Review: Western Son South Texas Prickly Pear Vodka
Western Son South Texas Prickly Pear Vodka is one of seven handcrafted flavor infused vodka’s made at the Western Son Distillery. This distillery is housed in a former panty factory in Pilot Point Texas. The other flavors include Hill Country Peach, Ruby Red Grapefruit, Piney Woods Blueberry, South Plains Cucumber, Hill Country Apricot, and Big Stripe Watermelon. South Texas Prickly Pear is made from their Texas vodka base made from yellow corn and water filtered through reverse osmosis. The vodka is distilled ten times through a 20 foot column still and quadruple filtered. Natural Prickly Pear essence is blended with the original vodka base before bottling at 60 proof. A Prickly Pear is a cactus species native only to the Americas. Read more 
Review: Potocki Wodka
Potocki Wodka, pronounce Po-toht-ski Vood-ka, is created from the highest quality rye sourced from fields around their distillery in Central Poland. It is produced in small batches from a family recipe. Fresh from the harvest each August the grain is milled and cooked under pressure. Yeast is then added to start fermentation. The mash goes through two slow distillations in a column still. Pure distilled water is blended to reduce to 80 proof. The unfiltered vodka is left to rest for a few days before bottling. Potocki Wodka was first produced by Alfred Potocki who inherited the Lancut Castle Estate in 1816. The estate included Polands second oldest distillery. Production was stopped in 1944 due to World War 2 and then brought back in 2002 by the Potocki family. Today Jan-Roman Potocki tastes every batch of Potocki Wodka to ensure maximum quality. The Pilawa, a two and a half cross is the Potocki coat of arms, and is prominently featured on each bottle of Potocki Vodka. Read more
Review: Cruzan Tropical Fruit Rum
Cruzan Tropical Fruit Rum was just released. It is one of 23 rum varieties, 16 of them flavored rums, currently produced by Cruzan. In 1760 a sugar mill began crushing sugar cane at the current site of the Cruzan Distillery. Since the early 1800’s the Nelthropp Family has lived on the island of St Croix and worked at this distillery. The eighth generation is currently working at this distillery. Cruzan Tropical Fruit is made from cane molasses and tropical rain water. After a five column distillation the rum is aged in oak barrels. Natural flavors including Pineapple, Passion Fruit, Guava, Lime, and Orange and added before bottling at 42 proof. Read more
Review: Luxardo Limoncello
Luxardo Limoncello was first advertised in 1905. A new formula with 25% more fresh lemon juice and essential oils from the peel of Sicilian lemons was released May 2010. Luxardo currently produces several spirits including Maraschino Liqueur, Sambuca, Amaretto, and Grappa. Girolamo Luxardo built the first Luxardo distillery in 1821 to produce Maraschino Liqueur. Today the sixth generation of the family is still active in the company. Read more
Review: SpikedSeltzer Indian River Grapefruit
SpikedSeltzer Indian River Grapefruit is one of four hard seltzer flavors created in 2012 by Nick Shields in his Westport CT garage. Partnering with Dave Holmes the two launched SpikedSeltzer in 2013 creating the Hard Seltzer product category. Indian River Grapefruit is named for the Indian River Citrus District, a narrow strip of land on the East Coast of Florida stretching about 200 miles from Daytona Beach to West Palm Beach. 75% of Florida’s grapefruit crop is grown here. SpikedSeltzer Indian River Grapefruit is made from purified water and natural ingredients. Natural flavors are then infused. Read more
Review: Bribon Blanco Tequila
Bribon Blanco Tequila was created by Palm Bay International in partnership with Casa Don Roberto. This family has been making tequila since 1840 and opened this distillery in 1924. They currently also produce Don Roberto, Huizache, and the 88 Tequila brands. In Mexico a Bribon was a wildly charismatic and courageous man about town. Bribon Blanco Tequila is made from 100% Blue agave grown for 7-10 years and harvested by hand. Once harvested the agaves are taken to the distillery where they are cooked for 18 hours at 100 degrees Celsius and then shredded. The juice is fermented in tanks at a consistent 32 degrees Celsius using a proprietary yeast developed by Don Roberto. The tequila is double distilled utilizing a process that combines pot still distillate with column still distillate. Read more
Review: Redds Peach Ale
Redds Peach Ale was released in March. It is one of two Limited Pick Special Releases Miller-Coors has planned for 2017. They join Redd’s three year round flavors, Blueberry Ale, Rapsberry Ale, and their original Redds Apple Ale. Redds Peach Ale is available in 6 packs of 12 ounce bottles, 16 ounce cans, and the Redds 12 pack variety pack. Miller-Coors also produces the higher octane 8% Redds Wicked Ale. Combined these two Redds brands have produced 14 flavors. Redds promises a new Wicked Ale sometime this summer. Read more
Review: Azteca Azul Plata Tequila
Azteca Azul Plata Tequila is produced at Tequila Supremo, commercially known as Casa Camarena. I have also seen this tequila sold as Azteca Azul Silver Tequila. Owned by La Familia Camarena, the distillery was founded in 1938 by Augustin Camarena in 1938. This distillery also makes tequila for the Camarena, and Maracame brands. Azteca Azul Plata is made with 100% blue agave that is cooked and cooled in traditional brick furnaces in a process that takes 48 hours to complete. The distillery has developed a process known as Zero D which ensures the distillery emits no waste. Read more
Review: Redds Raspberry Ale
Redds Raspberry Ale was released March 2017. It is one of four ales currently featured on the Redds Apple Ale home page. I believe this is a year round flavor but Redds has had flavors come and go since the brand was launched in 2013. This division of Miller-Coors also makes several 8% alcohol flavored ales under the Redds Wicked Ale label. Raspberry is the 13th Redds variety I’ve sampled so far, and I will be posting my 14th Redds review later this weekend. Like all of their previously reviewed varieties, Redds Raspberry is brewed as a beer. Caramel color and natural flavors are then added. Read more
Review: Marble Gingercello Reserve
Marble Gingercello Reserve is one of four spirits currently produced at the Marble Distilling Co. A whiskey and bourbon are currently aging and will be available soon. The distillery is a family and friends owned business that includes a tasting room that features a marble bar, cut from two 9000 lb. blocks mined from the Yule quarry in nearby Marble Colorado. The bar back is made from bricks, from the historic stable originally built on this land. The distillery also has the worlds only inn housed within a working distillery. With a background in the pharmaceutical business, co-founder and head distiller Connie Baker attending distillery school at The Dry Fly Institute in Spokane Washington. Yes she transitioned from drugs to liquor. What’s next firearms? After graduating January 2011, she worked with her husband Carey to build the worlds only zero waste artisan distillery, on land she and friend Michelle Marlow had purchased as a long term investment. The distillery opened June 2015. The equipment used to craft their spirits is 100% American made. Marble Gingercello Reserve is made from a 60% ABV corn distillate. This spirit is redistilling in a 250 gallon Vendome copper pot still with vapor transferring through a botanical basket filled with fresh cut Brazilian ginger. There is macerated ginger in the belly of the still as well. The now 80% ABV ginger infused vodka rests for several weeks with lemons zested by hand. A light simple syrup made from beet sugar grown in Wyoming is blended with the ginger lemon vodka. The spirit is then rested in bourbon barrels once used to age Colorado Straight Bourbon at the Peach Street Distillers in nearby Palisade Colorado. Read more