The Spirit of the Sazerac!

The Krewe has a very special episode for you, from a very special place, for a very special reason. 

We'll take you with us to a history class at the Sazerac House, covering the origins of the cocktail, of the legendary Sazerac, the names you know from some of the best bottles you'll ever taste. 

There's also a special announcement of a new barrel that has landed at Mr. Lester's Steakhouse. It's a Single barrel 1792 that raises the bar for single barrel picks, complex, bold and flavorful it's an all "Spirit" episode you won't want to miss! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

The following program is paid for by Pipe Dream Entertainment.

SPEAKER_06 0:03

Hour one of implicit bias is brought to you by Pipers Haven, 3916 West Congress in Lafayette, Louisiana, featuring Louisiana's only certified master tobacconist Renee Girard. Go there. He's got 553 square feet of walk-in humidor. The certified wizard of tobacco has everything you need. Cigars, pipes, pipe tobacco, cutters, lighters. It's all at Pipers Haven. 3916 West Congress. Ladies and gentlemen, friends and family, fellow seekers of truth of both the sacred and the spirited, we're gonna raise a glass high on this week's episode of Implicit Bias Radio. I'm your host, Gavon Bordelon, and we are coming to you from a very special place. If Kentucky is the holy land of bourbon, then we are at the virtual bourbon Vatican. We are at the Sazerac House in New Orleans, Louisiana, with a very special episode. A very special whiskey of the month, not just a weekly whiskey, but a bottle that you will only find at Mr. Lester Steakhouse at Cypress Bayou Casino. So let's raise that glass, whether you hold a glass of, you know, Kentucky bourbon that warms the soul like a Sunday sermon, a peppery rye that bites with honest conviction, or that good old American whiskey that tastes like freedom and second chances. On this episode, we toast to one of the universe's finest punchlines, the word spirit itself. It's the same word we use for the divine breath of God and liquid courage that somehow makes your uncle lean in after a couple of glasses and finally admit that, well, he never actually liked your mother's meatloaf. That, my friends, that is not coincidence. That is cosmic comedy with a side of revelation. So let's start with the Holy Spirit, you know, the real deal. Scripture calls it the breath of God, the fire that descended at Pentecost, that still small voice that convicts, comforts, and clarifies. It's truth incarnate. It doesn't just whisper, it sets hearts afire and opens eyes to what really matters. It's the force that turned fishermen into fearless preachers and cowards into martyrs. When the Holy Spirit moves, people speak truths they don't even know that they carried or had the answer for. They're bold, they're beautiful, sometimes terrifying truths. Now we need to consider the other spirit. You know, the ones we pour sometimes over ice in the heavy bottom glasses. They too have a remarkable talent for surfacing truth. After the first pour, you know, maybe we're just a bit charming. After the second, we are maybe a little philosophical. By the third, we're confessing things that we've hidden from therapists for years. Suddenly, the guy who swore that he didn't cry at movies is leaning and crying over it's a wonderful life. The woman who listened and said that, oh no, I'm totally fine when her ex was getting engaged, is admiring and admitting that maybe she still has his old sweatshirt in the back of her closet. These spirits, they don't just loosen tongues. They lower the drawbridge to the heart. They make it honest, they make us honest in a way that polite society sometimes rarely allows. And here's the beautiful part both kinds of spirit create communion. The Holy Spirit unites us with our Creator, the ultimate kind of one-flesh bond between heaven and earth. But whiskey? Whiskey unites us with the stranger at the end of the bar who, you know, after we've shared one pour, now all of a sudden becomes your instant brother, because you both agree that Die Hard is a Christmas movie, and anyone who says otherwise can fight us in the parking lot. That's not just the alcohol talking. That's the ancient human need for belonging. That's being answered in a real-time situation, whether we're passing the piece in sanctuary or passing the bottle around a campfire. We are wired for connection as human beings. The venue changes. The hunger for togetherness doesn't. Jesus understood this better than anyone. He remember his first miracle wasn't just healing the blind or feeding the five thousand. It was actually saving a wedding. That reception that was about to run out of wine, there was, man, social disaster looming. But Jesus turned six stone jars of water into wine, and not just wine that was common, but the finest wine. The master of the banquet had never tasted it. He'd never experienced it. Think about that. The Son of God didn't say, sorry, folks, you should have planned better. He said, in essence, let the party continue and let it be excellent. He knew that joy, celebration, and well, even a little holy intoxication at the right moment are gifts from the Father. He knew that sometimes the best way to honor is to raise a glass and to mean it. So on this week's episode, we're gonna honor both. Let's honor the spirit who brings clarity like a lightning strike, and the spirit that brings clarity like a slow, honest burn. Let's honor the truth that sets us free, it sets us in the truth, and it spills out, you know, when that armor finally comes off. Let's honor the community that gathers around and does whatever we need to do when the community understands that we are all consuming in exactly the way we're supposed to. Because in the end, whether we're praying in a pew or laughing until we cry at the fire, whether that's in the neighborhood or whether that's in the church, we're all just trying to touch something bigger than ourselves. Maybe, you know, maybe we should always be spirited in our faith, in our friendships, and our willingness to tell the truth even when it's messy. May we never lose our sense of wonder at this glorious linguistic accident that lets us speak of both the divine and the amber fire in the glass in all the same breath. So let's raise those glasses, whether you're sipping, praying, laughing, or all three at once. Cheers. Or should I say, amen, on this week's episode of Implicit Bias Radio.

SPEAKER_12 6:41

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SPEAKER_19 7:11

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SPEAKER_18 7:22

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SPEAKER_11 7:25

Ever think about firearm safety? Are you new to shoot? Don't know how to get started? Here's Kate with the Rustic Renegade.

SPEAKER_07 7:31

I love new shooters because they want to get bad at it. You get somebody who hasn't been around and hasn't been around firearms or hasn't been a lot of shooters. Sit down in a very safe environment where there's no lot of ammunition, no risk of any residuals. And train them the right way before they have to get on a range and go into the lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_11 7:47

Come in and have a cup of coffee with us. The Rustic Renegade at the RusticRenicate.com. Ever think about firearm safety? Are you new to shoot? Don't know how to get started.

SPEAKER_07 7:59

Here's Table with the Rustic Renegade. I love new shooters with that attitude. You get somebody who hasn't been around and hasn't been around firearms or hasn't done a lot of shooters who can sit down in a very safe environment where there's no lot of ammunition, no risk of any residuals, and train them the right way before they have to get on a range and go into a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_11 8:17

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SPEAKER_01 8:29

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SPEAKER_00 9:02

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SPEAKER_14 9:26

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SPEAKER_06 9:57

Purchase all of your favorite spirits at your local Implicit Bias Liquor Collective store in Lafayette, Ambassador Wine and Spirits, New News Markets in Youngsville, Scott Milton Maurice, Champine Supermarket in Abbeyville, Champines Market in Carn Crow, and Benny Supermarket in Opalousis. Hour one of Implicit Bias is brought to you by Pipers Haven, 3916 West Congress in Lafayette, Louisiana, featuring Louisiana's only certified master tobacconist Renee Girard. Go there. He's got 553 square feet of walk-in humidor. The certified wizard of tobacco has everything you need. Cigars, pipes, pipe tobacco, cutters, lighters. It's all at Pipers Haven. 3916 West Congress. You heard it in the monologue. I affectionately call where we are sitting the Vatican for bourbon in the United States and actually in the world. We are in New Orleans, Louisiana. We are at the corner of Canal and Magazine, which means we are in the Sazerac house. And for those who are familiar with the Sazerac brand, you know the brands that are basically stationed here, as well as you probably know the name of the cocktail from which this location brings its name. As I said, I'm your host, Kavon Borderland. Let me introduce you to the crew that we have as we work you through some very special whiskey. We've got cocktails, we've got spirits. We have a premium brand ambassador here at the Sazerac House. Is that correct? Greg. Premium Experience Ambassador here. He is a brand ambassador for Buffalo Trace when he travels, which, by the way, all falls under the Sazerac name. As you can see, again to my right, he is the Rustic Renegade sitting in lilac, I believe. I mean, dude, you look like a Batman villain. Lilac? You look like a Batman villain in that jacket. You don't see the color of lilac. You call this purple. No, that's lilac. It's purple. Like you you don't remember the Batman camp show, like in the 60s, the campy Batman in the 60s, Adam West. Yeah, I remember Adam. Right. You remember there was a there was a villain who only wore lilac?

SPEAKER_08 12:28

It was that was the penguin.

SPEAKER_06 12:30

No, that was not the penguin. There was another one. I bet Willie knows. Willie, do you remember the villain on Batman, the 60s, that only wore lilac?

SPEAKER_09 12:38

Absolutely. I can't remember the name, but is it the Riddler?

SPEAKER_06 12:41

It was not the Riddler. The Riddler wore the green with the question marks. There was one in something close to that color.

SPEAKER_09 12:47

Yeah. I remember lilac. I'm okay with being a Batman villain.

SPEAKER_06 12:50

There you go.

SPEAKER_09 12:51

The Batman villain.

SPEAKER_06 12:52

Well, he's not the Batman villain. He is Kayla Morse, the Rustic Renegade. He is the knows that knows, and he is already partaking of this amazing whiskey that we have here. What's that, Chef?

SPEAKER_10 13:02

The Rustic Villain.

SPEAKER_06 13:02

Villain. The Rustic Villain. He is the Rustic Villain. You've already had a chance to hear from Chef Willie Gaspot, who's the executive chef at Cypress by U Casino, and Mr. Lester. You got it all now, don't you? I do. Absolutely. And this bottle is now only available at Cypress by You Casino. Yes, sir. And it is officially an implicit barrel because with your help, with the palette of the Rustic Renegade, we were able to come up with a single barrel 1792, which is a Sazerac brand that is absolutely phenomenal.

SPEAKER_09 13:38

It is. And actually, better than I remembered.

SPEAKER_06 13:41

Better than I gotta agree with you, Chef. I have to agree with you because I remember tasting, and when you get into a barrel pick, if you've ever had the chance to do it, you sit down, you've got three, sometimes maybe more tastings, and things start to get a little confusing after about five minutes. I agree. This one, as it has opened and then opened up, has been absolutely fantastic.

SPEAKER_09 14:06

It is.

SPEAKER_06 14:06

Okay, now we need to introduce the other person here who is a new member of the implicit bias crew, and that is crew with a K, Greg Triesh of the Sazerac House. Greg, it's a pleasure to have you. Uh pleasure being here. Thanks for having me. So, Greg, you have been around bourbon whiskey, Sazerac products, cocktails, basically like the sand lot, forever.

SPEAKER_13 14:31

I don't know about forever, but uh yeah, my journey. Uh I guess my bourbon journey started, I don't know, maybe about 20 years ago. Um, but before that, actually, was I guess my transition from beer out of college. Uh, I I transitioned to bourbon, was honestly makers mark. That's a lot of people's like first, that nice, uh smooth, weeded, sweeter, uh, easy to transition to. So Makers and Seven was was my deal for the longest time. Uh, and then when I really started getting into bourbon and understanding what they were, I found Buffalo Trace products, and that was that was my jam there. I just absolutely fell in love with Buffalo Trace products.

SPEAKER_06 15:10

To stick with that spirit and spirit kind of thing, Buffalo Trace products have kind of been the holy grail of bourbon drinkers for the last 10 years. I mean, all the brands that fall underneath Sazerac and Buffalo Trace, they're well known. They're E.H. Taylor, they're Buffalo Trace, it's Blanton's, it's Weller, it's Stag, just Elmer T. League. Just keep going.

