Review: Colina Colada
Colina Colada is made with 100% Caribbean rum blended with fresh dairy cream, cinnamon, lemon and other unique natural spices. Created in honor of his bride, Don Colina crafted this decadent spirit to serve his wedding guests to represent their first kiss. Today, Don Colina’s son Carlos and a skilled artisan distiller use his fathers centuries old family recipe in creating Colina Colata. Colina Colada is blended and produced with Friesland Campinas Creamy Creations by Rhino Global Enterprises and hand bottled in Riviera Beach Florida. Read more 
Review: Party Animal Vodka
Party Animal Vodka was launched February 2018. Kate Cullen the brand founder and CEO first came up with the concept of creating a vodka that stood for a cause while she was a college student at Chapman University in Orange California. A portion of every bottle purchased will be donated to various wild and domestic animal foundations. Party Animal is made from Idaho Russet Potatoes and pristine water originating in the Teton Mountains. It is distilled and bottled by Distilled Resources in Rigby Idaho. This wind and solar powered distillery also produces the previously reviewed Square One, Blue Ice, American Harvest, 44 North, and Zodiac vodka’s. Read more
Review: Trader Joes Golden Vale Irish Cream Liqueur
Trader Joes Golden Vale Irish Cream Liqueur was recently released. As Trader Joe’s continues to add store locations their private label liquor brands increase. When the leaves start to fall in the upper half of the US we enter the peak season for Irish cream liqueurs. Golden Vale is presumable named for the Golden Vale area of Southwest Ireland, often referred to as the best land in Ireland for dairy farming. Golden Vale is imported by Universal Brands in Princeton Minnesota. I have not located a Universal Brands or Golden Vale web address, and Golden Vale Irish Cream Liqueur does not have a presence on the Trader Joe’s website. The only available information is the bottles label that reads Golden Vale is an artful blend of Irish Whiskey and rich dairy cream. My guess is grain spirits, natural flavors, and caramel color have also been added. Universal Brands has an existing relationship with Robert A Merry & Co. as they produce several other Irish cream liqueurs including Mullins Irish Cream for them. My guess is that is who produces Golden Vale Irish Cream Liqueur. Read more
Review: Black Fig Vodka
Black Fig Vodka is one of two whole fruit flavor infused vodka’s produced by Black Infusions at the Bend Distillery in Tumalo Oregon. The other flavor is Golden Apricot. This distillery also produces Crater Lake Vodka. Black Fig Vodka was awarded a Double Gold Medal and named the best flavored vodka at the 2017 San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Black Fig is made from a vodka base of corn and is distilled 5 times in a copper column still. The spirit is filtered five times through carbon and again through lava rocks. Pure Cascade Mountain water is blended to reduce to proof. Whole Northern California grown dried figs are then infused with the vodka base for 4-6 weeks. A light filtering follows to retain the natural flavor and amber hue. Black Fig is then hand bottled onsite. Read more
Review: Smirnoff No. 21 Vodka
Smirnoff No. 21 Vodka is now made with NON-GMO corn. The previous bottling only specified Midwest grown grain, but it was also made from corn. Monsanto created the first commercially available corn with genetically engineered modifications in 1996. Some estimate over 80% of the corn grown in the US today has been genetically modified. If you have shopped for corn recently, you will see a premium charged for NON-GMO corn. Smirnoff is not passing that added expense to it’s customers. Smirnoff is the worlds best selling vodka, and the history dates back to the 1860’s when Piotr Smirnov opened his distillery in Moscow. He was the first to use a charcoal filtration system. Smirnoff No. 21 is distilled in the US, possibly Connecticut, and bottled in Plainfield Illinois. The spirit is triple distilled and ten times filtered. I’m interested in seeing not only how the new Smirnoff No. 21 tastes, but also how it compares with the previous version. So as not to influence my review I will sample and review the new Smirnoff NO.21 before I sample an unopened bottle of the previous Smirnoff No, 21 Vodka. Read more
Review: Proper Twelve Irish Whiskey
