Budget Bottled in Bond Bourbon Blind Tasting

welcome to the bourbon van i'm phil and i'm julie and this is the budget bottled and bond bourbon beat down i made it so this challenge is born out of desperation on my part oh my daily drinker early times bottled and bonded not to be confused with the light whiskey that comes in the yellow label regular early times early times bottled and bond this is a product that was made by brown foreman suddenly in mid 2020 they sold this to sazerac company it was part of a larger deal i don't know what sazerac wants with it but this has been my daily drinker and i love it maybe they won't change it at all i've heard rumblings that they're going to change the recipe i've heard rumblings that they're going to get rid of the bottled and bond don't do it i've heard rumblings that they're going to discontinue it completely i have no idea what they want with it but please please don't get rid of this bottle but just in case you do we're trying out some backups that's what this challenge is today and to add credibility to the channel three out of the four i've never tried before this is gonna go great so we've talked about it before on various videos but bottled and bond basically what it means it has to be distilled by a single distiller at a single distillery during a single distillation season it also means that it has to be aged four years or more in federally bonded government monitored warehouses and it also means that it has to be bottled at exactly 100 proof the reason we think that these budget bottles are such a great deal is because you know exactly what you're getting when you see bottled and bond you know you're getting at least a four-year-old whiskey and a lot of these are priced better than much younger whiskeys on the market if you're going into the liquor store you don't have a ton of money to spend if you're looking for a good deal check out bottled and bond products yeah and let's run through the prices because they're so affordable so affordable first up we have evan williams evan williams famously this bottle is called the white label sells for 15 or 16 and it's made by heaven hill next up we have early times sells for 25 ish but you'll notice it's a big bottle this is a liter for 25 heck of a deal we like value love it jts brown another heaven hill contender 19 for that bottle and finally old tub old tub for you big spenders out there that's a jim beam product that sells for 22 dollars a bottle yeah it's fun to say good job it is one of my favorite names it's great we're just gonna start from right to left we're both drinking the same thing i poured them she mixed them up so this is a blind tasting it'll be fun for you if you guess you try to guess which one it is and put them in order yeah and i'm just gonna put them in order yeah except for maybe the early chance we'll see if i can pick it out since i've had that one i think you'll be able to these are surprisingly yummy on the nose different glass one has a nice caramel to it on the nose a little vanilla maybe a little ripe fruit like a cherry i'm really digging glass two nose glass two a little bit peanutty there's some grain there maybe corn going for my third round just uh third time's a charm glass c is like shortbread they keep the nose none of these smells overly complex on the nose but that's not unusual four-year-old whiskey probably not going to be all that complex on the nose no but for 100 proof i'm getting a lot of flavors out of it because they're less expensive sometimes you just assume that maybe they'd have higher ethanol right alcoholic right off the nose and all four of these are actually very pleasant yeah none of these have that gasoline nose that you get from really strong really cheap liquor i love the smell of glass number two glass number one on the nose for me i think number one is my least favorite no kidding yeah we're on the same page right off the bat that's usually how this rolls i think i go two three four one i think i go one three four two that's interesting we're on complete opposite sides of the spectrum there on the nose i'm just making a little note very good i can remember what i what i've told you let's start with class one all right cheers oh that's that's good that's so good caramel oh i got a weird it sort of came with that like it came and went that ripe fruit all of a sudden this isn't gonna this isn't gonna bode well but i kind of got a weird back taste what do you say like it's not the finish weird flavor on the back of your tongue yeah i'm getting kind of like a grassy earthy note on the back end that's a little strange for me it's really subtle whatever it is this one completely changed by the way from the nose to the palette i'm getting gentle nuttiness there's an earthiness there for sure it's almost like peanut shells and dirt not in a i'm not saying that a bad way it's very sweet and lovely there's definitely caramel in here there's hints of vanilla the fruit is coming through too a little bit of proof yeah there's a tingle on the tongue i thought that was going to be very fruity because as soon as it hit my tongue i got like a bright cherry note and then it was gone just like that now it's all peanuts yeah like a nut there's a nuttiness in there but yeah i shouldn't say peanuts i don't i think it's just a hint of shells yeah but also there's an undertone of