Sommelier André Houston Mack returns for another edition of World of Wine, this time putting every bottle of Costco Kirkland liquor to the test. With every bottle coming in under $50, will they give you a bang for your buck?
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00:00 - It tastes like the liquid that's in chocolate.
00:02 You know how like, the other chocolates,
00:03 you bite it and something squirts out?
00:05 That's what that tastes like.
00:06 I think there's a time and place for a lot of stuff.
00:08 I'm still wrapping my head around peanut butter
00:10 and whiskey, but this I can get close to.
00:13 I understand that.
00:14 Hey, I'm Samuel A. Andre Houston Mack,
00:15 and today we're gonna be tasting the Costco line
00:18 of Kirkland Signature Liquors.
00:20 Costco sells its lines of spirit
00:21 for a fraction of the cost of name brands,
00:23 but are they any good?
00:24 Well, today we're gonna taste them and find out.
00:26 [upbeat music]
00:29 [laughing]
00:31 So Costco is the largest purchaser, retailer
00:36 of spirits and wine, alcoholic beverages.
00:38 Not only do they sell like the name brands
00:40 that we all know and love,
00:41 but they've created their own line of wines and spirits
00:43 called Kirkland Signature.
00:44 They are really, really inexpensive.
00:46 So today we're gonna find out if this is a really great deal.
00:49 Are these comparable to the name brands
00:51 that we all know and love?
00:52 And are they any good?
00:53 So first up we have Kirkland Signature American Vodka,
00:56 $13.99, this is a 1.75 liter.
00:59 I think most of you call it a handle.
01:01 It's a little less than a half gallon.
01:02 So a standard bottle of alcohol is 750 milliliters.
01:05 So this is larger for sure.
01:07 This was sitting next to same size bottle of Tito's
01:10 going for like $32.
01:12 You think about the price point, you know,
01:13 this is about half.
01:14 So Costco is not making these.
01:16 They're not distilling, they're not bottling.
01:18 They have a relationship with a distiller.
01:21 They're purchasing them and selling them exclusively
01:23 only in their store under the Kirkland Signature brand.
01:25 Vodka is made from distilling grain, corn, wheat, barley,
01:29 whatever you have.
01:30 They're using corn here.
01:31 Water is heated and they basically take the evaporation
01:34 from the fermented grain and they capture that
01:36 and that is actually the clear spirit.
01:38 It says it's distilled six times.
01:40 The more times that you distill it and run it through,
01:42 the smoother, the cleaner the end product is supposed to be.
01:45 But I do believe that there's over distillation,
01:47 meaning that you can strip a lot of the flavors
01:49 and a lot of the characteristics that you want
01:51 can be stripped away.
01:53 All right, here we go.
01:54 We're gonna pour some in our glass here.
01:56 It's so funny because they talk about vodka
01:58 as supposed to be this flavorless, odorless thing.
02:01 It's just not true.
02:02 It's not giving off lots of flavor and all that,
02:04 but it does have a smell to it.
02:06 Smells like rubbing alcohol.
02:08 Yeah, it smells pretty medicinal.
02:09 Maybe that's why it's distilled six times.
02:11 This is a tasting glass that I like to use.
02:12 And instead of swirling like you do in wine,
02:14 this is a one way to kind of open up and it coats the glass
02:17 and then you can pick it up and smell.
02:19 It's vodka.
02:20 Right?
02:23 It's really odorless and tasteless.
02:25 It does give off something, but it's nothing really of note.
02:28 This truly smells like rubbing alcohol.
02:30 Not in a bad way, it's just what it smells like.
02:32 Like this is great, like Bloody Mary right here.
02:35 You can rub this on your wound and then drink some.
02:37 People talk about you shouldn't pay for an expensive vodka,
02:39 but like there is a difference between how this vodka
02:42 is made and another vodka that would be sitting
02:43 next to here.
02:44 It would actually smell different.
02:45 Standing side by side, you can pick up the differences
02:47 between the two.
02:48 It's really hard for me to say if this represents value.
02:50 Does it taste of quality?
02:51 Yes.
02:52 Is it gonna be mixed in with something else?
02:53 Yes.
02:54 So to me, it really doesn't matter.
02:55 I think it's pretty decently made and will do the trick.
02:58 All right, next up is Kirkland Signature Vodka.
