Cigar Whiskey

My ex-coworker Andrew and I used to say that if Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel came in a bottle that said anything but Jack Daniels on it, it would be the top selling Bourbon in the store.

In a blind taste test, I have fooled DOZENS of hardcore Bourbon drinkers into thinking the everyday bottle of Jack Single Barrel was Buffalo Trace or 1792/Barton.

You can pick out that it’s Jack once you know what it is, but blind I’d recommend doing a similar experiment with your friends. Tell them it’s a new Kentucky limited edition and THEY WILL BELIEVE YOU.

In any case, most stores are between $39 - $45 per bottle on the Jack Barrel. There’s a few at $35. But I think we’re the only store willing to go $29.99 and basically give it away.

I’m doing this not to dump product, but rather because I want people to expand their horizons and see how fantastic some of the Jack labels can be with an open mind (and a HOT price).

So grab one. Or two. Or six. You won’t be sorry. It never gets old.

It’s so rich and supple on the palate with lots of vanilla and sweet oak on the mid-palate and a decent kick at 47%. 

For me personally, I need sweeter spirits to pair with cigars these days. Not sure how many of you smoke the stogies, but I’ve found that sweeter rums perform better than whiskies do as a pairing.

That being said, I think the Jack Single Barrel has the perfect sweetness level to go with the Arturo Fuente stick I’m planning to spark up later this week. 

-David Driscoll

Instagram Live Tomorrow Gilbert Marquez

Don’t get me wrong, I love talking about booze with anyone who wants to talk about booze. But I also like mixing it up a bit, which is why I’m excited to chat with Gilbert Marquez tomorrow from Ilegal Mezcal, who is also a renowned hat maker.

Personally, I’m a big hat guy, especially in the era of pandemic haircuts, so I’m excited to talk about hats, too.

Mexcian food, Chicano art, and living in Los Angeles versus Dallas should all be on the docket, as well as some talk about mezcal, too!

3 PM on Thursday—tomorrow; live at the @missionliquor Instagram. We’ll have it archived the next day as well, per the norm.

-David Driscoll

The Human Condition

If you were living under a rock yesterday in the booze retail world, let me quickly recap what happened:

• Our system once again showed live products on our website that were supposed to be hidden from consumers.

• On top of that, the app that limits consumers to one bottle per order shit the bed, allowing customers to order as many bottles as they wanted.

• Our entire single barrel exclusive of Weller Cask Strength sold out in ten minutes after people added anywhere between 18-36 bottles to their orders (not to mention the EH Taylor single barrel).

• I spent the next ten hours digging out of that mess, and I’ll spend another ten today doing the same thing.

To be clear, NO ONE GOT MORE THAN ONE BOTTLE OF WELLER off the web yesterday. We reverted all large orders back down to one bottle. We’ll start processing those orders today. Ditto for the EH Taylor, which we scaled back to a two bottle limit.

95% of the people who had their orders adjusted were super cool and completely understood. I can’t tell you how much I appreciated that. As for the guy who yelled for ten minutes about how he had already sold two of the bottles online, I would say: don’t count your Wellers until they’ve hatched. Or maybe a Weller in the hand is worth more than two bottles online? Pick your aphorism.

I want to quickly tell you a story about one of the most important experiences of my life; one that has dramatically changed the way I think and behave today.

When I moved to Los Angeles in January of 2019, I purchased a townhome in Sherman Oaks as part of an HOA. After befriending some of my neighbors, I was invited to join the board of the HOA to help solve problems in the community and make changes that could benefit us all.

I was on the board from May of 2019 to September of 2020, when I decided to sell my unit and move on. During that time we accomplished nothing meaningful, solved almost none of our problems, and—because I was open, friendly, and accessible—I became a sounding board for everything that was wrong with the community. I had neighbors calling me nonstop asking me to fix things, as if it were my responsibility alone and I could act with executive authority (or divine right!), complaining about everything from ambulance sirens at the nearby hospital to the type of flowers we planted in the front walkway.

