Tasting Report: WhiskyFest San Francisco 2011
WhiskyFest remains the whiskey enthusiast’s festival to beat. With hundreds of whiskeys, it is a mad dash for all sorts of great stuff — if only you can find it in the scattered auditorium and muscle your way to the front of the line. Don’t worry, you can do it, and even though the 2011…
Review: High Liquors High Whiskey
High Liquors — not to be confused with High West — is as enigmatic as its imposing, monolith-shaped bottle. Pick it up and you’ll find few clues about its provenance… and fortunately we were lucky enough to talk to the company’s founders, Brad Wright and Chris Lawson, to figure out exactly where this whiskey came…
Review: Firefly Sweet Tea Bourbon
Firefly’s Sweet Tea Vodka was a pioneer in the tea-flavored vodka space. The South Carolina-based company has since expanded with multiple varieties (peach, mint, lemon, low-cal)… and now there’s this: Firefly Sweet Tea Bourbon. This category already exists (Jeremiah Weed has a stellar one), so the company has competition. Firefly’s version blend’s Buffalo Trace whiskey…
Halloween Cocktail Recipes
The time of year is upon us for cauldron’s full of bubbly and foul-looking stuff… designed to woo the grown-ups at the Halloween party instead of the kiddoes. These cocktail (the term is used loosely here) recipes come variously to us courtesy of Kanon Vodka and Shindigz. Kanon Vodka Witches Brew 2 parts Kanon Vodka…
Review: Pama Pomegranate Liqueur
Pama’s a brand that’s been around for years, but to my knowledge it is the only pomegranate liqueur on the market. Why no competition? Because the popular way to get pomegranate into a drink — overwhelmingly — is via that classic bar standby: Grenadine. Now the catch is this: Rose’s Grenadine, by far the most…
Strawberries Save Stomach from Booze
Who knew the humble strawberry could be so impressive? In an experiment on rats, European researchers have proved that eating strawberries reduces the harm that alcohol can cause to the stomach mucous membrane. Published in the open access journal Plos One, the study may contribute to improving the treatment of stomach ulcers. What then does…
Review: Qream Peach Creme Liqueur
Here is proof that not all musicians are required to lend their name to a cheap Cognac. Pharrell Williams’ creation is Qream, a pair of cream liqueurs flavored with either peaches or strawberries. I don’t know who out there is clamoring for fruit-flavored cream liqueurs, but here we have it. We tasted only the peach…
Review: Rich & Rare Reserve Blended Canadian Whisky
Sazerac’s Rich & Rare Canadian Whisky is a fast-growing brand — the fastest-growing U.S.-bottled Canadian brand last year — but one that is available in only about a dozen states right now. It’s also dirt cheap: The standard bottling sells for about $7.50. The line is already expanding to add a Reserve bottling which will…
