The 30 Minute Cocktail Hour Podcast & Blog

On our last podcast episode I kept the Oktoberfest theme running with a new flavor of beer, pumpkin.  Buffalo Bill’s was the brand I tried, but there are many others on this fall beer line.   The ale had a nice crispness with a rich beer flavor but what surprised me was Read more

On the last podcast we were live at an Irish pub so it was only fitting to try some Irish whiskey, after a couple Guinness of course.   Not being very familiar, other than Jameson’s, I already had pre-conceived taste profile.

The whiskey making process in Ireland is more distilled and less barrel aging.  So, Read more

On the last podcast we tasted the Longshot Homebrew winners from Sam Adams.  Over 1000 entries into the contest and the winners got their beers packaged in a  sample six pack (2 each), which is nice.  You don’t have to worry about wasting beer if you don’t like one of them.  Here is my review. Read more

With legs like Heidi Klum running down the sides of my glass, this fine whisky from north of the border really pleased all in attendance with its great flavor. This reasonably new Canadian blend is produced by using three different types of barrels. One for rye, one for grain, and one for corn. This process adds some the very interesting and light flavors of caramel and vanilla. I’ve only had 3-4 Canadians and this has been the best by far. Canadian Mist, Crown Royal, and Canadian Club got nothing on this one. If you’re looking for something new and interesting for your liquor cabinet, pick yourself up a bottle of Forty Creek.

This robusto sized cigar comes from Torano’s strongest line of cigars, the Virtuoso. With a perfectly dark Nicaraguan sungrown wrapper, there was a lot of nuttiness and sweetness from this great smoke. While almost all smokes change as you get closer to the nub, this one never became harsh and always tasted great. The wrapper had some veins but it burned evenly and produced a tremendous amount of smoke.