{"id":4171,"date":"2014-02-12T21:57:33","date_gmt":"2014-02-13T04:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/?p=4171"},"modified":"2014-02-12T21:57:33","modified_gmt":"2014-02-13T04:57:33","slug":"cinnamon-liqueurs-red-hot-or-not-so-hot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/?p=4171","title":{"rendered":"Cinnamon Liqueurs – Red Hot or Not so Hot?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest post by Elisabeth, Cocktail Hacktress in training.<\/em><\/p>\n

One of my favorite Valentine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Day sweet treats is Red Hots candies. \u00c2\u00a0For the last couple years it has been difficult to find them in stores and I thought it would be fun to see if anything captures that spicy cinnamon sweetness of the candies. \u00c2\u00a0After hunting down a bunch of tiny sample bottles from the liquor stores, Reese and I sat down to taste 10 different cinnamon flavored alcohol products. \u00c2\u00a0First up – cinnamon liqueurs.<\/p>\n

\"Cinnamon<\/a><\/p>\n

Hot Damn (15% ABV):<\/strong> \u00c2\u00a0At 15 % ABV, this really isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to warm you from the inside. \u00c2\u00a0In general, not worth it. \u00c2\u00a0Too watery to get the cinnamon punch, has a weird aftertaste and doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even give you much in the way of cinnamon aroma.<\/p>\n

Aftershock (40 % ABV):<\/strong> \u00c2\u00a0Aftershock is the Icy\/Hot of the alcohol world. \u00c2\u00a0It is very sweet, not too cinnamony and the finish is all menthol-like. \u00c2\u00a0Reese is always skeptical of pink liqueurs and, with this one, I would say he has good reason.<\/p>\n

Goldschlager (43.5% ABV):<\/strong> \u00c2\u00a0Goldschlager is actually something I had in my cabinet. \u00c2\u00a0I use it for my Naked in the Woods martini to give a slight cinnamon flavor and beautiful gold flakes. \u00c2\u00a0This is not a complex cinnamon liqueur, but a one note flavor. \u00c2\u00a0I like it, but Reese didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel it was too authentic.<\/p>\n

Tuaca Cinnaster (35% ABV):<\/strong> \u00c2\u00a0Tuaca Cinnaster is a cinnamon and vanilla liqueur. \u00c2\u00a0My initial reaction to its aroma is that is smelled more like caramel than cinnamon and vanilla. \u00c2\u00a0The cinnamon flavor is more of an authentic cinnamon (not Red Hots) but it is not strong. \u00c2\u00a0The finish of this is vanilla and butter notes.<\/p>\n

Original Cinn (45% ABV):<\/strong> \u00c2\u00a0Reese was pretty happy to finally sample a brown liqueur rather than something artificially correction-pen red. \u00c2\u00a0This one actually tastes like real cinnamon and is very sweet. \u00c2\u00a0I personally felt this one tasted super sweet because of the authenticity of the cinnamon almost made it seem sweeter – maybe less burn than you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d get with a Red Hots type of flavor. \u00c2\u00a0A good choice if you are looking for an authentic cinnamon liqueur for a mixer.<\/p>\n

Fyr, by J&L Distilling in Colorado (50% ABV):<\/strong> \u00c2\u00a0I was intrigued by this one and hauled Reese out to the distillery to sample it. \u00c2\u00a0This was introduced to us as a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153European style\u00e2\u20ac\u009d liqueur. \u00c2\u00a0The cinnamon shines through beautifully, but there are other complexities to it (clove? orange? vanilla?). \u00c2\u00a0The spice flavor lingers on this and it definitely made me feel a little more grown-up where the others we sampled made me feel like I was doing shots on a ski trip.<\/p>\n

Next, we sampled some cinnamon whiskey, another popular flavor on the market right now.<\/p>\n

Fireball (33% ABV):<\/strong> \u00c2\u00a0I see this as the most recognizable cinnamon whiskey. \u00c2\u00a0The whiskey notes were not super strong, but did give the liquor more of a complex flavor than you typically get with the cinnamon schnapps we sampled above. \u00c2\u00a0This smells faintly of Red Hots, but you really felt the cinnamon in the back of your throat as this goes down.<\/p>\n

Yukon Jack Wicked Hot (35% ABV):<\/strong> \u00c2\u00a0The Yukon Jack tasted like cinnamon, was sweet, and had a little whiskey flavor. \u00c2\u00a0This was not and offensive cinnamon whiskey, but not particularly remarkable in any way.<\/p>\n

Fire Eater (33% ABV):<\/strong> \u00c2\u00a0The aroma of Fire Eater was very chemical in nature, which made me think it would taste worse than it did. \u00c2\u00a0It tasted like whiskey and left you with a cinnamon aftertaste. \u00c2\u00a0The cinnamon is more subtle in this whiskey versus in Fireball.<\/p>\n

Evan Williams Cinnamon Reserve (35% ABV):<\/strong> \u00c2\u00a0This particular cinnamon whiskey must be an acquired taste. \u00c2\u00a0When you smell it, you get faint cinnamon notes with a little bit of floral undertones. \u00c2\u00a0When you taste it, it tastes like you dropped your Red Hots into rose water. \u00c2\u00a0I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never had Evan Williams alone, but this cinnamon one was rather unusual.<\/p>\n

Overall, we recommend Original Cinn for a good cinnamon schnapps flavor. \u00c2\u00a0Of the whiskies, Fireball is a passable cinnamon whiskey if that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s your thing. \u00c2\u00a0And finally– if you really want something fantastic, get ahold of some Fyr from J&L Distilling in Colorado. \u00c2\u00a0You won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t regret it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

**P.S. – After tasting 10 cinnamon liquors in one evening, we highly recommend you avoid this at all costs. \u00c2\u00a0It is a little rough on the stomach!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest post by Elisabeth, Cocktail Hacktress in training. One of my favorite Valentine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Day sweet treats is Red Hots candies. \u00c2\u00a0For the last couple years it has been difficult to find them in stores and I thought it would be fun to see if anything captures that spicy cinnamon sweetness of the candies. \u00c2\u00a0After hunting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[206],"class_list":["post-4171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tasting","tag-tasting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4171"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4174,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4171\/revisions\/4174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cocktailhacker.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}