03:00 This is imported from France and this comes in
03:02 at a whopping $19.99.
03:05 This is the more expensive Kirkland Signature Vodka option.
03:08 I see this has been distilled five times.
03:10 The previous vodka was distilled six times.
03:13 This is distilled from grains.
03:14 It doesn't list what grains.
03:15 This is a French vodka.
03:16 Like it says it's imported there, it's made there.
03:18 The grain could be from some other place, I don't know.
03:20 But I think the idea and the marketing behind Grey Goose
03:23 is that all luxury products seem to come from France.
03:25 So much so that you see a brand like this
03:27 that's spoofing off of that or riffing off
03:30 of luxury imported goods from France
03:32 and applying it here to vodka as we've seen Grey Goose do.
03:35 And I do think that if you walked into Costco
03:38 and your brand looks similar to this,
03:40 I think you might be tempted to buy it.
03:41 How much better is my brand than this?
03:43 Shall we?
03:44 This is what makes it a luxury vodka.
03:45 No screw cap, it has a fake cork on it.
03:47 There you go.
03:48 Fancy, those French.
03:50 This is slightly perfumed.
03:52 You know, it smells like powdered sugar.
03:55 There's a fruit component behind it, quince or guava.
03:58 And it's distinct.
03:58 You know, definitely different than the vodka
04:00 that we had earlier.
04:02 This tastes different.
04:03 If I'm comparing it to the previous one,
04:04 it's a lot more refined.
04:05 I wouldn't call it sweet, but there is like this
04:07 kind of roasted sugar kind of thing going on.
04:10 The grain in the style in which it's made
04:11 does give it a more elevated taste
04:13 than the previous vodka that we tasted.
04:15 You could sip on it a little bit
04:16 and you're definitely not skittish
04:18 about putting it in a cocktail or a drink.
04:19 How can they sell this vodka at this price?
04:22 It seems like they make no money,
04:23 but what you have to understand is that
04:24 Costco runs off of what we like to call
04:26 a grocery store model.
04:27 And so they're getting in on the volume.
04:28 They could make $2 per bottle from this,
04:31 but they're selling millions of bottles of these
04:32 all across the country.
04:33 You're gonna take money to the bank and not percentages.
04:36 So they're selling millions of bottles of these
04:38 at a smaller fraction, which adds up.
04:40 Next up, we have Kirkland Signature.
04:41 This is the blended Canadian whiskey from Canada.
04:44 And this comes in at $18.99.
04:47 Canadian whiskey is made from grain.
04:50 It has to be aged at least three years
04:52 in order for it to be called Canadian whiskey.
04:53 It has to be a product of Canada.
04:55 So this is a blend of different distillants
04:57 from around Canada.
04:58 You know, Canadian's all about the blended whiskey.
05:00 So when you see an aged statement like this on a bottle,
05:02 it's six years, so it's been at least six years in cask.
05:05 You have to understand that oak cask are porous,
05:07 and so it allows air to come through.
05:09 There's evaporation.
05:10 So all of those things, the carmelized notes,
05:12 all those complexities, all of those things happen
05:14 when a spirit is in a cask, when it's in a oak barrel.
05:16 So you look at the shape of the bottle.
05:18 I'm sure that it reminds us of a certain name brand,
05:20 Canadian whiskey, which, you know,
05:22 I feel like is a really homage to it.
05:23 It's trying to trigger your inner thoughts to say,
05:25 "Hey, this is Canadian whiskey.
05:27 These are all the hallmarks from the famous brands
05:29 that you know."
05:30 [can opening]
05:32 [upbeat music]
05:33 Smells like whiskey.
05:34 So perfume, somewhat floral.
05:36 There's a sandalwood.
05:37 It smells slightly medicinal.
05:39 [upbeat music]
05:45 Is this Canadian whiskey?
05:46 Yes.
05:47 Is it the finest Canadian whiskey?
05:49 No.
05:50 I just wish it was rounder.
05:51 Like, it just feels like something's missing.
05:53 When I say round, it just doesn't have this mouthfeel.
05:56 It doesn't feel like there's anything
05:57 in the mid-palate, right?
05:59 Like, front, I'm getting all in and bringing that in.
06:00 In the middle, it's just kind of like,
06:02 ah, it just kind of falls flat,
06:03 and there's nothing else to it.
06:04 And then you get a little bit on the finish.
