Hey Dude!!
Dark Corner Distillery introduces premium handcrafted Moonshine.
Michael Hepworth
By Casey Kehoe
Hollywood,CA(Spiritsman)1/6/12/—When I first received the assignment to evaluate Dark Corner Distilleries www.darkcornerdistillery.com new hand-crafted corn whiskey, I was wondering whether after having a few would I be transformed into a tobacco-chewing, nascar-luvin “good ole boy”… Or would I remain a cocktail-swilling pseudo-hipster. The answer lies somewhere between these two extremes as all answers do.
I immediately rang-up my editor at this venerable magazine and asked if there would be any kind of budget to acquire some fancy mixers to create several “savory” Moonshine Cocktails. The answer was a resounding no!!
Joe Fenten, left, and Richard Wenger Dark Corner Distillery
Here is a list of Moonshine Cocktails researched by simply Goggling “Moonshine Cocktails”, with prices for the mixers included. These ingredients can be found at www.barkeepersilverlake.com and fine liquor stores in your locale.
“The Devil In White”: Two parts Moonshine, Dolin White Vermouth (375ml $11) to taste, chocolate-chili bitters by Miracle Mile Bitters Co, ($20). Shake with ice in a proper cocktail shaker and serve it straight up in a chilled Martini glass.
“White Manhattan”: Two parts Moonshine, Dolin Red Vermouth ($11) to taste, add a fresh lemon peel. Shake and serve as above.
“The Silver Queen Daisy”, our last and most formidable requires muddling, a fancy word for smashing up the fresh ingredients in the bottom of you shaker. Two parts Moonshine, one fresh corn on the cob, appx one tablespoon muddled in your shaker beforehand, one part St. Germaine Liquor, a liquor made from Elderflower ($41.50), one part lemon juice, and Orange Bitters by Fee Brothers ($7.25) several dashes as with all bitters is recommended. Shake with ice as we normally do and garnish with a strip of the fresh corn kernels. Serve “up” in a chilled glass.
But back to the task at hand, the taste test. So I summoned my usual cohort of “spiritual advisors” and we drank it neat, in big gulps. We all resoundingly agreed that this weren’t no ethanol tasting rotgut.
In fact the bottle I sampled was numbered by Batch and Bottle. Batch 6, Bottle 89 to be exact is from the rugged mountainous region of the northeastern corner of South Carolina. This Smokey, rich, powerful and velvety-smooth elixir is “hand-spirited” in small batches using an artisanal copper still. You can visit their website to see recipes for several interesting “sweet” cocktails, including “ Kernel Corn”. We did however attempt to make a “Bloody Mary” the thought being that the smoky corn after taste would make for a fine “Mary”, and it did.
However, this reporter thinks its best gulped, “neat” in prodigious quantities, preferably from a mason jar. Yee-Haw!!
Michael Hepworth
287 S.Robertson Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211
http://twitter.com/MrSpiritsman