Tag: Cocktails

Spirit of the Week: Weber Ranch agave vodka is all sorts of good weird

What if we mashed up all the good things about tequila and vodka?

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage (or food) that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

There aren’t too many stones left to turn over in the world of spirits. It feels like pretty much anything that can be fermented into at least a passable form of drinkable poison has been.

However, I’ve never seen vodka made out of agave before.

A quick search suggests it’s an arrow in Dan Aykroyd’s Crystal Skull quiver, but largely an overlooked part of the spirit landscape. Well, the Soul Man himself has a little more competition now thanks to Weber Ranch.

Upon opening my bottle of Weber Ranch Agave Vodka — one of the first ever produced, a helpful note tells me — I realize I have no idea what I’m getting into. Agave and vodka are not worlds that mix often outside of the ill-prepared stomach of a fraternity pledge. While Weber Ranch’s beautiful presentation suggests a much calmer and thought-out experience, I’m still not quite sure how to react to a vodka made from the base that gives us tequila.

Well, better drink it and find out.

Weber Ranch Agave Vodka: B+

I’m pouring this over ice, because that’s what I’d do with any vodka. Don’t worry, I’ll give it a straight up sip later, but I’d like my first experience with a brand new spirit to be in what’s probably its most enjoyable form.

The smell is complex. You get a little bit of the astringent qualities endemic to vodka, but that agave also imparts some rich earthy and fruity flavors as well. I get a little cinnamon and pear, on top of the light burn you’d expect from a 96 proof booze. No, wait, that says 40 percent ABV. Never mind, carry on.

The first sip leaves me cocking my head back and forth like a golden retriever hearing a clarinet for the first time. It’s a very gentle sip, not harsh or sharp but soft and pleasant. It finishes with a sugary sweetness that carries a little bit of that cinnamon with it for a calm and enjoyable end. On the way there you get a little bit of that basic vodka influence, but it’s overpowered by the sugars of that roasted agave and the fruit that comes with it.

That gives it way more character than your typical vodka despite never feeling like tequila. This is a satisfying sipper out of a rocks glass; a slow drinker for sure but one that never makes you wince or feel bad for enjoying it. It’s a lot, and I mean that in a good way. Tasting it neat backs this up; lusher flavors than you’d expect from a vodka, but not something you’d mistake for a tequila.

Let’s see how it translates to a cocktail.

Weber Ranch in Ranch Water* with Betty Buzz Meyer Lemon Club Soda: B

At first I felt bad about not having the traditional ingredients for ranch water at home — I review drinks for a job, I should at least be able to put 50 cents aside each week to keep a lime handy — but felt less bad when I realized this isn’t a true ranch water since it’s being made with vodka. So I gave my glass a generous pour of Weber Ranch and topped it with Meyer lemon club soda from Blake Lively’s Betty Buzz line of mixers. I don’t love club soda, but I figure the sweetness inherent to the spirit will help make up for the lack of sucralose bubbles I’d get in a light tonic.

You get that astringent vodka reflex up front, but it melts away to mix with those bubbles and that lemon to create a drink that finishes much better than it starts. The end result is a bit complex and boozy, though it never burns. It would probably play better with fresh fruit — honestly, this is more a half-assed Tom Collins than a half-assed ranch water and a nice squeeze of lemon would be a win — but it’s an approachable spirit that rewards you for giving it a shot.

As is, it’s not my favorite — but again, it’s not quite a real cocktail. I preferred it as a sipper on its own, where the flavors stood out more and the back-end smoothness left no penalty for drinking without a mixer. The media guide says Weber Ranch was made to straddle the line between vodka and tequila cocktails. Turns out, it’s pretty dang good on its own, too.

*not really a ranch water.

Would I drink it instead of a Hamm’s?

This is a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I’m drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That’s the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm’s. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I drink Weber Ranch agave vodka over a cold can of Hamm’s?

I think so. I’m kinda excited to figure out how it will taste in a bloody Mary, if we’re being honest.

Mixer of the Week: Badger Beverages class up even the laziest cocktails

Badger’s mixers aren’t reinventing the wheel. But they will make your two-step drink taste way better.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage (or food) that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

Badger Beverages isn’t based in Wisconsin. Maybe I’m the only one that assumed that based on how the local university and its general lack of mascot copyrighting has inspired a host of mustelid-inspired companies. Instead, its founder hails from Ridgefield, Connecticut.

