Whiskey, Hemingway, and Six-Toed Cats: A Unique Blend of Stories and Spirits (BRC S3 E9)

# AI Transcript: Hemingway 

Kerry Moynahan:
Last season on Barrel Room Chronicles, I embarked on an amazing journey through Ireland, from Dingle to Belfast and nearly everything in between. Now I'm going to do it all over again. But this time, you're invited. That's right. Join me this September for a trip of a lifetime through the rich tapestry of Irish whiskey culture. We'll visit iconic locations such as the Titanic Experience and the new Titanic Distillery, and tour through the lush Irish landscapes and visit filming locations from the hit TV series Game of Thrones. We'll also visit historic sites, including cathedrals, jails, castles and more. Plus, we'll get to distill our very own batch of Klonic Healthy Gin. To find out more or to book now, visit BarrelRoomChronicles.com and click on the Brock Tours photo. Hello, good evening, good afternoon, wherever it is you're finding the show today. On the show today we are going to talk about Hemingway Rye. I'm so excited to try this and I have on Ron Call and Kyle and they are founding members of this wonderful new whiskey and we're going to talk about how the company started and where they are today and where they plan to go. So with no further ado, let me introduce our guests. Ron, you were on the call here first, so I'll start with you. Ron, we always ask about whiskey journeys for when we start the podcast. So give me a little overview of you and your whiskey journey from when you were a wee little lad. Did you always know whiskey was going to be what you were going to do? Were you trained to do it since a baby? And yeah, let's start with that.

Ron Call:
Well, it's kind of like a Hank Williams Jr. song. It's a family tradition. So I kind of grew up in it. My dad worked for Jim Beam. I worked for Jim Beam. And both of us worked with Booker. And I got uncles and cousins still employed in the industry in Kentucky. And I started out in the labs, but back then we were called a lab rat. So you start out at the bottom and work your way up. And fortunately, that's what I did, but it gave me a ton of experience. you saw the new distillate called White Dog. So you taste that and then you do the GC profiles that gives you all your grams per liters, 100 proof of the congeners. And then, so that's your White Dog at that start. And then I would get tons of samples from all the warehouses of that same whiskeys after four years aging. And so you could actually go see how the warehouses, the wood, the char affected that white dog. Fortunately, and I ran the stereo night shift quite a while, and I made all the yeast, and I still got all my notes from Booker, so we had her fortunate enough to do some hand-on training and talking, shooting a bull with Booker also. That's my background, so 16 years.

Kerry Moynahan:
Did they send you off to chemistry school, or did you just learn everything on the job?

Ron Call:
It's in your book. I actually learned everything on the job and actually bought some of the literature I needed with my own monies. I mean, Beam was importing and doing all kinds of stuff with very little training. So I had to learn about wines, tequila, all kinds of RTDs. And again, I was fortunately If they wanted someone to assist on those projects, I volunteered. So it's not like the military. I did volunteer for stuff like this.

Kerry Moynahan:
That's awesome. Yeah. And Kyle, Kyle, give us a little background about you. And then after that, let me find out how you guys are related to this project.

Kyle Groth:
Sure. Yeah, I, uh, my background is far less interesting than Ron's in this industry. I, uh, I was fortunate to jump on board. Angel's Envy Bourbon when it was still, it was my dad actually and several other partners that were bringing it out of the ground and they needed someone young. I was very fresh out of college at the time and jumped on board to help kind of push some initiatives ahead. And that's really how I got my feet wet and learned how how the industry works, how the three tier system works, how, how you operate a whiskey brand and really where I found my passion for the space and was fortunate enough, uh, several years in to, to meet Ron and start, um, uh, Papa's Pilar and now Hemingway Whiskey together. So known Ron for just over 10 years now. And yeah, that was, I wish I could say I was, that was the brains of Angel's Envy, but really I was a young guy trying to figure out what on earth we were doing.

Kerry Moynahan:
Right. So when you were in college, what did you go to school for? Was it for whiskey making or for business?

Kyle Groth:
I was in a hospitality school. And then I ended up randomly, I majored in finance there and hopped out and did a very brief stint, sports marketing and consulting when I was in North Carolina. And the day I was going into the office to quit was the day I found out we were being acquired by Madison Square Garden. So it all worked out. I never had to quit and got to jump ship.

