Hey, you're listening to another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast, coming to you with 10 hundred million thousand watts broadcast from sunny Lincolnwood, Illinois, in conference room 144. We have that many conference rooms? No, I don't know why. It's like hotel rooms. You know, there's not... I also am not... I'm sure that's how podcasts work. We truly don't understand the place we're working anymore. Yeah. I'm Greg. I do communications at Binny's. Hey, I'm Pat. I put the shots at Binny's. You put the shots? Hey, that was a good one. It took me a minute. It's a real finger. Oh, man. Decathlete. I'm Chris. I do wine. I'm Lexi. I am ITU's worst nightmare. And you have a booming voice. And I'm Roger. I do beer. And I am a quad... quadrannual sports competition enthusiast. Oh, are you? Yeah. I love it. Me too. Come on. It's great. Am I the voice of descent here? You are definitely the voice of descent. Big shock. There is never a time that I've felt more proud of this country than the Olympics. Oh. Yay. Everyone comes together. So you guys all got the summer games fever. And we are going to make this our own competition by trying to taste as many things from around the world in countries. Am I getting this right? If I was challenged with bringing as many, Roger would be doing a lot more complaining about the amount of stuff I brought in. We are going to see how much stuff from around the world we can taste in one episode, right? I mean, that is one of the things that is great about Binny's is that we have this amazing selection of things from all over the world. In the email thread, Roger copied and pasted the country column from our website or somewhere, right? And you made my scrolling finger tired because I had to keep scrolling. I eliminated some of the countries that are like alcohol consumption is banned, but I just put in all the countries that are competing in the Olympics. Oh, that was that list. Yeah. But there is a significant overlap. I mean, we have products from quite literally all around the world. One of the things that was interesting is how many of them when we were all looking over this document and trying to pick things, how rum is such a universal beverage that is available in a lot of different countries. Well, doesn't that make sense, though? I mean, it's like the most fundamental way to make distilled alcohol, right? because like everything else, you have to convert starches to sugars and then sugars to alcohols. And here you're just starting with sugar. That's a good point. We could have done this whole episode with just rum. Yeah. Is that because like sugar is just a fundamental basis for alcohol that's easier than anything else? It's a basic human right. It's fast and easy to ferment. It doesn't have a lot of rules about how you have to distill it. because it's fast and cheap and easy as a fermentable substrate, it's just everywhere. So whether you're talking some every liqueur in every small country begins as a cane sugar based fermented and then distilled something. Or beet sugar. Yeah. Or beet sugar. Plus it's a summer game. So we're talking about a lot of warmer countries. We talked too long in this preamble. What do we got? What do we got? Who's going first? South Korea. I'll go first because I just pulled it off the shelf here because I forgot about South Korea. And you can't forget about South Korea. Have you seen? Home of the 1988 Seoul Summer Games. Where a lot of track and field athletes were busted for performance enhancing drugs. Have you seen the South Korean shooter? I have. Incredible. Wearing like video game armor. She's incredible. Well, there's two. Yeah, she's incredible. We're passing around a Soju. And this has become a very popular product category at your local Binny's. Everywhere. I blame K-pop. Sure. Blame whatever you want. We sell a lot of them. It's like butter. Forever we had the Jinro brand, which is one of the best selling brands in the world. And like one of the second best from Lottie Beverage Corporation is SoonHari. And one of our top selling most popular flavors here is the Apple Mango. I believe I've poured the yogurt on the podcast before. There's a yogurt flavor and I only didn't grab that because I thought I already did. Why did you look at me just now? I don't know. I figured you'd remember yogurt. Was that a SoonHari smooch collab? So here's SoonHari Mango Soju. Soju is a rice distillate. It's distilled from tapioca in rice actually, but it's low alcohol. It's watered down. It's flavored. It's slightly sweetened. It's clear. It's 12% alcohol. The quantifier being though that with Korean people that I've drank it with, they drink it almost like beer. Yeah. No, these are 12% alcohol, single-serve bottles, and they're generally served very chilled, and you just rip them through a night of karaoke or a big long dinner. You can get in big trouble real quick because of my point. The list of fermentables is a lot longer than that, isn't it? You can use sweet potato and all kinds of stuff, right? Well, you can. You see more of the sweet potato and more artisanal stuff like that in Japan with shochus. It's very simple, easy drink. I see. Now, the funny thing is, Roger talks about drinking them like beer. These are like five bucks for like, what is this? 12 ounce bottle, 375 ml, so 16. It's got the alcohol of wine. So if you're drinking wine like beer, you can see that being. And I see young people in a lot of our stores coming in in groups and just getting armfuls of these. Yeah. And and it's very popular. And it's these are the fun. This is delivering like a big peach ring kind of. Yep. So I was at the lake last week and I actually saw a group of about 40 people standing around and their table was full of different bottles. Really? So it'd be a fun party if you bring two to the party and everyone has different flavors. You try them all. Try them all. Nothing says fun party like SoonHari Apple Mango. What is tapioca exactly? I've never really understood that. It's like from a root. What is it? It is a root. Yeah. Seriously? Really? It's very starchy, starchy root. It's a tuber in the cassava family. Oh. You ever had cassava? That's a big sustenance food in Africa. You can get it at a specialty grocery store. It's pretty good. As a guy who's never been into gelatin, it always kind of terrified me because I have no idea what this weird gelatinous thing is. No, no. There's no gelatin involved. It's a starch that is used as a thickener made into puddings. The root is processed into tapioca starch. Real big in Brazil. So this is an effortless fruit flavor to drink. Yeah. Correct. Do people ever serve this on ice? Yeah, I'm not sure. Seems pretty sweet. I can't say I've had a lot of it, but yeah, it is pretty sweet. I mean, years ago when I had that, the other question I wanted to ask is this, since it's exploded in popularity, have the flavors always existed or that's more of a new thing? The flavors have existed, but I think new flavors have grown at an equal pace. because years ago when I first tried this, it was just plain. I think the flavored ones, the sugar levels are a little higher. Yeah, this is definitely sweeter than what I remember, which is why I asked about ice. I could see pouring this over shaved ice. I agree. It's not quite that sweet, but I agree. I think it would also go okay in seltzer water if you wanted a low proof refreshing drink. Yeah. I think that this would really appeal to the vodka water drinkers. Yeah. For sure. I mean, nobody drinks wine spritzers anymore. But I mean, they make a fine white wine spritzer, so agreed. Switzerland. How about a white wine? Yeah, let's do a white wine. So my approach was to peruse the list. All right, what's your country? From the South Korean team. What's your country? My country is Switzerland. Switzerland. He's trying to steal my midnight orange voice. Switzerland. You got a trademark now? This is a Swiss wine made out of a grape called Chasselas. What? Chasselas. Generally considered a relatively neutral, the perfect partner for raclette or fondue. It's made in mountainous Alpine regions. Crisp, clean, fresh. This is chateau de