[SPEAKER_00]: You know Randy Blanton's horse-top.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do it right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do it right away.
[SPEAKER_00]: Blanton's horse-topers, the marketing gimmick, the change bourbon forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you want to hear about it, let's take a look.
[SPEAKER_00]: E-O.
[SPEAKER_01]: you have.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've probably seen that they want to collect eight little horses.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we should write a song about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Eight little horses round and round.
[SPEAKER_00]: A little horses round and round and round and round and round and round.
[SPEAKER_00]: We gotta get bourbon in there somewhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we'll figure it out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so if you did not know the Blanton's bottles, which are beautiful, they have a little topper on them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: A little metal horse on there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And what's significant about this horse?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the horse is...
[SPEAKER_00]: positioned in a certain way and they have a different horse tovers as you mentioned and if you collect all eight it shows the horse running in a race exactly as little letters and you can collect all of them and they spell blends and it looks like a horse running down the track.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't realize that until I saw the first full set.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like in my mind, all the toppers, the horses were standing in the same position.
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then once you get the full set, you realize it displays a full race from the start all the way to the finish.
[SPEAKER_01]: But what's the other thing if you can think about the toppers, what do they have on them?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, they all spill out bland.
[SPEAKER_01]: They have a letter.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why there's eight letters in the name buttons.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so really cool marketing.
[SPEAKER_01]: It really, really interesting thing, and so what do you have to do if you're a true whiskey tater?
[SPEAKER_00]: Now this is not our bad whiskey advice, it's actually good whiskey advice.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to collect all of them, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got to get the full set, you've got to go into the store, if they have a blanton's there and it's a letter you already have, don't buy it, leave it for the other guy who's looking for that letter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're going to look for that letter that you are missing and once you get the full set and get a beautiful display like Randy has here, you'll be an official whiskey tater.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I'm sure it's on the whiskey tater list, but if it's not, it should probably be the top end.
[SPEAKER_00]: So as you get it done, you'll get a certificate of tater is.
[SPEAKER_01]: For anyone who doesn't know what a whiskey tater is, I think the term came from having eyes but not being able to see like a potatoes have eyes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's when you engage in illogical whisky behavior because of your whisky fandom.
[SPEAKER_01]: My sense, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that list that we usually display, and I think we have a link to it somewhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now this is actually maintained by Wade Wooder.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he has a list of hundreds of things.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you have to take out a list somewhere, yeah, we do, we do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now those, if don't get me wrong, I don't understand this,
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, our Buffalo Church still do this where you can like tell them how I got the full set you sent it in they see you like a display.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we're going to get to that part.
[SPEAKER_01]: So basically, yeah, so, um, blightens is interesting because it was one of the first premium whiskeys or premium
[SPEAKER_01]: to come up with something special is one of the first mass-produced single barrels it was at a premium price for the time when whiskey wasn't doing that good and then somebody goes, hey I got an idea how about we stop selling whiskey for last and we start selling it for more.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great idea.
[SPEAKER_01]: And everyone's like are you out of your freaking mind and so you know it's premium pricing but it came with some premium packaging as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it was like comic bottles and whiskey outside.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it's kind of one of those things where it's like, this is good whiskey marketing, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Where they're going to take a product.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're going to attract you with the packaging, but they're going to keep you with the liquid inside.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I consider good marketing in whiskey.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, um, one of the interesting things about, um, these toppers is that, uh, blends came out in 1984, um, but did you know the toppers didn't always have a letter?
[SPEAKER_01]: Really?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did not know that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So for the first 15 years that blends was on the market, the, the, uh, toppers didn't have a letter.
[SPEAKER_01]: The horse was just the horse.
[SPEAKER_01]: Check this top route.
[SPEAKER_01]: No letter, you can pull it out, check it out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, our OG.
[SPEAKER_01]: OG with this one.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, one of the cool things about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't even have a whole court, which is really cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, because this one was so old that it broke, whenever I pulled it out of the bottle.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you have a blind spot, you can always see what the borrowing data is on the label and what you're with this one.
