Never on a Sunday (or, There’s a New Distillery in Joshua Tree, Also: The First Time I Drank Mezcal)

It’s Sunday, so I’ve got nothing.

Okay, not nothing, here’s something. A distillery opened up recently in Joshua Tree. That may not sound like a big deal, but Joshua Tree is a small place (population 7,000), so it was kind of surprising to see a distillery open up here.

Yesterday I visited and met a couple of the owners (one of whom lives about a block away from me as it turns out) and came home with a bottle of Lost Horse whiskey.

They pushed their Black Hole vodka, and gave me a taste, but I wanted to bring the whiskey home. I’m more of a bourbon person, so I chose brown (good rule of thumb: always choose brown 😊).

The whiskey is good, especially for a blend. But they’ve blended good stuff here, and it’s about a third rye whiskey, which I like. I have to say the vodka was very distinctive too.

I haven’t really glugged too much liquor lately, but it’s still nice to have around. What I really look forward to is their gin, which they told me would be ready in a few months. I know I said always choose brown, but good gin is the exception to that rule.

That reminds me that there’s a mezcal “from” Joshua Tree too, but it’s made in Mexico, so it’s essentially Mexican mezcal with a Joshua Tree label stuck on it. More of a souvenir of the recording studio it’s named after, Rancho de la Luna.

I had a bottle of that a while back, and lord have mercy, it’s like drinking — let me go check my Instagram post from the time, it had a good description…

“I like tequila, but I’ve never had its big brother mezcal before.

They are not the same.

I mean, they’re both made from agave, but good lord, this stuff is like a handful of nuts and Spanish moss and thick mesquite smoke that happens to be on fire when you put it in your mouth. I think that’s how they’d describe it in the Wine Spectator.

Anyway, I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s not bad, it’s just crazy. Like Keith Moon or Hunter Thompson.”

So there you go. I guess this was all something and not nothing.

day 5

WRITTEN BY A HUMAN

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