Kerry Moynahan:
Nice. Severance package, I hope.

Kyle Groth:
Small one. Yeah, it was small. I was the youngest person on that team as well.

Kerry Moynahan:
Okay. Well, that works out. Get a little, get a little money in. You want to quit, but they pay you to quit anyway. That's fantastic. I love it.

Kyle Groth:
Exactly.

Kerry Moynahan:
So, um, you guys have been working together for a while now. And then what was the, how did you guys come up with the idea of doing Hemingway and what's the relationship between your whiskey company and the family, uh, the Hemingway family?

Ron Call:
I will let Kyle speak on that.

Kyle Groth:
Sure. No, it's actually, it dates back a little, um, little further back from our Hemingway whiskey launch. So when we were, um, what, when we were getting angels envy out of the ground, it was about two and a half years in the Hemingway family actually reached out and said that they said, we love what you're doing here. We love the brand. Is there a way that we can enter the category where a majority of our proceeds can go to charity that Hemingway himself would have supported? And we did a full deep dive. This is back in 2012 into the history of Hemingway, how he intersected with spirits, what spirits he really preferred and at what time in his life. And then in 2013, we launched Papa's Pilar Rum in partnership with the family, knowing that It had deep ties to Hemingway himself and built a distillery down in Key West with Ron leading that initiative on the product side, knowing that we wanted to do a Hemingway whiskey. And so we wanted to make sure the time was right for it. We launched it right. And we always had this concept of launching a rye as well. There's a lot of new whiskey brands out there, especially over the past 10 years. And few of them have really focused in on owning that premium rye space.

Kerry Moynahan:
Very, very few. I haven't been able to find any. Well, not any, but very few. Correct.

Kyle Groth:
Very few rye launches. I've learned a ton just from Ron and Jacob and Clayton. And we brought our families together. It's been Ron and his two sons, Jacob and Clayton. Jacob's been well known for making phenomenal rye. And then my dad, myself, my brother, And we came together with the Hemingway family and said, here's what we want to want to release. And it's been a pleasure. It's been a great team, really coming together between the three families. And we have a brilliant team, really on all sides of the business.

Kerry Moynahan:
OK, and then before we were talking, I was telling Ron how we had Jacob on our previous podcast at the Spirits of Whiskey back when he was with Green River. So can you guys tell me a little bit about how he left that distillery and he's at a new distillery? And is that the distillery that creates what will be your own juice for Hemingway rye?

Ron Call:
Yeah, eventually, Jacob has already made a thousand barrels for us, and he'll be making more continuously based on projections. It will take roughly four years for it to become the way we want it, but we'll continue to test and monitor that as we go. But you're correct, Jacob, he makes a good rye. He's been a good student, I guess, but Rye is really hard to make. I mean, when I was involved with Rye, it was only 51%. This is 95%.

Kerry Moynahan:
I really would love to know how much spillage with the extra foaming may have happened in the beginning, or was he so good at what he was doing already that that never happened?

Ron Call:
Technology has actually improved that. But years ago, it foamed so bad, you had to put even vegetable oil on it to keep the foam down. But again, 51% was all I was exposed to. And when this whiskey came around, I said, why is people drinking this stuff? And then after we got into this, I said, damn, this is pretty good. So, so, uh, I'm pretty pleased with our products.

Kyle Groth:
So just to add to that, it's been really fun. And one of the fun things about our signature edition is that it is it's 90% six-year-old 95, five Indiana, and then it's 10 year old. Or sorry, 10% four-year-old Kentucky 95, five that Jacob did distill while he was at green river. And so we do have enough barrels that will get us through of actually Jacob's rye that gets us to the new fields that are being laid down now to where it all transitions over.

Kerry Moynahan:
Oh, that's fantastic. So are you sourcing what's currently in here from Green River, from the stock, and then some from other places? That's great. That's good. That means you have control over the flavor profile. Because my worry is always when people start with sourcing, that they're going to have their one expression that's sourced, and then eventually that's going to peter out when they use their own, and then it's never quite the same, and then the fans that were of the blend. But this sounds like it's going to probably taste just about the same, since it's going to be from the same. That's awesome. That makes me very happy, especially since it's a rye, and I'm a big rye fan.

