Around the Barrel Ep058/Re057 - Sarah Jeltema
Lucas Hendrickson: It's been said that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. To develop an understanding of the genius of the spirit space, you've got to factor in distillation, fermentation, and maybe a little repetition, too.
On this episode, we talk with San Diego based whiskey influencer, Sarah Jeltema, the woman behind the social media handle Whisky Nomad, about how asking the right questions of bartenders and Distillers spawned her current pursuits about how the idea of service through spirits has made an impact on the world of first responders, and about how sharing the science can enhance the enjoyment of sitting and sipping Around the Barrel.
Welcome back to Around the Barrel, the official podcast from the makers of Jack Daniel's. I'm your host, Lucas Hendrickson.
Sarah Jeltema: Hi, my name is Sarah Jeltema. I am the owner of Whisky Nomad on Instagram. I'm a whisky educator and content creator. I'm here from San Diego, and I still live here in San Diego. I also run the Ultimate Whiskey Academy, and an online class that you can take to learn everything from the beginning of Whiskey 101 to the nerdy stuff that I love to talk about.
Lucas Hendrickson: Sarah Jeltema, welcome to Around the Barrel.
Sarah Jeltema: Thank you. I'm so glad to be here.
Lucas Hendrickson: We are happy to have you here. We love talking to folks who want to talk to other folks about the world of spirits and whiskey and Jack Daniel's in specific, because that's what we are here for. But tell us a little bit about how you got started in your own whiskey journey. What was the thing that set you down the path of enjoying spirits to start with and then wanting to educate others about them?
Sarah Jeltema: Well, actually, I used to be a really big tequila drinker, and one day I loved it a little too much and it didn't love me back. So I decided to switch spirits because I couldn't even be in the same room as tequila. And I switched to whiskey because what my dad used to drink when I was younger.
Lucas Hendrickson: Okay.
Sarah Jeltema: And it was just such a cool idea to just sit there at a party and sip on a whiskey all night long, just kind of savor it, rather than drink lots of cocktails, et cetera.
Lucas Hendrickson: Sure.
Sarah Jeltema: And at the time, not a lot of women were drinking whiskey neat. So when I'd go to the bar and order a bourbon neat, then the bartender would say, "Oh, you drink whiskey neat," and we'd chat about it and I started learning.
Lucas Hendrickson: Right.
Sarah Jeltema: So I ended up joining a couple of whiskey clubs, and I started running their social media for them. I started taking photos because I love photography, and they were like, "Hey, you want to run our Instagram? You want to run our Facebook page? You want to run the club in exchange for tastings?" And I was like, "That's a great deal for me."
Lucas Hendrickson: Sure.
Sarah Jeltema: And then one day I had built this Instagram up to about 10,000 followers for this club, and then the club imploded. It had some political drama and it just stopped. And I thought to myself, "Man, why am I doing this for everybody else? I should do this for myself."
Lucas Hendrickson: Sure.
Sarah Jeltema: So I launched Whisky Nomad because I had a passion for travel and whiskey, and it's what I did. I would travel somewhere, I'd find the local distillery and then I'd go talk to them. I thought other people got to do this too. They got to be interested in it.
Lucas Hendrickson: Right.
Sarah Jeltema: So I launched Whisky Nomad and it just took off. And then education is always something that I've loved. I used to be a 911 dispatcher. That was my career before doing this full time–
Lucas Hendrickson: Okay.
Sarah Jeltema: ... and my favorite part about it was being a trainer. So I just loved teaching more than anything, and it just became natural to teach people about whiskey.
Lucas Hendrickson: Okay. Whisky Nomad, minus the E, on those Instagram handles and stuff like that. Do you have a hard and fast opinion about that? Obviously Jack Daniel's Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey has the E. We've had this conversation with other people in the space before. Your professional identity is W-H-I-S-K-Y Nomad. What's your thought on E versus no E?