Trevelin from the village of Aubonne, which is right on the north shore of Lake Geneva. Geneva? Did I say Geneva? It's bitter and gross. It smells like Geneva. It's not bitter. It probably tastes bitter because you just had your soju. Yeah. Post soju. Floral and pollen kind of smell. It's really light. I think it has a nice acidity. It does have refreshing acidity. This is its job. Honestly, Chasselas is never going to be an overly complex wine. It's meant to be fresh, clean, bright and a counterpoint to richer cheeses. Also something you could serve fresh fish. Being on Lake Geneva or as they call it there, Lac Le Mans, there's plenty of fresh fish. I was going to say, it seems like a alpine region, but this would be great with any seafood. This reminds me of a Greek white. Indeed. Yeah, I can see that too. How much is it? So this is 1799. The Swiss produce a fair amount of wine, and literally the other side of the lake is France. You're looking right across at Savoie, and it's also surrounded by Jura. So there's wine making and cheese making all around here. In fact, if you want to connect it to French wine, the Rhone River flows out of Lake Geneva. Actually, it flows through Lake Geneva and down into the Rhone Valley and out to the Mediterranean. You know that there are a lot of fine wines produced on the Rhone River in France. But this is much more linear and citric. Well, it's high elevation. So this is in fact in the Rhone Alps. So yeah. Like I said, the grape variety is relatively neutral. So this has just meant refreshing counterpoint to cheese is the great way. Just zippy table wine. Yep, exactly. So any of you who like to go north of the border and in the western part of Wisconsin and visit Swiss, Wisconsin, as they like to say it, more creamery is there than anywhere else in the state, if not country. I just stocked up on a bunch of raclette at the Emmy Roth Cheesemaker. Love a good creamery. Little Roth Casa. I can tell this would be fantastic with that. So next time you're by the American Lake Geneva, stock up on some cheese and grab one a bottle of this. It's no mistake that that lake was named that. I'm going to fall asleep tonight dreaming of Lake Geneva. Geneva. Just full of Dutch gin. Yeah, full of Dutch gin. I almost brought one that I was like, nah. All right, next. Canada. Let's go to Canada. Canada. Don't we need Roger to do his cuckoo cuckoo loo cuckoo thing? Cuckoo cuckoo cuckoo cuckoo. You mean the true Canadian anthem? I want to point out that while we're doing this geographic thing, the theme of this one, I was dumb when it came to social studies and earth science and geography and I can't even remember the words. Our listeners are shocked. But I understand a lot of the developed world through alcohol specifically. There's a map of Europe in my brain that is informed by wine. And on one hand, I think that's great. It really enriched my enjoyment of wines and spirits and beers. On the other hand, it means I'm really ignorant of big chunks of the world too, because we don't get a lot of alcohol from them, which is part of why I'm actually really excited about this episode. Oh, good. You probably know nothing of sub-Saharan Africa. Yeah, we're going to teach you about Canada today. So thanks for Canada. Let's dive into Canada. Do you geographically, are you aware of where that is? I'm just asking. So I specifically chose this because of the deep ties between Canada and France, which is where the quadrennial games are happening this year. Ho, ho, ho. And those Quebecois, oui. So this is a beer from one of my favorite breweries, Unibroue, which is in Quebec. Lexi hates this beer. Holy cow. No, no, no, no, no. But this is Don de Dieu. So if you've had a Unibroue beer, you've probably had La Fin du Monde, which is their Belgian style triple. This is kind of a kindered style. They call it a triple wheat. So not a triple per se in the Belgian sense. It's sort of their take on somewhere in between a Belgian triple and an imperialized Belgian wit beer. But it's got that bottle conditioning, so you have that nice soft, creamy mouthfeel. They're extremely aromatic. All the Unibroue beers have that wonderful estuary profile to them. There's clearly some coriander in here too. Right. Yeah. It's delicious. It's like Imperial Blue Moon. It's like four blue moons at once. Don't call it Imperial Hot Dog Water, OK? Not Hot Dog Water. It gives it a little more sweetness, a little less savory. Yeah. I mean, this is so much more complex and the body is creamy and rich. And I think it's really good. But if you enjoy Whip beers, if you like drinking Hougarden, Allagash White, any of the classics, you'll find something to like here. They make a Whip beer, Blanche de Chamblay as well. So you can try that. But this is sneaky, easy to drink for the fact that it's 9% alcohol. I was going to say, Oh, it's 9%, huh? I was going to say, if you're into those beers, this would be a great thing for like fall, winter drinking. If you want to continue your Whip beer without being too light, it will roll you into the season with hardier foods and whatnot. It sure is rich. It sure is big. Lexi, you're really into mixology. I think Unibroue is really early in on, they've always been very much about beer and food pairings, but also beer cocktails. They make some really interesting cocktails where they're taking advantage of the fact that they have this very creamy plush mouthfeel. Yeah. You can play the honey and the floral characteristics of this, kind of reminiscent of some of your herbal and floral liqueurs like an elderflower. Don't be afraid to try using this as a mixer. It could float a little on a cocktail and you have a nice creaminess to the top of a cocktail. I mean, I'm going to say, I love this brewery. I haven't had this beer in a long time and it tastes better than I ever remember it tasting. They're killing it. It's so rich in body. The 9% thing is shocking. The balance is impeccable. This tastes like four and a half. I know. Yeah, it does. The value here is off the charts. So this comes in four pack 12-ounce bottles for $11.99. Like absolute no brainer. You got to try this beer. It makes me feel full. Real full. Like it's a it's a loaf of bread in every bottle. Yeah, why drink four of these when you can drink 14 hams? Okay. What's the next country? What's the next country? China. All right, we're staying in Asia. We were in Canada. No, I mean for my last thing was Asia. Oh, okay. We're crossing the Pacific to Asia. I'm very intrigued by this bottle. This is the most valuable spirits brand in the world. It is called Kweichow Moutai. So this is essentially a Baizhu. Moutai is a Baizhu. It's distilled rice. The Chinese Baizhu tradition is very high alcohol. You're talking normally these are 50 to 60 percent alcohol. This one is 53 percent. And pound it. These hit a lot of industry rags that we all get in our emails every day with the whole most valuable thing in the world because there's some bottles that are aged or they put snakes in them and stuff like that of other Baizhus. But the Kweichow specifically is the kingly gift that you bribe your local People's Republic building commissioner with or whatever they're doing. If it's not like a bottle of knockoff Lafite. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It has not been available in the States before. You'll see it's a 50 ml. It's got this little pore restrictor, so only a little bit dripped out there. That's a 50 ml. This is a 50 ml. Do they age these like in clay pots or? I think so, but they're not like wood age tradition. I do know that. They're always clear like this. I haven't had this brand before. It has not been available before, but they are coming to Binny's soon. So is this available at Binny's right now? Not yet. This is a sample that essentially. Oh, wow. Yeah. This is a peek into the future of what's available here. Yeah. We got a little two pack of these samples, and so I took one of the little bottles out here. Little acetone in the nose, perhaps? It was born on the Baizhu. It's almost got like a chocolatey character going on in the nose. Yeah, like a cocoa powder. Yeah, but also with some like industrial solvents. Okay, so I mean if you were just like nosing a high proof vodka or rum, you would get this too. We shouldn't approach it like it's a delicate thing. Well, I mean, I totally agree that cocoa powder is right there. And like mushroom too, like it's earthy. Every word you're saying except for the spirit would be used to describe sake. This seems like just an intensified sake kind of product. Maybe that's a distilled sake. Yeah, I mean, it definitely has that umami side to it. Oh, wow, it does. Yeah, it's got this salty umami. It's like it was Lincoln County processed like Jack Daniels, but instead of through charcoal, through salty beef jerky. Salmon jerky. Mushrooms. Yeah, real mushrooms. Like a dried porcini. Forest floor, yeah. But it maintains a tropical fruit all the way through too. What an interesting thing. Kind of fruit. Yeah, very strange. And then it has that heat on the finish that you don't really expect. Well, 106 proof, it will sneak up on you. Yeah. I think that this is something you do before a birthday party and the birthday party happens at a hot pot place. This is like the perfect intro to that. I like that. I don't hate it. I don't hate it at all. It's like I think it's really interesting. I'm curious to see what package iterations we end up with and what pricing. So stay tuned. When it actually comes in officially, maybe I'll bring all the others and we can do an episode on that. I do think traditionally that this is consumed pretty aggressively. Oh, yeah. You think we'll get more and more of these? You think this pop? I think it seems inevitable, right? Yeah. Cool. I'm looking forward to this. I mean, it's a super important spirit that means nothing in America so far. I'm going to take a second to say that I have had Bijou before, but how often do I actually get the chance to try something that's completely off the wall and completely unexpected in there? And this is fun. The fluoride at the dentist and they have the tutti frutti flavor and they rub it on your teeth and it's disgusting and makes you salivate. That is what I got on a second sip of this. Took me right back to that chair listening to like the greatest hits of John Tesh. The theme to NBA on NBC. I prefer Yanni Live at the Acropolis. Absolutely, they played that all the time. Serbia. Chris's turn. Oh, my turn? Yeah, where are we going next? We are going to Mexico. Mexico. No, let's not do Mexico. Mexican wine? Hell yeah. Never mind. We're going to do Serbia first. Serbia. Yeah. I did not bring any Plinkovac. Yeah, cleanery. Serbia. This is a winery called Deurić. They're making wine out of Morava, which is a local grape name for the Morava River. Of course, Moravian barley. Yeah, Moravia is in the former Czechoslovakia, just adjacent to this. This is the former Yugoslavia, of course. You got to give us some reference grapes for what this might be similar to. So it's interesting. This is a relatively new cross that they're growing here. Oh. It's Riesling crossed with Traminer and some local stuff. So you should expect high acidity and maybe some Geverts-like aromatics. Yeah, this is pretty new on the scene. Smells gluey. Little Elmers there. Petrel. Yeah. Well, you know, that's that Riesling connection there. Would guess this as an Alsatian style white blend. Yeah. Interestingly, yeah. So you think of like Adelswicker or Jean-T in the Alsatian tradition where the grapes are actually blended, but you've got Traminer and Riesling crossed here. Yeah. So it's a 100% Morava, but you get some of those aspects all together. All right. Let's talk about this wine for just a second. And say how good this also would be with seafood. It has a salinic back edge on this like kind of hard shelled citric fruit. If you've been enjoying your Olympic memes, the air pistol competition is blowing up off the charts, right? So a lot of people are talking about the South Korean athlete and then the Turkish. And the Turkish athlete. The dad from Turkey. Right. So a lot of the clips of the meme where they compare the Turkish athlete to his competitor. Yeah. That is an athlete from Serbia who ended up winning gold in the mixed couples shooting competition. And the reaction is pretty great when they won gold. They like jump on each other so happy. It's like what can be really fun about watching the competition is just pure pure joy. So but yeah, and the memes where they say that the Turkish guy is competing against like Inspector Gadget. Yeah, it's that guy. So, you know, he's all he's in the full garb with the earmuffs, glasses. Yeah, it looks like you're getting an eye exam. Yeah, he's really going for it. So anyway, number one or number two. I know. Number three, four. I've sat in that chair so many times. Yeah. Do we need to talk more about this? I really like this one. How much is the wine? We can't talk for ten minutes on every product, by the way. Yeah, this wine is a mere $15.99. That's awesome. It's value. It is. Way to go, Serbia. Yeah. 100% Morava. You know, it's interesting. A lot of these, you know, former Soviet dominated areas in the Eastern Bloc, you know, West Asia, East Europe have long had wine industries, but, you know, they were either destroyed or taken over by the state. And we're only looking back to the 90s when things went back to, you know, private hands. So these are relatively nascent industries. And a lot of these wineries are young, you know. Totally. Pat, both of your products so far just destroyed my glasses. Like I need to go wash both of them because they smell like mushrooms and mangoes. Nice. Germany. OK. Next up, Roger, you have a Pilsner. What the hell? Yet again. What's your country, though? Germany. Oh, he brought a German Pilsner, everybody. Oh, that's a Flensburger in a can. We care about this. Yeah, this is a big deal. Flensburger comes in cans now. Flensburger. They're famous for the ploop with the flip top bottles. They're an interesting brewery because they're located. They're a small fishing town on the coast of Germany, right next to the Danish border. Like the logo on here, as you can see, it looks more like it has to do with the Danes than the Germans. In my never ending quest to teach people about Pilsner and to appreciate that it is actually one of the hoppiest beer styles in the world, Northern German Pilsner is often regarded as the iconic example of that, of being extremely lean and very hop forward. So if you were going to like a Pilsner, you would like a Northern German style Pilsner. Okay, pour it and pass, and then let's talk about this, because we've been talking about Italian Pilsners, and we've been talking about California Pilsners, right? Yeah. We're going to check Pilsners. It's great that this is now in a can. Now, I have to know different parts of Germany Pilsners? Well, yeah. One of the iconic copy, Northern German ones is Javer, of course, but it comes in a freaking green bottle and it's often- Always skunk. Skunky. Also, at least this is a Northern German Pilsner from Northern Germany, instead of from like Oregon. Right. Exactly. It smells pretty good. One of the things that would cause people to balk on Flensburger is that the bottles weigh a ton and they're flip tops, so it's an expensive six-pack, but now that it's available in a four-pack can, you can go home with one of these world-class Wow. This is like pillowy in a way I normally would associate Czech style Pilsners with. It's not quite as malty, but there's just a softness to it and a creaminess to it. Also, it's like spray with the lemon-lime hoppiness at the top of everything. It's not nearly as malty as the Czech style. I mean, just the color alone is very pale. I guess I'm just mean more in that kind of creaminess. It does have a creaminess, yeah. Nice head retention, beautiful tight-knit head. Kind of reminds me of IPL, right? Yeah. It's like the term everyone's afraid to say because it didn't work 25 years ago. Yeah. So now they come up with a million other ways to explain- Cold IPA? Yeah. Italian Pilsner. It's like an India Pale Lager. They literally are making them at breweries all through California, but we need to tap dance around that we didn't like