David Vogel wanted to create a relentless brand of top shelf cocktail mixers, which isn’t the modifier I look for when it comes to my drinks, but, sure. Enter a lineup of classic beverages for home and commercial bars. The original lineup of club soda, ginger beer and grapefruit soda is a handshake extended to lazy bartenders like myself unwilling to add a fourth or fifth step to their cocktail.

Badger’s premium branding suggests, yeah, you can roll with this and a twist and do just fine with your simple sipper. Let’s see if it lives up to that standard.

Tom Collins with club soda and Empress 1908 indigo gin: B+

I don’t typically do Tom Collins-es (Toms Collins?). I don’t generally do club soda in general, as carbonated water is merely a vessel to make water worse. But I have good gin (Empress 1908’s Indigo Gin, which is both tasty and gorgeous to pour. Look at that purple drink!) and a surfeit of lemons thanks to a shockingly successful summer break six-year-old lemonade stand ($70 donated to the humane society!), so let’s run it back with a classic.

The club soda doesn’t offer much in terms of scent after an effervescent pour into a Collins glass. The first sip is cool and refreshing, with a floral gin that finishes sweet (and a little bit of simple syrup) waging a tug-o-war with the citrus. It’s very much an adult lemonade, carbonated and leaning into the botanical elements of the gin rather than Country Time sweetness.

It’s a pretty great cocktail, even if it leaves little feedback on the club soda itself. A swig from the bottle reveals a dry, slightly salty sparkling water. It’s more interesting than regular water, but… yeah, it’s bubbles and water and a little bit of sodium, it seems. I like it, but I wouldn’t drink it on its own. In a cocktail, though? Yeah, that works.

Sparkling Grapefruit soda with Beattie’s strawberry vodka: A

The soda pours with a crisp citrus smell and a cascade of bubbles tumbling skyward. This time around I’m mixing it with Beattie’s strawberry vodka, in part because Beattie’s is a great product but also because my unflavored vodka supplies are low and I may want a bloody Mary tomorrow.

Adding the vodka turns that smell off the top to strawberry, which could taint my whole review. Instead, the two sides work *awesomely* together. It’s got a tart-sweet-tart feel that packs a lot of flavor before finishing dry. Whoa. This is the cocktail I should be drinking in the morning (though, since I can’t use a beef stick as a stirrer in this I will likely return to my bloody roots).

Sipping the Badger Sparkling Grapefruit on its own reveals a full-bodied soda whose reliance on cane sugar rather than corn syrup pays off. It’s sweeter than you’d expect as a result — and it clocks in at 90 calories for just over eight ounces — but it runs its flavor out to the borders of that calorie count, making for a rich, extremely drinkable cocktail.

Ginger beer in a Moscow mule*: A-

So, full disclosure; I was somehow without limes, so I used a lemon instead. And I forgot I had regular vodka, instead using Beattie’s sweet potato vodka. That doesn’t mean it will be overwhelmingly potato-y, but… yeah, it might be a little weird. Hey, at least I have the copper mug!

And, yep, this one is saved by the strength of a solid ginger beer. Badger is crisp and spicy, working with the citrus to create a solid counterpunch to the sweetness of the vodka within. The aftertaste is slightly fiery, which is what I want. It’s a wonderful cheat code for what is, let’s be honest, a stupid bootleg remix of a much better cocktail.

On its own it starts off in the ginger ale realm before that spice kicks in and gives you something to linger on. If you’re not a fan of heavy ginger then, sure, this won’t be for you. But as someone for whom Vernor’s was a special vacation treat growing up, hell yeah. The once concern is it is a little sticky sweet toward the end, which knocks it down a bit but still leaves it as a pretty dang good mixer.

Would I drink it instead of a Hamm’s

This is a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I’m drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That’s the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm’s. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I drink Ja cocktail with Badger mixers over a cold can of Hamm’s?

Yep. These are solid on their own. But they’re great in a handful of easy-to-make, stir-and-sip cocktails.

Whiskey of the Week: Tullamore D.E.W. Honey is doing too much

A light honey of honey with my whiskey sounds great. This is not a light touch.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

Tullamore D.E.W. exists in a weird spot for me. I know it’s Irish whiskey. I know it’s *pretty good* Irish whiskey. But it lacks the recognition of Jameson or even Powers here in Wisconsin.