When I asked them to become involved and share some of the burden as HOA members, they were nowhere to be found. Everyone wanted to complain, no one wanted to actually do anything to help.

When I decided to sell my unit and move, one of my neighbors lamented to me: “I thought you might really change things around here, but I guess not.”

Sigh.

What I discovered about being an HOA board member is that, for many people, “change” means doing what they want done at that particular moment in time, without any consideration for the community at large. If you don’t help them, you’re an asshole. If you do help them, you’re a hero. Until they need help again, at which point you’ll be an asshole if you don’t help them.

At this particular moment in time, everyone wants access to the rarest possible whiskies at the best possible prices. For many consumers, the idea of “change” involves them getting access to those whiskies at the prices they want.

I will continue to do everything I can to spread these bottles around fairly, but there’s no changing the fact that there will always be 10,000 guys who want access to 100 available bottles.

As my friend Nasser said to me last night: “Rare whiskey doesn’t scale.”

-David Driscoll

The Doctor Is In

After selling quite a bit of the entry level Doc Swinson Bourbon and rye expressions, we’re excited to show you the reward of that effort: the outstanding Doc Swinson 15 Year Old Kentucky Bourbon.

Expensive? Yes, it is.

But we’ve had Dickel 15 Year Old in stock for over a week at $55 and hardly anyone batted an eyelid, so go figure.

In any case, I can promise you one thing: you will absolutely LOVE your bottle of Doc 15 should you pull the trigger. It has everything going for it: big power, rich vanilla, candy corn sweetness, spicy oak, and lots of depth. At 53.6% cask strength, it has all the intensity you’re looking for as well.

Who made it? We don’t know. But count how many Bourbon distilleries were operational in Kentucky in 2005 and you’ll have your list of candidates. I’ve been sipping on my bottle all weekend and I couldn’t be more satisfied.

-David Driscoll

Making The Cut

Part of smoking a cigar involves cutting the cap and opening the airway for the subsequent draw of smoke. If you grew up in the eighties like I did, then this incredibly graphic scene from Sam Raimi’s underrated Darkman may have been your introduction to a cigar cutter. I can tell you with certainty that it was mine.

However, up until last week I was naive to the variety of cuts that one can make when prepping a cigar for smoking. I had been performing what’s known as a straight cut, which is pretty straightforward, but not always easy to perform. You simply insert the tip of the crown into the double slicer and push both blades inward.

What you don’t necessarily know until you try it a few times is that you can easily (and I mean very easily) ruin a cigar with a poorly performed straight cut.

• If you slice too short, you get a muted draw.

• If you slice too long, you can end up loosening some of the filler and wind up with a mouthful of tobacco

• If your blades are not sharp enough, you can smash the crown and impair the cigar’s ability to draw

• Dull blades can also cause the wrapper to loosen and your cigar won’t burn properly (and you’ll also end up eating tobacco)

I have done all four of these things. Multiple times.

Then I watched a video with the guys from Davidoff and one of the guys said: “I’m using a double V cut for this cigar.”

“What’s that?” I asked myself. Then I asked my colleague Vahi—our cigar buyer at Mission—about the double V. You know what he says to me? “That’s all I do with my cigars.”

Well….when were you going to tell me about it?!!!!!!

It turns out there’s another type of cigar cutter (unlike the straight cutter from Darkman) that carves out a V-shaped crevasse in the cigar, opening the airway without decapitating the entire crown. If you do it twice, vertically and horizontally like a + sign, you get what’s called a double-V cut.

The first thing I did after speaking to Vahi was ring up for a $3.99 V cutter at Mission. The first thing I did when I got home that day was grab a cigar from my humidor and attempt my first double-V cut.

And let me tell you this…..I’m never going back to the straight cut.

Having performed the double-V now on four different occasions, I can tell you that all four cigars drew effortlessly and performed flawlessly. I also enjoy keeping some of the rounded edge of the crown, rather than opening up the entire end, as I prefer the way it feels.

