The Sharks Are Out!

by Colonel Steve Akley

Does anyone feel like the sharks are out when it comes to social media and bourbon? You know what I’m saying… a new product comes out… somebody gives it a bad review, soon it’s a frenzy… everyone parroting the negative feedback.

I think we’ve seen that with a couple of new products recently. Most notably Little Book. People who haven’t even tried it are bashing it.

What? How’s that possible?

“People I respect bashed it,” is the most common response.

All tastes are different. Maybe that means you elect not to try it, but it doesn’t give you license to bash it, though. I call for a rule the only way you can weigh-in on a how a product tastes… is to have tasted it.

That doesn’t seem like too much to ask does it?

Another shark-like behavior I’ve seen recently is bashing newbies. 

Why?

My buddy Tracy Napolitano from the New Orleans Bourbon Festival put it best, “If a person asks a question, it’s because they just didn’t know. If you happen to know, tell him or her what it is. Don’t bash someone because they don’t know.”

I agree. I recently saw someone post on Instagram with a video showing some options to drink bourbon and one of them was “sphere.” The guy asked, “What’s sphere?”

I jumped all over it. I told him he was an idiot and asked why he even drinks bourbon?

Just kidding, of course.

That’s what happens, though. I did see that question and I simply told the guy that “sphere” is an ice globe that can be preferred based on its greater surface area for cooling bourbon and it melts slower. No need to rip anyone.

Let’s leave this behavior to the wine and craft beer snobs. Bourbon is the drink of all and everybody was new to it once. Help a newbie out, don’t bash them!