A Wooden Stick to Age Your Whiskey

Creators of the Whiskey Element claim their wooden stick will “age” your-run-of-the-mill whiskey purchase and make it top shelf in a matter of hours.  So far, 3,808 people agree and have contributed $141,588 (as of writing) to their Kickstarter fund.  Their goal was $18,000.

Whiskey ages in barrels and picks up the flavors of the wood.  Choice of wood is very specific on the part of the master distiller and the longer it stays in the barrel, the better the flavor and mellowness.   However, this gizmo is designed to speed up the contact between the wood and the whiskey. The process is described as follows on the Kickstarter page:

“We designed this product to take advantage of transpiration through capillary action that provided a shorter distance for whiskey to travel through its repetitive exposure to the capillaries by cutting it horizontally. We call this process ‘accelerated transpiration through capillary action’.”

Time & Oak, the company behind Whiskey Element, will be offering sticks with specific flavors such as Vanilla Oak and Smooth Maple.  Dunk a stick in a decanter of whiskey and within 24 hours it will have “aged” three years.  The results have been lab tested they claim.   It could work.  The wine industry has been using oak chips for years, especially in less expensive wines, to impart an oak flavor.