Most Irritating Packaging!

[jburlowski]

Tonight I struggled with a new bottle of Basil Hayden (one of my favorite summer pours). Since I last purchased some, it now seems to be packaged with some sort of alien, unpenetrabled foil wrapping. Repeated jabs, swipes, samurai lunges with a paring knife were necessary to gain entrance. Do the distillers not want me to actually consume their product?

My other ongoing irritant is ETL SB. A wonderful bourbon and an incredible value. It is one of my all time favorites and usually number one or two in my recommendations to others but....when I pull the tab on the wax covering it invariably comes off in my hand... leaving the nectar beyond reach. Why oh why is BT doing this to me? Do they not test their packaging in the real world?

Seriously, other than the odd broken cork (which happens to everyone now and then), what is your major bourbon packaging 'pain in the ass'?

[scopenut]

I'm not sure this qualifies, but I noticed recently that my bottle of Eagle Rare SB 10 is over an inch taller than my other tall bottles, making it difficult to store it in an enclosed 2 shelf cabinet.

Not exactly hand-wringing, I know, but a pain nonetheless.

Kevin

[jburlowski]

I'm not sure this qualifies, but I noticed recently that my bottle of Eagle Rare SB 10 is over an inch taller than my other tall bottles, making it difficult to store it in an enclosed 2 shelf cabinet.

Not exactly hand-wringing, I know, but a pain nonetheless.

Kevin

I've got to believe that retailers feel the same way about Old Forester BB --- beautiful bottle but it doesn't seems to fit anywhere...

[contrarian]

That big honkin' Booker's crate obscures a nice presentation and is a pound of trash I wish I didn't have to pay Binny's to send to me.

The silver lining is Binny's picks some great barrels of Booker's.

[elkdoggydog]

I think the Sazerac Jr. is an ugly bottle- the neck is just way too long. It doesn't help that my bottle tastes like spinach.

[macon]

I agree about the Eagle Rare. It is in one of those very tall, vodka like bottles, that does not fit in my liquor cabinet.

[Nebraska]

lol...I'm still laughing at the image of bottled spinach.

[macon]

So that is what Popeye was up to.

[wadewood]

My other ongoing irritant is ETL SB. A wonderful bourbon and an incredible value. It is one of my all time favorites and usually number one or two in my recommendations to others but....when I pull the tab on the wax covering it invariably comes off in my hand... leaving the nectar beyond reach. Why oh why is BT doing this to me? Do they not test their packaging in the real world?

Yes and they listened. You will find that new ETL bottles (change was around ? 9 months ago) have ditched the gold wax and now just a foil wrap.

[ThomasH]

The ETL bottles with the foil are also a treat to open. I just use a knife to cut a slot between the cork top and bottle on most of the cork top brands. My all time biggest nightmare was with a 1.75L of Knob Creek. I had to use channellocks to get the wax off of the neck!

Thomas

[CrispyCritter]

Unobtanium-doped wax is my pet peeve, but recent wax-topped bottles haven't been too much trouble to open. Maybe I've been lucky...

[Nebraska]

This is an easy one for me. White plastic bags.

When I buy a bottle of bourbon, I want the son of a gun in a brown paper bag. Traditional, nondescript, brown paper bag.

[scopenut]

That big honkin' Booker's crate obscures a nice presentation and is a pound of trash I wish I didn't have to pay Binny's to send to me.

Yes, forgot about that one. After you get the first one, and get over the novelty of it, how many more do you need? Anyone found a good use for them?

Kevin

[NorCalBoozer]

Anyone found a good use for them?

Kevin

I would think they would make great kindling if you busted them up. If they just packaged them with a ligher or matches you've got yourself one hell of a fire starter kit.

[bluesbassdad]

Second question first; click here.

I suppose your first question still applies, however.

Yours truly,

Dave Morefield

[scopenut]

Seems that using a Booker's box for a birdhouse wouldn't attract blue birds, but rather swallows.....

Kevin

[elkdoggydog]

Seems that using a Booker's box for a birdhouse wouldn't attract blue birds, but rather swallows.....

Kevin

Bah dum CHING!

Nicely played.

