm-hmm. , I, I did already.
[00:03:03] Chuck: Hmm, hmm. Yeah, a little minty. Get the mint on the initial bit and then some of the herb, then some spice in the finish. We don’t have a lot on turn in terms of the mash bill, so who knows? There just American whiskey, you don’t get to know the rest.
[00:03:27] Robbie: I’m gonna also say, I don’t know why, but maybe some mulberry, um, I’m reaching, it’s not,
[00:03:36] Chuck: bush?
[00:03:37] Robbie: it’s def it’s not really blackberry as we had
[00:03:40] Chuck: No.
[00:03:41] Robbie: if they actually used something Blackberry, then they didn’t do a great job. Cause I’m not getting that. But um,
[00:03:47] Chuck: Yeah, I’m not getting any jamous in the actual taste. I got the mint initial bit. I still get in like herba flavors throughout and then more of a spicy peppery finish. Um, so it’s interesting.[00:04:00]
[00:04:00] Robbie: like plants than the fruit of the plants
[00:04:02] Chuck: Agree. Yeah. Like if you took a blackberry leave and put it in there and so you had an essence of said Barry. Yeah.
[00:04:10] Robbie: Mm-hmm. I’m a fan though. Um, it’s not my favorite ever. I would give it, I think, a six. It’s pretty good.
[00:04:21] Chuck: Yeah, I’m mean in the five or six range, like it’s above average for sure, and it’s a little bit different. I don’t know that I wouldn’t have it all the time. Um, but uh, yeah, maybe in this season too, like it could be applicable with the like minty riskiness of it. So I’ll go six, I’m down with that. Um, and there we have it.
[00:04:49] Robbie: That’s my main feedback to Flaviar is like, How, if you’re doing this as a real admin calendar, am I supposed to remember like four to five days back [00:05:00] and go, yeah, okay. I compared it to these and like, I like this one better and this one better. I, I don’t know. And we’ve done a lot at a time. Like I theoretically could remember more, but no.
[00:05:11] Chuck: Yeah, I mean, we’re now up to 15 samples, so.
[00:05:16] Robbie: Yeah.
[00:05:16] Chuck: Askew your, your memory I think a little bit.
[00:05:21] Robbie: Perhaps you’re supposed to do more in depth notes that would like remind you. Um, but I’m just like minty. Next one. Like
[00:05:31] Chuck: ooh, I’m looking. This is gonna be a great one. I’m looking on to 16. Have you looked on yet?
[00:05:37] Robbie: that it’s from India.
[00:05:39] Chuck: Yes. Product of India. It’s am root, which is, uh, I’ve tried one of theirs before. Um, not this one. It looks like need all Indian single malt whiskey. Um, 46%. Yep. I mean, they’re all in scotch style that I have experienced in from Indian [00:06:00] whiskey.
[00:06:00] Chuck: Um, let’s see if we get any more than that. Um, Low production, while our other national distilling shops were focused on low cost production. The entire history of En Route has been a story of improvement, quality, and taste. And it
[00:06:15] Robbie: lot on production. It’s still gonna be trash is what I’m hearing.
[00:06:19] Chuck: it’s hard to say. You know, we’ll see where we go there.
[00:06:22] Robbie: Ooh, okay.
[00:06:23] Chuck: Huh?
[00:06:24] Chuck: Whoa.
[00:06:24] Robbie: is smoky.
[00:06:25] Chuck: Okay. Oh, yes. Yeah, the nose is very smoky. Um, it’s hard to get past anything else.
[00:06:34] Robbie: Yeah, this is just a branch that is actively on fire right
[00:06:37] Chuck: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. All they did was take all of the, um, mash bill and instead of cooking it down, they just lit it on fire,
[00:06:49] Robbie: Then they bought some ever clear for just pure alcohol and mixed the smoke in
[00:06:54] Chuck: it together and let it sit for 15 minutes and it’s ready, goat and pair as well with your [00:07:00] favorite curry. Um,
[00:07:02] Robbie: Does it say that? Really?
[00:07:03] Chuck: No,
[00:07:04] Robbie: Oh, okay.
[00:07:06] Chuck: no, it’s a poor generalization and I apologize
[00:07:09] Robbie: Yeah, that’s
[00:07:10] Chuck: or actually
[00:07:11] Robbie: they can eat.
[00:07:11] Chuck: cuz I did it.
