What Does Mikkeller Spirits Taste Like? Pro Tasting Panel Reports.

Recently we had some guys tasting the newly released products from Mikkeller Spirits.

At Mikkeller we have found these products tasteful, interesting and groundbreaking. This needed to be tested; we really wanted to make sure these products live up to our high expectations.  We needed second opinions.  That we got from a very competent tasting panel.

Introducing the crew:

L: Long time member of the Mikkeller family, he has tasted beers for many years, he has dined fine places and knows of good quality in all areas the culinary world, including beverages.

T: Has rated thousands of beers, he is a highly respected rater on www. ratebeer.com – He knows how to describe tastes and aromas.

K: Head chef at Mielcke & Hurtigkarl in Copenhagen. Goes without saying that K knows about taste. He is used to creating gourmet food using ingredients from the garden of Mielcke & Hurtigkarl and all kinds of interesting stuff.

M: Bartender, sommelier – she has been drinking good stuff for many years. She was the host of the evening telling everyone how to taste spirits in the right way.

This headhunted crew was sat down at the Mikkeller Office in Copenhagen with the one task: taste and describe the products of Mikkeller Spirits.

This is what they thought and said -  this is clever, nerdy and of course: THE TRUTH!

White Dog:

This viscosity is cool, very oily! The aroma is of flowers, something similar to a Japanese plum wine…  Delicious! You can find traces of elderberries and honey, fresh wood and something in the area of juniper berries.

The taste is sweet in an almond kind of way, a sweetness you find in Sake. Chocolate, but more like the taste of cocoa beans that gives you a cool buttery feeling. Straight forward, clean!

It would be a good idea to use this for cocktails.

Dry Hopped Vodka:

The aroma is citrus-like, but from the hops! It’s quite aggressive on the tongue. Notes of pine and fresh wood, oranges and cloves.

It has an immediate burn of alcohol, then a long sweet touch. We feel pine and juniper berries (even though it’s not gin!) This could be used for a (Danish style) Christmas dinner (where we eat greasy stuff) as a good substitute/alternative for the schnapps we normally wash this down with.  It’s like a spicy aquavit.

Botanical Gin:

Shit this smells nice! Fresh juniper berries all over the place, green fresh juniper. Lime zest and pine needles in the nose.

Taste of cardamom dominates at first. It has an oily texture, when rolling it around the tongue.

We want to stuff a cucumber in this.

This is good, the taste is very good.

Some Christmas feelings arise again (maybe because Christmas is getting close) (editor’s note)

Black Oloroso Sherry Cask:

You sense the Black (the beer) as a fine roasted touch. Some wood, some campfire. Like a saw cutting through fresh wood. Some plum, some candied toasted almonds.

The taste is rather clean despite the barrel aging. There’s a fine caramel-like touch in the aftertaste.  We don’t get hops in the taste, more like the bitter shells on blackcurrants, burnt oranges and almonds. In the aftertaste something similar to coconut…

You get the barrel in the taste without it dominating, the Black (the beer) is still there. This tastes really nice!

Black Rum Cask:

Aroma is fine low-key fruitiness (sic!) – a sharp spirit feeling in the nose, dark cane sugar. There’s a sourness in the nose, like grilled lemons.

It has taste notes of a light rum. The freshness from the original Black distil mixed with a caramel feeling. This is a young product, you can feel that. A nice taste and a little slap in the face.

Black Bourbon Cask:

Chocolate aroma. A fine smoky feeling, (not peated like whisky – more like when you were a young dude in school burning stuff into wood with a kind of soldering iron …)

Nice refined aroma of vanilla in a bourbon way. Not as aggressive in the alcohol like the former version. Light Sultan raisin and other dried fruits.

The taste has a bourbon appearance without it being over the top. Toffee and brown suger, dried candied figs.

On all three versions of the distilled Black you still feel the fresh make spirit, not much, but you feel these are new styles of spirits. This really gives a warm nice feeling, perfect for dinner aperitif.

A huge thanks to all in the tasting panel. We hope all you out there learned as much as we did at Mikkeller.

There’s only one thing to do: Get Mikkeller Spirits and taste it for youself.

Available at Mikkeller Bar in Copenhagen, at our webshop and in Vinspecialisten (in DK) – later available in many countries around the world.

Cheers!