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Posts Tagged ‘Cocktails and Recipes’

Review: Broker’s (Premium London Dry Gin)

Posted by Arctic Wolf on February 5, 2012

Broker’s Gin is a relatively new brand, created in 1998 by the Dawson Brother’s (Martin and Andy). Despite the rather recent creation of this brand, the recipe for Broker’s Gin is reported to be over 200 years old. Apparently, during the design phase for the brand, the Dawson brothers tasted and tested many newer recipes as well; however they found that sometimes the old ways really are the best ways, and after various trials they chose the 200-year-old recipe.  Broker’s Gin is made from traditional copper pot stills in a distillery located near Birmingham, England. Like the recipe for the gin, this distillery is over 200 years old.

Broker’s is a wheat-based, quadruple-distilled, pure grain spirit. Ten natural ingredients are used to flavour this spirit and of course the primary botanical used is juniper. The botanicals are steeped in the quadruple-distilled base spirit inside the still for 24 hours prior to the spirit being processed through a final, fifth distillation to produce Broker’s Gin.

According to the Broker’s Gin Website, the botanicals used to produce Broker’s Gin and their sources are, juniper berries from Bulgaria or Macedonia, coriander seed from Bulgaria, orris root from Italy, nutmeg from India, cassia bark from China, cinnamon from Madagascar, liquorice from Sri Lanka, orange peel from Spain, lemon peel from Spain and angelica root from Belgium or France.

I was given a bottle of Broker’s Gin by Woodman Wines and Spirits to review on my website. Here is an excerpt from my review:

“… I poured out my first sample of Broker’s Gin into a glencairn glass and my nose was greeted with the classic mild piny juniper scent of a traditional English gin. Light notes of lemon and lime citrus lay in the breezes with just a hint of orange peel. The overall effect is light and refreshing. If you spend some time nosing the glass it is possible to detect a very light pungent spiciness which lies under the more assertive juniper and citrus… “

Here is a link to my full Review:

Review: Broker’s (Premium London Dry Gin)

I have included a nice cocktail suggestion with the review called, Lady of the Empire. Please enjoy the review and the cocktail!

Posted in Cocktails & Recipes, Gin, Gin Review | Tagged: , , , , | Comments Off on Review: Broker’s (Premium London Dry Gin)

Revisiting Cabo Wabo Reposado

Posted by Arctic Wolf on January 31, 2012

Cabo Wabo Tequila is made from 100 percent Blue Weber Agave grown in the lowlands of the Mexican State of Jalisco. The distinction between agave grown in the lowlands versus the highlands is important because lowland agave tends to carry more earthy and vegetal flavours into the final distilled Tequila than Agave grown in the highlands. Interestingly, the founder of Cabo Wabo Tequila is rock musician Sammy Hagar, and his Tequila was apparently named after the nightclub he owns in Cabo San Lucas.

The Cabo Wabo Reposado was the first Tequila that I reviewed. Although it is two years later, I went back to this Reposado recently making a few cocktails and polishing off the contents which I had been slowly sipping on over time. (It takes me a while to finish a bottle as new bottles are constantly arriving in my review queue.) I decided to republish my original review with a nice cocktail suggestion added.

Here is an excerpt from the review:

“… This is spicy with lots of citrus. The spice is hot, more like pepper than cinnamon.  The citrus notes taste like fresh squeezed lemon and/or lime.  It’s hard to be specific as the punky agave flavour masks other notes to some degree.  I  feel a little oil on my palate.  As everyone knows, tequila bites hard, but in spite of the hot citrus and punky agave, this has a milder bite than other tequila I have tried …”

You may read the full review here:

Review: Cabo Wabo Reposado

Please enjoy the review and my cocktail suggestion, Pale Gray for Guilt!

Posted in Cocktails & Recipes, Reposado Tequila, Tequila, Tequila Review | Tagged: , , , , | Comments Off on Revisiting Cabo Wabo Reposado

Review: 5 Barrel Rum (Travellers)

Posted by Arctic Wolf on January 29, 2012

Travellers’ 5 Barrel Rum is a premium aged rum brand produced in Belize, (the northernmost mainland country of Central America). Belize is a former British Colony, and lies just south of Mexico with the Caribbean Sea to the east and Guatemala to the west and south. The producer of 5 Barrel Rum, Travellers Liquors Limited has been involved in the production of  rum in Belize since the early 1960′s originally working with independent distillers. In 1989, Travellers acquired full control of their own distillery, and they have remained in full control of their own brands ever since.

