The Movie Candy Draft ft. David Thomas Tao

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1:06 Cheers to the good stuff. Today on the Film and Whiskey podcast, we are talking movie candy. We'll be drafting it up while talking to one of the greatest voices in the whiskey world. Then we're going to be trying some Bardstown Bourbon Company High Wheat Origin series. This is the. Film and whiskey. Podcast. Well, hey everybody, welcome into the Film and Whiskey podcast.

1:52 I'm Bob Book. I'm Brad G. And we're coming at you with another special bonus episode. Bonus episode. I have said this every week, Brad, since we ended Season 8 officially, but these intermediary episodes between seasons are just so much freaking fun, man. Yeah, the it's an absolute blast. It's so much easier to just sit back and record an episode. And I put maybe 10 minutes of work into this. I didn't watch a 2 hour movie. I didn't spend time writing 22 pages on why I hate The Last Jedi. This is I'm just here. I like candy and I'm going to talk about it today.

2:33 Yeah, I mean, it's great for you. I didn't think that it was possible for you to do less prep than you do for most of our episodes, but apparently we have cut that workflow down even further, Brad. So yeah, let's talk a little bit about what today is about. And in order to do that, I want to bring in a special guest, a third chair, a moderator of sorts. It's our friend, but first time guest, David Thomas Tau. David, how you doing today? Hey guys, sorry I I tried to do like an intro voice there and it, it, it was perfect. Like overeager third grader who just moved to a new school. It was like about two steps away from hey. You guys. That's the energy I'm trying to bring to the show today. David's brought all the energy so far. We were just talking off Mike about how to introduce him because he is a multi hyphenate.

3:23 He is a professional whiskey writer. He is, he probably hates this word, but he has much influence in the world of whiskey. He is a whiskey influencer and crucially for this podcast, he is a producer of both Broadway shows and films. So we've got much to talk about today, David. Yeah, I was going to say, in the world of a podcast called Film and Whiskey for you, what came first, the film slash Broadway or the whiskey? The whiskey, the whiskey very much the very much the whiskey. I also just want to clarify, I have Forrest Gump syndrome, so I just say yes to a bunch of stuff and I end up in weird places like this podcast, which is a lovely place. I just want to be clear, it worked out for Forrest Gump and I'm just like assuming it's going to work out for me eventually. But definitely the whiskey first. Born in Louisville, raised in Bardstown. I joke that I'm like a whiskey neppo baby, but I'm not related to anyone in whiskey, you know?

4:20 It was just kind of like adequable. Like you just get, you're just like, there's, there's not a lot, there's not a lot else in Bardstown as far as like Industries 1 can really sink their teeth. A lovely place, but kind of whiskey's like the game in town. So I live in New York now, but it was like whiskey was always going to win. I had no choice. It was always going to happen. Well, I don't mean to like immediately dive into the deep end of like, you know, dissecting your resume here, but we talk a lot on this show about different roles in movie production, as you know, especially directors and writers. But this is the first time we've ever had a film producer on the show. And I think that to the average person, if they know anything about what a producer does at all, you know, either it's a day-to-day job where you're really on set or you're just the guy that writes a check and then sends people off to do whatever they're doing.

5:09 And so I think like, let's, let's maybe tear down this conception of the producer that you're just Scrooge Mcduck, like sitting on a pile of money and funding everything unless that is what you're doing and then. Minions, minions go do my bidding. Straight up, I'll be very honest with you guys. There are some projects I've produced where I am very much the Scrooge Mcduck character. There you go. Like not if, if I'm not writing the check, I'm like getting the people in, like convincing the people to write the check, right. So there I've definitely produced projects where I am. I wouldn't call myself a creative producer, I'd call myself a business and producer. You're figuring out where the money's coming from. You're figuring out maybe some like how to market it, how to get butts in seats right, Like how to what's the right, whether it's like a play, a movie, what ATV show, whatever it is like what is the right outlet for this? How do you match into the right audience 'cause that's the most important thing in content, right, is getting it in front of the right people.

6:05 And then there are projects where especially I think this year on the theater, I think to the theater end, especially like somebody off probably stuff I've done where I'm like neck deep in the script, you know, with like we're going over dialogue and we're doing this and it's it's very dramaturgical. I actually have a meeting tomorrow for a show that I'm like somewhat involved with TV, like not saying too much because the show hasn't come out. It's like a play, etcetera. But I'm like, we're having a a a sit down tomorrow and we're going over dialogue. You know what I mean? So a few weeks ago I had a a small off probably showcase and I was tearing up carpet and dismantling a casket the next day because a casket was part of the set.

6:48 So like producers are, it doesn't mean any one thing. You can mean a whole bunch of different things. And I've been very fortunate in that. I think I've done stuff that's like it couldn't be more hands on and then I've done the stuff where it couldn't be more business side. You're sending emails and making spreadsheets, and that's your. So that's a. That's a big spectrum. Sending emails and making spreadsheets, that that's like a dream job right there. Well, if I can, if I can awkwardly segue us into our topic for the day, I'm going to start by asking David this. You may not have a lot of day-to-day involvement in the nitty gritty of making a film, but do you have involvement in sitting in a theater and eating tons of candy?

