Category: Spirits, Wine & Cider

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Drnxmyth

I dabble in spirits. I know that I prefer Southern whiskey and gin above all, though I dabble in tequila and other drinks. Thanks to the L.A. Times Food Section, I found a Torrance based canned cocktail maker that delivers with the name of Drnxmyth. And they have bartenders creating some interesting spins on classic cocktails. The recipe makers get a cut too, which I think is great. So I ordered up a pair to be delivered and here is my verdict…

First up was the Margarita, at first I had a hard time twisting the bottom. You see, these drinks have two separate compartments. When you are ready to drink, you twist to mix the two together. Quite ingenious. The aroma was really nice and it tasted fancy. It had nuanced flavors and wasn’t just a tequila hit. The Gin drink was a little too out there for me. It tasted fine, it just wasn’t to my taste. I wished there had been more cucumber and mint notes. It just tasted a bit herbaceous to me.

They have a whiskey and a rum drink and I would not hesitate to try either. The 10 price point for what is essentially two cocktails is a steal.

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Sanitize

You shouldn’t be surprised to hear that distillers from coast to coast have turned their eye to sanitizing liquid. Granted Dogfish Head and spots in Portland are not going to meet the extreme demand but the quick pivot made by these companies is yet more proof that they are more “essential” than Governor Newsom can imagine. I say buy all that you can from these locals and post about it, with a hashtag of your governor or mayor.

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1st Visit – Ficklewood Cider

I decided to chaffeur my wife into her job on a recent Saturday and used the time to hit a couple spots in Long Beach. One was Beachwood Blendery and the other is the new (a couple months old) Ficklewood Ciderworks. I will write more in depth about it for Food GPS next month but suffice it to say that they had two hopped ciders that actually were both hoppy and apple-y at the same time. So, I recommend heading out there. Bonus points is that it is next to a Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles.

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The Queen

Portuguese Bend Distilling recently released their new rums, Queens Passage Rums on February 21st.

According to the press release the “they are small batch dedications to the colonial style rums that fueled revolution and celebrated liberty in early American taverns. Our white and spiced rums are a great base spirits for traditional punches, grogs and innovative craft cocktails.”

Here is more about the (2) new rums:

Spiced rum – “Made with whole spices, no added chemicals, nothing artificial. Warm spice notes of cinnamon, allspice, vanilla and a hint of orange citrus.”

White rum – “A medium dry rum with hints of raw sugar and cane grass. Delicious base for a homemade daiquiri or Cuba Libré.”

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Pilot House Distilling

When in Astoria, I also made a side trip, well, not a long one since, it was across the street from Reach Break Brewing. Pilot House Distilling creates vodka, whiskey, canned cocktails and for me, gin. I had three different versions. A bar version which was my favorite as well as The Painted Lady and a Barrel-aged Painted Lady. The last two had a kick to them but they were very unique and shows how different gin can be.

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Bruery Erosion

Well it seems pretty natural for Patrick Rue of The Bruery to expand into the wine arena. And now they have with Erosion. They have done so many beer-wine hybrids, beers aged in wine barrels and the like. Tasting rooms in Napa and St. Helena and wine in cans too.

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Kampai!

At first this documentary, this was slow without much Sake information.  But then the journeys of the protagonists was revealed and it was really affected me. The writer from Cleveland is my analog, but the UK brewer has nuggets of wisdom, as did the family Sake House with the upstart son and the Fukushima tragedy really struck me. There was one section in Cornwall, where Parker was talking about each year being new that actually rang far more true than any New Years Resolution. And it was really fun to see a North Carolina sake brewery putting their own spin on the beverage.

There is some “how-to brew” segments but that is not the thrust of this movie so you will probably need to augment with some outside reading to catch a fuller idea of what is being done. That is what I am going to do after seeing this.

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Christmas Gin

We can’t let beer have all the seasonal fun, can we?

I don’t want to know beforehand what F&M adds to a gin amidst the other botanicals but this would certainly be a fun gin to taste and find out.