Ron Call:
when we combine our ryes together, you know, then we finish it in one of our Olorosa sherry calves. So by finishing that, that's going to make it even more consistent for you. So it should make you happy.

Kerry Moynahan:
I can't wait to taste this. We'll taste this in just a few minutes. But before we do that, let's talk a little bit more. So tell me a little bit more about Jacob leaving Green River and then is the distillery that you guys that he has created solely focused on Hemingway, or does he have other whiskeys that he's coming out with over there?

Ron Call:
He has other customers, but we're one of the customers, so he has plenty of capacity for his business and our business also.

Kerry Moynahan:
He's in good shape. That's fantastic. That is great. So you have the rye, and he's making the rye now. How many other expressions do you guys plan to make for the Hemingway label?

Kyle Groth:
Go ahead, Kyle.

Kerry Moynahan:
A gazillion!

Kyle Groth:
We may have differing opinions, right? Every time I walk into the lab, Ron's got some new samples to taste. But we do have a cast strength that'll be coming out here shortly. Okay, so in the coming months, we will have a cast strength. And then we've been fortunate enough to receive some some pretty good rewards and reviews for our signature that we want to make sure it has some time to get out there and people start to know what to expect that we will have some small batch releases and some finishes that that Ron's playing around with. But I think we really want all right. Certainly, yes. Yeah, currently. All right.

Kerry Moynahan:
So does that mean that Hemingway was more of a rye guy than a bourbon guy or a scotch guy?

Kyle Groth:
Hemingway was different depending on what era of his life and where he was in the world. But he was certainly a big rye guy. He actually wrote more about whiskey than he did rum, if you believe that.

Kerry Moynahan:
I do believe that. I do believe that. Which is awesome. And then this is a little side note, and I don't know if you guys know, but Hemingway cats. Do you know about the Hemingway cats? And do the Hemingways have a lot of cats on their property?

Kyle Groth:
I know in Key West there are. There are a lot of cats on the Key West property.

Kerry Moynahan:
Do you know what the Hemingway cat is?

Kyle Groth:
the six-toed cats? Correct. Yes. Okay. Whether all the stories told at the house are true, that I can't verify.

Kerry Moynahan:
That's awesome.

Ron Call:
We're going to catnap one and put it into the story in Kentucky.

Kerry Moynahan:
Oh, you got to. You got to have a Hemingway cat watching over the Hemingway rye. I mean, that's like a And you've got to make sure it has six toes. So my best friend, before she got married and before I bought my house, we were roommates. And she, a friend of ours, said, hey, my neighbor just had all these orange cats, and they're Hemingway cats. And there was like a litter of four or five or something. And we're like, oh, great, cool. I want a Hemingway cat. So she went out. She's like, there's only one girl. And orange cats are primarily male. There's very few girl orange, which I didn't know because every orange cat I've ever had was a girl. So I didn't know that they were more rare. So we went out to go pick up the girl. And she was the only one with regular feet. And I was like, oh, man. I'm curious to see how many female cats get the six toes on every hand versus male. It's genetics, man. It's weird. It's crazy.

Kyle Groth:
I digress.

Kerry Moynahan:
I digress. But, you know, cats are fun.

Kyle Groth:
That's been one of the fun things, just being in partnership with the Hemingway family and really getting to know them and his son Patrick out in Montana and then his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren are now involved. But I think Hemingway himself was such a diverse character. that no matter where you go in the world, there's pieces of him that really resonate or stick out. Our team was over in Berlin, and there were people coming from Sweden, Estonia, just saying how much Hemingway meant to them and where. And it's just a fascinating character. And the first time I met his son, he was telling me stories. And he kept saying, oh, yeah, Dad used to do this. And you forget that his dad was Hermannus Hemingway. And it's just fascinating.

Kerry Moynahan:
That was really cool. All right, well, do you boys have a bottle of the juice next to you that we can pour into? I'm ready to try this bad boy. I don't have much left. Oh, that smells good. All right. Get a little in my glass here in my, in my Irish to a glass, my branded Irish to a glass. You guys know about this glass? It's really cool. Like, um, it's made so that you can set it on its side as a decanter. It's really cool. I like it. Um, so not that I'm promoting it or anything, but I do, well, I am promoting it. I love it. So, oh, that's got a beautiful nose and some serious legs. That's got some good legs on it too.

Ron Call:
Hey, like that shine and sparkle.