7:30 Because boy oh boy do Brad and I have involvement in that. I I do, I absolutely do. I do want to say I should I should say that the nitty gritty of of making a film. You know what? Let's talk about the candy. Yes, I was going to say something. I was going to say something like elegant and then it didn't. You know we're just going to talk about we're talking about candy, right? Now, David, you already use the word dramaturgical, which is a word I am guaranteed to use 20 times in the next week. And every time it will be wrong. And I'm excited about it. You will. You get someone has to buy you a drink every time. You fit that into conversation at the Bourbon Festival. I'm ready. The next time we'll all be together in person, so keep a running town.

8:13 There you go. I'm ready, man. All right, so Candy David, where are we at with Candy? Candy. So I, I, as I was saying earlier, I don't actually have the biggest sweet tooth anymore. I was a candy fiend as a kid. So that actually means that when I am eating candy, I'm really picky, you know, because I'm not doing it every day. I'm not doing it every week. So when I'm when I'm going for the sweets, like I'm going to be really discriminating. And if I don't like it, if I'm trying a candy and it's not hitting the spot, I'm, I don't feel like I need to finish the bag or even the handful, you know what I mean? So that's me. I love it, man. All right, well, let's tease a little bit of what we're here to do today, Brad, and then we're going to pivot hard into drinking some whiskey to really fuel the conversation. But folks, we are doing a movie candy draft today. Couple years ago on our Instagram, we had some really great engagement when we were talking with people about what their preferred movie candy was.

9:10 And it turned into a big thing around the time of March Madness where we did movie candy madness. I think we presented either 16 or 32 of the most popular movie candies. And Brad, it got it got kind of a it was hiery. Yeah, it was as it was. Reese's Pieces won over Peanut M&M's in the final, but it was like a 5347 split. It was it was pretty contentious there to the end. Yeah, I I mean, if you're going to get Americans up in arms over any type of bracket, it's going to be sugar and fat consumption. Absolutely, Americans love competition and they have a propensity towards diabetes.

9:52 And so when you can combine those two things, I mean, it really is just it's a new market to tap into, David. We're number one. We're #1. Oh man, this is going to be a great episode. Guys. Let's let's drink whiskey. Brad, it's time for us to move into our whiskey for the day before we dive into our draft. And today we are revisiting with our old friends at Bardstown Bourbon Company. Now, a year or two ago, they introduced a new line of whiskeys called the Origin series, which is meant to be kind of their permanent fixtures that indoctrinate people into the world of Bardstown bourbon. And they've just released their weeded bourbon in this line, which they are calling their high Wheat Bourbon. Now, Brad and David and I have been marveling over the packaging in the sample that we received because it has a fancy little light at the bottom.

10:40 And you guys are about the same age as me. I don't know if you grew up watching SpongeBob SquarePants, but there's an episode of SpongeBob where the Krabby Patty is floating at the camera and there's a guy doing like a really dumb da da da da da dramatic music. And so every time I open this box of whiskey, I just, I think about doing dramatic music for the reveal of it too. I feel like Patrick Stark has I already. I already ripped apart. I already ripped the light off of my box. So I'm. It is. It's just sitting in your hand there. You're just illuminating random things around you. I never got one. I never got a candy bar. I'm going to make a real out of this, out of how I scientifically.

11:22 Deconstructed this, but please, please do so this high wheat bourbon. They are not kidding with the mash bill here. It is definitely high wheat, 53% corn, 39% wheat and 8% malted barley. It is a six year aged bourbon. I am very excited to dive into this Brad, because we've had really good luck so far with Bardstown and I'll throw over to you guys 'cause I've been talking a lot. What are you picking up on the nose here? First off, I'm picking up the fact that Bardstown can do no wrong in my eyes. They they just a, they make incredible whiskey. I've had a few that I don't love, but I've never had anything that was poorly made. So Bardstown is always going to be worth, at the very least, an attempt.

12:04 It's going to be worth jumping into. I, I want to just give a quick shout out by the way, I posted that I've gotten this bought little, this, this cute little mini bottle they sent us, right? It's cute. I posted, I got on Instagram Nick Smith, the head distiller at Bardstown Bourbon Company, who I grew up with, by the way, we were like in the same grade in school, like we're in Boy Scouts together, 4H, etcetera. He reached out to me and he's like, I'm want to know what you'd like. What I want to know what you think. He, this is his mash bill that he came up with about, Oh, wow, you know, over six years ago, right? And he was kind of trying to experiment and push the envelope. How high, You know, let's let's make a real, let's not just not pussyfoot around here. Let's make a real. We're not doing, we're not doing 18% wheat. Come on, we're.

12:47 Not doing 18%. We're going 39. And I kudos to Nick like because this has been my first time tasting this. I've heard a lot of good things about this. I just want to give a shout out to Nick. They run a really cool operation there and Nick is, is a huge, huge part of that. And it's awesome to see someone that I have known and been friends with for so long, have you know, something really with his fingerprints all over it come to market. So like, shout out to Nick Smith. Absolutely. Yeah. I just I just see the Adam Driver meme more more more. We're talking about Adam later, actually. I got Yeah. There you go. So I, this is, this is my like conspiracy theory. It's not a conspiracy theory. So you know how people always talk about rye spice or like a rye or or, you know, rye grain bourbon. And we always overuse that in the reviewing for in like, if we don't know what to say, we'll just say rye spice if you want to say so many things about whiskey. I mean, I've, I've never done that. David, what are you talking?

