Good Morning! Today is officially the first day of the the 12 Days of Drinkmas! I realized after sending out the last newsletter that I never actually listed my socials so you could follow along so here they are: instagram: @shaynedrinksthings, tiktok: @shayne.drinks.things

I am hoping to have the first video up later today on my socials but I am not a content creator like Lui so be gentle with me. I’m sharing the recipe for today’s drink down below and will give you a recap of all the drinks I do from now until next newsletter in the following one.

Now back to your regularly scheduled newsletter:

Barr Hill Gin Makers Release Their Rye Whiskey

A Project That’s Been in the Works for Over 10 Years is Now Coming to Fruition

In a press release issued on December 10th, Caledonia Spirits announced that it’s “first year-round core whiskey” in their Phyllis portfolio is officially available. The Vermont distillery, best known for Barr Hill Gin, has previously released some single barrel and unique secondary aged iterations of their rye whiskey. This newest release, Phyllis Rye, is carefully crafted and blended from barrels that have been stashed away for ten years and change. What makes this offering unique is that it is crafted the way that Caledonia loves to make spirits. Their spirits are what they call “landcrafted”: they source, distill, age, and bottle the entire product in Vermont. The company uses special care to source their raw ingredients sustainably, noting the importance of soil health and local agriculture.

Phyllis Rye is made with 84% winter rye and 16% barley all grown responsibly in Vermont. As far as sustainability goes, Caledonia is taking everything a huge step further and has an eye on the forestry impact that barrel aging has. From their website:

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Before distilling our first drop of rye whiskey - we spent years learning about  oak and barrels. Where the trees come from, how that impacts the grain and maturation of the whiskey, and how they are harvested.

We learned selective harvesting and responsible forestry management. The overall forest ecosystem will be better off after the careful felling of only the right trees.

Vermont’s Champlain Valley is at the northern terminus of the white oak’s growing region. Here they grow slowly due to the long, harsh winters. It makes their grain tight and strong, harder for the liquid to penetrate. This slows the aging process.

Vermont white oak is not always the right choice, but it creates unique flavors and learning this has been a foundation of the  journey.

As we make our releases, many will include blends from sustainably harvested northern white oak.

- https://www.phylliswhiskey.com/ourstory

I am looking forward to tasting this local-ish whiskey as soon as possible, and hopefully taking a trip to the distillery as a little field trip.

Keeping Warm In The Long Dark Winter

Practicality and Mysticality that Surround Spirits (of the Liquid Variety)

So we all know that drinking alcohol gives you a kind of warmth that isn’t only from the burn it can have going down. Alcohol can cause drinkers to feel flush and warmer than they were before they took their first sip. If you’re like me and have special skin you might also tell the world that you’ve had a drink by the way your complexion changes against your will. For all the warm sensation that comes with partaking in alcoholic beverages it’s actually not going to keep you warm, or at least it shouldn’t replace your winter coat. The heat that you feel is mostly superficial and can actually lead to some horrible cold weather ailments like frost bite if you aren’t careful. That being said, there is a story that has stuck with me for some years now that makes me think there is some real heat from spirits that could maybe save your life someday.

Everyone knows that tragedy of the sinking of the Titanic, if not historically then at least because of Kate Winslet and Leo Dicaprio, right? Anyway, there was a huge number of deaths when the Titanic sank because the ship was not equipped with enough life boats to hold all of the passengers on board. In the below freezing water temperatures most people floating or treading water hoping to be saved succumbed to hypothermia within minutes, that is, except for a man named Charles Joughin. Joughin, the ship’s head baker, survived in the deathly cold ocean water for over four hours. How did he do this? Well, according to some stories he drank two whole bottles of whiskey when he knew he wouldn’t be getting into one of those life boats. This isn’t to say he just drank himself into oblivion and threw himself overboard, the true story is actually much more noble and fascinating.

Joughin snapped-to after hearing about the ship’s collision with the iceberg and instructed his staff to put every available loaf of bread into the lifeboats. Although the claim from before of him drinking two bottles of liquor is sensational, more conservative statements like this one from All Things Interesting say: “Charles Joughin calmly returned to his room and had a drink of liquor. Having fortified his spirits, he then made his way to his assigned lifeboat.” As a rule of thumb I tend to think the truth is somewhere in the middle.

He and other male staff members were instructed to board their assigned lifeboats but he and some others refused and instead forced women and children in their place. This how we end up with the story of Joughin floating in the Atlantic Ocean for over four hours and somehow surviving. I don’t want to give the credit of Joughin’s survival to alcohol entirely, although it did likely help steady Joughin’s nerves and keep him from making decisions based on fear alone, but he also somehow came out of the water with little more than swollen feet. I would have to venture a guess and say that sometimes it just might pay to drink some alcohol if you know you’re going to be left out in the cold.

Day One of Drinkmas

Christmas Morning Goes Down Easier With a Spiked Coffee Anways

I’m kicking off this 12 day cocktail spree with my own spliced up version of a Christmas Coffee. I was inspired by a recipe that I saw for a Werther’s White Russian but I personally don’t have a big sweet tooth so I wanted to scale back the sweetness a touch.

I have fond memories of Werther’s hard candies. I know it’s often thought of as an “old lady” candy and I have to admit that an “old lady” is the reason for my fond memories but regardless I think hard caramel is great since it doesn’t stick to your teeth. For this recipe You’ll need some of those hard caramels, or caramel syrup, or even the butterscotch version of either of those.

Not Your Grandma’s Christmas Coffee:

  • 1.5 oz overproof tequila or rum - I used Lalo overproof tequila because I love tequila and coffee.

  • .5 oz coffee liqueur - this is optional because it will add sweetness and if you’re like me there is plenty of sugar in this recipe already.

  • .25 oz dry curaçao or triple sec - dry curaçao will again add a little less sweetness but the important part here is the orange which in a coffee drink is really a game changer.

  • 1-2 oz of cold brew coffee - I used hazelnut coffee for an extra something but if you’re going with butterscotch over caramel the hazelnut might be too much.

I like to combine these ingredients in a shaker and layer the final ingredients on top for the visual appeal but you can also combine all of the ingredients at the same time.

  • .5 tablespoon crushed candy or syrup

  • 1.5 oz milk or cream of choice - I used regular whole milk because that’s what I usually have on hand

In a separate tin or glass combine your caramel syrup or finely crushed caramels and the dairy of your choosing then froth with a hand frother if you have one to make a quick foam for the top. If you don’t have a frother then combine all of the ingredients with ice in a single shaker and shake vigorously to get some foam on top at the end.

Double strain into the glass of your choosing and enjoy! I used a rocks glass with a large cube but this drink could easily be served up or down since it’s easy to crush quickly.

Best Video We Saw This Week

@lui_fern

This is by far the best Holiday Tequila Cocktail! Jeffrey Morgerhalers Anejo Tequila Eggnog! And it's made even better with @mijentatequil... See more

I am only good for about one eggnog a year but this looks absolutely magical; I might be able to stand drinking two of these. For anyone weirded out by drinking raw egg there are pasteurized liquid eggs available to use instead just make sure you measure out the appropriate amount when building a cocktail like this so you don’t over or under egg your nog.

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