When it comes to herbal liqueur there are a lot of options out there, but many are either very bitter (like Green Chartreuse and Cynar), very strong (like Jägermeister and Killepitsch), or both (like Fernet Branca). J, Witty Spirits enters this space with an Organic Chamomile Liqueur that is distinctively different with a much lighter and feminine flavor profile. J Witty [...]

Max Watman’s Chasing The White Dog: An Amateur Outlaw’s Adventures in Moonshine is one of those great books that sucks you into a world and then leaves you feeling like you have a deeper understanding of the space. Rather than just present a straight line history of distilling, both legal and illegal, Max Watman weaves the history with a personal [...]

The next stop on my journey thought the wonderful world of white dog is Tuthilltown Spirits Hudson New York Corn Whiskey. Located in the Hudson Valley, about two hours away from New York City in a town called Gardiner, Tuthilltown Spirits is another fantastic micro-distillery using local grains, small batch distilling and a hand-crafted process that ensures each bottle of spirit they [...]

I have to admit that when it comes to Vodka I don’t often get all that excited.  The notion of brands competing against each other to see which one can make a neutral grain spirit so tasteless and undetectable that it’s nearly invisible really isn’t all that appealing to me. That’s why I was so excited to give Bakon a [...]

“Some people like our stuff and some people don’t, and that’s just fine with us.” – Gary Fleshman, General Manager, Rogue Ales It was a pretty strong statement that started off my tasting of Rogue Distillery‘s spirits. Best known for their micro-craft beers (like the Dead Guy Ale), Rogue has made a move into the spirits space with a line [...]

Up in the middle of upstate New York, a little off to the eastern side, is a collection of long, thin, finger-like lakes called, appropriately enough, “The Finger Lakes”. It was at the base of one of these lakes (Lake Cayuga) that I spent my college years.  The region is gorgeous (the official town slogan is “Ithaca is Gorge-ous” after all the [...]

When I started my journey  with spirits I didn’t particularly love gin. It wasn’t until I started really tasting a wide spectrum of gins that I realized that I actually really like good gin (especially in the “bartender’s nightmare” – the Ramos Gin Fizz). Good gin has a symphony of notes which a good bartender can play with. Whether it’s the [...]

Here’s a well kept secret that most bars and bartenders know: if you want to have an amazing experience at a bar, go on a tuesday night.  Some of the best drinks, best conversations about spirits and best discoveries have happened over a bar on a Tuesday night. The unfortunate truth is on Thursday, Friday and Saturday you might get [...]

With so many distilleries doing vodka (including many huge brand names) it’s a very difficult and crowded space for a small micro-distillery to make its mark. The field looks a lot different when it comes to micro-distilled rum. “A lot of vodka distillers are sweetening and flavoring a neutral grain spirit, so we figured why not start with something that’s [...]

I continue my adventures with “White Dog” or white (unaged) whiskey  with Charbay’s Doubled & Twisted Light Whiskey distilled from bottle ready IPA beer. Doubled & Twisted  has a sweet and florally nose with just a hint of hops. There and ever so slight hint of yeastiness. It’s the kind of nose that you want to linger on and really take in. As complex [...]