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).
Like this. San Francisco’s Waterbar serves this $20 “Ultimate” Bloody Mary, which largely speaks for itself. The garnishes — bacon and two jumbo boiled shrimp — steal the show, but the Bloody itself is darn good, too. Belevedere Vodka — not my favorite on its own — works fine with this superb blend of tomato…
Don’t laugh. Canadian Mist may not be a top-shelf name in the Canadian whisky world, but the spirit’s been picking up some surprising awards, including a Double Gold Medal at the San Francisco Spirits Competition this year — the only Canadian to win one in 2009. Not bad for whisky that costs 10 bucks a…
One way to sell your product is to tout its ancient recipe, artisan craftsmanship, and so on. Another way is to tell the world how long it took you devise the concoction. In the case of Love Potion #9, the company notes that “almost 1,800 trial-and-error formulations [were experimented with] before its blend of 20…
Vintage tequila? You betcha. Tequila Ocho produces tequilas in individually numbered bottles and dated to the vintage of the agave harvest from the estate in question. It’s said to be the first single-estate tequila to be released in the U.S. — bringing to the tequila world what has worked (and worked well) for wine. We…
If we strictly reviewed packaging here, well, we’d have some choice words about the bottle for Spirit of Liberty, which is mostly comprised of a plastic Statue of Liberty atop a small vial of bourbon cream liqueur. I’m not sure what those words might be yet, but I will note that it’s available in larger…
As promised, we’re back with another ridiculously expensive, very rare Scotch whisky — Laphroaig’s 25-year-old limited edition, weighing in at $500 even. I have to say, I’ve always wondered what old Laphroaig would taste like, and my curiosity is now sated: It’s amazing. With this 25-year Islay whisky, all that harsh, oil-fire phenol that’s part…
It’s not every day a $450 Scotch lands on the doorstep. Today we got two (though Laphroaig’s 25 Year Old, to be reviewed tomorrow, is actually $500). Ardmore’s 30-year Highland (Speyside) Scotch (I believe there’s only been one other 30-year-old Ardmore released to date) is an amazing treat. Here we have everything malt whisky should…
Now is not a good time for the pistachio, what with the salmonella and the recall and such. But pistachio lovers can still get their fix — in alcoholic liquid form — thanks to Dumante Verdenoce, an intriguing and quite addictive new liqueur. Dumante is a sweet nut liqueur in the vein of Frangelico or…
I pity the bartender that sells both Koruna and Corona, but after a glass or two of this top-notch absinthe, I expect the drinker won’t have much of a problem making his requests known. Koruna, a “bohemian absinth” — using the alternate spelling — from the Czech Republic, makes its intentions well-known from the label,…
We’ve looked at Michael Collins’ blended Irish before, and now we turn our attention to the distillery’s single malt, presumably a higher class of spirit and one which is winning lots of awards these days in spirits competitions. On first blush, I found Collins’ single malt hotter than expected, with a distinct alcohol kick at…