House Spirits Tasting

During a recent trip to Portland, I was pleased to discover that House Spirits Distillery has a shop after security. I grabbed a bottle each of the whiskey, the gin, and the rum.

Westward Oregon Straight Malt Whiskey

I approached this with a little trepidation since they advertise it as being done in the Irish style and I’m not yet sure exactly what it is about Irish whiskies that is so contrary to my palate but it turned out I had nothing to be afraid of. It was quite nice. Nothing extraordinary but quite nice. I would probably reach for something else given the opportunity but it’s certainly not going to go to waste.

Aviation American Gin

Holy crap. Before I started drinking whiskies, I tended toward gin-based cocktails. I never made an extensive comparison of them but I knew, in general, that I liked gin. This would be fabulous in a cocktail but would also be great just by itself, over ice. It’s amazing.

House Spirits Rum, 100% Sugar Cane

I’m a little sad to say: ugh. It tastes a bit like buttery gasoline but it might mix well. The sales associate told me it was new. It is, in fact, not even listed on the House Spirits websites as of this writing and a quick search revealed a number of slightly different labels (different proofs, different mash components, other small details) on other rums from House Spirits so there’s hope that it’ll get refined.