Cigar World's Artisan's Corner: Chris Chapanar the Founder of Whiskey Noobs
As we know, a great whiskey pairs well with a great cigar, and many of you, cigar enthusiasts, are also whiskey lovers. We thought you might like to know about this new device, created by Chris Chapanar the founder of Whisky Noobs, a social channel where Chris reviews different whiskeys (if you are not following him yet, you must! @whiskey_noobs), and co-host of the Perfect Pairing Club social media channel with Adam Guard of Dream Cigars. Let’s find out from Chris exactly what got him into whiskey and brought about this must-have blind tasting device!
A Conversation with Chris Chapanar the Founder of Whiskey Noobs
Jean- Hey Chris! Thanks for chatting with us today about your Solo Blind! It is so cool.
Chris- Thanks Jean, and thanks for having me! It’s been really exciting to see the Solo Blind finally come to life.
Jean- So why don’t we start off with you telling us a bit about how you got into whiskey in the first place and how that inspired you to start Whiskey Noobs.
Chris- I started into whiskey pretty quickly after I turned 21. I had already been a bit into cigars, which I can explain more later, and we all know that cigars and whiskey go together like peanut butter and jelly. Whiskey pretty quickly overshadowed cigars for me and I found myself watching YouTube videos and reading articles to learn as much as I could about it. From there, I realized there was nothing online that really catered to beginners in the whiskey world, at least not that I could find, so I launched the Whiskey Noobs podcast, and shortly after I started into Instagram and Tiktok which is probably what I'm more known for now.
Jean- So in your story on the Solo Blind site, you mention that you felt blind tastings were the most reliable way to get an unbiased opinion of the whiskeys. You started off doing this with the help of the wifey, right?
Chris- Yeah exactly, and I didn't really plan to become the “blind tasting guy” at the time, but I thought they were fun videos to make and realized I was getting WAY better at tasting by doing blinds. Eventually it got to where I'd have my wife grab bottles for me and mix them up just about every week. Having her mix them for me was the only way to do it reliably and without the audience thinking I was cheating.
Jean- And this led to the invention of the Solo Blind?
Chris- Yeah, as you might guess, it started to get a little inconvenient to have to ask my wife to drop whatever she was doing and pour whiskey. I pretty quickly realized that I needed a way to do it by myself, which led to the Solo Blind!
Jean- So, tell us about how the device works.
Chris- The main idea is simple: you put some cups on a rotating tray, spin it, and then you don’t know which is which. The complexity comes in with the way we decided to execute that. We didn’t just want this to be a turn table, we wanted it to be a spirit tasting device. So for example, we made it capable of tastings of 2, 3, or 4 beverages because sometimes you want a head to head battle, and sometimes you want to rank. That is actually possible because of the “holsters” that carry the glass and ID tag as a unit. Having one holster that contains both elements makes it really easy to change up the order, or even just take them off of the blind and move it away because some people like to spread out when they're doing their tastings. If you use it you’ll notice that most of the design aspects are things that I wanted when I was doing my blind tastings, all the way down to the cool looking cover.
Jean- And you are not doing this project on your own right? Your partner Sol, has also contributed greatly to the project?
Chris- Oh, absolutely, this wouldn’t have been possible without Sol. People see a lot of me because I do all of the marketing, but Sol came in and made it something that we could actually source and manufacture. There is a LOT more to making a brand-new product than a lot of people realize, so having him as a business partner was really vital to getting it off the ground.
The Solo Blind
Jean- And I assume that your interest in whiskey naturally led to a passion in cigars. Did you smoke cigars for a long time or are you also a cigar noob?
Chris- Absolutely, so ironically, I found my way to whiskey through cigars, but I still stand before you as a cigar noob 8 years later. I got into cigars when I was 18 because that was the legal age back then. It ended up being a pretty brief love affair because once I started pairing with whiskey, the whiskey became my main interest. I never stopped smoking cigars entirely, but for probably 5 years or so I was a very casual, Acid Blondie on the golf course twice a year kind of smoker. Thanks to my more recent ventures with pairing content I’ve been able to really get back into cigars over the past year, which has been a blast. It’s like getting to discover one of your favorite hobbies all over again.
Jean- What is your favorite cigar to smoke right now? And what is your favorite whiskey to pair with it?
Chris- Lately my favorite has been the Warfighter Night Shift. It’s a habano, which has been my favorite wrapper lately, and it just has the perfect balance of sweet and spicy for my palate. It goes really nicely with Courage and Conviction Cuvee cask finish, but you could probably get away with any sweet American Single Malt
Jean- Fantastic! Chris, it was an absolute pleasure. I am going to dive more into your cigar preferences and such in our upcoming interview with yourself and Adam Guard from Dreamer Cigars about your new project, Perfect Pairing. Thank you so much for your time!
Chris- No, thank you! I’m totally honored that you reached out. Cheers
Now that you have heard the skinny on this amazing blind tasting device, you have the chance to win one on Cigar World. We are giving away two Solo Blinds on our social media, and all you must do is follow @cigarworld and @whiskey_noobs to enter, so head on the IG now, follow both accounts and share with your whiskey loving buddies!
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