I will start tonight by saying that I honestly don’t care about how much traffic this site gets. I don’t take advertisements, so I don’t have advertisers breathing down my neck. I get enough samples and am on enough press release lists that I don’t need to “introduce” myself to PR folks anymore (except Brown-Forman; I just can’t get a hold of anyone there and have given up trying). But this morning, I went down a rabbit hole while procrastinating doing actual paying work. While in that rabbit hole, I looked at the BourbonGuy.com site analytics for the first time since 2021.
Holy shit, folks! Almost 50,000 of you visited in December! I am incredibly humbled by that fact. So thank you.
For a little perspective on that, I also looked at the earliest available analytics for the site. Way, way back in 2014, I had about 80,000 visits all year. The main reason that 2014 was on my mind this morning was when I interviewed one of the founders of a then-new bitters startup called Dashfire, which, if you saw the photo above, you will know is relevant to tonight’s post. I went back to reread it. I still think it was a great interview.
Shortly after that interview, I started making my own bitters, so I hadn’t thought of Dashfire in a while. Well, until I saw these cute little canned cocktails at the checkout counter of a local liquor store last night. I’d had a product lined up for tonight’s post that fell through, and serendipity was working in my favor to provide a replacement. They have expanded well beyond bitters in the last decade or so. Their offerings now include not only bitters but liqueurs, boozy coffee drinks, THC drinks, and, of course, ready-to-drink cocktails like we are exploring tonight.
I like making cocktails, but with the fact that I’ve cut way back on my drinking (I’m trying to move away from my Wisconsin upbringing and be a bit healthier about my relationship with alcohol), I don’t always have the more perishable ingredients on hand. For example, it is unlikely that I will ever use a 750 mL bottle of vermouth before it starts to feel the effects of being open for too long. I don’t make enough Manhattans to use that bottle in a year, much less the month (to a few months) the experts say it will take for the flavor to start going downhill. But occasionally, I want a Manhattan all the same. In those times, I can either buy a bottle of vermouth, knowing I will dump most of it out in a couple of months. Or I can buy a ready-to-drink version like I bought last night.
Dashfire currently makes ten different ready-to-drink cocktails. We are going to look at the two that I found last night: the Bourbon Old Fashioned and the Fig & Cascara Manhattan. I served each of them as instructed on the can, including garnish.
Dashfire Bourbon Old Fashioned
Purchase Information: $5.99 for a single-serve 100 mL can at Lunds & Byerly’s Liquor, Burnsville, MN
Serving Instructions: Pour over a large ice cube and garnish with orange zest.
Nose: Cherry and orange.
Mouth: Thick, rich, and sweet with notes of brown sugar, cherry, orange, vanilla, and baking spice.
Finish: Sweet with notes of cinnamon, caramel, vanilla, and orange.
Dashfire Fig & Cascara Manhattan
Purchase Information: $5.99 for a single-serve 100 mL can at Lunds & Byerly’s Liquor, Burnsville, MN
Serving Instructions: Stir with ice to chill and garnish with a cocktail cherry.
Nose: The sherry comes through strongly, along with some cherry notes.
Mouth: Thick and rich with notes of caramel, cocoa, orange, and baking spice.
Finish: Smoky notes of chocolate-covered raisin and cherry.
Thoughts: These taste like well-made Manhattans and Old Fashioneds from a fancy cocktail bar. I'd be happy paying bar prices for something that tastes like either of these. Hiking? Camping? Just don't want to keep the ingredients on your home bar? Toss a few of these in your pack or cupboard, and you'll have a tasty treat with little to no prep. And for $5.99, they are as good as you'll find in a good cocktail bar.
I look forward to trying their other offerings in the near future. The THC drinks sound delicious, I love coffee, and that Orange Bourbon Liqueur will certainly be coming home with me as soon as I find it on the shelf. You can look forward to that one being talked about here soon.
If you want to support our work at BourbonGuy.com, please consider a one-time donation at ko-fi.com/bourbonguy or paypal.me/BourbonGuy. Or you could buy some merch that I’ve designed and/or built (tasting journals, t-shirts, stickers, pins, signs, posters, and more) at BourbonGuyGifts.com. Use code BOURBONGUYREADER at checkout for 5% off any order of $50 or more.