Rated A
Reviews of spirits, wine, and beer (and various errata like mixers and garnishes) comprise more than 80% of the content at Drinkhacker, and the A rating represents the cream of the crop — excellent products with only minimal flaws. On a five-star scale, these products would score 4.5 stars. On the traditional 100-point scale popular with many wine and spirits graders, these products would merit scores of 94 to 97 points.
For 2025, Jack Daniel’s added two very different experimental whiskeys to its impressive Distillery Series: The first was a well-aged bottling of its classic Tennessee whiskey recipe, but with a rather important and unprecedented distinction. Jack begins each distilling season with a limited run of sweet mash to produce the setback needed for their standard…
Come mister tally man, tally me banana! Banana liqueur tends to be one of those unsung cocktail ingredients that few give much serious thought to. A splash of something yellow to give a cocktail a vague tropicality, right? Think again. Banana liqueur has entered its own small renaissance, and mixologists are discovering myriad uses for…
Providence’s Distillerie de Port-au-Prince is one of the smallest rum distilleries in the world, which means your chances of discovering its products are probably very low. The good news is that LM&V is bringing two expressions of the rum to the U.S., though it does not carry any of LM&V’s branding. We received small samples…
You’ve sifted through the bourbon offerings in the under $50 segment. What about something that’s a little more upmarket? Just a little more upscale than 50 bucks can get you? With this story, we’re raising the stakes on the best bourbons on the market, and setting our maximum price at $100. As you can imagine,…
As the wave of cannabis legalization washes over the United States, new variations of cocktails are emerging at a rapid clip. Here to help fuel the wave of weed-based innovation is Nowadays Cannabis Infused Beverage, a tart, fruit-forward infusion of low-dose or microdose cannabis that lends a refreshingly unusual flavor profile to the mixologists’ toolkit.…
We’re finally tucking into the second and final release of Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond from 2025, which as usual shipped late — in mid-December, though technically that’s still “Fall 2025.” As a refresher, Old Fitz bonded releases can range in age wildly, from 8 to 19 years (so far), but many of the more notable releases are…
Chip Tate entered the American whiskey conversation in 2008 with the founding of Balcones Distilling in Waco, Texas. Operating from a repurposed welding shop, Tate engineered and assembled his own copper stills, setting the stage for a hands on approach that quickly separated his work from established producers. At a moment when small scale distilling…
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…
Sazerac’s luxe Last Drop series is stuffed with whiskeys and brandies, but for its 40th entry into the series it’s turning to a new category: Tequila. The Last Drop No. 40 was created by Carmen Villarreal at Casa San Matías, where three very old barrels of tequila were blended to produce this release of 435…
Tomorrow is a California-based non-alcoholic wine brand, with a focus on “rethinking the entire winemaking process” and making NA products without additives. Instead, the operation focuses on particularly flavorful grapes like viognier and petite sirah. Its expressions are vintage dated, with fruit hailing from all over the state. Thoughts on the inaugural run of the…