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 →

It’s been a long time since I wrote about a gin here on the blog whose botanicals included hops. And until today, hops are not really a common ingredient in the production of a gin, although I have quite positive memories of my first experience of this kind. Today again, I have a gin in front of me that states already unmistakable on the bottle itself: I am a hop gin! A German hop gin which is made with Bitburger Siegelhopfen to be precise.

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Long ago – back then this blog was still very young – I wrote about a rum infused with pineapple and thus introduced the category of flavoured rums as a topic here early on. Since then, some spiced rums have been reviewed, various Falernums (or Falerna, whatever) and some sweet rums, where one may well argue about the extent to which they are not actually spiced or flavoured rums as well. What I have not yet discussed here, however, is a flavoured rum specifically flavoured with coconut. And that’s exactly what I’d like to finally do. Read More →

Today I am pleased to be able to once again taste a rum from the Plantation series and use it in a drink. It is the Plantation Barbados 2011, which comes as a One-Time Limited Edition and there are only 24 casks from which this rum was filled into bottles. Since I have written about Plantation Rums very often in the past and have already gone into the background of the brand several times, I want to go directly into medias res today. Read More →

I simply can’t deny a certain, personal pleasant anticipation with some types of spirits. Of course, I know what I like. Nevertheless, I always try to pursue a review approach striving for objectivity, which I will also not give up today. That said, I really do like Rhum Agricole downright, I’ve tried a few products from the manufacturer that today’s Rhum Agricole comes from so far – and I’ve liked them. It would be really surprising now if it would be a flop. But well, you never know. Read More →

And again, today it will be about Cachaça. In my last article, I already referred to the differences between the Cachaça Espírito de Minas and the Magnífica de Faria Cachaça (which I reviewed before this one), but if you missed all that, I recommend you take a look at the two articles here. Because when I will dedicate myself in the following to the Cachaça Santo Grau, cross-references will appear there again, which will show a comparison to the other two Cachaças. But one after the other! Read More →