Everyone who knows me knows I love whiskey. Bourbon, Irish, Scotch, Rye…. It also is welcome to me. This summer, I enjoyed a great deal of Kentucky classic’s, especially Knob Creek and Harper’s. A liquor store near my office is sellingContinue readingRefreshing Drinks to Beat the August Heat
Gin has had a weird and wild ride over the past 500 years. The Dutch were producing the piney drink in the 1500s, but adding herbs to liquor is a tradition that goes back further still to the tinkering ofContinue readingNew Gin for the 21st Century
There is a bottle that sits on my desk which serves as irrefutable proof that less regulation is better than more. Pull the stopper top and a remarkable aroma plumes forth. “I’d wear this as cologne,” a colleague remarked. He’sContinue readingGin and Regulation: A Lesson in a Bottle
From 35 Maple Street Spirits of Bend, Oregon comes… Uncle Val’s Peppered Gin. This grain-based spirit is five times distilled and spiced with red peppers, black peppers, and pimento. Whoa. Once we try it, we will report back.
Gin from California? Why the Hell not. This spirit is, as advertised, “exceptionally smooth.” It is a modest 80 proof, the typical potency for dpirits, but a bit less potent than many gins. (Beefeater, for example, is 94 proof, andContinue readingNew Amsterdam Gin No. 485
This batch of standard Green Hat gin weighs in at 83.3 proof. (A more high octane navy strength version also is made.) Like Death’s Door, which was ballyhooed here a short time back, Green Hat very much is not aContinue readingGreen Hat Gin