Hello, my friends. First off, I just want to thank you all for your well wishes as I dealt with the loss of my Grandma. She was a very special woman who will be missed by many. But life goes on for those who remain, and so I have been getting back to work.
And so here we are, looking at a pair of lovely cordials from Tamworth Distilling in Tamworth, New Hampshire, a place that is quickly becoming one of my favorite non-bourbon distilleries. I bought these a while back from their website and have been waiting for summer to crack them open. They just felt like good summer drinks. Especially this time of year, when my wife makes many tasty rhubarb treats from the plants in our garden. And cranberries are one of my favorites. My Grandma’s cabin was located in one of the major cranberry-growing areas outside of New England. So these felt right today.
Let’s dig into the review, though.
Tamworth Garden Strawberry Rhubarb Cordial
Purchase Info: $35 for a 375 mL bottle at the Tamworth Distilling website.
Price per Drink (50 mL): $4.67
Details: 12.5% ABV. ½ pound berries and ¼ pound rhubarb per bottle.
Nose: Tart with distinct strawberry notes.
Mouth: Stewed fruit. Sweet strawberry preserves. Tart and slightly bitter rhubarb notes.
Finish: Long and tart with lingering fruit notes.
Thoughts: On its own, this tastes like your standard grocery store strawberry-rhubarb pie, if you left out the extra sugar and just had enough to not make your face pucker. It's very well balanced between sweet strawberry and tart rhubarb. Definitely strawberry-forward, with the rhubarb providing depth. It's quite good, but not something I'd be pouring into a glass to drink on its own. Which is why we definitely tried this in a few cocktails.
First, we made a few highballs in a standard 1:2 spirit-to-mixer ratio. We tried soda water, Sprite, and ginger ale to simulate what you'd get from a tavern's soda gun (we did not try the colas, as you might have guessed). The ginger ale was far and away the best of the three.
Then, of course, since it was a beautiful day outside as we were doing our tasting, I decided to pour an ounce of the cordial into our usual "deck drink," the Gin Rickey. As I suspected, the floral gin and lime flavors are very complementary to the stewed fruit flavors of the cordial. It is quite delicious.
Strawberry Rhubarb Rickey.
1 ½ ounce gin
1 ounce Tamworth Garden Strawberry-Rhubarb cordial
¾ ounce lime juice
crushed ice
6 ounces soda water.
Build in glass and give a quick stir.
Tamworth Garden Cranberry Cordial
Purchase Info: $35 for a 375 mL bottle at the Tamworth Distilling website.
Price per Drink (50 mL): $4.67
Details: 12.5% ABV.
Nose: Cranberries and sweetness.
Mouth: Cranberry and juniper berry.
Finish: Medium length with a nice lingering bitterness. Notes of stewed fruit.
Thoughts: This one is also very good. It tastes of real fruit, not fruit flavoring. Think of the difference between your Grandma's fruit jams and the Wal-Mart brand of the same flavor. In one, the flavor is just more complex.
But this needs to be tried in cocktails too. On this one, Sprite made the best highball of the three. I made another Rickey with the cranberry cordial and, honestly, it was even better.
Cranberry Rickey
1 ½ ounce gin
1 ounce Tamworth Garden Cranberry Cordial
¾ ounce lime juice
crushed ice
6 ounces soda water.
Build in glass and give a quick stir.
I really like both of these, especially as cocktail ingredients. And though I didn't try it, I could see both of these working well with either tequila or even a less funky white rum. The “real fruit” flavors are layered and complex. Next time I'm placing an order with the company, I'm going to be sure to add a couple of bottles of each of these to the cart.
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