[SPEAKER_01]: 92.
[SPEAKER_01]: 1992.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so Blents came out in 84 for 15 years in a letter, and then they had the idea, hey, let's make this something that people have to collect.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll turn a single bottle buyer into somebody who buys at least eight.
[SPEAKER_01]: At least eight, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And probably more than that because they're not always going to get to collect the same letter, right, along the way they're going to fall in love with the whiskey.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's kind of the marketing behind it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, there's other things the bottle Blanton's was doing to really set themselves apart.
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't just a horse stop I mean look at the bottle itself.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's right kind of a arounded look.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's I mean it's got these beautiful kind of Beveled edge.
[SPEAKER_01]: It almost looks like a Fabricy Edgar right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, you know, they they're one of the first.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've not the first
[SPEAKER_00]: to have the wax seal, which was kind of cool like the little rip off the top of the wax.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I don't know if it's the first, but I mean, it's definitely premium, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it's got to be done by hand.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you go to the frustration, you can see I'm applying the wax on there.
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_01]: Which is pretty cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: Plus, it was a single barrel.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, they were trying to find
[SPEAKER_01]: Marketing gimmicks and we just get people to try the whisking right and so they have a beautiful bottle They got the top order.
[SPEAKER_01]: They got the wax.
[SPEAKER_00]: They got all that stuff Which other time pregnant whisky wasn't even a thing like a very pretty member of your bourbon and eighty or yeah It was like okay, what they're creating their own genre, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: You take well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so Let's talk about collecting the letters because you know, there's a few different ways are there something that are
[SPEAKER_00]: less may or I guess less produced in other letters because I've come always wondered that.
[SPEAKER_01]: When welcome to today's episode of what you have on your e-commerce site, I'm your host Randy Sullivan.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's get right to the questions.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you have glintoppers?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, do you have t-shirts?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, do you have bottled carrying bags?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, do you have storage?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, do you have an aroma kid?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, people!
[SPEAKER_01]: We have everything at BourbonRillTop.com.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is stupid.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why don't we even need a game show?
[SPEAKER_01]: You shouldn't have problems finding one letter over another.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which seems a little strange.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, but I have heard rumors that some are harder to get another.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then there's another small problem with the Blanton's letters.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's two ends in the name of mine.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I didn't realize, but it's a B L A N E O N, OK.
[SPEAKER_01]: So these two are both ends.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you look very close, one has the dots after it, and the other one does it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so there's the camera because that's interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a appointed which I thought I had a complete set, and then somebody pointed out to me, actually know there's two wins, and you have two with the same in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I I when trying to cheat I just didn't know that there were two ends because I had only acquired a two of the same one Yeah, and why would there be two different right and then now I once you think about the marketing concept behind it It's like when you want people have to hunt at other end.
[SPEAKER_01]: You don't you don't want to get them off the hook and let them collect two of the same in
[SPEAKER_01]: So I feel like it did its job and added to Blighton's collectability and it made people want to, you know, go out and, you know, keep seeking and out and all that stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you're spending a little bit more on a bottle of bourbon than you're used to spending, if you can add in the value, not just the whiskey taste, you can add value in the flavor, but if you can add that collectability,
[SPEAKER_00]: component to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It gives people just enough reason to make that extra dollar spend.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you'll notice that there are two different finishes of toppers.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you've got the traditional bronze looking finish.
[SPEAKER_01]: But there are also gold-finished toppers for the Blanton's gold.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unfortunately not real gold.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, unfortunately, although the bottle's expensive enough, that would be worth the purchase itself.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, and so it's really cool to have a bronze set, but I'm pretty close to finishing my gold set.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, the gold set is a little bit more interesting because There's a straight from the barrel, have the same set.
[SPEAKER_01]: Shaved in the barrel is the same as the bronze, but the gold's the only one that has a different finish and there's Blanton's reds and greens and all that and they're all the bronze color.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so for a long time gold wasn't sold in the United States it was mostly made for export and you know because of some trade war stuff it was going on there wasn't as much
[SPEAKER_01]: H and H, which is the parent company that owns Plenton.
