IMBIBE

Great King St. Blended Scotch Whisky

Designed by my favorite firm, Stranger & Stranger, and conceived as an entry-level offering for Compass Box Whisky Co. (whose “Lady Luck” product and packaging I featured back in February), Great King St. is a beautiful-looking, heritage-driven spirit brand that has been executed and launched onto the market flawlessly. The vintage typeface and color palette make the whisky look like a brand that might have been around for decades, while the Royal Tenenbaums-style doodle of the street, matte black top seal and brief description of the scotch’s tasting notes lend it a distinctly contemporary edge. I’d be interested to see how it tastes, considering it’s a more affordable line from a well-established purveyor of craft single malts and blended scotches - however, either way the packaging is dead-on. Here’s a little insight from Stranger about the brand conception process for Great King St.:

“It’s a kind of back to basics for them [Compass Box] so we thought the address of their very first Glaswegian office was appropriate and an unusual name for a whiskey. We got architects elevations done of the whole street so we can extend the range.”

As far as I know, Great King St. is only currently available in the United Kingdom - so if anyone has a chance to taste it let me know if the spirit lives up to the new brand.

Imbibe responsibly. 

Glenhaven Single Malt

One spirit I happen to love that doesn’t get much attention in the package design and branding department (outside of all those heritage-driven cylindrical gift packages they often come in) is single malt scotch whisky. As one of the more sophisticated and expensive liquor offerings on the market, it’s surprising to me that more single malts haven’t embraced some form of high-design or quirkiness. Even Johnnie Walker (a blended scotch, mind you) has a slightly off-kilter label. 

Anyway, I’ve never had Glenhaven, as it’s certainly not one of the more publicized or widely-available scotches, yet I’ll definitely keep an eye out for this 19-year old offering strictly because of it’s unconventional and elegant packaging. Yes, I’m an easy sell. 

Package Design

The world of spirits marketing is a fickle one. Some liquors like scotch whisky and wine are all quite different from each other - requiring branding and advertising that will call out the particular liquid’s special properties while aligning it within the market as a non-premium, premium or super-premium offering. When it comes to vodka, however, there are essentially two categories: good and bad - and the marketing of a new entry into that category has to consist almost entirely of lifestyle imagery and collaborations. Gin and beer tend to fall in between these two extremes. Nonetheless, there is always one aspect of introducing a new spirit into the market that is often overlooked in both selling-power and branding potential: packaging.

I’m not saying that brands don’t pay attention to packaging, for it’s clear that most beer, wine and spirits conglomerates take painstaking steps in order to make sure their bottles “speak” to the exact personalities and price-points of their brands (it’s no coincidence that Belvedere and Grey Goose bottles are literally too tall to reside anywhere but the top shelf). What I am saying, however, is that fledging brands that focus a large amount of their time and energy on packaging will, and should, receive more free press, word of mouth attention and (hopefully) sales. Look how well it has worked for Absolut. 

Creativity is key in package design when it comes to liquor - since if a design team gets too “artsy” the bottles can end up looking like delicate perfume spritzers, yet if they focus too much on tradition and heritage the end result can be a bottle that blends in to the crowd of competitors. Great design is clean, elegant and emphasizes subtle quirks - just think about Johnnie Walker’s iconically off-kilter front label.

Here’s a few examples of bottles that have garnered positive design attention, and rightfully so. See Vinkara’s “Fun & Playful” Pinot Noir (above).

The Kraken Black Spiced Rum is named after a famed sea monster, the scourge of both pirates and admirals alike - so it makes sense that the bottle is striking, classic and just a little kitschy. 

Witty product design for Dapper beer. If only their tagline was “the Mad Men of brews.”

Balblair is a lesser-known yet ultra-premium scotch out of the second-oldest distillery in Scotland. For a special edition of their 1989 vintage, they wrapped their traditional bottle in an iconic tartan. 

Yes - this is Justin Timberlake’s tequila - but whoever designed this blanco’s case did an excellent job of keeping it looking clean, luxurious and stand-alone in a realm of tequila bottles that all tend to be short, stout and modeled after Patron. No denim tuxedo on this one.

Recipe: Old Fashioned

The Old Fashioned is considered by many to be closely tied to the origin of the term “cocktail,” making for an excellent first recipe post. The story of the birth of the Old Fashioned is dubious - however, the folklore goes that the first use of its name referred to a bourbon drink served in the 1880s at a gentlemen’s club in Louisville, Kentucky called the Pendennis Club. The recipe is said to have been invented by a bartender at that establishment and popularized by a club member (and bourbon distiller) Colonel James E. Pepper. Eventually, the Colonel made his way North and introduced his favorite libation at the Waldorf-Astoria’s famed hotel bar in Manhattan. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Old Fashioned was presumably named after the short rocks-glass that it is served in, often referred to as an “old fashioned glass.” 
So - what exactly goes into this truly original cocktail? Well, there are a few “must-haves” which include:

                     1-2 parts scotch whisky, rye whiskey or bourbon
                     1 sugar cube
                     2-3 dashes of angostura bitters
                     1 orange wedge and maraschino cherry to garnish

This combination, essentially, makes for the classic chemistry of the drink. The devil is in the details, however, and purists often get into arguments when it comes to how to properly accessorize an Old Fashioned. Some use seltzer water to top off the drink. Some garnish with a variety of citrus fruits (this tends to be a West Coast thing and can be called a San Diego Old Fashioned). Some use maraschino syrup or simple syrup in lieu of the sugar cube. All of them claim to be right.

The fact is, you can make it any way you want, but my preferred technique for this cocktail comes from the classic 1948 guide The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, an essential tome of 6 recipes penned by noted New York lawyer and liquor enthusiast David A. Embury. In my mind, he’s the OG “mixologist.” From The Fine Art:

Pour into one old-fashioned glass 1-2 teaspoons simple syrup and add 2-3 dashes of angostura bitters. Stir with a spoon to blend, then add about 1 oz whiskey. Add 2 large cubes of ice (can be cracked but not crushed). Fill glass about 3/8” to the top with whiskey and stir again. Twist an orange peel and drop in the glass. Stir. Garnish with a speared maraschino cherry.

As you can tell, Embury took the actual “building” of the cocktail very seriously and emphasized slow stirring and incremental additions of the spirit. Any way you cut it, as long as you treat this historic recipe with respect and use the best liquids and garnishes available (Embury was famous for stating that a drink is only as fine as its least premium ingredient) - you’ll end up with a classic concoction sure to both impress and refresh.

Imbibe responsibly.