Review: Truly Margarita Style Hard Seltzer
Truly Margarita Style Hard Seltzer was just released. It is available in a 4 flavor 12 can variety pack. Truly is not the first to include agave nectar in their hard seltzer but depending on the success of Truly Margarita Style they may start a new wave of me too products. Each of their four flavor varieties share similar DNA including lime juice concentrate, cane sugar, stevia sweetener, sea salt, natural flavors, and agave nectar. Pear Juice is added for color. Each weighs in with 5.3% alcohol, 110 calories, and 2% real juice. Flavor specific ingredients will be listed in the review. Read more 
Review: Mount Gay Eclipse Rum
Mount Gay Eclipse Rum is named for the 1910 total solar eclipse from Halley’s Comet that was visible over Barbados. Mount Gay distillery is the oldest continuous operating rum distillery, dating back to 1703. Master Blender Trudiann Branker hand selects a blend of rums distilled in traditional copper pot and column stills and matured for up to 2 years in charred used American whiskey barrels. The rum is crafted from sugar cane molasses in Barbados, the birth place of rum. The spirit is fermented for 72 hours with a proprietary house yeast and double distilled in a traditional copper pot and column still. Pure well water sourced from a 300 foot well is blended to reduce to proof. The rum is filtered through natural coral. Read more
Review: Skaalvenn Vodka
Skaalvenn Vodka is one of four spirits hand crafted at the Skaalvenn Distillery in Brooklyn Park Minnesota. The others include Skaalvenn Rum, Habanero Rum, and Aquavit. They also bottle a bourbon but that is distilled in Indiana. Tyson and Mary Schnitker started distilling in 2015 and have grown the business significantly since opening. They now also operate a Japanese Cocktail Bar serving craft cocktails made from their craft spirits. The Skaalvenn name is actually a Norweigen greeting which translates to “Cheers friends” in English. Skaalvenn Vodka is made from locally grown wheat. When they started crafting their spirits they knew they wanted to make their vodka from wheat but they had trouble finding a source so they placed an add in Craigslist. Fourth Generation farmer Scott Lee responded and after touring his family owned Lee’s Seed Farm in Benson Minnesota they knew they had found their local source for wheat. After harvesting, the wheat is milled and delivered to the distillery where they mash and ferment the wheat and yeast for three days. The spirit is distilled in two different stills including a custom copper still. The vodka is carbon filtered before hand bottling. Read more
Review: Villa One Reposado Tequila
Villa One Reposado is one of three tequila expressions of tequila developed by Nick Jonas and John Varvatos. They were inspired during a trip to Mexico in 2018 with family and friends. Nick and John partnered with Stoli and Master Distiller Arturo Fuentes, “The Godfather of Tequila” to create Villa One. It is crafted at Fabrica de Tequilas Finos, a distillery Stoli acquired in 2016. The spirit is made from 100% Weber Blue agave grown for 5-7 years in both the Highland and Lowland Region. Once harvested and trimmed the agave is slow cooked and double distilled in traditional copper pot stills. Fresh water drawn from their own artesian well located on their property is blended to reduce to proof. Read more
Review: Tattersall Vodka
Tattersall Vodka is crafted from certified organic corn harvested at their Head Distillers family farm on the rolling plains of Southeastern Minnesota. After harvesting the corn grown at Four Sisters Farm in Rochester Minnesota, the corn is milled at Anderson Farms in Cambridge Minnesota. The spirit is small batch distilled six times in their Vendome Copper and Brass Works column still and triple filtered. The spent grain is used as livestock feed. Vodka is one two dozen spirits currently distilled at the Northeastern Minneapolis distillery Dan Oskey and Jon Kreidler founded in 2014. They recently opened a second distillery in River Falls Wisconsin. Read more
Review: Montauk Rum Runners Coconut Rum
Montauk Rum Runners Coconut Rum is one of three spirits produced by Montauk Rum Runners. The other three include Montauk Honey Flavored Whiskey, and Montauk Citrus Flavored Gin. All three are distilled and bottled at Long Island Spirits in Baiting Hollow New York. The rum base is distilled from molasses. Natural flavors are blended before bottling at 60 proof. Montauk Coconut is a rum we were looking for three years ago when we were putting together our Coconut Rum Roundup, and again when we were working on a Top Ten Coconut Rum list last year. We never finished either as I lost my appendix 3/4 of the way through the Coconut Rum Roundup, and my smell and taste for 6 weeks due to Covid half way through our Top Ten Coconut Rum list last October. I promise we will finally complete a Coconut Rum Roundup early next year. While it appears Montauk Rum rum is no longer produced it is still available at New York Craft Spirits. Read more