13:40 About that's a it's such a crutch for just like, oh, rye, rye spice. Obviously I get a ton of spice from a really good wheat whiskey or a really good wheateded bourbon. I get a lot of spice. It's different. I often get I often compare it to like cherry cobbler, like a really dark dark cherry cobbler. It's almost like medicinal cherry, but it is spicy. So if you have like like Bernheim wheat whiskey at calf strength from Heaven Hill, you know, there's a stereotype of thing that wheat makes things smooth, right? And because Pappy is very popular and people think it's popular because it's quote UN quote smooth, and that makes easy drinking bourbon and somehow that's better and more desirable. I think it's a load of garbage.

14:23 That because I think weeded bourbon can have really powerful, borderline unctuous spice sometimes. And so when people are like, oh, weeder weeders drink real smooth, I'm like, this is I just don't believe that, right? Like I just I think it's a good quality weeded bourbon or wheat whiskey. You often get a a ton of spice. It's not rice spice, it's its own thing, but it is. It is spiced if not spicy a. 100% yeah. The, the more I, the more I know this one, the more I get almost the Christmas spices, like a little bit of a nutmeg, a little bit of cinnamon, almost I, I think I'm with you 100%.

15:05 I've never had a weeded whiskey that has this much weed in it. And I like it's taking it into a realm that I am really enjoying. Yeah, I'm glad you brought up Christmas spices here, Brad, too, because this reminds me of almost like, you know how there's like your newfangled Christmas treats and then there's like, hey, this, this thing got brought over from England in the 1600s, but we still eat it at Christmas. It's like some traditional Christmas English pie that has like, Raisin in it. It has those. It has like tons of really, really dark Christmassy spices on it along with a ton of Raisin for me. I get quite a bit of black pepper on this, which is usually a note to David's point that we reserve for rye, usually get black pepper really heavily on rye.

15:49 I'm I'm kind of shocked at how much spices on this and it carries through onto the pallet as well for me, Brad. Yeah, 100% this pallet, it's so good. Like like I. Don't know what else to say about it because all of the notes we are getting here on the nose carry through on the pallet with a foundation of the caramel, almost like a caramelized toffee. There's a little bit of nuttiness there with all of that spice on top. I I love this stuff. To me I get some real I get like spice Berry compo on the mouth as well. The mid palate kind of turns a little fruity after the spice settles in for me a little red fruit. But to me, this knows I love the Christmas spice analogy. Those gingerbread men, the dark gingerbread men that are ice that you might get, they might come in like a cellophane wrapper, right?

16:42 You take those, you leave them in a in a tin for years. You never touch them. They get super stale. They they become like weapons. You could like throw them like ninja stars. It's 20, it's 2042, and David is opening his tin. And you open the tin and you remove the cellophane and that concentrated gingerbread, stale gingerbread man with with frosting spice is what this nose is like. Yeah. Yeah, you're not wrong man. You know what's really crazy here is to the point of this. This has some of those rice spices that we typically talk about. I think the barley's actually doing a lot of heavy lifting in this mash bill in a way that I wasn't anticipating at only 8% of the mash bill. But it has a real grassy, earthy kind of on the back of my palate right when I go to swallow.

17:33 It's not so much there on the finish, like lingering, but it's definitely more earthy and herbaceous than I expected it to be. You know, somebody was saying earlier, cherry is what we typically get on weeded bourbons especially and the really sweet ones, Brad, it tastes basically like drinking a cherry Coke. This is not that at all. Like it's, it is way farther into. I think they timed the release of this perfectly because this is your typical like pumpkin pie fall spice but with a little bit of like grassiness to it that I wasn't expecting. When I was in Ukraine, oh, I don't know, in 2012, one of the thing that I had, one of the things that I had over there that was incredible was some like like straight cherry juice.

18:16 And man, oh man, like the hints of cherry I get on this remind me of that where they somehow they balance the tartness of a cherry with just enough sweetness. That is one of the best drinks I've ever had in my life. And this cherry, the cherry notes I get on this on the nose and on the palate remind me of that much more than any of these. Because most other cherry notes that I get on whiskeys remind me more of even of the the Traverse City cherries we got Bob like. Like they remind me of that. Which are incredible and great, but not like a raw pure cherry juice. Sure, sure.

18:59 I, I really admire Bardstown because with their, with a lot of their releases, they are pushing things that are not super old. And that's great because like other distillate is not they haven't been distilling for 20 years, right. They don't have those, those those stocks of 10 plus year old in house, in house distillate. But I think they're showing like it's always a good reminder that like, you know what, I don't always want something that is like a total oak bomb, right? I want some light, bright fruit sometimes. Sometimes I want something with a lighter characteristic. I think for me, this whiskey is really showcasing like this is a light, refreshing, you're borderline refreshing bourbon, right? I'm not getting punched in the mouth with leather and tobacco.

19:42 It's still still age on it, right? But I I'm digging this a lot. I think you guys are right. But some bourbon company continues to push out great stuff. And this this is a really fun one because I think we're really pushing the limits on what a weed quote, UN quote, weeded bourbon can be, right? You can't. I mean, there's only 53% corn in this, right? You're getting, you're getting, you're getting to the limit. Yeah, guys, you know what I'm absolutely digging about this whiskey? That it's $49. I, I had no idea. I so to be to be honest, one of the few things with Bardstown I always have to warn people about is like, you're going to spend 80 to $150 on a bottle from them.