On top of that, Irish whiskey tends to lag behind the other whiskeys in my life. I love bourbon. I really love Scotch. But I only like Irish whiskey, which is smooth and entirely drinkable on ice or with a mixer but often escapes me.

Thus, it seemed like a good time to try the pride of Tullamore, Ireland’s latest offering. Tullamore D.E.W. Honey is exactly what it sounds like; a honey-infused take on the distillery’s classic blend. On paper, that’s an easy win. Mix Drambuie and Scotch and you’ve got an iconic cocktail. Put it all in one bottle and you’ve got the rusty nail taste in half the steps.

Of course, Tullamore D.E.W. Honey would like to be more than that. Let’s see if it pans out.

Honey, neat: C+

It pours mahogany brown. It smells boozy and warm, with the sweet honey and vanilla apparent right off the top. It’s very clear this isn’t a typical whiskey but a liqueur, but I love a good rusty nail so I’m on board.

Wow. This is more saccharine sweet cocktail in a bottle than a whiskey. It’s soft and… yeah, sugary. That washes away any heat from the 35 percent ABV within. I’d say that makes it easy to drink, but there’s a certain syrupy aspect to it that makes it at least slightly difficult to come back to.

It’s not subtle or complex. It’s honey and a little vanilla and citrus, but mostly honey. There’s a little warmth at the finish, but the aftertaste is slightly gritty sugar. It feels like it would benefit greatly from the thinning influence of a little ice, so…

Honey on ice: B

The ice dulls the heat slightly, but the smell off the top still gives off a “fancy coffee creamer” vibe. A couple cubes does thin it out slightly, making it the superior way to drink it. It’s still a bit formless, a little sloppy, but it’s fine.

With the ice, it feels more like a cocktail than a half-formed shot. It’s not perfect, but it’s less syrupy and more pleasant on your tongue. I’m getting the distinct feeling this was meant for either chilled shots or as a component in bolder cocktails. Ah, well, it’s still OK.

Would I drink it instead of a Hamm’s?

This is a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I’m drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That’s the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm’s. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I drink Tullamore D.E.W. Honey over a cold can of Hamm’s?

I’d happily rip a shot of it if someone was celebrating an occasion, but there are better whiskeys out there. And if you want a touch of honey with your whiskey, a rusty nail is always going to be superior.

How to make a Bomb Pop cocktail for a red, white and blue July 4th

Red, white and blue? That means cherry, lime and, uh, blue. With or without a little vodka.

Day drinking for a special occasion? Awesome. Day drinking to celebrate the birth of your nation? That’s practically your civic duty.

July 4 is more than a holiday meant to traumatize dogs with hours of traumatic sky booms. It’s a day to celebrate and focus on the things that make America great. What better way to do that than hang out with other folks who hate the monarchy and drink themed cocktails?

This year, the biggest trend is the Bomb Pop, a simple cocktail that doesn’t taste quite like the popsicle that inspired but looks like patriotic bunting when done correctly. It’s a four-step process that takes a little more effort to craft than your typical cookout drink, but one that will absolutely stand out among a sea of light beers and hard seltzers.

So let’s make something pretty, and boozy, to celebrate our nation’s independence. First, your ingredients:

You’ll need:

  • Lemonade or limeade. Limeade will get you closer to replicating an actual Bomb Pop flavor, but is more difficult to find.
  • Grenadine or Maraschino cherry syrup.
  • Blue Gatorade/Powerade or even just blue food coloring.
  • Vodka (I used Beattie’s strawberry vodka because it’s very good and also the only thing I had left after a weekend of bloody Marys. Regular vodka? Totally fine. Want to skip it for a virgin cocktail? Hell yeah. Want to swap it out for gin to revel in that lime flavor? Also great)
  • A Bomb Pop for garnish.

Fill a glass with ice and fill the first third with your grenadine or cherry syrup. Then, combine your limeade with vodka; I use a 50/50 mix that gives you four total ounces.

Now comes the tricky part. Pour that slowly over an overturned spoon so it sits on top of the red cherry juice rather than mixes with it. It’ll look something like this only, you know, better if you’re not trying to pour AND take a picture at the same time.

Next, repeat the process with your blue. I used Powerade because it’s cheap and perfectly captures that nebulous “blue” flavor we all know and love. You can use food coloring mixed with lemon/limeade or vodka if you prefer.