SPEAKER_13 15:32

Oh, absolutely. Yep. Um, honestly, right now, let's see, uh, some of the uh Buffalo Trace has four basic mash bills, right? Mash bill one and two, the the lower rye, the higher rye, our weeded mash bill, our rye mash. Of those four mash bills, we have 18 different brands, right? Weller's a brand, tailor's a brand, stag's a brand. Of those 18 brands, uh, with the recent release of the Sazrack rye foolproof, we have over 55 expressions from four from four uh mash bills, y'all. Wow. So that just goes to show, and that's just Buffalo Trace. That's not Counting 1792 and A. Smith Bowman and um uh let's see, uh Cuddy Sark is ours. Paul John Indian whiskey is ours. So yeah, right now Sazrack has, I think, over 500 different items in their portfolio. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_06 16:22

That is truly amazing. And one of the items in that portfolio is what we're gonna focus on in this segment, which is this 1792 single barrel that is only available at Mr. Lester's steakhouse. They bought the barrel, we got the tasting kit. It was absolutely fantastic. And I'm gonna shift to Caleb for a second. Caleb, we posted the video as we sat in the private dining room at Mr. Lester's of when we got to actually pick this barrel. Walk people through your experience as we made the pick and what that's like for them to understand really just how good of an opportunity it is to buy a single barrel because this becomes unobtainium the second it's delivered. You'll never have this barrel, this whiskey, this sip again.

SPEAKER_08 17:12

Well, and what people need to understand is when you're doing a barrel pick, they're not bringing you like the bottom of the barrel, right? Because if you're gonna go out and you're gonna, you're gonna spend the money and get a premium product that you're gonna put your name on, they're gonna bring you the best of the best. And we sat down, and and what I liked about theirs is some of the other whiskey tastings we've done and the picks we've done, they try to guide you and they're like, oh, you know, these are your options for flavor notes and this and that. And it was a blank piece of paper, which is what I liked. It's probably because I flipped it over, to be honest with you. But uh, I sat down, I like to smell, I like to experience, I like to find that memory that brings it back. And for each one of them, we sat down, we wrote our notes, and we we tasted and we partook uh more than we were supposed to, and uh enjoyed every last drop of all of them. And what's what's phenomenal is this the one that we have here was our favorite. But it's not the one we recommend that they buy. Because we talked to we talked to them about it, and we said, look, if you want to go mainstream, if you want to go, people are gonna go after this one. This is your safe bet, this is what you should go after. And uh man, they said, Man, the torpedoes. They said we won't want the safe bet, we want what what we like, what you like, and we're gonna go after what we want to go after. And this is exactly that. Like when I think of Mr. Lester's, when I think of the experience there, when I think of the aromas, the the food, the desserts, everything, uh everything it is, is in this bottle.

SPEAKER_06 18:40

I think it also fits very well in with the fact that this is very southern Louisiana in this bottle. You get a lot of flavors that if you come to New Orleans, if you're in Lafayette, even areas south, you're gonna get those flavors on the palate from this. And I'm gonna let each of you give kind of your tasting notes and people will begin to understand. Because when you think about Louisiana, a lot of people in other parts of the country may not realize if you've ever had bananas foster, that started here in Louisiana. Right? If you've had all those deep, beautiful, dark oak flavors, that's the flavor of the food. It is the vibe of the city, of the people, of the culture in which we live. And this bottle, I think, fulfills that really, really well.

SPEAKER_08 19:29

And look, what people need to think about, and I'm a little biased, is when you try food from other places, when you try to experience them from somewhere else, it's good. Louisiana just does it better, right? So if you go somewhere and and they have their local dish, it's great. I've had clam chow on the West Coast that was good. We do it better. We don't even like we don't have the same clams down here, right? But we do it better. We put our flair to it. We we're a melting pot of cultures, and you get that in our liquor, in our food, in our experiences, in our culture. That's who we are, and it's everything in what we do.

SPEAKER_06 20:04

You're gonna get me on a rant on people in Maryland thinking they know how to cook crabs, right? Aren't you that that's what that's what's coming? Yeah, that no, I tell you what, let's go ahead and stick with whiskey. So, what I'd like to do is I'd like to start, Greg, with you, because your palate is definitely better than mine. Probably better than Caleb's. So I'm curious as to what you get off of this 1792 implicit barrel, only available at Mr. Lester Steakhouse.

SPEAKER_13 20:31

Yeah, uh, so first, you know, just nosing it, God, it's just it's just a complex aroma. It it's really, really nice. I I get that pepper, I get that little bit of spice. Uh 1792, folks, it's gonna be spicier. You know, uh their recipe. Other than the uh other than the uh like Buffalo Trace stuff, mash bill two is a higher rye. 1792 is actually a higher rye than mash bill two. All right. So are we over 25% officially a high rye bourbon? I don't they don't they don't give the percentages. I don't know the percentages. I they don't tell me even. So uh but it so uh our master the master distiller from 1792 uh was here um I guess a couple months well for uh bourbon festival here in Moscow. Okay. So he did a little tr uh staff training and uh so he was talking about you know some of the differences, a different yeast strain in Buffalo Trace, that higher rye, higher than Mashville 2 again. Uh and the biggest thing, like I had asked him, I said, so at 1792, which was one of the oldest or last, if not one of the last uh distilleries that still use coal to fire their steel. And I asked him, I said, so that coal, I said, does I mean, does that what do you think about it? Uh, you know, because I I always thought, hey, that would give more uh flavor. And he actually shocked me. He says, uh, actually switched to gas. Really? Uh I said, and how does that affect? He said it makes it better. He says, honestly, you can just Control the heat better. When you're doing your cooking, when you're doing your distilling, it just makes a better product, which I was kind of surprised by, you know, but uh so 1792 is very unique uh in our portfolio in that way. Uh it's it's a definitely high rye. So, you know, the the cocktails really the Manhattan's that those high rye things, those are the kind of cocktails that are you looking for, something like this, I think, uh just because it stands out, you know, especially the you know, the um uh bottled and bond that hundred proof, it just makes an incredible, incredible Manhattan. So uh for that, it's just it's a different segment, uh, but just absolutely wonderful. Now on this one, gosh, when I was nosing it, uh, you know, that those typical caramels and stuff, when I tasted it, it immediately kind of brought me to creme brulee, like the topping that kind of burnt sugar and stuff. Uh, and then you kind of mentioned um uh bananas foster after it opened up a while, just sitting here, no, you it kind of opens up and picks up that way too. So uh no, absolutely just absolutely wonderful pick. And you know, it's like you said, it's a shame they're single barrels because when they're gone, they're gone, unfortunately. But uh, but yeah, that's what's special about a single barrel. You just get that those just beautiful, you know, honey barrels, I guess we'll call them. Yeah, and you're right. We you know, we're not gonna put out four barrels of our not very good bourbons for our our best customers. We're gonna we're gonna pre-select those and some of the real the best barrels we can come up with for our guests to uh to pick from. So yeah.

SPEAKER_06 23:35

I love where you went with bananas foster with creme brulee on this, because I do you get that slight char. I found that you almost got some floral notes on the nose, right? It it opened up and gave you some of that almost when you start to really refine sugar, then that that's kind of where it went for me, right? That those beautiful natural sugars that were just so evident, and that's really where I landed. On the palate, I almost get that butterscotch flavor to it that's just not quite as thick as a caramel, but man, wonderful, beautiful, deep flavor that is fantastic. So, Caleb, I'm gonna go to you before we go to Chef Willie because we're gonna let Chef Willie deal with what you have to say about this one. I'm sure you've got a great review.

SPEAKER_08 24:25

Well, and look, when when you when you smell it, when you experience it, I I do get the floral, and it's almost like a clove, like a pre-honey. It's that beautiful spring scent you get on the on the breeze as it comes in. And I get just beautiful, beautiful banana foster. Like fresh out of the oven, still kind of bubbling a little bit, almost too hot to experience. It just goes down perfect. Very viscous, uh just enough mouthfeel. It's got legs. It wants to stay, it wants to stay around, it wants to be there as you finish the glass because it wants you to go to another. It's a full experience. And when you said like like a almost a butterscotch, I don't know if this is the right way to describe it or not, I'll be honest with you. What was in Mama's shorts?

SPEAKER_06 25:09

So when I sat there while she was in church and she took it out and gave you the candy, and you know exactly where I'm going with this.

SPEAKER_08 25:15

Like when I was little, uh, I I had what we're gonna call an adopted grandpa, uh, and I called him Grandpa Hugh at church, and he always had pocket candy. You know, like that if we think about it, growing up in the South, you had knew somebody at church, they had pocket candy. And he always had were those originals, and it they weren't fresh, they had a little white crisp on the outside of them. But man, it's that that hint of butterscotch, that light butterscotch, that caramel flavor that just pulls you through. You're like, look, the sermon's not for me today, but that pocket candy is. And that's what I that's what I get on this. It's that that nice smooth butterscotch, that creme brulee kind of crisp crust on top. It was a great, great uh description for it, but perfect banana foster. That's what I get when I dr when I drink this and experience it.

SPEAKER_06 26:01

Willie, I I I'm gonna beg you to follow that up in some way.

SPEAKER_09 26:06

I I I I can't go to church and have pocket candy, but I'm gonna go with you talked about South Louisiana, the the flavors. I get cane syrup. That is, yes. That's cane syrup in the can. Yep. That is on the city in your mama's house. Yeah, yeah. She's about to make popcorn balls.

SPEAKER_06 26:28

So where where I was almost gonna go with this is a candied pecan. Right. I almost get like a candied pecan on this. Not a not just a pecan if you're gonna eat one. And by the way, a pecan is a nut. A pecan is a can that anyway. A pecan, though, that's candied and you get that little bit of sugar to it. It's not over-sugared, but done just perfectly. I get that on the palate with this.

SPEAKER_09 26:54

And so I Garrett at Lester's has come up with a Sting's cane syrup old fashioned. Oh, I can't wait to have one made with this.

SPEAKER_06 27:03

This will not only give you that little bit of sweetness that you want in that old fashioned, but to Greg's point, the pepper will stand up to everything else in the cocktail. So I can only imagine it's almost more of a spirit forward cocktail, which I love. And it makes you really, really want to go, I need not one, but two. I gotta have a few too.

SPEAKER_08 27:25

I'm willing to bet you that Garrett probably thins out the steam syrup a little bit. He does. That way it comes through so you get steamed syrup, simple syrup. That that would be ideal in with this, with this spirit, that's gonna be phenomenal.

SPEAKER_06 27:40

Going to be absolutely phenomenal. Okay, so we're gonna get this out of the way because we know that at Mr. Lester's they do crazy things when it comes down to pricing. So people always want to know when can I get these special barrels? When can I get these special bottles? What does it take for a price? And chef, since I know, do you want me to just go ahead and save you the pain?

SPEAKER_09 28:04

Go for it.

SPEAKER_06 28:05

Five dollar first pour, ten dollars a pour after that. If you want to buy the bottle in Lester's, it's only fifty bucks. That is correct. Five dollar first pour, ten dollar pours after that. If you want to buy the bottle, fifty bucks while they last. Unobtainium at Mr. Lester's. We have to take a break because the crew here has given us the finger, and this is the one-minute finger. Trust me, we've been here all day. They'd want to give me the other finger too. We'll be right back. More spirit forward here on Implicit Bias Radio.

SPEAKER_15 28:37

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SPEAKER_19 29:09

Experience Acadiana's most exclusive steakhouse. Mr. Lester's at Cypress Value. Make your reservation today. Space is limited.

SPEAKER_18 29:20

Take Highway 90 to the Bulbine exit.

SPEAKER_11 29:22

Never think about firearm safety. Are you doing it? Don't know how to get started.

SPEAKER_07 29:27

Here's it with the rustic renegade. I love new tier that has somebody who hasn't been around and hasn't been around firearms that hasn't been a lot of people. Sit down in a very safe environment where there's no lot of munition, no risk of any residuals. And train them the right way before they have to get on a range and go into the lot of coming out and have a cup of coffee with it.

SPEAKER_11 29:46

The Rustic Renegade at the RusticRenegate.com.

