So a short while back I received an email from Ben (of ‘Master of Malt’ fame) that had the subject line “An opportunity…”
Talk about a smart way to ensure your email gets opened and read without hesitation!
Can I tell you how pleased I was to understand, after having read Ben’s email, that I was being asked/chosen (as part of a select few) to participate in a blending and retailing exercise with Master of Malt. Something called “The Blogger’s Blend”. Being a Jew, this is like being part of the Chosen People x 2!
Master of Malt has chosen ten whisky websites/blogs/podcasts/magazines to create a new blend. Each of us chosen will receive multiple/various samples and blending equipment to construct our own, unique blend.
Once the blend has been perfected (in the eyes of the individual blender) MoM will reproduce all ten recipes and make fun ‘Drinks by the Dram’ sized samples for the general public to try. Then you, dear reader, will get to pick which of the ten whiskies is the best of the bunch. That winning whisky will then be mass produced into a standard, yet Master of Malt Exclusive, full size bottle of whisky available to anyone who shops at the Master of Malt online shop.
The guys at Master of Malt have more smarts than they know what to do with! Or as my Great-Grandma Betty would say: they’re smarter than two books!
The ten blenders (that’s me and the folks listed below) will get to design the label & branding of it all. Cool, cool stuff! The ten blenders are:
- Rob Allanson – Whisky Magazine
- Mark Connelly – WhiskyWhiskyWhisky, Glasgow Whisky Festival
- Mark Gillespie – Whiskycast
Joshua Hatton – Jewish Single Malt Whisky Society (that’s me to the right getting ready to push my blending skills on y’all. Actually, that’s my head on a Bill Lumsden pic – let’s hope he doesn’t get upset 🙂 )
- Chris Hoban, Lucasz Dynowiak – Edinburgh Whisky Blog
- Jason Johnstone-Yellin – Guid Scotch Drink
- Neil Ridley, Joel Harrison – caskstrength.net
- Sam Simmons – Dr. Whisky
- Karen Taylor, Matt Chambers – Whisky For Everyone
- Pierre Thiebaut (plus tasting panel) – Connosr
Now some details (but only a few):
- There will be both malt and grain whiskies provided for mixing purposes.
- We don’t know any of the names or ages of the whisky samples Master of Malt is providing.
- We were provided with a pricing calculator for the whiskies to help us figure out how much the final blend we create will cost. This will allow us to blend based on price, quality and/or a mix of the two. The suggestion from MoM is to go for quality first. Noted.
- All of the blends that you’ll be tasting, when it comes to voting time, will be blind labeled – you wont know who made what blend when you’re tasting it.
- That’s really about it. There will be more details but right now, I’ll leave you to let your mind go wild!
A big thanks to Ben and the rest of the Master of Malt crew for asking me to participate in this endeavor!