Review: Not Your Moms Strawberry Rhubarb
Not Your Moms Strawberry Rhubarb is one of two beers just released in 6 packs of 12 ounce bottles by The Small Town Brewery. The other one is Not Your Moms Apple Pie. Both of these pie themed beers have been available on draft since 2015 at The Small Town Brewery in Wauconda Illinois. As the name would imply they are crafted at the same brewery that created Not Your Fathers Root Beer. The original NYM’s Strawberry Rhubarb was brewed with Madagascar Vanilla, cinnamon, and real strawberry and rhubarb juice. The color came from fruit and vegetable juice. Not Your Moms Strawberry Rhubarb is now contract brewed in Lacrosse Wisconsin and the bottles label only claims to be brewed with spices and other natural flavors with artificial color added. Read more 
Review: Pinnacle Strawberry Vodka
Pinnacle Strawberry Vodka was released October 2016. I source spirits for review from over a dozen states. Distilleries and Wholesalers also send me product for review. At one time retailers would fight to be the first to stock any new flavor Pinnacle created in their lab. It has been several years since Pinnacle created a new flavor. When I heard of the release of Pinnacle Strawberry I searched everywhere to find it. I just found it tonight at a Total Wine and More in Minnesota. Pinnacle currently lists over 40 vodka flavors on their website including Kiwi-Strawberry, and Strawberry Shortcake. Pinnacle Vodka is made from French grown wheat and pure French spring water. It is distilled five times at Distillerie de la Tour in France. The vodka base is then shipped to Frankfort Kentucky where natural and artificial flavors are blended before bottling at 70 proof. Read more
Review: Tequila Cabeza Blanco
Tequila Cabeza Blanco is one of four spirits The 86 Co. introduced September 2012. The other three spirits include Ford Gin, Cana Brava Rum, and Aylesbury Duck Vodka. The 86 Co. works with some of the best distillers and distilleries to create these spirits. Tequila Cabeza is produced at El Ranchito Distillery. This is the distillery that also produces Chamucos, Manana, and Pura Vida tequila. The Vivanco Family founded this distillery in 1994. The single estate grown agave are grown on their 800 acre mountainside field without pesticides for 7-9 years. They are hand extracted when their sugar content is from 23-28%. The pinas are slow cooked in brick ovens for 24 hours at 100 degrees Celsius, and left to cool for 24 hours before they are shredded to extract the juice. The juice is fermented in copper tanks with Champaign yeast for ten days. This fermentation is done in the winter to bring out more fruit characteristics from the agave. The fermented agave is then distilled in two separate copper pot stills. Distilled natural spring water is blended with the tequila after distillation to reduce to 86 proof. The tequila is then rested in stainless steel tanks for 60 days before bottling. Read more
Review: CALI California Sipping Whiskey
CALI California Sipping Whiskey was just released. I was lucky enough to get my hands on one of the first bottles. CALI is hand crafted from a blend of rich corn mash bourbon, and spicy rye. After aging in clean oak barrels, it is finished with hand-ground botanicals, herbs, and aromatic spices. CALI is produced and bottled by Sukkah Hill Spirits in Gardena California. Read more
Review: Captain Morgan Loconut
Captain Morgan Loconut was just released. It is made with a blend of real coconut liqueur, Captain Morgan rum, Caribbean spices, and natural flavors. This is the second follow up to their original citrus, and pepper, spiced rum flavored, Captain Morgan Cannon Blast, that was launched August 2015. Their pumpkin spiced rum flavored Jack-O-Blast was introduced September 2016. All three of these flavors are designed primarily to be consumed as a shot, but, while Cannon Blast and Jack-O-Blast weigh in at 70 and 60 proof, Loconut hits the scale at 40 proof. Read more
Review: Angry Orchard Easy Apple Hard Cider
Angry Orchard Easy Apple Hard Cider was first introduced as part of their August-December Fall variety 12 pack. It is also available on a limited basis in 6 packs of 12 Oz. bottles. Easy Apple is made with Braeburn, Fuji, Granny Smith, and Gala Culinary apples, and Dabinett, Harry Master Jersey, Frequin Rouge, and Bisquet French Bittersweet apples. Easy Apple is described as a light and easy to drink unfiltered hard cider. Read more
Review: Herencia Mexicana Blanco Tequila
Herencia Mexicana Blanco Tequila is made with 100% blue agave grown for 3 years, and then replanted within the hacienda for 6-7 more years. Once extracted the pinas are split in half and then slow cooked in a traditional adobe brick oven for 48 hours. After baking, the agave hearts are left to cool for 36 hours. The pinas are then shredded and the juice extracted and fermented for 72 hours. After a double distillation in rustic copper stills, the tequila is rested in stainless steel tanks before bottling at 80 proof. Read more
Review: Batch 206 Vodka
Batch 206 Vodka is made from 100% corn. This vodka was previously made with a red winter wheat base. The Batch 206 Distillery opened in Seattle March 2012. It is owned and operated by Jeff and Dallen Steichen. They also craft gin, bourbon, whiskey and moonshine. Batch 206 vodka is distilled in a 1000 liter handmade German Kothe Still. The vodka is then filtered for 206 hours in a charcoal polishing regimen using coconut shell charcoal. The vodka is further subjected to a pharmaceutical grade filtration. Pure water that measures Absolute 7 on the pH scale is blended to reduce to 80 proof before hand bottling and labeling. Read more
Review: Henrys Hard Grape Soda
Henrys Hard Grape Soda was just released. It is one of four hard soda flavors produced by the Blitz-Weinhard Brewing Company, a division of Miller-Coors. Henrys is named for Henry Weinhard, a German who immigrated to the US in 1856. In 1862 Henry purchase the Liberty Brewery in Portland Oregon. In 1864 he also acquired the City Brewery where he moved the entire brewing operation. This brewery was the oldest continuously operating brewery in the west until 1999 when after Miller Brewing Company acquiring the brewery, they closed it. Like many breweries, the Weinhart Blitz Brewery survived prohibition by producing premium soda. Today four of those soda’s are still produced. Henrys Hard Grape Soda is brewed as a malt beverage. Cane sugar, natural flavors and certified color is added. Read more
Review: Downslope Vanilla Rum
Downslope Vanilla Rum is one of five rums created at the Downslope Distillery in Centennial Colorado. They also distill Gin, Vodka, and Whiskey. The distillery was founded May 2008 by three friends, Mitch Abate, Matt Causey, and Andy Causey. The first two spirits, white rum and a vodka made from sugar cane were released in August 2009. Downslope Vanilla Rum is made from dried Maui cane juice that has been processed into sugar. The cane juice is fermented in 300 gallon tanks and double distilled in 220 gallon batches in a Double Diamond pot still created by Copper Moonshine Stills in Arkansas. The rum is than filtered through The Lichtenstein, a devise designed by Master Distiller Mitch Abate. Tahitian and Indonesian Vanilla Beans are steeped in the white rum infusing only the natural flavor of these two unique beans with their well crafted white rum. Read more