Review: Beers of Hop Butcher for the World, 2021 Releases
The curiously named brewery Hop Butcher for the World can be found in Bedford Park, Illinois. The focus here is on unusual brews and especially unusual hops; the sextet of beers reviewed below include some hop varieties I’d never heard of. Let’s try them. Hop Butcher for the World Choice Stock – Brewed with unusual…
Review: Old Line Spirits Single Malt and Single Malt Cask Strength
Arch Watkins and Mark McLaughlin, the founders of Baltimore’s Old Line Distillery, set out in 2015 to make bourbon and rye, like so many upstart craft producers, but along the way they ended up with a sizeable portfolio of American single malts and rums. What happened? As the story goes, they were approached by the…
Review: Smirnoff Spicy Tamarind Vodka
My tamarind fandom is well documented, so naturally when Smirnoff released a tamarind-flavored vodka, I was ready to give it a try. This bottling was originally exclusive to Mexico, where the tamarind is king, but recently it arrived in the U.S., complete with a spooky glows-under-black-light label. As cool as the label is, it’s the…
Review: Bowmore 30 Years Old 2021
Islay’s iconic Bowmore is adding a new whisky to its lineup, a 30 year old bottling which will be sold as an annual release. This 2021 bottling was distilled in 1989, aged for three decades in a combination of sherry hogsheads and bourbon barrels. Per the company, “It is matured in the legendary Bowmore No.…
Review: Biza Sparkling Cocktails
Depending on how you frame the question and with whom you are speaking, the answer to “What is Ibiza?” could be twofold: a magical island filled with kindhearted soul searchers steeped in tradition, mysticism and unparalleled beauty both in spirit and physical. Or it’s a place where Europeans go for weeks on end during their…
The Best Amaretto and Almond Liqueur Roundup – 7 Brands Tasted, 1 Winner
Amaretto has been part of the cocktail world since at least 1851, when history says the liqueur was invented. While amaretto — Italian for “a little bitter,” a diminutive of amaro — is now thought of as an almond-flavored spirit, the reality is that most amaretti do not contain any almonds at all. What they’re going…
Review: Wines of Marshall Davis, 2021 Releases
Yamhill, Oregon-based Marshall Davis makes a variety of Oregon-iconic wines, but we’ve only covered its rose in the past. Now we’re digging into more of the lineup, including a new vintage of the rose as well as a chardonnay and pinot noir. 2019 Marshall Davis Chardonnay Yamhill-Carlton AVA – Somehow this wine, which apparently is…
Review: Writers’ Tears Cask Strength Irish Whiskey 2020
Writers’ Tears is rightfully renowned as one of the most approachable yet effusive Irish whiskeys on the market. So… what if we took the gentle Writers’ Tears and bottled it at cask strength. What then? This vintage dated expression — 2020 in this tasting — of Writers’ Tears (which now formally features proper punctuation in…