SPEAKER_00 29:57

We have a large selection of cigars, pipes, pipe tobaccos, gliders, cutters, ashtrays, Lamborghini lamps, and even some pocket knives. Our humidor is 553 square feet, and we have 1,400 different cigars in the humidor. Just come by and see us. We're open Monday through Friday, 9 to 8, and Saturday, 9 to 5. Pipers Haven 3916 West Congress.

SPEAKER_06 30:20

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SPEAKER_08 32:38

Put it more in the center of your chest. That way, you know, it's more natural.

SPEAKER_06 32:41

No, unfortunately, I am loud enough that this mic has no issue picking me up. Oh, sure. Okay, yeah. Full height. What? What? I said full height. Yeah. Yeah. Oh no. This is no. 5'8 on a good day in boots. Anyway. Let me introduce you to the rest of the crew who's here. We have Chef Willie Gaspod from Cyprus by UCasino. Oh, you think that's funny, Chef? Yeah, yeah, he does think that's funny. And we have Greg Treesh, who is now I'm going to see if I can remember all of this. A senior experience.

SPEAKER_08 33:12

Premium experience. Premium ambassador. Experience ambassador.

SPEAKER_06 33:15

I remember Sweet P.

unknown 33:16

There you go.

SPEAKER_06 33:17

Sweet pea, premium experience. I like that. Premium experience ambassador, sweet pea, but he's also a brand ambassador for Buffalo Trace. But what a lot of people don't think about and know when they come to Louisiana is when I say that this is the bourbon Vatican, there's a reason why. We didn't maybe create the spirits, but you know, my understanding of the history, and Greg, you have all the history on this, which is one of the reasons why we love having somebody like you on the show, because you are the expert. The spirit kind of got its name here. Right?

SPEAKER_13 33:54

Kind of. Kind of. Yeah, there's there's some debate about that. And there's no there's no one authoritative say, hey, this is where bourbon comes from. Okay. We do know it's probably not actually bourbon street. Uh, because back when when you started hearing the term bourbon, uh Bourbon Street was residential. Bourbon Street was not the party street that it is today, right? Uh that's Decatur Street. That's where when all of these uh shipmates got off the ship, they were ready to party. It was it was Decatur Street, right in the quarter. Uh the finer folks here in New Orleans at the time, they actually, it was Royal Street. Yeah. Is is and that's where all the shops are, and and it's merchants, that's where all your merchants are. And that was actually the original location of Merchants Exchange, uh, which actually uh was located where the Wyndham Hotel is today, just a block off of Canal Street. That uh is where the original location of the Sazerac house, uh uh back first here at Sazerac House, 1850-ish time frame. Um it's I'm telling you, it's almost 200. Yeah, it's incredible the history.

SPEAKER_06 34:59

So well, and the legend, and I say the legend because that's kind of how I think a lot of people understand it. But the legend is the original cocktail in the United States, in the world, is the Sazerac cocktail. So when you think Sazerac house, you are thinking the Sazerac cocktail. And there's a story behind all of that.

SPEAKER_13 35:22

Oh, absolutely. Uh, so it actually all starts back at a little apothecary on Royal Street. Uh, there's a gentleman by the name of Antoine Pesho. Uh he was uh a young man from originally from uh Saint Domingue, which is modern-day Haiti, right? Uh he was sent here uh as a young child, probably around 10 years old. We're not sure if it was family members or or caretakers. Uh the problem was at the time Saint Domingue was going through like a slave resistance. We think uh that Antoine Peshaw was Creole. So they wanted to get him out of harm's way. Uh his father was a pharmacist. Uh, they were of French descent living there. He was his father was a pharmacist as well. So he gets to New Orleans uh in the early 1800s as a young child and uh starts studying and becomes a pharmacist himself. Uh 1834, he creates Pecho's Bitters, okay, on his pharmacy, in his apothecary on Royal Street, uh, which happens to be, I think you guys said y'all going to dinner at Brennan's or something. Uh no, actually, we now that works. We'll see.

SPEAKER_06 36:28

We will be on bourbon. We may go to Brennan's, we'll we'll figure that out.

SPEAKER_13 36:30

Right next to Brennan's, there's a store called the Antique Gun and Sword Shop. I am well aware of that location. That is the original location of his apothecary. Really? Yes. So if you step into there, you're stepping into his apothecary.

SPEAKER_06 36:42

So I grew up here in New Orleans and, you know, as a young man, 70s, 80s, the antique weapon shop on Royal is always a place that that you wanted to go because they always have cool stuff. Right. Right. Never knew the history of that with regards to spirits as well.

SPEAKER_13 36:57

Sure. Uh, so yeah, that was his apothecary. Back then, bitters were your medicine of the day, right? Uh Antoine Pesho uh uh advertised his as a cure all for whatever ailed your stomach. So you had a little tummy ache, you would go see him and he'd give you a shot of his bitters, right? Now, bitters, they earn their name, they're not the most best tasting thing in the world. You know, they're not terrible, but they're not, you know. Oh, it's medicinal, too. It's medicinal. So what he give you a shot of his bitters, and if you take bad medicine, what's the first thing you want to do? Drink something that tastes a little better, right?

SPEAKER_08 37:30

Wash it down.

SPEAKER_13 37:32

Well, he would give his uh his patients a shot of Sazerac Cognac to wash it down. Okay. So Sazerac Cognac was being imported to the United States there, which which is where we get this name from. Uh so he uh it's rumored he was a Freemason. At the end of the day, he would have his friends over and he would start creating drinks with his Peixos bitters. He is actually credited with first blending his bitters with Sazerac Cognac, the birth of the Sazerac cocktail. Okay. So that's kind of the really the beginning of it. Now, um in Merchants Exchange, about four blocks up off uh on Royal Street was the Sazerac Coffee House. Okay. Uh coffee houses back then were basically a concept that came from Europe, okay, where fine gentlemen would gather at lunchtime or after work over a cup of coffee and make your business deals and do that, you know, right? Well, that concept came here to New Orleans. Uh, except our fine gentlemen would go to the coffee houses and drink, right? We love our coffee, but we love our booze just a little bit better here in New Orleans.

SPEAKER_06 38:39

And I don't know that people necessarily understand unless you're from here. I was having the conversation with someone from out of state just a little while ago. The pacing of life is just different here. It traces back to that culture 200 years ago and it's persisted. Because the afternoon lunch cocktail business deal is still a thing here in New Orleans. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_13 39:03

Yeah, uh it is New Orleans, if nothing else, is a true cocktail culture city. Uh, you're right. A lot of people say, you know, the first cocktail was created here in New Orleans, the Sazerac. There's some debate about that, some kind of back and forth with the old-fashioned. So, you know, there's there's I don't I don't really think there's anything, again, that's 100% absolutely yes. But uh, when we get to it, we we are the home of the very first ready-to-drink cocktail. Because in about 1901, 1900, 1901, the Thomas Handy and Company bottled the very first bottled cocktail, that being the Sazerac cocktail. So we were absolutely the very first ready-to-drink cocktail bottled.

SPEAKER_06 39:46

Um so the names that come into play here, as you start to think about the path with which we went, you've got Paisho, Pasho's bitters, its own line of products today, as people all over the world drink Pasho's. Then you go to Thomas Handy. So for those who understand Buffalo Trace, and those who know what was called the BTAC, for a very long time, there was what was called Thomas Handy Sazerac rye.

SPEAKER_13 40:18

Correct.

SPEAKER_06 40:18

So the BTAC, Buffalo Trace Antique Collection. For those who might know, might not know. Thomas Handy had his own place in all of this as everything has evolved to where we are in bourbon and whiskey today, correct?

SPEAKER_13 40:31

Oh, absolutely. Uh so uh he was originally from Maryland. Uh in fact, I've been doing some research on Thomas Handy and Antoine Pesho finding their grave sites here in the city. They're both buried here in the city. Uh so uh Thomas Handy, in fact, I read his ap his uh obituary. And if you want to really know somebody, read their obituary, right? And it said, seriously, it's it said he was he was brought here as a young lad on his own accord at the age of eight and left here at eight years old. All right, I guess kids were a little more mature back then. I don't know.

SPEAKER_10 41:02

A whole lot more mature.

SPEAKER_13 41:03

Holy cow anyway. So he uh he was in New Orleans, uh he's you know uh learned how to read and write, you know, became kind of a businessman and ends up working at the Sazrak house. Okay. Uh he leaves to go fight in a Civil War. He had fought for the South here in the Civil War. He got injured, but this whole time he was saving all his money. Uh he comes back to New Orleans and in about, I think it's 1870, purchases the Sazerac house. Okay. So he becomes the sole proprietor of the Sazrak house. Now, again, we get our name from the Sazerac cognac, from the Sazerac family uh from France that were, you know, they started exporting their cognac to the United States or to the States or America's in the 1600s, made its way here in the 1700s. Uh Sazerac House, well, the coffee house at Merchants Exchange was the sole importer of the Sazrak. So they started advertising, hey, if you want to enjoy this Sazerac cognac, you had to come to the Sazerac house. Okay. Uh and back then you got, you know, we were, you know, settled mostly by the French, right? Spanish for a little while, but back to the because they got tired of us, didn't want us anymore. They gave us back to the French. Uh so but the French have a palate for fine wine, right? Yeah. Uh fine wine didn't travel well from France. The cognac. Cognac did. It actually even got a little better in those barrels. So uh the French folks really fell in love with this, with the Sazerac cognac, which was fine and dandy uh until about 1871, 1870.

SPEAKER_06 42:35

I seem to remember there was some sort of parasite or fungal issue with the grape vines in France where they make cognac, correct? Yes. So Renee was there, he told me about it.

SPEAKER_13 42:47

Yeah. So uh yeah, about 18. So the United States and French, they were working together to try to cultivate a grapevine that would grow here to provide the the nice grapes that would satisfy the French palate. We never really have. Uh, but a French scientist brought back to France with them a bunch of grape vines from here. Well, there was little aphid called phyloxera that live and eat the roots of grapevines. The grapevines here had become resistant to it. The grapevines in Europe had not. So it they brought them to Europe and it spread like wildfire in Europe throughout Europe. Uh, the only way to get rid of it is they had to burn their vineyards, they had to till the soil and could not replant for a minimum of five years. So, no grapes, no wine, no wine, no cognac.

SPEAKER_08 43:37

Well, that pushes it much further than five years, right? Because you can't press, you can't educate other things.

SPEAKER_06 43:43

And guess what? No breaks, no more implicit bias. So we're gonna take a break. We're gonna come back, we'll finish the story because this this is not just whiskey history. This is not just cocktail history, this is American history on this week's episode of Implicit Bias Radio. We'll be right back.

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SPEAKER_08 48:17

So in the last segment, you can't say antique and then my name. I'm not that old. No, I said the bar is antique. Yeah, but you can't lump me in like that.

SPEAKER_06 48:25

Watch me. Anyway, we are actually sampling a weekly, monthly whiskey that's available at Cypress Bayou Casino this month. It is a single barrel, 1792 implicit barrel picked by the Rustic Renegade. The palette. Well, look, when they called and said, Hey, would you like to be part of a pick? My response actually was, I would love to, but you need Caleb. Well, thank you. You need Caleb's nose, you need Caleb's palette, and of course, you also need Chef Willie Gaspod all in on it. So we were fortunate enough to pick this barrel and the praise for it from those who not just us who really, really, really know is there. So we got to get back to the story though, Greg, because we were talking about kind of the history of the Sazerac cocktail, where it came from. Is it the first cocktail in the United States? Is it everything that history has built it up to be? Is it always made with rye whiskey as it is today, or was it made with cognac? And then maybe why is it made with rye whiskey today?