20:24 Well worth it. They make incredible stuff. But the average consumer probably isn't going to buy more than one or two bottles from them. This is $50, Bob. It sure is. And not only is it only $50, which is a a crucial component in our reviews of whiskey, the value of it, it's already a huge value. It is also bottled at 106 proof. I don't think we've ever had anything from Bardstown. Correct me if I'm wrong, Brad, but I think the lowest proof thing we ever had from them was a collaborative series they did with it was a beer finished one Goodwood. Was that the name of it? Goose Island. Well, they've got a couple, but there was one that was released at 100 proof and that was the lowest I've ever had from Bardstown. And I think that a, this drink's probably a little bit hotter than one O 6 to me, which I appreciate. But I just love that even though they are pricing this as an entry point into the Bardstown portfolio, they're not skimping on anything, man.

21:18 Like they're still bottling this at a really robust 106 proof. This is a great whiskey to when y'all reached out and you're like hey, let's drink this the the new Bardstown Origin series. We did bourbon. Y'all nailed it. This is fun. Yes, it is, and it is going to provide ample fuel for our next segment, which we'll get to right after this break. This episode is brought to you by Blackwood Distilling. You know, at film and Whiskey, we love a good underdog story. Well, let me tell you about Blackwood Distilling. This all started when Guinness McFadden took a long shot and won the Kentucky Derby with Country House at 65 to one odds back in 2019. He turned that victory into Blackwood Distilling with a little help from the Justin's at Justin's House of Bourbon and together they've made something special.

22:05 Luxury toasted bourbon and the first ever triple barreled toasted Rye, both at barrel strength. We're talking about deep, rich flavors, creamy bodies and that classic Kentucky warmth. If you're a bourbon or a rye guy, you're going to want to check out Blackwood. Batch 4 of their bourbon and Batch 3 of the rye are hitting shelves in Kentucky, Florida, Texas, Washington and Wyoming right now. More states come in soon, so head over to blackwooddistillingco.com. That's Blackwood Distilling co.com. Hit that shop button and get your hands on a bottle. Thanks, Blackwood. All right, guys, it's time to draft. Brad, drafts are a recent thing on our show. This is only like, they are the second one we've ever done. Yeah.

22:53 I mean, we've done a few rankings. We did top fives for the first few seasons. We just did a cool Pixar ranking where we kind of ranked out our top Pixar films. But yeah, drafts turns out are a lot of fun. It it, they sure are, man. Especially when you have a third person that our first draft was only two people and when you do a snake draft with two people, it gets pretty repetitive pretty quickly. So, so we're slowly adding more members to our drafts and what we're here to draft today folks is movie candies. Now like I said, we've we've dabbled in movie candy before, but we're going to build it out a little bit more today. So what we're going to do is a snake style draft where each of us is going to assemble our super team of movie candies by selecting 1 candy in each of the following categories, chocolate, chewy, crunchy, fruity and wild card.

23:48 Now I do have. I think it's pronounced wild card. It's always sunny reference it. It sure is, man. I've got a spreadsheet here. Would it be helpful for me to like share the screen or can we keep our categories? Oh, he says please. OK, I'm going to go ahead and start sharing this. So Brad vamp for a little bit so I can get this going about our five categories. Yeah. So there are semblances of rules. This is a little bit like whose line is it anyways? But like for example, we are separating M&M's from peanut M&M's. Like those those are categorically different candies. Now Skittles, the difference between like wild Berry Skittles and regular Skittles doesn't feel big enough to quantify a real difference.

24:42 So I say that just to say we're going to kind of make some judgement calls as we go along. Not like, for example, like maybe David loves like the Sour patch Skittles, the sour Skittles, like those, yeah, maybe you could say that those belong in a different category than regular Skittles. Who knows? We're going to talk about it. It's going to be a great time. Well, beyond that too, you know, there's a little bit of strategy involved. I have my candies that I eat on the regular. I eat good and plonies all the time. I know that the average person does not like good and plonies at all. So I'm not going to probably draft those today. I want to keep Brad and David from getting what they want to get. And I also want to get what America wants me to get.

25:23 Because when this episode is over, we're going to throw this up on social media and I want to know who has the best super team of candies. Guys, any other questions? Any other housekeeping we need to get to before we determine the order of the snake draft here? I can't wait to embarrass myself. I hope people on this hack me. I love. I love that. I love when people just disagree. It's awesome. I do think that if there is a controversial choice or something that someone's on the fence about, we leave it to the wisdom of the group to determine if it can be drafted. I know one of the categories is crunchy. You know there's a difference, Brad, between a crunchy candy and a crispy candy. If you try to draft a crispy candy in your crunchy category, I might have something to say.

26:05 I was going to say I would be on the on the side of the fence that would say a crunch bar is not a crunchy candy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like Kit Kat, that's crispy. Not. There's not enough crunch to that. I would agree. Yeah, I'm, I'm with you man. Now. David's over here like, oh this is way harder than I thought it was going to be. He's circling that crunchy category like, let's get that out of the way first. Yeah, I OK, we're just going to do it. We're going to. We're going to. All right, I'm going to click randomize. I've got all three of our names here. I was going to say. David, I we will have tons of grace for you, and it will none will be left for each other.

26:45 Bob and I will mercilessly RIP into each other, but don't you worry, we'll take it easy on you. Please, please don't. I'm kind of a craft person and I think you should like, honestly, I don't deserve, I don't deserve your grace, like at all. So lay into me. It's for good content. Here on the Film and Whiskey podcast, there is grace for all. Except Brad so. Except for me. I have our names in this randomizer. Should I just click it once? Brad, how many times should I click randomize for for actual? Random man, you're gonna need a random number generator to tell you how many times to click randomize. I'm gonna click it five times and we'll see who goes first, second and third. Here we go, One. OK, 345, first pick is me, second pick is David, which means Brad gets back-to-back picks for 3:00 and 4:00.