[00:07:13] Robbie: Anyone of any ethnicity can have any cuisine? Chuck, you uncultured. Fuck
[00:07:19] Chuck: So funny thing, side note there. Uh, perhaps, but I feel like I’m semi cultured and the funny thing for
[00:07:26] Robbie: I’m just giving you a hard time.
[00:07:28] Chuck: So like in Italy, um, they don’t go, Hmm, what cuisine should we go out for? They just go out for food and it is Italian cuisine. 99% of the time. Every once in a while they might make a stretch in a larger city and be like, let’s get fast food.
[00:07:44] Chuck: That’s a real, something different. Or get another
[00:07:47] Robbie: good though.
[00:07:49] Chuck: Yeah. I had the worst Chinese food of my life in Barcelona, unfortunately. Sorry guys. I don’t know, but like it was heralded as great Chinese and I wanted something a little different and we went there and [00:08:00] it was like soupy fried rice. With chunks of seafood in it, and it sounds like it should still be fine and it wasn’t.
[00:08:07] Chuck: I would’ve rather had a McDonald’s cheeseburger and I don’t even like those.
[00:08:11] Robbie: Yeah. I think, I think I’ve mentioned on the podcast before, but we, like, we were there for three weeks and after two weeks we were like, we’ve had a lot of pizza. Like, let’s try something else. So we went to a Mexican place and it was garbage. Like it was not good at all. Uh, margaritas were good. I gave ‘em that, but the food was just
[00:08:30] Chuck: to fuck that
[00:08:31] Robbie: phoned it in like no
[00:08:33] Chuck: Well, I feel like part of that is just what they have in terms of ingredients, right? They’re like stocking a lot of what they need for their own food and so they might not be getting a lot of like corn meal or you know, the kinds of beans you might know.
[00:08:47] Chuck: I don’t know, like it might be hard to get quality ingredients. I think that’s like half the problem because it’s funny. Periodically I’ll send back. To my friends in Italy, pancake mix and pancake syrup, because [00:09:00] those are things they just kind of really can’t get. I forget what’s, it’s, there’s something, it’s not like, maybe it’s baking powder or there’s something in pancakes that makes them fluffy that they just don’t have, and so they can’t really replicate it.
[00:09:12] Chuck: So you send them, you know, you pay $20 to send them a $2 bo box of anima back, and it is, it’s like Christmas. So,
[00:09:21] Robbie: the pearl milling company?
[00:09:24] Chuck: Huh. Right. Yeah. It’s not that anymore, is it? It’s, uh, yeah. Sorry.
[00:09:30] Robbie: it’s pearl milling company.
[00:09:31] Chuck: I for, yeah. I don’t buy, first of all, I don’t buy a lot of pancake, mix of any kind, and I’m just more, uh, tapping into my childhood where like that was the big thing and commercials were on and whatever else, and then people realized like, no, really, that’s very racist.
[00:09:49] Robbie: Yeah, no, I mean, on the one hand, so I read a story about this and we’re going far into whatnot before we have these other whiskeys, but.
[00:09:56] Chuck: it’s okay.
[00:09:57] Robbie: I forget all the details so someone can call me out on it if [00:10:00] I’m wrong. But it was something to the effect of like the lady that was the anima real person was like a slave or like made no money essentially and made her family millions of dollars from like using her likeness and like she was proud of being the person, I think.
[00:10:16] Robbie: But now people these days are like, you know, that’s
[00:10:19] Chuck: So they’ve forgotten the story. That’s true. I suppose that’s a thing like, does that family deserve nothing? Because of what that represents in general to some people who didn’t experience those hardships and she did experience that hardship and she opted into it and profited for it and deserves that payday.
[00:10:40] Chuck: That’s a, that’s pretty deep for the show, I think. Um,
[00:10:44] Robbie: yeah. And I
[00:10:44] Chuck: that. that’s an
[00:10:46] Robbie: basically it’s, it’s just, you know, consider both sides all the time instead of just. It’s going down one
[00:10:52] Chuck: Or even just context in general, like your own context observing based on that. And then now you’re fighting [00:11:00] to destroy this family’s, you know, consistent earning potential and wellbeing because of a thing you perceive. So I don’t know. I guess it would be like the audience.
[00:11:13] Robbie: if I were the face of a product, Regardless of if it were in a potentially racist picture of me, um, well, I can’t say that I’m thinking of things that would be bad now. Um, but
[00:11:27] Chuck: yeah. And I feel like we can go down this path a bunch of like, okay, so a picture that is racist. Is it racist? Because in 1940 that was an accurate representation of social. Um, hierarchy and context, like it’s racist, that perhaps this woman was placed in a very subservient post slave position without having like, living wages.