Kerry Moynahan:
It's beautiful. And it looks really good with my with my ring lights over here. Wow, that's a great color. It's like a golden amber. 90 in and Indiana and 10 Kentucky.

Kyle Groth:
102 proof.

Kerry Moynahan:
Oh, I can't wait to try this with the sherry cask finish. I'm a big I love sherry cask finish all the time.

Kyle Groth:
The unique thing about our sherry is that it's rum season, so it actually had our rum that sat in the sherry. So you do get subtle notes of the rum and the sherry together.

Kerry Moynahan:
Wow. Oh, that's amazing. That's really good. And later when we have Chef Louise on, I bet she's going to be floored because, again, she and I are big Rye fans and this is good.

Ron Call:
Congratulations. Yeah, it's very good and neat, and it holds up well with a cube of ice in it, too.

Kerry Moynahan:
And I like it, that being rye, you'd expect it to be really hot, and it's not really that hot. It's got a good kick at the end, but it's not like, like I don't have to add anything if I don't want to, which is very fantastic.

Kyle Groth:
Yeah, it still picks up those classic rye notes without being overly hot.

Kerry Moynahan:
Okay. I think I have a new favorite right guys. That's fantastic. And I love the bottle. I love how we've got typewriter keys, old fashioned typewriter keys on here. For those of you at home, I hope that's in focus. Let's say it's in focus. So tell me a little bit about the bottle design. Like who came up with the bottle design and why did you choose a wide body instead of like a circular and who came up with putting on the keys? I love that.

Kyle Groth:
Sure. Yeah, we, I think we have one of the best in the industry. So Lindsay on our team, um, really the brains behind almost all the packaging details that she is incredible thinking through every little detail. When we launched the ride, we knew we wanted a more classic style bottle that was still simple, but, uh, but premium a bit like Hemingway. Uh, and so it is a fairly simple bottom bottle with the premium elements. I think that. The idea when when she come up with the typewriter keys on the bottle was just like phenomenal. And it really came came to life. And yeah, I fell in love with it. So really, Lindsay on our team has been the brains behind a lot of it. And as you deplete the bottle, as the rye goes down, you'll see there's this piece of art behind on the label of Hemingway himself. And it was actually done with a artist that we partnered in in the UK. And he did the entire piece on a typewriter. And so the large piece, he actually did this whole Hemingway portrait on a typewriter.

Kerry Moynahan:
I'm going to have to drink all of this today just so I can see that.

Kyle Groth:
Yeah, a nice hidden surprise.

Kerry Moynahan:
I may actually pour it out and pour it back in because I'm very interested to see that. But I can kind of see a faint something. Yeah, but I can't. That's cool. That's very cool. And I love the the paper that you have on it. It's like a nice like old fashioned paper versus like a new and it's got it's got texture. It's very it's a beautiful bottle. I absolutely love this bottle.

Kyle Groth:
Thank you. And the label around the neck as well, you can take off and it's actually made kind of as an old rye receipt. And on the inside, there's this fable of Hemingway that he was challenged at a bar to write a six word story on a napkin. And he wrote the story, it was baby shoes for sale, never worn. And so we actually have a whole site page on our website that people can go and submit their own six word stories that Patrick Hemingway Adams, his great grandson will be kind of a monthly judge on the winners of the six word story.

Kerry Moynahan:
Oh, that's cool. That's really cool. I may have to, I'm going to have to pull this off later. I don't want to, I don't want to disturb the sticker, but I, yeah, you can tell they tell it, it can come off because it's a, it's a little loose.

Ron Call:
If you notice on top, you'll see engraved, pour your story.

Kerry Moynahan:
Yeah.

Ron Call:
Yeah. I love that. Yeah. So it's kind of like a, yeah, you want to do this. You want to enjoy that bottle with your friends and you can drink all you want and pour your story. So.

Kerry Moynahan:
I'm so in love. Okay. And then Hemingway, is this how he actually signed his name or is this just a beautiful, that's wow.

Kyle Groth:
That's a very nice penmanship. Much better than mine.

Kerry Moynahan:
Yes. And mine, mine is illegible. People think I'm a doctor because my handwriting is so terrible. Although I do know cursive, unlike kids today. I don't understand the whole not teaching cursive anymore. Although I did hear that California is going to put it back in their curriculum, I think so.