27:35 So we're all familiar with how snake drafts work. You know, I honestly think second position is probably the place to be here, Brad. It's where I wanted to be picking out every other. All right, that means I go first. So once again, our categories are crisp. No, I see it now. I'm saying crispy, chocolate, chewy, crunchy, fruity and wild card. Wild card. I'm going to get the big one for me off the board really quickly. I'm going to pick peanut M&M's and I'm gonna, I'm gonna put them in crunchy because I don't know what else even qualifies as crunchy. Man, Peanut M&M's Bob, that is one of my top picks. That is such a good.

28:21 Golly, golly, That's such a good show, Candy. Such a good. Because I'm thinking theatre here too, you know, not just. OK, I'm next, right? Oh yeah, OK, I'm going to go chocolate. Yep, classic Reese's. Oh, OK. You're you're taking the, you're taking the, the the slide with the two cups in it. Oh yeah, classic. Yeah. Here's the thing.

29:03 Here's the thing. No one doesn't like those. Unless you have a severe peanut allergy, in which case I'm sorry. Right. That's actually a brilliant one because I wouldn't have even thought of those for chocolate because I think of the peanut butter, but they definitely qualify. But it still is, you know, I still keep chewy crunchy open there, so I might even get to end up with two peanut butter for peanut forward candies. Here is what I'm thinking, which might be over committee, but we'll see. We'll see. All right, Brad, you're up with two picks in a row. All right, so I was going to nitpick the ever loving crap out of you guys if you chose this, but now I don't have to because I get to choose it. I am going to choose my wild card right off the top.

29:45 I am taking Reese's PCs and placing them in the wild card. OK, first of all, that's not how that's pronounced. We've had this conversation before. I. What the hell is a PC? My my guy, the. Conversation has only served to strengthen my commitment to calling them Reese's Pieces. The. The man's name was Reese. These are his pieces. Reese's. Together, they're Reese's Pieces, yeah. Exactly. Yeah, 100%. Here's the fun fact I was going to nitpick you on if you tried to put this in chocolate. There is no chocolate in Reese's species. No. And I like literally I don't think you can put them in any other category. I think they can only go in wild card. Yeah, they they border on crunchy, but they might be. Borderline, yeah, yeah, borderline. So I'm taking Reese's Pieces and with my second pick, I am going to go chocolate the the greatest category, let's be honest. And I'm going to go with peanut butter M&M's. Now those have chocolate in them. They do I I actually checked it is the first ingredient milk chocolate.

30:58 So it's peanut butter M&M's, not peanut M and OK, gotcha. Peanut butter M&M's. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Which I I would say is a significant departure from regular M&M's or peanut M&M's. Now, two things, Brad. First of all, I feel like we are pushing the limits of variants of a candy that you can get because we've got peanut M&M's and peanut butter M&M's on here already and we've got Reese's and Reese's Pieces on here already. Sure do. I don't know that I've ever actually seen peanut butter M&M's sold at a movie theater, but it is within the realm of the realm of reason. I don't think that this is like, you're not bringing like Japanese slime candy into the movie theater.

31:38 You know where they are sold? The Drug Mart right outside the Valley View Cinemark. So. There you go. OK, that's that's Brad's 2. So we're back to David. You have 4 categories left here. I'm going to go fruity Sour Patch Kids. Man. I knew you were going to take those from Bob. I don't have a lot to say beyond I think that's a safe bet. You know, like that's, that's your I'm I'm, I'm picking the, the, the night the well rated linebacker here, right? Where do you guys stand on like the really hard to chew like dots and juju bees?

32:21 Like, are those a hard no? Yeah, no pass. The chewiest I go is Swedish Fish. Oh yeah, OK. Swedish Fish are like candy for lizard people who live in the sewers. Well, I happen to be a resident of Brooklyn, so. So it's taken. Good Sir David, I will say Brooklyn has the best coffee shop I've ever had in my life. Devocione over by the Ace Hotel. Just their black coffee is wildly delicious. I'm, I'm like three blocks from there, by the way. Oh nice.

33:02 Oh, man, Brad, I like how you had to like, temper your accusation of Brooklyn, Brooklynites being lizard people by like. But they have great coffee though, you know. Not not all Brooklyn mites. Just David. Oh wait guys, you don't move to New York unless you are OK with occasionally losing a fight to a rat, you know what I mean? Like like it was a choice for me to live here. I know. Like I don't get a. Capital C Capital C Choice. Yeah, All right. I'm up for a pick. I think that I have tried to contain my old man tendencies as long as I can, but I'm going to try to knock out chocolate because. Raisinets under chocolate. You're damn right I am. Brad.

33:42 Raisinets as I get older are perhaps the perfect candy. They are just freaking. They go amazing with with popcorn. You get the nice saltiness followed by chocolate followed by fruit. It is a game changing combination. Raisinets are goaded in the realm of chocolate candy. Bob, this might be a winner for you. I don't think you're going to win the social media battle here. I still have three more picks, man, I'm doing great. In fact, I have another pick right now. You sure do. I'm going to go Chewy and I'm going to take Skittles in chewy.