[SPEAKER_01]: So a lot of people think Plenton is owned by Buffalo Trace.
[SPEAKER_01]: The company that owned Plenton's that we now know was Buffalo Trace's story sold off the Plenton's brand name to a Japanese company years and years ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so they operate under the name H and H. But H and H,
[SPEAKER_01]: made the decision to start distributing the product in the United States as a national demand failed because the tariffs.
[SPEAKER_01]: So now we've got another set that we can collect, but I'll be honest, I was sourcing blatant gold from Japan and Europe before it was available in the United States, and a lot of these topers I collected before you could get them here.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I noticed on this bottle there's got some Japanese on the back of the label, which is really cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this bottle I believe was a Japanese red, and so it looks really cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and so the difference between the red and the traditional blanens is two years of age.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the traditional blanens is six years old and the red, I believe is at least eight.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, but anyway, so I, there's a few different ways you can get your toppers.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, you can buy, uh, toppers when you're at Buffalo Trace.
[SPEAKER_01]: Really?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, that seems like a shortcut.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and that's what I want to talk about.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: All, all of my toppers were ethically sourced and, uh, in the bottles were dry.
[SPEAKER_01]: And no, no, no whiskey was, uh, wasted in the collection of my toppers.
[SPEAKER_01]: I, I, I, I hunted for these bottles.
[SPEAKER_01]: during the phase where we're blends with nearly extinct on shelves, right, and I had to hunt them out, and I found them, and I drank these bottles, I shared these bottles with friends, and I collected every single one of these toppers.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's interesting why Buffalo Trace does it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You can make a few extra bucks here and they give a shot, do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But man, just to go in there and be like, hey, I'd like all these letters, please, and just to create a man.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you can get them online and people, you know, and I'll be honest, like, I have, uh, I probably have over 20 of the blatant stoppers, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think I have another full set of bronze.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then almost a third set of broadened and replicates or do because of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've got duplicates a bunch of my goals too.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I have plenty I've been asked before by someone that's like, hey, I miss in this letter in this letter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Am I here?
[SPEAKER_01]: Here you go.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't, you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's so, you know, I'm not mad at you if you don't drink the bottles, but I just feel like it takes a little bit of a fall.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it takes the fun out of it, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: It really takes the kid and you coming out to have a collection of stuff that you worked hard to find.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to click the baseball cards, whatever it is, it's a kid, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, if you could just go to the store and get what you're exactly what you're looking for.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's like, okay, what fun is ripping open the packaging.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sift them through.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm hoping you find your car.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, so yeah, I'm with you on that I started kind of collecting the letters at one point.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what ended up happening I think I just gave up on it and fizzled out on it, but I think this is super cool collection I really would love to see the gold's finished up to
[SPEAKER_00]: I tell you what, yeah, if you have not gone over to Facebook, we have the largest bourbon-focus community group on- We might see the second largest, but we're definitely the coolest.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the coolest, bourbon-rill-talk community is where the only troll-free environment for sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's for sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go over there, join us free to join, and if you have a top or set, I would love to see it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd love to see it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because this is interesting, you've got the horseshoe, you've got, you know,
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is not the traditional way to display your set.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like everybody kind of does their own little.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know what?
[SPEAKER_00]: The barrel stay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, now the barrel stay is legit.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you made reference to this earlier.
[SPEAKER_01]: So if you collect your full set, you can go online and find instructions.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you can ship your full set to Buffalo Trace.
