by Sean Ludford | Jan 18, 2017 | Food & Eating, Spirits
For the Scots, Robert Burns is a national treasure and their greatest poet. Sadly, much of world is vaguely familiar with his name at best while most know one of his works, Auld Lang Syne (clue, think New Year’s Eve). Much of his work was composed in the Scots Lowland dialect (a dialect of Gaelic) and even his more “international” works were written in...
by Sean Ludford | Jan 11, 2017 | News Feed, Spirits
It’s with great sadness that I must report that we have lost one of the good ones. Parker Beam, a legend in the Bourbon world and a great man, has passed at the age of 75 after a greater than six year battle with ALS. Parker waged his battle with ALS courageously and publicly, raising great sums of research funds via his Parker Beam...
by Sean Ludford | Sep 15, 2016 | Spirits, Uncategorized
Calvados is the world famous, and rightfully so, apple based Brandy from the Normandy region of France. Despite the station that Calvados enjoys among spirits aficionados it’s still sadly unknown among most American consumers. As a point of reference only about 200,000 bottles of Calvados are sold in the U.S. as compared to the 40 million bottles of Cognac consumed. That’s a staggering gap...
by Sean Ludford | Sep 14, 2016 | Spirits
We taste and review a lot of great beverages every year. On special occasion we encounter a wine, beer, or spirit that is truly exceptional, standing above the crowd. This describes our first encounter with the Rutte Gins. Rutte is a craft distillery in the historic port city of Dordrecht, The Netherlands (the birthplace of Genever & Gin). Fortunately there are so many good to...
by Sean Ludford | Jul 27, 2016 | Spirits
Long ago, in earth earliest days, humans found their world bathed in darkness. The evil goddess Tzintzimitl had consumed the sun and all its light. Quetzalcoatl, the god of redemption and giver of life, was angered by Tzintzimitl’s deed and ascended to the heavens to give battle. While pursuing Tzintzimitl he discovered Mayahuel, her beautiful granddaughter who was being held against her will. Quetzalcoatl...
by Sean Ludford | Jun 29, 2016 | Spirits
Gin is surely a polarizing spirit as longtime Gin drinkers are often dug-in for their preferred style while far to many cocktail drinkers are Ginphobic. In my years of writing Gin features for various publications in addition to BevX I have received the confession of many bartenders who admitted to sneaking Gin in the cocktails of patron who had indicated an aversion to the spirit....