34:23 Now they do have a so nice soft candy coating, but I would say that they are chewier more than anything else. Yeah. If you eat 1 skittle at a time, they are not chewy. But who eats 1 skittle at a time? I was about to say when you throw a handful in there, it turns into like almost a salt water taffy. Yeah. Now here's I'll argue with you, Bob. I would say that they are primarily known as a fruity candy, secondarily as a chewy. I don't know that you have to draft it in its prime. Like, as long as it qualifies, yeah, it should be good, right? Yeah, no, I'm, I'm fine with it. It just seemed like you were saying it's primarily a chewy candy and I I just have to disagree with you as often as possible. I will qualify this with my hottest take on Skittles which is about 10 years ago.

35:12 They replaced the green skittle, which used to be lime flavored and now it is green apple flavored and I think that the green apple is great, but I still want justice for Lyme. There was like a moment a few years back where they did like a promotional Lyme is back and they replaced it with Lyme again. People lost their minds on social media about the Lyme skittle coming back. I didn't. I never minded it. I don't know if either of you are Skittles connoisseurs like me, but the green skittle was never the best one anyway. I don't know what we're up in arms about. I'm not a big fruity sugar like just pure sugar candy fan, but Skittles are the best of the fruity candies in my opinion. I did it. I got it. I I feel like the the green Skittle is like the the lime Skittles, like the Seattle SuperSonics, the Skittles like if they sell the throwback jersey for a week, it'll sell out. OK, Brad, you're up, man.

36:07 Oh man, I so I have two picks. No, no, no, David. David's up. Yeah, David's up, David's up. It's. It's all it's all. OK, I'm going to go thought about this crunchy whoppers. Oh, good one look at you. I didn't even think about whoppers in Crunchy. Yeah. I mean, I think that counts, right? That they're yeah, 100. Percent, and this is all about this is like the physics of the Whopper too. Like if it was pounded thinner, if it was like wafer shaped, it would just be basically a Kit Kat and then it would be crispy. But because there is like a whole sphere of candy to breakthrough, it's it's definitely crunchy. OK, OK. I'm I'm glad I didn't, glad I didn't upset the Commissioner on that one.

36:49 Yeah, no, I, I think you're good there. All right, Brad, now it's to you. OK. I'm going to try to go fruity because I personally would say that the wild Berry Skittles are a different category than regular Skittles. I don't know how David you're getting. Too nitty gritty, man. Come on. I've never seen Wild Berry Skittles sold at a movie theater. You know where I've seen them sold. At Rite Aid, I know, but like, I think Skittles are off the board at this point, man. All right, all right, I, I will. Go elsewhere for my fruity pic I think. Let me think for a second, because I have a few options. I think that I am going to go with airheads for my fruity pic. Interesting.

37:45 Yeah, the not necessarily my favorite, but to be honest with you, I don't love a lot of fruity candies. But airheads? I remember as a kid consistently thinking that airheads were a solid, solid choice. Now, I think airheads are also the ones that make those like, I don't know if they're called ropes or what, the ones that you like peel off and they're like real flat, which tastes I think better than regular airheads. But it sounds like you're choosing standard American airheads here. Regular old airheads, got it. To be honest with you, I do not have a crunchy choice right now. I, I need to do some research while you guys are drafting, so I'm going to go with the last candy I had researched and this is this is this was kind of my, my sleeper pick for Chewy. I am going to go with nerd clusters. OK.

38:41 Nerd clusters are freaking incredible. That was a good candy. Which is basically Nerd's rope that they've just cut up into smaller pieces. Nerd's rope a a just a phenomenal idea for a candy. It's so good. Nerd's rope was a candy that, like, I would always get a small taste of one from a friend, but my, like, mom would never buy me that. Also, I grew up in Bardstown. We didn't have a ton of candy options at the cinemas. And fun fact, Bardstown actually doesn't even have a movie theater anymore, so we've regressed. But what a great idea for a candy. Golly, those scientists.

39:22 Yeah. Dude. And then they just took the rope and cut it down into little bite sized pieces. Somebody on the assembly line was like, damn it, these keep falling apart. And the guy was like, put them in a bag. We got it all right. I think it's back to David for a pick here. All right, I'm going to go chewy. I'm going to stick with my heart and I'm going to say Swedish Fish for Chewy. Which are like quite literally the red sour patch kids with no sour stuff on them. So no, they're, they're I, I will say they're very for me. Those are very different, very different moods, right. Fun fact, you guys probably know this. Here's Mom Bob. Don't you know the moods? Swedish fish are lingenberry flavored. Oh.

40:07 Because lingonberries are big in Swedish cuisine. Sure, sure, they're specifically lingonberry flavored. I've never heard of a lingonberry. I will reveal my peasantry. Do you know why you haven't heard of Lingonberry? It's because you hate IKEA because everything they sell is Lingonberry. I do hate IKEA my friend. Yeah, I don't understand. We don't need to go into my hatred for IKEA. OK, I've got 2 picks left. I'm gonna go. I've got my Fruity and my wild card. I'll get Fruity out of the way here. I'm gonna go with Starburst. Great. Now, the only thing about Starburst as a movie candy is that they don't sell any form of Starburst.

40:52 To my knowledge, that is already unwrapped for you, and having to unhapple Starburst in the movie theater in the dark is really hard to do. I don't know about hard to do. Pro move. Just eat them with the wrappers. That's what I've always done. Just bite right through that bad boy. You you sorry, are are you saying that you like your starburst skinless? I do like a circumcised starburst that is like that is my preference, but look to each this era I was gonna. Send a podcast to my mom and that's I'll. Cut that. That's for the Patreon. Come on, you would. Find that very funny.

