Review: Ghost Coast Vodka
Ghost Coast Vodka is made in a 17,000 square foot distillery in downtown Savannah Georgia from a blend of 49% Corn and 51% wheat. The vodka is distilled in a Vendome copper pot still and triple filtered and finished through carbon impregnated filters. Ghost Coast is the first legal distillery in Savannah since Prohibition. The distillery also crafts whiskey, rum, liqueurs, and fernet. Ghost Coast vodka was originally named Vodka 261 after the number of years between the end of the first Prohibition in Georgia, and 2017, the year the spirit was first distributed in Georgia. Ghost Coast gets its name from its location on the Atlantic coast and its paranormal history. The American Institute of Parapsychology gets more reports about Savannah than any other city. Read more 
Review: Baileys Red Velvet Irish Cream
Baileys Red Velvet Irish Cream will soon be arriving at your local liquor stores. It is Baileys newest Limited Edition release. Red Velvet was created in collaboration with Georgetown Cupcake. This is not the first time these two have cooperated. In March of this year Georgetown Cupcake and Baileys collaborated to create a Limited Edition St. Patrick’s Day cupcake they sold at their six stores. Georgetown Cupcakes was featured on the reality show DC Cupcake staring the owners and sisters of Georgetown Cupcake, Sophie and Katherine Kallinis. Red Velvet is their signature cupcake. All six Georgetown Cupcake locations will feature a non-alcohol Baileys Red Velvet Cupcake in November and December. Baileys Red Velvet Irish Cream joins a flavor lineup that includes Original Baileys, Pumpkin Spice, Almande Almond Milk, Strawberries and Cream, Salted Caramel, Espresso Crème, Chocolate Cherry, and Vanilla Cinnamon. Read more
Review: Cruzan Watermelon Rum
Cruzan Watermelon Rum is a Limited Edition release that was announced in July. It has had a very limited presence as we just located a bottle last week. Cruzan currently features 15 flavored rums on their website. Watermelon is not one of them. In 1760 a sugar mill began crushing cane at the site of the Cruzan Rum Distillery on the island of St. Croix. The Nelthropp family built a distillery at the site in the early 1800’s. Today the eighth generation of the family still works at the distillery. Cruzan Watermelon is made from a rum base made from sugar cane molasses and tropical rainwater. The rum is distilled in a five column distillation process and aged in oak barrels. The rum is shipped in bulk at barrel proof to Florida where it is reduced to proof. Natural flavors are blended before bottling at 42 proof. Read more
Review: Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey
Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey was created in Ocean Beach California by a bartender and foodie who owned a bar and restaurant known for its band of misfits, black sheep, and skrewballs. He originally combined peanut butter and whiskey to create a shot. He later teamed with his wife to create Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey. It is currently produced to their specifications at Le Vecke, a private label distillery in Mira Loma California. Read more
Review: Taildragger Toasted Coconut Rum
Taildragger Toasted Coconut Rum is crafted in Plainfield Illinois at the Tailwinds Distilling Company. Husband and wife entrepreneurs Toby and Jillian Beall launched the brand in 2012 after years of planning. Their focus was on returning Americas first distilled spirit to the states with a truly American rum. Toby spent years traveling as a commercial pilot and adventure seeker through the Caribbean Islands, South America, and Mexico. Together the couple tapped their experience of tasting the local flavors from each of the regions to bring home and create their American made spirits. The distillery also crafts a white, dark, amber, and coffee flavored rum along with a 100% blue agave spirit. Taildragger Toasted Coconut starts with their white rum base made from sugarcane molasses sourced from Louisiana and formed from only boiling the cane juice once. This gives their rum an “Agricole like ” quality. It is fermented over a 4 to 5 day period. The spirit is distilled in a hybrid pot/column still. The rum is never chill or charcoal filtered only a standard plate and frame filter removes the particulate. They toast their own coconut before infusing and lightly sweetening to overcome the natural bitterness toasted coconut has. The spirit is hand bottled and labeled at 60 proof. Read more
