I was involved in a World Record yesterday, not for athleticism or even personal achievement but rather for simply toasting. Several months ago, a friend suggested that I get a subscription to a spirits club called Flaviar. It was not about calling Ghostbusters but instead about whiskey, scotch, vodka, tequila, and other alcoholic concoctions. Each quarter of the year, I receive a bottle of my spirit of choice and a tasting, along with activities, advice, and special pricing on hard-to-get brands. It’s a unique enough membership that we also bought subscriptions as birthday/Christmas gifts for my two son-in-laws. In addition, I received purchase credits that allowed me to get a free bottle of Angel’s Envy, my current whiskey of choice. 

I’ve never been much of a whiskey connoisseur or even with wine. My sense of taste is weak, but allows me to rarely turn down anything food or drink related. The first activity of the Flaviar club that I participated in was last night’s Guinness Book of World Records attempt. It proves that there’s a record for anything or you can simply make one up. All I had to do was log-in to YouTube and raise my glass. They had a mediocre Dean Martin impersonator that acted as one of the hosts and talked a little bit about the origination of toasting.

The record attempt was for the largest number of people participating in a virtual toast on YouTube. Guinness subjectively set a minimum of 1500 participants to officially establish the record in this newly created category. I saw the count exceed 3,500 as the program went on. My liquor of choice for the toast was WhistlePig Rye Whiskey, a product of Canada but bottled in Vermont after 10-years of aging. It was my very first shipment from Flaviar, along with a tasting of four vodkas.

My wife is not a fan of drinking, especially “stinky on the breath” whiskey. This is why I typically stick with “X-tra dirty, X-tra dry, X=tra olives Tito’s Vodka martinis” that tend to be less revolting to her. She does drink wine but mostly likes to collect the bottles and save them for special occasions. Sadly, there haven’t been too many in 2020. I do give Flaviar credit for creating this event that is certainly appropriate in the current world of social distancing. The on-line event was a unique change of pace from times filled with extreme daily boredom. 

WhistlePig is a 500-acre dairy/pig farm in Shoreham, Vermont – hence the name of their whiskey. It doesn’t exactly sound appetizing, unless you think of bacon. It’s apparently blended with port to give it a sweeter finish. Last night’s toast was positioned between Thanksgiving and Christmas, giving me an opportunity to celebrate the fact that we’ve remained healthy as a family throughout this ordeal. So far…so good. At the same time, I hope that everyone on earth stays safe, peaceful, content, and healthy. Cheers!