Blind Taste Test: Cheap vs Expensive Whiskey Cocktails

There's a rule almost every whiskey drinker has heard at some point. Never waste good whiskey in a cocktail. But today, we're putting that to the test. Better ingredients generally make better food. So why wouldn't a better whiskey make a better cocktail? Because nobody pours $250 worth of a bourbon into food, Jim. Not with that attitude, they don't. I'll be making two versions of three different cocktails. A Manhattan, a whiskey sour, and my popular toasted old fashions. Every pair will use the exact same recipe, glassware, and preparation. The only thing that I'm changing will be the whiskey. We'll taste both versions blind, score them, pick our favorite, and then guess which cocktail contains the expensive bottle. Bars typically calculate a cost target to determine what they will charge for a cocktail, which is generally 20%. So if a bar charges you $20 for a cocktail, they probably spent $4 to make it or 20% of $20. That is how math works. We'll use that same approach to identify how much these cocktails will cost you if you order them at your local bar. Will they be worth the money? Let's find out. We're kicking things off with a simple and delicious Manhattan. To make this, you'll need orange bitters, coqui vermouth, which is a sweet Italian vermouth, orange for orange peel, luxardo cherries, a mixing glass, a bar spoon, a strainer for your mixing glass, citrus peeler, and then two, ideally, Nick and Nora glasses. But really anything that's kind of this up-style cocktail serving glass is going to work fine. Now before I get started making the cocktail, I am going to put these in the freezer so that they actually chill well enough to use in the final drink because this drink does not include ice in the glass. So first up, we're going to add two ounces of whiskey. Next, we're going to do two dashes of orange bitters. As always, I like the Regans. After that, we're going to add one ounce of the coqui sweet Italian red vermouth. Next, add what the technical bartending manuals like to refer to as lots of ice. For me personally, I tend to do about twice as much ice to the amount of liquid that I have in there. Next, we're going to stir for about 30 seconds. Done with that part. Next, we're going to get our strainer. I need the glasses. Hold it with your finger. It'll keep that in place. Let all that nice, lovely Manhattan liquid just strain right on out. Last, we garnish. I'm going to do the Luxardo cherry first because you're going to want that to be in the glass before you express your orange peel over the top of your cocktail. Give it a little tickle on the rim there. There you go. Finished Manhattan. For our Manhattan, we'll be using Bullet Rye as our affordable bottle, and the expensive bottle is Garrison Brothers Sonora. Bullet Rye is a 90-proof straight rye whiskey known for vanilla, honey, oak, and plenty of rye spice. It generally sells for under $25 and has been a dependable Manhattan whiskey for years. We estimate the cost of the Manhattan with the Bullet Rye to be around $3.13, meaning that the final price on the menu would be $16. Sonora is a much more unusual bottle. It starts as Garrison Brothers Texas straight bourbon aged for four years in new American oak. Then that bourbon is transferred into rye whiskey barrels for another three years. It's seven years old in total, bottled at 108 proof, and costs about $160. This bad boy would bring up the cost of the Manhattan to $14.17, which would make the final menu price a whopping $71. This is not technically rye versus rye, but both whiskeys provide notes that should pair beautifully with the ingredients of a Manhattan. Bullet should give us more of a traditional rye Manhattan with clear spice and dryness, and the Sonora could produce something richer, sweeter, oakier, and much more Texas forward. All right, diving in on glass number one. Let's see what Eddie thinks of this Manhattan. Man, if this is anything as good as your Toasted Old Fashioned, which we're gonna get to in just a little bit, it's gonna get fun. Oh, yeah. Oh, that's nice. And you make some excellent cocktails, Jim. Thank you. That's pretty straight up and down Manhattan to me. Yeah, I find it very enjoyable. It does seem like it's a little bit more muted, but I don't know if I'm gonna get something drastically different with the Sonora, given the Sonora is technically still a bourbon. Right. I mean, if you keep in mind that one of these is like a $16 cocktail and the other one is a $70 cocktail, I mean, one of these should kind of knock my socks off, right? That's the goal. If that's the $70 one, I'm gonna be pretty disappointed. I wouldn't send that back and ask for just my 70 bucks back or like, I don't know, a slap in the face. Something a little more exciting would be nice. Okay. I want you to try it first and tell me what are like the overwhelming notes that you get on this one versus the one that we had before. It really kind of just tastes like cold Garrison Brothers to me. Okay. That cold kind of chocolatey, wheaty, Texas funk note in there is very present. So the first thing that I got from that once I tried