Barreling Liquid Sunshine
Florida's heat sets the stage for a new era of craft distilling in the Sunshine State.
Pairing Mead and Whiskey with Artisan Cheese
Bee Friends Farm honey is the featured ingredient in locally made mead and whiskey.
Honey has long been used as an ingredient when preparing craft cocktails, and even longer to make the alcoholic beverage known as mead. Now the liquid sweetener is gaining popularity for use in distilling spirits, either as a base or in the finishing process. Bee Friends Farm, a local beekeeping business, has partnered with several area distilleries and breweries to provide honey for a variety of drinks. "We work with Manifest and Burlock and Barrel by aging one of our varietal honeys in one of their whiskey rye barrels for several months to a year," says Christie Leach at Bee Friends. "When finished we return the barrel to them and they finish producing a honey whiskey." Not sure what to serve with honey-laced spirits? We asked artisan cheese expert Jennifer Harvey of Grater Goods to recommend some cheese and beverage pairings, perfect for your next happy hour wine or charcuterie board.
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WHIM HONEY WHISKEY + SHAGERAG BLUE
(from Burlock and Barrel and Sequatchie Cove Creamery)
WHY IT WORKS: This blue is an "ode to all things Southern." The paste (the interior of the cheese) is dense and heavily veined. The exterior is cloaked in whiskey-soaked fig leaves. The flavor profile of this blue is salty-sweet and fruity with notes of bacon, dark chocolate and tropical fruit. It balances well with Burlock and Barrel’s Whim Honey Whiskey. “Made with Bee Friends Farm Orange Blossom Honey, this whiskey has loud aromatic notes of raw honey highlighted by floral notes, subtle citrus and spice,” says Ian Haensly, distiller and co-owner, Burlock and Barrel. “The flavor opens immediately with full bodied raw honey sweetness. Enjoy the whiskey straight up, on the rocks or in an Arnold Palmer garnished with a lemon twist.”
HONEY MEAD + THOMASVILLE TOMME
(from Wicked Barley Brewing Company and Sweet Grass Dairy)
WHY IT WORKS: This unpasteurized farmhouse table style cheese is aged for 60 days. The subtle earthy notes let the grass-fed "barn free" flavors of the milk come through. Slightly sweet notes shine through and lighten up, complementing the semi-sweet Honey Mead from Wicked Barley. The mead is brewed using 100% local Wildflower Honey from Bee Friends Farms. The flavor is slightly floral with hints of vanilla and light notes of citrus with a semi-dry finish. “Mead is incredibly simple with only 3 ingredients – honey, water and yeast – yet can be extremely complex. The flavor can vary greatly with the type of honey used. This wildflower honey is very delicate and subtle,” says Mason Leasure, head brewer at Wicked Barley.
HONEY RYE WHISKEY + ST. MALACHI'S RESERVE EXTRA-AGED
(from Manifest Distilling & The Farm at Doe Run)
WHY IT WORKS: A Gouda/Alpine-inspired cheese with flavors of brown butter and hazelnut. Aging a minimum of two years creates a crystalline texture with a flavor that lingers on your tongue. When it's time to kick back and relax, make sure to enjoy it at room temperature with Manifest's Honey Rye Whiskey. A sweet and savory pairing at its best. “Our honey barrel-aged rye whiskey was born out of a mutual admiration with Bee Friends Farm and their dedication to their apiaries,” says David Cohen, Manifest’s head distiller and president. “Together we settled on a special strain of Black Mangrove honey which happened to work delightfully well with our Manifest Straight Rye Whiskey. It starts with dumping two to three-year-old straight rye and giving those wet barrels to Bee Friends to refill with black mangrove honey. After a number of months, the barrels are drained and returned to Manifest where we put the original rye back into them for a period of three to six months. The natural solvency of the whiskey dissolves what honey is left and then spends time mingling. The outcome is truly a match made in heaven.” Cohen describes the resulting rye whiskey as brûlée and burnt sugar, caramelized honey, sage, green pepper and black tea on the nose while on the palate, herbal, green peppercorn, spice and the unmistakable sweetness of honey.
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