Sarah Jeltema: I don't care. People have very strong opinions about the whiskey versus whisky. At the time, I just honestly, embarrassingly enough didn't really know enough about whiskey to know the real history behind Ireland versus Scotch, E versus no E, marketing, et cetera. And I just thought, no E sounds more global. It sounds more sophisticated.
Lucas Hendrickson: There you go.
Sarah Jeltema: So I picked no E.
Lucas Hendrickson: No, wait, you're saying that Lynchburg, Tennessee, isn't sophisticated and global? No, I'm kidding. You've been there. You've seen how metropolitan that particular part of the country is. So you seemingly did do the deep dive into whiskey, not only educating yourself, but also creating these opportunities and getting involved in different organizations. Talk a little bit about how you developed the curriculum, if you will, for the Ultimate Whiskey Academy, and how people can get involved in that if they want to.
Sarah Jeltema: Well, the class is not complete yet, but I have the signup sheet for it on my Instagram or my Linktree or theultimatewhiskeyacademy.com. That's with the E. Basically, when you're on the social media space, you really have your finger on the pulse of what people are actually interested in learning. And the questions that people ask are repetitive because you're not teaching in a classroom where everybody's going from 101 to 102 together.
Lucas Hendrickson: Right.
Sarah Jeltema: And so I get asked the same questions pretty much daily, if not weekly, if not monthly. So I know what people want to learn. And the challenge for me with the class was really I wanted to make a class that was for everybody, but I also really wanted to talk about things that interested me particularly. And so I decided to build a class where I have a really solid one-on-one material where anybody who doesn't know anything about whiskey or if you just know the basics and you want to solidify that knowledge, you can learn it. But also if you want to get into esters and missable compounds and all kinds of stuff there, you can learn that bonus material, and you'll be able to take classes on that deep dive into Scotch and deep dive into chemistry, deep dive into the effects of water, et cetera. So it's got a little bit for everyone.
Lucas Hendrickson: Right. As you've been learning more about the liquid itself, how have you balanced maintaining your enjoyment of that along with being involved in various industry parts of this as well? Have you ever had any one of those moments where you go, "Oh, the business side of this is impacting my enjoyment side of this?"
Sarah Jeltema: I can say that the hardest challenge has been with just social media in general.
Lucas Hendrickson: Right. Sure.
Sarah Jeltema: It's so challenging, it's constantly changing and people can be really critical. But I kind of overcame that, because in the beginning, and I think most content creators go through this journey where they're creating content for everyone else, and in some respects, if you treat it as a business, you have to be thinking about what value you're providing to people and whether or not they want that value. But there's also a level of being true to yourself and doing exactly what you want to do, and then the people that are aligned with you will find you, because that's how social media works.
Lucas Hendrickson: Right.
Sarah Jeltema: So I think in the beginning I was creating content for everyone else, but when I started teaching more and deep diving into different topics, it became more congruent with who I was and I started enjoying it a lot more. But that's a challenge that I think a lot of people face.
Lucas Hendrickson: Sure. You're involved in a lot of different organizations and efforts around the whiskey space over there on the West Coast. I guess I wasn't aware of this designation of Certified Specialist of Spirits. You have sommeliers and cicerones and stuff like that for the wine and the beer industries, but I had not been aware of Certified Specialist of Spirits. What did that designation involve for you? Is there a path for those people who are really into spirits as a whole to get that certification for themselves?
Sarah Jeltema: Absolutely. The Certified Specialists of Spirits exam is very similar to the WSET. It covers all spirits, not just whiskey, and tests knowledge and mastery of different elements. It's about a hundred questions exclusively from probably their guide and their book. And their book covers everything.
Lucas Hendrickson: Sure.
Sarah Jeltema: So it's a really, really challenging test. You have to have a proctor there, et cetera. It's not like an open book one where you can just read and take it online and get this certification. And I wouldn't compare it to a sommelier. I think sommeliers, they study for years and years and years and years, but this is something that you do have to really work at in order to pass. And I would highly recommend it to anybody who wants to elevate their knowledge, because once you start learning about rum and tequila side by side with whiskey, then you really understand whiskey for what it is in the entire spirits global world.
