Browsing Posts in: SPIRITS & LIQUEURS

We’re always looking for new, tasty things to stock at The Whisky Exchange, and while our name suggests a focus for that search, we don’t stop at whisky. We’ve got a dizzying range of spirits,…

The rise in flavoured whisky liqueurs over the past few years has been nothing short of astronomical, with cinnamon very much at the forefront. But the category is nothing new – the original was created back in…

Two things we like at TWE are an intriguing product, and a play on words. So imagine our delight when a new apéritif arrived from Cornwall: Tarquin’s Cornish Pastis. Claiming to be the UK’s first pastis,…

St Patrick’s Day is upon us. I will be hiding in my flat tonight, avoiding streets thronged with green-clad drinkers throwing Guinness at each other as they swap foam shamrock hats and look for the…

Arkansas isn’t the first state one thinks of for whisky production: half of its counties are ‘dry’, which prohibits the sale of alcohol; it’s illegal to drink in a public place or private car (even…

The expansion of whisk(e)y production continues apace. With more than 500 distilleries now operational in the US, and many Old World distillers expanding their ranges to include grain spirit, the future is awash with whisky. One…

The end of January heralds the first big date in the Scotch whisky calendar, 25 January. The birthday of and traditional day for the celebration of the life of Scotland’s bard, Robert Burns.

While many spirits have started to focus on smaller producers, there’s one area that is still very much focused on the giants: Cognac. In November last year, looking for something different, we visited one of the…

Chances are you’ve heard of Chartreuse, even if you’ve never tasted it. A staple of many of my generation’s parents’ and grandparents’ drinks cabinets, it’s been referenced in films from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes to Quentin…

Starting traditions is easy. Firstly, you declare that something is a tradition, and then you do it more than once. Bingo: tradition. On that note, here’s the (now) traditional TWE Blog Review of the Year!…

Christmas is now officially over, the New Year is here, and for me, it’s time to give my body time to regroup. Every January, various charities promote an alcohol-free month; among them this year are Alcohol…

After 12 months of sensible, serious whisky chat, we thought it was time for the TWE blog team to let our hair down – although, judging by the pic, we might struggle with that one….

With all the romance of whisky, it’s easy to forget that distilleries are, in essence, factories, and production is just cold, hard science. One distillery that takes an extraordinarily scientific approach is Sweden’s Spirit of…

I’ll be honest. Christmas is my least enjoyable time of year. It’s cold, dark for two-thirds of the day, and my favourite TV programmes are on at different times, ruining my routine – I’m the Grinch of the office….

As you may have noticed, Christmas is rapidly approaching. That means that the world’s postal services start groaning at the seams and deliveries start slowing down. To make sure you get your parcel by 25…

It’s strange how quickly something becomes a yearly tradition. It’s only the second time we’ve given our Whisky and Spirit of the Year awards, but it already feels like a festive fixture. The core idea…

We’ve been fighting it, but now December’s upon us, it is officially Almost Christmas. With this curious state of being comes a number of things: tinsel becomes more appropriate, Christmas songs become legitimate radio fodder, and…

There are some dates that stick in the memory – Thursday 9 November 1989 is one of them. The day east met west, the day the Berlin Wall fell. Today marks the 25th anniversary since…