it in the Manhattan was chocolate. I didn't know which one was which, but if you feel so confident that it's the Garrison Brothers, then we'll go with that route because you're a big fan of Garrison Brothers. You know them a little bit more than I do. I am a huge fan of Garrison Brothers. Like if this is the $16 cocktail, holy crap, incredible. That's kind of a disappointing $16 cocktail. Yeah. And that's kind of a disappointing $70 cocktail. That's the thing. It's delicious. It'll be a great way to make a Manhattan. Yeah. But that's if I'm doing it at home, not if I have to pay the upcharge of the bar. It's significantly better than the first one. Yeah. But not $70 significant. So which one wins? That's a tough one. I think the winner for this pair for me is going to have to be this one. This one I think is more like what I expect a Manhattan to taste like. So yeah, I was kind of on the fence. Maybe in some ways I'm saying this one's actually better because it does the Manhattan thing. It's definitely more traditional. The first one that we tried is more traditional. The second one is a little untraditional, but I like that about it. I feel like it gives you a little bit more complexity. It gives you a little bit more notes. Maybe adding a couple of dashes of chocolate bitters, it would have given it like a completely different spin and it would have really elevated those chocolate notes from the Garrison Brothers if that is indeed that one. But I do agree. I think that if we're going to have to say winner in terms of value and price and overall experience trying it, I would say that the first one is probably going to be a winner. It's not a better tasting Manhattan for me, but it's definitely right where a $14 Manhattan should be versus $70 plus. The value is more sort of commensurate with what you're getting in the glass. All right. So here are the big reveals. The first one is, in fact, Bullet. Okay. So we were dead on. Here's number two. And this is, in fact, Garrison Brothers Sonora. It was right in line with what we thought, especially you. You caught on to the Garrison Brothers right away. I mean, it's a delicious bottle and I probably wouldn't use it for a Manhattan again, even though it really added some chocolatey notes that I didn't get from the first one that I really enjoyed. It was good. It's not $70 good, in my opinion. Definitely not. Definitely not $70 good. I mean, if you have a bottle of this and you like a Manhattan, I mean, it could be worth an experiment. It's just not doing the things that I want it to do for being such a nice whiskey. If I was going to do one of these just myself at home, I would probably use something nicer than a Bullet. Probably not something as nice as a Garrison Brothers Sonora. Before Jim puts us in another whiskey cocktail euphoria, there are a few ways you can help support the channel. Head over to BarrelHunters.com where you'll find our very first barrel pick, a Dark Arts Nine Year Bourbon finished in Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon barrels, which is great, neat, and in elevated cocktails like the ones we're drinking today. You'll also find our Barrel Hunters merch in our online bottle shop featuring a curated selection of whiskeys that we think are worth trying. And hey, if you want to drink along with us, instead of just watching, join our Patreon community. We host virtual whiskey tastings where members can hop on camera, hang out, and share a few pours with us and our special guests. This month's guests will be Sarah from It's Bourbon Night and Dark Arts, which should be a ton of fun. Members also receive access to our private Discord, extra videos, and a bunch of additional perks. All of those links are at BarrelHunters.com. Now let's get back to making questionable financial decisions. For this whiskey sour, you'll need fresh lemon juice, simple syrup, a 20% saline solution, some eggs or egg white, Angostura bitters, and then for tools, you're going to need a shaker tin, a strainer, in this case, I'm going to be using a double strainer, a jigger of course, and then for this cocktail, we're going to be serving these in coupe glasses. And once again, we're going to pop these in the freezer before I begin. All right, so first up, in your small shaker tin, you're going to add two ounces of whiskey, then add one ounce of fresh lemon juice and three quarters of an ounce of simple syrup. Separate one egg and add just the egg whites to your shaker. You can discard the yolk or you can just use egg whites that come in a carton, pretty easy to use. Finally, add about two to three drops of the 20% saline solution. Salt, like a saline solution, is going to help suppress some of the bitter notes and make the other flavors seem a little more vivid. So really, it works just like it does in food, but in a cocktail, it's a very wonderful inclusion on a cocktail that uses any kind of a citrus, like a lemon or a lime juice, things like that. We're going to reverse dry shake this cocktail. So go ahead and add a scoop or a big handful of ice to your tin, then close it and shake everything for about 15 seconds. After that, we're going to open the