[00:11:56] Chuck: Like, okay, that is racist, but who she was at that [00:12:00] time, is that racist? I don’t know. Like it because she had to dress in, you know, a, um, like dress in a certain way or. Is that racist? No, that’s not racist. That’s exactly who she was at that point. So it’s like, should you bury that or should you champion the, the hard work?
[00:12:19] Chuck: And, and, and what she became, I don’t know. So again, I’m not taking aside or perception here and we’re probably getting like, way deep for this particular show, but I, I, uh, um,
[00:12:30] Robbie: Christmas, everyone.
[00:12:32] Chuck: Hmm, Merry Christmas. So this is very smokey and tastes very much like a super smokey scotch, which essentially to me is like a campfire whiskey.
[00:12:41] Chuck: And I’d love that. High West basically came out with like a campfire whiskey to say this is our, our smokey scotch, but it’s an American whiskey. And if you like smoke, maybe you’ll like this. I don’t love smoke. This to me is too much like putting some drops of liquid. into something [00:13:00] and, and basically completely bearing everything that is potentially the flavor of, of the spirit.
[00:13:09] Chuck: So, um,
[00:13:11] Robbie: So, yes, all of that to say there aren’t any real flavor notes. The um, however, I don’t hate it just because there’s nothing like
[00:13:21] Chuck: like give it
[00:13:22] Robbie: and it is just really smoky.
[00:13:24] Chuck: I give it a three.
[00:13:25] Robbie: yeah, like the previous Indian one was like a zero cuz it was like undrinkable, but this is drinkable. It’s just not interesting. So yeah, I would say three is.
[00:13:36] Chuck: Yeah, so in terms of Indian whiskeys that I’ve had, um, which I think is three or four, uh, this is probably in the tops of those. So if I like had to choose in that realm, I’d pick this one. I’d give this probably a seven or eight because everything else has been pretty gross. And undrinkable, this is drink.
[00:13:54] Chuck: So in that spirit, I say that in the spirit of things that are like scotch, [00:14:00] like whiskey, malt whiskeys potentially. Um, and comparatively it’s just like all smoke, no flavor three,
[00:14:09] Robbie: Yeah. Yep. I mean, I think it probably holds up to some SCOs that I’ve had, so
[00:14:15] Chuck: no.
[00:14:16] Robbie: that.
[00:14:17] Chuck: Yeah. There is that to say. And you’re saying it. So I appreciate.
[00:14:25] Robbie: Well, we really rent down a rabbit hole on this. We’re not even done with the whiskey yet, and we’re 15 minutes in.
[00:14:30] Chuck: Should we save three whiskeys for the next one where I ramble even more?
[00:14:36] Robbie: Yeah, sure. So let’s pretend like this is still for the holidays and do a couple more holiday trivia real quick.
[00:14:42] Chuck: holidays. I know you ruined it. With this whole anima is gone. First of all, you’ve
[00:14:48] Robbie: I was just riffing. Just riffing.
[00:14:50] Chuck: You’ve destroyed part of my childhood.
[00:14:54] Robbie: Yeah. The, uh, the, uh, uncle Ben’s is gone too. Um, I think it’s still [00:15:00] called Ben’s maybe, but maybe they removed the uncle and there’s like no picture of the guy anymore or something like that.
[00:15:05] Chuck: Interesting. Poor Ben,
[00:15:07] Robbie: Yeah. I don’t know his story. I don’t know if. Like actually wanted to be on there or not, but, um, okay. What does the word Hanukkah mean?
[00:15:18] Chuck: Mm. Celebration,
[00:15:21] Robbie: Oh, that’s, that’s a good guess. Let’s see.
[00:15:28] Chuck: not even close.
[00:15:29] Robbie: Okay. I looked at the wrong, so, There, there’s like a list of 35 questions and there’s a numbered list of the answers, and it was number seven and I scrolled down and my eye went to number five because the answer was seven. And I was like, wait, it can’t mean seven . Um, but yeah, so it means
[00:15:49] Chuck: Oh, okay. I will. I thought you were laughing at my answer, but
[00:15:52] Robbie: No, no, no, no.
[00:15:53] Chuck: Seven. Any friends, fans will really get my constant. Seven.
[00:15:59] Robbie: that [00:16:00] have heard you mention that on like 10 episodes
[00:16:05] Chuck: Listen, I’m
[00:16:06] Robbie: perhaps seven episodes.