06:05 At $18.99, not a bad price.
06:07 Maybe this is the stuff that you buy
06:09 and you put it in a fancy decanter
06:10 and pour when your thirsty friends come over.
06:13 It just feels weak overall.
06:16 [upbeat music]
06:18 So this is the Kirkland Signature Blended Scotch Whiskey,
06:21 coming in at $19.49.
06:24 This is kind of the same bottle format,
06:26 so this is a 1.75.
06:27 I guess people call it a handle,
06:29 just 'cause it has a built-in handle on it here.
06:32 This was distilled and matured in Scotland.
06:34 It is an imported product.
06:35 As you can see here on the front,
06:37 it says that it's matured in American oak cast.
06:39 American oak is very prevalent in the caramelization
06:42 and the vanilla notes in something like bourbon.
06:43 And it's interesting that the Scottish have picked up on that
06:46 to mature their Scotch in.
06:47 Scotch is special for a lot of different reasons.
06:49 A lot of it is about water and using a local water source.
06:52 They're using local grain.
06:53 That sense of terroir and what it brings,
06:55 Scotch can really only be made in Scotland.
06:57 Yeah, there can be versions of it made somewhere else,
06:59 but the idea that all of these little things add up,
07:01 all attributed and make Scotch Scotch.
07:04 It has a name in the front, Alexander Murray & Company.
07:06 In a big box store like that, it could feel kind of cold.
07:09 You're just pushing all these products on me
07:11 and maybe to know that there is a real name
07:13 behind the brand could add a level of authenticity
07:16 that their customer is looking for.
07:17 This is giving off Johnny Walker Red vibes.
07:19 When I get in here, I think the first thing I get off of this
07:22 is what we call peat.
07:23 It smells like a band-aid.
07:24 Iodine, so it smells like when you open up a band-aid package.
07:27 Peat is an immature form of coal.
07:29 Peat is a desirable thing.
07:30 I think it's why I'm drawn to Scotch,
07:32 but it is an acquired taste.
07:33 And to me, it's a beautiful thing
07:35 when I find it in Scotch whiskey.
07:37 Kind of caramel taste to it.
07:38 It's a little bit of like kind of nutmeg and cinnamon.
07:40 And then there's like this big block,
07:42 this structure of the Scotch.
07:44 It's really beautiful.
07:45 I'm fond of this taste and the way this,
07:47 'cause this reminds me of a certain place in my life.
07:49 Going to college, this is where this is all I drank.
07:51 I'm sure if I knew that they had this out,
07:53 I'd probably be drinking this and not the other one.
07:55 At $19.49, this is the bee's knees.
07:58 All right, so next up is the Kirkland Signature
08:00 12-year-old blended Scotch whiskey from Scotland.
08:03 This comes in a 1.75 liter and costs $36.49.
08:07 We're double the price here.
08:08 So this has been aging in casks for 12 years.
08:11 And so that's a very, very, very long time
08:13 compared to the blended Scotch whiskey,
08:15 which I think is maybe three years in casks.
08:17 Once you put spirit in a bottle, it does not age anymore.
08:20 The aging process all happens in casks
08:23 when you're talking about spirits.
08:24 In oak casks, it has crevices,
08:26 it allows oxygen to come in,
08:28 extraction of compounds from the oak oils
08:30 and all those things, those all attribute to the complexity
08:32 and the nuances that you get.
08:34 It's aging for 12 years, a very long time,
08:35 paying for storage.
08:36 The longer that it takes for the spirit
08:39 to take it out of cask,
08:40 the longer that you don't ever see it turn on your money.
08:43 So that's why you're paying double for the 12-year-old.
08:45 It could even be the same Scotch
08:47 that's just been aged for 12 years.
08:48 So that's kind of spot on and par for the course.
08:50 I get a little bit of prune.
08:53 It kind of smells like it has all these aromats.
08:56 Little element of peat, but not as strong.
08:58 It kind of has like this sweet wood prune.
09:02 There's definitely some spice in the mid palate.
09:04 Finishes pretty clean.
09:05 This is a nice sipper at 36 bucks.
09:07 In that price range, this delivers quality,
09:10 especially at 12 years.
09:11 You just can't really buy 12-year at that price.
09:13 Out of all the stuff that we tasted today,
09:15 I haven't really said that I would go out and get this,
09:17 but I would buy this.
