Review: Dancing Pines Chai Liqueur
Believe it or not, Dancing Pines is not the first chai tea liqueur we’ve reviewed. That honor goes to Voyant, a cream-based liqueur so nice we named it our favorite liqueur of 2010. Dancing Pines is not cream-inclusive — it’s a straight, syrupy, brownish liqueur — and that alone is a curiosity. Chai — as…
Review: White Mule Farms Spodee — “Wine with a Kick”
According to White Mule Farms, the company behind the oddball Spodee, this, er, drinkable was a Depression-era concoction of wine mixed with herbs, spices, and moonshine. Sort of a ghetto version of Port, perhaps, from the sound of it. Spodee today seems to be perhaps a simpler product: Wine fortified with white whiskey, with chocolate…
Review: Ardbeg Galileo 1999
This Ardbeg bottling carries with it a story unique in my years of writing about whisky. I’ll let Ardbeg tell you about it in their own words. The whisky, named after Galileo, the father of modern astronomy, celebrates the first ever experiment undertaken by Ardbeg Distillery (or any other distillery for that matter) when Ardbeg…
Review: Buffalo Trace Distillery Single Oak Project Bourbon Round Six
At this point I think I’m the only person not employed by Buffalo Trace to continue the “Single Oak Project” experiment, but I remain excited by it and am committed to seeing it through. This month we look at the sixth round of Bourbons, now a year and a half into the four-year experiment to…
Review: High West American Prairie Reserve Bourbon
The whiskey just keeps pouring out of Utah’s High West. The company’s latest expression: A blend of straight Bourbons, bottled in honor of the American Prairie Reserve Foundation, which, when complete, will be the largest wildlife reserve in the lower 48 states (it’s 5000 square miles sprawling across Montana). Two bourbons are blended together to…
Review: Caffo Limoncino dell’Isola
The test of any lemoncello, I suppose, is how much it tastes like lemons. Judging from how much homemade lemoncello is poured in Italian bars, it can’t be tough to make, and most of it is pretty good. Caffe’s Limoncino dell’Isola is made from Calabria lemons and has nothing artificial inside. The color and haziness…
Review: Glenfiddich Malt Master’s Edition
This brand new, limited-edition whisky should be easier to find than the new 1974 edition, but with 18,000 bottles made, you’re not going to find it at Safeway. The Malt Master in question is Brian Kinsman, and this unique bottling is offered as an homage to Glenfiddich’s 125th anniversary. The company’s first double-matured spirit, this…
Review: Cruzan Single Barrel Rum
Cruzan is probably best known for its flavored rums, but it also dabbles in high-end products like this aged Single Barrel Rum. As the name suggests, this is a genuine single barrel rum, aged up to 12 years in St. Croix (part of the U.S. Virgin Islands) and bottled at 80 proof. Sounds good, but…
