Vermont Gold

Vermont Gold is actually distilled from the sap of a maple tree, rather than just flavored with maple, after the fact. So the effect is subtle and sweet, not some over-the-top, cartoon flavor. The nose is a light, sweet one, mostly of maple and a hint of sweet pecan.

Balcones Rumble

On the taste, there’s a more than a bit of a burn at the tip of the tongue and back of the palate, and then you can almost taste the flowers that the bees made the honey from. After that, it opens up and you a get a lot fruit from the figs and also what seems like a trace of citrus.

Lovejoy Hazelnut by Integrity Spirits

At first taste, a smooth, almost sweet nuttiness comes through, with only a hint of burn at the end from the vodka. The finish has a lingering nuttiness, slight bitterness, a bit of warmth, and basically is very soft and smooth. It’s definitely not in the sweet liqueur category, but is not bad sipped on its own.

Cask-Aged Cocktails at Clyde Common

Let me start off by saying, of course, barrel-aging is absolutely vital to the production and creation of the character of many spirts. However, my first reaction when hearing that Clyde Common was barrel-aging finished cocktails for a short term was to think it sounded like a gimmick, and wouldn’t have much effect. Well, color me wrong.

McCarthy’s Oregon Single Malt Pot Distilled Whiskey

McCarthy’s Oregon Single Malt has a moderate nose of smoke, along with iodine and some earthiness, all obviously from the peating of the Scottish barley. There’s also the typical alcohol nose of a whiskey. But once you blow away some of the alcohol, or let it evaporate away on its own, swirling for a while, you also get some scent of cut grass and a tiny hint of caramel. It’s quite pleasing to the nose.

Prosciutto-wrapped Melon Shot

Going through the Bakon Vodka website, we did find one recipe that was pretty tasty. As a bonus it’s also maybe the third or fourth cocktail I’ve ever heard of that uses Midori, and is not sickening sweet.

Bakon Vodka – Meat & Potatoes in a Bottle

There’s obvious raw bacon flavor all through this, but the mouth feel is just not what you’d expect. I am not EVER going to try the likely hurl-in-a-glass that they suggest known as a “Bakon Flip,” which includes a whole raw egg, Irish cream, maple syrup and a shot of Bakon. [shudder]

Balcones Baby Blue Hopi Corn Whisky

I used a snifter for this one, since I drink my Scotch and other whiskeys that way, but after getting an initial whiff it seems pretty clear that this one is better served in a shot glass. It has a heavy alcohol nose with a little earthiness. Buried in the nostril burn is some earthiness and some sweetness from the blue corn used to create this spirit.

Dirty as the Gulf of Mexico Martini

Tasting New Deal Distillery’s Hot Monkey Pepper Vodka caused me to try to create what I think is a HDirty as the Gulf of Mexico. Here’s an off-the-cuff recipe that we camp up with and enjoyed last night. All the better if the olives are stuffed with garlic or cheese to further “pollute” the drink.

Hot Monkey

Hot Monkey vodka has a slight nose of hot peppers at first whiff. Being a bit of a hot pepper connoisseur, it reminds me of a Sandia or some other green chile. But it’s only a slight nose. Tasting it, not so slight. POW!

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