You start seeing it in a whole different light. You start saying, "Oh, that's interesting. Whiskey fermentation is average 72 hours, but rum fermentation can be up to weeks. What does that do to flavor? And then when you pull fermentation notes out of your whiskey, you're going, "Hmm, do you have an extra long fermentation? That's weird. Why did you decide to do that? Did you do open or closed?" And you wouldn't really know that unless you were reading about rum. So it can really elevate your whiskey game for sure.
Lucas Hendrickson: So that's, obviously with the people who are interested in all the various factors of the spirit's world. What about newcomers? What do you think are the biggest factors that can overwhelm newcomers enjoying the world of whiskeys, and what advice do you give them to negotiate that path to their own enjoyment of spirits?
Sarah Jeltema: I think the whiskey world can be very intimidating. You go to a whiskey tasting and one of the very first questions they ask you is, "Well, what do you taste and smell?" And if you don't know, you start thinking, "Oh, there must be a right answer to this question." You feel the pressure. You're sitting next to some guy who's been drinking whiskey for 10 years and he starts talking about grandpa's shoe leather from 1995 and the reminiscent of mangoes from a specific region, and you think to yourself, "I don't pull mangoes and leather from this at all, it just tastes like wood or caramel" and you feel like you're wrong.
So I always tell people, taste is so subjective, it's in your head. You cannot be wrong, if you pull something from a whiskey. So don't feel intimidated by those people who say, "This has notes of coconut." That's a very definitive statement like, "This has notes of coconut for me," and maybe there is coconut in the lactones of the wood. That's scientifically correct, but if you're not pulling it, that just means that that's not in your head. And so pull what's in your head. Experience it for you.
Lucas Hendrickson: We've talked to a number of people over the years about how they developed, especially if they're writers or influencers or podcasters in this space, how they develop their own vocabulary as it relates to whiskeys. What was your experience, other than repetition obviously, but do you come from any sort of food background that gave you a leg up, or just trying different things and being very purposeful about those flavor notes as they come to you?
Sarah Jeltema: Yeah, I was very intentional. It's one of my biggest regrets in life that I'm not a super taster–
Lucas Hendrickson: Oh, sure.
Sarah Jeltema: ... like some people.
Lucas Hendrickson: Right.
Sarah Jeltema: I wish I was, but I am not, and I felt very inadequate at the beginning of my whiskey journey. I didn't understand where people were pulling some of this stuff. So I did a lot of work. I think it was what Malcolm Gladwell in the book Outliers, who said it takes about 10,000 hours to be an expert at anything, which is about 10 years. I think I've been sipping whiskey for about 15. But I actively practice blind tastings and triangle tastings in order to be able to recognize what I'm drinking, and be able to pull certain differences out. I legit practice because I know I'm not a super taster. But this is also my job now, so I want to be absolutely the best at it that I can possibly be.
Lucas Hendrickson: Tell us a little bit about what you are able to provide to folks who want to hire you to guide some tastings and be involved in their events. What are you able to offer as far as that experience goes?
Sarah Jeltema: Well, when I do tastings for events, et cetera, usually what I do is I start off with what kind of experience they want to have, what kind of group they have, whether it's more for entertainment or whether it's more for education. And I can go either way. We can have a fun time trying different whiskeys or we can deep dive really into some nerdy stuff, if your group wants to go there. And I think I'm unique in that I can do either. I'm not a brand ambassador who's going to just talk about the story, I can talk about the science. We can do either one.
So usually I'll help them pick what whiskeys they want to do, right from the beginning, whether they want to do a global tasting that start with Irish and Scotch and bourbon and try to get a big picture difference of all of those. Or if they, a lot of times here in America they want to deep dive into bourbon, so then it's what's the difference between a wheated bourbon and a non-wheated bourbon? And how can we pull those flavors out and how can you know that when you are drinking a bourbon? So that when you're with your friends the following week, that you're able to drink a bourbon and say, "Hmm does this have wheat in it? I think I might pick that up on the mouth feel," et cetera.
