Booze! (Chocolate, Gin, Port)
Time for a happy post. :)
A few months ago, mimerki and I made an amazing discovery at the DeLuxe. That is the Choklat stout by Southern Tier. When I first reached drinking age and could purchase alcohol, I got very excited by the idea of chocolate beer, but it has always been a huge disappointment. For whatever reason, it never really worked for me as either chocolate or beer. Until now. This smells and tastes like good beer and good chocolate. It's amazing. And it may be a limited run, so get it while you can... (There was some in the nearby QFC, which means your friendly neighborhood incarnation of Kroger may carry it.)
(As an aside, I'd never actually understood what the point of that restaurant was, until I started occasionally sampling the beers they bring in. They get single kegs of interesting stuff, serve them up, and when they're gone they're gone. The short version is, huge variety and two happy hours per day. Plus they've been in one spot for about 80 years, which is over half as long as the city itself.)
A bit ago I had noticed that the Backdoor at Roxy's had a gin I'd never heard of - Sanity Sacred Gin. So I went in one day after work, it being nearby and I not having to drive, and had a tiny bit, with a bit of Old Raj (to compare the high end) and a bit of Voyager (as a control), and the bartender tossed in some Big Gin 'cause he thought it would fit, and 'cause it's made just down the street.
The Sanity Sacred Gin was really really good. It was smooth and subtle and tasty and perfect for drinking straight. Unfortunately, it is expensive and difficult to come by, so I doubt I'll have more, but if you like gin and see a place serving it, it's definitely a thing to try. The Old Raj was also quite good, but much harsher (most likely due to the much higher alcohol content), and still for some reason tasted more like gin than the others did. I really need to get my hands on some of the 46% version. The Big Gin mostly stood up to those two, which is impressive considering that it's only slightly more expensive than Voyager. It's got a nice slightly spicy flavor, not so much hot as peppery, and is quite smooth. I think it might be my new favorite gin for general purpose use. (I don't want to say "daily", as that's somewhat misleading as to my drinking habits, but ... you know what I mean, right?) As for the poor Voyager, it was simply outclassed. It was harsher than the others, and the flavor was nowhere near as subtle, although I still quite like the anise notes in it. I suppose it should be more of a mixer.
So yeah, there was this port tasting a while back, and I never got around to posting the results. That's to the dozen folks who showed up and in some cases brought yet more port! mimerki, eveanhei and M, varina8, allium, plantae, maida_mac and C, B & K, and J. We had a couple of ruby ports, a tawny port, a 10-year tawny port, a late bottle vintage port, a dry white port, and a specialty Canadian tawny port-by-any-other-name.
So the rough rundown on port, is that ruby port is port that was just stuck into a metal barrel, and which doesn't age. Tawny port is port stuck in an oak barrel and left to age; if it's just called "tawny", it probably means that it's been aged 3-5 years. Bottles marked with a number of years are assumed to be tawny, and have been aged for longer. "Vintage" port is the real deal; it's only made in really good years, it can be aged longer than humans live, it needs to be filtered and decanted before drinking, and it is something that we sadly did not have. "Late Bottle Vintage", or LBV port, is port that doesn't require aging or decanting or filtering, and yet is supposed to taste somewhat like vintage port. White port is port made from white grapes. And a great quote from a port vintner who was asked about grape varietals: "Who cares what the grape varieties are: they are grapes and they go into port!" That is, it's not so much about a single variety of grape, as it is about the particular blend of varietals found in each estate.
I thought the rubies were a nice sweet drink, but nothing particularly special in the grand scheme of things. I liked the tawny as it had a more complex and less sweet taste. The 10-year tawny was even better, leading to speculation about whether the secret point of aged drinks was to extract flavor from oak. The late bottle vintage was also very good, in a more subtle and complex way. The dry white port was a bit of a disappointment to me. I had been hoping for something that combined my favorite parts of port and sherry, but instead this had my least favorite parts of them. I'm not sure how to explain it better, other than that it was more cloying and less refreshing. And the Canadian port was really good, but also really really really sweet. I'm honestly not sure why they called it "tawny port"; it seemed more like a dessert wine or an ice wine made out of port grapes. Quite good, but a bit of a non-sequitur as a drink. :)
A few months ago, mimerki and I made an amazing discovery at the DeLuxe. That is the Choklat stout by Southern Tier. When I first reached drinking age and could purchase alcohol, I got very excited by the idea of chocolate beer, but it has always been a huge disappointment. For whatever reason, it never really worked for me as either chocolate or beer. Until now. This smells and tastes like good beer and good chocolate. It's amazing. And it may be a limited run, so get it while you can... (There was some in the nearby QFC, which means your friendly neighborhood incarnation of Kroger may carry it.)