09:18 That's nice.
09:19 All right, next up, we have the Kirkland Signature
09:21 Irish Whiskey.
09:22 This comes in at $28.99.
09:25 Irish tends to be a little bit on the lighter side
09:28 and smoother, and they don't really do like the peat.
09:30 So you don't pick up any of those kinds of flavors either.
09:32 To me, it's just kind of light, smooth,
09:34 a fun whiskey that we all like to drink.
09:36 We're just gonna get right into this,
09:37 giving a little JMO vibes here.
09:39 When we actually purchased this bottle,
09:40 it was laying next to a bottle of Jameson.
09:42 I think it was like 60 bucks, same size.
09:44 So you're thinking, you know, this is like half the price.
09:47 Here I get like a kind of like caramelized apple.
09:50 There's a sweetness that's expressing itself
09:52 as vanilla here.
09:53 It tastes like grain.
09:54 It presents a different elegance to this particular spirit.
09:57 But that's Irish whiskey to me.
09:58 They could easily charge $40 for this bottle here.
10:01 And if you don't care about the name brand that's on it,
10:03 as far as your Irish whiskey,
10:04 I think that this is something
10:06 that you might want to gravitate to.
10:08 All right, so next up, we have Kirkland Signature.
10:12 This is Tequila Blanco, better known as Casco Migos,
10:16 coming in at $32.99.
10:17 It says that it's 100% agave.
10:19 And generally what that means is that it's made
10:21 from the actual plant.
10:21 You can add different types of glucose
10:23 and different types of sugars to the distillation,
10:26 which don't make it 100% agave.
10:28 100% is what you want.
10:29 And agave is this huge kind of pineapple-looking plant
10:32 that takes years for it to mature.
10:34 So it's, you know, you think about the raw product
10:36 and how long it takes to make a fully mature agave plant.
10:39 This 100% agave does mean something.
10:42 I'm excited to get into this.
10:43 When you really think about it,
10:44 Blanco is kind of the entry level of all tequila.
10:46 It is the base spirit that you get
10:48 once you distill agave.
10:50 And then as you start to age it,
10:51 then you pick up the different desinates,
10:53 whether it be Reposado or Anejo.
10:55 So it says 92 points on here.
10:56 And to be honest, I don't really pay attention
10:58 to scores or numbers or anything like that.
11:01 For some consumers, it's a really big thing.
11:03 I don't really give a poo-poo on them or anything like that.
11:05 I'm not impressed.
11:06 It just makes me intrigued.
11:07 Like, now we set the standard to say that this is 92 points,
11:10 but I normally don't give a (beep).
11:11 Most tequila actually comes from an area called Jalisco.
11:14 There's several different distillates from agave.
11:16 From that area, it's called tequila.
11:17 Batch numbers, that's a sign of quality,
11:19 that they're individually batching them out.
11:21 But also, it could mean that if there's a recall,
11:23 you can single it down to one defective batch
11:26 and pull that batch.
11:27 If you look inside of here, on the back part of there,
11:29 inside, you can actually see
11:31 how they printed inside the bottle.
11:32 So, that's a spot number.
11:33 If there was something that happened,
11:35 they would narrow it down to that particular batch
11:38 or batches, and then they would recall them.
11:40 All right, we're gonna go ahead and taste this sucker.
11:42 It smells like cooked agave.
11:44 A lot of people would say, "Oh, it smells like tequila."
11:46 But mainly, I get freshly cut grass.
11:48 White pepper, citrus, apples, grass.
11:51 I'm very fond of this.
11:52 I would sip this.
11:52 This tastes like tequila.
11:54 It has a lot of the hallmarks of well-produced tequila.
11:56 This would be perfect as I'm enjoying it right now.
11:59 Ranch water has kind of been my go-to summer thing.
12:01 Tapachico and lime, a margarita.
12:03 But this is definitely something
12:04 that you could sip and drink straight up for sure.
12:06 So, at $33, you do the quick math,
12:08 a single bottle is somewhere around $14.
12:10 To me, that represents extreme value there.
12:13 This is comparable with one of my favorite Blancos Don Julio.
12:16 Granted, I don't know if there's any additives
12:17 or anything added to this,
12:19 and this is not what this tasting's about.