Lucas Hendrickson: Okay. Interesting. You've been very involved in your local chapter of Women Who Whiskey, nationwide organization. What kind of experiences do organizations like that provide for both professionals and just aficionados, people who want to get more into the spirit space?
Sarah Jeltema: Women Who Whiskey is such an amazing group. They're a national group. I'm the president of the San Diego chapter, and I'm just a huge fan of women whiskey drinkers supporting each other. It really creates an environment in which you can be a master distiller, a female master distiller, or you can be somebody who just drinks whiskey or wants to learn about it because their husband likes to drink it, or you're just brand new in your journey. And it's a totally safe space where you can make friends, low pressure, ask questions, and there's no ego involved. So anytime I can get in an industry or a group where there's no ego involved in the whiskey world and it's just questions and exploration and learning, and I'm all for it, and I love to just teach, so women are really good at being specific about their questions.
Lucas Hendrickson: Sure. Sure. You were recently involved in a press trip to Lynchburg, get a behind the scenes look at the Jack Daniel Distillery. Was that your first time to the distillery, and what were your takeaways from that event and the town and the distillery overall?
Sarah Jeltema: That was my second time at Jack Daniel. My first time was I was in Nashville for business and I just drove up really quickly, did the tour and then left. So this was a much more comprehensive experience, and I was blown away by how many amazingly talented, successful women make Jack Daniel's what it is today. I was so incredibly blessed and honored to be able to have conversations with Lexie Phillips and their bottling department, their marketing department. Every single one of those women is at the top of their game, and they're doing an amazing job. It was just really cool. Then the people on the trip were also all really brilliant, wonderful women who again, asked really awesome questions, were super focused, were there to work and learn, and I just felt really honored to be amidst that group. I thought that Lynchburg itself was an adorable small town with a family feel, which is amazing that something as huge as Jack Daniel's exists in a place where the neighbors still drive slow and wave to each other when they drive by. So that was a really cool experience to have.
Lucas Hendrickson: Speaking of Jack and its universal products, specifically, what are your thoughts on really the fairly recent expansions of the portfolio between things like the bonded series, the age statement, 10 and 12 year now, the single barrel barrel proof rye, which just dropped not too long ago. What has that additional set of products, what has that meant for Jack Daniel's overall within the world of whiskey fans and just drinkers in general?
Sarah Jeltema: Sure. I think in order to answer that question, you got to take a step back and talk about the whiskey industry in general, and I think our modern whiskey industry is really experiencing unprecedented market growth right now, especially bourbon expansion across the United States and across the world. And what that means is that we have a really flooded market with producers from all sizes, from Jack Daniel's down to craft. And they're all trying to meet this demand from end consumers. So you have a seller's market and you have higher price tags. You have people leveraging inflation, et cetera, allocated bottles.
So when Jack Daniel's produces an American single malt, for example, they're entering the market at a different level. They're providing something unique to the market that isn't just what everyone else is drinking, trying to be competitive. They're actually introducing something that is for everybody. Which, when you have an overly flooded market like that, you're going to have people who get tired of paying exorbitant prices for bourbon and they're going to be looking for that bottled in bond and that American single malt and that single barrel rye. They're going to be looking for those higher quality, really tasty alternatives.
Lucas Hendrickson: Sure. We've been hearing a lot for the past year plus now about the finalizing of the definition of American single malt whiskey, and obviously Jack has folded some of that into, not only the triple match product out of the bonded series, but also part of their special release last year. It supposed to be finalized September of last year, and yet we're still bouncing around waiting for that definition to be finalized. Can you bring us up to speed on where that is as far as trying to hone in on what will essentially be a new market segment in the spirit world?
Sarah Jeltema: Yeah, the American single malt whiskey movement, is what I call it, is a really cool thing that happened in the United States where a bunch of distillers out here making American single malt, even though it's not a category. They're innovating, they're challenging the industry, and then they realize that they need to protect that category, and they fight for that definition. Anytime you are dealing with a government body, it's going to take a lot longer than you think it is, kind of like having a contractor at your house.
