The 30 Minute Cocktail Hour Podcast & Blog

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.

This was the second bourbon we tried on the show and only the third I ever had to drink. Another fairly smooth bourbon at a really good price. At around $20, I’m really liking the price of these compared to what I normally have to spend to buy a comparable bottle of scotch. With just a tad bit of heat, the bourbon went down smooth. This small batch bourbon packs quite a kick as it comes in at 94 proof. At $20 and 94 proof, this is a fairly inexpensive and tasty way to get  your drink on.

For the price, this was a really nice bourbon for this very new bourbon drinker. They call this boutique bourbon and I find that interesting since I’ve seen it in every liquor store I’ve been in recently. I would think it would be a bit harder to find to receive that distinction. Coming from a traditional scotch drinker, I would consider this a nice and mild spirit, one I would consider as an entry level bourbon for the new drinker. Not too strong, the mild notes of oak and vanilla are very pleasing with just one cube of ice. If you’re new to bourbon like I am, you could do a lot worse.