A damn nice chocolate whiskey liqueur that is dangerously easy to drink.Use instead of cream in your coffee for a slightly less edgy morning.
Made in small batches by a father and son team in a distillery that looks like a cross between a MacGyver and Breaking Bad episode ( and I mean that in a humorous, positive way – the place is an amazing example of how to put a distillery together with repurposed materials). Started back in 2011, the distillery already produces this, a Chocolate Cream Whiskey Liqueur, an aged Irish Whiskey style product, and an unaged Poteen-type whiskey. There will also be some very limited Distillers Reserve Whiskey releases when the new tasting room opens on Seneca Lake (probably Fall of 2021 qt this point)
This is their signature whiskey cream This whiskey chocolate creams source whiskey has been aged in a mix of 53 and 30-gallon barrels for at least 5 years or more in a one-story brick warehouse that is fairly consistent in temperature year-round. Made from New York State barley, malted barley, and oats from local farmers and maltsters. and a shelf-stable cream made locally.
Appearance: Pleasing chocolate cream tan color in the bottle and light gold in the glass. On swirling, it coats the glass with a thick coat of cream.
First Impression: Intriguing mix of chocolate, whiskey, and cream intertwine seamlessly. Some subtle barley grain malty notes out of the glass with hints of marmalade, figs, and Medjool dates adding to the chocolate and cream.
Taste: Oily creamy body with plenty of grain germ, malt, fatty, silky entry with malt, barley, grain, chocolate and cream with hints of vanilla, mint, cinnamon, myrrh, with pleasant and lingering chocolate caramel malt and slightly sweet chocolate and nutmeg notes leaving a slight tingle at the finish.
Drinks: Any cocktail we found using cream or cream liqueur worked well with this liqueur. Not to mention using for alcoholic milkshakes or coffee!
Bottle: A clear glass somewhat bell-shaped whiskey bottle with nice clarity and good quality glass with a weighted thicker bottom to it, Gold silkscreened crest with name description, etc., in white on a lilac-colored label on the front. The back has the usual government warnings, along with a web address and a Facebook “F” to let you know they are on Facebook too (the first time we have ever seen that on a bottle). A slightly bowed neck leads to a lipped neck with a combination synthetic stopper with natural wood stopper for a tight but easy to open fit.
Other: Custom still made from repurposed pharmaceutical reactors leads to a refreshingly different product ( not the same damn stills everyone else has and the sometimes depressingly similar products). Also, the entire distillery is a model of repurposing, recycling, and scrounging equipment that is in and of itself worth exploring and taking lessons from.
Final Thoughts: Price is quite good compared to a number of better popular Irish brands. . This is NOT some grain blended with grain alcohol (essentially vodka) and what passes for cream in a refinery-sized distillery but a full-grain whiskey produced in small batches and it shows. Probably one of the best locally made cream whiskies liqueurs for the price.
Website: http://obegley.com
A fairly bare-bones site, but nicely and logically laid out
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/OBegley/1506482629575576
As usual these days, the Facebook page is more up to date than the website.