Tamworth Bird of Courage

Creativity has proven to be advantageous in discovering technologically innovative solutions, literary artworks, culinary creations and plenty more to enhance and improve lives; however, not all creative ideas are bound for success with many fated for failure and are cast aside as ill-conceived ideas destined to be lost into the depths of the history books. A bold and innovative creator of today is Tamworth Distilling, which has been driving forth with ambitious pursuits to push the bounds of spirits with new flavor combinations such as beaver butt whiskey, corpse flower brandy, crab-flavored whiskey, venison-flavored bourbon and this Thanksgiving inspired bourbon flavor called Bird of Courage. Tamsworth has tossed out the tried and true methods of crafting and aging spirits in their commitment to make the Bird of Courage whiskey. Their team started with a five-year-old bottled-in-bond bourbon distilled at Tamworth with a mash bill of 81% corn; 12% rye and 7% malted barley then donned a chef hat and apron armed with a Paula Dean cookbook to prepare a traditional Thanksgiving dinner which was then used to infuse each dish into a small part of the bourbon before blending the 40% dish infused bourbons together with the 60% uninfused regular bourbon and botted it at 46% ABV. After all that work to create this, now it’s time to crack open this generous sample from @PBMichiganWolverine to dive into this Willy Wonka style Thanksgiving libation to find out if that creativity was successful or if this is destined to help disinfect my kitchen sink drain. The nose starts with a moderate sourness of your Aunt’s “homemade” canned cranberry sauce that turns to a meaty earthiness of roasted turkey topped with powdered mushroom gravy then cornbread stuffing and roasted chestnuts followed by puddles of sick from the 2-year-old twins consisting of parsnips and boiled cabbage that is being cleaned up with lemon scented disinfectant that transitions to Old Spice aftershave and 20 year old blazer with stale cigarette smoke engrained in its fibers with low ethanol burn. The taste is a thin mouthfeel starting with cranberry and gooseberry sauce on top of overcooked Turkey breast then powdered mushroom gravy on potatoes au gratin and cornbread stuffing followed by sour apples, lemon pledge and curdled baby formula that transitions to shaving cream and old bowling alley shoes with low ethanol burn. The finish is short with a high sourness from lemon scented hand sanitizer then used coffee grounds and a high ashy bitter spice. Overall, this has succeeded in bringing forth a Thanksgiving experience; however, this is one of those family reunion style experiences with the bizarre and peculiar relatives that are incapable of making toast with a house covered in a mix of stale cigarette smoke and Glade air fresheners resulting in a rather dreadful, sour and offensive experience that fortunately has expedited conclusion. I admire Tamsworth for their creativity, but this one just didn’t pan out well for me and I’ll likely avoid any of their new pursuits in spirits going forward.

I grew up in a small suburb of NYC. I remember there was this one corner store, in a prime location, that sold only stuffed animals. We’re not talking stuffed children’s toys like teddy bears. We’re talking stuffed squirrels, badgers, birds, and other small furry forest creatures. It was a taxidermist. I never saw any foot traffic. Never saw any customers. Just one shady looking owner and his weird dead forest creatures. To my 7 year self, even without knowing the capital mortgage and debt markets, I wondered how he managed to stay in business. Turned out it was a front for a mafia money laundering. That brings me to this weird offering from Tamworth. They are about as weird as one can get in the whiskey world. They have whiskey infused with some mammal’s glands, one infused with venison, another infused with a stinky flower. This seems relatively mainstream, with Thanksgiving flavors. Imagine yourself sitting in front of a Thanksgiving feast. Mix up all the items on the table, liquify it in your trusted Ninja food blender. And voila…you have the essence of this abomination. There’s no roasted turkey. There’s no chestnuts. There’s no cranberry sauce. It’s just a very young whiskey infused with a cornucopia of flavors, all melding into an inconsistent incoherent mess. So…I again start to wonder….how do these guys stay in business? It’s gotta be a front. Maybe their main business is shady like money laundering, or straight arrow like making hand sanitizers….but making weird whiskey simply can’t pay the bills. @pkingmartin @Bourbon_Obsessed_Lexington @ctbeck11 @Richard-ModernDrinking i sent this one over to y’all for our tasting. I suggest we pass this one, and instead choose something else. Sorry….I meant well…didn’t quite work out.