[00:16:08] Chuck: Hmm,
[00:16:10] Robbie: uh, let’s
[00:16:11] Chuck: Your favorite, uh, David Fincher movie.
[00:16:16] Robbie: Uh, do more Americans get real or artificial trees? Did we ask that one already?
[00:16:20] Chuck: No, but I’m gonna guess artificial.
[00:16:23] Robbie: That’s my guess, too.
[00:16:25] Chuck: Mm-hmm.
[00:16:26] Robbie: Yep. Artificial.
[00:16:28] Chuck: So growing up we always got an artificial tree and then, uh, my wife had a family tradition of getting a, uh, A real tree, and they even went out in the woods and cut theirs for quite some time. We never did that, but we did get a real tree for a number of years and eventually decided to observe the, well, this is killing trees and there’s so much extra with this.
[00:16:52] Chuck: Let’s like try a really nice artificial tree. Done that. Never looking back. Can’t get her to do tinsel though, you know, [00:17:00] like she’s just not that T.
[00:17:02] Robbie: Yeah. Yeah, I think, um, we, we do some of both. So we have two. I’m trying to think. We might have no three artificial trees and we always get one real one. And so like that’s gonna be the tradition every year is go like to the tree farm, find the one we like, cut it down. Um, we did that a couple times, uh, especially like over the pandemic.
[00:17:26] Robbie: Like everyone thought that was cool again, cuz it’s like it’s a thing we can do like out in public. And uh, yeah, so that was, it was like, you know, there’d be a line. That was like a hundred people long and it would take you hours to check out. But uh, it’s theoretically fun. I think if you go on not a insane day like that, it’s very fun.
[00:17:51] Robbie: But we pick the wrong trees all the time cuz they like you get it home and it like, well one, never get a blue Spruce. I [00:18:00] can say that. because they prick you everywhere. Like you go to put an ornament on and it’s like you get pricked a whole bunch of times. And then by like the end of it, especially with all my allergies, my hands are like inflamed and like itchy, like terribleness.
[00:18:14] Chuck: I have had the allergy issue. I don’t know that we’ve, I couldn’t honestly tell you the, the kind of, uh, of tree that we got, but the kind that Costco sells and, uh, so they would just, you know, have the truck out to the side. You go pay, you, come out with your receipt, get your tree, um, kind of go with that.
[00:18:35] Chuck: Like when I did cut them out up north with my wife’s family like, I’m sure it was a lot more arbitrary then, but I’m guessing that there are no allergens in the Costco version. But I, I think when we did the fresh ones, I had the same thing where you were like, okay, now I have to help you carry it back to throw on top of the car.
[00:18:57] Chuck: Um, yeah, my arms would just be like, [00:19:00] Ooh,
[00:19:01] Robbie: Yeah. . Yeah, it’s, uh, the blue spruces are actually really nice, like shape, and they like hold their shape. Well, they’re not as floppy as like, um, I forget all the, the other kinds, I think a, I wanna say a Douglas fur is like the, the one most people get or
[00:19:18] Chuck: one. Okay. Yeah,
[00:19:19] Robbie: but then there. You can get like a white pine, which is very floppy.
[00:19:23] Robbie: It’s the one with like the long needles that are like what people use for mulch in some spots.
[00:19:28] Chuck: Hm.
[00:19:28] Robbie: Um, apparently we used to do that growing up and I don’t remember having a tree like that ever, but there was like a one guy we knew that had a tree farm that was the only kind of trees he had. So we, uh, did those
[00:19:44] Chuck: Interesting.
[00:19:45] Robbie: Um,
[00:19:46] Chuck: No more holiday boo crap.
[00:19:49] Robbie: Yeah. Um, should we spend a little time talking about whether you should or should not code in Yammel?
[00:19:59] Chuck: Let’s, let’s [00:20:00] think about this. Um, so would you wanna, and I, I present this because I do think that YAML is a more robust data structure. Um, is it a language? I don’t know. I don’t think it’s a language either. It’s like a. Data, data structure paradigm than JSON And would you want to write functions in JSON because you can doesn’t mean, okay, let’s just, let’s just take out whether you can or not. Because I think that there are projects exp like digging into the can problem. Or the can question, it’s not a problem. It’s just like it’s a question and you are in this space. Should you context change or should you be able to run functions here?