41:33 This is getting to a point where I I'm down to like 2 that I really want. I'm a big mic and ikes guy. I don't know if the general public likes you. Like mic and Ikes. Love Mic and Ikes. I think I'm going to take your standard everyday Eminem here. It hasn't been taken yet. It's not my favorite candy, but it is one of America's favorite candies and I I gained back some points from Raisin Nets with this one. That is the Toyota Prius of candies, right? There it is. It's going to be from point A to point B. If you if you have nothing else left and quite literally, we have a big like bowl of Halloween candy from our kids from last year still that we don't let them eat lots of candy.

42:19 And so this candy just you know, you get to the bottom of the bowl, it's all Tootsie rolls and individual packs of M&M's. And as we know, no one eats Tootsie rolls. So I. Was about to say, as a kid I remember like I didn't love Tootsie rolls but I would eat them. I tried one like a year or two ago. Awful. Those things are horrendous. Little do you know, that's David's pick. That's his wild. No, it's not all right. I'm really excited about this because I actually saved my favorite movie candy till the end with the idea that it would make it to the wild card and I could take it last, right? It was a risk, though, because if I didn't get this one, if this hadn't been drafted first, I would have been really disappointed.

43:00 That is snowcaps. Snowcaps are my favorite movie candy. You know what I really like? Snow caps. I didn't try them again until like a year ago because I always, they're always right next to Junior Mints on the movie candy shelf. And I hate, like, hate Junior Mints. So I always imagined them being just like that. They're delightful. They're so good. And they're, they're a little bit, just a tiny bit crunchy, just a tiny bit. And man, you know, I, I was, I was saying earlier like I don't eat a lot of candy. I can. If you pop box of those, the whole thing's going down. Like there's no way I can say no to that. I was. To say growing up to be to tell you the truth, David, I have never had a snow cap, but I've had like growing up, it felt like around Christmas time we always had like the non non Perels. Is that what they're called?

43:52 Yes. Now is that the exact same thing? Is it like similar enough that that would be the same candy? They they are considered they are they literally I'm looking at I I was actually curious. I nesley snow caps semi sweet chocolate non for else so they are. There you go. So I, I can imagine that I would love me some snow caps because that was one of my favorite things as a kid was around Christmas time, all the different colors and some of them were kind of minty chocolate. Oh, those are so good. I think snow caps are just like the movie theater candy branded non for else. I'm I'm in, then I I think that's a great pick. Yeah. All right, man, bring us home. Brad. You've got one category left.

44:33 Crunchy. Yeah, crunchy. So I I realized right after I picked the nerd cluster, which I stand by great pick. I was afraid that you were going to take this with your final pick, David. I'm going to take the Heath Bar. Oh, OK. I absolutely love toffee. Like if I ever had high end candy, like, you know, like like the really good stuff, toffee is going to be my pick like 100% every single time. Like I love peanut butter and chocolate put together, but man, there's something about toffee. So if I'm going to the movie theater and I want some toffee, Heath Bar is where it's at.

45:15 I will tell you the only reason I didn't pick Heath. Heath bars may be my favorite candy but I didn't pick this cause for me it's not a movie candy. Agreed. Like, and here's my thing with this is, my thing with Brad's team is that Brad and I have been planning this episode for weeks and we're like, yeah, man, it's got to be a candy that can reasonably be sold at the movies. And then right before we press record, Brad said, Bob, I want you to know something. I don't know if I've ever bought candy at the movies before. And boy, oh boy, is that evident in all of your picks, Brad, Because I think the only thing I've ever seen at the movies is Reese's Pieces. Hey now I'm I'm sure that Heath bars and nerd clusters are there. Peanut butter M&M's? Come on.

45:55 But have you seen Reese's Pieces at the movie? That's the question, yeah. Brad's buying knock off Rite Aid Reese's Pieces that are called Reese's Pieces. I I just don't think even if they were available, I probably wouldn't buy a full Heath bar at for me, Reese's, like the, the, the, the traditional Reese's is pushing it, but at least they're like individual, right? I just don't think when I go to a movie theater eating a full candy bar, I want something that's like. Bite sized, yeah. What they should do is make like, you know, they make bunch of crunch, which is like the cluster version of crunch bars. They need to make a Heath bar cluster and then it solves all of the world's problems. Lots of tof.

46:36 Lots of tough. I love it. That sounds like a that sounds like a like a cough syrup or a pain medication from the 1900s that had opium in it, right? Like lots of tough. It's a non addictive and it's like super addictive. It's made of heroin. Yeah, exactly. As soon as a pharmaceutical company feels the need to say non addictive. They've lost the battle already. Yes. All right guys, I'm going to I'm going to let us present our teams here in just a second. But before we get to that, is there anything that if we weren't trying to be strategic, that your heart was the only thing that was dictating your like Mount Rushmore of movie candies that you would include instead? Because Brad was giving me a tremendous amount of grief for my old man tendencies prior to pressing record. Because my Mount Rushmore at the moment is there's a box of Mike and Ikes called the Mike and Ikes Mega Mix. Freaking great.

47:31 I've been binging on good and plenty. It's like an old man. I love me some Raisin nuts. And then I've rediscovered this candy called Boston Baked Beans, which is peanut with a candy coating on the outside. Unbelievably good with a glass of whiskey. But of course I can't pick those as my Mount Rushmore on the air. So I'm wondering like what's your unpopular not cool guy picks? Jelly Bellies. Bob and I were literally talking about that. I just. I've never liked any Jelly beans. Like the texture of all of them is just. I dig the buttered popcorn Jelly Belly. Me too.

