As a result of the spirits industry exploding over the last decade, a variety of players have introduced new spirits into the market. I’m personally most fascinated by affordable products from grocery store brands. I’ve had mixed results with other grocery store spirits, like Trader Joe’s Small Batch Vodka and Rum of the Gods, but I was still looking forward to checking out Signature Reserve Dry Gin. One thing these grocery store brands seem to all have in common is a lack of information. Signature Reserve is the brand used by grocery chains owned by Albertson’s. I wasn’t able to find many specific details about Signature Reserve Dry Gin, but […]
Bayab African Grown Classic Dry Gin is produced by Spearhead Spirits – a company founded by African-British duo Chris Frederick and Damola Timeyin. As a brand, Bayab aims to celebrate the best of African botanicals, and represent the continent on bar shelves everywhere. Their gin expressions are distilled in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, using botanicals from all across the continent of Africa. This particular bottle of Classic Dry Gin is made with juniper, baobab, coriander, rosemary, cinnamon, and orange peel – as well as coarse salt. BOTTLE SPECS ❖ ABV: 43% ❖ Distillery: Midlands Distillery ❖ Aging: N/A ❖ Price Point: upper moderate […]
After recently reviewing Glenfiddich 12 Year, I was eager to explore more Scotch whiskies as soon as possible. Luckily, there’s another relatively affordable 12 year old Scotch from the Speyside region that is easily accessible in my area. And it happens to be from the the first Scotch brand I ever tried over a decade ago, so I was particularly excited to revisit The Glenlivet 12. The history of the Glenlivet can be traced back to 1824, when the founder, George Smith, first built a distillery in the Speyside region in the highlands of Scotland. The distillery in named after the the valley where it still resides, the Valley of Glenlivet. Today […]
If you follow the blog, you know that it’s become a bit of a tradition of mine to review a pumpkin spice spirit each year. And don’t worry – I won’t rest until I’ve tried them all! This year, I was adamant that I wanted to try a pumpkin spice liqueur or cordial that was not creamy. Though the non-cream ones are a bit trickier to get your hands on, I personally prefer them, as they are more versatile. This year, I chose Vapor Distillery Pumpkin King Cordial. This cordial is created by Boulder Spirits – a small, Colorado-based craft spirits producer. This particular bottle of Pumpkin King Cordial is Gin-based, and infused for 1 month with spice […]
It’s been a long time since we first reviewed a product from Empress 1908, and they’ve released some new products in recent years. While I’m interested in all of their products after our positive experience with the indigo gin, the Empress 1908 Cucumber Lemon Gin in particular caught my eye. Hendricks is one of my personal favorite gins, so I was excited to try another gin with notes of cucumber. Empress 1908 was created in 2016 in collaboration with the iconic Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria, Canada. The gin is inspired by the hotel’s renowned afternoon tea program and the “1908” in the name is the year the hotel was first established. […]