chocolate an undertone of not like milk chocolate but just like an undertone of almost like unsweetened chocolate huh that's interesting i didn't notice it until you said that but yeah that's part of that earthiness i feel like there's something also it's got like a hint sorry i just took another sip of glassware i'm trying not to make that mistake that i always do where i just dance around a lot and then i don't know what to do yeah just hammer it all but i got a little bit of like orange or something than that one now there's a little yeah i was wondering if that spice was more fruit zest than anything else but i couldn't identify the fruit like a zest yeah yeah let's go on to glass too oh well that's different than the nose this reminds me a little bit of glass one it really coats well the mouthfeel on this one is way better than glass one there's a little touch of new oak here not really toasted or charred oak it's still a little bit of a peanut note but that shortbread that like sort of spicy cookie like a savory cookie that's not overly sweet i got that on the nose here and i'm getting more of it here on the palette i'm definitely getting some of that nuttiness now there's a nice like vanilla on the back end of this it finishes really nice and sweet not overly complex again but what's there is pleasant enough i don't really know if that sweetness that i'm tasting is like a chocolate note but it almost like coats like a chocolate it feels more like an oak to me yeah sometimes i confuse chocolate with oak especially when it's not overly sweet i do think this sweetness is more honey than anything else it's more candy-like than than richness that's pretty good the finish isn't very long very perplexed these aren't very familiar flavors for me there's not cherries or strawberries or pears or whatever i'm not actually sure what you're tasting we keep saying earthy but they're kind of like deeper dirtier flavors i think i know where you're going with this because these are four-year products five years maybe on these i don't think that any of them go any older than that i think you get a little bit of the grain note and so i think that what what i got on glass too more than anything else i think was a little bit of corn i think that's a corn grain my brain doesn't even think about stuff like that glass one and two had a little bit of corn i got sweeter probably corn on glass one but a little bit more grainy complex earthy on glass two for that corn i made that note so that when i come back the other way i'm gonna see if i can pick it out fair enough let's move on to glass three oh my god this one oh man this one's got a peanut butter this is a peanut butter nose now i was like oh this smells really good and then all of a sudden i was like it kind of smells like lemon plush which is not great it just you know not a great tasty note this one's not my favorite this one kicks you in the back of the throat it's got a really spicy finish it's nutty there's caramel sweetness it's almost like this is the sweetest one that we've tasted though this one reminds me of a payday if when you went to swallow it you were like i didn't like that payday it's great it's an old school candy i love it it's great until all of a sudden it's not great what's up petey is actually an interesting tasting note because paydays are well besides the nougat nougat nougat nougat yeah just opening that up because that's the nougat it's just caramel and peanuts right yeah salted peanuts this has a caramel vanilla peanutty sort of thing going on that i don't dislike it it's just not my favorite combo and it does have the nose on it is a little cinnamon on this yeah yeah there's cinnamon here i hate seeing bright cause i'm not even i can't eloquently tell you what that word even means but like in my head it's like they're lighter and sunshinier i'm not sure like you're getting sun shiny and i'm getting like dusty peanut shells off a barn floor that could be fun do try this take a little sip on glass three take a little sip and just push it around on your tongue for a while don't swallow it right away does it taste like peanut brittle do you no oh it does to me i mean all of these so far have a definite like nutty undertone yeah i think i know what that is well don't tell me i'm not going to tell you but that flavor profile that i don't think it could be anything other than what i'm thinking it is not that i thought that you thought that it was what i thought it was cool i'm going on to the next one i'm confused about class three yeah i can i can't tell if i like it or if i don't like it that's a really fair tasting note for that glass that's probably the best tasting because i'm like oh i've really enjoyed that well now i'm really excited for glass four oh that's oh i guess this is so sweet and fruity and caramely now it's totally different oh holy smokes the cherry there's actual like real okay real flavors this one for me has the most breakout of i'm category this is my categorizing like i'm boxing things out yeah this one for me exactly what people would think you're doing so this one for me has the most i always say complexity because we're not dealing with some of these i actually wouldn't say that but it has like the flavor you can actually like kind of start separating things pretty sweet i can get some cherries on this one that's always a bonus