Mr. Black Coffee Liqueur

Last month, my wife and I decided that we were going to participate in Dry January this year. Not for any real reason. It just seemed like something to kick us out of our rut. Because of that, I needed to look ahead and see what I could find that I could taste ahead of time. I had a couple of things hanging around that I hadn’t gotten around to writing about yet, but that wasn’t enough for an entire month. So I went to the liquor store, set myself a price limit of $150, and bought everything I was going to taste for the coming month. What follows is one of those things I had hanging around that I really needed to write about.

I am the worst snob ever. I get accused of it all the time, but I’m just really not good at it. I love whiskey but hate paying too much for it. I love coffee but prefer automatic drip over fancier methods of extraction. But as I said, I have been told many times that I am, indeed, a snob. I buy my coffee from a small roaster in Whitefish, Montana. I have been for almost twenty years now. I just really love their coffee. But to some people, that makes me a snob. It's the same with whiskey. I gave a poor review to a bottom-shelf blended whiskey a few years ago and was called a snob then, too. In fact, the comments are still coming in for that one. I was told to get over myself not three months ago.

Apparently, knowing what you like makes someone a snob to some.

But I’m not here to yuck anyone’s yum. Honestly. If you’ve found that Kentucky Gentleman is your favorite whiskey. Go for it. No skin off my nose. I just ask for the same courtesy when respectfully turning down a weak cup of Folgers. Well, unless we are camping. I’d probably accept one then. All bets are off when we are camping and making breakfast around the fire.

So, it was with great curiosity that I added a 200 mL bottle of coffee liqueur to my shopping cart last summer. After it arrived, of course, I sat on it for six months because, well, I have no idea. The best I can tell is that it is a small bottle and got stuck behind something. In any case, by the time I got around to trying it, I was feeling a little trepidation. With a liqueur, you never know what you are going to get. It could be delicious, or it could be thin and weak like the coffee that much of my older immediate family makes (I mean, seriously, you can see the bottom of the cup through a full cup of coffee from some of them).

Luckily for me, this was delicious. But before we dig in, let’s see what the producer has to say:

Each and every bottle is made at our coffee roastery and distillery just north of Sydney, Australia. Our roasters source specialty beans from the best growing regions to create complex spirits that are bold, balanced and unapologetically coffee, without compromise or equal. Producing consistently concentrated cold brew and fine-tuning water composition, temperature and time are lifelong obsessions for both our Head Of Coffee, Detlef Mohr, and Master Distiller, Philip Moore. The difference between something good and something great, after all, comes down to the details.

Mr. Black Coffee Liqueur

Purchase Info: $13.99 for a 200 mL bottle at Curiada.com, though my corner liquor store has it for $28.99 for a 750 mL.

Price per Drink (50 mL:) $3.50 at Curiada or $1.93 locally

Details: 23% ABV

Nose: Dark, rich coffee, vanilla, and molasses.

Mouth: Thick and creamy mouthfeel. This tastes like a great cup of dark roast coffee with sugar and a dash of cinnamon.

Finish: Medium length. Lingering coffee notes.

Thoughts: I wasn't sure what to think about this before I tasted it. I was prepared for a thin, insipid drink that was really only good for a cocktail ingredient. But damn! This is thick, rich, sweet, and full-flavored. It tastes like a great cup of cold brew. If you didn't know better, you could be forgiven for thinking this is a coffee-flavored syrup, as there is little detectable alcohol burn. This is great! Now to try a few of the cocktail recipes from the brand website.

Cocktails: Delicious in a boozy milkshake. The Coffee Negroni from the website is very good. Chocolatey in a way I wasn't expecting. The Cold Brew Old Fashioned from the website is also very good. The orange bitters and rye bring forward a cocoa note that works very nicely with the rye.

Damn! I look forward to exploring this one further when Dry January is over. If you are a coffee nut like me, this is one to try.

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Soul Boxer Brandy Old Fashioned, ready-to-drink-cocktail

Before we get started, I have a severe case of Covid-Brain brought on by a relatively minor bout of Covid…please excuse, well, everything.

