I needed some new blog fodder, so I went back to the Buy Rite liquor store, which is located in the same shopping center as the alternate ShopRite grocery. A few months ago it paid dividends with Kijafa (see my post on June 5th, 2021), and this time it paid off even better. I was able to pick up three new liquors to try. Today's is Skrewball Whiskey, which is peanut butter flavored. This means this post is actually a sequel of sorts, since back on December 19, 2020 I covered another peanut butter whiskey, from the 99 brand.
But first, a history digression. As far as I could learn, the first peanut butter flavored alcoholic drink, or at least the first one to gain even marginal national popularity, was Peanut Lolita, from Continental Distilling, out of Linfield, Pennsylvania (near Philadelphia). The details were vague, but this liqueur was produced from the 1960's to (apparently) 1985. Peanut Lolita was billed as a quasi-dessert liquor--one print advertisement I saw for it recommended it be poured over ice cream. In fact, ne'er-do-well Presidential brother Billy Carter, also known for being the inspiration for and spokesman for the flop specialty Billy Beer, was also a spokesman for Peanut Lolita for a time. Which makes sense when you remember that the Carter family was known for being peanut farmers. Despite it being available for about 15-20 years, and its "celebrity" endorser, Peanut Lolita seems to have been a niche, cult drink at best. And the story gets worse. One of the main facilities where it was made also made industrial chemicals, which apparently weren't handled or disposed of carefully enough, as the site became a Superfund hazardous waste cleanup project after the plant closed. Even though Peanut Lolita was only a modest success, other distilleries have attempted their own peanut butter flavored alcoholic beverages since. Such as Van Gogh Vodka, Castries Creme (which is rum-based), and NutLiquor (another vodka, and who obviously went with the incredibly obvious double entendre product name). And just googling "peanut butter whiskey" I was presented with several more--Sheep Dog, Sqrrl (not a typo), Skatterbrain, Blind Squirrel, and Ole Smoky (which won a reported 10 awards at whiskey competitions as of November, 2020).
Which leads to the subject of today's post, Skrewball Whiskey, made by Skrewball Spirits. Unlike some of my recent post topics, the official Skrewball website has a fair bit of background information about the company's founders. (Also some of their employees--it's quite informative.) They are a wife and husband team, Brittany Merrill Yeng and Steven Yeng. Steven is both a Cambodian refuge and a polio survivor. He also owned several bar/restaurants in Ocean Beach, California, and in surrounding areas. Meanwhile Brittany has a Master's Degree in chemistry, and a law degree. She spent years as a pharmaceutical patent lawyer. In an interview, Brittany said that Steven's favorite food is peanut butter, and he has a long history of putting it on and in just about every consumable. Therefore, it's not shocking that he experimented with creating a peanut butter flavored whiskey, which he then served at his establishments. When this proved popular, he and Brittany decided to sell it commercially. So in 2018 Skrewball Spirits was born, based out of San Diego, with the Skrewball peanut butter whiskey being its sole product. Those with peanut allergies should take note--Skrewball's flavor does not come from artificial means--actual peanuts are put into the drink, so it's not safe for them to have it.
Skrewball Whiskey: Has a strength of 70 proof, or 35% alcohol content. The color was brown, and it had a distinct peanut butter odor. The taste was shockingly good. I don't like whiskey in general, and about the only format during which I enjoy it is combined with other ingredients in a mixed drink. But this was very good on its own. Probably because it didn't really taste like whiskey, but instead kind of like peanut butter juice, or something. The peanut flavor was very strong. So I was very pleasantly surprised by this. I went in expecting to hate or dislike it, but I really enjoyed it. I would definitely have this again. Neat take on a drink style I normally avoid.
I was curious about what other folks think about Skrewball, especially whiskey fans. (Also, people in Europe usually spell it "whisky," and I'll use both spellings from here on out.) And from what I read online its reputation is decidedly mixed. One website noted that it's especially polarizing--people tend to either really love it or hate it. Another one, Whisky Monster, was quite critical. It mentioned that first of all, Skrewball isn't technically a whisky, since purists maintain strict rules for this spirit that Skrewball doesn't follow. For example, Skrewball's alcohol content is 35%, and to the purists a whisky has to be at least 40%. The website gave it a very poor rating overall. It seems that the big whisky aficionados tend to dislike whiskies that are flavored in general, as far as I can tell. (By that I mean flavored with anything other than that imparted by the wooden aging container, or the type of fermented grain itself.) So adding peanut butter flavor is probably seen as gimmicky, lame, and too bizarre. Perhaps Skrewball Whiskey, and other flavored ones, are seen as the whiskies for people who don't like "real" whiskies. Which, to be fair, perfectly describes me. Whisky purists are free to make fun of me, and my apparent inferior palate. To sum up, it you don't like regular whiskies as a rule, but do like peanut butter, I'd emphatically recommend Skrewball to you. But if you are a big regular whisky fan, you might find it too sweet, to non-whisky-like for your taste.
Finally, if for whatever reason you're motivated to start making your own commercially sold peanut butter flavored whiskey, I hope you come up with a brand name that doesn't include "squirrel" (of any spelling), or a name which starts with "s" but you then replace the following "c" with a "k." The quota for these has been reached, I think. Be a little more creative!
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