The 5 Barrel Rum is made from locally grown Belize sugar cane. According to the Travellers website, this cane is cut and crushed in a manner which retains its natural flavors, and the all of the rum is aged in Kentucky oak barrels for a full 5 years. It is blended to be a full-bodied rum with the well-rounded taste which results from oak barrel aging.

Recently, I was given a bottle of 5 Barrel Rum by a representative of Travellers Liquor Canada for the purpose of this review. Here is an excerpt:

“…As I let the glass breathe, the tobacco and the oak scents deepened. They were joined by wonderful sweet baking spices filled with rich brown sugar, spicy cinnamon, light vanillans and hints of nutmeg.  This one of those rums that grows in the glass as it breathes. The aroma is rich and deep and wonderfully in balance…”

You may read the full review here:

Review: 5 Barrel Rum (Travellers)

Please enjoy the review and the cocktail suggestion that follows, The Rum Old Fashioned.

And please remember to drink responsibly, it is my aim to help you choose better spirits, not to help you to consume more spirits!

Posted in Cocktails & Recipes, Dark Rums, Rum, Rum Reviews | Tagged: , , , , , | Comments Off on Review: 5 Barrel Rum (Travellers)

Review: Highwood Premium Vodka

Posted by Arctic Wolf on January 24, 2012

Highwood Vodka is a triple distilled wheat Vodka produced at the Highwood Distillery in High River, Alberta, situated near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains just 30 minutes south of Calgary. This vodka follows the recent trend of low-priced premium vodkas which take up the lion’s share of the market here in Alberta, Canada.

I used my Vodka Review Methodology, putting this spirit through the same paces as I have done for the higher priced spirits which I have reviewed. It turns out that the Highwood Vodka stands up to its higher priced competitors quite well.

Here is an excerpt from the resulting review:

“… There was very little aroma apparent as we raised our shot-glasses to our noses, light wispy bits of starch and grain perhaps, and maybe a touch a citrus zest in the air. As the vodka covered my tongue, my first impression was that this is a rather soft vodka which carries a nice bit of rye-like spice forward. I also seemed to be able taste just a hint of that lime citrus which I had noticed in the aroma…”

Here is a link to the full review:

Review: Highwood Premium Vodka

I have included a a nice cocktail with this review, The Kamikaze.

Please enjoy the review and the accompanying cocktail!

Posted in Cocktails & Recipes, Vodka, Vodka Reviews | Tagged: , , , , , | Comments Off on Review: Highwood Premium Vodka

Comparative Review: Schweppes Tonic VS Q Tonic

Posted by Arctic Wolf on January 15, 2012

I was visiting one of my favourite Liquor Stores this past August, (Lacombe Park Spirits in St. Albert if you want to know), when Karim, who is one of the owners, asked me to try a Gin and Tonic with a new Tonic Water he had started to carry called Q Tonic. Up to this point, pickings were mighty slim in my neck of the woods for Tonic Water and Schweppes Tonic was pretty much the standard choice amongst my friends and I.

So I let him make me a small sample cocktail, and I have to say, it was pretty good. In fact, I was intrigued enough to make contact with Jordan Silbert, the founder of Q Drinks and asked him if he would like to send me a sample and some information, especially as I had recently began to receive a few gin samples for review. My thought was that it would be fun to make some side by side cocktails with Q Tonic and Schweppes Tonic to see if I preferred one over the other consistently.

Jordan agreed, and I received a few small bottles of Q Tonic in the mail shortly before Christmas. This was good because the gin samples were beginning to pile up, and I wanted to get at them.

So with four different gins in my review queue,  Beefeater 24, Citadelle Reserve, Port of Barcelona and Broker’s Gin, I set out over the next couple of weeks to test the Gin and Tonic Cocktail with both Q Tonic and Schweppes Tonic Water.

You may read the results of this exercise by following the provided link:

Comparative Review: Schweppes Tonic VS Q Tonic

Enjoy!

Posted in Cocktails & Recipes, Extras, First Impressions, Gin, Gin Review | Tagged: , , , , , | Comments Off on Comparative Review: Schweppes Tonic VS Q Tonic