12:20 This is just tasting whether there's quality
12:22 and value in these bottles,
12:25 and there definitely is in this tequila Blanco.
12:28 All right, next up, we have Kirkland Signature.
12:30 This is Tequila Añejo.
12:32 This comes in at $29.99, and this is in a one-liter bottle.
12:36 So, we come down a little bit in size,
12:38 but still larger than a regular-sized 750-milliliter.
12:41 This is $11 more per liter
12:43 than the last tequila that we tasted.
12:44 So, earlier, we were talking about Blanco,
12:46 it being like the raw spirit
12:47 that comes out of the distillation process.
12:49 And then when you get to Añejo,
12:50 which actually means age,
12:52 is aged up to three years in oak casks.
12:54 At one time, this tequila looked exactly like the Blanco,
12:57 and then it goes into the aging process in the casks.
12:59 When you introduce the aging process into oak,
13:02 it's gonna take on vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg.
13:04 It's gonna have these complexities in the caramelization.
13:07 So, I'm excited to taste this.
13:09 There's a complexity to it.
13:11 It's a smell of, like, kind of sweet wood,
13:13 kind of like applewood, nutmeg, lime-citrus oil.
13:16 This is sweet. It tastes sweet to me.
13:18 Tequila's not supposed to be sweet.
13:19 There's lots of brands out there
13:20 that have these other elements to it,
13:22 and to me, that's not tequila.
13:24 If you like something like Casamigos that's sweet
13:27 or something like that, then maybe this is your jam.
13:29 But for me, I want something a little bit more authentic
13:31 to the agave taste.
13:32 I mean, I think you can add additives.
13:34 There's definitely wiggle room
13:35 and a way to manipulate, for sure.
13:37 But when I grew up, tequila didn't taste this good.
13:40 I know I sound like a boomer. I'm not a boomer.
13:41 But there's something different about it,
13:43 and it's tequila that actually tastes like bourbon, right?
13:47 Which I think, for the American palate,
13:48 is something that they're used to,
13:50 and it takes away the bite
13:51 and some of the authenticity of tequila,
13:53 and that's not where I'm at.
13:54 It's authentic to the marketplace,
13:55 but, like, to me, I feel like that's not real.
13:57 All right, so next up, we have Kirkland Signature.
13:59 This is London Dry Gin.
14:00 This comes in at $17.99.
14:02 So gin is really just vodka
14:04 that's flavored with botanicals.
14:05 The calling card for gin is juniper.
14:07 It's kind of hard to explain what that smells like,
14:09 but it's very distinct.
14:10 I think that a lot of things that you pick up
14:11 is coriander, juniper,
14:13 some of the big things that you pick up in gin.
14:15 Neutral grain, so this could be made from any type of grain.
14:18 So you're distilling grain,
14:19 and then what makes gin gin
14:20 is the botanicals that you use,
14:22 that flavoring that makes it gin versus vodka.
14:25 So London Dry Gin, I think it means
14:26 that it's made with natural botanicals and not chemicals.
14:29 So there's no artificial flavorings or anything like that.
14:31 [bell dings]
14:32 Smells like gin.
14:33 So when you say it smells like gin,
14:35 what you're smelling is the coriander,
14:36 but mainly the juniper.
14:38 It also smells like it could be medicinal.
14:40 That actually tastes civilized.
14:41 It's not too crazy on the botanicals.
14:43 To me, it feels really soft and pleasant and elegant.
14:46 Looking at value here,
14:47 I think this was placed right next to Bombay Sapphire
14:49 in the store, which was double the price.
14:51 Value's there.
14:52 I think the one thing I'm waxing poetically
14:55 about the softness of it,
14:56 but that could actually be its shortcoming.
14:57 If you don't like gin or never had gin in the past,
15:00 maybe this is a starting point for you
15:02 in that sense of how powerful it is.
15:03 It just feels slightly fainter.
15:06 It's not in your face, still tasting it afterwards,
15:08 but I like the style.
15:09 [upbeat music]
15:11 All right, so next up we have
15:12 the Kirkland Signature Cognac XO,
15:15 and this comes in at $49.99.
15:17 This is a regular bottle.
15:18 This is a 750 bottle,
15:20 but what we should all know is cognac is expensive.
15:22 XO, it's a 10-year, doesn't it?
15:24 So this has been aged at least 10 years.
