Taster’s Tips

Fall is approaching and that means warm desserts, time with family and friends and rich flavors! Cooking with Bourbon adds a unique twist to any dish that you’re making and we wanted to share an amazing Peach Bourbon Pie with Bacon Brown Sugar Crumble from Food For My Family. Is your mouth already watering? We figured.

You arrive to the latest gathering with your friends and you notice something a little different. The table is full of smaller bottles and tulip shaped glasses with stubby stems instead of the usual wine glasses. Once the golden liquid is poured into your glass, the smell is overwhelming, but in a delightfully overwhelming way. Sniff, swirl, swish and swallow. You’re enjoying this.

Boston Harbor Distillery founder and CEO Rhonda Kallman is no stranger to the drinks industry. This trailblazing entrepreneur was one of the original founding members of the Boston Beer Company, makers of Sam Adams Beer, and later went on to found and lead New Century Brewing Company.

Bootlegging stories are a dime a dozen in the craft spirits industry. But let’s be honest, many of them are a little…stale. It’s neat when a distiller’s great-great-grandpa was running whisky across Lake Michigan or smuggling rum from the Caribbean to Miami, but come on guys: It’s been almost a century since Prohibition.

Yep, this post is about the comedy. Kind of. Groundhog Day is a modern classic, not just because it’s funny and sweet, but because it’s thought-provoking. What would you do if you could live the same day over and over?

The Taster’s Club team was wondering if any of you out there are loving Game Of Thrones as much as us. We’ve found that a night in, watching our favorite show pairs quite nicely with a salty Islay scotch. A must try!

When it comes to craft whiskey, few states can hold a candle to Colorado. This mountainous land in the center of the country seems to exert a special pull on distillers, not only inspiring them to start businesses (there are around 100 craft distilleries in Colorado), but prompting some of the most creative products in the nation.

In the whiskey world, it’s practically a matter of faith that making whiskey takes time—a lot of it. In Scotland, you can’t even call it “whisky” until it’s spent three years aging in an oak cask, and while the United States doesn’t specify exactly how long a spirit has to rest in oak, it does require that it spend at least some time getting acquainted with the inside of a barrel.

Most people look at Breckenridge, Colorado, and see a great place for skiing, hiking, mountain biking, and maybe a vacation home. Bryan Nolt, founder and CEO of Breckenridge Distillery, looked at this mountain village and saw a future of award-winning whiskey. Thank goodness for vision.

When you stop to think about it, the growth in craft distilleries over the past decade is truly amazing. In 2011, just seven years ago, there were fewer than 300 craft spirits producers in the United States. Today, there are more than 2,300 licensed distilled spirits producers, with nearly 1,600 active craft distillers and more in the planning stages. With those figures, “revolution” doesn’t sound like much of an exaggeration after all.

With The Doors’ lyrics in my head and thoughts about where to spend my ideal summer during my college years, Paris quickly became my number one choice. I was already, at that time, in love with whiskey and even kept a diary where, among other things, I wrote down the best restaurants, bars or night clubs the City of Lights had to offer. Whiskey bars naturally tended to top my list.

For most people, Santa Barbara is synonymous with wine. Those people must not know about Ascendant Spirits, Santa Barbara County’s very first distillery since Prohibition and one of the most exciting producers working in craft spirits today.