Last night was the first in Kieran Folliard’s week-long Twin Cities preview sale of his new 2 Gingers whiskey, so we snatched up a bottle to give the spirit a test run. These are our initial reactions:
Smoother than Joe Mauer’s Head & Shoulders-shampooed hair: Irish whiskey is predominately smoother than its American and Canadian (yeck) counterparts, but 2 Gingers goes down the hatch without a hitch, leaving very little, if any, burning sensation on the throat. Folliard told MinnPost’s Max About Town last year that “[2 Gingers] absolutely had to be able to stand on its own two feet as a sipping whiskey,” and he’s completely succeeded in that regard.
Full of sweetness: Aged in a sherry cask by Cooley, European Spirits Producer of the Year four years running and the last remaining independent Irish whiskey distributor, 2 Gingers is as sweet as can be while still maintaining its whiskey bite, riding along a perfect midpoint between rubbing alcohol and froufrou cocktail.
The Perfect Cocktail: Speaking of cocktails, Folliard’s whiskey mixes perfectly with its namesake to create the Big Ginger: Pour 2 shots into a Collins glass filled with ice, top off with ginger ale, and wedge with both lemon & lime. Folliard’s associates were dishing these babies out to people waiting in line at last night’s event and while we think they were supposed to make the wait less cumbersome, it just made us more anxious to finally get a bottle all to ourselves.
For six more days at least, Twin Citians will have a chance to get their hands on one of the 12,000 bottles of 2 Gingers being sold at several events throughout the area before its state-wide release to bars and restaurants on January 17. The former TC pub owner and his charming Irish brogue will be in attendance to hand out bottles, sign them, and answer any questions. We’d recommend not dilly-dallying either; we showed up relatively early and the line at Surdyk’s wasn’t short and some people were buying cases.