how they were during the IBU years of the 90s. But yeah, IPA drinkers, especially old-school IPA drinkers, this is showcasing hops right up at the front. So this is totally if you're getting on board with these new things that we're calling cold IPAs or California-style Pilsners or Italian Pilsners. You got to check out this beer. It's amazing value. If you're going to geek out on Pilsner, you can buy something really expensive like rathaus, or you can try something like Flensburger. How much is it? $10.99 for a four pack, 16.9 ounce cans. That was my question. I'm going to point out too that the balance is great here. I mean, it is very hop forward, but the finish, basically there's still plenty of sweet bready malt on the tip of your tongue. As balance, it's really nice. This is evil. It's like using the dark side of the force to make me sip more of it every time I finish sipping it. Yeah. It's a very good palate refresher. Totally. Use this to rinse after Pat's next weird gross spirit. Pat, what do you got for us next? Boy. He's reaching down into his bag of tricks. What's our country? Turkey. Turkey. We get to talk about our pistol daddy. Pistol. Oh, yeah. Right. Anyway, that guy was great. He's just like, uh-huh. You have no idea what you're doing. I saw the picture of him. He's just standing there, both eyes open, just shooting from the hip like a Tex. I think one of my favorite memes of that, it didn't say anything. They just added in one of the, like the smoke and jay cigarettes. They put like a little cigarette in his mouth and it looks 100 percent legit. That's a great callback. We are having Tekirdag Rakisi Gold Series, which was made from 100 percent fresh grapes. It's fresh grape must. It is distilled and aged in oak barrels. It has anise added to it as well. This is my jam. How is Rakisi related to Rakis? Similar. The same Yeni Rakis produces this Rakisi. This one is higher proof, aged in oak. Does it get foggy when you put ice in it? Yeah, it must. This is great. I love this kind of liquor. It's 90 proof. Although I say that, I have a bottle of Rakis in my basement that I've had for 12 years. This one is supposed to be more for food pairing. We've recently gotten more of their portfolio in stock at several stores, only a few stores. Are they usually 90 proof or is that like a- No, this is higher proof. It's very citrusy. Regular, no, Yenny Raki is 90 proof. It's less thick and syrupy and less anise heavy than Raki. Yeah, I don't know. In the nose, to me it's fruity and the anise is subtle, but on the palate, there's tons of anise. Good and plenty, enjoyers, rejoice. Yeah. It is. All six of you. Dead on good and plenty. Seven. You were in the original count. This is liquid good and plenty. Look at that. Oh yeah, look at that louche, yeah. Louche is beautifully. I guess I learned a word today. The louche? Can we, why does it do that? What is, you said you add ice to it, we just saw it. That's a chemical reaction of alcohol and lipids and oils and it's separating. So for those listening at home, it got cloudy. Would you add water to it? Yeah, water. And then it gets cloudy. Same way a white absinthe would or lots of other. Pastis. Yeah, pastis. So this is a common misconception. Those are all the same thing. The entire Mediterranean rim makes a anise-flavored grape must brandy and they all call it a different name. Uzo. It's Uzo in Greece. It's Sambuca in Italy. It's Pastis in France. It's Rocky in Turkey and Lebanon in Israel and North Africa. It's real big too. So. Cool. Turkey wants us to pronounce their name differently now. Did you guys hear that? I heard that. Do I look like a man that kowtows to Turkey? Turkiya, right? Yeah. Turkiya. I just say butterball. That was a good one to go out on. What's next? Mexico. Okay. So we're going to do Mexico now. I have Mexico too. Roger, no Mexico? No. You didn't bring a land shark? Land shark. Land shark wasn't Mexico. Oh, yeah. I've been wanting to try this one. We're going to do two Mexicos at once, side by side. We should stick with the wine. I feel like it'll... Mexico. So this is a sauvignon Blanc from Mexico. It's made by the Mont-Zanech Winery on the Baja Peninsula. Mexico is capable of producing fine wine on the Baja Peninsula. It's surrounded by water, of course, and there is some elevation there as well. So you get a very Mediterranean climate. It's not as hot as you might think it would be. They're growing sauvignon Blanc here, but they grow all kinds of things as well. This is Mont-Zanech. I don't really know how to pronounce that. It's probably, with those Xs, it's probably indigenous. CHs. Yeah. Yeah. At a certain point, we have to stop pretending like we know how all these different accents work in all of these different languages from around the world. Yeah. Just because it's called Turkentush, I don't know. Turkentush. Duolingo hasn't taught me how to pronounce it yet. Yeah. But I'll check back. We'll do our best and check the show notes in the blog post for the names and links to the stuff. Yeah. This comes from particularly the Valle de Guadalupe, or the Guadalupe Valley. This is a winery that's been around since the 80s, and it's very modern and very, very sleek. And one of the Mexican wines that actually gets exported to the US. You know how you rinse your glass? I needed to rinse my mouth because it was still full of anesthetic. Oh, yeah. This is good. I did. Right? I can't believe this is really good. How many wines are on the Baja Peninsula are wineries? I had no idea that was a lot. Really? I mean, it makes sense. It's just really an extension of California, right? Yeah. I mean, Baja California is what it's called. It's really that the fact that it's this peninsula that's surrounded by water and it's very narrow and it's long like the peninsula. Mexico taking home silver in synchronized diving. Pretty bad ass. That is an amazing sport. The idea that people can jump off of a 10-meter platform. I mean, the timing is unreal. The timing is unreal. They have camera angles from every angle, so you can see how perfectly they're doing. When the dive is great and they're just, how do you sink your bodies in the air like that so perfectly? It's insane. The wine's good too. Yeah. The wine is good. Speaking of pairings. I don't like a lot of sauvignon Blancs. And two things, both from Mexico. You do like a lot of sauvignon Blancs. We're staying in Mexico because I brought Mexico as well. All right, we're staying in Mexico. I thought you were going to talk about a food pairing. I would eat the hell out of a fish taco. Were you segwaying that or were you going to say something in? I was segwaying so Pat could have a... I also brought something from Mexico. I believe I may have talked up here before, but it's the latest custom batch, Ensemble batch from Mezcal Vago just for Binny's. This is a Binny's handpick. This is Mezcal Vago Ensemble by Tio Rey. Tio Rey is a mezcalero who makes mezcals in the ancestral style. So these agaves are roasted in underground pits. They are then put onto essentially like big canoe looking log things, and they are hand crushed with wooden mallets to extract the juices. The juices go to an open spontaneous fermenter, and then they are distilled twice on a clay pot still, a Filipino style still, which is the ancestral style of distillation. So it is 49.9 percent alcohol, and this is made from a blend of 54 percent espadine, 20 percent coyote, 17 percent baril, and 9 percent mexicano. So that's a growing trend we see in Mezcal now. When Mezcal first started getting its legs in the US, it was all espadine, espadine, espadine, and now people are doing more of these natural kind of field blends, which is how it really was traditionally made. I feel like hand pina smashing could be an Olympic event, or at least in like the Highland Games or something. You were giving me stress describing all those steps. It sounds really agonizing. I mean, it's unbelievably labor intensive for a very small yield. This batch yielded 415 liters of Mezcal. And when it's gone, it's gone forever. And to have this on the shelf for a hundred bucks with all of that, with literal decades sometimes of agave growth, and then all that physical labor involved in making it, and this is a hundred dollars, not to mention how refined the nose is here. Yeah. I mean, there is that wisp of Mezcal smoke, but it is a beautiful wisp. Yeah. It's a beautiful smoke. It's subtle and it's rounded. It's the best kind of smoke. There's so much caramelized fruit in here too. Yeah. It's layered into this big fruit dessert kind of smell. Yeah. And something else. What is it? I'm famously not a huge Mezcal guy. Not into this nice Mezcal. Dude, this is like primo Mezcal. There are a lot of rough edges on a lot of Mezcal's I've had, and this is, it seems pretty polished. It's pretty excellent. It's very good. There's a lot of heat. It hits the mark like the women's Mexican archery team that took home bronze. Oh, there it is. Nice. All right, Roger. Olympics Rain Man over here. I thought I was an Olympics enthusiast. Nothing. Good stuff. 