Castle & Cairn

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 ...

Part of Dunkin' Donuts line of convenience-focused ready-to-drink cans, this 16oz. Double Cafe Mocha seeks to provide more coffee flavor. 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 (seems to imply it may not be actual espresso). I would expect a vanilla flavor to follow shortly if they are successful. It's in a strange 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) 🧪 Brew Method: Industrial Bean Extraction (pressurized tanks with forced hot water to produce coffee concentrate). 👅 Experience: Very chocolate forward but with a good amount of milk to balance. The coffee undertone is biscuity and mild. Sweetness is more than I would expect from a coffee house, but definitely below what Dunkin and McDonald's hav...

  Named for legendary Jim Beam company master distiller Booker Noe (1960-1992), Booker's " Apprentice Batch " was the second release of 2023. The label and name pay homage to Booker Noe's early career working under his cousin Carl Beam. The batch also honors Charlie Hutchens who developed the distinctive wooden boxes in which Booker's ships to this day.  The Booker's Brand started as a pet project of Noe for friends and family in the late 1980s, first releasing to the public in 1992 as the first in Jim Beam's "Small Batch Bourbon Collection". I've heard people credit Booker Noe with the creation of the term "Small Batch" which to this day holds no regulatory meaning in spite of it sounding so good. Jim beam drops a number of releases under the Booker's brand every year, and each will vary in terms of flavor, sometimes significantly. Each blended batch is sourced primarily from barrels in the "center cut" of each wareho...

  Costco has historically worked with Barton 1792 for it's bourbon line, putting out a small batch , bottled-in-bond , and single barrel edition in liter bottles in waves over the last few years. This new 1.75L edition debuted in Spring of 2026 and mysteriously lacks a named distiller. The label proudly states that it was distilled and aged in Bardstown, Kentucky before being bottled in Columbia, Tennessee by DC Flynt   MY Domaines & Estates (never heard of them). Flynt appear to be more wine focused and have led a number of wine bottlings for Costco historically in addition to some Gins. Distilleries at scale in Bardstown include Jim Beam, Barton 1792, Heaven Hill (though primary production is at Bernheim in Louisville), Lux Row, Willet, and Bardstown Bourbon Company. I doubt it is Barton 1792 since they proudly label their existing collaboration and I suspect it may be a producer without a 1.75L bottling line (would justify the move better than just adding logistics for ...

Another targeted brand from Cometeer's in-house roastery, Sweet Talker Coffee Compan y highlights the lighter, sweeter, and more playful side of coffee. Cometeer's house brands help round out their collection of excellent third-party collaborations and serve as a test bed to showcase the flexibility and quality of their flash freezing system. If you are not familiar with Cometeer's process, they use a precision brew system to make a strong coffee, 400ish pounds of bean at a time, concentrate at roughly 10x final strength that is then flash frozen at -321 degrees°F. They typically work with Roasters individually to perfect the settings for each brew.  🌍 Origin: Nevado del Huila, Columbia - washed process 🔥 Roast Level:   Light 🧪 Brew Method: Cometeer Pod, 5oz water added - I would scale down to 4oz. added next time. 👅 Flavor: Pleasant and fruity nose with bright berry and coco. I get a lot of dark chocolate on the palate with a sustained blast of honied grapes. There i...

  A triple threat alliance, Phorm Energy is the progeny of 1st Phorm Nutrition, UFC's Dana White, and beer giant Anheuser-Busch. The brand focuses on a patriotic and blue-collar vibe with slogans like "We do the work" and this red, white, and blue titan, the "Screaming Freedom". 1st Phorm performs extensive product testing 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 with global ingredients. 🛒 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:  Phorm flavors tend towards a little bit of a soda syrup consistency and this one is no exception. T...