SPEAKER_13 49:34

Yeah, so uh great. Yeah, uh, so uh back to about the 1870s and stuff when that phylaxera epidemic happened. Again, no wine, no branding, no branding, no cognac, right? Uh so um 1884, I believe it was, Thomas Handy got his final shipment of Sazerac cognac to the United States. Um and knowing that, gosh, these French folks are not gonna be happy without their cognac and wines, uh, he's actually uh responsible for starting to transition the Sazerac cocktail from a cognac cocktail to a rye whiskey cocktail. Okay. He didn't do it overnight and he didn't just do it all of a sudden. So he actually began making the cocktail with both the cognac and the rye whiskey to kind of transition the palate. Okay. Uh so uh about the 1900s, um, his company he passes away in the late uh 1800s. His company continues, the Thomas Handy Company continues. Uh, they put out that very first uh ready-to-drink cocktail, the Sazerac cocktail, bottled cocktail, uh, and it listed originally both the cognac and rye whiskey, and then it kind of disappears after that. You don't really hear the cognac anymore. Um as far as the rye whiskey being from Maryland, rye whiskey was all the rage back then, you know. Uh so well, it's is it's the rage again. It's definitely coming back as as one of the favorite whiskeys. Uh but uh so in fact I was on a Facebook page, Old New Orleans or something like that. And I have this really bad habit of going down these rabbit holes. Anyway, I saw one of the pictures of Canal Street, and I saw this big sign, big marquee sign over to one of the buildings that said Maryland Club rye whiskey. It's like, hmm, exactly. It's like, well, I went down that damn rabbit hole and had to find out what it was all about. Well, comes come to find out, it is the rye whiskey that Thomas Handy used to transition the cocktail.

SPEAKER_15 51:35

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_08 51:36

So it was the base that he it was it was the product he used, the method he used to slowly transition from the cognac to what we have today. Correct.

SPEAKER_13 51:44

Yep. So uh he started uh doing that. Um and and we got to that point because eventually uh Thomas Handy and Antoine Pesho became friends. They were only four blocks away from each other or so, right? Uh and they made a gentleman's agreement. Thomas Handy agreed to only serve or use Pesho's bitters at his bar or his coffee house. And Antoine Pesho agreed to only use Sazerac Cognac as his kicker at his apothecary. So they became great friends. Uh eventually, Antoine Pesho kind of ran into some financial trouble. Uh bitters kind of went away as modern medicine, although a lot of people still think it has some medicinal properties. We can't really say that legally, but a lot of people still do believe that. Um, so he actually ends up selling his recipe for the bitters to Thomas Handy and goes to work for him, continuing to make his bitters for him and actually as a bartender even for a while. Uh so they were actually very good friends at at that same point.

SPEAKER_06 52:47

So how cool would it how cool would it have been to have a Sazerat cocktail made by Antoine Pesho? I mean, do we think people understood their intersection with history sitting in that small apothecary shop?

SPEAKER_08 53:01

I don't think any I don't think anyone understands where they are in history at that moment in time. You always look back and you're like, oh, I was there. You know, I I was there the moment this happened. You know, and and when we look back and we think about Peshow and everything else, and South Louisiana, the South in general, everything's based off relationships. You know, it's well, this is my friend. That's how the that's how the introductions happen. This is my friend, my confidant, so and so. And that relationship is what gets you in the door. So when you look at that door opened, it helped him through his transition, through difficult times and so forth. And that just speaks to the quality of friendship and relationship they had that that continues to this day.

SPEAKER_13 53:38

Absolutely. Yep. Uh so that's kind of really how we got to where the Sazerac cocktail was a rye whiskey cocktail because of this little phylloxera. Uh in fact, I was reading something the other day, it really destroyed Europe's wine industry. Uh that's when absinthe became very popular because people were going to drink something. So they switched to absinthe, right? Uh, but uh so in fact I was reading something. There was only one small island uh outside of Europe that still has the original grapevine that was not affected by phylloxy. It's really the same strain. Yes. But it's it's such a small, it would never have enough of that that grape variety to you know to support you know the Sazerac Cognac. But so Sazerac Cognac kind of disappeared uh for a while. Uh we opened here as the Sazerac uh House, uh, our cocktail museum in 2019, October 2019. Uh some of the descendants of the Sazerac family attended, uh, and they were asked if they were interested in resurrecting the Sazerac Cognac brand, and they said yes. So our master blender Drew Mayville went to Europe and and re, you know, re I don't want to say recreated because that's not the right word. Reintroduced. Reintroduced the Sazerac cognac with the original three grape varieties, and it is absolutely fantastic cognac. Unfortunately, uh well it's like anywhere from a five-year to a over a 50-year cognac. Wow. We don't have any more of that 50-year stuff. So the the Sazerac, the 4G feast that we have left is is it. There will be no more after that. Uh, we just introduced the cognac XO, the Sazerac XO, which you know, but the the 4G feast, when it's gone, it's gone, yo. So if you want some, you better grab you a bottle downstairs. I was about to say, you and you can get a lot of that stuff here. And it makes an incredible Sazerac cocktail. If you've ever had a cognac Sazerac, oh my goodness, so good.

SPEAKER_06 55:34

It's a little more sweet, yes, as you would expect, the difference between a cognac and a rye whiskey. Sure. But man, and when you say absinthe, another spirit that is involved in the Sazerac cocktail. Yes. Not a lot of it, but just enough to give you that that wormwood liquorish flavor that you would expect.

SPEAKER_13 55:58

It's an aromatic. Uh, it's used as an aromatic in the cocktail. It is an aromatic cocktail. That's why the the apps or the the Herb Saint uh rinse, uh that's why that lemon twist on top, because that Sazerac cocktail is not the same without that lemon twist, Joe. No. It is not the same.

SPEAKER_08 56:15

It's easy to that pop, you know, and that's why when you spritz the glass, work it, and bring your lemon zest or peel around the edge, the it is aromatic. It's just the scent, it accentuates the entire drink, the whole thing.

SPEAKER_13 56:27

In fact, when I teach the Sazerac cocktail class here, uh, when I serve, before I demonstrate the Sazerac, when I serve our guests uh uh a Sazerac, I'll I'll put the uh lemon twist on the side and I'll say nose it and taste it first without the lemon. And I said, then spritz your lemon on top, and it's a it's an entirely different cocktail with that lemon. So yeah.

SPEAKER_06 56:51

A lot of Americans don't necessarily think about dining the way that Europeans do. And New Orleans has the culture of we are going to dine later, we are going to have apertivo, which means we're gonna have cocktails, we're gonna have all this before dinner, which is something that we see a lot of Willie at Lester's. So as we transition to Chef Willie, one of the things I want to ask about Chef is how do you see the cocktail playing in at Lester's? I mean, when you are talking old mahogany cigar lounge, this is that type of dining experience, not just eating. I'm not here to eat a steak, right? I am here to dine.

SPEAKER_10 57:33

Right. How do you accentuate that?

SPEAKER_06 57:35

Yeah, how do you accentuate that at Lester's?

SPEAKER_09 57:38

We we slow everything down there. It it's a two-hour, at least a two-hour process to have dinner there, at least we make sure our reservations are two hours apart uh to make sure you have the experience of dining and not being rushed and to that sort of in and out.

SPEAKER_08 57:59

I I think that's the beauty of it too, because you know, uh my wife and I went there, I think it was Valentine's Day, you actually you know helped us out a little bit with that. And we sat down and any other restaurant you go to, they want to turn the tables.

SPEAKER_10 58:13

Of course.

SPEAKER_08 58:13

They want to get you in, they want to get you out because someone else is behind you, right? Right. They want to maximize the profit and their ROI. Where Mr. Lester's, y'all want to maximize the experience. It's all about the experience. You want someone to come in, sit down, enjoy the meal, but enjoy the experience. And they walk away. Anytime you see someone tag you all on a post on social media or anything else, right? It's the food is phenomenal. The experience is memorable.

SPEAKER_06 58:38

Like no other. And we have been partners for what, three years now? Four years, something like that. Something like that. I had no idea that you spaced your reservations by two hours. We do that says such that is such a statement about the restaurant and the desire for the experience that you want. Because it all comes down to, and it goes to the cocktail, it goes to this bottle of whiskey. We're not here to sit here and say, oh, I'm drinking this and go the Renee, we love you, and I haven't heard him say it in a while. It'll get you drunk, right? That's not the point.

SPEAKER_09 59:17

Right.

SPEAKER_06 59:17

Of course not. The point you can eat anywhere, you can eat anywhere. If that's all your target is, is to get inebriated, you can do that virtually anywhere. Anywhere. If you want to experience something that is unique, that is so irreplaceable, you'll never get that experience again. As Renee would say, and we love Renee, unobtaining them. You get it once. This is the way to do it. Right. It all goes into the cocktail, it all goes into the meal, it all goes into the location, it all goes into your implicit bias. Our two is always more fun. It's always more fun, usually, because Burley's sitting there complaining about a short pour instead. We've got more 1792. We're gonna talk more about all the Sazerac brands, we're gonna talk more about what's available at Mr. Lester Steakhouse as we continue our spirit education here at the Sazerac House in New Orleans on Implicit Bias Radio. We'll see you for hour two after this. Nobody likes to drive around in a grimy ride. Clean that car the Cajun way. Zydeco Ride and Shine Car Wash at 320 Willow and Cajun Car Wash at 510 Lafayette Street in Young'sville are there for you. Our facilities provide you with the best automatic car wash in the Acadiana area. Regulars get a bonus. Buy three washes at a location, get the fourth one free. Zydeco Ride and Shine and Cajun Car Wash. Keeping Acadiana's rides clean since 2014. Dewpre Carrier Godshaw provides insurance locally as well as nationwide. A full service agency, DewpreCarrier Godshaw, can take care of all of your needs, from personal auto, home, or business, group health, life, or investment products. DewpreCarrier Godshaw is a growing business and is currently hiring. Email resumes to Charles L at DCGAgency.com. For all of your insurance needs, call DewpreCarrier Godshaw at 337-948-8186 or visit DCGAgency.com.

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SPEAKER_06 1:02:37

Hour two of implicit bias is brought to you by William S. Nay Call Jewers, 3802 Johnson Street in Lafayette, Louisiana. Go find Grant Galatis. Tell him you want bigger, better diamonds for less, whatever you need, whatever you're looking for. They'll customize something just for you to make sure that your special someone gets that something oh so special. William S. Nacall Jewelers, 3802 Johnson Street, Lafayette. Hour two is always more fun here on Implicit Bias Radio. I'm your host, Kavan Bordelon. And if you are watching on any of our social platforms, whether it's X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, you might recognize that this is not our normal backdrop for Implicit Bias Radio. This is not the normal top secret podcast layer located somewhere in downtown Lafayette. I do have our co-host Caleb Morse here with us, who is caught drinking, and that's fine because we are sipping. It's very normal. We are sipping on a single barrel 1792, available only at Mr. Lester Steakhouse. But it's always really cool when you have the lineage attached to everything that happens. And when I say the lineage, what do I mean? 1792 is a brand owned by Sazerac. Sazerac is synonymous with the city of New Orleans, the cocktail, as well as the Sazerac House, which is where we are. We are actually located on the fourth floor, which is really outstanding because it is this massive event space with a beautiful bar in front of which are sitting Chef Willie Gaspod and Greg Triche of the Sazerac house. So, chef, I've got to ask because you can't be at the Sazerac house and not talk about the Sazerac cocktail. What's that?

unknown 1:04:30

The Sazerac.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:31

Say that a little louder. The Sazerac. There we go. Aaron's actually doing Walker's job now, so thank you. We like to pick on Walker. We love Walker. He's not Sam. Rest in peace yet. Anyway, no, Sam's not dead. We just joke. But chef, the Sazerac cocktail. It's one of those cocktails, as you being an executive chef, that is a staple anywhere you go.

