A Kickstarter project to age whiskey by three years in just 24 hours

What is the difference between top shelf whiskey and well-whiskey? Time and oak.

A few whiskey enthusiasts from Portland, Oregon asked what is seemingly a very simple question, and came up with a product that they claim will allow customers to customise their whiskey experience in a mere 24 hours.

Their Kickstarter campaign, which has already raised Rs 61 lakh more than the original goal, is for a product called Whiskey Elements, which is basically a wooden laser etched stick that replicates the effects of aging whiskey for three years in just 24 hours.

The thing that makes top shelf whiskey have that smooth delicious taste is the process — high quality whiskey is aged in wooden barrels for ten to twenty years, and this aging method allows the whiskey to filter in and out of the wood while removing toxins, adding flavour, and colouring.

Bottom shelf whiskey, on the other hand, is usually aged for less than three years and has a bunch of artificial flavours and food colouring added.

The idea is that you put the wooden stick into a decanter of whiskey and through a complicated process that Time and Oak calls “accelerated transpiration through capillary action,” you can rapidly age your whiskey in just 24 hours and have a much smoother drink the next day.

But not everyone is excited about this product. “If people want to buy a bottle of unambitious whiskey, that is obviously their right,” Diageo’s Nick Morgan said. “But isn’t the danger that you will still end up with a young, one dimensional drink but one that now just tastes of wood?”

Well, the Kickstarter campaign already has 3,163 backers who are willing to give it a shot.