Review: Ciroc White Grape
Ciroc White Grape was just launched. It is a Limited Edition release. It joins a year round flavored vodka lineup that now numbers eight. The vodka base is made from a blend of 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 traditional custom copper pot still at Distillation de Chevanceaux in the South of France. The vodka base is then infused with a blend of white grape and other natural flavors. Read more
Review: Loft and Bear Vodka
Loft and Bear Vodka was crafted in the heart of the Los Angeles Art District. It is currently produced by another distillery to the same specifications while their new distillery is being built. After graduating from UNC Chapel Hill Paul Ryan, aka Bear embarked upon a journey to create a vodka purely for the challenge of developing something unique. The summer of 2014 in a loft in downtown LA, he did just that. Loft and Bear is made from soft organic winter wheat and California sourced spring water. At launch it was crafted in a 30 liter copper pot column still. It was distilled four times and filtered once. Once open the new distillery will distill the vodka in a 1300 liter pot and column still. Read more
Review: Sugar Skull Rum Native Coconut Blend
Sugar Skull Rum Native Coconut Blend is one five Sugar Skull Rum varieties that may be better know as Master P’s rum. Not only does Master P own the brand but he has rapped about the brand, and if you have been to an Orlando Magic basketball game recently you may have even tipped a few at Sugar Skull Rum Landing located in the arena. Each flavor variety starts with their Tribal Original Rum base made sugar cane molasses sourced from the Caribbean and South America. The rum is distilled at several partner distilleries in the Caribbean Islands where each distillery uses a four column still. The rum is shipped to the US where it is filtered and blended. Sugar Skull Rum Native Coconut Blend is flavored with natural ingredients before it is bottled at 42 proof. Read more
Review: Western Son High Plains Raspberry Vodka
Western Son High Plains Raspberry vodka was just released. It joins a flavored vodka lineup that includes Peach, Cucumber, Lime, Blueberry, Watermelon, Prickly Pear, and Grapefruit. They also produce Western Son Original unflavored vodka. The Western Son brand was launched in 2011. The distillery is located in the former Old Panty Factory in Pilot Point Texas. Each flavor starts with their original unflavored vodka made from a mash of Midwest and Texas Yellow corn. Once the corn is milled water sourced from a local aquifer further filtered through reverse osmosis is added to the mash. After fermenting, the vodka is distilled ten times. First in a copper pot still. The spirit is then distilled in a 20 foot column still containing 13 perforated copper plates. The vodka is quadruple filtered before natural flavors are blended with the original vodka base. Read more
Review: Jack Daniels Tennessee Apple
Jack Daniels Tennessee Apple was just released. Flavored whiskey sales growth has slowed since the explosive growth experienced a few years ago, but the market is still growing. Two of the top seven flavored whiskeys are apple flavored. This is not Jack Daniels first apple flavored spirit, shortly after prohibition they released an apple flavored brandy. JD Tennessee Apple should also not be confused with the previously released seasonal Jack Daniels Winter Jack. Winter Jack was made with Jack Daniels Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey, apple cider liqueur and holiday spices. It was bottled at 30 Proof. JD Tennessee Apple is made from their Tennessee whiskey base made from 80% corn, 12% barley, 8% rye, and limestone spring water sourced from a two mile deep cave. After fermenting with starter yeast from a previous batch for 6 days, the mash is distilled once in a large column still. Once distilled to 140 proof the unaged whiskey is mellowed through ten feet of handcrafted charcoal for 3-5 days, then aged in new white oak barrels hand built by Jack Daniels. The 33 separate wood staves are held together by the sheer pressure of the woods precise arrangement. Once assembled the barrels interior is toasted. The Tennessee Whiskey is then blended with apple liqueur made from real green apples, and bottled at 70 proof. Read more