Review: Lark Single Malt Australian Whisky
Folks are making whiskey all over the world, even in far-flung places like Tasmania, Australia, where Lark Whiskey hails from. The company makes a variety of spirits but the highlights are three single cask, single malt whiskeys produced in the Scottish style of Islay, with local barley and, yes, Tasmanian peat over which it is…
Review: Pisa Nut Liqueur
Kudos to Pisa for the unique — if obvious — bottle design here: The Italian nut-flavored liqueur’s decanter needs absolutely no introduction. A member of the Amaretto/Frangelico family, Pisa is unique in that it’s flavored with three different nuts: hazelnut, almond, and pistachio. And Pisa really does, surprisingly, have elements of all three. I’d say…
Review: Small Hand Foods Gum Syrups
The thing about gomme (awesome word) is that when you’re perusing cocktail recipe books, everything seems to call for it. But when you actually get some gomme, you can’t find a thing to make with the stuff. I’ve had Small Hand Foods’ line of gommes, or gum syrups, sitting on the counter of Drinkhacker HQ…
Review: Bols Sweet Tea Liqueur
Don’t have any sweet tea vodka on hand (that’s odd, because there are nearly a dozen brands of the stuff on the market now)? Now you can easily fake your own, thanks to Bols Sweet Tea Liqueur. Bols Sweet Tea Liqueur, as the name would imply, is the essence of tea boiled down into a…
Review: Treaty Oak Platinum Rum
Texas isn’t a region one typically associates with rum production, but what the hell: It’s hot, and there’s plenty of sugar to go around. (Imperial Sugar is based here, after all.) Graham Barnes names Treaty Oak Rum after a famous tree in its hometown of Austin, and is made from all-Texas ingredients (which, in the…
Review: Hardy Vanille Cognac & Vanilla
Flavored cognac is not exactly a big market, but let’s run with it (particularly since a reader requested coverage of this very spirit): A. Hardy blends authentic, French, 8-year old Hardy VSOP Cognac with natural vanilla (plus caramel color) to come up with, well, a vanilla-flavored Cognac. Bottled at 80 proof, if nothing else it…
The Poor Stay Poor, the Rich Get Lit
Want to drink better? Stay in school. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that spending on booze is strongly correlated with education. Not, perhaps, because the more educated someone is (and, thus, the richer they are) drink more… but rather that they simply drink better. Related posts: Review: The Macallan Harmony Collection Rich Cacao…
“Batching” Bourbon with Woodford Reserve Master Distiller Chris Morris
Recently I had the opportunity to make my own Bourbon. No, I didn’t distill it, age it, or bottle it. I did the hard part: Batching it. Woodford Reserve’s Master Distiller Chris Morris was in town to talk shop, and I had the good fortune to be able to attend an experiment that, for Morris,…