They say it's two weeks, but it's going to be three months. And I think the TTB especially just doesn't have the staffing. From a practical standpoint, they just don't have a lot of people to be working on some of this stuff. So my expectation when they said 30 days, I thought, "Okay, so maybe six months," because I know how it works. It's never on time. But in the meantime, what does that mean? Well, people are making American single malt regardless, and they're innovating and they're putting out product and they're passionate about it, and it's almost cool that they're doing it anyway.
Lucas Hendrickson: Right. Yeah. Obviously when there is a finalization of that, then I think we'll start to see that come into some pretty sharp focus fairly quickly. Another very interesting organization that you're involved in, in the San Diego area, is the First Responder Whiskey Society. I went and looked at the website and found something I think that I'm just basically going to be– It's a piece of merchandise, I think I'm just going to get in bulk for my friends and acquaintances, a t-shirt that reads, "I'm not high maintenance, I'm cask strength."
Sarah Jeltema: Oh, yeah.
Lucas Hendrickson: So I think that's a great little piece. But talk about what that endeavor is and what your involvement has been in that in the last little bit.
Sarah Jeltema: When I quit being a 911 dispatcher and decided to do whiskey full time, I felt a loss, feeling like my life didn't have as much service, and service was a big thing for me, and I didn't know how to fill it while creating content on Instagram. It wasn't enough for me to just do the education. So I decided to do the First Responder Whiskey Society and create that community of first responders that could talk about whiskey, and go on Facebook in a place where there's no politics allowed and it's just about whiskey. The community really blew up. Then one of our members died and we bought a barrel and donated the proceeds to his family. And I thought to myself, "Hey, we could do this repetitively for a lot of people," because they get this memorabilia, this thing that reminds them of their family and their lost loved one, and the squad gets to drink it on the anniversary of the death, and it's a really beautiful way to honor somebody.
So we bought a couple barrels and then we got hit with taxes, and I thought, "Okay, let's make this a nonprofit." So it's a 501(c)(3) charity, and we really only have one mission, which is to support first responders and their families in times of need. Has almost 10,000 members now, primarily from the United States, but we also have members from other parts of the world. And the motto is "service through spirits." So anytime we can serve anybody through any sort of spirit, whether it be events, whether it be barrels, custom bottling, et cetera, then we do it.
Lucas Hendrickson: Very cool.
Sarah Jeltema: T-shirts.
Lucas Hendrickson: T-shirts. Exactly, yes. You might see a spike from Nashville, Tennessee. So that's a fantastic endeavor. How can people get involved with that if they're in the first responder world as well? How can they get more involved in that piece?
Sarah Jeltema: Well, our main platform is Facebook, so we have a Facebook group that's private. You just fill out a couple questions about how you are either a first responder or related directly to a first responder, and then you can join our group. We post about everything right there in the Facebook group. We also have a website, you can get on our email list, so we send everything out via email. We have an Instagram as well. It's just not quite as social of a network. And then we do a lot of charities. So we actually did a barrel of Jack Daniel's. We did a single barrel barrel proof of Jack Daniel's, and we donated those proceeds to Operation Light Shine, which is a group out of Tennessee that fights human trafficking.
Lucas Hendrickson: Okay, very cool.
Sarah Jeltema: So things like that, if you want to be a part of it, then join the Facebook group, join the email list, and you can be part of it.
Lucas Hendrickson: Very cool. You also have your next trip to Lynchburg on the books this October as a judge for the Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational Barbecue. Been saying that for a lot of years and still never get it right, but it's certainly a very interesting and intense weekend. Have you started to put together your training regimen for what that event will be?
Sarah Jeltema: Does that mean I get to eat barbecue every week?
Lucas Hendrickson: Everybody goes about it differently. So have you ever done anything like that? Have you done any sort of competition judging in the food world?
Sarah Jeltema: I have never judged anything in the food world before.