Last month, my wife and I decided that we were going to participate in Dry January this year. Not for any real reason, it just seemed like something to kick us out of our rut. Because of that, I needed to look ahead and see what I could find that I could taste ahead of time. I had a couple of things hanging around that I hadn’t gotten around to writing about yet, but that wasn’t enough for an entire month. So I went to the liquor store, set myself a price limit of $150, and bought everything I was going to taste for the coming month. What follows is one of those purchases.

Although I now claim Minnesota as my home state, I spent the first thirty years or so of my life in Wisconsin. I was born there, grew to adulthood there, got married, graduated college and started my career there. I also learned to drink there. Which is especially relevant to tonight’s discussion mostly because somehow, I managed to miss out on one of the state's iconic libations—the Brandy Old-Fashioned. In fact, I’d never even heard of it until I started getting into spirits and cocktails about fifteen years ago.

It's a tad perplexing, since it wasn’t like I avoided places that would serve them. I’ve been in Wisconsin bars and taverns that range from dive bar to upscale, small town local joints to places that cater to sophisticated tourists. I just never noticed it. I was a beer drinker, along with the occasional glass of wine, why would I look at the cocktail menu? If the place even had one, most didn’t when I was younger.

So when I went looking for things to taste for this month, I saw this ready-to-drink cocktail at my local liquor store. It is from Soul Boxer, a company specializing in ready-to-drink cocktails from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Honestly, I picked it up, knowing that I have no idea how a properly prepared Brandy Old Fashioned should taste. I just figured that folks in Milwaukee probably would, and I hoped that would be enough.

From my research a properly made Brandy Old-Fashioned is served a number of ways. It starts out much like any other Old Fashioned, with a sugar cube and bitters. To this they add a cherry and an orange slice and muddle those together. So far this is fairly normal though muddled fruit in an Old Fashioned has fallen out of favor in many places…including in my home. Then they add brandy and ice. Still pretty normal, but then things get weird. At this point, you top it with one of a few things. If you want it “sweet,” you add Sprite, if you want it “sour,” you add either sour mix or Squirt, and if you want it “press” you top with either a mixture of club soda and Squirt or just club soda.

All of this info comes second-hand from recipes on the internet, though. As I said, I have never had one of these prepared by anyone who knew what they were doing. If it is wrong, feel free to correct me in the comments. Here is a short video on the subject from the folks at Drink Wisconsinbly.

One day I will order a proper one, but in the meantime, you are probably wondering how the ready-to-drink version tasted. It has all the sugar, bitters, fruit flavors and brandy in it already so let’s dig in, shall we?

Soul Boxer Brandy Old Fashioned

Purchase Info: $19.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Viking Liquor, Prior Lake, MN

Price per Drink (50 mL): $1.33

Details: 31% ABV.

Nose: Orange, cherry, baking spices.

Mouth: This tastes like you'd expect. Its got orange, cherry, and bitters at the onset with fruity brandy notes underneath.

Finish: Medium length. Notes have been the same throughout and continue here in the finish.

Thoughts: I'm really digging this. You could pour this over a ball of ice and be very happy. But, of course we need to try it in the more “authentic” way too.

So I tried four variations: Sweet (Sprite), Sour (Squirt), Sour (sour mix), and Club Soda. Out of all of them my wife and I both preferred sweet if we were adding soda to it. Though to be honest, we much preferred the pre-mixed cocktail over ice with a cherry and orange zest garnish over all all of the soda versions. The flavors were already good enough that I didn’t think it needed to be covered up with a favored mixer and adding club soda to give it carbonation just watered it down. All in all, I’m happy with this purchase and am even more determined to try a proper one one day when I’m back visiting family and out for diner.

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Smoke Wagon Blender’s Select Straight Rye Whiskey

Have you noticed that as we get closer to Christmas and New Years, people get a little less, oh, I don’t know, dedicated to doing what they should be doing and a little more open to taking it a little easier? When I worked in an office, the week before Christmas was always a bit more laid back than normal. The week between the holidays was dead since both co-workers and clients tended to be off doing a little merry-making. And then you’d hit the inevitable cliff of coming back to work on the second, and everyone would be cranky. The cold seemed a little colder. The magic was just…gone until spring.

Or maybe it was just me. I do tend toward depression, after all.