Weller Special Reserve or "Weller Green Label" is the entry point to the often hyped and hunted Weller wheated lineup, produced by Buffalo Trace. It bears the name of William Larue Weller (incidentally the title for the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection edition Weller bottle) who was credited as being the first to produce bourbon with wheat as the secondary grain instead of rye in 1840. The brand was stable for around 80 years before rising to prominence under the Stitzel-Weller Distilling Company in 1935, sharing a mash bill with the coveted Pappy Van Winkle line which to this day leads it to be often called "Poor Man's Pappy". Sazerac has owned the brand and produced it at Buffalo Trace since 1999, rebranding it from "Old Weller" to just "Weller" in 2016 with a label refresh. At one point, Weller Green was packaged with metal screw tops but this bottle is one of the recent returns to a traditional stopper. 🛒 Sourced:  $29.99 at Tower Beer ...

A purple explosion from triple threat partnership Phorm Energy, Grape Smash was one of the initial flavors in the company's drink portfolio. Phorm is the progeny of 1st Phorm nutrition, UFC's Dana White, and beer giant Anheuser-Busch. The brand focuses on a patriotic and blue-collar vibe with slogans like "We do the work" and flavors like " Screamin' Freedom ". 1st Phorm performs extensive product testing and all Phorm products are produced only in facilities that are FDA inspected, SQF Level-3 certified, & cGMP (Current Good Manufacturing Practices) compliant. 🛒 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), sourced from green tea extract. The 12oz. format has 150mg of caffeine. 👅 Flavor: This is the classic natural flavors grape that you're probably used to from Fanta or oth...

An officially licensed product in partnership with America250, the non-partisan commission established by Congress to plan the nation's 250th anniversary, this commemorative bottling from Heaven Hill showcases the strengths of their huge production capacity and excellent unit economics. Only a fitting 250 barrels were selected which puts my estimate for total yield around 40-45K bottles. All barrels were personally selected by Master Distiller Conor O'Driscoll. As part of the promotion of this offering, Heaven Hill donated $75K to Folds of Honor which provides educational scholarships to the family of fallen or disabled US Service members and first responders.  🛒 Sourced: $39.99 for 750ml from Smyrna World of Beverage, April 2026. This is my first time seeing it on the shelf in market, though Georgia tends to be a bit late to new releases. With the lower proof Vintage appearing in the $30-$32 range, this bottle is also likely one of the stronger values on the market. Pricing...

After a decade plus of extreme brewing, consumer palates seem to have began to fatigue even as the desire for lifestyle alignment and elevated experience have remained strong. While total beer sales in the US saw a 3% drop in the last year, the "Domestic Super Premium" segment is one of the few categories seeing consistent growth. Consumers seem to be returning to "beer flavored beer" while still wanting to feel connected to the brand, setting the stage for a new wave of storytellers and celebrity marketers to move brews in huge quantities. Not to be left behind, the heritage brewers are crafting new offerings or updating marketing on premium favorites like Michelob Ultra, Heineken Silver, and Corona Premier which set the blueprint for the category. In general these beers have similar characteristics: Calories : 90-110, traditionally within the light beer segment. This seems to be the consumer's mental best fit range, comfortably below that of sodas and RTDs, a...

Released in September of 2025, Batch A925 (A for the first batch of the year, 9 for September, and 25 for 2025) is the first mass market release for Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Rye.  There had been a previous distillery exclusive bottling of the Rye Barrel Proof (Y725 - 132 proof NAS) which was much higher alcohol and closer to the 2026 A batch that has just started rolling out. I had the pleasure to try Y725 which was good, but I ended up taking home the ECBP Bourbon . Heaven Hill plans to roll out three batches of ECBP rye each year alongside the bourbon releases. In the months since its launch, Whiskey Advocate has named Batch A925 its "2025 Whiskey of the Year".   “As Whiskey fans know, barrel proof is kind of like that famous box of chocolates, in not knowing what you’re going to get until the barrel dumps. In this instance, we got a 108 proof treat that drinks bolder than its number would suggest.” -  Conor O'Driscoll, Master Distiller, Elijah Craig Bourbon Whi...