Thirsty Thursday – Moving Whiskey Sucks

Thirsty Thursday is a featured segment where Whisky Suggest CEO Sean answers user questions, provides updates on the app and website, and shares his general musings on the whiskey world at large. Read the last Thirsty Thursday post here.

So Long New Jersey, Hello Virginia

I mentioned this in my Thirsty Thursday post from a few weeks ago, but my family and I are in the process of moving. At the time, we were celebrating agreeing on an offer to sell our current home. Shortly after that, we finalized a deal to purchase a home in Arlington, Virginia. We are all very excited to be living right outside Washington, DC and start this next chapter of our lives personally.

That being said… moving sucks! More specifically, moving whiskey sucks.

While amassing a decent sized whiskey collection during the Coronavirus lockdowns has been great, packing it up and relocating with it… Not so much. Fingers crossed all my bottles make it in one piece!

All joking aside, definitely looking forward to getting settled in. I lived in Washington, DC for a few years earlier in my life, so still have many friends in the area. However, my time there was really before I fell too deeply down the whiskey rabbit hole. I love Jack Rose, and no doubt it is one of the best whiskey bars in the country, if not the world. But any recommendations for whiskey related hangouts (bars, bottle shops, distilleries) in the Virginia/Maryland/DC area are all greatly appreciated!

Whiskey Submitters… We Hear You

Not going to sugar coat this one; we have been dropping the ball on processing whiskey submissions. Most of the positive feedback we have received regarding the app in the last few months has been around its simplicity of use and the impressive database of whiskeys. And that database is really driven by you.

But if you submit a missing bottle, and we don’t add it to the database, that is a problem. We inherited a backlog of whiskeys to add, but we have also let it grow.

Not to make any excuses for not getting back to everyone in a timely manner, but the current process is incredibly manual. While we want to move quickly, we also want to ensure we maintain quality data. We are working on making changes to this process, exploring a way to add user moderators (similar to Wikipedia), and improving the overall experience.

Thank you again for being patient with us!

Whatcha Drinkin?

Going with the moving theme, I decided to stock up on bottles of my favorite New Jersey bourbon before heading out. Bourbon from New Jersey, no joke! Many craft distilleries in the United States put their own spin on the American classic, but I don’t believe I have tasted another bourbon quite like this one.

Asbury Park is a beach town on the Jersey Shore that is mainly known for producing music legends Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi. Locally based Asbury Park Distilling, however, also produces one delicious bourbon.

The Asbury Park Double Barrel Bourbon is unfiltered straight bourbon that is finished a second time in their oak finished gin barrels. To make that a little more clear, AP Distilling produces a gin that is finished in new American oak barrels. They then reused those barrels to further mature their bourbon.

The result is a bourbon with added citrus and juniper notes, giving it a light, clean finish. To me, this is the perfect summer whiskey. Although I have only had it neat, I also think this would be great in a citrus forward whiskey cocktail!