In any case, this revelation in my world is likely old news to more experienced smokers, but since I was kept in the dark for months about this process, I wanted to share it here for your potential future employment.

-David Driscoll

Traveling - Part II

We’re living in an era where having “experiences” has become more important than owning material things. Making a destination “Instagramable” is practically the most important thing you can do in the tourism industry because everyone wants to share their “experiences” with the world as they’re happening!

I have the word “experiences” in quotes to be sarcastic because of the irony in what constitutes an experience today; it’s literally the opposite of the actual definition.

I put this analogy to a friend yesterday: imagine someone you know is traveling to Paris and he’s got a list of important sights he wants to see. He spends the entire trip rushing around to check off each box so that when he gets home he can tell all his friends that he’s experienced the great sights of Paris. Look at his Instagram account! Can’t you see he was there? The Eiffel Tower, the Mona Lisa, Versailles, etc. He’s got the receipts.

But to experience something extraordinary doesn’t mean standing in front of it for thirty seconds, or taking a picture with it in the background. For me, experiencing the majesty or the beauty of something truly inspirational means having communion. You have to connect with it, spend time with it, and try to understand what it means in the right context. It might even require some additional research on the side before you get there.

I brought up this analogy to my friend because, more and more, I see people treating wine and spirits in the same manner. Everyone is tasting as much as possible, checking off the boxes, and moving on to the next adventure—but without really having the experience they’re paying for. It makes me incredibly sad.

I watched a video this week with Edward Sahakian from the world famous Davidoff Cigar Shop in London. Someone asked him what his five favorite cigars of all time were. He responded by saying he couldn’t pick his five favorite cigars, but he could pick his five favorite cigar moments. I can’t tell you how happy I was to hear him say that.

It’s because Mr. Sahakian understands that the moment of communion defines the experience, not the cigar. You could have the best cigar in the world in your mouth, but if you’re not in the right frame of mind, at the right moment, it’s worthless.

Yet, it’s amazing how easy it is to lie to ourselves and make believe that we really had the experience we’re longing for when we clearly did not. We like to protect our egos and convince ourselves that we’re part of some special experience club, but it’s not always true.

I’ll give you an example.

For most of my adult life, my favorite rock band has been Pavement. Unfortunately for me, Pavement disbanded in 1999 and I didn’t really hit my Pavement stride until 2001. Fortunately for me, I was lucky enough to see Pavement in 1995 as part of a festival. So when people asked me if I ever got to see Pavement perform before they broke up, I said: “Yes, lucky me!”

But I don’t remember a goddamn thing from that 1995 performance. I wasn’t into it, I didn’t know any of the songs, and I had zero context.

So, yes, I got to “see Pavement live.” I checked that experience box. But in the back of my mind, I knew that I never really had the experience I was longing for.

Flash forward to 2010, and I’m sitting in the front row of the Bob Hope Theatre in Stockton (Pavement’s hometown) as part of the big reunion show, belting out every single lyric, completely in tune with every single song, and practically weeping.

THAT is a fucking experience. THAT was a moment.

If I had never had the chance to see Pavement with the right mindset, I would have been sad, but I probably would have consoled myself with the literal truth that I had actually seen them perform back in 1995. Yet, despite my desire to believe that should suffice, it’s not really the same, is it?

If you’ve tasted a 30 year Port Ellen single malt, that’s nice. Good for you. But it’s not the same as drinking a glass of 30 year Port Ellen after a meal and talking about it with friends. It’s not even close.

The point is: don’t short change an actual experience for the opportunity to check off a box. Proving that you did something isn’t the same as experiencing it.

To paraphrase Kevin Costner from Tin Cup: When a defining whiskey moment comes along, you define the moment or the moment defines you.

-David Driscoll

Fun New Italian Liqueurs

I will fully admit that the amount of new spirits hitting the market each month terrifies me.