Once that’s carefully poured, it’ll look like this:

OK, now we’re talking. Toss in that Bomb Pop garnish and you’ve got red, white and blue on red, white and blue.

How’s it taste? Well, weird if you drink it according to layer, obviously. But mixing the contents gives you a sweet, slightly tart cocktail that’s at least a little bit too much but certainly looks cool. You probably won’t want more than one, but if you’re mixing these up without the booze it’s an easy win for any kids at your cookout.

Gin of the Week: Hendrick’s Grand Cabaret is a sloppy gin that makes a cleeeaaaan cocktail

A proper dose of stone fruit makes a pretty gin and tonic.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

No one’s going to confuse Hendrick’s newest brand extension with its classic gin. The latest arrival from the company’s Cabinet of Curiosities is Grand Cabaret, a spirit Hendrick’s labels as an extravagant “fruity gin.”

That in itself isn’t unusual; search “fruit gin” and you’ll get plenty of hits. But there’s a certain stuffiness that seems to follow the larger ginmakers. You don’t see much in the way of sweet varietals from guys like Beefeater or Bombay or Tanqueray. They’re here for classic cocktails and happy to stay in their lane.

That’s made the Cabinet of Curiosities a satisfying detour. Hendrick’s hit this column a year ago with its Flora Adora spinoff, That blend brought extra botanicals into the mix, but aside from some lingering peach didn’t dive all the way into fruit flavors.

Grand Cabaret does.

This blend leans heavily into stone fruits — anything with a pit, really — in order to throw the clock back to what rich folks were drinking in the 1700s because the water could kill them. The goal is a lighter gin with a solid boozy payload — 43.4 percent alcohol by volume — capable of adding depth to simple cocktails.

Let’s see if it works.

with Betty Buzz tonic: B+

The summer months are upon us. That means its prime gin and tonic time, and that’s how I’m going to judge Grand Cabaret. I’ll be mixing it with Betty Buzz tonic water, a premium mixer from Blake Lively’s brand.

The tonic itself is fizzy, sweet and a little sharp. There’s enough citric acid in there to cover if you don’t have a lime. I do, but I want to give this a try on its own first before mitigating any flaws or strengths with more citrus.

Grand Cabaret smells light and floral. There isn’t much here to tell you it isn’t a traditional gin, aside from maybe a feathery touch on the juniper and more of a fruity, herbal bent.

The first sip shows off the stone fruit promised on the label. This is plum and cherry and much sweeter than you’d expect from a typical gin. There’s plenty of berry in there as well, giving you the feeling you were eating a gin-based popsicle. This was already a summer spirit to begin with, but Hendrick’s super charged that by making a fruit-forward booze you can easily turn into a very drinkable two-step cocktail.

There is a little bit of a concern with that. The dryness inherent to gin gets washed away by that fructose finish. You wind up with something a bit sloppy on your lips.

But anyone who wants a standard gin experience can always stick to the regular Hendrick’s (or a hundred other varieties. Hendrick’s is great but my personal preference is The Botanist). I can appreciate the work the brand put in here and the restraint to keep this from being a fully fledged fruit gin and instead just one that leans into the berries and herbs that make it unique.

with Betty Buzz tonic and a lime: A

Oohhhhhh yeah. That’s the balance. The sweet sloppiness of the stone fruit in this gin gets cleaned up by the sharp citrus. That fixes just about every minor problem I had with the drink and really takes it to another level.

The lime also brings out the depth of the fruit in the Grand Cabaret, giving you that plum and cherry much more clearly. The taste lingers long after it clears your lips, not in a weak aftertaste way but as a full-bodied reminder that you’re drinking something different. That cherry is light and flavorful throughout, and while it’s clear you’re drinking gin I can honestly say I’ve never had a gin and tonic like this.

I’m gonna be crushing these all summer. Take the extra step and slice yourself a lime. Hot damn.

Would I drink it instead of a Hamm’s?

This is a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I’m drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That’s the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm’s. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I drink Hendrick’s Grand Cabaret over a cold can of Hamm’s?

Absolutely. Especially if I have a lime available.

Gosling’s Reserve wants you to treat rum like fine bourbon. It’s got a sweet, sippable point

Gosling’s $80 Reserve has a high bar to clear. It gets there.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

Rum is a blind spot for me. It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s that I rarely drink it without a mixer that significantly obscures its taste. In college, that was Coke. After landing a junket trip to cover the America’s Cup in Bermuda — I was SB Nation’s designated “white guy sports” for a while there — it became dark n’ stormies.