Lucas Hendrickson: Okay.
Sarah Jeltema: Only whiskey and spirits competitions have I done, but I believe that it's going to be a really exciting time.
Lucas Hendrickson: Yes.
Sarah Jeltema: I think that it will be hard to prep for that, because I know people really care about their barbecue.
Lucas Hendrickson: Yes, they do.
Sarah Jeltema: And they care about where it's from, and they care a whole lot about what's the best and how it works. California, to be honest, just doesn't really have good barbecue.
Lucas Hendrickson: Well, there is that. But the great thing is you do get that KCBS training that week leading up to it. The great thing, and the problem thing with The Jack is that it is a KCBS event on steroids, because you do have additional food forms that you have to judge. It is a marathon of sprints, because there's just a lot of great barbecue, there's a lot of great desserts, there's a lot of great sauce. There's people from all over the world that had to win their way into this event. So it is very much something that people take very, very seriously.
Sarah Jeltema: And I think understanding the tasting of whiskey is part chemistry and part memory, part emotion and everything else. It's going to apply the same to food.
Lucas Hendrickson: Absolutely.
Sarah Jeltema: You need to understand food science to really get that base ground, but then after that, it is an assortment of how that food makes you feel and what it does, what those textures do, et cetera. So it'll be, I guess, I just need to practice eating a ton of foods.
Lucas Hendrickson: A thousand different ways to approach getting ready for The Jack. Tell me a little bit about how you think, I'm trying to think of the best way to describe this, but what's the best way to work a whiskey to one's liking? And I got great advice years ago from a former master distiller saying, "Always take that first sip neat and then do what you want with it." But what do you think are the best ways? Just a little bit of water? A little bit of ice? Whiskey stones? What do you think are the things that open up the flavor of a whiskey the best in your opinion?
Sarah Jeltema: That's a good question. I am a firm believer that everybody should drink whiskey the way that they want to drink whiskey. So if it's with ice, then drink ice, drink it with ice. If it's with water, add a little bit of water. My big sticking point is that if you're going to drink it with a little bit of water one day, that you absolutely drink it with a little bit of water the following day or the following week when you're evaluating another whiskey, and don't compare whiskeys differently. And I think, aside from being consistent in that regard, understanding on a physiological level how alcohol actually affects your brain and your taste buds is really important. And it comes from, like what you just said, how you should take that tiny little sip to acclimate your mouth, but why do you do it? And the reason is because ethanol affects your pain receptors, your nerve receptors, and when they're overstimulated, they interpret that pain or that burning sensation, and that's similar to what hot peppers will do to your mouth.
So you can kind of see where I'm going. Basically, you can acclimate, you can adjust just like with peppers after a while, you can eat peppers whole, and they don't affect you the same. It's the same with alcohol. And you drink a lot of whiskey, after a while, you'll acclimate to it, but if you don't want to spend the time to do that, then that first sip is a way to teach your brain, "Hey, this is safe, this is okay to drink. I'm going to be okay." And then that second sip is where you're going to get most of your flavor. And then again, consistent. So if you put a little water in, you're going to release some of the ethanol, you're going to release some esters. That's really all about aroma.
And aroma is very, very powerful. It's a lot more powerful than the palate, I think. So there's a lot of flavor compounds that go into whiskey from a chemical standpoint – the grains, the fermentation, the distillation, and then air, oak, water. After you get those base ingredients – corn, vanilla, vanilla from the vanillin in the lignin layer of the barrel. And you understand that from a scientific perspective. Then again, it's all mental, it's all in your head. It's what your experience is, it's what you've tasted before that you can associate with. And similar to perfume, the aroma is very, very powerful.
Lucas Hendrickson: Sure. And so very memory evoking as well in the midst of all that. So it's the thing most easily tied to our memories, I think, a lot of the time. What do you find to be the most fascinating part of the spirit's creation? Be it whiskeys or rums, we leave vodka out of the conversation here most of the time.
Sarah Jeltema: I am with you on that.
