Notes: Buffalo Distilling Company has been around for a few years now, first in the hinterlands south of Buffalo and for the last few years now on Seneca Street in Buffalo itself. Their most noted products are their One Foot Cock Bourbon and their  (Buffalo Bills) Mafia Sauce Vodka. Other spirits include their One Foot Cock Vodka, One Foot Cock Empire Rye, OFC Apple Brandy and their two versions of OFC Krupnik, the barrel aged (reviewed here) and the unnamed Krupnik.

In this review we are tackling the barrel-aged version of OFC Krupnik. Each year on Dingus Day ( a hugely popular mostly Polish event ) in Buffalo, the whiskey barrel-aged one-year-old version is released and usually sells out immediately (Buffalo is noted for its hard-drinking populations of various ethnicities – who seem to vie with one another in this regard)

Appearance: Clear honey gold color.Leaves a light coating on the glass when swirled with a very persisitent edge line to it with some minimal retreat till it suddenly forms heavy legs.

First Impression: the cloves, honey and allspice vie for your attention first, with the cinnamon kicking in close behind.Whiffs of vanilla and orange and just a touch of black pepper in the background make for a aromatic yet harmonious mis of scents.

Taste: Delicious, After quaffing off a measure of this, breathing out reminds me of Duke Leto Atreides death scene in the new movie version of “Dune” ( I mean this in an evocative and humorous way) the entry is fairly heavy in a pleasantly viscous way, with the black pepper, cloves and orange flowing in with the honey.This is followed up by the cinnamon and allspice with vanilla scooting and rounding it out nicely.Ends with a long lingering finish of vanilla, honey and orange.

Drinks: Not really sure what to do with this one. A variation on the Bees Knees of course, also lovely with food, especially pastries. Imbibe Magazine has a list of 20 cocktails that would work well with this as basic ideas to riff on here >

Bottle: Fairly standard tall cylindrical whiskey bottle with a deep red neck capsule.Wooden top cork with a composite cork.Old style label with graphics and type that harks bag to a Eastern European aesthetic . Back label is somewhat minimal on information. Not the most complicated package we have seen, but the contents themselves make up for that.

Other: Somewhat reminiscent of older versions of Drambuie ( for people familiar with that particular liqueur ).

Final Thoughts: A very interesting if somewhat specific ( not to say obscure) ethnic liqueur which shows a fair amount of promise for a mixologists cabinet.

Website: www.buffalodistillingcompany.com

A somewhat minimal website but has picture and short descriptions of all their spirits with online ordering.