Shakers American Wheat Vodka

The mouth feel is a bit heavy and viscous with almost an oily feeling. There’s only light alcohol on the taste, with some sweet, some bitter and some trace of mineral salt tastes. There are hints of malt, as well. This is full and a bit heavy, as vodkas go.

Novo Fogo Gold Cachaça

This smooth cachaça tastes of brown sugar, ripe bananas, vanilla, butter toffee, earth, cinnamon and bananas Foster. The finish embraces the palate with a wonderful balance of salt, and a light lingering honey.

Novo Fogo Silver Cachaça

The taste is full and sweet and earthy, with banana, brown sugar, a touch of roasted peppers somewhere between sweet red bells and hot paprika, and Brazil nuts.

YeYo Silver Tequila

Yeyo has little to no harshness or alcohol to the nose. Instead it greets with an earthy sweetness, some lime, a touch of honey, and traces of what seems like mesquite smoke.

Slab Town Limited

This cocktail is a variant of the Red Hook, and rather than Slab Hook or Red Slab, which first occurred to me as names, Ms. Boozenik smartly chimed in that since this was a limited release, and also hits like a train (since it’s slightly higher in whiskey than a Red Hook would be) we should name it as if one. Hence, the Slab Town Limited.

Slab Town Whiskey

House Spirits has unveiled their Slab Town Whiskey, after 4 years of maturation. It’s a light straw-color and soft in the mouth, especially for such a young whiskey.

Small’s Gin

Small’s Gin imparts sweet scents of juniper, cardamom, orange and lemon peels with a slight alcohol burn. There’s also a hint of mineral character to the nose, which seems a bit unusual.

Imbue

Imbue is a Oregon-produced small batch vermouth. It has a semi-sweet nose, with hints of sour apple and tarragon adding to the sweet-and-sour scent.

The Oregroni

We’re fortunate in Portland to be able to eat a very diverse and enjoyable 100-mile diet. That started me thinking about 100-mile cocktails, too. Now that we have numerous gins, an Italian-style amaro, and vermouth produced in the Portland Metro Area, here’s my 100-mile take on the classic Negroni, which despite likely, and deserved groaning, I will call the Oregroni, because all of the finished ingredients are produced in Oregon.

Review: Ransom Old Tom Gin

This is very interesting stuff. There is a lingering maltiness to the taste. I can taste that this gin is made from barley, of all things. If it wasn’t for the botanicals, this could taste like a somewhat warm-on-the-throat whiskey. The flavor does get overpowered later on with an almost camphor-like mouth feel, but the malty citrus-cardamom flavors are maintained.

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