Not so long ago, a friend wrote me a message and asked me, if it would not be a cool idea to make a drink called “Quarantini”. It would certainly be a funny idea in times of the pandemic. Now, I have to explain that said friend is not familiar with cocktails or spirits at all. However, he wasn’t that surprised when I replied, “There’s been a gin by that name for quite a while.” – That’s just how it is sometimes: good and creative ideas come from various sides. Read More →

There are many interesting developments in the world of spirits to which one has become accustomed faster than originally thought. One or the other of these changes is perhaps no longer even actively realized. The fact that there is whiskey from almost every country in the world, for example, really no longer causes anyone to raise an eyebrow. The fact that sometimes a German Korn wins international prizes in a whisky category is usually still worth an anecdote and a few reflective thoughts about category boundaries and definitions, but even that no longer really arouses surprise. And since there is German rum distilled from specially imported sugar cane, the possibilities are truly endless, aren’t they? Read More →

I remember well the time when I took my first steps into the world of cocktails, gradually acquired a collection of spirits and repeatedly leafed through the few bar books I owned back then. At that time there was one or the other ingredient, which I came across from time to time, but which didn’t mean anything to me and which I then gave a wide berth to for quite a long time. One of them was elderflower liqueur. Read More →

And today we continue with a bottling that promises to meet my taste, at least on paper – and also at first glance. Whether this is really the case and no disappointment lurks here, of course, remains to be seen, but at least the framework data seems to be just right: Straight Rye Whiskey, 110 proof, traditional craftsmanship… that should fit! I am talking about the Pikesville 110 Proof Straight Rye Whiskey. Read More →

And another time I would like to take a closer look at two bottles. This time it’s not about gin, but about whisky. And of course, when whisky is mentioned, thoughts immediately turn to Gaelic Scotland, which is intuitively the right impulse even today. But Gaelic Wales also produces whisky, albeit not to the same extent and with a comparable reputation. In this respect, it is also a good idea to focus on a bottle of Welsh Whisky. Read More →

Finally it is time to go on and I will do my first detailed spirits review since my Corona infection. And although I’m not entirely sure if things are as they used to be, I have deliberately chosen to do it in a way that a certain comparison is possible. On the one hand, to have certainty for myself that my overall perception is no longer insufficient for these purposes, on the other hand, to be able to give an orientation also quite in the sense of the products reviewed here. To put it less abstractly, I am tasting two gin bottlings from the same manufacturer today – one of which I have already tasted before my infection, the other I am now tasting in comparison. Read More →

If you should have visited this page during the past weeks in expectation of a new article, you unfortunately had to search in vain for such. The reason for this is unfortunately an unpleasant one: I have become infected with the corona virus. As a father of small children, one hardly has a chance to protect oneself effectively in this matter in the long run – and that’s exactly how it turned out. The course was fortunately (and certainly also thanks to the vaccination protection) a mild one, nevertheless I had to fight with high fever. And that for almost 2 weeks (an experience I last had as a child). But probably the biggest and most worrying phenomenon against the background of what I am doing here is another: the loss of sense of smell and taste. Read More →

Gradually, it begins to creep very gently and quietly into our consciousness: the pre-Christmas season. Admittedly, it’s just the beginning of November and Christmas is still two months away, but nevertheless the first conversations about the subject are beginning, children are increasingly expressing their wishes and in the supermarkets…. well they are already prepared since August at least. So it makes sense to take a closer look at a cocktail and a whisky suitable for Christmas. Read More →

Today’s article is a little different, because it was primarily written for a good cause. Of course, by no means this should state that the articles otherwise published here are not themselves a good cause for all those who are looking for background information on spirits or for classic or newly created cocktail recipes. Rather, as part of a promotional campaign for the gin brand Brockmans, it is about collecting donations for the “Aktion Deutschland hilft”. And I’m happy to participate. Read More →

Of course, there is not the slightest chance for a blogger like me to keep up with the flood of new releases on the liqueur market and publish a full-coverage review density here. That’s why there are countless bottlings, including long-established spirits, that I’ve never taken on here (and to a large extent probably never will). So I can’t always guarantee topicality in the sense of first product releases. Therefore, it should not be surprising if sometimes articles about will be launched, which deal with products already long established on the market. Read More →

“Do you come from a land down under?” this was asked by Men at Work for the first time in 1980 and became a world hit. In the meantime, this question has probably been asked by many people on this planet for the most diverse reasons, but most likely it has rarely been worded with a view to the origin of a rum. But that’s exactly what you would have to do in view of today’s bottling, because this rum actually comes “from a land down under”: the Plantation Australia 2007. Read More →

The bottle I’d like to review here today already has a certain history here in the blog. Because it is simply the 40% vol variant of the Topanito Mezcal, about which I wrote in February 2020. Therefore, I will proceed a little differently than in my usual review articles, in which I first put a few words on paper about the background, manufacturing process, raw materials used, and so on. Instead, the focus is on something else. Read More →

In the early days of this blog, I once published an article about a Mexican rum, which I would certainly no longer publish today. There are several reasons for this: my own rum expertise has changed fundamentally since then, the rum actually doesn’t taste very good to me today, and I also bought the bottle for optical reasons back then, which I also wouldn’t do again. Nevertheless, there has just been an appearance of a Mexican rum here, even if it is hardly comparable to today’s bottle. Read More →

