On July 24th we had our first ever rum tasting and it was a blast! Most who joined the tasting were self-proclaimed whiskey drinkers with preconceived notions about rums. One of those assumptions was that rum is always sweet. This is a common misconception, but rum (that hasn’t been sweetened) isn’t any sweeter than whiskey or brandy. And this tasting definitely helped to prove that not all rums are sweet! Read more about rum and what we tasted here!

St Patrick’s Day (also my dad’s birthday) needs to be celebrated with Irish whiskey. So that’s precisely what we did. We tasted three very unique Irish whiskeys rather than the conventional ones that you might pair with your Guinness. Read more about Irish whiskey and what we tasted here!

During this tasting we tried three different barrel finished American whiskeys and boy, were they delicious. Barrel finishing is when matured whiskey is transferred to another cask prior to bottling to add an additional layer of flavor and complexity to the whiskey. It’s a relatively new concept that’s becoming more popular in the American whiskey industry. Read more about finishing whiskey and what we tasted here!

Last weekend we celebrated Galentine’s Day by tasting three different Welsh single malts produced by Penderyn Distillery. Penderyn produces a uniquely light spirit through a single distillation using a Faraday still, which is named after the inventor, Dr. David Faraday (yes, related to the physicist, Michael Faraday). You might be wondering why we chose to celebrate Galentine’s Day by tasting Penderyn single malts. Well, everyone on their distillation team is female! Read more here!

I had such a phenol-menal time this weekend during Blind Tasting No. 12: Sneaky Peat and I have definitely overused that pun. Get it? Because phenols come from peat smoke and give peated whiskies their smoky flavors. Anyways… During the tasting we discussed where peat makes its way into the whiskey making process and how it impacts the flavor profile of whiskies. Typically peated whiskies come from the Islay region of Scotland (ex: Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg), but we tasted three peated whiskies from different parts of the world. Sneaky sneaky. Here’s what we tried!

It felt like the holidays just came and went this year, so we kicked off the first blind tasting event of 2021 with whiskeys that taste just like holiday treats! Whether that means Christmas cookies, mincemeat pie, toffee, mulled wine or coquito to you, all of those flavors could be found in these whiskeys (more or less). Check out what we tasted here!

Aging or finishing whisky in sherry butts is common practice in the Scotch industry as it adds a layer of complexity to the final product. The flavors that the whisky picks up will depend on the sherry that was previous in the cask, meaning different sherry butts will have different impacts on the whisky. During Blind Tasting No. 10, we got to experience this first hand with Tomatin’s Cuatro Series. We tasted the same Highland single malt from Tomatin Distillery that was finished in four different first-fill sherry butts: fino, manzanilla, oloroso and pedro ximenez. The impact of the different sherries is very subtle, making this tasting the most challenging to date! Not to mention, there were four whiskies this time. Here’s a little bit about what we tried!

During this tasting we tried three different rye whiskeys that were all different styles. The members didn’t know which whiskeys they were trying, so based entirely on their senses they had to determine which whiskey was 100% rye mash, Monongahela style (no corn in the mash bill) and Kentucky style (51% rye in the mash bill). They also had to pick out which of the three was a Canadian rye and which included malted rye in the mash. To reiterate, this was challenging!

By popular demand, this weekend we tasted through whiskies from East Asia! Two of the whiskies were from Japan and the third was from Taiwan. Both Japanese and Taiwanese whiskies have been highly awarded recently causing them to gain popularity among US consumers. Check out what whiskies we tried and how the tasting went here!

This weekend we tasted three different triple distilled whiskeys. Traditionally, Irish whiskeys are triple distilled, but thats not all we tried. Triple distillation results in a refined, delicate whiskey that takes on a majority of its character from the cask(s) during aging. Each whiskey we tasted was aged differently, meaning they had very different flavor profiles. Check out the whiskeys that we tried in this recap!

Each bourbon has its own unique flavor profile and one reason for this stems from the mash bill. Bourbon can contain anywhere from 51-100% corn in the mash, meaning secondary grains can greatly influence the flavors. During this tasting, we tried three bourbons with the goal of identifying what kind of mash bill was used for each. This was very challenging! Some even claim that the most refined palates aren’t able to distinguish between the secondary grains when tasting bourbons blind. See how the Whiskey Club members did!

This weekend we focussed on Islay single malt scotches, which are notorious for being peaty. But not all Islay whiskies are in-your-face smoky and some aren’t smoky at all. The aim of this tasting was to prove that by easing the club members into peaty whiskies. Islay tell you how the tasting went!

This last NEAT tasting was really something special. We not only opened up the conversation about the need for diversity in the whiskey industry, but we also raised a little over $1200 that was donated to Black Girls CODE. I am so grateful for all of the NEAT Whiskey Club members contributions! And I’m increasingly impressed in the development of everyone’s palates. This tasting was challenging and here’s the recap.

This Saturday we had a tasting dedicated to understanding the mash bill of a whiskey using a few of FEW Spirits’ whiskeys. Read about how it went here!

This weekend’s NEAT blind tasting was all about Scotch! Single malt scotch to be exact. Here’s a recap!

We had a great turnout for our second blind tasting this weekend. Here’s how it went.

On April 25th, we kicked off NEAT’s very first virtual blind tasting. Here is a recap!