Kyle Groth:
Interesting.

Kerry Moynahan:
OK, and then so you have all these other expressions in the works. Do you have any other types? Do you have any single malt or any bourbon that you guys are thinking about doing, or is this all going to be only rye?

Ron Call:
I'll let Kyle speak on that.

Kyle Groth:
Currently, everything we have in the works is Rye. I could see a point in time where maybe a high Rye bourbon or something that makes sense for the portfolio. But I think we kind of like where we are right now with Rye. We like our expertise with Ron and Jacob and Clayton. So right now, everything in the works is currently a Rye. But I wouldn't be shocked if somewhere down the road we come out with something else as well.

Kerry Moynahan:
Well, this is fantastic. And if all your eyes are going to be this good, then I mean, you don't need anything else. So you have the little competition. Is there going to be any other kind of cute little fun thing that you do to help promotions that would be, you know, interactive, so to speak?

Kyle Groth:
Yeah, we, we do. I think we'll, we'll continue to update, especially kind of around the Necker and, um, six word stories as had some really fun engagement and people submitting their stories on, on a daily basis to us, which has been fun. And I think, There's a few other ideas we have in the works, especially on the digital side. We do have what we call our Hemingway Social Club, which is where kind of a lot of our fans interact and can get early access to releases and participate in the Six Birds story. So we always encourage folks to sign up to the Hemingway Social Club just to stay up to date with those, because we will have a pretty digital forward approach to how we communicate with customers and let them know what's going on in our world.

Kerry Moynahan:
And then is there going to be any relationship to any of his books or any of his writings that are going to, you know, other than how he did it, or is he going to have any, like, I don't know, anything with, can you buy a book on your website, so to speak, of anything that he's done, or is it going to be something like that?

Kyle Groth:
That's a good idea. Currently, you can't buy a book. But we should talk to the family about getting those on there. I mean, there are some fun ways. The fun thing about Hemingway is he traveled the world. And so I know Ron's been testing with some barrels of regions he's traveled to and just unique ties to Hemingway himself and the complex life that he lived.

Kerry Moynahan:
Okay. And then Ron, how has this project been different for you than any other whiskey that you've worked with before?

Ron Call:
Well, for one thing, this is the first and the best rye I actually worked with. It's a straight rye. A lot of ryes aren't straight rye, but this one definitely is. I never had the opportunity to taste rye that was aged. This is six year, and our first release was 10 year. We had some 10 year in it. Wow. That was, so I guess I had to educate myself to how good rye could be, and I was really impressed. And when Steve, Kyle's dad, he started talking to me about it, and I said, well, you know, the rye is good, but let's try to finish it in one of our sherry casts and see what happens. So, that's what we did, and then we sent out samples to a lot of the I guess bourbon rye geeks, and they loved it. So we moved from there to production, and I guess the quality speaks for itself.

Kerry Moynahan:
For sure, for sure. So were you more of a bourbon fan growing up? Or did you like rye, but you just didn't really make too much of it?

Ron Call:
Well, the rye we made, I couldn't tell the difference between rye and bourbon. because it was only 51%. So the straight rye, 95%, it really opened my eyes up. I said, man, that's pretty good stuff. And then with the quality we were getting and the blending we were doing and finishing, yeah, I think it's pretty damn good.

Kerry Moynahan:
It is good. So it was a nice surprise then to be able to do 100% rye. Yeah.

Ron Call:
I'll be honest. I was totally surprised and very happy with the the awards we got and the comments we got and just listening to you say you enjoy it. It makes me happy.

Kerry Moynahan:
Yeah, no, it's fantastic. So when did this first come out in the market?

Kyle Groth:
The the signature came out in August.

Kerry Moynahan:
OK, and then how many awards have you guys already gotten and from where?

Kyle Groth:
We've won quite a bit to end the year. Our first edition, when we first launched, we launched with the limited, like Ron said, it was a 10-year-old. And we won quite a few of the ASCOTs last year. And then when we launched our signature, we were fortunate. We won, we got a 97-point rating in the tasting panel to end the year. And we won number one rye whiskey in the world from Whiskey Advocate and number 13. I can see that, number one. Yeah, number 13 whiskey overall from the Whiskey Advocate, too, across all whiskeys from bourbon to scotch to rye. So that was a really fun way to close out the year. And we received a few more. Those are the big ones we're really hanging our hat on and going out there with. And it was a fun fun four months for Signature. And I think this will be a really, really big year for us. And I think the category in general, we're seeing a lot of folks switch over from bourbon to rye as well, because there are a lot of good ryes coming onto the market that aren't that traditional hot rye. So I think it'll be a fun time for the whole category.

