Colonel Steve Puts Magic Flask to the Test
by Colonel Steve Akley
A few times a week, someone will reach out to me either directly, or through our contact form on this website, and inquire about us reviewing a product for them. Most are bourbon-related in some way… though, occasionally some really off-the-wall requests come in that are totally unrelated to what we do. Bourbon-related or not, we pass on most of these requests since it’s not really our core business model to providing these types of reviews. That may be changing in the future with the addition of our new blogger Jordan Grigsby, and his team, to the mix as I do think there is value to trying bourbon-related products as much of our audience may be interested in them/in the market to buy them.
Every once-in-a-while, though, something just grabs your attention and you just have to give it a try. How does a flask sound that can turn bottom-shelf distilled spirits (whiskey/bourbon, vodka, gine and tequila) into top-shelf gems, sound?
Sounds, kinda magic, doesn’t it?
Well, that’s who reached out to me: Magic Flask. The company claims its flask can take cheap alcohol, smooth it out and make it much more drinkable. If this works, it literally will pay for itself by allowing you to shop the bottom shelves or bargain bins, but enjoy them as much as people spending two, three, four times as much on a bottle.
It couldn’t possibly, work, though, right? I mean come on!
When it showed up, my skepticism levels increased even further.
Why?
Well, it’s looks like all of my other non-magic flasks. There wasn’t anything that stood out from what I could see that was going to make this thing magic. All the talk of “bioresonance-related technology” and using “electromagnetic waves” they talked about on their website magicflask.us didn’t resonate with me either since I kept going back to it looked exactly the same as my flask that says “I’m with Stupid” and a big arrow pointing to the left.
So, being super-skeptical, I decided to try it out on my friends at the St. Louis Bourbon Drinkers Club. This is my group of friends that gets together once-a-month to drink high-end bourbon. I once brought a guy who brought a bottle of Maker’s to one of the meetings… he was banned. It’s all either top-shelf, rare finds, gift-shop only or dusties. It’s so much fun because many of the members have different approaches. Some are constantly trading-up to get coveted bottles. Some are shopping liquor stores off the beaten path. Others are working contacts to find long forgotten bottles in personal collections.
The group all comes together once a month at our friend, and leader, Paul’s house. All of this incredible liquor is put out on the bar. You can try anything. It’s all drinking some of the most rare, hard-to-find and delicious bourbons you could ever try. There’s tons of food and plenty of “bourbon debates” going on throughout the course of the evening.
This group is also more than willing to tell you exactly what they think about anything. If they don’t like a bottle you just dropped $200 on… they are going to tell you. We have people driving hundreds of miles to pick up some dusty their grandma found in the basement and 22 people say it’s amazing and there might be one person saying it’s disappointing. It’s just how the club is, so, I knew I would have a great group to solicit completely honest feedback from.
I texted the group and told them about the Magic Flask and the fact I would be bringing it to try with some Evan Williams White Label. Right way, someone got on me and stated that while it is cheap bourbon, it’s also good bourbon. He had something that was legit bad.
Okay… it just got real.
So, I bring the flask, my buddy Jim has his bottom-shelf bottle that tastes like roof tar (I’m not even saying the brand name since I don’t have anything good to say about it). We poured it into the Magic Flask and waited the 30-minutes the instructions says it takes to do its magic.
I’m at my furthest point from believing this thing has any chance of working at this moment while all of this is happening. I’m literally assuming I am moments from getting my ass chewed by the entire club the second my countdown clock hits zero and the contents of the Magic Flask are ready to pour.
The clock reads “0:00:00” and the alarm sounds. My fate is about to be sealed as the Club members are excited about this. They are actually lined-up and ready to try it. We give everyone two glasses… a control sample of the bottom shelf nightmare bourbon and a pour from the Magic Flask… which is the exact same thing, only it has been sitting in the Magic Flask for 30 minutes.
We drink the control sample first and it doesn’t go well. People are pissed they were made to drink it. In fact, two people ran to the sink to spit it out, right in front of the entire group.
We then collectively tried the Magic Flask sample and the response could only be explained by one word: MAGIC!
Every single person, without one stating otherwise, said the Magic Flask was not only better, but way better. No one was putting it in the “top-shelf, best bourbon they ever had” category, but every single man and woman there that tried both though the Magic Flask offering was markedly better. Nobody spit out the second sample, the group sat around and drank it and talked about how great this gadget was.
One of the members, Heidi, pulled out some Jack Daniel’s she had brought to also test out the Magic Flask. We did the same type of experiment and, once again, the results were amazing. Jack Daniel’s, Old No. 7, was converted into a sipping whiskey.
Next thing you know, everyone is smitten with this little flask which now magically in my mind no longer looks like my, “I’m with Stupid” flask… instead, it looks the DeLorean in Back to the Future it’s so cool. The group didn’t want to stop. Next up, we put three of the most sought after, coveted and already delicious bourbons on the market in the Magic Flask just to see what would happen.
William Larue Weller went first, followed by Thomas H. Handy and, finally, Old Rip Van Winkle 10-Year-Old.
Are you kidding me? That’s like $2,000 worth of bourbon on the secondary market we are experimenting with.
Well, guess what…
Every single experiment turned out the same way. People are suddenly talking about, “I’m a huge William Larue Weller fan, I didn’t think you could make it better… now I try this and I have a better WLW in my glass right now.” It was just so amazing that every single person agreed that the Magic Flask version was always improved over the control version.
I have to say that I am totally shocked by the results of all of this… in the best way possible. Magic Flask is a winner, whether it’s to enhance the flavor of your bottom shelf collection, make your premium spirits even better, or to simply entertain guests at a party, this is great product.
The company is preparing its launch with an Indegogo campaign and you can get in on the Magic Flask at some really discounted prices. Check them out by clicking here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/magic-flask/