Castle & Cairn

Hailing from the South Carolina Lowcountry, High Wire Distilling is a craft producer of grain-centric whiskies. Jimmy Red is named for a rare landrace (naturally evolved and locally adapted) corn that was grown historically in the James Island/Charleston, SC area. It was long valued by local moonshiners for its high starch and oil content which yielded a creamier, richer spirit. By 2013, the last local grower had ceased operations and only two cobs of the erstwhile famed corn remained, protected by a local preservationist named Ted Chewning. Glen Roberts of Anson Mills helped propagate the grains in partnership with Clemson University, giving some seeds to Scott Blackwell and Ann Marshall, the founders of High Wire Distilling. An initial 2.5 acre harvest in 2014 has blossomed into recurring plantings across multiple farms and hundreds of acres, more than 1.3million pounds of Jimmy Red corn per year. 🛒 Sourced: $57.99 for 750ml from Smyrna World of Beverage, GA - MSRP $59.99 🧪 Proof...

First released in 2024 as an official collaboration between Ghost and Welch's , this purple can aims to take you back to your childhood, full of refreshingly sweet Juicebox nostalgia. Ghost formulated the flavors using real Welch's Concord Grape juice concentrates in micro-doses augmented by artificial flavor systems, producing a distinctive sweet + tart profile. GHOST (GHOST Lifestyle LLC) is a lifestyle sports nutrition and beverage company headquartered in Henderson, Nevada. Founded in 2016 by Dan Lourenco (CEO) and Ryan Hughes (CMO), the brand positions itself around its mantra "Be Seen," targeting fitness enthusiasts, gamers, and mainstream consumers rather than traditional bodybuilders. I first encountered them as a part of sponsored content around Call of Duty Warzone on Twitch. Keurig Dr Pepper is in the process of fully acquiring Ghost by 2028, having held the controlling interest in the brand for a number of years. 🛒 Price:  3 for $6, two bucks apiece at Pu...

  This Ready-to-Drink iced coffee is produced as part of a longtime joint venture between Starbucks and PepsiCo in their continued march to manage retail distribution. The 48oz, 100% recycled bottle is unsweetened and intended to be consumed black or with one of Starbucks' specially packaged creamer options.  🌍 Origin: Undisclosed, 100% Arabica 🔥 Roast Level:  Blonde (Lighter roast) - typically associated with more mellow flavors 🧪 Brew Method: Traditional bulk hot extraction and pasteurization that is then flash-chilled. Note that this is not a "cold brew" as the brew cycle is heated. 👅 Experience:   Mild and nutty with a slight woody note to it. There is a slight sweet biscuit towards the finish, but it is fleeting at best. Very inoffensive and a bit weaker than the brewed hot would be at the store; perhaps they factored in some dilution? Tastes a bit oxidized.  🏆 Score:  2.25/5 - Short of Ideal - It's fine but doesn't have the edges to stand up if...

Founded in 2013 Bizzy Coffee has the goal of creating the strongest, most flavorful cold brew coffee on the consumer market. They offer both ready-to-dink and brew-it-yourself options, available at many national retailers and online. This particular version is the Espresso Roast blend, part of a five edition caffeinated organic lineup of RTDs. It is unsweetened and brewed in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Caffeine content is significant, around 273mg per 12oz serving which is around 180mg per 8oz. cup, on the higher end if you're drinking it straight but around a normal drip if diluted with milk or water in 50/50 ratio. This is much more than competitors like STōK whose unsweet black has only 145mg per 8oz.  Packaged in a 100% post-consumer plastic bottle, certified organic, and 100% of spent grounds are composted for a feel good environmental touch.  🌍 Origin: Mix of Central and South America, 100% Arabica 🔥 Roast Level: Espresso Roast, on the darker side (4/5 on their int...

Founded in 2018 by  fitness influencer Katy Hearn and her husband Haydn Schneider, Alani Nu (part of parent company Congo Brands which also owns PRIME hydration) sought to disrupt an energy drink category historically dominated by masculine branding and marketed almost exclusively towards young men. Alani's marketing features bright and vibrant color palettes while prominently featuring women and more traditionally female activities. The vibes-based plan complete with abundant influencer marketing and wellness adjacent value-prop seems to have gained traction with the brand surpassing $1billion in global sales for fiscal 2025. Beyond energy drinks, Alani Nu also has pre-workout, shakes, snacks, and energy stick offerings.  Orange Kiss débuted in 2024 as a permanent addition to the standing Alani Lineup, seeking to provide a more acidic take on orange flavor while avoiding the syrup and sticky sweetness of full-sugar sodas.  🛒 Price: $16.59 for 12-cans, note this refle...

