After suffering through BoozeBasher’s second worst vodka review to date, I was a bit tentative to try top shelf vodkas.  After some encouraging advice from Hunter, I went ahead and picked up a bottle of Hangar One vodka.  Until the purchase I had never heard of the stuff, but since Hunter seems to know his vodkas, I became a little excited to try it.  Being excited about an expensive vodka is actually a big deal at the moment after being scarred for life by Roth.  On the plus side, I tasted what was pretty close to rock bottom, so there was only one way to go with this one.  There was one thing that haunted me though.  This stuff is American-made.  We Americans are not known for our vodka, but we BoozeBashers are game to take on anything.  Let’s see how it scores.

    First let us get to know our new friend.  Hangar One vodka is distilled at the Hangar One distillery and bottled by St. George Spirits in Alameda, California.  Only the absolute best ingredients are used to produce small batches at a time.  Small hand-operated stills are used to turn fresh fruit to produce the “really serious vodka” that’s distilled to a strength of 80-proof.  Let’s find out just how serious this stuff really is.

    As usual, we like to start with a nice pour on the rocks to get the full flavor with a chill.  Before the first sip, we were immediately pleased that we can throw the broken record in the trash.  No nail polish remover smell!  The aroma was a very pleasant fruit flavor.  After everyone took his first sample, there were grins from ear to ear on the faces of all the BoozeBashers present for this wonderful tasting.  That’s truly a phenomenon that doesn’t happen very often.  Hangar One vodka yielded a very smooth taste with hints of fruit, just as the scent suggested.  Some of us went as far as to say this stuff is the best vodka sampled by BoozeBasher to date.  Personally, I was too stunned to believe my first reaction, so I had to take a few more sips.  Sure enough, I must agree with the rest of the staff.  This stuff is great!

    Could it get even better?  At the time, we weren’t sure it was possible, but we did the usual and topped the vodka off with a splash of Sprite©.  Just when we though things couldn’t possibly get better, the mix produced the best vodka Sprite© any of us had ever experienced!  Out of nowhere, Hangar One had become the undisputed champion of vodka for the BoozeBasher website!  Hangar One is absolutely amazing stuff!  I was already looking forward to the drunkability test.

    When I finally found the time to sacrifice an evening to the liquor gods, I was quite excited to spend it with Hangar One vodka.  The first two drinks were on the rocks and were every bit as good as the first sampling weeks before.  This stuff is absolutely dangerous!  It’s so smooth that it goes down even better than water.  Unfortunately, work was on the horizon eight hours away, so I made one last drink and topped it with Sprite©.  Overall, I consumed at least four shots worth of HAngar One in my three drinks.  I was feeling quite good.  There’s something about a high quality vodka buzz.  It definitely compares to one of a good Scotch.  The buzz is so clean and energetic that you feel like you can do anything.  After excercising the typical precautions, the next morning was free of any hangover.  I definitely felt like I had consumed a few drinks the night before, but everything was fine.  There’s no doubt Hangar One can put a whooping on you if it’s abused.  After all, it’s vodka!  They are known for making the next day a living hell, so proceed with caution.

    It’s going to take one hell of a vodka to dethrone this undisputed champ, but just like all champions, the time will come.  I have a feeling this one will reign for awhile though.  Hangar One vodka scored very high in all categories except bang for the buck.  Let’s face it, we all work hard, and it’s not always easy to blow $40 on a single bottle of liquor.  Although I must say, if you like vodka, you MUST take the plunge and get a bottle of this stuff.  Unlike many, Hangar One vodka is worth every cent you will spend.  So when the money is right, treat yourself!  You deserve it!

Sipability - 8.5

Mixability - 9.5

Drunkability - 9.5

Hangover-ability - 8.5

Bang for the Buck - 6.5

Overall -  9.0 

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      I know there are a lot of people out there who have a really hard time drinking tequila.  There is a name for this group of people, and they are called “little girls.”  Little girls are easy to spot at the bar.  They are usually the ones whining about how they’ll take of shot of anything except tequila.  Another easy way to spot these people is they can often be seen taking a tequila shot that has 8 ounces of salt on the rim of the glass, which they lick off, then quickly chase with a whole lime.  They do all this, yet in the end, they sit and bitch about how much the tequila burns.  I’m sure everyone knows someone that falls in this group.  So this review is for the little girls out there that can’t handle man tequila.  If you want to go get the little girl now and tell her I have something for her, go ahead.  I’ll wait.  Okay, is everyone back?  Here we go.  I’d like to introduce to you Tarantula Azul.  Tarantula Azul isn’t really a tequila but a tequila liqueur.  What does that mean? It means it’s a tequila that has built-in training wheels for all the little girls out there.

      On the Tarantula page, they don’t offer up anything on its history or how it’s made.  They mostly just offer drink recipes.  All I discovered was that this tequila is blened and bottled in Italy.  But they did have this kick ass promo picture. 

    Tarantula Azul has a very unique taste.  At first, Azul tastes a little like honey but immediately opens up into a strong citrus flavor.  While this flavor explosion is happening in your mouth, you will start to notice a familiar burn taking over your tongue.  That’s when you realize your old friend tequila is making an appearance.  If it weren’t for that burn, I wouldn’t have been able to tell that I was even drinking tequila.  For a lot of people this is a good thing, but if you are like me and enjoy tasting your poison, it’s kind of a letdown.  The sweet citrus flavor seems good at first, but after a few sips, I was tired of the taste.  That sweet flavor just became annoying to me.  So I did what I do with anything that starts to annoy me, I drowned it. (Sorry Kelly, your cat Mr. PusPus didn’t run away.)  In this case, I didn’t use the ocean but a bit of Sprite© instead.  The Sprite took the burn away, but that’s about all it did.  The Tarantula Azul mixed with Sprite makes for a more fun drink, but the sweet flavor still  started to annoying to me pretty quickly.  The sweet taste just overpowered my tastebuds after awhile.  This is very much a “Girl Drink Drunk” liqueur.  I think a better mixer would be vodka, or maybe Tarantula Azul would be better suited for some kind of ultra-prenium margarita.

