Review: Cruzan Estate Diamond Light Rum
Cruzan Estate Diamond Light Rum is one of three rums in their Distillers Collection. It is named after the original sugar mill that began crushing cane in 1760 at the current site of the Cruzan Rum Distillery. The rum is triple distilled in a five column continuous still and is a blend of rum that has been aged in American Oak Barrels for between 5-12 years. The rum is then charcoal filtered for a smoother cleaner finish, and to strip away the color. Read more 
Review: Jeds Hard Root Beer
Jeds Hard Root Beer was introduced in October. It is one of three hard soda’s they currently craft at the Matt Brewing Company in Utica New York. The others include Hard Black Cherry and Hard Orange Cream. The Matt Brewing Company is the fourth oldest family operated brewery in the US. The brewery was originally the Charles Bierbauer Brewery where Francis Xavier Matt was the lead salesmen and brew master after immigrating to the US in 1880 from Germany. By 1888 he reorganized and renamed the brewery the West End Brewing Company. Today the third and forth generation of the Matt family run the brewery now named the Matt Brewing Company where they produce the Saranac line of beer. During prohibition the brewery stayed afloat producing soft drinks under the Utica Club label. Today they still produce a line of soft drinks under the Saranac label. The brew masters at Matt created 43 recipes of hard root beer in the lab, before perfecting the current formula. Jeds Hard Root Beer is made with vanilla extract, birch oil, and anise, and is sold in six pack in several states in the Eastern US. Read more
Review: Karma Silver Tequila
Karma Silver Tequila was introduced in 2009. It is made with 100% Blue agave at a family owned and operated distillery using traditional methods that have been passed down for over 70 years. Once the agave pina’s have been hand selected they are slow cooked in special brick ovens. The extracted agave juice is fermented using natural ingredients and then small batch double distilled. Read more
Review: Don Q Limon Rum
Don Q Limon Rum was introduced in 1998. It was the first of four flavored rums created in Puerto Rico by the Serralles family. The other flavors include Coco, Mojito, and Pasion. The Serralles family has been distilling rum in Puerto Rico since 1865 using a copper pot still imported from France. Don Q Limon rum is made with the finest molasses, fresh volcanic mountain water from the Rio Inabon, and a unique strain of yeast kept active and in use for over 75 years. After fermentation the rum is distilled five times before aging up to 1 1/2 years in American White Oak barrels. The rum is charcoal filtered before Island Key Limes, tangy citrus, and natural essential flavors are infused. Read more
Best Tasting Spirits 2015 Trends of the Year
Best Tasting Spirits 2015 Trends of the Year is our take on what’s driving change as we say goodbye to 2015. It may be easier to create a cool product than to take a perceived dud, and make it cool again. That is exactly what happened with canned beer. This is not the first rodeo for canned beer. It was once the golden boy for brewers nationwide. The first canned beer was produced in 1935 by the American Can Company who partnered with the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company. Previous attempts to can beer had failed until American developed a tin can that was pressurized and had a special coating to prevent the beer from reacting with the tin. Partually driven by the fact that canned beer did not require a deposit, like bottled beer did, 200 million canned beers were sold in 1935. Canned beer remained cool for several decades. Beer can collections replaced baseball card collections as boys became men. Somewhere along the way canned beer became the vessel of choice reserved mostly for discount brews like 30 packs of Keystone Light. While major brewers like AB and Miller still canned some beer, consumers overwhelmingly preferred glass bottles. That all changed with the craft beer revolution. Read more
Review: Veil Coconut Vodka
Veil Coconut Vodka is one of 18 vodka flavors created by the Distiller Sales Company in Princeton Minnesota under the Veil label. I believe this is a private label brand of Total Wine and More. It is made with premium grains and pristine water and distilled five times and charcoal filtered. Coconut flavor is added before bottling at 70 proof. Read more
Best Tasting Spirits 2015 Ingredient of the Year
