My favorite shelf at the bar
Here’s a shot from the rye / bourbon shelf at my bar. It’s a thing of beauty.
Left to right we have (ri)1, Knob Creek, Maker’s Mark, Buffalo Trace, Jim Beam, Jim Beam Red Stag, and Wild Turkey.
New Product: Jim Beam Red Stag
The liquor reps bring new brands to sample all the time. I’m usually skeptical of flavored products like Bacardi Dragon Berry and the thousands of flavored vodkas. We don’t have the room to stock everything, or to tie up our money for the rare person who wants root beer flavored Three Olives vodka (yes, that’s a real offering).
BUT. When one of my reps brought samples of the new Jim Beam Red Stag, I was excited. In a nutshell, Red Stag is regular Jim Beam with some cherries thrown in for flavor at the end of distillation. It tastes great and it’s a full 80 proof (a lot of flavored vodkas and rums are 70 proof). We went through our first bottle in a couple days and we’re beefing up our stock.
Red Stag is good with cola, but for my taste it’s better with just ice. I’ve also found that adding a small amount of sweet vermouth makes for a pretty kickass Manhattan. For a more detailed review, see Liquor Snob.