(As an aside, I'd never actually understood what the point of that restaurant was, until I started occasionally sampling the beers they bring in. They get single kegs of interesting stuff, serve them up, and when they're gone they're gone. The short version is, huge variety and two happy hours per day. Plus they've been in one spot for about 80 years, which is over half as long as the city itself.)
A bit ago I had noticed that the Backdoor at Roxy's had a gin I'd never heard of - Sanity Sacred Gin. So I went in one day after work, it being nearby and I not having to drive, and had a tiny bit, with a bit of Old Raj (to compare the high end) and a bit of Voyager (as a control), and the bartender tossed in some Big Gin 'cause he thought it would fit, and 'cause it's made just down the street.
The Sanity Sacred Gin was really really good. It was smooth and subtle and tasty and perfect for drinking straight. Unfortunately, it is expensive and difficult to come by, so I doubt I'll have more, but if you like gin and see a place serving it, it's definitely a thing to try. The Old Raj was also quite good, but much harsher (most likely due to the much higher alcohol content), and still for some reason tasted more like gin than the others did. I really need to get my hands on some of the 46% version. The Big Gin mostly stood up to those two, which is impressive considering that it's only slightly more expensive than Voyager. It's got a nice slightly spicy flavor, not so much hot as peppery, and is quite smooth. I think it might be my new favorite gin for general purpose use. (I don't want to say "daily", as that's somewhat misleading as to my drinking habits, but ... you know what I mean, right?) As for the poor Voyager, it was simply outclassed. It was harsher than the others, and the flavor was nowhere near as subtle, although I still quite like the anise notes in it. I suppose it should be more of a mixer.
So yeah, there was this port tasting a while back, and I never got around to posting the results. That's to the dozen folks who showed up and in some cases brought yet more port! mimerki, eveanhei and M, varina8, allium, plantae, maida_mac and C, B & K, and J. We had a couple of ruby ports, a tawny port, a 10-year tawny port, a late bottle vintage port, a dry white port, and a specialty Canadian tawny port-by-any-other-name.
So the rough rundown on port, is that ruby port is port that was just stuck into a metal barrel, and which doesn't age. Tawny port is port stuck in an oak barrel and left to age; if it's just called "tawny", it probably means that it's been aged 3-5 years. Bottles marked with a number of years are assumed to be tawny, and have been aged for longer. "Vintage" port is the real deal; it's only made in really good years, it can be aged longer than humans live, it needs to be filtered and decanted before drinking, and it is something that we sadly did not have. "Late Bottle Vintage", or LBV port, is port that doesn't require aging or decanting or filtering, and yet is supposed to taste somewhat like vintage port. White port is port made from white grapes. And a great quote from a port vintner who was asked about grape varietals: "Who cares what the grape varieties are: they are grapes and they go into port!" That is, it's not so much about a single variety of grape, as it is about the particular blend of varietals found in each estate.
I thought the rubies were a nice sweet drink, but nothing particularly special in the grand scheme of things. I liked the tawny as it had a more complex and less sweet taste. The 10-year tawny was even better, leading to speculation about whether the secret point of aged drinks was to extract flavor from oak. The late bottle vintage was also very good, in a more subtle and complex way. The dry white port was a bit of a disappointment to me. I had been hoping for something that combined my favorite parts of port and sherry, but instead this had my least favorite parts of them. I'm not sure how to explain it better, other than that it was more cloying and less refreshing. And the Canadian port was really good, but also really really really sweet. I'm honestly not sure why they called it "tawny port"; it seemed more like a dessert wine or an ice wine made out of port grapes. Quite good, but a bit of a non-sequitur as a drink. :)