In any case, I’ve always found the holidays to be a little magical. People who are normally grumpy turn out to be the type of folks who put up lights and decorations, even if it does raise the electric bill. People tend to be just a little nicer (unless you are in a store, then watch out). Even the snow seems less of an obstacle and more of a decoration. Yep, the time from Halloween to New Years is probably my favorite time of the year. However, I look forward to fewer emails informing me that it is my last chance to buy something.

Speaking of spending money, let’s turn our attention to tonight’s whiskey. Tonight, we are looking at the final installment in the Smoke Wagon trilogy, as suggested by reader David. This time, we turn our attention away from bourbon and over to rye whiskey. I love rye whiskey, maybe even more than bourbon. If RyeGuy hadn’t sounded so much like a McDonaldland Character, I might have considered it as a name for the site. Of course, in 2011, when I was planning this thing out, there wasn’t nearly as much rye whiskey on the market, so I wouldn’t have had a whole lot to write about.

Like the other Smoke Wagon whiskeys that we’ve looked at, this is sourced from MGP in Indiana. This one is made from a blend of their 51% rye, 45% corn, 4% malted barley recipe and their 51% rye, 49% malted barley recipe. The latter of which is the basis for this year’s 2023 Rossville Union Bottle in Bond limited edition. I liked it alone for that one, so let’s see how it stacks up when blended with another rye mash bill. But first we will let the producer have their say:

We selected barrels of the sweet, delicate 51% rye, 45% corn, and 4% barley traditional straight rye and blended it with barrels of the big and bold 51% rye, 49% malted barley straight rye. The end result is an upfront flavor profile that's beautifully sweet and rich with a luxurious mouthfeel. The finish has just enough cinnamon and rye spice to get your tongue tingling while the flavors from the malted barley, such as smoke and malt are still present, but softer and more subtle. 

Alright, let’s dig in.

Smoke Wagon Blender’s Select Straight Rye Whiskey

Purchase Info: $72.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Viking Liquor Barrel, Prior Lake, MN

Price per Drink (50 mL): $4.87

Details: Bottled Oct. 21, 2023. Batch 6. 56.89% ABV.

Nose: Cedar, mint, and cinnamon sugar.

Mouth: Cedar, cinnamon, brown sugar, cherry, and mint.

Finish: Medium to long and warm with mint, cherry, and cinnamon notes.

Thoughts: This is delicious. Even my rye-adverse wife enjoys it. It's dangerously drinkable neat. Yet it also takes a splash of water well. Water brings out more malty "nougat" notes. I think this is my favorite of the three Smoke Wason Whiskeys we've explored. As with the other two, though, it’s just too expensive for me to purchase on a regular basis. Not when I can usually get MGP whiskey much cheaper from other bottlers or even from MGP itself. But if I were in Vegas and saw it behind the bar or on a menu, I’d probably have no qualms about supporting a local business by buying a glass.

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Smoke Wagon Uncut Unfiltered Bourbon

Hello my friends! I hope that you are having a wonderful day. I know I am. Today I got to enjoy 50 degree weather. In Minnesota. In December! Days like this make it hard to get anything accomplished. So instead of working, I spent the day outside taking photos for some upcoming items that I’m going to be putting up on the Etsy store sometime next month. So I guess I was working, but it didn’t feel like it. I’m really excited for these as I am back to playing with barrel wood. This time I took portions of barrel head, planed the front down to a nice clean surface, and then engraved a design on the front before finishing them with a clear polyurethane. They look great! I just am not quite sure how to get them to people yet. I need to find boxes to ship them in.

But that isn’t why you are here (though if you are interested in those you can go to BourbonGuyGifts.com and favorite the shop. I think that will give you a notification when I put up new items.) No you are here to find out about the next entry in our Smoke Wagon series. Tonight’s bourbon is the barrel-proof Smoke Wagon Uncut Unfiltered Bourbon. As you might guess, this is a barrel-proof version of the Smoke Wagon Small Batch that we looked at on Tuesday. I don’t have much to add to what I wrote then so we will hear what the producer has to say and then jump into what I thought of the whiskey.

It’s nice out. I want to keep this short and sweet so I can enjoy a bourbon near the fire pit tonight.

