Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Spice Tree 1.0



John Glaser is a legend! Full stop. You know him, he's the dude that makes those triple-tasty Compass Box Whiskys! Anyway, in 2005 he blended some malts together, put them in a barrel, and added more wood to it to increase surface area -thus increasing flavour - and gave birth to Spice Tree. A year or so later, the Scotch Whisky Foundation (SWA) told him it was illegal to sell it as 'scotch' because of the addition wood - regardless of how good it tasted - old pricks. The inaugural batch was marked, and bottled. All 4150 of them. I was lucky enough to own bottle 4150 of 4150, of that inaugural batch. The last drops! Since then John has released a new Spice Tree than conforms with regulations but for me, the first 'forbidden' Spice Tree will always be king.

Not many places still sell the first Spice Tree. I know I bought a few bottles for Milk & Honey when it became illegal so they might be your best bet for some of this fine, albeit nearly extinct hooch.

If you see it, I highly recommend you do what I did last night and drinktheshitoutofit. It's the boozy equivalent to eating Panda nuggets.

2 comments:

  1. Sweet blog Tim!Any suggestions for a super amazing 1930s inspired tipple?

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  2. for sure. When in doubt drink a "Clover Club". Drink dates back to pre-prohibtion days. (Pre. 1919) but gained alot of popularity in Europe in the 30's.

    Heres me spec for a triple-tasty beverage..

    50ml Gin
    20ml Lemon Juice
    20ml Sugar Syrup (Mix 1 cup sugar with 1 cup water until disolved)
    3 FRESH Raspberries
    1/2 Egg White.

    Shake everything in a shaker for 5 secs without ice to start emulsion of egg white. Then add ice to shaker and shaketheshitoutofit for 5-7 secs *really hard* Strain into a cocktail glass and enjoy.

    Biggest tip: Bartending in like baking. Exact quantities are required. Measure everything! Enjoy.

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