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How Old Forester Master Taster Balances Raising The Bar And A Little Boy

This article is more than 6 years old.

Courtesy of Jacquelyn Zykan

Jacquelyn Zykan drinks like it’s her job – because, well, it is. The 33-year-old from Louisville, KY, is the Master Taster for Old Forester.

While her job title sounds like an after-hours gig, Zykan’s days are full (much like her glasses of whiskey). Between tastings, conducting master level trainings and overseeing brand drink strategy, she juggles raising her four-year-old son, responding to emails (like the rest of us!) and working out in barre class.

Her background is in biology and chemistry, along with CSS training – which lead to serving as the face of the brand and traveling the world on its behalf.

Being in the bourbon world can get busy, so we asked Zykan to share a typical outline of her day, to see how she balances it all.

6 a.m. – Wake up, catch up on overnight emails

“I’m the biggest morning person – ever. It’s a curse. The first thing I do in the morning before anything else is catch up on emails, from all the other time zones, that I missed. [Emails are] about 1,000 different things. They’re about single barrel programs, because I run that program for our team, different events that we have coming up, different market visits that are being requested, different meetings that we have, and product innovation.”

6:30 a.m. – Breakfast

“I eat the exact same thing every morning. I eat bacon, eggs and avocado smothered in hot sauce because it keeps me full all day long. I eat a lot of fat and a lot of protein. I have a four year old and this single mother life. French toast for Bennett [my son].”

8:00 a.m. – Take Bennett to school

8:45 a.m. – Barre 3 workout

10:00 a.m. – Arrive at the office

10:30 a.m. – Meeting about new distillery bar design

11:30 a.m. – Meeting about product innovation

“I usually have meetings until lunch about the same general things. We have a new distillery that’s going to be open soon. Meetings regarding [Kentucky] Derby are starting to hit the schedule. All in all, marketing meetings for the brand and product innovation for the production side of it.”

10:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays – Tasting panel

“10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. are a sweet spot for my palate. It’s my highest sensitivity for tasting times. I try to have my tastings around then. A lot of it is aromatic – pass that checkmark first, and then it gets down to the tasting, after it’s matured. The earliest I do it is 9:30 a.m., if I’m in the warehouse. In the office: 10:30 a.m.”

12:30 p.m. – Lunch

“I usually cram that in at my desk as quickly as I possibly can. It’s a very quick salad. Sometimes we get out and about and support the accounts [restaurants and bars] around town who support Old Forester. We do get out quite a bit.”

1:00 p.m. – Arrive at warehouse to pull between 31 and 93 single barrel samples

“That could be anywhere from 31 – that’s the minimum number – up to 93 samples in one day. That’s just pulling straight into a barrel head and pulling without bottling it, labeling it, numbering it and heading back to the office to smell. It’s really challenging to differentiate between certain elements when you are in a warehouse and it’s so alcohol-flavor saturated. You cannot smell anything.”

2:30 p.m. – Back at office for descriptive analysis tasting panel

“It will take me an hour or so to actually pull, and then, twice a week we have a tasting panel of what we call ‘descriptive analysis’ for the gamut of products out there, not just our products.” The ‘DA panel’, as they call it, is a select group of sensory folks that get together to catalog products on the market to stay in the know.

3:30 p.m. – Record proofs and flavor profiles for freshly pulled barrel samples

“I’ll sit down with all the fresh single barrel samples so we can pay taxes on them and write up preliminary tasting notes for every single one of them. For the single barrel program, we send out samples all across the country in three sample sets. I like to make sure they’re not three of the same tasting barrels. It’s always important to do that after lunch – even if you spit! I spit everything. Even if you do, after that many samples, you need to go for a walk and get outside for a second.”

Courtesy of Jacquelyn Zykan

4:30 pm – Pick up Bennett from school

5:00 p.m. – Make dinner for Bennett

“A lot of days, there are events that go after-hours, because we are in the whiskey industry. I wait for the sitter.”

6:00 p.m. – Host bourbon affairs

“Dinners are a huge thing, and tastings at liquor stores. There are cocktail competitions. I’d like to say I get a dinner out of it, but usually you don’t because you’re talking the whole time – hence the reason for loading up on 2,000 calories every morning.”

8:30 p.m. – Home for Bennett’s

“I always make sure – if it’s in my power – to get home to do story time and round it [the day] that way.”

9:30 p.m. – Email catch up, supplements and detox tea, bedtime

“If I can be in bed as early as possible – 9:30 p.m. / 10 p.m. Sleep is super key… and detox tea, every single night before I go to bed.”

Despite long and busy days of working, and (work) drinking, and working some more, the single mom makes time for her son and herself -- dropping Bennett off at school, making him dinner and going to barre class. Having a jam-packed schedule is easier when it's more routine, but having help (like a babysitter) makes life a bit more fluid. Being excited about bourbon is key and makes teaching others more enjoyable.

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