[DrinkyBanjo]

One thing I've always been curious about is the Van Winkle Lot B packaging. I think it looks very cheap and is a poor representation of the whiskey contained within. I don't get this, especially since all of Julian's other products have such classy packaging.

[gothbat]

This is an easy one for me. White plastic bags.

When I buy a bottle of bourbon, I want the son of a gun in a brown paper bag. Traditional, nondescript, brown paper bag.

Lots of stuff I can agree with in this thread. I prefer the brown paper bag but I don’t mind the white paper too much. Speaking of paper, when I was in Amsterdam the guy at the liquor store perfectly wrapped my bottle of Jim Beam Black in a sheet of printed tissue paper in like 2 seconds. I think I like that better than a paper bag, brown or white. What I really don’t like is what this one store does, they have these bags that are about 14†left to right and separated into two pockets with a loop handle in the middle of the top. (Sorry, I’m not that good at describing things like this) Anyway, when you carry the bag the two pockets swing and the bottles clang together. I’m glad that store doesn’t have any good whiskey on it’s shelves that I want.

As for the Bookers box, I like it. I have this habit of never spending coins I get as change after I buy something, accumulating it, rolling it, and then stacking them in a pyramid. After about 25 rolls of quarters get in the pyramid the sides can no longer support themselves and layers start to roll away (Off the shelf and onto the floor, often breaking the paper roll.), that’s when the Bookers box comes into play, it’s the perfect width to hold them and it can hold (I’m guessing) about 52 rolls.

One thing I've always been curious about is the Van Winkle Lot B packaging. I think it looks very cheap and is a poor representation of the whiskey contained within. I don't get this, especially since all of Julian's other products have such classy packaging.

It’s not fancy but I don’t mind it. I have thought about this myself though. My reasoning is that it’s the “Special†reserve and thus not like all the other Van Winkle varieties so they made this bottle stand out from all of the other VW bourbons you can get at the store.

My gripe is simple though and is pretty much the same as a lot of other peoples, the George T Stagg bottle is too tall, it looks really nice but it does not fit on any of my shelves. However as much as I would like my Staggs to be with my Van Winkles and my Turkey’s I think I’d be disappointed if they changed that nice, stately bottle.

[nor02lei]

I don’t like anything with natural cork with make me dislike almost all American straight whiskey packaging in the premium class. I have to live with that. I like watts inside though! (I got the same problem with single malt)

Leif

[cas]

Seems that using a Booker's box for a birdhouse wouldn't attract blue birds, but rather swallows.....

After seeing the original post a couple years ago I made a similar birdhouse. The birds have not been impressed....

But this spring some wasps built a nest in it.

Craig

[cowdery]

I don’t like anything with natural cork with make me dislike almost all American straight whiskey packaging in the premium class. I have to live with that. I like watts inside though! (I got the same problem with single malt)

Leif

I agree completely. Let me go on record as saying I will gladly buy premium bourbons that have screw caps. Maybe we can start a movement.

No More Corks!!!

[Edward_call_me_Ed]

You know, I have never had any problem with the gold wax on the ETL bottles and I have opened quite a few of them. Pull on the tab and it opens right up. I have more trouble with ordinary shrink wrap.

Ed

[Gillman]

I found a bottle of Booker's a little fiddly to open. I couldn't find the way to take off the rawhide strip until I saw you just unhook it on one end. Then I had to tug the plastic sleeve open to get it out of the grooves, it was sticking in there a bit. Once the bottle was free I discarded the plastic and box - I never keep packaging (or canisters for malt whisky, just superfluous in my view).

Now the whiskey. Good but very "Beam": very big rye hit, lots of liquorice. Nice and silky though, even at the high proof. In fact I like it at high proof, the extra barrel quality and ethanol complement the Beam character. The label states an age of 8 years, 5 months. There is a code that starts with 95 so maybe it was dumped in 2003. There was a lingering smell of fresh pine and plastic on the wax part of the bottle neck, I had to wash it well to get it off. Fortunately the whiskey itself was pristine.

In sum it reminded me of Baker's.

Gary

[OscarV]

it reminded me of Baker's.

Gary