Spiritless Kentucky 74 Spiced
Spiritless Kentucky 74 Spiced
Distilled Spirit / Spiritless NA / <0.5%
Spiritless Kentucky 74 Spiced is a distilled non-alcoholic cinnamon whiskey. We took our perfectly crafted non-alcoholic bourbon, Kentucky 74, and added generous helping of cinnamon spice to deliver some bite.
The holidays are fast approaching and for the first year, I am hosting my entire extended family for a Christmas Eve celebration. While some relatives have graciously offered to bring prepared food dishes over for the party, I am squarely in charge of the beverage selection. I have some relatives that like a cold beer, others that enjoy a mulled cider and some that don’t drink at all. This year, I think it’s time to bring them all together for a taste test of some of my favorite NA products.
My beer loving relatives would never be able to pick out an NA craft brew in a blind taste test. They could probably easily sniff out an NA wine, although we’ve reviewed some good ones. But now, there is another option on the list — Cinnamon Whiskey from Spiritless. While I don’t think NA brands explicitly want to trick their consumers, some beverages are so evocative of the “real thing” it makes you question if you might be getting buzzed.
Picking up Kentucky 74 Spiced in November was the perfect time. The weather was changing and the desire for fruity and bright was evolving into a taste for smoky and bold. Many NA companies have ventured into the basic spirit realm with gin or vodka or whiskey “taste-alikes” and others have taken an entirely different path with their flavor profiles, but few have tackled the sub-genre like Spiritless has with spiced whiskey.
Spiritless Kentucky 74 Spiced Review
I’ve said this with some other NA products, especially spirits, but I was incredibly impressed with the packaging of Spiritless. Not only does it structurally protect the bottle, but they use it as a preamble to your drinking experience with their “Less is Yes” motto and cool graphic design on the inside flap. And the bottle is stunning. A thick, squat glass bottle with a ruby red label that featured embossed white and gold text and design elements that signal this is a high class experience. The stopper is dark stained wood with a syntheic cork and was excited to dive into my experience with Kentucky 74 Spiced.
Is Spiritless Kentucky 74 Spiced Good?
I decided to go neat with my pour so I could capture the cinnamon and whiskey flavors as cleanly as possible. I was particularly excited to test this product with no mixers because I read about the proprietary distillation process on the Spiritless website, which details that this product is everything but the ethanol.
I poured the 2oz serving size into a heavy crystal glass and the aromas were immediately there. The cinnamon spice hits first, but there is also a hint of vanilla, and as you go deeper on the nose, I even got the same sense of strength that comes from an alcoholic whiskey. This was going to be a fun taste — did they actually pull off the “you can’t tell the difference” game that so many NA beverages try to attain?
I am here to tell you that they did. Granted, the cinnamon and vanilla notes should be comparable regardless of non alcoholic or alcoholic, but the bite was there for me too. Sure, it didn’t burn my throat like an alcoholic whiskey, but it certainly was good enough for my senses. The finish leaves you feeling like the holidays are around the corner and you’re ready to put on your favorite holiday sweater for a cocktail party.
Spiritless Kentucky 74 Spiced Rating
As you can tell by the tone of my review so far, I enjoyed this. And while my wife is not a drinker (or even a NA drinker), this is one I wanted her to try. She approved with a bold smile and a commitment to drink it again! It also doesn’t hurt that the founders are female entrepreneurs, just as she is. Oh and did I mention that they have a program called 2% For the Girls, where they donate up to 2% of revenue to foster entrepreneurship among young females?
While this review has me in the holiday mood and feeling generous, I did want to throw out one word of caution. Many NA consumers are health-conscious (this is stating the obvious) and just 2oz of Kentucky 74 Spiced contains 8g of carbs and 5g of sugar. This adds up quickly if you’re mixing tall drinks or sipping heavily on this. So for this one, I will say moderation is key unless you want to be on a sugar high.
I am not going to let the sugar content get in the way of a 5/5 rating. It hit all the notes from the moment it arrived on my doorstep. I can’t speak for the other Spiritless products, but I will say Kentucky 74 Spiced is the perfect holiday party trick to prove to all of those alcohol lovers that the world of non alcoholic spirits is heating up.
Photos Credit:
https://spiritless.com/