Review: 1911 Premium Vodka
1911 Premium Vodka is a true tree to bottle vodka. Founded in 1911 by Andrew Beak and George Skiff, Beak and Skiff Apple Orchards is located in Lafayette New York. In 2001 they introduced their first alcohol product, a hard cider. In 2010 they released 1911 Vodka and 1911 Gin both distilled from their own farm grown apples. They currently produce brandy, whiskey, canned cocktails and several flavored vodkas including Vanilla Chai, Cold Brew Coffee, Rose, Tropical, Blueberry, and Honeycrisp. Their orchard surrounds the 1911 distillery and boosts over 350,000 apple trees. The hand picked apples are pressed and fermented into a hard cider. The cider is small batch triple distilled on a 19 plate copper column still. Read more
Review: Bud Light Seltzer Hard Soda
Bud Light Seltzer Hard Soda will be released early January 2022. I was able to get my hands on a 12 pack a little early. Hard Soda seems like something our parents drank when they were younger, but the truth is the Hard Soda product category only goes back to 2012 when Tim Kovac created Not Your Fathers Root Beer at his Small Town Brewery in Wauconda Illinois. This is not the first Anheuser Busch produced hard soda. A-B launched Best Damn Root Beer in 2015 and followed that up with Best Damn Cherry Cola, and Best Damn Cream Soda. At one time hard soda was a big deal. All of the big boys invested big bucks to develop and promote their hard soda brands. Miller-Coors with Henrys Hard Soda, and Boston Beer Company with their Coney Island brand. Seagrams and Mikes also made hard soda. So what is different this time around? For starters Best Damn Root Beer weighed in with 239 calories and 11 carbs. The new Bud Light Seltzer Hard Soda tips the scales with 100 calories and only 2 carbs. It is made from a cold fermented cane sugar alcohol base with natural flavors, malted rice, and sucralose. Sucralose is better know as Splenda. Bud Light Seltzer Hard Soda is sold in a 4 flavor 12 can variety pack. Read more
Review: Potosi Craft Seltzer
Potosi Craft Seltzer is produced at the Potosi Brewing Company in Potosi Wisconsin. The brewery was originally founded in 1852, just a stones throw from the Mississippi river. The brewery closed in 1972 but it re-opened in 2008 following a $7.5 million restoration. In January 2015 they opened their new state of the art production facility in Potosi Wisconsin, not far from where Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois come together. The Potosi Brewing Company is solely owned by the Potosi Foundation which is run by a board of elected volunteers. All of their profits go to charity. Potosi brews several year round beers including Snake Hollow IPA, Cave Ale Amber Ale, Good Old Potosi, Czech Style Pilsner, and Potosi Lux Lager. They also craft over a dozen Seasonal, Barrel aged, and Signature Can Series Beers. Potosi Craft Seltzer was introduce July 2021. It is made with a traditional hard seltzer base of carbonated water and alcohol from a sugar brew. Natural flavors and cane sugar are added. Potosi is available in a 4 flavor 12 can variety pack that we have the opportunity to review today. Read more
Review: Lalo Tequila Blanco
Lalo Tequila Blanco is named after Founder Eduardo “Lalo” Gonzalez. Lalo is the nickname given to him by his Grandfather, Don Julio Gonzalez. Don Julio Gonzalez purchased his first tequila distillery when he was 17 in 1942. When he retired in 1987 after 45 years of making tequila his son, also named Eduardo created a special edition tequila to commemorate the occasion. That tequila is now known as Don Julio. Most experts agree it was the industries first luxury tequila brand. Don Julio 1942 is perhaps the industries most iconic tequila. After working for several years in the tequila industry, friends Lalo Gonzalez and David Carballido sought to create a truly pure blanco tequila. They began by producing small batches for their family and friends in Guadalajara. They soon joined with Co-Founder Jim McDermott and launched Lalo in Austin Texas September 2019. Initially the focus of Lalo was on premise sales, but with Covid squeezing the entertainment sector, they expanded their focus to include retail sales. Lalo is crafted from 7 year old blue agave grown in the mineral rich soil of the Jalisco Highlands. Once trimmed the agave is cooked in stone steam ovens for 20-32 hours. The agave rests for 18 hours before the juice is extracted with a roller press and fermented for 3-4 days with a proprietary yeast found in Champaign. The spirit is double distilled and oxygenated to achieve the final stabilization prior to bottling. Read more