One of the more fun gimmicks in whiskey, Jim Beam Devil's Cut  consists of the standard Jim Beam juice you know and love blended with bourbon extracted from the staves of the barrel. While you may be aware of the "angel's share" of whiskey that evaporates during aging, there is also a "Devil's cut" of whiskey trapped within the wood of the barrel itself. Beam first released the offering in 2011 where it was the first addition to the namesake line since the flavored Red Stag launch a few years earlier. The premise is simple, craft a slightly higher proof bourbon with a heightened presence of barrel character and some edgy marketing to go alongside it. Master Distiller Fred Noe drew inspiration from the historical practice of "barrel sweating" by which producers introduced small amounts of water to a used barrel and rolled it to extract some of the held alcohol. Beam's proprietary extraction loop uses a combination of mechanical and thermal e...

Now a property of Midwest Grain Products (MGP), Penelope began as a well-regarded NDP named after one of the founder's firstborn. Known for finished bourbons like the Architect Series, Penelope has released a number of iterations in the Cooper Series, pairing their bourbon with various wood types and used casks from around the globe.  Rosé Cask Finish was the first offering to be introduced in the series and features French Rosé wine casks from the Southern Rhône region. This particular pour comes from Batch #10 which was bottled in March/April of 2025. Rosé Cask typically places in the 90s (100pt scale) for major competitions and won a gold at SFWS 2023 and platinum at ASCOT 2023.  🛒 Sourced: $49.99 for 750ml from Smyrna World of Beverage, April 2026. Penelope does typically have rebates available online.  🧪 Proof: 94 proof, 47% ABV - Finished bourbons usually have flavor above and beyond their proof. 🎨 Color: R4  - ruddy orange with some decent thicknes...

Your classic coffee representative in Dunkin' Donuts line of convenience-focused ready-to-drink cans, this tall-can Iced Espresso seeks to provide a balanced coffee centric flavor with the customary Dunkin' sweetness. First released March 10, 2026, the Dunkin' Double line consists of three flavors: Original, Cafe Mocha , and Salted Caramel, all featuring the equivalent of two shots of espresso (140mg of caffeine is in the typical 125-150 range for a doppio). I am still interested in the fact that it's an atypical 15oz can manufactured and distributed by the Coca-Cola company. The series features real milk and cane sugar. 🌍 Origin: Unknown 🔥 Roast Level: Espresso Roast (supposedly), definitely on the darker end. 🧪 Brew Method: Industrial Bean Extraction (pressurized tanks with forced hot water to produce coffee concentrate). 👅 Experience:   Very roasty and sweet. It reminds me of a slightly less sugary but more creamy version of their in-store dark roast iced cof...

An ultra-high rye whiskey from the production wizards at Bardstown Bourbon Company, Origin Rye rounds out the standard four-bottle lineup of Origin Bourbon, Wheated Bottled-in-Bond , and High Wheat . The rye starts in American white oak barrels for 6 years before being rebarreled into a second cherry wood barrels for up to 6 months. The Cherry barrels have a distinctive alternating "zebra" pattern with half of the staves being specially toasted oak and the other half being toasted cherry wood. Looks beautiful in the rickhouse. Working with the West Virginia Great Barrel Company, precise infrared heat is used for the toast rather than open flame, allowing for a deeper and more uniform toast (around 400 degrees Fahrenheit) which can enhance specific vanillins and fruit esters without the bitterness of a heavy char. 🛒 Sourced:  $47.99 from  Tower Beer, Wine, and Spirits  (The GOATs) - 750ml. Purchased it at the same time I picked up my first BTAC, a Thomas H. Handy. S...

From celebrity lead-investor Patrick Mahomes, Throne Sport Coffee has a strong lineup of cold brew and flavored latte functional beverages that blend coffee, protein, and electrolytes. Michael Fedele of BODYARMOR fame provides the industry know-how for the brand and it's athlete and creator centric funding base which also includes Lex Bregman, Breanna Stewart, and Chris Brickley. Generally, the drinks are targeted as recovery beverages with lower sugar content and natural caffeine when compared to traditional sports and energy drinks. This can in particular is part of the latte line featuring natural Madagascar vanilla . I got this as a free sample through the QuickTrip app, but they typically go for $3-$4 a can. 🌍 Origin: Arabica from Central/South America 🔥 Roast Level: Unknown, likely medium-dark. 🧪 Brew Method: Industrial cold water extraction (immersion). Like consumer cold brew, this has less acid prevalence that hot methods.  📗Ingredients: Throne lattes feature u...

