Review: Angry Orchard Summer Honey
Angry Orchard Summer Honey hard cider was just released. It is one of three seasonal ciders they craft in Cincinnati and it is available from March-August each year. They start with apples picked fully ripe and then stored for up to one month in porous boxes to increase the sugar content. The apples are washed and shredded. Electric hydraulic presses are used to press the pulp into juice. Wine yeast is added to the juice and then a lengthy fermentation process follows where the cider is wood aged. Wildflower honey is added post fermentation. Read more 
Review: Smirnoff Lime Vodka
Smirnoff Lime vodka is one of 35 flavors they create with their Recipe 21 vodka as a base. It is made with Midwest grown grain and it is triple distilled and filtered ten times. Natural flavors including lime are infused before bottling at 70 proof. Read more
Review: The Real McCoy 3 Year Old Rum
The Real McCoy 3 year old rum was introduced November 2013. They also make a 5 and 12 year old rum. It is named after Bill McCoy the pioneer rum runner of the prohibition era. He operated a legal floating liquor store 3 miles off the coast of New York selling rum sourced from Barbados. It is crafted at the Four Square Distillery in Barbados, at the same distillery that supplied rum to Bill McCoy. It is made with black strap molasses, a proprietary strain of yeast, and pure spring water. It is small batch, single distilled in a combination of column and pot stills. The rum is aged 3 years in American oak bourbon barrels, and then charcoal filtered to remove the color. No sugar or flavors are added. Read more
Review: Three Olives Citrus Vodka
Three Olives Citrus vodka was introduced September 2005. It is one of 28 flavors Three Olives creates with English winter wheat and water from Lake Vyrnmy in Wales. It is quadruple distilled and triple charcoal filtered. Natural lemon and lime flavor is infused in Lawrenceburg Indiana. Read more
Review: Hangar One Kaffir Lime Vodka
Hangar One Kaffir Lime vodka is one of four vodka flavors they make in small batches from a blend of pot distilled Viognier grapes and column distilled American wheat. The whole fruit and leaves of Kaffir lime trees are then macerated and infused. The Kaffir lime is native to Indonesia and it is easily identified by it’s bumpy skin. Read more
Review: Gera Premium Vodka
Gera Premium Vodka is made in Lithuania with wheat and water that has been filtered through reverse osmosis. Gera has developed a eight step process they use to craft their vodka and they have named it Octal. This process includes saturating the vodka with oxygen and filtering three times through carbon filters at very low temperatures. Read more
Review: Pinnacle Pomegranate Vodka
Pinnacle Pomegranate vodka was one of eight vodka flavors Pinnacle introduced in 2008. As far as years go, it wasn’t a successful year of flavor introductions for Pinnacle as five of the eight flavors are no longer produced. Pomegranate, Le Double Espresso, and Mango are the three remaining members of that class. It is one of over 40 flavors Pinnacle currently makes with French grown wheat that is distilled five times. Pure French spring water is added before it is shipped to Frankfort Kentucky where natural flavors are added. Read more
Review: Shellback Silver Rum
Shellback Silver Rum was introduced in 2012. It is part of E&J Gallo’s growing line of spirits that includes New Amsterdam Vodka, and Gin, and Camarena Tequila. The Shellback name comes from a term used to call sailors who had crossed the equator. It is made in Barbados at the West Indies Rum Distillery. If the name sounds familiar it is where Malibu and Cockspur Rum is created. The West Indies Rum Distillery has a history dating back to 1893 when the Stades Brothers built the distillery to create rum to ship back to their native Germany. Shellback Silver is made with Caribbean sugarcane that is pressed into molasses. Yeast is added to the molasses and after fermentation it is distilled and then aged for 12 months in American white oak barrels formerly used to age American Whiskey. The rum is then charcoal filtered to a clear color before bottling at 80 proof. Read more
Review: Pearl Cucumber Vodka
Pearl Cucumber vodka was introduced in 2008. It is one of 18 flavored vodka’s they craft in micro batches in Alberta Canada with pure water from Canadian Rocky Mountain streams and soft Canadian winter wheat. It is distilled 5 times and filtered 6 times before natural flavors including cucumber are infused. Read more
Review: Brinley Gold Lime Rum
Brinley Gold Lime rum is one of six flavored rums made in St Kitts, the smallest country in the Western Hemisphere, by the Brinley family. They have been crafting rum since 2002. The rum is column distilled and aged for four years in oak bourbon barrels. It is then infused with natural Tahitian lime juice before being bottled at 72 proof. While I still find Brinley Gold Lime rum on the occasional liquor store shelf, it no longer appears on the Brinley web site, so availability is limited. Read more