Keep Walking Johnny Walker

I had the assumption that this tasting would be free. After all, the event was advertised as a publicity/marketing stunt to promote the Johnny Walker label.

We stood in line among a bunch of young 20-30 somethings dressed for a night of drinking. The first thing we are asked is for a $5 donation to RAD (Rockstars, Recording artists, Radio dj's against Drunk Driving or something like that). What the?? That was really slick to have us involuntarily donate $5 to a copy cat MAD cause. None of us had the balls to say no.

There were "Johnny Walker" ladies with handhelds registering us in line. They swiped our id cards and asked us a few questions (eg. How many drinks do you consume a month? I said 20. What do you usually prefer to drink? Bourbon, Scotch. Did you drink Johnny Walker in the last month? Nope. What brands of whiskey do you prefer? Four roses, Macallan, 1792, Woodford Reserve).

They stamped our hands and we were led directly to the top floor, handed one token to exchange for one drink, a small selection of appetizers and told that we have a half hour to consume food and beverage before heading downstairs for a one hour presentation. I'm thinking "oh no, this is going to be like a time share presentation". They give you alcohol in exchange for wasting an hour of your life listening to a salesman sell you their product. We started looking for escape routes.

But then our "host" announced that we were in for a tasting treat of five of the Johnny Walker labels, So, we obligingly followed the masses like obedient lemmings to the presentation room where we were seated in neat rows of eight to 12 with three glasses of two gulps worth of liquor, a business card case, an eye dropper, a glass of water, four strawberries in a bowl, pepper in a dish and a mini Johnny Walker lapel pin. Huge projection screens covered the walls.

Each Johnny Walker label (black, red, gold, green, and blue) had it's own intro video and history told to us by the MC. We tasted all five labels, two of which were presented in different glasses by the "Johnny Walker" ladies complete with with the alcohol sniffing, water dilution, and strawberry with pepper test.

There were about 90+ of us and our photos were taken and will likely be used for their future marketing purposes. Upon leaving, my friend and I got our money's worth. We took the eye dropper and the prettiest glass they served our whiskey in. Johnny, we will keep walking, right out the door.