Heritage Grains
You are what you eat.
We scan labels for details of where the ingredients were grown, where livestock was reared, the exact variety of apple. Food sure, spirits? Not so much. A label will likely reveal the percentage of rye...
The Spirit of Rye
Carlo DeVito is a lifelong publishing executive whose clients have included adult beverage authors Kevin Zraly, Matt Kramer, Oz Clarke, Clay Rison, Salvatore Calabrese, Jim Meehan, and other authors such as Stephen Hawking, Dan Rather, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.,...
The Primer Portion
When Romans arrived in northern France two millennia ago they found the locals drinking not water but a rough cider from wild apples. According to records from that time it tasted awful but was preferable to falling ill from...
From DoD to C2G
How two Department of Defense chemists made Southfork Vodka the darling of California’s cocktails-to-go revolution
Bottles were pouring with pride as California announced it was keeping a new cocktails-to-go program for at least another half decade. Last fall’s decision to...
Craft Distilling’s Pied Piper of Heritage Corn
The founder of award-winning Wood Hat Spirits, promoter of ancient varieties of whiskey’s cheapest ingredient, says in the future everyone must have their own corn.
You don’t know jack about these topics compared to Gary Hinegardner: Yellow Dent corn, Bacillus...
You Know Shochu?
For Americans, and Japanese who live in the US, Maryland’s Takatsugu Amano distills the rice spirit that is more popular in Japan than tequila is in Mexico
Why don’t you know your Shochu? On a per capita consumption basis, shochu...
Often Forgotten Fermentables
Thinking about types of grain used to make whiskey — barley, corn, rye, wheat — is also a list of domesticated species that are the workhorses of agriculture and base spirit in North America and Europe. Similarly, fruits that...
Perfecting A Botanical Recipe By Design
While recipe preparation is an art, designing a recipe has a method that borders on the scientific
Every successful gin, aquavit, and absinthe must possess a variety of qualities but one that is essential is a unique botanical recipe; one...
Extracting Flavor
Flavors we delight in serve quite different functions in the plants we derive them from — not just appealing enticement but also defense and survival. Even within one plant, different structures hold different tastes. Texture and role of botanical...
Unearthling Taste
It is easy to be seduced by botanicals that flaunt aromatic leaves, flowers, and fruits above ground and to forget what lies below ground. Buried in the earth roots and rhizomes provide flavors that in some cases are underpin...
