Spirits
Spirits are beverages made by the process of distillation. The “Spirits” category is not commonly used at Drinkhacker because the vast majority of reviews we publish fall into this category. It is used only occasionally to help organize our category list (and mainly gets clicked by accident).
A couple of years ago, Stranahan’s opened a tasting room and restaurant in nearby Aspen, and your prize for trekking out here is access to its “Aspen Exclusive” releases, one-off releases that come out roughly annually and which are only available here. The first Aspen Exclusive was a Calvados-finished single malt; this second release, which…
The trilogy is finally complete as we look at the last expression in the Mijenta tequila lineup, following its blanco and reposado. It’s a complex spirit (from a newly minted B Corp), so let’s dig into the details: Mijenta Añejo Gran Reserva is an eighteen-month aged expression of the brand’s award-winning, sustainable, and artisanal Mijenta Blanco.…
Madre Mezcal continues to innovate with this new line extension from its ensamble offering, an “Ancestral” bottling made from Espadin and Tobasiche agave. (Note the bottle now reads “and” instead of “y.”) What’s an “Ancestral” mezcal? It all has to do with how it’s made: What makes Madre Ancestral unique is that compared to most…
This new line of tequilas comes from the Jalisco Highlands — said to be harvested from land held by a single family for more than 200 years — and is imported into and distributed from Houston, Texas. All three expressions are of course 100 percent agave and 80 proof. NOM 1460. Updated 2026 with the…
El Mayor has long been a favorite tequila of Drinkhacker, and it’s also one of the most innovative kids on the block. Its series of special editions is unmatched in depth and breadth, and its latest offering continues its run of creativity, using coffee beans to give a reposado a racy twist. How it works…
It took a while, but cult Kentucky whiskey brand Willett is finally delivering a reasonably-priced, everyday expression of their Family Estate label bourbon. In recent years, we’ve seen more and more of these so-called “purple top” offerings from the distillery but in pricey single barrel form, showcasing the house-distilled bourbons that fans of Willett’s older,…
For reasons entirely accidental, I nearly became a Dry January participant. A string of family health scares has a way of recalibrating priorities, and when paired with ice storms so aggressive they felt rude and very personal, usual routines fell into a holding pattern. Drinks were skipped, bottles gathered dust, and restraint made an unscheduled…
The Don Julio distillery, La Primavera, does not offer public tours. They are a working distillery dedicated to making 100% Blue Weber agave tequila. But they do periodically open their doors to members of the press. One of our staff visited the distillery in the Highlands of Jalisco in 2018, and I recently had the…
La Maison & Velier’s Habitation Velier is an especially unusual collection of rums from a bottler that’s already known for its out-of-the-ordinary offerings. The range, which currently spans 45 releases, is designed to be educational in nature, designed to showcase the power of pot distillation and how it varies from one producer (and region) to…
American Harvest Vodka hails from Idaho, and that means it’s gotta be made from potatoes, amirite? Sorry, folks: This is a red winter wheat distillate, organic and non-GMO at that, proofed with local water drawn from the Snake River Plain. No additives. American Harvest Vodka Review The nose of the vodka is extremely clean, ethanol…