SPEAKER_09 1:04:53

Absolutely. Anywhere in the South. Or any anywhere, I guess. Anywhere. You can get Sazerac anywhere, I guess, across the country.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:01

Yeah, but it's not always a good Sazerac. It's not always good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's not always good. I know a lot of people who say, oh, I don't like a Sazerac cocktail.

SPEAKER_09 1:05:11

Right. I've had the worst old fashioned ever had in New York, New York, not New Orleans. I think K. I paid the most for it that I've ever paid for old-fashioned in my life. I'm not going to say where it was, but it was $45. Oh, wow. For an old wow.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:26

That's a whole different thing.

SPEAKER_08 1:05:28

I'm sure they brought it out and they were like, as you can see, our glasses are made of organic glass.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:34

Not even close. It brings to mind the whole social media thing where they're like, this is a $30 hamburger. Right. Right. A Waigoo hamburger. $45 old fashioned.

SPEAKER_09 1:05:46

Just add some fat to some regular ground beef and you got Waigu beef.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:48

Yep.

SPEAKER_09 1:05:49

Burger.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:51

The part of this, though, to me that jumps out is yeah, you you can go anywhere and order a Sazerac. Right. But the Sazerac. Might not have been the first cocktail. Fine. You want to argue that that's great. But the Sazerac cocktail started here in Louisiana. Absolutely. It is part and partial to who and what basically the culture of this state is when you think about cocktails. So how does that play into a dining experience as a chef?

SPEAKER_09 1:06:21

Yeah, but so we actually we actually took some different menu items off of the flavors of that, you know, like there's soups made with um licorice flavored Herb Saint. Herb Saint. Herb Saint goes in great and spinach and Rockefeller and oysters and different things of that nature. You know, so we we embrace some of those flavors into the food that we actually create. Um Herb Saint is old school New Orleans, like it just goes hand in hand with some of the food that was came from New Orleans. When you think of the food that comes from New Orleans, right?

SPEAKER_06 1:07:06

Some of the most famous dishes on the planet Oysters Rockefeller, Oysters Bienville. They came out of southern Louisiana.

SPEAKER_09 1:07:16

Both have some of the flavors from the Sazerac.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:19

And there you go. They are both tied almost to the cocktail. That's how pervasive it is for a lot of people who may not even know that it's there.

SPEAKER_09 1:07:29

Right.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:30

And I think that's really, really interesting. So let's bring Greg back in. Because when you talk about the flavors of the Sazerac cocktail, Greg, I'm not gonna lie, I'm kind of proud of my Sazerac cocktail at home. Okay. You make a really mean Sazerac cocktail.

SPEAKER_13 1:07:49

Well, I appreciate it. I honestly, I make the official Sazerac cocktail of New Orleans. Uh 2007, uh, New Orleans was um the Sazerac cocktail was named the official cocktail of New Orleans. Uh, we did try to have it named as the official cocktail of the state, right? But as we know, Louisiana is two two states, you know, south of I-10 is all Catholic, north of I-10 is Yankees. Not Catholic. We love them, but they're Yankees. Absolutely. And uh so they had a little bit pushback that we were trying to name a cocktail as a state drink. So Louisiana state drink now is actually milk, like everybody else's. So the yeah, the compromise was we'll name it the official cocktail of New Orleans. And it is truly a cultural cocktail, folks. Look, uh, the ingredients. Uh you start out with the sugar. Sugar came from the Caribbean out. New Orleans was basically settled by the uh Jesuit priests, right? They came here, they landed here because it was close to get down to the Caribbean, to the islands there to convert those folks to Catholicism. While the Jesuit priests were down there, they learned how to grow sugar cane. They brought that back with them and taught us here because the same kind of environment. That's why there's so much sugar cane between here and past Baton Rouge along the river, right? Uh so you got that flavor influence. Then you got the herb saint, which is French, right? That absence, that's your French uh part to it. Then you have your rye whiskey and your cognac originally, then your rye whiskey, which is true on American rye whiskey, right? And then until the Italians got here, folks, we didn't have citrus. They brought the lemon, right? So it is truly a true gumbo of a cocktail, just like the city is. That's why it represents this city so well. It is it is truly the basis of our culture here in the city.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:41

Well, and the only reason we use uh Herb Saint is what year was it whenever they started to ban Absinthe because of the the world?

SPEAKER_13 1:09:48

Well, in the United States and most countries, 1912. Uh, it was actually banned in Europe in 1908.

SPEAKER_08 1:09:55

Well, and when we look back at the history of it and everything else too, uh, they banned it because we we believe that it had more hallucinogenic effects and uh the it had we thought it would the wormwood in it uh would cause more psychedelic or or detrimental health effects. So now we know that whenever you have a little regulation, it's worthwhile.

SPEAKER_13 1:10:15

Yeah, so uh so you gotta kind of think back early 1900s when absinthe really came to to popularity, right? What would what what could you not get to drink back then?

SPEAKER_06 1:10:28

You were getting into prohibition.

SPEAKER_13 1:10:29

Well, that only that, but you there was no wine, folks. Phyllox epidemic, right? Okay, absinthe was originally a Swiss product, it was originally clear, and and it was originally bottled as a concentrate. Absinthe was bottled at 190 proof. Okay, you were supposed to proof it down.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:48

Okay, so pump the brakes for a second. We have to talk about it. Sure. So for those who 190 proof. That is what 90? That's 90%, 95% alcohol by volume? Yes. That is almost pure alcohol. And on top of that, made from wormwood, which, yeah, the the belief was, I mean, they called it chasing the green fairy. Right. So you had that strong licorice flavor basically in what people today have as an alcohol content of Everclear? Yes.

SPEAKER_13 1:11:22

Okay. Well, we like to say diesel. That's Buffalo Trace's version of diesel. 190%. Our brain neutral spirit. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know if I want that. Yeah. So look, yeah. And so what happened was um the wormwood, which which what absinthe means wormwood, wormwood contained a chemical in it called Thujone. All right, it's just Thujone that was thought to make you go insane, hallucinate.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:48

It's it's just a green fairy, isn't it?

SPEAKER_13 1:11:50

It's just a green fairy. It's it happened to be what Van Gogh was drinking when he chopped off his ear and sent it to his lover, right? It became seriously.

SPEAKER_08 1:11:57

Well, and how much do you have to drink to do that? Because look, I've tried.

SPEAKER_13 1:12:01

Well, that's so that's the seek, that's the thing about this. Uh what they finally found out was what when they banned it, and that there's a whole story. It and if you really want to know why they banned it in Europe, there's a go Google uh the absinthe murders. Okay. We were asked not to really talk about it because it's pretty gruesome. Okay. Uh, but it's what led to Europe finally banning absinthe in 1908. But but prior to that, they had passed some laws uh that you could only have one serving of absinthe per day at the bar.

SPEAKER_08 1:12:31

Okay. And wasn't it because it wasn't so much the wormwood, it was just overconsumption of alcohol.

SPEAKER_13 1:12:36

Well, that's eventually what it proved to be, yes. Uh, but you could only get one serving of absinthe at the bar. So after work, you go to the bar, have a couple drinks, get your shot of absinthe. But what the European law forgot to say was how many bars you could go to in a day. Oh, I love it. So they began bar hopping for their absinthe. And then so that leads into the absinthe murder. So go check it out. So uh they banned it in 1908, United States and most other countries banned it in 1912. Uh it's uh in 2007, I think it was, a local gentleman, I think a Tulane professor, T. A. Bro, uh finally petitioned the federal government saying, look, it is not this causing uh all of these issues. By the time you drink so much absinthe, that thujone infection, you're long gone from alcohol poisoning. And folks, the last uh symptom of alcohol poisoning, hallucinations. So if you're drinking and start seeing stuff, folks, please quit drinking. You've had enough, right? So uh so since 2007, absinthe is again available in the United States, uh, but still supposed to contain no Fujone, but that means like less than 100 parts per million or something like that. Uh but in the meantime is when Herb Saint comes around because there's a local gentleman, pharmacist by the name of Marion Lejeune. He is stationed in Paris during World War I. He was a pharmacist, so he's not on the front line. So if you're in another country, families would house you. Well, the family that housed him had their own recipes for what they called pastiste, which is French for absinthe, right? Uh, but theirs was different. One, there was a liqueur, and two, they substituted wormwood with mugwort. Mugwort does not, yeah, from Harry Potter, mugwort. That's where you've heard it from before, probably. Yes, it's a real thing, right? Mugwort does not contain Thu Jones, has the same flavor profile. So after the war, he returned back to New Orleans. One of the sons of the family wanted to immigrate, came back with them. They started making their absinthe here. Uh, right when they're getting ready to go to market with it, 1920 comes around, prohibition. So they're stuck not being able to sell their absinthe. Uh, after prohibition ends, he's getting ready to go to market with it. The government comes knocking on the door, say, no, no, no, you cannot call it absinthe. Said, fine, we'll call it Herb Saint.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:54

And my understanding is Herb Saint is an anagram, meaning you can move the letters around and it spells something else. And if you move the letters of Herb Saint around, it just spells absinthe.

SPEAKER_13 1:15:08

Yep. Yep. You could some people say it was kind of a middle finger to the government at the time. Not that anybody would ever do that, right? I'm all about it. But but the man was, he was a marketing genius, also, because all of his advertisement was uh Lejeune Herb Saint always served where absinthe is called for. So it was basically telling folk, hey, this is absinthe, yo, right? So that's how uh, and just I mean, historically we've used Herb Saint more in the cocktail than absinthe. That's why we still we'll still stick with it.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:36

So when people think about bad sazracs that they've had, usually what comes to mind for me are two things. Number one, not enough sweet. You don't want to oversweeten it, but not enough sweet, number one. Number two, they are simply pouring in. And I've seen this happen with a bartender, and I almost had a myocardial infarction, which is a term for a heart attack. When I watched the bartender just pour a little bit of herbsint into the cocktail, and I was like, oh my goodness, no. It really can create an unpleasurable flavor. It's bad.

SPEAKER_13 1:16:17

So how do the ratios have to mix? So the ratio for herbs is is it's not you don't not put it in the cocktail. It's a spritz. You spritz the glass or you coat or rinse the serving glass with herbs. It is not supposed to be part of the flavor profile, it is an aromatic to the cocktail, right? So that's one way to ruin a good cocktail. The second way, and honestly, I'm not gonna name the bar. Uh some friends of ours from Ohio came down last week. I took them to a pretty famous bar here and ordered two Sazeracs. Uh, the bartender made them in a mixing glass, and I counted her putting 16 dashes of uh peixos in it.

SPEAKER_08 1:16:57

16.

SPEAKER_13 1:16:58

16 dashes. She poured them and added another six dashes in each of our cocktails. I couldn't drink it. I said, I'm so sorry. I just I can't drink this. She says, Yeah, we we typically go a little heavy on the uh on the peixos here.

SPEAKER_08 1:17:13

Heavy. That's that's unlead food.

SPEAKER_13 1:17:14

Yeah, it was it was honestly for me undrinkable. Yeah, so yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:17:19

Bitters is bitters, so whatever you add. When you get to like four dashes, you're like, well, the official the official cocktail is three dashes.

SPEAKER_13 1:17:26

Yeah. One sugar cube, three dashes. That's it.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:28

So can you give us the recipe?

SPEAKER_13 1:17:31

Yeah, absolutely. It's uh walk us through it if you will. It is one dash, uh, I'm sorry, one sugar cube, three dashes of Peixo's bitters. You muddle that together to that you add your ounce and a half of Sazerac rye whiskey and some ice, and you gently stir that for about 30 seconds, which is when it officially becomes a cocktail. Do you know that?

SPEAKER_06 1:17:50

So, okay. We have a member of the crew who has walked us through the elements of a cocktail. Okay. You have to have a spirit. Yep. It must have bitters, it must have water, and it must have sugar. Correct. That's the four elements, correct?