tin, dump the liquids into the other half of the tin, dump the ice into the sink, then close your tin back up. We're going to shake a little bit more for really probably about 45 seconds, and then we're going to pour it into a glass. So you do want to get your glass at this point. Last step, you're going to take your ango, you're going to just do a couple of drops on the very top of your foam. You're going to use something like the end of your bar spoon to kind of stir it around in a little design. And there we have our lovely whiskey salad. Our next matchup might be the purest test of price in the entire video. We have Widow Jane DeVault's 15 Year against Very Old Barton 100 Proof. Very Old Barton is a Kentucky straight bourbon produced by Barton 1792 Distillery that is bottled at 100 proof and can often be found for around $15 to $20. The Very Old Barton whiskey sour will cost roughly $2.48 to make and would sell for $13. DeVault is an annual limited release made from a blend of straight bourbons aged for a minimum of 15 years. It's bottled at 99 proof and it costs around $250. Using that sucker in a cocktail will cost the bar $20.62 meaning that the whiskey sour using it will cost you $104. So only one proof point separates these bottles but more than $230 separates these bourbons at the register. And the disparity is even more outrageous when you factor the cocktail price difference. On paper, the Widow Jane should bring you more mature oak, dark fruit, and layered complexity. Very Old Barton brings a more straightforward combination of caramel, vanilla, and spice with enough proof to remain noticeable in a cocktail. A whiskey sour includes ingredients that could either highlight the Widow Jane's complexity or completely cover up everything that makes it expensive. That's a solid rip. I like that. You made it extra foamy, Jim. This is beautiful. That one did come out, had a little extra zhoosh to it. I don't really know what that magic was. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Jim, this tastes like lemonade for adults. For real. This is one of my favorite whiskey sours that I've had. Wow. And honestly, it kind of reminds me a little bit more of a lemon drop because it's really lemony and puckers my lips in all the best ways. I do feel like maybe the whiskey is kind of getting out of the way more than I expected to. I mean, this is still a very spirit forward cocktail. And although I agree it's very delicious, I think I expected the whiskey to be a little bit more present. It's delicious. It's still very good. But I don't really taste the whiskey. So if this is very old Barton, great. You got yourself a very cheap, affordable whiskey sour. If this is the Volts, then that is a pretty big waste of money in one glass right there. Yowza. Shall we check out glass number two then? Please go for it. All right, here we go. Okay. Is that good or bad? I don't know. I don't know either. I think if you told me that was the same cocktail with the same stuff in it, I would believe you. I really expected one of these would taste in some way different from the other, but they actually really both taste kind of the same. There might be a slight bit more of like, I don't know, like a smoky thing in this one. I feel like the lemon and the ingredients in this one don't call for something to be expensive because they're both very, very similar. The second one that we tried gave me maybe a little bit more proof in there, and I did get a little bit more of like a little oaky thing going on. I would say this one drinks a little bit more sweet, a little bit more bright. There's something happening in this one that is a little bit more kind of spicy, mature, kind of, it's a little bit more subdued in some ways, but also a little bit like darker flavored. I'll be surprised if the second one is very old Barton because I'm getting a little bit more notes in that one. The second one just seems a little bit more well-rounded to me. Absolutely. Like if I had to characterize these two, this is like the whiskey sour that you want to have like a Sunday brunch, hanging out with your gal pals, and this is like a cowboy's whiskey sour. So which one do you think is the more expensive one? Because there's a massive disparity, more in this one than in any other one that we're doing, where you have a $13 cocktail versus a cocktail that is $104. I don't think either of these is worth $104, to be totally clear. This one, if this is the very old Barton, which I think it is just based on kind of the subtlety of the whiskey notes that I'm getting in there, that's a hell of a $13 cocktail. I prefer the flavors that are in this one, but looking at the value portion of this, looking at the price portion of this, there's really no contest. I enjoyed the second one more. I think that the second one had a lot of really good flavors, more so than the first one, but I don't care which one is $104, it's not worth it. Absolutely true. If you're in a restaurant and you're going to get yourself a whiskey sour in particular, that is something that's going to have a lot of more lemony notes. It's going to have a little bit more sweetness. It's