Lucas Hendrickson: What do you find most fascinating about the process of making spirits?
Sarah Jeltema: You know what, I think what happens in the barrel is the most fascinating part. I think that everything from a scientific standpoint is interesting, but there's something about the way that the whiskey breathes in an oak barrel, and has a ton of just chemical chain reactions happening that I find to be really fascinating. It's what I really, really like to talk about. And you can go into fermentation starting from alpha amylase, and discuss how that can create esters that will impact the rest of the entire tasting process. But then you can also fix some of that or change it completely in distillation. But once you have it in the barrel, once you have wood aging happening, you're not fixing anything.
That's what's happening to the whiskey. You're going to get evaporation, oxidation, you're pulling flavors from that wood, you're coloring from that wood, you're getting concentration, and people like to gloss over it. They say, "Oh, we'll just put it in a small barrel and it'll taste the same as if it's been aged 10 years." But there's so much chemistry that happens. There's so much magic that happens in that process. You can't shortchange it, and sometimes you can't predict it, which is why I always say that making whiskey is half art, half science. Sometimes as an artist, you just got to work with the mistakes that you make and keep going, and maybe it ends up being a better art piece than what you started with intentionally.
Lucas Hendrickson: Sure. What is your favorite cocktail to make for yourself?
Sarah Jeltema: My favorite cocktail is the Boulevardier, actually. So the history of the cocktail is really interesting, but it originally started as basically a way to get digestive herbs, things that were healthy for you, into your system. Alcohol's an incredibly powerful solvent. And then because you're putting all these bittered agents into your body, they don't taste good, so you add sugar. So the original cocktail is sugar, a bittered agent, and a spirit. So I really love the Negroni, and then of course, I like whiskey, so I like the Boulevardier a better.
Lucas Hendrickson: Sure.
Sarah Jeltema: Just one, one and one, bittered agent, sugar and whiskey.
Lucas Hendrickson: There you go.
Sarah Jeltema: So to me, it's the ultimate cocktail.
Lucas Hendrickson: Exactly. And do you have a favorite Jack Daniel's expression? What have you enjoyed throughout the years of your sipping?
Sarah Jeltema: So with the First Responder Whiskey Society, we actually did a single barrel barrel proof through the charity that again, we donated to Operation Light Shine. And I thought my pick was the best Jack Daniel's product. But aside from that, I really, really love your single barrel rye that you guys have coming out. I think it's phenomenal.
Lucas Hendrickson: Yeah. I think that's going to change a lot of people's opinions on rye in general. It has an opportunity. Obviously the standard product has done incredibly well. We're in the middle of this rye revolution, in a lot of ways, that this is just going to continue to amp that up. So we will see how that single barrel barrel proof rye – this time next year, it could be a very big part of what that product line does. If people are interested in learning more about your travels, your experiences, your skills, your opportunities, where can they find you on the wonderful world of social media?
Sarah Jeltema: Well, my main thing is Instagram, so WhiskyNomad, no E in whisky, and I post everything there, all of my educational content, and then I have links to the Ultimate Whiskey Academy.
Lucas Hendrickson: All right. Well, Sarah Jeltema, again, safe travels. Look forward to seeing you down in Lynchburg in October, and thanks for joining us Around the Barrel.
Sarah Jeltema: Thank you so much for having me.
Lucas Hendrickson: Thanks for checking out this episode of Around the Barrel. You can find archived episodes of Around the Barrel on all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and more, plus on the web at jackdaniels.com/podcast. And if you like what you hear, please follow, rate and review while you're at it. Cheers, y'all, and join us next time for more conversations Around the Barrel.
Your friends at Jack Daniel's remind you to drink responsibly. Jack Daniel's and Old No. 7 are registered trademarks, copyright 2023, Jack Daniel's. Tennessee Whiskey, 40% alcohol by Volume, 80 proof. Distilled and bottled by Jack Daniel Distillery, Lynchburg, Tennessee. Around the Barrel is intended for listeners 21 years of age and older.
