Review: Freeland Spirits Dry Gin and Geneva Gin
Open since 2017, Portland, Oregon’s all-women operation Freeland Spirits has come out with two new additions to its product line. Joining their standard gin and bourbon, Freeland Spirits is now making a Navy Proof Dry Gin and a product called Geneva, a genever-style gin. Let’s give them a try. Freeland Spirits Dry Gin – This…
Review: Hiyo Sparking Social Tonic, Complete Lineup
The sober-curious drink market continues to expand, featuring nootropics as the agent of mood-enhancement to forego the detrimental affect of alcohol, with the added claim of increased health benefits. (FYI – The FDA are warning against the proliferation of unsubstantiated claims surrounding nootropics. So to each their own.) Nootropics are a general category of drugs…
Review: Mythology Needle Pig Gin
If you thought spirits branding couldn’t get more inventive, you were very wrong. According to their press materials, Colorado’s Mythology Distillery is a small craft operation inspired by an Alaskan ski trip and a philosophy that we each form our own mythology through our travels and experiences. How that relates to a line of craft…
Review: Lazzaroni Amaro
Lazzaroni is best known as the creator of an impressive amaretto — in fact, the inventor of amaretto — but it turns out the Saronno-based operation also makes an amazing amaro, too, distinguished by its dark, nearly black bottle. There’s not a lot of info about its ingredients — made from a recipe that dates to…
Review: George Dickel Tennessee Whiskey Bottled in Bond 13 Years Old (2021)
In 2019, George Dickel impressed us so much with its 13-year-old Bottled in Bond that we put it in our Top 10 Whiskeys list for the year. In 2020, the distillery produced a very solid, if somewhat less balanced and slightly younger, sequel. Now, round three is hitting the shelves. Perhaps in response to some…
Review: J.R. Ewing Private Reserve Bourbon
J.R. Ewing might be fictional — and famously got shot — but that isn’t going to stop the man from releasing his own bourbon, a vanity project that is actually bottled in Dallas, Texas. J.R.’s bourbon launched in 2014 in a handful of markets. The distillate’s origins are unstated, but it’s said to be from…
Recipe: Oaxaca Old Fashioned
In the grand scheme of things, agave-based spirits haven’t been featured in many cocktails until pretty recently. Tequila went in a Margarita and the occasional Sunrise. Mezcal, if it was even on the shelf, went in a Paloma, and that was about the extent of it. Like so many cocktail trends, we can thank the…
Review: Chateau de Pellehaut Reserve Le Bel Age Armagnac
Pellehaut is an Armagnac producer with which I was unfamiliar before receiving a sample of its Reserve Le Bel Age bottling, which is made from a blend of ugni blanc and folle blanche grapes planted between 1990 and 1992. Aged for an average of 10 years in barrel, it isn’t billed as an XO though…