Designed to be a morning-centric alternative to a hot cup of joe, Ultra Sunrise first debuted in 2015. Unapologetically orange, it still seeks to have the light and tangy Ultra aspects. Notably it includes actual lemon pulp to help with mouthfeel. The can features a paisley psychedelic motif with a stars, plants, and planets design etched into a cheery orange exterior. 🛒 Price: $17.99/15  - Amazon with 40% subscribe and save coupon ✨Calories: 10 , 16oz. can 🍵 Caffeine: 150mg, slightly less than a cup of coffee 👅 Flavor: Tastes very much like a good full pulp orange juice, though in this case the pulp comes across more as creaminess than strings. Underneath the orange you can get a bit of grapefruit and the faintest hint of sweeter pineapple. There is still a bit of brightness to the overall experience from carbonation, but it's mellowed a bit from some other editions. Very refreshing. 🧪 Ingredients: Around the same as the rest of Monster's Ultra editions. Sweeteners: Ery...

Sharing the same mash bill as Green River's standard Wheated Bourbon, this full proof edition  is a batch of selected barrels blended and bottled without dilution. Because of this, batch final proof will vary depending on the barrels involved, but GR is targeting a batch output range of 109-116. The February 2026 announcement hit social media like wildfire, and I've been excited to try this upgraded version. They also offer a full proof single barrel product that I believe was previously a distillery exclusive. If you're not familiar with Green River, the brand has a historic legacy of "Whiskey Without Regrets" since 1885 and was reintroduced in 2022. A sister company of Bardstown Bourbon Company, both operations have become known for their industrial precision and quality. 🛒 Sourced: $49.99 for 750ml from Smyrna World of Beverage, April 2026. This is my first time seeing it on the shelf in market, though Georgia is often behind getting new releases it seems.  ...

Debuted in 2019, Ultra Paradise is yet another of Monster Energy's always growing ultra family of low calorie functional beverages. The can is a striking green with art featuring a volcano, palm trees, and inland river with lovely pacific island theme. 🛒 Price: $17.99/15  - Amazon with 40% subscribe and save coupon ✨Calories: 10 , 16oz. can 🍵 Caffeine: 140mg, slightly less than a cup of coffee 👅 Flavor: The official branding is Kiwi with Green Apple and I get lots of both, though the apple dominates. If you've had the Green Jolly Rancher, this isn't too far from that. There is a little bit of lime towards the finish and the mouthfeel is the customary prickly ultra pop with some effervescence. This is notably the lowest citrus of any Ultra I've had to date, so if the usual isn't your cup of tea this can be your can replacement. 🧪 Ingredients: Around the same as the rest of Monster's Ultra editions. Sweeteners: Erythritol & Sucralose (Standard Ultra ble...

Another of Cometeer's in-house brands, Peak Season focuses on coffees for cold-crafted use cases like iced coffees, iced lattes, or cold brews. With this product line, they're looking to maintain crisp clarity, sweetness, and vibrant fruit even when diluted with milk. In the broader coffee industry, "peak season" refers to the cyclical nature of the global coffee harvest. Since coffee cherries are the fruit of a tropical shrub grown across a variety of altitudes and latitudes, they do not ripen simultaneously worldwide. If you are not familiar with Cometeer's process, they use a precision brew system to make a strong coffee concentrate, 400lbs of bean at a time, at roughly 10x final strength that is then flash frozen at -321 degrees Fahrenheit. They typically work with Roasters individually to perfect the settings for each brew.  🌍 Origin: Washed Guatemala, Pulped Ethiopian 🔥 Roast Level:   Medium 🧪 Brew Method: Cometeer Pod, 5oz water added 👅 Flavor:  Soft...

First released back in 2016, this purple retro themed can probably has you thinking "grape" and you'd be right! The can art is vaguely 1970s themed with paisley and kaleidoscope designs. Ultra Violet  seeks to combine the traditional citrus tingle and effervescence of the Ultra family with a sweet red grape. How does it hold up? 🛒 Price: $17.99/15  - Amazon with 40% subscribe and save coupon ✨Calories: 10 , 16oz. can 🍵 Caffeine: 140mg, slightly less than a cup of coffee 👅 Flavor: On the tongue, it is a lot of what you might expect from a Monster Ultra family member. The grape definitely takes a backseat and hits after the initial tangerine and grapefruit citrus tingle. It is reasonably bubbly but the conflicting flavors mute out some of the cleanliness of the experience. Most other grape beverages are sugary and syrupy, providing more of an illusion of body/thickness, which makes this seem unexpectedly lighter, a playful prickle with a purple fruit undertone. 🧪 Ingr...