15:25 It is made from grapes,
15:27 so instead of having your grain, you're using grapes here.
15:29 And how is it different from wine?
15:30 Wine, you're actually fermenting and making it,
15:32 and you're not distilling it.
15:33 We're talking about France here.
15:34 Cognac is a region, so the grapes have to be grown there,
15:36 and it has to be distilled and made there
15:38 in order for it to be called cognac.
15:39 This is funny because this size bottle,
15:41 for a regular bottle of cognac at $49.99,
15:43 just par for the course.
15:44 The fact that this has a 10-year age statement on it
15:46 and it's still the same price
15:47 of what you would find at a regular one,
15:48 I think that's where the value should click in.
15:51 So normally for me, I'd have it in a brandy snifter.
15:53 I think it's a great way to drink it,
15:54 especially in the coaler months.
15:56 That's pretty tasty.
15:58 I think orange zest, orange peel, there's prune, apricot.
16:01 Fairly easy on the palate.
16:02 Has a sophisticated taste.
16:03 It tastes polished.
16:04 For lack of a better term, it is smooth.
16:06 So yeah, so if I had to explain
16:08 what does cognac taste like,
16:09 to me it's like a cross between whiskey and rum.
16:12 So rum, you think it's sweet
16:14 and all these warming spices,
16:16 but you don't get that stern backbone of whiskey.
16:18 I think if you put them together and refine it
16:21 and smooth it out, you get cognac.
16:23 I don't think it's of that level of like a Hennessy XO
16:26 or a Courtauld & Bleu XO and those things,
16:28 but this is a decent producer and I think a fun alternative.
16:31 You guys should fight over this one, whoever's,
16:33 when you're leaving like snowy weather,
16:34 like this is it right here.
16:36 So moving right along,
16:37 we have the Kirkland Signature Spiced Rum
16:39 and it comes in at $13.99.
16:41 Wow, this is a big bottle for $13.99.
16:43 This is a 1.75 liter.
16:46 I think every spirit brand is trying
16:48 to get to the level of cognac
16:50 when you talk about is this a sipper?
16:51 But rum should be sipped in the same fashion as cognac.
16:54 Some rums, not all rums.
16:56 I don't know if this is one of those rums,
16:57 but we're gonna find out.
16:58 This is distilled from sugar cane,
16:59 which is prevalent in the Caribbean islands.
17:01 This says that this is bottled by Sazerac
17:03 in Louisville, Kentucky.
17:04 So the Sazerac company, we know that they make Sazerac rye,
17:07 but they own a lot of other things as well.
17:09 That's kind of a big name,
17:10 even though they may not have really anything to do with it.
17:12 It says that they're bottled there,
17:13 maybe just they're bringing it in and bottling,
17:15 but I think for some people that could put people at ease
17:17 that a company the size of Sazerac and reputation
17:20 is involved in this project.
17:22 Smells like an egg cream.
17:23 All these kind of like rich, warm spices,
17:25 nutmeg, cinnamon.
17:26 It smells like it'll be chewy.
17:28 There's gonna be like this texture to it,
17:29 like it's ice cream or something or cake.
17:31 Smells like eggnog.
17:32 And maybe I'm putting too much rum in my eggnog,
17:37 but that's exactly what it reminds me of.
17:38 This is less sweet on the palate.
17:40 There is the element of sweetness,
17:41 followed up and backed up by those baking spices.
17:44 This is tasty.
17:44 I don't understand why this can't be sipped
17:47 in the same fashion as cognac.
17:49 Spice rum is used more for mixing,
17:50 and when you think about rum,
17:52 super age old rum like XO and those types of thing,
17:54 those are more your sipping rums.
17:56 All right, so next up, this is rum XO from Guatemala.
18:00 This comes in at $24.99.
18:02 So if you look at this very cute little bottle,
18:04 this is a regular size bottle.
18:05 I think today we've been featuring larger format.
18:08 So.
18:08 - It's expensive.
18:09 - XO here is some type of special designate.
18:12 So this rum has been aged for six years.
18:14 Six years is a very long time for a spirit or a product
18:17 to be sitting in cask.
18:18 It benefits from that time,
18:19 and from that time you pay for it, like a dry aged steak.
18:22 And so the idea that it's aged in old bourbon cask,
18:25 and so bourbon cask, American oak,
18:26 because of its wider grain,
18:28 'cause it imparts a lot of vanilla and dill.
