Book Review: Batch Cocktails
What’s the difference between a batch cocktail and a punch? Nothing really, except perhaps for scale. In Maggie Hoffman’s slim but well-tuned Batch Cocktails, each recipe will net you about 8 to 12 servings from a 2-quart pitcher. Perfect for a sizable dinner party, but if you want to host a rager, you’ll need to triple…
Review: Old Forester The 117 Series – 1910 Extra Old
Round three of Old Forester’s 117 Series, which is cooked up by OldFo Master Taster Jackie Zykan, has arrived. The 1910 Extra Old bottling is a spin on Old Forester’s highly likable 1910 Old Fine Whisky release. It’s “Extra Old” because it spends an additional 18 months in the heavy-char barrel in which 1910 is…
Review: Elysian Dank Dust
One of my favorite beers ever is Elysian Brewing’s Space Dust — and I’m clearly not alone on that opinion of the Seattle-based operation’s flagship beer. Well, here comes a Space Dust spinoff: Dank Dust. It uses the same hops — Chinook, Citra, and Amarillo — has the same abv, and the same IBU level.…
Review: Tequila Partida Elegante
Elegante is arguably Partida’s most elevated offering, an extra anejo — and not a cristalino, mercifully — that spends 40 months in oak before bottling. While many extra anejos are ultra-sweet desserts in a glass, Elegante manages to keep agave clearly in its sights. The nose is peppery and green, buttressed by coconut and caramel,…
Review: Merlet Creme de Melon Charentais
Essentially a liqueur made from a French varietal of cantaloupe, this lightly golden liqueur is evocative of melon, but it takes its time to get there. The nose and attack are aggressively sweet, floral, almost perfumed, with an indistinct note of candied melon. The palate showcases the cantaloupe a bit more clearly, but it’s muddied…
Review: Talisker 30 Years Old (2021)
Talisker has quietly dropped a 30 year old release, turned out from refill bourbon casks and bottled in late 2021 at cask strength — a whopping 48.5% abv. Only 3216 bottles were produced, with 498 available in the U.S., so if this sounds enticing, you should probably hop on it. 30 years hasn’t dampened the…
Review: Mocktails Ready-To-Drink Non-Alcoholic Cocktails
Mocktails (the beverage company) hails from the UK and has recently expanded into the U.S. with its offering of non-alcoholic ready-to-drink, well, mocktails. There are no artificial flavors nor high-fructose corn syrup in the drinks (and, of course, no alcohol), and they are certainly not shy about literally and figuratively going the distance to source…
Review: Castle & Key Restoration Rye Single Barrel and Batch 3 (2021)
Early last year, Rob covered the first two Restoration Rye releases out of Castle & Key, one of Kentucky’s newest and most talked about distilleries painstakingly resurrected from an iconic and historic site (for that backstory, see Rob’s review). In 2021, the distillery debuted three new batches of Restoration Rye in limited quantities over the…