for me i was gonna say caramel at first but i think it's a little bit of like butterscotch maybe a hint of vanilla on the finish there's cherry vanilla chocolate butterscotch it's really nice and a little the oak is nice here there's some charred oaks some toasted oak in this this whole video i i know that i'm gonna look like so like concerned because my face keeps doing this little thing it can torque every time i know but i'm really thinking this one through this one is an easy lead easy easily number one easily and if i remember correctly i didn't hate the nose i did put it in third but i had it i put it in the same place you did on the nose so this is the first one that doesn't taste like any sort of nuts not almonds not peanuts no earthiness this hits my palate much more accurately than pleasingly yes much more so than the first three i'm gonna do a quick we'll rip through from glass four to class one and then we'll do a little bit of ap testing at this point i haven't even gotten a glass one yet i think i can take glass three out of the mix right now that's my second favorite really yeah it's dead last for me why up by as they as they say by a country mile oh do they say that i don't know if it means a longer distance or a shorter distance i think it means a long way i think it's i think it's a longer distance okay right now before i do a b testing four one two three is my order i'm just sharing some information here no i totally oh yeah difficult i'm just i i need i need a moment to think glass three nose is just so strange i've said this three times already but if i can't this is my fourth time i think so it feels like four i'm gonna have to throw it into that boat of like i don't like it because if i can't decide that i liked it at this point then these challenges aren't good for me because i can't make up my mind there's always like a front runner and then i get just like in the weeds and then i start drinking them all and then they're gone and i'm like can i just give you my number one and just call it that no i was just going to tell you i'm done i'm going to order mine here glass 4 is obviously my front runner from the start but glass 2 has probably my favorite oak flavor it's a little more than new oak it's pretty lovely though my word the word of the day is still lovely i sure hope that glass three is good in cocktails i don't see myself drinking glass three anytime soon you're not gonna be happy with how i'm flushing these out they're all good budget bourbons i don't really care what you do i don't have anything left so one quick note while julie's making her final tallies we did not include wild turkey 101 in this because it's not a bottle-to-bond product it's also a couple of dollars more also written house bottle and bond the price is right but it's awry we're going exclusively bourbons for this challenge i'm ready my number one chew in the other three were a little tricky for me i'm not like super thrilled with any of them same for me if we weren't comparing them against each other or blinding them i think glasses one two and four are palatable and satisfying enough i could just sit with them and have them as a daily sipper and be quite happy why don't you tell me what your last place glass was my last class is number one really yeah wow letter c i rearranged mine like an idiot that came in second for me i'm not i'm not surprised that we're gonna be drastically different on this yeah fourth place for you second for me c is heaven hill jts brown oh okay first time having it i've become sort of fond of this bottle because it's so easy to drink and unassuming it's a great daily sipper it doesn't have the complexity as a budget bottle i don't want it to offend my senses and that's why i placed it so highly because if i'm not going to get what i really want then at least i should have something that's not going to bother me when i'm drinking it i really enjoyed the flavors of this one that chocolate i got a little orange i got that oakiness uh wow you got more than i did yeah i got the flavors on it but at the end it was like every time i took a sip it just got overpowered by the proof even though it's like 100 proof kept coming back up and so like those initial couple sips i was like oh no this is gonna for sure make it and then at the end it just didn't pull its weight so what i liked about it is that it doesn't bring much to the table on your palette what you disliked about it is that it brought maybe too much to the table yeah really super interesting what is third place for you this is so confusing when we're doing two different ones i know i'm the worst third place for me is letter d that was my third as well let's find out what that was all right we agreed on something third d evan williams huh i'm surprised that you put the two heaven hill bottles at the bottom in my mind those are the two easy drinking unassuming there's not a ton of flavor but what is there to me is very pleasant this bottle to me has nice oak nice sweetness a little earthiness easy drinkability this one has a little bit of heat that i'm not crazy about i knew that i had the heaven hill bottles in second and third based on just what i remember of their flavors but i didn't expect to have jts brown above evan williams that's a bit of a surprise to me maybe you just have me wanting more we've done that advent tournament and