  Pretty much everyone has heard of Sangria, the extra sweet wine and chopped fruit combo beverage, but it seems that few are familiar with the more balanced an infinitely crushable alternative, Tinto de Verano . I had the pleasure of attending some friends' wedding in Spain recently and my group fell in love with the drink, it's name meaning the "Red Wine of Summer". What is it and is it better than Sangria? What is Tinto de Verano? Tinto de Verano made of equal parts table red wine and soda, often a semi-sweet lemon flavored variety. The traditional soda brand, Sandevid, is very lightly sweetened which results in the combined beverage being relatively low calorie. It is often served over ice with a slice or lemon or orange as a garnish. A 1.5L bottle of Tinto De Verano can be found at most grocery stores in Spain for less than two euros. I drank a full bottle in one afternoon and felt neither tipsy nor over-sugared. The invention of the drink is commonly credited to...

An new energy drink powerhouse, Phorm Energy is a partnership between 1st Phorm Nutrition, UFC's Dana White, and beer giant Anheuser-Busch. The brand focuses on a patriotic and blue-collar segment with slogans like "We do the work". 1st Phorm performs extensive product testing for an energy drink brand and all Phorm products are produced only in facilities that are FDA inspected, SQF Level-3 certified, & cGMP (Current Good Manufacturing Practices) compliant. Phorm is made and packaged in St. Louis Missouri from a global ingredient base. 🛒 Price: $1 at Kroger, typically $2-3 per can in most formats. Available in 12 oz can 4-packs and 16oz. singles or 12 packs.  ✨Calories: 15 , 16oz. can 🍵 Caffeine: 200mg, on par with Celsius (little less per volume), naturally sourced from green tea extract. The 12oz. format has 150mg of caffeine. 👅 Flavor: A relatively thick and indulgent soft orange with some light tangerine that stops short of a bite and subsides into a candy a...

You are doubtless familiar with the omnipresent Jack Daniel's Old No. 7  Tennessee Whiskey, but you might not be aware that they also have also been cranking out some of the best juice in all of whiskey. Enthusiasts love their Single Barrel Barrel Proof Bourbon  (yes the corn primary mash qualifies as a bourbon) and Rye Barrel proof offerings and you can also find the heritage edition and 14-year whiskey on the market today, all very solid bottles. They have also put out a 10-year iteration in their "aged" series at various points. Jack Daniel's 12-year splits the difference between the two bottles and has ben released yearly since 2023, targeting a candy-focused profile (less woody/leathery than the 14 and more spice/caramel forward than the 10). 🛒 Sourced: $92.99 for 700ml from Costco Perimeter, GA - probably the best thing I've seen in there for years. They got 3 bottles each of the 12 and 14-year, all gone in a couple hours. MSRP is around $100 though secon...

Produced by DSP-KY-10 in Owensboro, Kentucky, this full proof version of their high-rye bourbon has become a darling to enthusiasts. They have also recently released a full proof version of their wheated bourbon as well. Green River is part of the Lofted Spirits umbrella which also includes Bardstown Bourbon Company. Both facilities have significant contract distilling programs.  Founded in 1885 by J.W. McCulloch, Green River was once one of Kentucky’s most prolific distilleries, famous for its slogan, "The Whiskey Without Regrets." Its whiskey was so highly esteemed that 20 barrels once traded for an interest in a gold mine in Colorado. A tragic fire and prohibition resulted in the distillery being shuttered for most of the 1900s before the reintroduction of the Green River name in 2022.  🛒 Sourced:  $49.99, 750ml - Tower Beer, Wine, and Spirits - Atlanta, GA 🧪 Proof:  58.65 proof, 117.3% ABV - varies by batch 🎨 Color:  R4  - cheery and vaguely brown wi...

Released as part of Dunkin' Donuts ready-to-drink(RTD) alcohol suite in 2023, this Vanilla Iced Coffee hopes to convert on the booming canned cocktail trend. This wasn't Dunkin's first foray into alcohol, having previously partnered with Harpoon Brewery (Mass Bay Brewing) to collaborate on a few brews like  Harpoon Dunkin' Pumpkin Spiced Latte Ale. Though those were limited edition craft beers, Mass Bay continues to be the producer for these mass(achussets)-market canned cocktails under the entity "American Spiked Beverages" and plans on keeping the two brands isolated from one another. “These tend to be thought of as a tailgating [product], a pick-me-up in the afternoon,” says Nathaniel Davis, President of Mass Bay Brewing. The coffees and teas are more of “a late-afternoon play” or treat.   After first being released in the Northeast, the beverages can now be found in 28 states. The expansive Dunkin' Spiked lineup has many flavors including seven ...