I have a secret to tell you. I’ve never told anyone this before. I really enjoy beer. I know. Shocking. But I wasn’t always a beer drinker. In my early years I was surrounded by the likes of Genesee and Natural Light so on nights out I would usually opt for a Jack and Coke even though I wasn’t a huge fan of pop (as we called soda in the Midwest). But hey, I had to drink SOMETHING. Then I moved to Arizona and my life changed. In many positive ways. But in the category of alcohol consumption for the purpose of this article. I was first turned on to craft beer which I quickly feel in love with. My love affair with quality spirits was a much longer courtship.
The first taste of Scotch I even had was a 15 year Highland Park that my father in law bought to share with a group of us for Christmas. There were about 8 of us and we each got a pour to taste, contemplate and discuss. The first sip immediately triggered my inner dialogue to respond with “Spit it out! Now! You have just ingested some sort of handcrafted black-market Mongolian cleaning solvent!”. Luckily I had the self-control to NOT spit it out on the table and avoid embarrassment despite my strong desire to do exactly that. Now my mind was racing (“This sip was less than 10% of the total volume of liquid still left in my glass. I can’t keep this up. What do I do?!?!” So I did what I have done for years to get out of anything that I HAD to do: I closed my eyes, said 3 Hail Mary’s and threw it back like an old-school Slick Rick album. Damn, that wasn’t so bad. And now it’s over. But then they get to me in the roundtable discussion.
Them: “So what do you think?”
Me: “Of what?”
Them: “Of the Scotch”
Me: “Oh. Yeah. It was good. REAL good”
Them: “WAS?!? You drank it already?!?!”
At this point I had no choice but to confess I drank my portion of this $90/bottle Scotch in less than 2 seconds like it was a $3 Flaming Dr. Pepper to get amped up for the Limp Bizkit concern. Needless to say they gave me flack for that for a long time. But they also never gave up on me. Every time we all got together someone would buy a bottle of good whiskey and we’d all taste it. And my palate developed quite nicely. Now there are times where I enjoy a good whiskey more than a beer. Not often. But occasionally. Why? You got some of the good stuff?
So anyways, since starting this podcast I have ventured off the beer path a few times to check out some of the awesome spirits being made in this great state with my visit to Hamilton Distillers and Arizona Distilling Company. Not too long ago Chase from Adventurous Stills reached out and invited us over to check out their place in Tempe. I had heard some great things about their products before going there so was excited to check it out but was even more blown away once we go there. The fact that pretty much everything they use is hand made is amazing in itself but their spirits were REALLY good.
In this episode I sit down with 2 of the 3 owners, Chase and Kelly, to talk about the challenges they face selling top-shelf spirits and how the water is Tempe is perfect for making spirits. Enjoy the show!
Adventurous Stills is located at 31 S Robson Suite 103, Mesa, AZ 85210
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Video Production done by Aaron Markus from 8 AM Films
Intro/Outro music is "La Negra Tomasa" by the awesome local Arizona band Fayuca
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