We took the same vintage blending philosophy that we used to create Small Batch, except this time the goal was to create high proof bourbon that tasted its best neat. Uncut is so rich and sweet with an unbelievably thick mouth feel, the heat and rye spice finish are a welcome addition. It's like milk with cookies!

Let’s dig in!

Smoke Wagon Uncut Unfiltered Bourbon

Purchase Info: $79.99 for a 750 mL bottle at South Lyndale Liquors, Minneapolis, MN

Price per Drink (50 mL): $5.33

Details: Batch #192A. Bottled Oct 9, 2023. Distilled in Indiana. 57.98% ABV.

Nose: Cinnamon, spearmint, toffee, and dusty oak.

Mouth: Cinnamon, spearmint, maple, citrus zest, and oak.

Finish: Long and warm with notes of cinnamon, chocolate, and toffee.

Thoughts: This is very good. Much better than the Small Batch Bourbon. It is rich with a wonderful mouthfeel. It's much sweeter than I would have expected and I think that works very well for this particular flavor profile. Overall $80 is still more than I like to spend for bourbon but it's still cheaper than a lot of the barrel-proof bourbons on the shelf (unless you compare it to the one's from Lux Row who happen to be owned by MGP, this brand's presumed supplier) so if I see it again, and am looking for a barrel-proof bourbon, I’ll be sure to give it another look. I like it more than the Small Batch so if the choice was between he two, I’d choose this one.

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Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond, Fall 2023 Edition

I’d like to thank Heaven Hill for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

Getting this done a little early today. I get to go out with my wife tonight as we revel in the mid-holiday lull between Thanksgiving and Christmas when fewer people need dog sitting. I love my job. I really do. But I do miss being able to leave the house. So tonight, my wife and I are headed over to the Mall of America (not for any real reason other than that it is basically the closest mall to our house that still has more than a couple of stores in it) to do a little Christmas shopping. I’d say more, but I know that some of the folks I buy presents for may be reading this, and I don’t want to give anything away.

So, let’s move over to the bourbon, shall we? Tonight’s bourbon is the most recent release in the Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond series. One of the few bottles that are over $100 that my wife would probably purchase just for the bottle. This is really weird to me as we have an empty bottle of the vintage design that these were based on. Of course, you don’t get really tasty whiskey with that vintage empty, either, so maybe that’s why.

Quoting from the press release now:

“As a leader of the Bottled-in-Bond category, Heaven Hill is proud to offer a premium product within this special class which showcases the authenticity and quality of the American Whiskey portfolio,” said Conor O’ Driscoll, Master Distiller at Heaven Hill Distillery. “The Fall 2023 8-year-old Old Fitzgerald Bottled-In-Bond has the best qualities of a classic Kentucky Bourbon with the unique sweetness and spice this beloved brand is known for.” 

These are usually really tasty but also often much older (and more expensive), so let’s see if this one stacks up.

Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond, Fall 2023

Purchase Info: This 200 mL sample was provided at no cost for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $109.99 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $7.33

Details: 50% ABV. 8 years old

Nose: Brown sugar, oak, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mint.

Mouth: Chocolate, mint, cinnamon, oak.

Finish: Warm and of medium length. Notes of cinnamon, mint, and nutmeg initially, with chocolate, caramel, and oak appearing after they fade a bit.

Thoughts: Well, this is delicious as usual. The chocolate notes build and intensify as you take more sips, and are delicious all the way through. The nutmeg note is quite prominent and carried through the entire tasting process, attaching itself to the oak notes in a way that initially made me think of a Christmas Wreath before resolving into its constituent parts. So yeah, it’s really good. If I saw this at retail, and it was close to its SRP, and I felt like splurging, I’d bring this home so my wife could have her bottle. But luckily for my wallet, at least two of those are unlikely to happen.

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Border Bourbon-Port Barrel Finished, South Lyndale Liquors Selection

I fucking had to shovel the driveway today! I know that I shouldn’t be complaining about snow…in December…in Minnesota. Especially not when this is the first time I’ve actually had to shovel this year. But damn it, I am a spoiled brat who doesn’t like being uncomfortable. And I hate snow with a passion. You might ask, “Eric, if you hate winter so much, why do you continue to live in Minnesota?” Which is a good question.