Proper Twelve Irish Whiskey was recently released. August 2017 MMA fighter Conor McGregor announced he was launching a new Irish Whiskey brand to be named Notorious. The Notorious name was already taken so brand founder and developer Conor McGregor settled on the Proper Twelve Irish Whiskey name. Conor was born and bred in the Dublin suburb of Crumlin. Proper Twelve pays tribute to where it all began. Dublin 12 is the postal code for the Crumlin region. Proper Twelve is crafted at Ireland’s oldest distillery, The Old Bushmills Distillery located on the Northern Coast of Ireland in the village of Bushmills. Conor sampled nearly 100 blends before deciding on the final product. Proper Twelve is made from a blend of golden grain, full flavored malted barley and fresh spring water. It is triple distilled in copper pot stills and aged a minimum of three years in bourbon barrels. Sweet Irish grain spirit is blended with the single malt Irish whiskey by Distiller and Master Blender David Elder, before bottling at 80 proof. $5 from every case sold of Proper Twelve will be donated to local first responder organizations and charities. Read more
Review: Corbin Sweet Potato Vodka
Corbin Sweet Potato Vodka is crafted with 100% estate grown sweet potatoes by forth generation farmer David John Souza. He named the vodka after his son Corbin. Ten varieties of sweet potatoes are grown on the family farm. David spent a decade experimented with each variety of sweet potato using several different distilling techniques in creating Corbin Sweet Potato Vodka. He found some sweet potatoes tasted better and others produced more alcohol. He found the perfect balance by blending three varieties of sweet potatoes. It takes over ten pounds of sweet potatoes to produce one bottle of spirit. Each potato is hand selected and cured for 12-16 months. The potatoes are ground and cooked for 6 hours, and then fermented with yeast for five days. The spirit is small batch distilled in a 2 column Alembic copper still and filtered slowly through a carbon blend. The spring water used in production is recycled back to the farm for irrigation and the spent mash is used as fertilizer or cattle feed. Read more
Review: Three Olives Eggnog Vodka
Three Olives Eggnog Vodka was just released. This is the first Limited Edition vodka Three Olives has created, and the industries first eggnog flavored vodka. Being first isn’t new to Three Olives as they produced the first Cherry, Grape, Chocolate, and Vanilla flavored vodka. Eggnog joins Three Olives Original and 22 other flavor varieties. Three-O Eggnog is created from a vodka base made from English winter wheat and demineralized water sourced from Lake Vyrnmy. It is distilled four times and triple charcoal filtered. The vodka base is then shipped to Lawrenceburg Indiana where flavors are infused before bottling at 60 proof. Read more
Review: Tippy Cow Peppermint Bark Rum Cream
Tippy Cow Peppermint Bark Rum Cream was just released. It joins the Tippy Cow family of rum creams that already includes Vanilla Soft Serve, Chocolate, Shamrock Mint, and Orange. I don’t know about you but when I think Peppermint Bark, I think of those delicious Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark squares that come out about this time every year and disappear with the Holiday season. Tippy Cow is made in Pewaukee Wisconsin by Midwest Custom Bottling. This is the same place RumChata is created. Tippy Cow Peppermint Bark is made with fresh Wisconsin dairy cream, Caribbean Rum, natural and artificial flavors, and caramel color. Read more
Review: Ciroc Black Raspberry Vodka
Ciroc Black Raspberry Vodka was just released by brand partners Diageo and Sean Diddy Combs. This is the tenth flavor variant of Ciroc I have reviewed. One of the flavors Ciroc Amaretto, no longer appears on the Ciroc website. Like Summer Colada, Ciroc Black Raspberry is a Limited Edison flavor. Black Raspberries are different from Blackberries. Black Raspberries are more fruity and less tart than a blackberry. They are also lower in sugar content, contain more fiber, and have three times the antioxidants found in blackberries. The vodka base is made from Ugni Blanc and Mauzac Blanc grapes. The juice is made into a wine. The wine is distilled four times in stainless column stills by Master Distiller Jean Sebastien Robicquet at his 500 year old family owned Maison Villevert Distillery. A fifth distillation follows in a tailor made copper pot still at the historic Distillerie de Chevanceaux in the South of France. Black Raspberry and other natural flavors are infused before bottling at 70 proof. Read more