My Collection of Bourbons & Whiskeys

2025 was quite the year for me - awful - job sucks and the politics of it all just really brought me to a low point, but it didn't win - I had never experienced such lows, backstabbing, stress and harassment, but again those evil forces didn't win.  I'm still here, Alive and Kicking.  During this difficult time, I found two things - well three - first I found the kitchen and I still don't recall how, but I found sea salt from Honduras - (where i was born) on eBay and I haven't been back since I was a kid so i purchased a 5lb bag of organic sea salt from Bahia San Lorenzo, Honduras and when i got to taste it, i had chills since i've never been back.  I've flown over it on my way to Costa Rica (2x), but that's as close as I've gotten.  Now, I was asking myself, what am I going to do with a 5lb bag of salt? and that one spark led to my salt blends that led to dry rubs, sea salts and of course my hot sauces.

The number two thing and yes this is the most important one, was finding myself through all of this BS, stress and backstabbing - as though as it was I powered through it because of my kids - I love them so much, my daughter is at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and my son is a freshman at Mira Costa HS here in Manhattan Beach, CA.  Did i tell you i grew up in Washington Heights in Manhattan - New York City - hence the name to some of my hot sauces.  I've also traveled the world from Singapore, China, India to England, France, Turkey to Mexico, Costa Rica and I have been fortunate enough to have visited just about every state in the US.

The other thing I discovered, while it may not be good, I'm turning it to something good, just like anyone else when stressed - what do you do? drink, yeah alcohol and at one point though I rarely drank whiskey, I had my first ever old fashioned while I was in Las Vegas at the restaurant Cut by Wolfgang Puck - the food was amazing and the drink was great.  This is when I actually started my love for different bourbons and whiskeys - from bartenders to aficionados they would explain the ins and outs of distilleries, the brands and little details of what made one whiskey better than the other, and i also found a community of bourbon enthusiast that are not just passionate but also inclusive, very welcoming, nice and down to earth. 

So i know better than to drink heavily, so instead of drinking I started collecting bourbons and whiskeys that I think are great - i had to rime or reason, so i chose because of the label, others because of a story and others because of the USA flag on the label and others because of the packaging- here is the funny thing, I do not drink or open the bottles I have in my collection and some are high value others aren't - hence I'm a rookie at this.  I can tell you though, I have tasted some extremely expensive bottles, some in the medium category and fell in love with cigar whiskeys such as Dalmore's Cigar Malt - I have a bottle of Penelope's Cigar Sessions Chapter 1, but I will not open it, but I'll find it somewhere and will have it.  I have a bottle of Jack Daniel's Sinatra and tasted that one at SoFi during a Charger's game and I've tried others(Pappy Van Winkle) that I have, but again I'm a collector.

Thanks for listening and letting me rant - every product I carry and make is brought to you with a passion, many people want and think they can, but few have that passion.

If you have any questions or suggestions on anything from bourbons to recipes, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at: jose@questforfire.com