99.99 and a Binny's near you. It has like a peppery, vegetal wildness on the finish. Poland. All right. With that smokiness, let's try a beer here. If you've heard breweries discuss or talk about making a Baltic style porter, it is referring to the Baltic states who developed a taste for what was often referred to as an imperial stout in the UK because of the Russian royal family's love of it. So at times when they couldn't get any through that trade route or just to be able to make their own, several of these Baltic countries started making their own imperial stouts. And don't forget, every stout is a porter, but not every porter is a stout. Not to mention the fact that most stouts are ales, but in this case, a lot of times it's... Yeah, a lot of times the Baltic states decided since they normally made lagers, that they would make a lager version of these big, rich, heavy beers. So this is one of the Baltic porters you can get at Binny's. It's from a Baltic state from Poland. It is 9.5% alcohol and widely regarded as one of the classic examples of the style. It is Giviet's Porter. Love, love, love this beer. Excellent. It is also another example of you can get some fantastic beers at pretty incredible prices. This comes in at the nice price of $1.99 a bottle. Oh, hello. Yep. You know where it's great to drink this, Roger? You guys do. Oh, nice. What's the elk? 9.5. For $2 a bottle? Yep. And look out, Dragon Lady. That's not a new main girl. Price similarly, but quality wise, they're not in the same ballpark, I'm afraid. Oh, man. Wow. You do taste every bit of the 9.5% though on this. It's there. It was one of those things that I was just having a conversation the other day about how we're so used to American stouts in the last decade or so, focusing on the sweeter side of things that you forget that, you know, Imperial stouts used to be plenty bitter. I mean, they have between the roasted malt character and the hop rate. You know, they were not sweet beers. Yeah. You needed hops to balance out all that malt. Well, this one is dry and roasty. Yeah, for sure. It's really good. I like it. As Chris pointed out, this is such a good food beer. The next time you're having anything that's hardier, anything, things off the grill, this complements barbecue really well, you know, grilled veggies. It has that nice kind of chocolatey, charry, roasty character to it. Indeed. Thank you, Poland. It's a classic at a great price. Do you have anything nice to say about their Olympic prospects? It says, yeah, it says they have a few. I'm not sure in what events, though. They usually do fairly well in like the hammer throw and the shot put and the field, some field events in track and field. South Africa. Where are we going to next? My turn next? Yes. We're going south. We're going to South Africa. South Africa. Yeah, we are going to have Bayab African Gin. This is their dry gin. We have several gins from them available at a Binny's near you. No Amarillo? No, we've all had Amarillo before. So these Bayab gins, this is the classic dry. It's 43% alcohol made with your regular gin botanicals like juniper, coriander, rosemary, grapefruit peel, orange peel, cardamom, but also baobab fruit, cinnamon, coarse sea salt. From the Himalayas. Does this pair well with your favorite South African boar sausage? Boar wars? Yeah. The boar sausage wars. Or biltong? Biltong. There you go. Maybe that's what that was filtered through. Oh yeah, biltong. Biltong's not that salty though. That's jerky in South Africa, in case you didn't know. It's so Baobabby. Product of South Africa. So we've got a dry, an African rose, a orange and marula, and a palm and pineapple. It smells pretty good. It smells like gin. It's soft and slightly sweet up front. It's pretty tasty on its own. It's clean. It's got a little herbal edge, but it's not overwhelmingly piney on the nose. No, not at all. And not overwhelmingly spicy either, considering there's coriander and all that other stuff. Light and bright. Yeah. It's a nice gin. $34.99. Available at a Binny's near you. Huh. What's South Africa one so far, Roger? I mean, it's certainly not in a women's dry style. Field hockey or something? Handball? Cycling, rugby sevens. Oh, that makes sense. I have a great rugby team. Tatiana Smith brought home a gold and a silver in women's swimming. How many medals do they give out in these sports? Three each sport. What are you talking about? Yeah, but it seems like. Each competition. Oh, I got one in swimming. Oh, I got one in swimming. Well, they got one. Yeah, there's a whole bunch of different events. So it's in the category. For someone who claims to be an Olympic fan, you sure don't know anything about the Olympics. Do you know how old I was last time I watched the Olympics? I don't know. Yeah. 12. Swimming is one of the biggies. People really tune in. There's a lot of swimming events. What about that Katie Ledecky? The goat. Yeah. Her record table is hysterical. That's incredible. Like the top 30 times ever in one of those races, 29 of them are her, something like that. Did you see the video of her swimming with the chocolate milk on her head? Oh yeah, that's great. So cool. Every time it comes around. That's real form. She learned that at finishing school, swimming finishing school. I like this gin. I like it a lot. It has a robust under fruit quality that gives it more base than gin usually has. I think it's got more mouth feel too. Yeah, it's round and soft and slightly sweet up front. Yeah, it's far cry from London dry. I think it's one of the ones that you would, if you're just doing simple gin and tonic, you get one of the more interesting fever tree flavors than just the classic tonic. That's exactly what I'm thinking about. And I'm thinking about how I am not going to buy a bottle of this because I would just disrespect it by making a horrifically gigantic Negroni. Well, they make fever trees got that Yuzu gin and tonic now. I bet that would be really awesome with this. Or the Elderflower Mediterranean. Put a Rosemary Sprig in there with all that compliment. Georgia. Okay, my turn. We're going to an ancient wine growing region of Georgia, not the state. The country of Georgia. This is a great Olympic story. Their fencer had an absolute meltdown. Berating the judge, screaming at them. Just screaming. My career is finished. In fencing? What do we got here from Georgia? Anyway, this is from a winery called Kukuri Guinness Marani. Georgia has an ancient wine making tradition. It is one of the oldest wine making tradition in the world, they argue. It's the cradle of wine making perhaps in the Fertile Crescent, as they say, going way back in a civilization dating way, way back there too. This grape has an 8,000 year history. Yeah, it tastes like it. I was just going to say that. That's interesting because I've never had this. This is a relatively new winery. Okay. It also tastes like that. Interesting. So this is a dry version. Extremely dry. A lot of people in this market and in Georgia drink the semi-sweet version. This grape accounts for a third of all wine in Georgia. But a lot of it is made into semi-sweet stuff, particularly Kinza Maruli. I was going to say, I'm surprised you just didn't bring Kinza Maruli. I could