going to have the egg, hopefully, to like kind of just balance out the little foam on the top. If you have all that combined, you don't need an expensive whiskey. On that note, let's see. Glass number one is a very old Barton. There you go. So far, two for two. We've got two very solid, cheaper whiskey cocktails that really hold up exceptionally well to the more expensive version. Last but not least, we have the classic, the standard bearer, the cocktail of all cocktails, the Grand Poobah, the Old Fashioned. Now, we already made an entire video showing you exactly how to make my Toasted Old Fashioned. You can click the card above or use the link at the end of this video to watch it after you're done with this one. We're using that exact same recipe today. It's my favorite cocktail to make, and I highly recommend you guys give it a try. Our final matchup could get us kicked out of the whiskey community. We're putting Wild Turkey 101 against Knob Creek 21-year in this Toasted Old Fashioned battle. Wild Turkey 101 is, unsurprisingly, 101 proof, and it's believed to be made with whiskey aged between six and eight years. And you can usually find it for about $20. An Old Fashioned using Wild Turkey 101 should cost a bar approximately $1.88, and you, $10. Knob Creek 21 is the oldest Knob Creek release to date. It's bottled at 100 proof and carries a suggested price of about $250. Use this adult baddie in your cocktail, and it'll set the bar back about $20, but it'll cost you a whopping $100. So once again, we have nearly identical proof, but a massive difference in age and price. Knob Creek is a full blown adult, but Wild Turkey 101 might still win. It's caramel, baking spice, oak, and orange notes make it a natural cocktail whiskey. Knob Creek 21 brings substantially more age, more seasoned oak, caramelized sugar, smoke, char, and dark fruit. Jim. Good stuff? Oh my. Okay. Oh yeah. Huh, that's really good. I have no idea what that is. I'm a little thrown. I mean, I'm excited to see what the second one holds, but so far, wow. And also, well, there's only one way to figure this out. We gotta do it. Scooby do it. What does that mean? Do it like Scooby Doo do. See Jim, it's not even fair because you make the best old fashions ever. This one's a little flatter, more sweet, less kind of other things. It's a very basic old fashioned. I really sincerely hope that that is not the Knob Creek 21. But even if that's the Knob Creek 21, it's not looking good for price cocktails. Wow. Okay. See, I really enjoyed the first one. The second one was very orangey to me. Yeah. And going back to what I was saying before about the notes that you'd expect from certain whiskeys, because the old fashioned is traditionally the more whiskey forward cocktail of any of the ones that we just tried. Yeah. I feel like that one is the wild turkey. The second one that we tried. The first one was oaky. You know, it's almost as if you are in a forest somewhere and you walk into an old cabin, but it hasn't been used in a long time and nobody's in there. You knock on the door and it just creaks open and you're like, hello, is anybody there? And you just wander in. It's dusty. It's a little murky. And there are three different porridges. One is hot. The other one's cold. The other one's just right. I feel like this is exactly the smell that you walk into when you walk into that cabin. That is the just right one. I mean, of the two, this one is 100%. The more balanced, the more sort of satisfying, enjoyable cocktail. If this was a $10 old fashioned, holy crap, the best $10 old fashioned in the world. The first one that we tried was the winner. Yeah. But I would not pay $100 for it. Absolutely not. I would much rather go with something that's like a Jack Daniels Heritage, for example. I feel like that's like the perfect balance of flavor and price. More so than either of these two. Absolutely. I mean, none of those old fashions that we tried in that episode exceeded $100. Just making a cocktail for yourself at home, experimentation, absolutely. I'm all for it. But when you're talking about whiskeys that are this expensive, whichever one of these is a Knob Creek 21, you're better off just sipping that thing neat, maybe a touch of water. I'm really not a fan of an ice cube for something that expensive, like you're going to mute so many of those flavors. And it's kind of the same experience here for me. All right, so number one is, in fact, Knob Creek 21. Thank goodness. Number two is, in fact, the Wild Turkey 101. That was a very interesting experiment, Jim. It was. I don't think using good whiskey in a cocktail automatically wastes it. A well-made cocktail can showcase flavors in a whiskey that you might not notice neat. But if you do choose an expensive bottle, do so because its specific flavor adds something to the recipe, not simply because the price tag says it's better. Now we want to hear from you. What is the most expensive whiskey that you'd be willing to use in a cocktail? Drop your answers in the comments below. And don't forget to visit BarrelHunters.com for our barrel pick, merch, bottle shop, and Patreon community. Until next time, cheers.