Wouldn't both glasses of brandy have "tasted a bit shit"?

Question

During Kingsman: The Secret Service, when Eggsy talks to Arthur, Arthur offers him a special brandy. He pours it from a single bottle into two empty glasses he has on the table.

Eggsy swaps the two glasses so that he gets the one Arthur intended for himself and Arthur gets the one he intended for Eggsy.

One is for Eggsy and one for himself. They both drink from their glasses.

Eggsy remarks that he thinks the brandy he got "tasted a bit shit", which references a previous scene indicating there's more than just brandy in his glass. That indicates that he is going to die.

Which however is just a distraction to make Arthur believe his plan to kill Eggsy is working out. In the end Arthur kills himself.

Now my question is, aren't the two glasses identical because the liquid came from the same bottle? If Eggsy's brandy tasted a bit shit, wouldn't Arthur's taste a bit shit just the same?

How does swapping the glasses actually make a difference in this situation?

Answer 1

I rewatched the scene and agree: There's little chance Arthur could slip the poison in. We see it unfold in real time and his hands and the glass are always visible either to us or to Eggsy, except for the time that Eggsy distracts him and switches the glasses. And since Arthur wouldn't want to poison himself, there's also little chance that the poison was in the bottle. So that really leaves us with the option that the glass was already laced with poison, like the other answer says, which isn't farfetched because this is a snifter with a concave, opaque bottom. A tiny dose of poison would probably go undetected.

So the most sensible scenario is that Arthur knew Eggsy was coming (either Eggsy called ahead or Arthur was notified he's in the building) since we see that he's already laid out 2 glasses in advance, and one of them was already poisoned somehow because Arthur wanted to control Eggsy and kill him if he won't go along with Valentine's plan. In fact, it's possible Arthur did it to the other Kingsmen too just before this scene (since he says they all drank a toast to Harry just now) and then decided to deal with Eggsy in the same manner.

Answer 2

My thought is that the GLASS was poisoned, not the alcohol. Perhaps in the bottom of the glass intended for Eggsy, there was a small bit of powder, or the inside of the glass was coated with a clear poison. When the alcohol touched it, the poison would liquefy in the alcohol and be consumed.

Answer 3

I always thought he said this because he just finds whisky a bit shit. Considering he's from a pretty poor walk of life, he probably hadn't tasted whisky, let alone good whisky before.

I always perceived his reaction as more of a Oh, whisky tastes shit rather than Oh, this specific brand of whisky tastes funny, that's unsual.

"A bit shit" in this case just means it tasted terrible to him. Arthur may very well enjoy/appreciate good whisky.

Answer 4

Now my question is, aren't the two glasses identical because the liquid came from the same bottle?

The liquid poured from the bottle might be identical, but the contents of the glasses, not. Obviously, only one glass was poisoned. Whether he slipped something in while or after pouring, or whether there was already something in one of the glasses before pouring, the clear intent was to poison Eggsy and not himself. This is confirmed when only one of them dies after they both drink.

The contents were of the glasses were not the same. It's a very, very simple and straightforward concept, and I'm not sure why it requires a Q and A about it.

As to why Arthur didn't notice because his would have tasted poorly after the swap, that was just Eggsy being a smart-ass. Obviously he has no knowledge of whether the poison caused the taste of the brandy to be noticeably off, because he never drank any poisoned liquor, and has no frame of reference to make that claim.

Swapping glasses obviously makes a huge difference if only one is poisoned.