And one I ask myself every time I shovel the driveway.

But I guess there are problems everywhere. We don’t get earthquakes, or tsunamis, or religious zealots trying to take away people’s rights, or wildfires. Or at least not enough that we need to worry about them too much. Minnesota gets snow, which is fine, I guess. It’s not like I have to drive in it as a self-employed designer. That, however, doesn’t mean I can’t whine about it.

Now that that is out of the way, let’s get onto more important things. Bourbon. You know, the thing I use to make myself forget the white shit falling from the sky. I kid…mostly.

Tonight’s bourbon is a store pick from my favorite liquor store in the Twin Cities. South Lyndale Liquors was always a very well-stocked liquor store with old, creaky floors and a tiny parking lot. It had a lot of charm, mostly brought in by wondering if the shelves were going to fall on you if you stepped too heavily while in their vicinity. Well, they recently moved into a much larger and very beautiful space, and I needed to check it out.

What I like about the store, and what makes it my favorite place to shop for liquor when I venture out, is that I always find something fun there. It might be a little out of my way, but it is well worth the detour for me. Plus, they seldom miss on their barrel picks. They are almost always delicious. So when I saw a barrel pick from a local distillery and noticed it was barrel-finished in a way that I hadn’t tried from them before, I knew I needed to pick it up…along with a box full of other fun things.

So let’s dig in.

Border Bourbon Port Barrel Finished, South Lyndale Liquors Selection

Purchase Info: $74.99 for a 750 mL bottle at South Lyndale Liquors, Minneapolis, MN

Price per Drink (50 mL): $5.00

Details: 50.5% ABV. Port Barrel Finished. Barrel #250

Nose: Dusty oak, plum, almond, honey, and allspice.

Mouth: Follows the nose with oak, stone fruit, almond, honey, and cinnamon spice that builds the longer you hold it in your mouth.

Finish: Medium to long with a warmth that blossoms up after a moment. Notes of oak, plum jelly, honey, and baking spice.

Thoughts: I really like this one. My wife is less enthusiastic but admits that might be just because she isn't enjoying the fruity port finish as much as I am. I'm finding this sweet and fruity, with a nice bit of oak to round out the experience. Quite tasty. Though as I said, I would have been surprised if it hadn’t been. Store picks from South Lyndale Liquors rarely disappoint.

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Yellowstone Special Finishes Collection, Toasted

I’d like to thank ByrnePR and Yellowstone Distillery for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

I think that Yellowstone Bourbon is one of the coolest stories in the bourbon industry. The brand was initially launched right around the declaration of Yellowstone National Park. It was apparently good whiskey and the brand was extremely popular until it fell on hard times. When I first had a pour of a bourbon with the name Yellowstone on it, I was in Yellowstone National Park surrounded by family and drinking a very bad bourbon. This was 2015 at the tail end of the brand’s hard times. But this is where it gets cool.

The brand’s owner at the time was Luxco, now a part of the MGP family. Right about the time they were starting the Lux Row distillery, they also bought a stake in Limestone Branch distillery. Which, it just so happens, was owned by a pair of brothers who were decended from the family that initially launched the Yellowstone bourbon. At that point, the home of Yellowstone was moved to Limestone Branch and placed under the supervision of Steve Beam (the previously mentioned decendant) who has been doing wonderful things with the brand.

Someday, someone should do a short history of the rise, fall, and rehabilitation of Yellowstone Bourbon. It’s a cool story that I didn’t come close to doing justice to.

Tonight’s bourbon is a new extension of the Yellowstone Bourbon lineup. It starts with the standard Yellowstone Select. That is then “stave finished” with five different toasted staves they call high toast, American oak double-toast, vanilla, rick house and spice rack. Here’s what the press release has to say about the new bourbon.

“The Yellowstone Special Finishes Collection is a great way to honor more than 150 years of bourbon heritage while still keeping things fresh and exciting,” said Beam. “I began experimenting with toasted barrels in 2016, 2017, and 2018 with Yellowstone Limited Edition releases and again more recently with distillery-exclusive Yellowstone Toasted Single Barrel. My experience helped in crafting what stave flavors to use and at what percentage to get the right flavor profile for Yellowstone Toasted. I can’t wait for consumers to try this latest full-time member of the Yellowstone Bourbon family.”