48:13 It's really good. I think it's so good. Now, but here's the other problem with Jelly beans. Can you get a bag of just that? Because I feel like every bag you ever get is like 80 million flavors and you find 3 buttered popcorn and that's it. And you also can't like get that at the movie theater, right? Like this is like, again, this is, I think you all put up some really good boundaries that kept this relatable and realistic. And I really appreciate that. Well, thank you so much and in in the spirit of us being great hosts here, David, why don't you reveal once more to our listeners your super team of movie candies? Well coming out of the gate first pick Reese's just the traditional, you know, 2 peanut butter cups in in a sleeve.

49:01 I want the sour patch kids after that for fruity crunchy was whoppers. Big big fan of Whoppers. Swedish Fish. It's the chewy category for me and my wild card. One of my personal favorites. Snow caps. Or as Brad is used to calling them, non pereal Perels. However you say it because he's fancy like that. That is not true. Brad, you want me to go next? Yeah, go for it, Bob. All right, the winner here, my team. Raisinets. In chocolate, I picked Raisinets. Get over it. In Chewy I picked Skittles. Raisinets are barely chocolate, Robert. Have you tried them lately?

49:41 What was the last time you had a Raisinet? I don't know if I've ever had one. I dare you to eat a Raisinet and tell me that it's not mind blowingly good. In chewy, I picked Skittles, great choice. In Crunchy I picked peanut M&M's, in Fruity I took Starburst, and in Wild Card I took the original Eminem. For my pick I went through 1st 2 picks were easily like for me in the in the world of candy. Like regular. You know, not not fancy candy. Reese's PCs and Peanut Butter M and Ms. are like my 1A and 1B. Like they go back and forth with each other on what I want to eat at any given time. So those are my first 2 picks.

50:28 I went with some nerd clusters after that, which are a sneaky delicious choice. Airheads more for the nostalgia than anything else. Honestly, I think I should have chosen Starburst there. I think that might have been the move. And then I finish things off with a absolutely delicious Heath bar. I am trying to imagine you like eating a full candy bar and it like once David said it, you're right. Like you just don't want to have. There's something about like the shape of it, the like as you eat down the candy bar, you feel more shame about yourself. Like when you have a box and it's obscuring how much you're eating. It's a completely different thing. But I think you need to talk to your counselor about that. I imagine you like I'm using the the box that this weeded bourbon came in as an example.

51:14 Like 2 hands like. Like like the fat kid from Willy Wonka. Yeah, just like cook us this loop, just go into like. Yes, this is such a delicious Heath bar. Oh. My gosh, David, what a weird episode for you to join us for for your first one. But I have to say, I don't know if we could have picked a better guest. This was a freaking blast, man. Absolutely. You all are some of the kindest people in the whiskey space ever since I met you in person at the Bourbon festival last year. I'm really excited to hang again soon and I really appreciate you. Appreciate you guys having me on. This is a blast. And yeah, I I will stake the claim. I think you 2 are. You are two of the most genuinely fun, friendly people in in the American whiskey game.

52:00 And I think the American whiskey space is better because you're in it. Thank you so much. Scotch whiskey game. We're coming for you next. But we'll, we'll take care folks. This has been David Thomas Tao, a man of many talents. David, where can we find you? And maybe let's let's plug something that you're working on. Well, if you want to find me, I am. I am staring at the back of your head. I turn around. I am there. No horror movie that's for some reason I'm thinking horror and I think candy. I think horror movies, by the way, I'm. Thinking of the me the he was always there. He was I'm in the house call the calls coming from within from in the house. You can find me just on Instagram at David Thomas Tao. I don't have like a cool whiskey handle. It's just my name. I'm on Twitter or X as they say, D under score Tao D under score Tao Some things I'm working on a lot of theater stuff. I am Co producing actually a new Off Broadway play that opens the fall with Adam Driver.

52:55 It's called Hold on to me, darling. It's at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in downtown Manhattan. So hold on to me darling. It is a a great show. I'm excited for people to see it. Adam Driver returning to the stage so. Sounds like we need to make a trip to New York, Bob, Get your. Tickets now. Really excited to be Co producing that with a with a producing partner of mine. Also Co produced I think the the funniest show in Broadway history. It's called Oh Mary. It is currently running right now. And if you haven't heard about it I and you want to see it, don't do any research. Do not do any research. Just go into it cold. It is a madcap comedy about Mary Todd Lincoln based on nothing, based not based on reality at all. And that's all I'll say about that. Yeah.

53:48 And I have a few other things I'm cooking up working on that I can't super talk about, but those are the two. So there you go. It's exciting stuff, man. If you are going to do any research on Oh Mary, you should just go to David's Instagram page and see him in his tuxedo from the Tonys. And then that's pretty much all you really need to do at that point. Like my guy looks pretty great going to the Tonys. I I almost sweat sweated all the way through that. It was something like like it. Thank you. That photo looked great. 2 minutes later there were pitch stains. So I'm glad we got the photo cause actually there are no photos of me at the Tonys 'cause I I there was just I was covered in sweat at the actual thing. Well, folks, that's the image that we want to leave you with on today's episode. We will be back next week with another special bonus episode to tide you over until the official launch of Season 9. But until then, I'm Bob Book.

54:40 I'm Brad G. And we'll see you next time.