have, but I thought maybe people had tried before. I wanted to focus on this. I think you could use some sugar to fill in the gaps. The fruit just falls off, and it's like this chicory root herbal thing. This scraping across the finish. Brings Roger right back to New Orleans. This thing really assaults the palate, Judo style. What is up with that? They're winning a lot of Judo competition. They have gold and two silvers. Whoever thought of them as a Judo nation? Why don't you think Georgian people can do Judo? Of course they can do Judo, but is it the first thing you think of? This is the gateway to, from between Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It's right on the border there. It's an interesting wine. We've had better. Georgia, good luck with the rest of the games. Next. Next. The Czech Republic. Roger, where are you taking us next? To one of the oldest and proudest beer drinking areas in the world. My basement. The Czech Republic. Although your basement has a higher rate of beer consumption than the Czech Republic does. Yeah, the per capita is off the charts. Yeah, because Czech Republic is number one in the world, but Pat's basement, the highest wife disappointment per square meter definitely occurs in my house. We've actually tasted this beer on the podcast before, but it's such a hidden gem that I wanted to feature it again. Nobody knows this brewery and it's a shame because they're just making some absolutely fantastic beer. This is Browchek Dark Lager. That's the export name for this beer. It's produced at the Nova Paca Brewery, which has been around since 1872. Much like Czechvar, this is owned by the Czech people. What a banger. It's unbelievable. It's so good. And part of the reason is it's basically like a museum brewery. They're still doing everything. In-house maltings, right? Yeah, in-house floor-malted barley, artesian well water. They're loggering it for two months. This is even a touch cold. But most loggers, you want to drink cold. But this cool, it even opens up a little more. The balance here is off the charts. And a 16.9 ounce half-liter bottle will cost you $1.99. Well, again. It's crazy. Thank you, Eastern Europe. Okay, the Alk here, what did you say? Did you say the alcohol? Five percent. Yeah, I was going to say it's five percent. Not anything super strong. This is just such a good beer for the reason, I think, that we were seeing so many Chicago breweries fall in love with the Czech dark style is that it offers tons of flavor without being heavy. It's not a heavy beer. This is the classic example of what people should try if they are afraid of dark beer. Like, oh my God, what's it going to taste like? This is so drinkable. The American brewing scene is guilty of having put blinders on and really focused on stouts and porters and they really don't make enough dark beers that aren't those that one style. So it's really refreshing to see breweries, you know, giving an obscure style like Czech dark a chance. But you should also try some of the nice examples from the Czech Republic, not just one made down the street. If you've been interested in this style and you've dug some of the examples at breweries like, you know, off color and revolution and we've seen them at art history, rowing table. So many people are making great dark Czech lagers. Try Brow Check as well. And what a value. How's the Czech Republic doing at the Olympics this year? They got gold in mixed tennis and a bronze in fencing. It is fun during the fencing to hear a French person say en garde. You know, just American going en garde. Next country, Sweden. Next country. Heading up where they have a kind of shorter summer. Going to Sweden. Oh, the Swedes. This is Ejus Aquavit and an aquavit, if you recall, is a neutral spirit, essentially a flavored vodka. It's like a gin adjacent. It's a neutral spirit that's aromatized with usually caraway or dill and some other herbs. And it depends on what country you get that, the main kind of botanical. And then sometimes they're aged in oak. Sometimes they're not Norwegian. Aquavits are often aged in oak, but Danish and Swedish usually are not. This is a Swedish. It is caraway, rosemary, lemon peel, severe orange and fennel. I like how they list the ingredients in big letters on the front. That's smart since lots of people have no idea what an aquavit is. So this is 38% alcohol. Normally, if you haven't had one, Swedish households will keep this in the freezer. And after a big meal of rib sticking food, like pickled fish and stuff, you have a shot of aquavit. This is good. A little digestif. And you know, there's so many names, just to get in a little bit in etymology maybe, like Odovi, aquavit, whiskey. They all basically mean the same thing, right? This is water of life. Right. This is a very elegant, refined, modern aquavit. It's not like you picture some of them that are incredibly diller, caraway heavy, and it's just like drinking fermented rye bread or something like that. Usually, the caraway is just like the dominant form. This is awesome. This is an aquavit you can actually make some interesting savory cocktails with. I was just going to say you do this with a Bloody Mary, a little heavy on the pickle juice. This is a really, really refined, soft version. There's a little sweetness up front. Everything is balanced nicely. Nothing is raging. None of these flavorings are sticky now. I think the citrus is especially apparent because it's so much stronger than it normally would be underneath the herbs. It is, but it's not unwelcome, in my opinion. No, I think it's really nice. I'm not sure. I said Ahus. Maybe it's Ahus. I don't know. How do you pronounce an A with a circle on the top? Oh, nice Swedish is a little rusty. It's Ohus. Ohus? Yeah. Duolingo hasn't taught me that either. Or almost like with an O-R, or I do believe. Well, pretty deice. Go Sweden. The mix of metals for Sweden is amazing. Swimming, shooting, sailing, judo and cycling. What can't they do? Getting after it. Thanks, Sweden. Yeah. We are going to do another Eastern European country. This is from North Macedonia, which is freshly named. Dispute with Greece about the Macedonian name. So this is now officially North Macedonia. Do the North Macedonians feel okay with that? I think they have no choice but to be okay with that. This is from a grape variety called Vranac. Vranac. So another highly localized grape that's pretty widely grown in this area. It's originally from Montenegro, which is right in the neighborhood, right next to Serbia. Vranac is related to Zinfandel. This is from a winery called Itsemit. Easy I-M-I-T. Itsemit. Itsemit. It's 2020. It's $15.99 a bottle. I like this. This is an easy drinking, but still full-bodied red wine, right? I mean, not full-bodied, but there's enough there, there's enough structure there, and interesting layers that for that price from this part of the world, I'm digging this. It's got a nice dryness to it. It's not too much. Yeah. Dark cherry note. Yeah. The cherry candy with the cherry inside the cherry, the soft part inside the hard part. I can't say I've had a candy like that. Is it gum in the middle of the cherry candy, the cherry ball thing? You're talking about the one that's wrapped up with the cherry, like the strawberry candy. That's the strawberry one that is most iconic that's like that. And the foil. I'm remembering although there's a spherical red candy that tastes like cherry or something. A cherry cough drop that's like that, that has a soft scent. Actually, this isn't that far off from a cherry cough drop. I worked in the cherry capital of the world for a summer and I don't recognize that. Traverse City? There's cherry but there's also, there's more than that. There's like a savory quality in the finish too. Yeah, for sure. We got anything for any victories for North Macedonia so far this summer? Not yet. No medals. Whoa. Come on, North Macedonia. You can't call yourself what you want to call it and don't win anything either. Sorry. What would Alexander the Great say? Alexander the Great would say, Holy s**t, airplanes. All right, next, Jamaica. If you're an old beer nerd, you know this beer and I bet you haven't thought about it in a long time. I was out of the market for years, but it is back. This is from Jamaica, Dragon Stout. Oh, man. I haven't thought about that in ages. In a cute little 9.4-ounce bottle. Adorable little bottle. Jamaica. Jamizzi. 