SPEAKER_13 1:18:05

For it to officially be a cocktail. If you're not drinking, if you don't have those four elements, you're drinking a mixed drink. You're not drinking a cocktail. Over time, cocktail has just become the generic term for any mixed drink, but officially for a cocktail, you need those at a minimum of those four ingredients. So you can go over those four ingredients. Well, absolutely. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But you have to have those four ingredients. So at that point, when you stir that ice, it dilutes it. That's your water, that's your cocktail. All the time you're doing this, you're chilling a glass. Uh, after you finish your cocktail, you dump that ice, you rinse that glass with the herb site, and then you strain your cocktail into there, serve straight up, meaning no ice, or you want that glass really cold, and then you finish with that lemon twist.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:47

I am a huge fan of not serving any cocktail over ice because you get over-dilution. Right. The chilled glass, can you explain to people just how big of a deal that is?

SPEAKER_13 1:18:59

Well, it's huge because honestly, there's nothing worse than a hot cocktail, right? And if you're not serving it on the rocks, that cocktail, especially down in South Louisiana, it's gonna get hot quick, right? The only place we saw ice growing up in New Orleans was in our glass. Right. Exactly. So, I mean, so you want it as cold as you can get that glass. And in fact, at home, I take a I put a bunch of glasses in my freezer because you're not gonna get it any colder than out that freezer. Uh, take that out, spritz it, and you're good to go. But yeah, you want that cocktail glass as cold as you can get it for a sazerac. If you put it over ice, what ends up happening? It dilutes it. You know, and look, it's okay if you like it that way. You know, I mean, I you like what you like. Right, you like what you like.

SPEAKER_08 1:19:41

We can we can say it's okay, but if you like your drink watered down.

SPEAKER_13 1:19:45

If it is it an official sazerac at that point, uh, you know, then we can, you know, but because it is it is historically served straight up.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:54

This goes to basically any cocktail, though. Any cocktail to me that you get over ice. I mean, if you've ever had a soft drink or an iced tea that you let sit for longer than about 35 seconds, you start to taste that layer of water just on top more. So when you say it dilutes it, I mean you lose the flavor profile because it becomes much more watery in the flavor profile than the concentrate that you have in the glass. And look, the only person I know that I've ever seen put a glass full of liquor in front of them with ice that it's gone in 35 seconds is Caleb. So I mean, everybody else.

SPEAKER_13 1:20:30

Well, you give me ice because you want me to have five drinks. Well, don't say that in front of the Van Winkles.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:35

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SPEAKER_08 1:25:13

I have no argument against that. Whenever you have the I'll stick with the word proverbial cardinal of Sazeracs making your drink for you.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:22

So not quite the Pope, but he's definitely a cardinal, right? Absolutely. The the man that he is speaking of is Greg Treeche, who is a brand ambassador for Buffalo Trace. He is a premium experience ambassador here at the Sazerac house. Well, I remembered the acronym P. See, he fits right in. He knows when to ring the bell, he knows when to pick. Absolutely love it. Sitting next to Chef Willie, Gaspod of Cypress by you casino and Mr. Lester's. All right. So first of all, Chef Willie, I want your take on this Sazerac because as a chef, you know flavor. Flavor doesn't just persist to food. Flavor is also applicable to cocktails, to beverages, and your thoughts on this traditional Sazerac cocktail.

SPEAKER_09 1:26:14

It's the best I've ever had, but I've never been invited to yours.

SPEAKER_06 1:26:19

Nope. I am I am absolutely backing out of that fight. That is that is as Caleb or any good martial arts instructor would teach you. Right. If you start to get into a fight and someone pulls out a knife, the best thing you can do is just walk around. Understood. Because everybody's getting cut. This, if I try to get into that fight, not everybody's getting cut. I'm the only one getting cut. I get it. I understand.

SPEAKER_09 1:26:43

I I get a lot of earthy flavors out of it.

SPEAKER_08 1:26:46

Oh, definitely.

SPEAKER_09 1:26:47

I think that's that's that's what I my take.

SPEAKER_08 1:26:49

I think a lot of that's the oils and everything else, too, because it it's it's very, very well balanced. It's the problem when you run into a Sazerac is depending where you go, it's either got uh too much herb Saint, Absinthe or the Black Lady.

SPEAKER_09 1:27:03

Most people pour it in there. Oh, yeah. Don't do it the right way.

SPEAKER_08 1:27:06

They they pour it in, they shake it up, and they're like, here you go. Yeah, enjoy. And when they say enjoy, it's like when you go to the movie theater and you're you're there to watch the movie you don't want to watch, and you're like, mmm, enjoy. This you enjoy, you relish this kind of beverage. Right. It's an experience much like Mr. Lester's.

SPEAKER_06 1:27:25

Of course. Okay, so we're actually gonna throw a curveball at the production crew here because Aaron, who takes care of everything that we do here and makes all the video happen, the curveball I'm throwing to him is that he has a microphone and he knows it. He's grabbing it already. Because why? He has a Sazerak in front of him. I'm curious to see what he thinks because for those who don't know, Aaron also is a chef and owned a restaurant. And I'm curious to see where he lands with the Matthew. Matthew, I think, is just jumping up and down. He is ecstatic. You have to swallow the microphone.

SPEAKER_17 1:27:59

Bring the microphone. Phone. There you go. I don't have anything fancy to say. It's really good though.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:04

It's smooth. Well, you you're not a fancy kind of guy, and that's okay.

SPEAKER_17 1:28:12

It's very smooth. It's very palatable.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:14

And I think that's what a lot of people think about a Sazerac is they expect it to have a harsh flavor. And a good Sazerac does not. A good Sazerac is just so enjoyable.

SPEAKER_08 1:28:27

Well when you can when you consider the Sazerac is what, uh 175 years old. Right? So this is a drink that's it's it's lasted the test of time because when you do it right, you do it right. When you do it wrong, you mess everything up.

SPEAKER_06 1:28:46

Agreed. So Greg Treesh, first of all, cheers to you. Thank you very much because man, you you gave us a little class over there on how to make a sazorak and not a sazorak with what a lot of people will use, which is a liquid simple syrup. You actually showed us how to use the sugar cube. Yeah, mash the sugar cube with the bitters to make your paste and how well that works and go from there, which folks, I hate to tell you, it doesn't seem that difficult once you understand the ratios and you just stay true to the recipe.

SPEAKER_13 1:29:19

Absolutely. And that's that's a lot of people when you say Sazerac or the cocktail are very intimidated by it. And they don't need to be because it is actually a very simple cocktail. Make it once and and you're a pro. Honestly, it's not that difficult to make. And for the the small number of ingredients, it's such a complex flavor because of the complexity of all the different ingredients, you know, the the uh bitters, the complexity of the different flavors of the bitters, the the complexities from the rye whiskey. And look, I I know this uh what we're drinking, we made with the 90-proof Sazerac rye whiskey. We'll make it with that 125, and it's amazing. The 100-proof is even better. The we just released the Sazerac rye 100 proof in I think it's last July, about a year ago. And it was it was actually released because the bartenders at uh Tales of the Cocktail here, we were talking to them, and they they were clamoring for a higher rye whiskey content or uh proof that would would stay, would really hang in there in the cocktail. So that's why we released the 100 proof, which was really released for the bartenders, right? It was for on-prem folks. Now we just also released the foot-proof Sazerac rye, which is knock your socks off.

SPEAKER_06 1:30:35

That 125 is absolutely stupid good. Yep. Because if you like a little bit more of a spirit forward cocktail, if you want to cut back just a little bit more of that sweet, that 125, and maybe maybe you can share with us because I am told that that liquid um lived in another bottle, maybe at a different year, maybe at a different proof, but the recipe was the same as a name that we talked about earlier on this show.

SPEAKER_13 1:31:07

So, yeah, I mean, a lot of folks online and and honestly, my personal opinion, I've tasted it. To me, it's it's an incredible $40 Thomas Handy, y'all. Uh, I think last year's Thomas Handy was released at 124.9 proof. Our foolproof is 125 proof. Both are non-chill filtered. So the foolproof, you get those oils and fatty acids from those grains that just coat your mouth so nicely, that really nice buttery, silky, smooth finish, as we say. Uh you get that from that sazrac rye foolproof. My wife's favorite of the BTAC is Thomas Handy. She really, really, really likes that Sazerac rye foolproof.

SPEAKER_08 1:31:49

And I think when you make a good sazrack and do those other drinks, that's when you learn the difference between what we would call now a mixologist versus a bartender, right? Bartender, you're like, I'll take a whatever, and they pop a top off and give you your drink. Where a real mixologist, where you you find Garrett, you find other people, Mr. Lester's, you find people here, that it's their passion, it's their career. Whenever they make you a drink, they pour their soul into it.

SPEAKER_13 1:32:15

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_08 1:32:16

And and the first time I ever really experienced that was actually in Seouls and Seoul, South South Korea. And the people there would, they would come to the United States and they would do Tales of the Bartender, they would do all these other experiences, and they wanted to learn and perfect their career. And when you find a real mixologist, someone that cares about the ingredients they put in, someone that's going to take the time to muddle the drink, to build the paste, to give you the experience you're after with that cocktail, it changes everything.

SPEAKER_06 1:32:45

I will tell you that when the 125 Sazerac came out at $40 a bottle, we in my house happen to be blessed enough to have a Thomas Handy at 130. We blind tasted it. What I will tell you is the 130 a little bit softer. You would expect a little bit more well-rounded. But the flavor profile, I mean, double mint gum, the twins that they used to use in those commercials could not be more identical. That flavor profile was spot on, almost exactly the same. And when you think about that, that price point, I love the availability of it. Because to me, the one thing that has hurt bourbon and whiskey over the years is people chasing for what we call unobtainium bottles. There's plenty of great stuff in $30 and $40 bottles all over the place. But everybody kind of chases those labels. Now, specifically when Sazerac dropped that $125, it seems like all the great stuff is now readily accessible. And it's accessible in expressions from the brand that stay true to all the high priced labels. And that's what I think is really beautiful.

SPEAKER_13 1:34:08

And look, Thomas Handy is the exact same juice as Sazerac rye. Thomas Handy is just uncut, unfiltered, right? Uh so it, you know, for me personally, it's it's just not that much different than the the foolproof. Now, some expressions, the higher proofs and stuff like that, you know, and and uh in all honesty, the Thomas Handy I do find probably a little more complex that flavors. But for the price point, for 40 bucks, I will take that foolproof just about any day of the week.

SPEAKER_06 1:34:38

Matthew just gave us the finger. And I was because we have to pick up with the ice cube and drinks and that story. Tell you what, we'll do that after the break. Okay. And I'll find us something to sip while we do it when we come back on this episode of Implicit Bias Radio.

SPEAKER_15 1:34:53

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SPEAKER_16 1:35:23

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SPEAKER_06 1:36:57

Drink Kacheri's Coffee, the official coffee of Implicit Bias. Available at LaCrapery on Kali's Saloon, at the Rustic Renegade, Automotive Gear on Judson Walsh and Opalousis, and The Chill House, the dessert destination in Maurice. Kacherry's Coffee, the official coffee of Implicit Bias. Hour two of Implicit Bias is brought to you by William S. Nakehol Jewelers, 3802 Johnston Street in Lafayette, Louisiana. Go find Grant Galatis. Tell him you want bigger, better diamonds for less, whatever you need, whatever you're looking for. They'll customize something just for you to make sure that your special someone gets that something oh so special. William S. Nay Call Jewelers, 3802 Johnston Street, Lafayette. The penultimate segment of Improved Bias Radio continues with story time at the Sazerac House. I'm your host, Kavon Bordelon, our co-host Caleb Morris, who is nose deep in a Glenn Kairn glass of a beautiful bourbon. 100%. Can't lie. Can't lie. At the couch, we have Chef Willie Gaspard of Cypress Bayou Casino and Mr. Lester Steakhouse, and Greg Treesh here of the Sazerac House. He is a premium experience ambassador. See, it only took me what, seven seconds? You're gonna ring the bell now. There you go. You don't have to ring the bell. All right. So, Greg, I'm gonna ask you to tell us a story, but before I do that, we've got to talk about this particular whiskey that we are now sipping. So when we think about all the brands that encompass Sazerac, perhaps the most known right now might be Blanton's. Blanton's is a massively well-known brand because of movie exposure, just because of where it is. But this is not a normal Blanton's. And this was a gift that one of the members of the Implicit Bias Liquor Collective wanted to give for you to be able to taste. So our partners at Ambassador Wine and Spirits sent this bottle of Blanton's Gold. It is a distiller's select, meaning it is a pick of Blanton's gold. So if Blanton's gold is a unicorn, this is a unicorn of unicorns. So I'd like you to taste. We're all going to taste, we're all going to talk about it. But in the meantime, while you taste, you mentioned that don't say something to the Van Winkles about ice in bourbon or hot cocktails or something of that. Okay.