Kerry Moynahan:
Yeah, well, I can't wait to see what Chef Louise wants to do with this, whether she wants to put it in a recipe or pair it with something. But I can tell already by the taste of this that she's going to be super excited. Thank you guys so much for being on the show today. If you could let us know where the best place to find you and where the best place to shop for your product, let us know.

Kyle Groth:
Perfect. Yeah. HemingwayWhiskies.com is the best place to find us and shop for our product. And then same with on social media. It's just HemingwayWhiskies.

Kerry Moynahan:
Great. And then, uh, can you, you can buy it straight from the website or does it, or does it tell you where you, what zip code you can find?

Kyle Groth:
You can buy straight from the web, uh, website that'll, um, ship from our retail partners. And then we do have a store locator for those looking for it on the shelf in their, in their States.

Kerry Moynahan:
Fantastic. Well, guys, thank you again so much for being on the show today. It's been a pleasure. I can't wait to see more of what you do. And I can't wait to finish this bottle and see what's inside on this picture. So thank you so much. World of Wheezy is up next. Stay with us.

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Kerry Moynahan:
All right, Louise, we've been waiting for this one. Gorge. You know, when I told you we were getting this and I said it's 100% rye and it was done in sherry oak casks finishing, what was your thought when I said that?

Chef Louise Leonard:
What was my thought? Oh, yeah. I mean, well, delicious, I assume. And I mean, yeah, I don't know. I didn't have any thoughts necessarily. All right, so let's let's nose this bad boy.

Kerry Moynahan:
Oh, yeah, I get the rye on there. Mm hmm. I get a little classic.

Chef Louise Leonard:
Yeah, I get to the sherry. It smells like a classic rye to me right now. I love the bottle, by the way.

Kerry Moynahan:
I do, too. So I had Ron and Kyle on earlier in the day talking about the whole thing, and we talked about how they did the bottle and the typewriter keys, which I love, and the reason that they chose this shape, and then also about the label, which has fun. So those of you out there who want to participate in their fun little six-word story, you know, grab a bottle and find out how to do it. But yeah, so when I tasted this earlier, I thought this has got to be hands down the best rye I've had in a really long time, if not forever, because I very rarely find 100% rye. And I also don't recall ever having 100% rye finished in sherry, which both, as you know, I love sherry finishes, and I love rye. So to me, this is like,

Chef Louise Leonard:
I am. This is a hot damn, because I agree with you. I love rye whiskey. It is my personal favorite. If somebody says to me, all right, you get one more glass of whiskey, and that's all you get forever and ever, it's going to be a rye, for sure. And for me, what is amazing about this is that, we were talking earlier, you were saying, Hey, you know, I don't know that, like, wait till you taste it. because it doesn't read hot. It's so drinkable. And I'm like- Dangerously drinkable. Yeah. Yeah, baby, it's Friday. No, but it's like you drink it and it's like, okay, you feel a little bit of that burn, which is generally why I like a rye in like a Manhattan, for example, because of the sweet vermouth. It needs that. It needs that.

Kerry Moynahan:
My go-to cocktail when I'm out is a rye Perfect Manhattan. and I always try to, if I go and look and I see what they have.

Chef Louise Leonard:
So you like equal parts sweet vermouth, dry vermouth.

Kerry Moynahan:
Right, I like to use a cherry bitters, a spiced cherry bitters. Fine, okay, all good. But this, if I could not order it neat, like if there was a rule and you walked into a bar and they said you cannot order anything neat, I would definitely.

Chef Louise Leonard:
Like you must have a cocktail made.

Kerry Moynahan:
Yes, I would definitely put this in a Rye Perfect Manhattan with cherry. Yeah, yeah. So what would you do with this in the cooking world?

Chef Louise Leonard:
Because I've got like, I know the story, like, you know, I just love a story. I love a lot of times when I'm cooking. I like to think about where the product came from, who made it, like, let's let's stop for one second.