9.6, sorry. This is from DNG. If you know anything about Jamaican beer, you probably are going to think of the iconic Red Stripe, which is made in Jamaica again, thankfully. It had a dark period there where it was being contract brewed. It was made in Canada forever. In Pennsylvania, of all places for years. Our Red Stripes from Jamaica again, and then Dragon Stout is beloved by the people of Jamaica. They often make this into a punch, which I think we're going to have to do on a future episode when we do some cocktails or maybe we'll even do a beer cocktail. But the punch is super interesting. It's with like bananas and peanuts and oatmeal. It's really cinnamon sweet spices. This beer is great. Yeah, it seems counterintuitive, but richer high alcohol stouts are very popular in the Caribbean as even Guinness made a Caribbean style. Yeah. Still does. Yeah. Foreign extra stout. Yeah. So. Oh, that's like the best Guinness. Easily. So this is like a competitor to foreign extra stout. I would say that this has a little more sweetness to it. Yeah. It's a little more fruit forward. It's a little more pointed. Definitely a little sweet. That's some really cool, like dark fruit, prune, plum, raisin kind of characteristics. And like I said, that you'll think it's crazy, but this mixes really well with things. This can be a fun beer to use as a beer milkshake. So take instead of using instead of using milk. Go away. No, I'm here for it. How about a beer float? Dude, you would love a shake made out of this, and you'd love a beer float with this too. Instead of using milk, mix this with vanilla ice cream or coffee ice cream. Delicious. I can see that. I mean, how could that not be delicious? Sprinkle a malt powder if you make it a malted. Super good. Some of that whipped cream on top. Some sprinkles. Dragon Stout, seven and a half percent alcohol. They have it in these six packs of the cute little 9.6 ounce bottles. $12.99. And again, it's nice to see this. Too often with a lot of beers, they contract brew them and you end up paying a lot of money to get something that's not actually from the place, you know, the official recipe. This is nice. It's coming from Jamaica. So if you want a true taste of Jamaican beer, give Dragon Stout a try. Japan. This is a Japanese spirit that is iconic and we never taste because we don't really get enough of it. However, they've raised the price on it so significantly that it is now sitting around a bit at a Binny's near you. Wow. They raised the price so we're giving them props. No, we're not giving them props. We're just using an excuse to use the sample bottle I've had open for a couple of years. We are drinking Hakushu 12 year old. Hakushu. Hakushu. Hakushu. Hakushu. I'm not sure where the inflection point is on that. But it's a pitted Japanese whiskey. This 12 year old can be had for 179.99. That's the new price. The new price. Where was it before? Like 49.99 years ago. Oh, man. Really? So it's available pretty much every Binny's. I'm shocked. Yeah. Quite a jump. The nose is delightful. How pitted is it? It's subtle. It's not like Isla. I'm not sure of PPMs. I'm not sure that they would disclose if we asked. So this is the Pitted Whiskey from the Yamazaki Distillery. The cool thing about Japanese single malt distilleries, they make these blends and they make different single malts, but they do them all under one roof. They have real cool specialized equipment where they can actually change the angle of the line arm of the pot stills. The line arm is the piece that comes off the swan neck and then goes to the condenser. They can change the heads out on top of the stills and stuff. You can really, by doing that, mess with all kinds of different variables, namely with reflux. And then depending on how the temperature and the speed you run the stills, you can make dozens and dozens of different styles of malt whiskeys on this one piece of equipment. It's really cool. Well, I'll just say the nose on this is gorgeous. It's like so beautifully balanced between peatiness and fruit. It's just, it sings. I love it. The fruit thing's there. There's a bit of a floral kind of thing going on. Very much a calling card of Japanese whiskey. So it's a beautiful whiskey. It is priced as a luxury good now. We have it though. It's awesome. It's an iconic cool thing. Orange blossoms and grass. Yeah. I have a low tolerance for peatiness, which is crazy because I love mezcal. Well, I got peatier coming. Oh great. But this is still approachable. I think it kind of hits you right away. And then on the back end, it's really nice. It's graceful. Yeah, it's a very elegant expression. It's a beautiful whiskey, 43% alcohol. Excuse me. This is the Hakushu Distillery, not Yamazaki. Same company, but they do operate two different facilities. I really like this. Well, among others. It's gorgeous. I love it. I really like this. It's great whiskey, man. It's just a little out of my price range, personally. All right, Roger, we got a medal count on Japan. What are they meddling in? Gymnastics and swimming? Judo, skateboarding. Their female skateboarders are always like the best in the world. There was actually, I saw an article online the other day, like, why are teenage Japanese girls so good at skateboarding? Yeah, they have a bunch of medals in skateboarding, a lot in judo, some fencing, one in badminton. They're usually known, I think, for badminton. Greg's board, what's next? Okay, we're going to branch out into something a little different. This is a pomegranate wine from- Nice. I've seen this on the shelves for years. I've never tried it. So, this is from the cradle of pomegranate production in Armenia. Some people think that the apple from the Adam and Eve- Right. The story is actually a pomegranate. In fact- It's funny that their details are fuzzy considering it was written supposedly 10,000 years later. Well, not to mention the fact that mythologically the pomegranate goes way back before that. You have Persephone going to Hades and eating pomegranate. Is it though? Yeah, it is. Shut the hell up. I've already forgotten the country. Armenia. Oh, Armenia. If you asked me where pomegranates come from, I wouldn't know. If you would ask me what they grow in Armenia, I wouldn't know. I'd guess figs. They grow other fruits, apricots, stuff like that. I don't know about figs. They're known for pomegranates. Yeah. This is quite sugary and quite delicious. I mean, this is the heart of grenadine, right? This is just- Yeah, this is just grenadine. This is delicious. This is syrup. I don't know if I'm personally crushing a bottle of that, but it's pretty delicious. I'd get so hungover if I drank a lot of that. So in this area of the world, and there's acidity here too. If you wanted an awesome pink lemonade, you put some of this in your lemonade. Yeah. I want to put it in some Coke right now. So Armenia is by Turkey and Azerbaijan and places like this. Historically, culinarily, pomegranates were very important. You can buy pomegranate molasses to use for culinary purposes. That sounds good. Yeah. I like how ashamed you are of how much you like this and how you're not ashamed of that at all. You're like, I'm not supposed to like this, but mad. It's really good. Pomegranate has become very popular in the States. You've got all kinds of drinks and things now that didn't exist before. And you can even because they're so hard to people find them hard to deal with, you can just buy the Arrows in a bucket or whatever. A lot of people think that grenadine specifically tastes like cherry juice, but it doesn't. It has like an aloe like herbal tinge at the top of the fruit, the red fruit. And it's right here in a berry note, too. There's like a raspberry note here. That's awesome. Interestingly, the pomegranate is a berry. This is a good one for social media to look up pomegranate hacks for how to like eat them. There's much easier