Strega. Strega is a bottle I don’t see too often on here, and it definitely deserves more light of day! This bottle is aaalmost empty (sorry!), but this bright-as-a-sun yellow herbal liqueur dates back to 1860, created by a wine merchant in the town of Benevento in Italy. Benevento is…
Kō Hana Hawaiian sugarcane rum. This rum has become a must-have Hawaiian souvenir for me. It’s not impossible to find on the mainland but quite rare so don’t miss this if you find yourself in the Pacific paradise! In short, this rum is AMAZING. It’s an “agricole”-style rum, referencing the…
Don Ciccio & Figli C3 Carciofo. I somewhat recently ran out of Cynar (the first amaro I ever owned after Campari, way before I even knew what an amaro was). This reminded me to bust out my bottle of C3, an American-made artichoke-focused bitter liqueur similar to the famous Cynar…
Skrewball peanut butter whiskey (liqueur). Guys – hear me out here and read this entire post. After trying this out in a few magnificent cocktails, I feel personally convicted to evangelize this outside of the CaliCool X Lifestyle X Fireball vibe the company has goin in their marketing – that’s…
Glendronach 18. I recently got back from a whirlwind trip through the Scottish highlands and had the opportunity to visit one of my favorite distilleries – Glendronach! Glendronach whiskies are known for being “sherry bombs” – whiskies that have prominent flavor influence from aging in sherry casks. Scotch whiskies are…
Mahina Coconut liqueur. I got this fun liqueur recently and have been massively enjoying it! This is an agricole rhum based liqueur, made simply using 3 natural ingredients – macerating fresh young coconut in Clement unaged agricole rhum, sweetening with sugarcane syrup, and finally bringing down to a manageable 18%…
Admiral Rodney HMS Princessa. While St. Lucia is often associated with the Caribbean oasis of resort-life and white sand beaches, the island has a deep rum culture. This rum is part of the newly launched Admiral Rodney line from St. Lucia Distillers, which produces some of the most distinctive rums…
Bombay Sapphire East. Most people are relatively familiar with the classic blue bottle of Bombay Sapphire. For many of us (myself included), it was one of the first bottles of quality gin we owned. Now, here we have the East version, which has the addition of 2 botanicals on top…
Mezcal vs Tequila. You may have heard “all tequila is mezcal, but not all mezcal is tequila.” It’s one of those things that seems to be a popular “interesting fact” to regurgitate, but is actually kinda misleading… I mean, the two are distinct spirit categories (albeit both agave-based), and they’re…
Milk thistle! Today I’m here to share a seriously life changing product discovery! Do you suffer from hangovers (perhaps more often now than when younger) and want to take better care of your body? Read on. As I do drink regularly, I was looking for ways to keep my body…
Honest John Black Walnut Bitters. These have been one of my favorite and most reached for bitters for over a year now since I first discovered this brand. It has a natural warm, spice-filled, nutty flavor and adds beautiful depth to cocktails with darker spirits without being thick and overpowering.…
Cocchi Dopo Teatro vermouth. Vermouth is one of those products that often gets a bad reputation based on people’s malformed impressions with spoiled versions. Even I was a vermouth hater until I realized it had to be kept in the fridge and drank within weeks-months. Vermouth is a sweetened aromatized…
Bombay Sapphire London Dry gin. With Negroni Week coming up next week, coming atcha with this classic! Everyone knows this famous blue bottle, and for many of us – it may have been the first quality gin we loved. Gin was surprisingly the first liquor of any type I liked,…
Lo-Fi Sweet Vermouth. This California sweet vermouth is the perfect drink parallel to the modern California food culture, where everything is a bit fresher, lighter, fancier, and prettier. This is a massive departure from the classic Italian sweet vermouth, typically red, bold, dark, and brooding. Red vermouths are actually made…
Paranubes Oaxacan Rum. This is a fascinating bottle of rum hailing from the land of mezcal in Oaxaca, Mexico. Oaxaca is known as the region where most mezcal are produced, and one of the biggest draws of mezcal is its rustic nature – essential libations produced purely based on tradition…
Barbancourt rhum 15 years. Barbancourt is notably the most famous Haitian rum. Although Haiti has the most number of rum “distilleries” in the Caribbean (over 500 producers compared to under 50 in the entirety of the rest of the Caribbeans), most of these are micro operations distilling essentially sugarcane moonshine…
Amaro Sfumato Rabarbaro. This is a bittersweet liqueur that is smoky and earthy. Though Cappelletti is perhaps best known for their red-orange aperitivo, the family-run Italian company has quite the varied amaro portfolio! Amaro are bittersweet liqueurs frequently imbibed to help with digestion post-meals, and “Rabarbaro” is a particular sub-style…
Delord 25 year Armagnac. Wow, this is surprisingly my first ever bottle talk on the wonderful, beautiful spirit of Armagnac. Where to start… Armagnac is a French grape brandy, similar to Cognac but made in a different region using different grapes and production processes. This bottle is one of the…
Amargo Chuncho bitters. Have you heard of these? If not, these are truly an unmistakably amazing bitter to try out. Amargo Chuncho is a Peruvian product and is marketed as the “only bitters for a truly authentic pisco sour.” All marketing aside, these are seriously one of the most unique…
Foursquare Probitas rum (“Veritas” outside the US). I am SOOO excited for this rum, a collaboration between the famed Barbados Foursquare Distillery and Jamaican Hampden Estate, two absolute powerhouses of rum production in the Caribbeans. This “white” rum is touted as a cocktail-oriented rum (& thankfully also priced as such!)…
Kamiki Japanese whisky. As Japanese whisky continues to enjoy its popularity amongst whisky aficionados, we’re seeing a host of new interesting items on the market! This exciting new whisky is uniquely finished in Japanese cedar casks, proclaimed to be the first of its kind. With the soaring interest in Japanese…
Herbsaint. H-E-R-B-S-A-I-N-T. It’s French for “Sacred Herb” and if you rearrange those letters, it’s pretty much an anagram of ABSINTHE. What a GENIUS marketing move. Herbsaint has been around for nearly 100 years, launched in New Orleans at the end of Prohibition in the 30s as an anise-dominant alternative to…