Castle and Cairn

This Nespresso Original Line pod  is an at-home attempt to copy the success of Starbuck's Blonde Espresso, developed over five decades of sourcing and blending to create a "boldly mellow" second option for those who find the standard Starbucks Espresso too roasty or "burnt".  🌍 Origin:  Blend of Latin America and East Africa, primarily the former. 100% Arabica. 🔥 Roast Level:  Light - 6/12 intensity on the Nespresso Scale. 🧪 Brew Method:  Nespresso Original Line Espresso 40ml. Does not hold up well as a Lungo. 👃 Nose:  Slightly bitter with notes of biscuit, underripe berry. 👅 Tasting Notes:  Smooth with some sweetness, crisp tea cookie, minimal berry fruit but some citrus.  🏆  Score:  3/5- Good, Serviceable -  It's not particularly remarkable and does fall short of the in-store Starbucks Blonde experience but not unreasonably so. You do get some solid fruit flavors without the overly roasty, malty, or cereal bit...

Hailing from Missouri, the Holladay distillery is the oldest west of the Mississippi still operating on its original site, having been founded by Ben Holladay himself in 1856. Then called the "Blue Springs Distillery", the burgeoning company stored its barrels in a nearby cave to age, a favorite spot for visitors to this day. The distillery only changed hands four times, residing with the current ownership group since 1993. Ben Holladay has become a darling of enthusiasts and those "in-the-know" due to both their quality and transparency, providing both highly detailed labeling on the side of the bottle as well as a distiller's journal  with notes from the production team. This bottle of Ben Holladay Soft Red Wheat is from the March/April 2024 batch  (bottled across month end - one single batch), pulled entirely from floor 3 of Rickhouse C. They created this batch with the intent of allowing it to be compared to the August 2023 batch, also from a single floor of...

First released in 1997 by New Holland Brewing out of Holland, Michigan, Dragon's Milk has been a favorite of beer enthusiasts for decades, introducing many to the Imperial Stout style. While New Holland has grown to more than 400 employees, it's craft roots are as strong as ever and they continue to put new and interesting product on shelves nationwide. In this post, we'll explore the history of Dragon's Milk and how New Holland has deftly elbowed it's way back into my fridge. Dragons Milk - The Flagship Black as midnight, the original Dragon's Milk is a high-gravity imperial stout aged in first-use bourbon barrels for three months. The malt bill includes significant proportions of Munich malt, chocolate malt, and roasted barley which leaves enough residual sugar to help cut down any abrasiveness from higher final alcohol content or tannin extraction from the barrel. Barrels used are recently emptied of bourbon or "wet" which means that there is plent...

Barton 1792 out of Bardstown, KY is part of the Sazerac family of businesses which also includes Buffalo Trace. 1792 is their current flagship brand which also comes in Full Proof, Cask Finish, and Sweet wheat iterations. Full Proof has been almost impossible to find since Jim Murray named it his 2020 World Whiskey of the year, but I have started to see it somewhat regularly and demand seems to have fallen enough that big players like Costco are able to get in on the action, moving some single barrels at lower than SRP. Costco has a very strong relationship with Barton as the latter bottles the white label Kirkland Small Batch , Bottled-in-Bond , and very elusive Single Barrel. As opposed to store picks, a single barrel program of this magnitude likely required Costco to rely on the distiller to pick the barrels against a target profile, potentially sending a tasting team to workshop that target and then letting Barton replicate to similar casks in their barrel management system. ...