ways to clean pomegranates. Underwater. I've never had one because I've never wanted to partake in that mess. Do you do the underwater in a bowl thing? Yeah. That's the way to do it. So this would be great to mix with things. I mean, to put this in wine spritzers, to put some in sangria, to... Put this over your shaved ice. Yeah. Sure. I mean, it's sweet, but it's not cloyingly sweet. Yeah. No, it's not. It's flirt and witty. Yeah. But, you know, if you like fresh fruit, you know, fruit is sweet, fruit has acid. If it's in proportion, it's delicious. You could make a little wine slushy out of that. Totally. For sure. So when we get the oven and the stove, the cooktop for here, we're also going to get, you know, a frozen drink machine. Yeah. And one of those pizza makers. Pizza oven. It's called an oven. A pizzazz? You don't remember the pizzazz? It was on the infomercials when we were in college. It was the thing that sat on the counter and just had the little triangle cooker and it rotated. It rotated around. It slowly turned underneath it. That's what I was trying to describe. It rotates it. It's got like this infrared beam. It's got an infrared beam the size of one slice. Like a quarter of the pitch at a time. And it would just, no, not even, like maybe a six. And it just slowly rotates like the tombstone underneath it. Yeah. I mean, who doesn't need that? I guess it was good for dorm rooms. Yeah, exactly. I knew like at least seven people in college who had one of those in their dorm room. Again, a good social media thing watching like a cat sitting next to one watching it spin around. Belgium. All right. So last but definitely not least, if I had to pick my all time Olympian in the realm of beer, it would be the country of Belgium. They've given us more. I thought you were going to say John Daly was on the golf team at some point. Belgium is giving us more amazing beer than arguably anywhere in the world. So we're trying a beer from their Trappist tradition. So again, this abides by a set standard of regulations as far as being produced by a Trappist monastery. These beers are typically made in the tradition of like a triple, a quad or a double. This is kind of an enigma. This is Trappistes Rochefort, which the 10 is what most people know. The 8 was actually developed somewhat recently in the 1950s as like a celebratory New Year's celebration beer. And so if the 10 is a little too rich for you, that's more of kind of a dessert after-dinner sipper. This beer is beautiful as a mid-meal or pre-meal, just layers of flavor. Are they only doing even numbers? Six, eight, ten. Six, eight, ten. Come on, man, that's like when you go to the coffee shop and the smallest size is medium. Come on. Well, so yeah, it refers to degrees Play-Doh. Degrees Play-Doh, yeah. It's an old thing, and I think it's held on just because sometimes they are somewhat close to the ABV level. So for people that don't really put in the work and learn about them, they at least think like, oh, the number is close to the ABV, so it connotates strength. The really special thing about these beers is the yeast. So when we talk about beer, we're often hop, steal the show, and then we're starting to talk about malt more. We must never talk about yeast, which is a shame because it's such an important part of beer making, and with a beer like this, these aromatics are just off the charts and it's all thanks to the yeast. Delightful and creamy. Yeah. Bottle condition. So delicious. Also one of my all-time faves. Clovey. My last one of the day, we're going to Scotland. I'm not sure what they've won in Summer Olympics lately. Maybe a shooting event or something. Some kind of vlog toss. This is this year's release of LaFrogue Kerchus. Kerdeus is pronounced Kerchus, which is friends or friendship in Gaelic. It is the annual release celebrating the Friends of LaFrogue program. This year, they brought back a mixture of two of the very popular previous releases. So using the LaFrogue Triple Wood and the LaFrogue PX cask, PX Sherry. The Triple Wood is a mix of Bourbon Barrels, Quarter casks, which are a quarter of the size of a Sherry, but they're not little barrels. They're almost as big as a Bourbon Barrel. And then Oloroso Sherry casks. And then there's the PX cask component blended together. Both cask strength Triple Wood and cask strength PX cask are previous Kerchus releases. It's a bit of a mouthful, but it's a pretty fantastic LaFrogue. Hey, this smells rad. It smells really good. It's so complex, but it's also like streamlined at the same time. Lexi said it smelled good. Yeah. Well, so it's more iodine than smoke. Now, I think the iodine is only on the finish. Like on the nose, it's like pencil shavings and stone fruit. I feel like a little carnalized something. Do you get any citrus on the palate? That's kind of a car and car LaFrogue. I have not tried it yet. It's pretty delicious. It's pretty awesome. Yeah. Okay. The peak comes across more as smoke on the palate. It is 52.4% ABV. Like brown sugar and molasses and mild fruit pie, apple pie. I still get that band-aid-y vibe. Oh yeah. That's the iodine. That's the medicinal thing. Big LaFrogue character. This is- Can't escape the phenols. It's just woven into all of this other stuff. Maybe it sticks out to you, but I don't know. It feels like it's part of a composition. It definitely doesn't overtake any of the other flavors. I'm still getting nice caramelized deliciousness. It's very complicated. A hundred bucks on sale is- We record this for $89.99. I'm not sure how long that sale price is going to last. Due to their monarchical ties, I can't give you a quick count for how many of the Great Britain athletes are Scottish. So I was trying to figure it out. That's right. Great Britain. They've got a great breaststroker, Adam Petey. Wait. Yeah. The Scotsman's name is Petey. I don't know if he's Scottish. Welsh, I think. Is he? Oh, OK. Far less exciting. They have gold in Dragon Slam. They've got a good track team. They won gold in Equestrian, which is not a shock. No shock. Rowing. We won gold in subjugating animals. And and cultures. Lafrog is so good. It's like it's so good. It's like confectionary on the finish. It's like a dessert. What was this? It's PX. Yeah. I like this more than I usually do, and that's why I'm sure. PX. PX to the rescue. All right. Great whiskey. Get away. Can there'll be a different one next year? We recorded this episode a week ago, because the day that it dropped, so let us know how the countries did, because we don't know. Told you outdated information. More judo medals, probably. Is judo over? Are they gonna keep doing judo? Is it ever over? Are there other martial arts besides judo? My swimming coach in junior high was a former Olympic judo guy, due from Mexico. See, everyone's getting judo medals. Is street luge and skateboarding in the X Games? Street luge, far too extreme for the Olympics. I mean, really. Skateboarding, surfing. What hasn't happened yet, the big news is a breaking. Yeah, I can't wait for that. Have you seen any of that? No, I don't think it started yet. Next week. But is it only available through Peacock, I think? Probably. It's kind of pissing me off. I don't think they're gonna ever. Fubo. Oh, seriously? Yep. Fubo. Dang. You can only watch one at a time because you can't jump around. Oh, that's a shame. I gotta see breaking. Anyway, we gave you guys a lot. We gave all of you lots of great options. If you're enjoying these games like we are and you want to raise a glass to toast some of the countries you're rooting for, you got lots of great options. Lots of great options. I don't care about the games, but I love the lens of the whole world through the foods and beverages that come from them. So even though I don't care who got judo'd, I appreciate that you gave me the chance to try all this stuff. Great. Thank you. We're going to end on a hi-ya note. I'm going to black belt on out of here. Hey, hope you enjoyed that. We'll be back in your feed with something else next week. Maybe, I don't know, more world tour of spirits or something. Until then, I'm Pat. I'm Greg. I'm Roger. I'm Lexi. I'm Chris. Keep Tasty.