So let’s see how it tastes, shall we?

Yellowstone Special Finishes Collection, Toasted

Purchase Info: This sample was sent to me at no charge for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $49.99.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $3.33

Details: 50% ABV

Nose: Caramel, vanilla, spearmint, Juicy Fruit gum, baking spices, and oak.

Mouth: A nice peppery spiciness on the first sip. Beyond that are notes of cinnamon, black pepper, vanilla, caramel, and oak.

Finish: Sweet and spicy and of medium length. Notes of honey, vanilla, black pepper, black tea, cinnamon, and oak.

Thoughts: This is really good. So good that when I went back to check the price, I was shocked that it was "only" $50. I think it is worth every penny. I'm really enjoying the sweet and spicy notes. I love honey, so the honey note on the finish is right up my alley. This is a lovely upgrade from the standard Yellowstone Select Bourbon.

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Campari Negroni, Ready-to-Drink Cocktail

I used to scoff at ready-to-drink cocktails. I like making cocktails, so I couldn’t understand why anyone would settle for a sub-par, overly sweet drink from the store when they could just make their own.

Yeah, I was kinda dumb.

Look, I get it. There are plenty of times I really want a cocktail, but I have zero ambition to make it. In such cases, I have three options. Drive to a place that makes cocktails, see if my oh-so-beautiful wife will make one for me, or just settle for a pour of bourbon in a glass. All three options come with their drawbacks.

The first one, obviously, means I need to leave the house, and I’m going to be honest with you here: if I can’t muster the ambition to go make a cocktail, do you think I’m actually up to putting on “real clothes” and leaving the house? Not a chance. The third one is what happens most of the time. I just pour a glass into a pretty cup and call it “good enough.” And it is, but sometimes I really want more than just a pour of bourbon. In such times, I turn to option two: ask my wife to do it for me.

Now, as I said at the beginning, I love making cocktails. My wife, however, does not. If I ask her to do it, I will most likely get an Old Fashioned. One bottle, a couple shakes of bitters, and one squirt of a sweetener such as honey or agave nectar. Which is great. Except sometimes I want something that isn’t an Old Fashioned. Something like a Negroni, for example. In the past, I’d just get up and do it myself. I’m not the kind of person who asks someone to do something for me when I’m feeling lazy and then critiques what they do for me.

Notice the “in the past” in that previous paragraph? Yeah, I found something online that intrigued me as I was trying to spend enough to get free shipping (spending more than shipping would cost in order to qualify for free shipping is totally logical, right?). I was buying a bottle of Wyoming Whiskey’s National Park No. 3 from Reserve Bar when I saw a 375 mL bottle of Campari Negroni, a ready-to-drink version of the Negroni cocktail. And last night, I put it through its paces…which is just a fancy way of saying I drank two cocktails. One ready-to-drink and one that I made fresh using Beefeater 24, Noilly Prat vermouth, and Campari. Here are my notes.

Campari Negroni, Ready-to-Drink Cocktail

Purchase Info: $26.49 for a 375 mL bottle from ReserveBar.com. It sells at Total Wine near me for $23.99 for a 375 mL.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $3.53

Details: 26% ABV

Nose: Chocolate and cherry

Mouth: Oxidized wine notes along with citrus and baking spice.

Finish: Short and deliciously bitter with notes of cherry, citrus, and chocolate.

Comparison to freshly made: The freshly made is brighter, but the bottled is more complex. Both benefit greatly from an expressed orange peel over the glass.

Thoughts: If I have the ingredients and I make the cocktail, I’ll prefer the freshly made version. It allows me to change the gin I'm using to whatever I'm in the mood for on that day. And with the Beefeter that I used, I prefer the brighter, less oxidized taste of the freshly made. That said, I very seldom have vermouth in the house, as a Negroni is the only cocktail I make where I don't swap the vermouth out for an amaro. So, I can totally see a place in my life for the bottled version. This way, I can have a Negroni on nights when I convince my oh-so-beautiful wife (whom I dearly love) to make cocktails, or there is no vermouth in the house. It’s close enough that I wouldn’t have noticed in a non-head-to-head matchup.

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