Nikka, a Japanese spirits producer belonging to the Asahi Group, is now famous not only among whisky drinkers. Of course, it is especially the friends of single malts and Japanese blends who were the first to become familiar with the Nikka brand outside of Japan in the course of rising popularity of Japanese whiskies. But Nikka has also been able to make a really very good name for itself in other spirits segments, such as gin. The Nikka Coffey Gin is – as of today – still one of my absolute favorites. Nevertheless, today it is once again a whisky that is in focus. Read More →

Hampden – the name has become increasingly well-known in Europe in recent years and has long since made its way out of the niche of the insider tip for rum experts. Although (unfortunately) it is still not that common if one considers the market shares of subsequently altered sweet rums, but with a view to the already scarce availability of many matured qualities of the Jamaican distillery, this is again also advantageous for those who already appreciate rums of Hampden Distillery. But Hampden doesn’t always have to be exorbitantly expensive. Read More →

The fact that Rhum Agricoles form one of my favorite spirits genres was certainly mentioned here on the blog every now and then. Nevertheless, a repetition of that is a somewhat thankful introduction to an article in which it will be once more about Rhum Agricole. Specifically, about two different Rhums from a very well-known and also already reviewed manufacturer: Clément on Martinique. Read More →

Anyone who concentrates a little more intensively on tequila will not get around the name of Felipe Camarena sooner or later. The Camarena family is famous in the world of agave spirits and Felipe is now in the fourth generation of the family craft. And his name has also come up several times here in the blog, as he is primarily associated with three different tequilas from a particular distillery. Read More →

A few months ago, I followed a wide-ranging blind tasting of various coffee liqueurs in a German online community (cocktailnerds.de) with a lot of interest, in which several testers (including some fellow bloggers) scored various coffee liqueurs without any knowledge of what they had there in the glass. Their results were ultimately recorded in a point system and the result was finally published. In third place and thus part of the leading group: the Herencia de Plata Licor de Café. And a review bottle of precisely that liqueur finally found its way to my mailbox a few weeks later and stands now – ready for review – in front of me on the table. Read More →

There are a few types of spirits that you won’t find here on the blog. The reasons for this are quite different: some I use so rarely myself that they simply don’t have much relevance for me, others are not particularly widespread in general, so that there are simply few recipes in which they play a role – and still others I simply don’t like. Admittedly, there aren’t really many of them; in fact, strictly speaking (perhaps apart from some cheap baijius), there’s really only one genre of spirit I absolutely dislike: amaretto. Read More →

Today I would like to break a little with the established convention to start my blog articles with the review of one or more bottles. Instead, I want to start directly with the cocktail and afterwards go into details about some of the spirits I’ve used. The reason is simply that the drink is something special and therefore needs or deserves a few words of explanation. Howsoever: the Dead Wid Laugh  is more than it seems to be. Read More →

Single malts for me were – as for so many – basically the starting point for entering the world of upscale spirits and ultimately bar culture and cocktail history. Although I had also started relatively early to deal with gin, in breadth and depth it was the Scottish single malt, which ignited my enthusiasm. Today I am no longer restricted on this type of spirit, but of course it has a firm place in my heart. However, in the context of this blog, single malt still usually plays a somewhat subordinate role. Read More →

I wrote about Heiko Hoos and some of his products here on the blog some time ago. And indeed, the range of products that come from his forge is now really considerable. If you keep in mind that he is working alone, that is truly remarkable. And that brings me to the introduction of today’s article. Read More →

It is now more than five years ago that I wrote for the first time about a type of spirit that was completely new to me at the time, but also hardly anyone else knew it. A lot of time has passed since then – and even if Clairin is still not the talk of the town, it must be said that the Haitian sugar cane juice spirit has gained a truly excellent reputation. Read More →

The district of Rottal-Inn in Lower Bavaria is an unquestionably attractive region for the inclined spirits enthusiast. That’s where you’ll find the Engel Naturbrennerei (natural distillery), which is run by Austrian-born Manuel Engel. In addition to eau-de-vies (in Germany these are differentiated in Brände and Geiste) liqueurs and gin, non-alcoholic aperitifs are also produced there and offered for purchase. Manuel Engel relies as far as possible on the regional card and produces his products from fruit and vegetables from the region, although raw materials from Austria, Italy and southern France are also used. In my article today, I would also like to approach one of his products – and a very exciting one to be honest. Read More →

Recently, I had the honor of participating in an online launch event for a single malt whisky. However, this was not simply a presentation of a spirit, but the event also offered the opportunity to exchange ideas with David “Dave” Vitale, the founder of the Australian Starward Distillery, about his new product, the Starward Left-Field Single Malt Whisky, and to listen to his thoughts on the product. However, that was not everything. Read More →

Anyone who has been reading this blog for years will have noticed that I have repeatedly spoken out in favor of the diverse possibilities and great potential of fruit eau-de-vies (in German: Brände & Geiste) behind the bar. And I’m not just saying that, I really mean it, because the most widespread branch of the distiller’s craft in Germany often has a lot of innovation to offer (in addition to tradition, of course). Moreover, their products are usually of high quality. And indeed, my personal first “spirits tasting” was one that was closely linked to fruit eau-de-vie. Read More →