This was always fine, because the extent of my rum purchases was more or less limited to:

a) Costco’s spiced rum (a tremendous bargain), and

b) whatever was marked down in the bargain cart at Woodman’s for $5.99. For a while this was Bayou rum, which is also pretty good.

But Gosling’s offered me something better and terrifying. An $80 bottle of rum aged in rye whiskey barrels (hell yeah).

Gosling’s already has a built in advantage as a go-to ginger beer (especially since it’s one of the few brands to make a light option). And they’d already kinda crushed their entry into the ready-to-drink cocktail market, albeit with entirely too many calories in each of their canned dark n’ stormies and some rough fruit flavors that mucked the whole thing up.

Maybe this left me a bit compromised on my way to this taste test. On the other hand, I’m a big rum dummy so maybe it didn’t. Let’s see what we’ve got.

Gosling’s Family Reserve Old Rum: A-

I’ve poured it into a rocks glass with ice. Clearly, my fanciest rocks glass for my fanciest rum. It’s dark and a little thick and smells sweet and vanilla. You pick up a little bit of that bourbon barrel influence as well. Since we’re dealing with an 80 proof spirit there’s no disguising the alcohol within, just making it smell a little better.

It is an undoubtedly sweet spirit, which, duh. While you’d never mistake it for a lighter drink, there’s no real burn involved here. Barrel aging has softened the edges of a booze I’d ever only used for mixing in the past. It starts off a bit neutral with some light candy bar flavors, then the rum hits your tongue running with a little cinnamon, a little allspice, and lots of that vanilla.

That makes it a deserving straight-up sipper. And as the ice melts it mellows down nicely into a lovely dram. I don’t typically drink rum straight up. This may change that.

Gosling’s Family Reserve Old Rum with Betty Buzz ginger beer: A-

Look, I probably shouldn’t. But it’s rum. I’m gonna mix it with *something.* And while I’d love to make a dark n’ stormy, I am tragically lime-less. But that gives the rum an extra chance to shine against the spicy and bready carbonation of the ginger beer.

Tonight we’re rolling with Blake Lively’s brand of mixers, Betty Buzz. You may remember her from the Betty Booze line of canned cocktails that punched well above their weight class. Well, I’m taking that base and using it for my own, very basic drink.

Good news: this rules. The carbonation and ginger heat thread together, creating a dense flavor that’s sweet but uses that mixer to create a balanced, simple and borderline lazy cocktail. A lime would add another layer here, sure, but the fact this can stand up in a two-step drink is a testament to its quality.

Do you want to use an $80, barrel aged rum as a mixer? Probably not! Can you? Oh, hell yeah. It’s great.

Would I drink it instead of a Hamm’s?

Welcome to a new feature on these reviews; a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I’m drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That’s the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm’s. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I drink Gosling’s Reserve rum over a cold can of Hamm’s?

Absolutely. But I could buy about 160 cans of Hamm’s for the cost of one bottle of Gosling’s Reserve, so I probably won’t.

Cocktail of the Week: Sunshine Punch is the dark shadow of a creamsicle

Sunshine Punch looks great, but it’s stuck halfway between a lot of what you need in a good cocktail.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

Just because canned cocktails are a full blown thing doesn’t mean we should forget their big brother; the bottled cocktail.

Pre-bottled cocktails are a genre that’s envolved from the early days of Chi-Chi’s margarita mix. Those old standbys persist — a mai tai in a 1.75-liter bottle meant to assist the laziest home bartender — but they’ve been supplemented by new spirits that tread a trail blazed by Southern Comfort and Bailey’s Irish Creme.

Sunshine Punch falls into the latter category, a Florida variant of Rumchata-type creamy liqueurs. Those can be great as easy, old-man shots or as minor ingredients in enterprising cocktails. But Sunshine Punch wants more; it wants to stand on its own as a proper drink, sipped over ice preferably near a body of water on a warm day.

The bottle is unique. The pebbled, opaque bottle is an embossed orange peel, leaving no doubt what you’re getting into. And the “sky above, sand below” tagline feels like it’s been lifted straight from a Kenny Chesney tailgate. There’s no doubt it stands out on the liquor store shelf.

