Review: We tried the crab-flavored whiskey that’s gone viral

I had the whiskey final week after I was on trip within the Granite State and visited the distillery in its namesake city — a picture-perfect group sandwiched between mountain and lakeside locales. I had identified about Tamworth from beforehand sampling its venison-flavored whiskey, aptly referred to as Deerslayer, however when an worker confirmed me the Crab Trapper, I needed to do a double take. Or to cite my response: “You’ve received to be (bleeping) kidding.”

However I quickly took my pattern glass right down to the distillery’s riverbank space and found the odd pleasures of crustacean-flavored bourbon. You positively get a mouthful of crab right here — Tamworth says its recipe requires making a shellfish inventory after which mixing that with its bourbon. The crab taste is, nonetheless, well balanced by the sweetness of the whiskey. There’s additionally a lingering observe of savory spice, harking back to the basic Outdated Bay seasoning.

In all, it’s like having a messy ol’ dinner of Maryland-style crabs, however in not-so-messy liquid kind. Besides in Maryland, you’ll discover blue crabs, whereas the Tamworth whiskey is made with inexperienced crabs, an invasive species that has develop into an issue alongside the New England coast.

In contrast to their blue-colored brethren, inexperienced crabs don’t yield plenty of meat, so there’s no actual marketplace for them — not less than as a primary course — and thus no strategy to hold the inhabitants in examine. Which is why some good people, together with a devoted group on the College of New Hampshire that labored with Tamworth, are searching for different edible makes use of. Why not a whiskey?

All this makes for one heckuva story. So it’s maybe no shock that the green-crab whiskey has develop into a viral sensation, coated in shops starting from Food & Wine to CBS News. I get it: There’s a shock issue right here that’s onerous to disregard.

Nonetheless, it’s essential to convey a little bit of context to the crustacean-flavored bourbon. For starters, it’s not fairly as new an thought as you may suppose, say these within the booze world. “Mezcal has been doing it for years,” says Jared Bailey, a spirits professional who’s common supervisor of New York’s Soho Cigar Bar. Bailey is referring to pechuga, a method of the Mexican spirit that may be flavored with rooster, duck or possibly even a wild rabbit. (I attempted a version some years in the past.)

Furthermore, there’s been a good bit of experimentation within the spirits business in recent times. Consider Scotch completed in specialty casks (or, for that matter, tequila finished in Scotch casks). Or consider orange-flavored Irish whiskey. The explanation why so many distillers are going this route? Partially, they’re merely taking a cue from the meals world, which has embraced new and weird flavors. (How a few spoonful of everything bagel-flavored ice cream?)

Distillers are additionally conscious of the aggressive panorama — which means they know there’s plenty of combating for area on liquor-store cabinets. Within the Scotch class alone, we’ve gone from a small variety of in style blended whiskies — mainly, Johnnie Walker, Dewar’s and a few others — to a showroom of single malts. So, innovation turns into nearly a way of survival. “It takes quite a bit to have the ability to stand out from the gang,” says Noah Rothbaum, writer of quite a lot of books on spirits and an govt with Flaviar, a web based membership membership for spirits lovers.

There’s a danger with innovation, after all. I imply, as a lot as I favored Tamworth’s crab-flavored whiskey, I didn’t suppose a lot of its venison-flavored booze. (The primary situation? I simply didn’t style the meat.) And there are some merchandise on the market that strike me as industrial crapola. (Typically talking, I’m cautious of any whiskey that’s seemingly designed to style like a Jolly Rancher sweet.)

It’s some extent echoed by Mark Emil Hermansen, the chief govt officer of Empirical, a cutting-edge spirits model that makes a speciality of what some name free-form booze — that’s, spirits that don’t match into any outlined class (like whiskey, gin, vodka, and many others.). As a lot as Empirical pushes the envelope — it lately launched SOKA, a spirit constituted of sorghum-cane juice — it additionally hews to a hard-and-fast rule, Hermansen says. “If it’s not scrumptious, it’s not going anyplace,” he declares.

Which brings us again to Crab Trapper. Matt Energy, a distiller at Tamworth, says the sudden fuss over the whiskey has caught him abruptly. Initially, the spirit was to be a limited-edition providing, however now he suspects in any other case. “My hunch is we’re going to be making much more than we anticipated,” he says.