all of the other stuff that you've got a thirst now it was close this was this could have come in a second for me that third glass was kind of strange for me i couldn't yeah i didn't know if i liked it or not and at the end i decided that i liked it well you're you're not the biggest fan of henry mckenna bottled bond heaven hill makes all these different bottles and bonds they've got the jts brown evan williams the henry mckenna up here in the back heaven hill seven year bottled and bond which we can't get here because you don't like mckenna i'm i i shouldn't be surprised that those two came in third and fourth for you all right well i'm sure we know where this is going so let's just do our number one which i fairly confident glass b uh glass bead yeah i don't think there's any question what this one is of course it's the early times ah so this is my line up here i'm surprised by this you did give me a sip of this so i guess i'll take back my initial that i haven't had yeah i did a whiskey in the van wednesday of this not too long ago that you you tried because i didn't know what my reaction was that day it wasn't positive so it's a little bit of i don't know i shouldn't be surprised because i haven't had they're all budget bottles nobody said any of these are our legendary bottles the jim beam bottle the old tub the hype surrounding this bottle this year it's everywhere everybody's crazy about it it's unfiltered so it's got more flavor than most bottles and yada yada but to me if the flavors i'm looking for aren't there and in that bottle they're not it's peanutty it's spiky it's kind of all over the place and i i'm not a big jim beam guy if your palette is more attuned to that flavor profile if you like the jim beam flavor profile i could see it as being a terrific daily drinker for you and at that price point yeah it's a legendary bottle great on my palette i prefer the flavor profile of early times i don't think i'll touch that one again i'm kind of done with that bottle for me one two three here mixers i can't see myself drinking a glass of these i imagine that the old tube would be a great mixer but new appreciation for early times because i did kind of give you a hard time about earlier in the year that i didn't really understand the flavors i mean this miles ahead complexity of deliciousness that cherry caramel vanilla chocolate sweetness with a little bit of oak its complexity is unrivaled in this competition and the value 25 for a liter is still way cheaper than any of these other three bottles i feel a little sad like that it got sold off this year and fingers crossed that it stays the same because it's really delicious sazura do the right thing do the right thing sazurak just be cool this is me and then you were you swapped these too right that's right yeah yeah for me i really like the the sweetness on that jts brown bottle that little easy drinking light brown sugar on a tuesday afternoon at 3 30 or something this bottle i'll drink more of the evan williams pleasant enough that if early times goes away that'll be a suitable filler for a short period of time until i find something else but for me the hunt goes on for a daily drinking bottle and bond product at least a budget puddle and bond product satisfied yeah i had zero expectations going in so perfect all right well this was a lot of fun hopefully the next time you're at the liquor store looking for a budget bottle this helps you choose something at the very least it should give you some idea of the value that you can get in these bottled and bond products yeah they really are a stellar product and when you compare them with all the two year old straight whiskeys on the market that don't really hold a candle to these they really are all a good value yeah also if you need a holier of the early times go for it this evan wins specifically people go crazy for love i mean wins like competition versus bourbon's five times its price point so people love to throw that in just because i'm putting it in a third does it and you're putting it in thirds people people love to take that evan williams white label and throw it into much more expensive blind tasting challenges and who knows like if we i mean we're all i'm the same we're unapproved we're all on budgets if you threw it into like a 60 challenge or something who knows we might do that next hopefully you enjoyed this if you did hit that subscribe button ring the bell so you never miss a notification from us were we dead wrong on our choices right here uh let us know in the comments hit the like button if you enjoyed this video and as always thank you for following along with all of the silly things that we do and the nonsense yeah so from wherever we are to wherever you are cheers you

Channel: The Bourbon Van

Views: 7,626

Keywords: Bottled in bond, Whiskey, Bourbon, Bourbon whiskey, Blind tasting, Bourbon tasting, early times bottled in bond, early times bourbon, early times bottled-in-bond bourbon, evan williams bottled in bond, jts brown, jts brown whiskey, jts brown 100 proof bourbon, jts brown bottled in bond, jts brown bourbon, old tub bourbon, old tub review, jts brown review, evan williams bottled in bond review, early times review, early times bottled in bond review, bottled in bond review

Id: BjKxoUJHsQM

Length: 20min 41sec (1241 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 18 2021