How about when it’s poured into a rocks glass?

Sunshine Punch: C+

There’s not much of a smell to it, and it pours a little creamier than orange. It looks like a light egg nog or a tinted Rumchata than the bright citrus rind, at least more than the bottle would suggest.

While the ingredients promise rum, vodka and liqueur, you get a little more vodka-OJ up front than you’d expect. It’s creamier than a screwdriver or a fuzzy navel, but it’s still a little stronger than you’d think an 18 percent ABV drink would hit you. Or at least, something in a bright orange bottle labeled “punch” would hit you, but I guess that can be a verb and a noun so maybe I’m the idiot here.

It’s good enough, but it’s halfway to a lot of things. Not quite creamy enough. Not quite orange. A little boozy but not powerful enough to flip any switches. It’s a nice idea, but the bottle is a lot more fully formed than the drink itself, which is unimpressive but totally fine.

Sunshine Punch is easier than a cocktail you’d make yourself and has none of the satisfaction involved. But it’s low effort and a nice halfway step between a hard seltzer and hard liquor. There’s an audience for that, even if it’s not me.

Would I drink it instead of a Hamm’s?

This a pass/fail mechanism where I compare whatever I’m drinking to my baseline cheap beer. That’s the standby from the land of sky-blue waters, Hamm’s. So the question to answer is: on a typical day, would I drink Sunshine Punch over a cold can of Hamm’s?

No. It’s nice as a change of pace drink, but one is enough for me.

3 cocktails to sip while watching the Masters for a real(ish) Augusta experience

Peach-infused Georgia cocktails and the unofficial official drink of the Masters.

Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on April 6, 2023

The Augusta experience is more than just watching golf. It’s also taking part in the most reasonable concession prices in any major American sporting event.

Of course, the lure of a $3 sandwich and a $5 imported beer is tempered by the $450 ticket price — assuming you can win the lottery for those and aren’t shunted off to a constantly absurd resale market — but still. The Masters is an iconic golf event whose appeal goes beyond the action on the course. And whether you’re in Georgia or just watching at home, it’s an affair that practically begs you to enjoy it with a cocktail in hand.

Masters Leaderboard: Live leaderboard, Schedule, Tee times

So let’s take care of that. Thanks to my role as FTW’s booze scribe, I have a well-stocked liquor cabinet (and a fridge filled with entirely too many hard seltzers). Let’s whip up some drinks that’ll serve as a proper companion to that Tradition Unlike Any Other (tm … I’m assuming).

[afflinkbutton text=”Watch the Masters on Fubo” link=”https://www.fubo.tv/welcome?irad=343747&irmp=1205322&subId1=FTW&subId2=Masters&subId3=2024″]

Vodka of the week: Beattie’s farm-made vodkas are a proper slice of Canada

Canadian vodka is good vodka, it turns out.

Welcome back to FTW’s Beverage of the Week series. Here, we mostly chronicle and review beers, but happily expand that scope to any beverage that pairs well with sports. Yes, even cookie dough whiskey.

I’ve found it’s tough to have an opinion on good vodka.

Terrible vodka, sure. You can compare it to nail polish remover or whatever you used to clean out Nintendo cartridges back in the day. But good vodkas tend to blend together for a relative neophyte like me who rarely drinks it outside the context of a cocktail. You’ve got smooth … and then what?

Fortunately Beattie’s potato vodkas are here to expand my horizons, for better or worse. The Alliston, Ontario distillery offers a limited array of tuber-based spirits in simple flavors and simple packaging. Each bottle looks true to its farmhouse roots, and it’s one I’m eager to try despite my lack of familiarity.

I’ve had my share of Canadian alcohol in my life. Moosehead makes what might be my favorite large scale lager. Canadian whisky is a special blend of smooth and inexpensive that made it a go-to in college and reliable standby now.

But I’d never had Canadian vodka until now. Until I found out about Beattie’s, I don’t know if I’d ever really heard about it. A little research suggests there are a handful of established distillers up north, some quaint and some wearing the equivalent of denim-on-denim and screeching for attention by bottling their booze in a dang hockey stick.

Beattie’s presents itself as a leader in the field. How does it measure up to that standard? I’m gonna mix Beattie’s into a handful of cocktails and see how it turns out. And I’m gonna start with a craft mixer I’ve been meaning to try for a while now; Q Mixer’s ginger ale.