[00:20:57] Chuck: And I [00:21:00] perceive it in a way, again, as like, so you think of CSV as a data structuring format. I think of JSON as a more robust data structuring format, and I think of YAML as an even more. , like robust, like diverse data structuring format. So if you are
[00:21:20] Chuck: trying, I may have said that once or twice. Um, so should you interpolate that with functions, which is like an innate part of programming and what, what are your functional restrictions in within that too? Like, Functions have a number of, of, of paradigms to like work through data itself. So how far does that go?
[00:21:50] Chuck: It’s a slippery slope to me. I don’t, I don’t get it. I just might be dumb. That’s possible.
[00:21:55] Robbie: Yeah. So first, take your microphone and point it more towards your face. [00:22:00] Second.
[00:22:01] Chuck: Fair enough.
[00:22:03] Robbie: Just like if you just turn it a little Yeah. You’re, you’re kind of going back and forth with your talking of like, um, anyway, editing people. Cut that out so that we don’t hear you say that second. Um, no, we should not, uh, use YAML for functions, in my opinion.
[00:22:21] Robbie: So like devil’s advocate, um, a JavaScript object, uh, can have functions. . So it’s kind of a data format where usually you would have a key value type of thing where like it could be strings or numbers or whatever. Um, maybe those strings kind of similarly to YAML could represent commands. You want run and CI or something?
[00:22:49] Robbie: Um, um, so just because you can put a function in there, should you though? I think, I think the thing is, [00:23:00] Programming languages are good at executing things. And I would say YAML is not a programming language in the classic sense.
[00:23:08] Chuck: Yeah. I feel like it’s data formatting in the way that CSV is, but enhanced and how far are we gonna take it?
[00:23:16] Robbie: Yeah. So I think it gets complex of like, so, okay. If you want to introduce a function.
[00:23:24] Robbie: What if the function is asynchronous or what if there’s something complex where it’s like, how do I know to go to the next step? Or what happens if there’s an error in the function and should I continue after the error or not? Um,
[00:23:39] Chuck: Yeah. I can,
[00:23:40] Robbie: slope.
[00:23:41] Chuck: I can’t compare it to a primitive within a language. I know what you’re saying about like objects as a primitive within JavaScript, which beyond the keys, the values are kind of like whatever you want, but that’s not really [00:24:00] organizing data. Again, it’s just sort of like nested primitives essentially.
[00:24:04] Chuck: Cause a function is a primitive and an object, having their values as potential primitives. That makes sense to me as a data structuring thing. Oh, I mean as a convenience method. Sure. Yeah. I get where that’s convenient for you in a particular use case, but as, but in terms of like trying to make this be more of a standard, I just, Nope.
[00:24:31] Chuck: I don’t know. Maybe it’s a package that makes it very explicit in a very specific use case. Sure. I want to use YAML and I want to use it, and I want to. basically have these very, um, I dunno, on demand functional aspects of it based on the specific things that I feed into that and that gives me the [00:25:00] data structure I need.
[00:25:01] Chuck: Okay. I don’t know. That seems specific, I guess, but Sure. I think there’s a lot of ways to skin that cat, but,
[00:25:09] Robbie: Yeah, I mean, I think to me, I’ve always been one for separation of concerns anyways. Um, So like I would compare it to CSS and JS where it’s like, yes, you can do it, but you lose a lot of the tooling around it where it’s like there’s a lot of stuff that’s been built for decades around CSS being separate and like it can auto complete your things and tell you the rules and if your value you put in there is valid for it or not, instead of just being like a Camel case string because that’s all you can put in JavaScript and then, You just put values in and hope they style the way you think they should.
[00:25:47] Robbie: And um, just so that you can have it in one file and like theoretically tree shake better or whatever. Um, yeah. So I think it’s similar here where like people. Rather than write a [00:26:00] script that is then run by the Yael, they’re like, well, why do I need to go, like write a node script or whatever. I’m gonna run with the command line.
[00:26:08] Robbie: I’ll just write the function here and like code from there. So like I get the appeal how it’s similar to like, let’s do it all in one place, but I think it’s, uh, changes the format. It’s not the same. Like thing anymore. And it’s not meant to do that. Like just, just write another my script js and do like npm run my script or whatever.
[00:26:31] Robbie: Like that’s, that works just fine. And that’s like, you know, the happy path.
[00:26:39] Chuck: And there you have it.
[00:26:41] Robbie: Yeah. And that’s I guess, enough for this one. So thanks for listening. This one got weird. We’ll get a little less weird maybe for the next one, but no promises and we’ll catch you tomorrow.