SPEAKER_13 1:39:21

I mean, we were we were kind of into this. We were kind of, you know, dissing having uh, you know, ice in in your bourbons and stuff. And it's like, well, the first rule is the best way to drink bourbon is how you like it, right? Uh so Preston Van Winkle, the son of Julian III, uh, he was telling a story. They were at a restaurant and uh they had seen they had some Van Winkle products on their bar. So they ordered, I think, I think it was a Pappy 15, right? And when they ordered it, they ordered it on the rocks, a splash of water and a lemon twist. So the bartender got the order, and he says, Absolutely not. Now, the bartender did not know who you were serving, right? So he said, Absolutely not. I refuse to serve Pappy on the rocks with water and lemon. It's just that that is not how you drink Pappy Van Winkle. So uh they went to the Van Winkels and said, Look, my bartender won't do it that way. And they said, Look, that's how we drink. Now, these are the Van Winkels, right? You know, this their stuff. And uh they just they kept went back and forth a couple times. And eventually the bartender said, You know what? I'm not gonna do it. I will send you the Pappy 15, I'll send you some ice and some lemons. I will not put them together. And so they did. And and so it was basically that's how the Van Winkles like to enjoy their Pappy Van Winkle on the rocks, splash of water, twist a lemon. So, you know, we as consumers, because we get caught up in the hype, say, oh my God, there's the only way to ever drink Pappy Van Winkle is neat. Well, not really, you know, and and they drink it that way because that's how Julian remembers his grandfather Pappy drinking it, right? That so everything is based on his memory of enjoying experiencing. And I love the way you use the word experience because that's what I'm when I teach my whiskey class. It's not about drinking bourbon, it's about experiencing it. It's how to elevate the bourbon experience. Because if you want to drink to get drunk, gosh, go drink some cheap vodka. Agreed. You know, if you want to sit down, seriously, if you want to sit down and really, really enjoy and make memories and have a conversation, that's what bourbon's about, yo.

SPEAKER_06 1:41:32

And for those who are watching on YouTube X, Instagram, all those, if you truly watch this and you sit and you sip with us, I guarantee you, if we have the opportunity to sit and sip with you, we'll be friends forever.

SPEAKER_13 1:41:45

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 1:41:46

We will absolutely remember the conversation, it will create a dynamic between people. Caleb said it in Louisiana, it's all about the relationship. It's about the respect, it's about the relationship, it's about understanding. As to quote the cookbook, who's your mama? Are you Catholic and can you cook a roux?

SPEAKER_10 1:42:05

Yes, yes, and yes.

SPEAKER_06 1:42:06

Because if you answer the correct answer to all those questions, we can be friends, we can do business, we know each other. We are, to use the Latin term, we are sympatico. But if you can't, well, maybe we need to find some common ground there. And I think this is the path to go. And that at the end of the day, I think people get caught up in pricing and availability, and they say, Oh, I would never waste something that is so hard to find at such a price on water and ice. However, when you think about somebody who is accustomed to drinking it that way, do what you do.

SPEAKER_08 1:42:50

And look, we we pick on each other, we raz each other and everything else. But I mean, if you know what you like, and you can take the trash, I'm gonna talk, do it, right? Like if you put tomatoes in your gumbo, I'm gonna give you a hard time, but at least at least hold up to it, right?

SPEAKER_09 1:43:08

You know, if you want to put ketchup on my $120 steak, I'm okay with that. If that's the way you like it. That's not what you told me. Yeah, that's just you, though. I can tell you what I think. Yeah, yeah. You know, that that's what it is. Like when whenever But if that's what you're accustomed to, and that's what you like. A1, Hines 57, Hans 57's been around a long time. It has. I actually make a sauce with Hans 57. You would never think that Hines 57 is in that sauce, but I would make you eat that steak with it on it, and you would never know.

SPEAKER_08 1:43:36

I mean, and and there's stories about someone who's who's smoking a brisket, right? You know, they cook the they take the brisket out, they cut off the tail end, right? They cut off the last four inches.

SPEAKER_10 1:43:44

Right.

SPEAKER_08 1:43:45

And uh they smoke it, they they eat it, and it's wonderful. And they're like, What do you do with the last four inches? Like, we don't touch that. And they go through and like years go by, and finally, like the grandkid asks, he goes, Well, you know, Papa, what the last four inches, why do you cut it off? I don't know.

SPEAKER_09 1:43:59

Then became burning.

SPEAKER_08 1:44:01

And then when they went through and they looked at it, it's like, well, his mom, the pot was too small, so she cut the last four inches off, and he just followed along because that was the tradition. So oftentimes we get caught up in the tradition, and look, regardless of what it is, if it reminds you of the moment or the experience, do it, right? Enjoy it. Answer to no one but yourself.

SPEAKER_06 1:44:24

Chef, we have an acquaintance, and I'll never forget, he owned a restaurant. He was setting up a Valentine's Day special and included Wagyu. And I remember asking him, does it bother you when someone comes in and sits down and says, I want that Wagyu ribeye? Well done. And he looked at me and he said, If that's the way they like it, I am here to serve them and to give them the experience that they are looking for. And that I think is where it comes to with whiskey.

SPEAKER_10 1:44:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:44:55

Whatever experience you're looking for. Okay, so I'm curious. I've had people put blantons with coke. I've it happens, I've seen it before. And honestly, regular blantons with coke, I'm sure, is fantastic.

SPEAKER_09 1:45:08

I'm sure it's delicious. Right? It is what it is.

SPEAKER_06 1:45:11

So, chef, I'm curious. What do you think of this blanton's gold? 103 proofs mine now. What's that? I'm embarrassed of my peak now.

SPEAKER_09 1:45:18

Oh, stop. Oh, stop.

SPEAKER_08 1:45:20

No, I don't get banana foster, but I get it.

SPEAKER_09 1:45:22

No, it's it's it's great. Um very smooth. All right, Caleb. So Caleb, you were salted caramel.

SPEAKER_08 1:45:31

Agreed. Yes, salted caramel. I I I man, like when I when I smell uh uh Blanton's gold to me is is much, much preferred over to Blanton's, right? And um, if if you've ever been to a rodeo, the smell of the rodeo is the smell of Blanton's gold. It's it's the leather, it's the sweat, it's the couch.

SPEAKER_06 1:45:55

We're gonna have to edit that.

SPEAKER_13 1:45:56

That's fine. Be careful how you talk about that because I grew up with farm animals, and I when I nose a bourbon, I really look for that cow pasture earthy note. Yeah, and for me, it's an incredible memory. It's it brings me back. So I I know we make fun of, but that that earthiness is what I I love on the nose of a good bourbon.

SPEAKER_08 1:46:19

You know, when I smell Blanton's gold, that that's what I get. I get I get that moment that like, hey man, it's this is the moment for that person. And uh Blanton's gold just gives that to me because uh what when I compare regular Blanton's versus gold, night and day.

SPEAKER_13 1:46:35

And they're they're identically the same juice. The only difference is the proof.

SPEAKER_08 1:46:39

How much water is in it?

SPEAKER_13 1:46:41

Exactly. And so that's so it, you know, those four four mesh bills, the 18. How do we get so many expressions? Well, that's one. One of the variables we can control is proof that changes the flavor profile. Another variable we could kind of control is the warehouse that those barrels are made in. The area in the warehouse, because they have little microclimates in all those warehouses. The top of the warehouse gets to 130 degrees, right? The bottom will stay around 70 degrees. So all of those variables.

SPEAKER_06 1:47:12

And you get airflow in certain places that you don't get in others, so you get expansion and contraction of the barrel. Yeah, you get all kinds of things that that factor in. So, Greg, I'm curious your thoughts on this Belanton's gold. Oh, it's it's absolutely incredible.

SPEAKER_13 1:47:24

Yeah, it's it's for me, it kind of I kind of reminded me of the old uh uh cinnamon candies, the uh or red hots? Red hots, the big ones though.

SPEAKER_06 1:47:36

Like, okay, we're talking red hots or hot tamales? The fireball, yeah. The big, the big Oh, okay, the big fireball too. The big fireballs, right?

SPEAKER_13 1:47:43

Yeah, yeah. It's like super hot right at the beginning, but right before you get to the center where it gets sweet, you get that little bit of cinnamon and that little bit sweet together. And for me, that's when I taste, it's like, man, that just kind of brought that memory back to right before you get to that sweet center of those those big fireball candies. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:48:01

Yeah. Look, we always love when our liquor collective partners throw us something special, right? And this literally what I loved is that they put this out the day they got it. They opened it up, they put it at MSRP and made it available for people to buy. Fantastic. And they happened to say, hey, we we kind of knew that this might be in the works at the time. And they said, We think Greg would love this, so we wanted to send it.

SPEAKER_13 1:48:27

No, it's it's uh thank them for me. I will uh it is absolutely incredible. It really, really is a nice Blanton's.

SPEAKER_08 1:48:36

And that that's a Blanton's gold, just it it really elevates everything because I remember I was very young at the time, and um my my summer job was putting up barbed wire and electric fence, right? And I would go and live in Texas for like a year, about six months, three months, whatever it was, the summer, right? And I would do that between junior high. And uh my friend's mother drank Blanton's, and back then it wasn't what it is today. Uh, but I I remember the smell of a hard day's work, the weariness, everything else, and then it would be covered by this bourbon.

SPEAKER_06 1:49:15

And that that is what makes this episode of Implicit Bias special. Now, here's what we're gonna cover in the final segment. The final segment's going to be how do you get to experience something like this? In other words, what's your experience gonna be like if you decide to come down to the Sazerac house in New Orleans? Trust me, you don't want to miss it when we come back on the final segment of this week's episode of Implicit Bias Radio. How sweet it is. Gambino's Bakery of Lafayette can satisfy all of your bakery needs. Cakes, cookies, pastries, melt in your mouth pedophores, wedding cakes, and of course, the original New Orleans Doberge Cake. Family owned and operated, let Gambino's bakery take care of all your dessert needs for your family gathering, tailgate, holiday, or any special. Special occasion. Visit with the baking professionals in Lafayette. Find what fits your taste. Enjoy the sweet life with Gambino's Bakery of Lafayette, 3802 Johnson Street. Call them at 337-406-9066 or online at Gambinos.com.

SPEAKER_04 1:50:15

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SPEAKER_19 1:50:49

Experience Acadiana's most exclusive steakhouse. Mr. Lester's at Cypress Bayou. Make your reservation today. Space is limited.

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Ever think about firearm safety? Are you new to shooting? Don't know how to get started? Here's Caleb with the Russian Renegade.

SPEAKER_07 1:51:09

I love new shooters because they might be bad at somebody who hasn't been around and hasn't been around firearms or hasn't been a lot of shooting. Sit down in a very safe environment where there's no lot of ammunition, no risk of any residuals. And train them the right way before they have to get on a range and go into the live.