      Now I know what you are thinking: Will Tarantula Azul have you hosting your own Pants-Off Dance-Off in the bar?  The answer is probably not.  Azul is 70-proof, but you are more likely to become hyper way before you become drunk.  I went through 6 shots before I decided to mix it with a little vodka to get my drunk going.  Azul felt more like an energy drink with a decent amount of alcohol.  Unfortunately, I got that energy drink crash the next morning.  I awoke feeling groggy and out of it.  Plus, my body was sore in ways I didn’t understand.  I’m not saying it had anything to do with the liqueur.  I’m just saying I’m getting old.

      The going price on this 70-proof tequila gem is around $26.  You can probably find it cheaper at your local place of booze sales.  We found ours for $17 because the store was going out of business.  Now remember there are Tarantula mini mixed drinks that are sold for around $6 that are perfect.  We even wrote an article about them.  Tarantula Azul is very much a woman’s tequila…well, women and all you little girls out there.  It’s tequila with its own training wheels.  The taste isn’t bad in small doses, plus you can get a hyper buzz off it.  Tarantula Azul is a good drink to wake you up for a long night of exorcising the sober demon from the body.  So next time you are heading on your weekend trek, go ahead and start with one or two rounds of a drink that has Tarnatula Azul in it.

Sipability - 6.5

Mixability - 8.0

Drunkability - 5.0

Hangover-ability - 3.0

Bang for the Buck - 5.0

Overall -  5.5   

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The Albertson’s Liquor Store Going out of Business Sale

Introduction: 

    Not too long ago, a few of us BoozeBashers managed to take part in the pillaging of a local liquor store’s “going out of business / clearance sale.”  That’s right; we briefly lived the moment that all die hard liquor lovers dream about.  Unfortunately, the spoils could have been much greater and valuable had we reacted sooner, but oh well.  It was fun.  We took the opportunity to serve you all by daring to do something many of you are terrified of; spending money on expensive, widely unknown brands of liquor.  Well, everything was marked down 50%, so it wasn’t too bad.  Enjoy!

Part 2: Origine Caribbean Rum

    Browsing through a rack of liquors, I came across a pretty bottle of Rum of the like I’ve never seen before.  It was crystal clear, showing off the rich amber color of the rum.  Like the bottle from Part 1, I was sold just on looks and even more after reading the description.  It simply looked and sounded delicious.  Out of all the liquor purchased that day, this was the one I was most excited to bring home.  Origine Caribbean rum is made from seven craftsman rums.  At the heart of the blend is a ten-year-old rum from Barbados that includes elements of cinnamon, vanilla, and tropical aromas.

Once the top was popped we noticed a slight scent of nail polish remover once again. Fortunately, after sampling a pour on the rocks, things improved.  Origine Caribbean rum yielded a good flavor after the initial bite, which was quite strong.  A lingering sour aftertaste followed, but it wasn’t too bad.  We don’t quite recommend Origine Caribbean Rum for neat consumption. The overpowering alcohol taste puts it well into the mixing category as far as rum goes. Next, we added a splash of coke.  This produced a fair rum and coke beverage that lacked the fireworks but was definitely acceptable to me (although not all the BoozeBasher staff agreed). Some of the sourness was removed, but the lingering aftertaste remained.  Origine Rum wasn’t too bad overall, so I wasn’t dreading the drunkability test like I was in part 1.

    To calm the nerves in the buildup to the Alabama vs Georgia football game, I felt rum and Coke could be just the right answer.  The first drink had well over one shot in it.  It was a bit rough for the first few sips, but things started to smooth out after a few sips.  Toward the middle of the first drink, I began to really enjoy the stuff.  The following three drinks went down smoothly, unlike Georgia’s defensive line.  Around the end of the second quarter, I couldn’t help but notice I drank half the bottle.  Yes, I was feeling great!  For some reason I kept thinking about Keira Knightley.  Maybe it’s because I watched Pirates of the Caribbean recently.  She is absolutely delicious!  Anyway, it was still early in the evening, so I was in for a rough night.  After I somehow inadvertently twisted my arm completely backwards, I headed out to the club.  The drunk was tainted by a few other types of alcohol, but the majority consumed that night was the Origine rum.  I enjoyed a few delicious slices of pizza and a few glasses of water before I crashed into bed.  Good decision.  I woke up early and felt the dehydration, but it wasn’t too extreme.  Without the pizza and water, things would have been very different.  The aftermath of this rum is pretty much like all the rest.  If you do the right things, it shouldn’t hurt you too bad.

    If I remember correctly, the regular price for a 750ml bottle of Origine Caribbean Rum is about $26.  I paid half that at the sale, and I wouldn’t pay a penny more.  Don’t waste your money on the rum unless you can get it on clearance.  And so ends The Albertson’s Liquor Store Going Out of Business Sale.

Sipability - 6.0

Mixability - 5.0

Drunkability - 6.0

Hangover-ability - 7.0

Bang for the Buck - 3.0

Overall -  6.0 

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