A little bit risky, a whole lot of whiskey
One free 5-minute email every Thursday: what to buy, what to skip, and what all the words on the label actually mean. Subscribe and get Issue #0, The Whiskey Starter Kit, in your inbox in 60 seconds.
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“This spot is reserved for your comment. Say something nice.”
“Best five minutes of my Thursday.”
“We read every comment. The good ones end up right here.”
What’s inside every issue
First Pour
A short, human hello. What we're drinking, what went wrong this week.
Top Shelf
Whiskey news that's actually useful to a beginner. No press releases.
Behind the Still
One distillery, explained in plain English. (A still is the big copper kettle whiskey is made in.)
Messesment
Our bottle review, scored out of 10. Mess + assessment. We're very proud of it.
subscriber-only,forever
The bribe, itemized
Issue #0: The Whiskey Starter Kit
Your first email. It never appears on this site. It goes to subscribers, and that’s it.
- First Pour:why Whiskey Mess exists, from the humans behind it
- Top Shelf:the only 10 whiskey words you actually need
- Behind the Still:how whiskey is actually made, in 2 minutes
- Messesment:3 starter bottles under €40, stamped and scored
Who’s behind this?
Whiskey Mess exists because Sandro once stood at a tasting, nodded at the phrase “wet forest floor,” and understood absolutely nothing. A lot of bottles later, he and Marko (Mes) are making the newsletter they wish someone had sent them: plain English, honest scores, zero tweed. We’re maybe two bottles ahead of you. That’s the whole qualification.
Fair questions
+“I know nothing about whiskey.”
Perfect. That's exactly who this is for. Every issue assumes you're starting from zero, and every fancy word gets translated in the same sentence it appears.
+“Is this sponsored?”
No. We buy our own bottles and score them however we like. If that ever changes, we'll say so in letters this big.
+“What does it cost?”
Nothing. It's a free email. The only thing you can lose is the belief that whiskey is complicated.
+“How long is an issue?”
About 5 minutes. Shorter than the queue at the bar, longer than our patience for snobs.
One email. Every Thursday. Zero tweed.
Subscribe and Issue #0, The Whiskey Starter Kit, is in your inbox in 60 seconds.
- Issue #0: The Whiskey Starter Kit, in your inbox instantly
- One 5-minute email every Thursday. That's the whole time commitment.
- What to buy at every budget, stamped and scored (the Messesment)
- Label-decoding and basics, minus the ego
- Subscribers read every issue a week before it hits the public archive