[SPEAKER_01]: They've got the address and instructions all that online with a return prepaid return shipping.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they will mount all of your set into a actual barrel stave.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think they're from Blanton's barrels.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Blanton's barrels.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then they'll melt back to you and all that's for free just to say thank you for you putting forth the effort to hunt up all the letters.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, I will warn you, I've seen online, sometimes it takes a year for you to get it back and if it's in a busy year season, it takes a long time, but you know, it's a really cool thing, like to be part of the club that they're, you know, and they obviously got an investment
[SPEAKER_00]: I just know, Randy, there's creative people out there who are watching this, who, like, create some really cool, sharp lanterns display, like you have here.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you've got that go over to the Facebook page, we'd love to see it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Look for the post with this episode in it, and then jump in the comments there and post your Blans Toppers Collection.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd love to see it.
[SPEAKER_01]: For sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: And why don't you tell them a little bit about how they can support the channel if they like this content.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, if you love the content and we do all types of content, we do some bourbon news here and there breaking news.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just fun whiskey stuff, but we don't just do it for the whiskey, we do it for the connection with people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so if you're looking for a community to fit into, who's not going to judge you and troll you and tell you how dumb you are because
[SPEAKER_00]: Blans is your favorite whiskey, and you should like some other stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not like that over here I burp in real talk.
[SPEAKER_00]: We just want to see you connect with other people and if that's what you love There's a few ways you could support us and doing that one is just simply liking the video Subscribing the channel and then ringing the bell for notifications
[SPEAKER_00]: If you do that right there, that helps us a ton right here in our mission to connect with people and connect people with people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's what you're about, you do those simple steps.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a few other ways you can do.
[SPEAKER_00]: A few other ways you can support the channel on the description below.
[SPEAKER_00]: One is just by going to berbergilltalk.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got tons of merch on there.
[SPEAKER_00]: you can support us, you can support the mission, and you can support really what we're trying to do and be a force for good on the internet.
[SPEAKER_00]: So go to bourbonrolltalk.com tons of whiskey merch for whiskey lovers, customizing engraving, all kinds of stuff that the opportunities are endless over there, so check that out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Last but not least, you can hit up random here as a real estate agent in the Dallas, Austin, and Houston market.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're looking to buy or sell this guy knows those markets well, we'll be able to help you and we cannot end an episode without the biggest thanks of all to our patrons.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's stop and give the rally post.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are incredible.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those names you see on the screen are just the top couple.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there are tons of options for your budget, and so if you want to financially support what we're doing and be a part of the community and get some perks along the way, check out that description option in the below as well to our Patreon.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's tons of options to go check that out.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can't thank you guys enough for the support.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and if this year for some tuning in, we'd love to tell you why we do it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We do, we just alluded to it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's more about community and connection than it is about alcohol, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: And that became a personal mission of mine because I lost a love on the suicide.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when I did, I realized he was missing some of those connections in his life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it made me want to help other people, you know, find those connections and be able to maintain them and I saw how whiskey was a great conduit to bring people together and to make that type of thing happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I have the thought maybe if I get you connected to whiskey whiskey will do the rest of the job and get you connected to others and so we started this channel.
[SPEAKER_01]: We also started bourbon real-time community, which as he mentioned is a troll-free Facebook base whiskey enthusiast environment and go join right now, tons of fun going on in there, special events, special offers, all kinds of stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: We also, um,
[SPEAKER_01]: were able to parlay that into a nonprofit mission that we had and we do a lot of fundraiser things through this channel as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'll always stay tuned for those opportunities for you to give back.
[SPEAKER_01]: We find whiskey people can be very, very generous.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in
[SPEAKER_01]: Through all of that, we realized to make this mission work, we needed a troll-free environment where we just kind of filtered out the negativity in the noise, and we saw that that was necessary because there is a lot of negativity in not just whisking enthusiast online forums, but pretty much all enthusiast online forums.
[SPEAKER_01]: which is kind of opposed to what it is that we're trying to get done.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, we did all of the things we've already mentioned, but they also taught us another value of less than then that's this.
[SPEAKER_01]: If those people can be negative, the strangers online, that they don't even know.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's nothing that keeps us from loving strangers online that we don't even know.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why we end every episode the same way and that's this.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you woke up this morning and you're unsure whether or not anyone loved you, just know that we love you.
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll see you next time on Bourbon Real Talk.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cheers.