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…
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…
Skinos Mastiha liqueur. This is a truly fascinating spirit. It’s so different from anything else I’ve ever tasted in edible/drinkable form. The flavor is hard to describe…but it kinda tastes like a less-minty toothpaste or chewing gum, and smells like an organic-all-natural food-safe cleaning product or a restorative skin ointment.…
Maraska Maraschino Liqueur. This liqueur is made from the Marasca sour cherry. Like the popular Luxardo version, its flavor is more herbaceous than it is fruity, as maraschino liqueur is actually made by distilling the cherries (juice, peels, pits, stems, and all), unlike liqueurs that start with a neutral base…
Yellow Chartreuse. This is the younger sibling of the magnificent and holy Green Chartreuse. The popular Green Chartreuse came to life in 1764 as an adapted version of an “elixir of long life” (see this post) created by French Carthusian monks. The recipe was based on a complex apothecary manuscript…
Chartreuse Élixir Végétal. This is an extra potent version of Green Chartreuse, clocking in at an incredible 69% abv, 14% higher than the standard (55%). Flavorwise, it’s more concentrated and less sweet than the regular (luckily it comes with a dasher to use like bitters). Notably, this variant was historically…
Tubi 60. I love discovering new spirits of the world, and am a huge believer in cultural exploration thru food&drink, so I was super excited to try out this Israeli spirit which has been all the rage in Israel. Luckily for us Americans, it’s recently become available in the US…
Pomp & Whimsy Gin Liqueur. I’ve been seeing lots of beautiful creations and love for this new liqueur recently, and am so glad to have this in my collection. As the craft cocktail and spirits scene booms with its cultural popularity, we’re seeing more artisan brands popping up with beautiful…
Bénédictine. In the same realm as Chartreuse, Bénédictine is another one of those age-old (300+ yrs) herbal liqueurs from Europe (France) made with a blend of secret herbs and spices (27) that only a few (3) people know at one time. It’s sold as a 40% ABV standalone liqueur, as…
Drambuie. A whiskey liqueur made from scotch, heather honey, and secret herbs/spices. The flavor of this is definitely scotch forward and very sweet with strong honey and herbal notes. It’s been around for a couple hundred years but really picked up popularity in the Prohibition period to pair with (aka mask)…
Luxardo maraschino liqueur. To start, this tastes nothing like those neon plastic-y cherries generally associated with “maraschino” (more on those later – the history there is also quite interesting). As one of the oldest European liqueurs (1821), Luxardo is a staple for a well-rounded collection both to recreate classic cocktails…
Green Chartreuse. You may have heard of the color chartreuse (this was super popular in the fashion world a couple years back), but did you know the color actually got its name from this liqueur? Chartreuse has its roots back to 1737 (the color reference came in 1884) and is…
St. George Absinthe Verte. For almost a century, absinthe has been surrounded by a shroud of mystery due to its ban for supposed hallucinogenic properties. When the ban was finally lifted in 2007, St. George Distillery in Alameda CA released the first legal American absinthe, which had been in the…