If you thought we had overloaded our shelves past what consumers could actually drink in 2020, nothing is changing in 2021—even with bars still not back in operation.

While I try to be as nice as possible when telling the 567th new gin producer this week that I don’t think his or her product has a place in our store, there is one category where I’m almost always willing to make room: Italian liqueurs.

We need another craft spirit at Mission like we need another hole in the head, but Italian spirits are bottles that actually get consumed. Modern Bourbon and Scotch collectors enjoy taking photos of their unopened bottles, but those who are into Italian food, wine, and spirits generally take photos of their recycling bins.

Anyone who scarfs down pizza, pasta, and prosciutto with any regularity is usually cranking through Prosecco with equal gusto. Hence, I’ve just brought in a number of small-sized Sardinian delights that can easily be dolloped into a spritz. Plus, a few other oddities that I think have a place on your picnic table this Spring.

Oliver McCrum is an old friend in the wine business and, like many small wine importers, he caught the spirits bug a few years back. Given his extensive contacts throughout Italy, Oliver teamed up with small distillers—often in remote locations—to create one of the coolest and most diverse collections in our business.

The newest arrival is a label called Bresca Dorada, located in the wild inland countryside of Sardinia, near Muravera. Founded by two beekeepers who started by making honey with Mirto, they soon expanded into Mirto berry liqueur, myrtle leaf liqueur, and other citrus-based elixirs and amari. We’ve got the following in stock in manageable 200ml flask sizes (NOTE: all the bottles look like the flasks in the photo above despite our web pics):

• Bresca Dorada Mirtamaro - Made mostly of Sardinian botanicals infused in pure grain alcohol, then blended with both green and red Mirto. You’ve got some anise notes, pine, and classic bittersweet flavor with good weight. Fun stuff.

• Bresca Dorada Mirto Verde - McCrum’s notes: Mirto Verde is a rarer liqueur than classic Mirto. It is made of freshly hand-harvested myrtle leaves and flowers from the inland part of Sardinia known as Sette Fratelli, around the estate. (The leaves must come from close to the estate because they must be infused immediately after picking.) The leaves are infused in pure grain alcohol for at least two months for a slow and complete extraction of aromatic substances. The only additions are sugar, honey (up to 5% of the sweetener, more would give too much of a honey flavor) and water (to reach the right proof for drinking). Myrtle leaves are used in Sardinian cooking, for example to flavor suckling pig, and they are spicy and said to be reminiscent of orange.

• Bresca Dorada Arangiu - The Sardinian substitute for Triple Sec or any orange liqueur. Super flavorful, bright, and loaded with pure citrus flavor.

The Il Gusto di Amalfi liqueurs have been in the U.S. for years now, as it was one of Oliver’s original imports, but rather than the basic Limon and Mandarin-cinos, we’ve now got something that I’m somewhat obsessed with: Fennel-cino!!

If I were to drink this with a Fennel biscotto I think my head would explode.

• Il Gusto di Amalfi Finocchietto - McCrum notes: Wild fennel grows profusely on the Amalfi coast, as it does in California. The seeds from the tall plants are harvested by hand in October when the seed-heads are dry, dried, sifted, macerated in pure alcohol for about 40 days, then blended with sugar and bottled.

Who wants to hang out in my backyard this weekend, eat pizza, crack some Prosecco, and sip on some of these?

-David Driscoll

A Typical Week Of Consumption

Did you know that Michael Jordan smokes six cigars a day?

Better yet, did you know that MJ also smoked copious amounts of cigars while he played in the NBA? You wouldn’t think that cigars and the highest possible level of athletics would go hand-in-hand, but it worked for His Airness.

When looking to gauge my newfound cigar consumption against other habitual smokers, I wanted to know what was typical, so I asked around. I definitely don’t want to be like Mike in this case, smoking six cigars a day, but at the same time I wanted a baseline to make sure I wasn’t going over the edge. Turns out that three cigars a week is where most of my cigar-loving colleagues are at, so that’s my threshold for now.