18:30 These are desired qualities
18:31 when you're thinking about aging.
18:32 So it's matured and aged in that,
18:34 and then they put it in something mellow,
18:36 like a cognac barrel to kind of bring on
18:37 some of that refinement that helps kind of mellow out
18:40 the stringent, crazy, tannin-filled American bourbon barrels.
18:44 I think hopefully they're thinking that that can rub off
18:46 not only making a great product,
18:48 but in the marketing and the idea behind it.
18:50 You're thinking cognac barrels,
18:51 this should be sipped in the same way as cognac.
18:54 Oh wow, okay.
18:55 Like toasted almonds,
18:57 like there's a slight nutty component to it.
18:59 Toffee, a caramel to this thing,
19:01 like a sweet caramel, salted sweet caramel.
19:04 So this is definitely a different beast than a spice rum.
19:06 It's not a lot of those warm spices in that element.
19:09 There's like marmalade, orange marmalade.
19:11 There is a sweetness to it, but that's kind of faint.
19:14 And other than that, this is fantastic.
19:15 I don't think it's interesting
19:16 that they have two specialty rums in their lineup.
19:18 This is a serious place, right?
19:20 Like that's what I keep trying to say.
19:21 Like in all of their stuff,
19:23 they're serious about the things that they buy.
19:24 You know, those are two different categories.
19:26 A spice rum is treated differently than an XO rum, for sure.
19:29 And you can taste it in the glass.
19:30 So I'm not surprised by that.
19:31 That just tells me that they kind of know
19:32 what they're doing.
19:34 So we're moving right along here.
19:35 We have the Kirkland Signature.
19:37 This is the Irish Cream Liqueur.
19:38 This comes in a 1.75 and this comes in at $17.99.
19:43 Typically I think an Irish Cream Liqueur
19:45 is Irish whiskey mixed with some type of dairy product,
19:48 whether it's milk or cream.
19:49 There's rules in order for it to be called
19:50 Irish Cream Liqueur.
19:52 And it seems very fitting for everything else
19:54 in wine and alcohol.
19:55 When you're talking about something international
19:57 and something that has reached high acclaim,
19:58 people love this stuff.
19:59 I think people really enjoy it as an after dinner drink,
20:03 you know, kind of maybe in lieu of something sweet,
20:05 they have an Irish Cream.
20:07 Nah, man.
20:12 See, this is why I don't really mess with this.
20:16 But you know, to be honest, it looks like chocolate milk
20:17 or, you know, coffee with a lot of cream.
20:19 Really smells like some type of chocolate milk.
20:21 So it's toffee, chocolate, cinnamon.
20:24 There's this overwhelming sweetness.
20:26 There's mocha, coffee.
20:27 That's very pleasant.
20:29 Like I can see you adding this to coffee
20:31 as a supplement to the sweetener
20:32 and to give it a little kick.
20:33 Drinking coffee with Irish Cream Liqueur in it,
20:36 not a bad way to spend the day.
20:37 17% makes it in the higher echelons of wine.
20:40 It's not overly alcoholic, but tasty.
20:43 I recommend it for all of you.
20:45 Gets you a little shot, gets you going,
20:46 a little boost going to the train today.
20:48 Some of my overall thoughts today,
20:49 you win some, you lose some.
20:51 We had more bang for your buck in value than we had duds,
20:54 and that's a good sign.
20:54 Costco knows what they're doing.
20:56 It's not a lot of crap that they're putting out.
20:58 And I think there's a game that people like to play
20:59 of like trying to figure out
21:00 where they source it from and all that.
21:02 I don't need to know who made it.
21:03 If it tastes good, I wanna drink it
21:05 and I wanna be a part of it.
21:06 You know, I converted my house, my bar at my house,
21:09 I converted it to a mini bar.
21:12 And then I went to every single Bulletproof
21:13 in my neighborhood and ordered a ridiculous amount.
21:16 I said, "Let me get 10 bottles
21:17 "of every single airplane bottle you have."
21:19 And the dude back there is like,
21:20 "What the (beep) are you talking about?"
21:22 Like, "No, I see some other one.
21:23 "Get that one too, I'll take that."
21:24 I don't even drink Ciroc pineapple.
21:26 But if somebody comes to the house,
21:27 any of you, I got you.