The Best Tasting Spirits 2015 Ingredient of the Year is Hops. While some may say this is several years late, my argument is, this is my first year of awards, and hops are still the most influential ingredient of 2015. Hops were first introduced into the brewing process of beer to balance the sweetness of malt. Hops also provided a natural preservative and their use resulted in less spoilage than the herbs they replaced. While used in all beers, IPA’s, Indian Pale Ales, are most responsible for the increased demand and price of hops. The IPA name comes from a brew developed by English brewers in the early 1800’s that added additional hops to with stand the long boat trip to India. Since then American craft brewers have built an entire movement on this small flavorful flower bud. Anchor Brewing is given credit for crafting the first modern IPA when they released their Liberty IPA. Vinnie Cilurzo the owner and Brew Master at Russian River Brewing Company was the first to make a double IPA when he was a brew master at the Blind Pig Brewing Company. Dogfish Head developed a continuous hopping process used to craft their 90 Minute IPA. These are just a few of the innovations that have resulted in 4144 breweries now in the US. This exceeds the previous record of 4131 set in 1873. Read more
Review: Henrys Hard Ginger Ale
Henrys Hard Ginger Ale was just introduced along with the previously reviewed Henrys Hard Orange Soda. While Ginger Beer originated in the UK in the Mid 1800th century, Hard Ginger Ale is riding the wave created by a tsunami named Not Your Fathers Root Beer. Ginger Beer, led by brands including Goslings, Barritts, Reeds, and Crabbies are typically mixed with dark rum to make a Dark and Stormy or with vodka and lime juice to create a Moscow Mule. Henrys Hard Ginger ale joins the previously released Coney Island Hard Ginger Ale, and Not Your Fathers Ginger Ale. Others will follow. Henrys is made by the Blitz-Weinhard Brewing Company, a division of Miller-Coors in Milwaukee Wisconsin with cane sugar and natural ingredients. The Henry’s name comes from Henry Weinhard a German immigrant who purchased a brewery in Portland Oregon in 1864, that was the longest continuous operated brewery in the West, when it was shut down following their acquisition, by the Miller Brewing Company in 1999. The brewery survived Prohibition by producing a line of soft drinks. Henry Weinhards soda is still sold today, although they do not offer a ginger ale flavor. Read more
Review: Fuzzys Ultra Premium Vodka
Fuzzys Ultra Premium vodka was introduced in 2009. The vodka was named for and created by PGA Golfer Fuzzy Zoeller. Fuzzy won 10 PGA Tournaments in his career including the 1979 Masters and 1984 US Open. Fuzzy spent four years creating this vodka that is made from American corn. It is distilled five times and then filtered 10 times through charcoal and crushed lava rock. After distilling, a portion of the distillate is rested in new oak barrels. Pure Cascade Mountain Spring water is blended with the spirit to reduce to 80 proof. Read more
Best Tasting Spirits 2015 Flavor of the Year
The Best Tasting Spirits 2015 Flavor of the Year is one of four awards we are announcing this year. While maybe unconventional the other three awards will be for Ingredient, Packaging Trend, and Product of the Year. As we close 2015, I would like to thank my readers for a year of exceeded goals, and milestones, including 900 reviews. The first of these awards is the 2015 Flavor of the Year. In March of 2015 I verbally awarded Grapefruit, the Flavor of the Year. By December I felt a little like Steve Harvey when I almost had to remove the crown from the Ruby Red head of grapefruit, and place it on the creamy head of Root Beer. In the end I decided to stay with Grapefruit. After a couple years of dominance by Cinnamon, with successive waves of Fireball and For finding out a solution to the sildenafil uk buy problem fast, but leave you to suffer lots of side effects. Yoga and meditation help a lot to keep the body and mind cialis 5mg discount in balanced condition. If the natural product discount viagra cialis does not respond to oral medications, they may try other treatment options. Paradoxically, these very men were responsible for the destruction of the organization’s culture and cialis prices in australia finally the organization itself. Rum Chata, along with their many clones, Grapefruit started 2015 with a bang. Read more