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SPEAKER_06 1:51:31

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SPEAKER_08 1:52:08

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SPEAKER_06 1:52:42

Outfit your backyard oasis at Brasso's Hardware in Maurice and Abbeville, the most interesting hardware stores in Louisiana. Grab top-notch outdoor cooking gear from grills to smokers. Plus, discover our exclusive liquors and premium bourbons. Elevate your gatherings today. Visit Brosso's where hardware meets hospitality. Hour two of implicit bias is brought to you by William S. Nacall Jewelers, 3802 Johnson Street in Lafayette, Louisiana. Go find Grant Galatis. Tell him you want bigger, better diamonds for less, whatever you need, whatever you're looking for. They'll customize something just for you to make sure that your special someone gets that something oh so special. William S. Nacall Jewelers, 3802 Johnson Street, Lafayette. Final segment this week's episode of Implicit Bias Radio. We are at the Sazerac House in New Orleans. And man, it has been just way too much fun. Is uh I don't know who Caleb's texting. So we'll just go to Chef Willie. Chef, first of all, thanks again for making implicit barrel happen. We have to talk again about the $1792 single barrel that is only available at Mr. Lester Steakhouse.

SPEAKER_09 1:53:57

So you can get a pour for five, every pour after that's $10. Or I can buy a whole bottle for $50.

SPEAKER_06 1:54:05

Okay. This is what people I don't think understand. A single barrel $17.92 for $50 is unheard of. Like that is a really, really accessible price for a bottle that is just straight up unobtainum. Right. And we love that that's what Mr. Lester's does. That's what we do. Not only are we thrilled about that, we're looking forward to whatever else you guys might have, because we are also prepping for summer supper at Mr. Lester's. We will be giving away tickets for two for food, booze, and hotel for the night. You get to hang out with the crew. We're not recording a show, none of the fancy stuff. We just sit around, solve the problems of the world.

SPEAKER_09 1:54:48

There'll be some fancy food.

SPEAKER_06 1:54:49

Oh, there'll be lots of fancy food. We are aware of this. Oh, Caleb's back with us. I see. Yeah, sorry. I uh I forgot obligations that I had. Oh no, those things happened. For like a week I forgot them, apparently. All right. Greg Triesh, thank you very much for. I mean, I I love that you actually looked at me during the break and said, we really didn't even go into the history of Blantons, because you can do a whole segment on it. Can you give us a synopsis on what we're missing?

SPEAKER_13 1:55:15

Oh gosh, yeah. I mean, so he started out at Buffalo Trace as a young child, uh young man, 16 years old, in 1897 is when he started at Buffalo Trace.

SPEAKER_08 1:55:27

1897, that was old. That was old back then.

SPEAKER_13 1:55:30

Yeah, sure. Uh he actually grew up right across the street from the distillery. Uh he went to go look for a job, skinny as a rail, probably weighed less than an empty barrel. So they didn't really have a job for him until he told them he could read and write at 16 years old for a boy back then. That was a big deal. That was a big deal. So they hired him. He started learning the business and just absolutely uh grew into the business. In 1921, he began, became the president of what is Buffalo Trace Distillery. Back then it was George C. Stag Distillery. Um, the absolutely worst time ever to become president of a distillery because that's right, prohibition, right? But what he did, uh not only did he get the distillery through prohibition, through World War II, uh he actually expanded the distillery. That when he took over, there were about 44 buildings on site. Uh when he passed, there were over 144 buildings on a site. So he was through that was able to get that distillery through all of that. So the man worked his tail off. But what he did more than worked his tail off was partied his tail off, right? He loved to party. Uh he was he understood what social media was back then, you know. He would throw extravagant parties, invite all of the politicians over, invite all the news media over, and he himself would either go through the warehouses or send some party through the warehouse to pick the best barrel he could find. So we had keg parties, blanton head, blanton heads, barrel parties, right? So he would bottle that, send his folks off with that. So he really is credited with getting that distillery through all of that really, really bad timing, right?

SPEAKER_06 1:57:12

Okay, so you have given us nuggets throughout the last two hours. That is just a an atom-sized bit of information as compared to what's here in this building. So if people wanted to actually come down here, what can they expect when they walk through the door?

SPEAKER_13 1:57:33

Oh my goodness. Uh one, uh, hospitality. We yeah, I mean, we just we love our guests here. Uh second thing, look, it's it's a uh it's a free experience. It's a self-guided. We are a cocktail museum. The uh first through third floors are all cocktail museum. It's all about the Sazerac cocktail, about Antoine Pesho, about all the different the history of the Sazerac prohibition. I mean, you name it, is all of that history. So self-guided experiences along the way, we treat you to uh some cocktail samples that we're featuring. Uh the third floor is always a Sazerac cocktail. The second uh floor, we do a couple extra cocktail samples that we create.

SPEAKER_06 1:58:10

So let me just make sure I've got this straight. I just heard you say the words free cocktails. Yes. Samples. Yeah, yeah. Free cocktail cocktail samples. Okay, fair. But literally, someone can walk in if you're just walking the streets of New Orleans and jump in and give yourself a self-guided tour and have a sample of what you guys do.

SPEAKER_13 1:58:33

You can give yourself a self-guided tour if you're 21 years old, you can have the samples, absolutely. Now, yes.

SPEAKER_08 1:58:39

And look, my wife and I have come here before, and uh we're nobody, right? So we came in, we walked in, we enjoyed it. We had a uh espresso martini, a Sazerac, multiple other drinks, and then being the person I am, I volunteered to drink the white dog. And I would like you, you have a still downstairs, you have a vertical still or column still, and it was a phenomenal experience. And the knowledge that's held here in these walls, y'all don't want to keep it for yourself because you give this away when it goes to the free experience. You give it away, and you want people to come here and enjoy it and experience what New Orleans and Sazerac really is.

SPEAKER_13 1:59:18

Absolutely. And honestly, y'all, this building was Mr. Gold Ring's gift to the city. Uh, Mr. Gold Bill Gold Ring, he is the owner of Sazerac Company. Uh, he and his sons and his daughter run the company. Uh, so this this was truly his gift to the city.

SPEAKER_08 1:59:31

And that was what, 2019, whenever y'all repeated. We opened up in 2019, yes. Yeah, it was right. You had um Katrina, everything else, like all this was decimated, and this was done really to revitalize NOLA. Absolutely. To revitalize Nolans, whatever you want to call it.

SPEAKER_06 1:59:48

No, nobody calls it, nobody here calls it Nolans. Frank Davis has been gone for a long time.

SPEAKER_08 1:59:52

So this was to revitalize the community and show them that, hey, y'all are here to stay.

unknown 1:59:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_13 1:59:59

So um the building was uh before the uh Mr. Gold Ring purchased it, it was owned by the Sheridan next door. Uh it was originally when it first uh came out, a hat and glove factory. Uh because nobody walked outside, men or women, without hats and gloves on back in the day, right? Uh about 1864 was when the building was completed. Um it was an appliance store, different other stuff, but it was vacant for a long time, right? The Sheridan owned it. Uh at one time they were gonna consider turning more hotel rooms. Uh that didn't happen. They were gonna turn it into a parking garage. That didn't happen. Katrina happened. They were to the point where they were getting ready to demolish the building, and that's when Mr. Golink says, absolutely not, turn it into this museum. Actually, a lot of people don't know the fifth and sixth floor corporate offices here.

SPEAKER_08 2:00:44

Oh, no clue. I did not know that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:00:46

Yeah. And I I love the the perspective of no, we can't turn this into a parking garage.

SPEAKER_13 2:00:52

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 2:00:53

Because for those who know the city, who know the history, who want to come here and experience parts of the American story. And it's not just parts of the American story, it's parts of the European story as well. When you think about the French and the Spanish being here for so long, to think that this would have been a parking garage would have been such a travesty. We don't get judgmental on this show. Well, actually, we do, we do a lot, but that's a whole different story. We're gonna get judgmental. If this would have become a parking garage, it would have been such a loss to the cultural enrichment of this country that it just would have been a crime. Absolutely. Yeah, an absolute travesty to be where it is and for people to have the opportunity. And look, if you like cocktails spirits, whether it's brown water, whether it's white liquors, whatever it is, it's here. Whether it's Aperativos, whether it's espresso liqueurs, Sazerac has all of that and they will walk you through the history of it and what it looks like. And I think that really is the best takeaway and the experience that we've had here, which has just been above and beyond everything as we bring you back to the 1792.

SPEAKER_13 2:02:02

Yeah, I appreciate it. And uh, you know, and look, if you want an experience more than just a self-guided, uh, we we teach uh paid ex we have other paid experiences. We have a uh legacy tour you can take. Uh, we teach classes, we teach a tropical cocktail class, a Sazerac cocktail class where you learn all about the history of that. I teach a whiskey grid every day. You got a Father's Day thing coming up. I have a Father's Day. I'm doing a BTAC tasting, Father's Day weekend uh as well.

SPEAKER_06 2:02:27

So Okay, so we're gonna tease this. Okay. If you are coming to New Orleans for Father's Day, don't miss this. Yeah. Also, stay tuned to our social media because the implicit bias crew has a Father's Day giveaway that's coming your way. That I don't know if we can compete with a full BTAC tasting. But ladies, what I'm gonna tell you is enter to win, come here, do both, because at the end of the day, dad, dad needs something special.

SPEAKER_10 2:02:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 2:02:56

Dad needs to fall out of his chair as he's trying to give somebody the one-minute finger, telling them that you know the the show needs to end. And yeah, we we do have to end, but we want to thank you for tuning in. If you need more, come here to the Sazerak House. If you want a special bottle of $1792, head to Mr. Lester Steakhouse at Cypress Bayou Casino. Make your reservations, by the way, Thursday, Friday, Saturday only. And if you want to make sure that you continue to help people spread your implicit bias, like, share, follow, and tell everyone that we will see you next week on Implicit Bias Road. Cheers. Have a great week. Drink Kacherry's Coffee, the official coffee of Implicit Bias, available at La Crapery on Collie's Saloon, at the Rustic Renegade, Automotive Gear on Judson Walsh and Opalousis, and The Chill House, the dessert destination in Maurice. Kacherry's Coffee, the official coffee of Implicit Bias.

SPEAKER_05 2:03:58

Shop at New News, a proud sponsor of Implicit Bias on KPL. New News is dedicated to providing excellent food, excellent drinks, and excellent service. Known for their specialty meats and superb liquor and beer selection, it's all here. Family-run and family-oriented, we know our customers by name and strive to deliver a great shopping experience to every customer every time. New News. Now open in Youngsville, Milton, Maurice, and Scott.

SPEAKER_06 2:04:25

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SPEAKER_19 2:05:03

Experience at Katie Anna's most exclusive steakhouse, Mr. Lester's at Cypress Bayou. Make your reservation today. Space is limited.

SPEAKER_18 2:05:14

Take Highway 90 to the Baldwin exit.

SPEAKER_11 2:05:16

Ever think about firearms safety? Are you new to shooting? Don't know how to get started? Here's Caleb with the Rustic Renegade.

SPEAKER_07 2:05:23

I love new shooters because they have a bad hat. You get somebody who hasn't been around and hasn't been around firearms or hasn't done a lot of shooting. Sit down in a very safe environment where there's no lot of ammunition, no risk of any residuals. And train them the right way before they have to get on a range and go into the lot of come in and have a cup of coffee with the Rustic Renegade at therusticrenegade.com.

SPEAKER_00 2:05:51

We have a large selection of cigars, pipes, pipe tobaccos, gliders, cutters, ashtrays, Lamberget lamps, and even some pocket knives. Our humidor is 553 square feet, and we have 1,400 different cigars in the humidor. Just come by and see us. We're open Monday through Friday, 9 to 8, and Saturday, 9 to 5. Pipers Haven, 3916 West Congress.

SPEAKER_02 2:06:14

This program has been paid for by Pipe Dream Entertainment.