So. Depression. It’s something I’ve been struggling with lately. I’ve been on depression and anxiety meds for close to a decade now. And most days are great. I’m generally a happy person. But every so often something happens and the familiar spiral of nothingness threatens to rise up and overwhelm me. Thankfully I am medicated, and my dosages are pretty well dialed in at this point, so my bouts don’t last too long. Usually, it’s just an afternoon of listlessness and a lack of motivation to do even the littlest thing. Which, if ignored can go further. Because the worst part of these bouts is that I know that I should be doing the things that need to get done, but I can’t quite bring myself to do it. And then I get upset with myself for not doing what needs to be done. I question my self-worth. It’s like “if you can’t even vacuum the giant ball of hair on the floor when you see it there, why are you even here?” It’s…not fun. And it takes time to get through.
Luckily for me, I have a job that allows for self-care. Sometimes my job even forces it upon me whether I want it or not. As was the case on Tuesday of this week. There is a German Shepard that I watch named Doug. I’ve watched him since he was three months old. Usually, he is overwhelmingly excited. As he was on Tuesday. But as I was feeling that spiral of depression and nothingness start to overwhelm me, he intervened. I was laying on the sofa, trying hard to figure out why I couldn’t just vacuum and do the dishes—spoiler alert: it was a depressive episode, I’m a little slow on the uptake when they start—when he just crawled up and laid on top of me. And he didn't take no for an answer. He noticed that his Uncle Eric wasn’t right even before I did. And that kind of love tripped something that allowed me to start to climb out. I still wasn’t motivated to do anything, but I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. The emotions were on their way back. I’m grateful for Doug.
I’m not sharing this for sympathy. But I do think we need to start normalizing mental illness. So I’m letting you know what happened to me this week. Why I didn’t write anything on my regular day. And who knows, maybe it’ll help someone else if they are in a similar spiral.
But you aren’t here for that, you are here because you saw a photo of a tiny bottle of WhistlePig Rye. so let’s get into it. I’ve never purchased anything from WhistlePig before. And to be honest, I probably won’t again as most of their stuff costs more than I want to pay for sourced Canadian Whisky. But as I was wandering through Total Wine last weekend looking for something that I could write about, I saw this little three-pack of miniature bottles for $27. So while $27 for 150 mL of whiskey is very expensive, it was a lot less expensive than the $85 that a 750 of just one of the bottles would have cost. Plus, I like to reward producers for making these sampler packs. I think they are a great way to experience various whiskeys when you are on a budget.
And I’m always on a budget. I mean, I’m frugal. Just look at the tagline at the top of the page. And in my mind being frugal is different than being cheap because it isn’t that I won’t spend money. I just like to make sure that I’m spending it smartly on things that will be good, interesting, or both. And in this case, I get content for three posts for $27 which is probably less than I’d have spent for content for a single post usually.
So, is WhistlePig Rye good? Or interesting? Is it by chance both? Or neither? Let’s find out.
WhistlePig 10-Year Small Batch Rye Whiskey
Purchase Info: $26.99 for the WhistlePig Rye Whiskey Piglets multipack of three 50mL bottles at Total Wine, Burnsville, MN.
Price per Drink (50ml): $9.00
Details: 50% ABV. 10-years-old. Canadian Whiskey, blended and bottled in Vermont.
Nose: Cedar, mint, cherry, and a touch of barbecue smoke.
Mouth: Cedar, mint, cherry, cinnamon, and a hint of dill.
Finish: On the shorter side of medium length and of medium warmth. Spicy with notes of cedar, dill, cherry, and cinnamon.
Thoughts: This is pretty tasty, but I'd never pay the $85 that Total Wine is asking for a bottle. To me, it just isn't $85 good. It was more of a $30 good. It's a fairly unassuming rye whiskey. I'm glad I got to try this in a small bottle. It's not bad, just way too expensive. So final verdict: good, but not interesting.
(and now cue the people who love and covet WhistlePig to leave comments about how I'm just an idiot, and an admittedly crazy one at that, in 3... 2... 1.)
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