Community Updates

Happy New Year, Whiskey Noobs! And with the New Year comes new projects. Let me start with the obvious one - we are working on restocking as many Solo Blinds as humanly possible before the end of January in order to meet as much demand as we can. Thank you guys all for your interest, and perhaps more importantly, for your patience!

What else is going on? Oh, right, the podcast is back! That’s right, I have finally decided to bring back the Whiskey Noobs podcast (albeit monthly rather than weekly), along with the Patreon page - more details below.

Lastly, Adam and I have revamped the Perfect Pairing Club for 2025! New website, free shipping, and even more tiers for those who want more or less cigars per month! We are really trying to fan the flame on this project, so if you like cigars, please check it out at perfectpairingclub.com!

Relaunch: The Whiskey Noobs Podcast

Ah, yes. The podcast. We are back in action with monthly episodes that are mostly going to be experiments, deep dives, blind tastings, and the like. I haven’t decided about interviews and things like that yet, but as I will lay out in the upcoming episode (which you can watch now - see next paragraph), I want to make changes slowly and decidedly this time around. Last time I felt like I just kept throwing new things at the wall, and well… here we are. I want to keep improving it, I want to get REALLY good at making it, and then we can slowly sculpt it into the perfect show. Oh, and I really want to start making it weekly again. Speaking of which…

I’m relaunching the Patreon with the podcast, and I am going to go full bore with trying to make it the sole source of podcast income (no sponsorships). I’m talking free gifts with every sign up, early access to episodes, and maybe even giveaways if we can get enough support to cover the costs! In fact, the first new episode of Whiskey Noobs is available to patrons RIGHT NOW! Please just check it out, even if you don’t sign up, and I will be forever grateful :)

If I can get enough support to match the time I’m investing into the show, then I would really like to get back to weekly episodes! For transparency’s sake, what you guys don’t see is the constant balancing act. Whiskey Noobs is part of my income, so I have to balance the things I love (podcasting) with the things that keep the lights on (social media promos, and therefore constant posting for the algorithm). It’s because of that that I am trying to really work on the Patreon this time around to give the podcast a fair shot… we will see how it goes. I’ve always said this, and I will say it again, whether or not you actually join the Patreon, I appreciate the heck out of each and every one of you for supporting my content!

Whisky Spotlight: Stauning Sherry Finish

If you haven’t heard of Stauning Whisky from Denmark, well, now you have! This brand reached out to do a promotion with me on Instagram, and I really liked their product, so I said let’s do it! And then… big brother Instagram decided they didn’t like the promo since it involved alcohol.

For obvious reasons, I was never able to do the second promo that I wanted to do for them, which was about this Sherry Cask Finish shown above. Of course, they did not pay me for the second promo since I didn’t make it, but I really enjoyed this bottle, so I wanted to advertise it a little bit anyway! Stauning is still pretty new to the US market, and not a lot of people know about it, so I thought I’d sing their praises a bit.

Much like their flagship bottle, this Sherry finish has a really nice mixture of a malty bready flavor with a bit of rye spice to make it a bit more exciting - the balance of that sweet bread and spicy kick is what really drew me in to this brand. Then you add on the sherry finish, and you get notes of dried fruit, a bit of extra finish, and of course some added complexity across the board - I’m a fan! Once again, they didn’t pay me for this, but when I enjoy a brand, I want to see them succeed! If you get the chance to try it, I say go for it.

Cigar Review: Tyson 2.0 Undisputed Maduro

I have some mixed feelings about this cigar that I haven’t had the chance to put into words yet, so let’s dig in…

Construction: Might as well start with my biggest complaint - this sucker was hard for me to get lit. Now it could be my humidor, but since my other smokes are just fine, I will assume it is the cigar. That being said, one big pro for this cigar is that once I finally did get it to stay lit, the burn line kept itself even and the ash WOULD NOT let go. I’m really glad I took the time to get it going, but that initial issue with lighting did make me a bit angry. Maybe it was worth it for the flavor…

Profile: This smoke has a heck of a wild flavor profile. It has the creamy, toasty sweetness of a Connecticut, with the darker, spicy flavor of a Maduro. I found myself getting baking spice and wood notes on some puffs, and milk chocolate and cream on others. I think I even said on the podcast that I couldn’t really compare it to any cigar that I’d had before, and I stand by that - it is unique, and boy is it tasty. Eventually I had to go inside, but I didn’t want to put it down! Bravo to the blender.

Summary: If you can get past the trouble lighting (or if that’s just a personal problem for me), then this cigar is 100% worth trying. I loved the profile from start to finish, and once it was burning, it burned great. It is super expensive online though, so I’d say to only buy it if you can find it at a good deal (like the Perfect Pairing Club - see what I did there?!)