When it comes to drinking, I’m more like MJ during his multi-championship heyday. I drink every single day and every single night, never to the point of stupidity (except for this past Saturday), but definitely more than the recommended two drink maximum. I’ve long found my equilibrium when it comes to booze.

Much like I’ve been asking my cigar smoking friends about their consumption levels, I’ve get asked repeatedly by passionate new whiskey drinkers about my daily volume; most of which revolves around what I eat. To give you some insight about my health habits, I’m 5’ 11”, about 180 pounds, I run three miles every morning on the treadmill, and I intermix that with rowing on my Concept2. I usually do four-to-five mile hikes on the weekend with my wife, so cardio and fitness are also engrained into our daily life.

Every three weeks I make two gigantic pots of meat: one is a recipe from my Italian friend Marco for Tuscan ragù sauce, and the other is from my mother-in-law for Sonoran (Mexico) pork. I freeze multiple bags of each when I’m done, and I pull them out about once a week for quick dinner. I intermix those meals with take-out and other recipes that determine what I drink. To give you an idea of my weekly consumption, here’s last week. When I say “1 bottle” of wine, my wife and I usually split 60/40.

Monday:

• A large Campari and soda when I got home.

• Beef ragù and spaghetti with a bottle of 2017 Paitin Serra Barbera (one of the best Italian red wine deals of the year—by far!!).

• Two small glasses of Caffo Vecchia Grappa after dinner.

Tuesday

• A large Knob Creek 9 Year Bourbon and Fever Tree Spiced Orange Ginger Ale when I got home.

• Baked chicken breasts with sides, along with a bottle of 2018 Hirsch Bohan-Dillon Pinot Noir (the wine I have consumed more of than any wine in the last five years).

• A glass of Pinhook “Tiz Rye Time” 5 Year Old Rye after dinner.

Wednesday

• A glass of Pikesville 6 Year Old Rye Whiskey when I got home, along with a Montecristo Connecticut White Vintage Double Corona cigar (I wanted to taste a pure Connecticut wrapper and it’s a lot like blonde or light roast coffee compared to dark roast).

• Pork tacos for dinner with a bottle of 2018 Von Winning Riesling Trocken (buy as many 2018 German rieslings as you can afford before they’re gone).

• A glass of Cascahuin Tahona Blanco Tequila after dinner.

Thursday

• A bottle of original Coors Banquet Beer when I got home (followed by a second while I did the Instagram Live event with Jasmine Hirsch)

• Frozen pizza with roasted Romanesco broccoli on the side with the new Bele Casel Asolo Extra Brut Prosecco (I just bought two cases of this for my personal consumption—best dry Prosecco value I’ve had in YEARS).

• A glass of Chartreuse VEP after dinner (watch out when you hit the VEP because it usually hits back).

Friday

• A Four Pillars Olive Branch Gin martini with two olives when I got home.

• Takeout from Mizlala in Sherman Oaks with a bottle of 2019 Elena Walch Castel Ringberg Pinot Grigio (single vineyard Pinot Grigio from one of the best white wine producers in Italy, super zippy, lots of minerality, not the basic bitch PG you’ve been getting used to drinking over the last decade).

• A glass of 1994 Pellehaut Armagnac after dinner.

Saturday

• Did a four mile loop in the morning around Burbank

• Opened a bottle of Cruse Tradition Sparkling Wine at noon.

• Moved to bottle of 2019 Mylones Dry Rosé afterward and ordered Round Table Pizza at that point (I’m from NorCal, so for me Round Table is like the moment in Ratatouille when the critic actually eats the ratatouille).

• Opened a third bottle of a wine sample I had been given around 4 PM, then fell asleep halfway through.

Sunday

• Started with a Davidoff Petit Robusto Churchill cigar.

• Two bottles of original Coors Banquet Beer between 12:30 PM - 2 PM.

• Took the evening off to recover from Saturday.

-David Driscoll