Kerry Moynahan:
I should have said this before. Hemingway cats. We talked about that earlier with the guys too. With the extra those.

Chef Louise Leonard:
For those who know, if you know, you know. You know, you know.

Kerry Moynahan:
Yes. But I thought of you extra when this came out, because I said, first of all, it's Hemingway to me, Hemingway, not only writing beautiful literature, but cats with the sixth finger, sixth thumb. But it was also Ryan. I was like, hands down. I can't wait to have Louise try this.

Chef Louise Leonard:
It's kind of like my perfect booze.

Kerry Moynahan:
Because you're not a cat lady, but you're a cat lady.

Chef Louise Leonard:
I'm not a cat lady. What are you talking about? I'm not a cat lady. I'm the number one cat lady.

Kerry Moynahan:
You are, but you're a married cat lady. So it's different than being a spinster cat lady.

Chef Louise Leonard:
No, no, no. See, where you're wrong with all of this is we are in the year 2024. if you haven't heard of a person called taylor swift like it's cool to be a cat lady right right right i mean she's i'm og young thing has let everyone know that it is awesome to have cats love them and the entirety of instagram tiktok and the whole entire internet loves cats yeah so i am a cat lady. I'm an OG cat lady.

Kerry Moynahan:
Now that I interrupted you about the cat, go ahead and tell me what you would do and why you would be cooking and or pairing this with.

Chef Louise Leonard:
So my thoughts with this, because we're in Key West, I've been to Key West a few times. My husband's from Miami. I've been to the Hemingway house. I love those damn cats. I love South Florida. When I think of Florida, I think about all the really good fish that exist there, but also all the citrus. Let's not forget it is the orange capital of the United States. Here in California, we forget that because we have our fair share of citrus here, but Florida has the most delicious fruits, really, I mean, ever. So I would make, with this spirit, what I would make is crepe Suzette, which is a classic French dessert dish of crepes flambéed with fresh oranges. Okay, so I would take some Florida oranges. I would make supremes. That is just a fancy way of saying taking the flesh away from the rind. And then you cook them with a little bit of butter. You flambe with a spirit. In this case, I would use the Hemingway rye. I think it would be perfect for that. High alcohol would get it to flame really quickly. with, you know, and you have some sugar in there, and then that gets poured over some fresh made crepes, and then you can serve that with some whipped cream. And what would you put inside? Oranges? Fruit? Well, oranges. Just oranges. Crepe Suzette, a classic Crepe Suzette is with orange. Only orange. only orange. Now you can make you could make crepes and have cherries jubilee and flambé some cherries with this which would also be great but because it's the Hemingway rye I'm in Florida in my brain. And orange cats and Hemingway Orange cats, the Hemingway house. I mean, listen, I could go on and on. My husband's name is Ryan. This is this is rye whiskey. I can make a cocktail out of that. I could do, you know, the thumbed cat like I could have so much so much fun with this. It's not even funny. But off the top of my head, I'm like, I'm going to make some crepes and I'm going to Ryan's Hemingway.

Kerry Moynahan:
Well, now I want to have some of that, and so maybe next time we get together, you can make me this crepe suzette with the oranges. And now with the whipped cream, would you also add some of the... Why not?

Chef Louise Leonard:
Could totally do that. Yes, absolutely.

Kerry Moynahan:
Yeah. Yeah. And then, of course, we would have a dram of this with it. Absolutely we would. Okay well cheers to that and let's get together and and have that. All right thanks Louise we'll see you next time. The ladies will love the look and the men will feel marvelous. Why? Because manscaped.com has head-to-toe tools and formulations for every hairy man's body. The star of the show is the Lawn Mower 5.0 Below the Waist Trimmer. It's got wireless charging, it's waterproof, and thanks to their advanced SkinSafe technology, it's really smooth. Everything one needs to take care of everything below the waist is included in the Performance Package 5.0. The kit also includes the Crop Preserver deodorant and the Crop Reviver toner spray. Another popular item is the Weed Whacker Hair Trimmer. Gentlemen, keep your ears and nose hairs in check, and the women will love you for it. Whether you need grooming tools for your face or body, or just need the best in men's body care products, MANSCAPED.com has everything you need. Go to MANSCAPED.com and use code BARRELROOM to get 20% off your order today.