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).
Named after a famous battle in Ireland (the one in which King Boru, another bit of history that’s become a liquor brand, died), Clontarf produces two Irish whiskeys, a blend and a single malt. Here’s the blend, which is a perfectly acceptable Irish, a light honey and butterscotch spirit that goes down with minimal fuss.…
That extra H can only mean one thing: Martinique rum, or rhum, as the locals like to call it. Depaz is arguably the biggest name in rhum agricole, with Depaz Blue Cane a staple even on supermarket shelves. The aroma is quite pungent, unmistakably sugar cane with a bit of cachaca-like funk to it. The…
The folks at Yahoo! Shine asked me to come up with an “Obamatini” in honor of Barack Obama’s inauguration next Tuesday. Rather than slop some liquor into a cocktail glass and color it blue, here’s an honest cocktail that will let you celebrate the occasion in style! For an authentic Hope and Glory, all the…
I’m on record as being a fan of Jim Beam as a totally solid, affordable bourbon, so I had to snag a bottle of Jim Beam Distillers Series — a reserve bottling, if you will — when I heard it was being produced. This new, limited-edition bottle features a line-art representation of each of the…
Something off the beaten path… I was inspired by lemon meringue pie. I like it quite a bit! The Lemony Snicket 3/4 oz. vodka 3/4 oz. lemon-infused vodka 1/2 oz. Navan vanilla liqueur 1/2 oz. Damiana herbal liqueur 1 oz. milk or cream Build in a rocks glass over ice. Stir and serve.
With its big, fat bottle and giant picture of Kentucky on the label, Pure Kentucky doesn’t look from a distance like anything you’d slap an “XO” label on, even as a joke. But this is real, serious bourbon, a whiskey that sweet tooths will love and other bourbon fans can also enjoy. Aged 10 years…
We’ve been cooking up a lot of these lately. Recipe courtesy Flor de Cana rum. Chichigalpo Old Fashioned 2 oz. Flor de Cana 18 year old rum 1 teaspoon maple syrup 2 dashes orange bitters 1 dash Fee’s Barrel Aged bitters (don’t have ’em, subbed Fee’s Old Fashion or Angostura) Stir and strain into a…
Easy to find and almost as easy to drink, Glenmorangie‘s entry-level whisky is a solid and affordable entree into the world of Scotch. Glenmorangie is often noted for its floral character, but here you’ll find a surprising saltiness that interplays in an intriguing way with the caramel and honey notes of from the wood in…
Scapa is a relatively small outfit on Orkney Island, which is why Scapa gets to put the awesome word “Orcadian” on its label. Inside the bottle is a 16-year-old Scotch, which replaces the distillery’s 14-year single malt (which, in turn, replaced the distillery’s 12-year-old). Scapa’s just a one-whisky outfit, it seems. This is a racy…
Your excitement about getting a bottle of this “single barrel” whiskey from Jack Daniel’s may dim somewhat when you read the lengthy alphanumeric code identifying the barrel from which it came. In my case, I’m sampling barrel number 7-4229 from rick number L-35 (warehousing information). So, yes, it’s from a single barrel… but we’re talking…