INTERVIEW WITH A GIFT BOX

We sat down with one of our holiday gift boxes to talk about working out, reincarnation and finding "the one."

CARDINAL: First off, thanks for making time for us. This is a busy time of year for you, right?

GIFT BOX: Yeah, yeah. No problem, man. You know, it's a funny time of year, because every day I think about how one minute I'm here, and the next, I could be gone. Really makes you think about object permanence and all that stuff. Sorry, didn't mean to get existential so fast. 

That's OK. Let's lighten the mood. You're so sturdy. Do you work out?

Oh man, I hate answering this question because it makes me look like such a jerk! I actually do not work out.

What! What's your secret?

Thank you for the compliment though, really. I have to give a ton of credit to my manufacturer, Columbus Container Corp., it's uh, it's right nearby actually, in Columbus, Ind. I was made really well from the start, so I don't need a lot of maintenance. 

If you could have a drink with anyone, living or deceased, who would it be?

Probably the person who invented Tetris. 

Let's talk goals. What's yours? You want to go home with someone?

Yeah, don't we all? (Laughter.) But, yeah, definitely just waiting for that moment when I click with the right person. I have a friend — she's a Moscow Mule gift box, actually — and she's always telling me I have to be in the right place at the right time. That it's all timing. It's actually the last thing she said to me before she went home with someone. So, like, I know it'll happen. Maybe it's someone who is reading this right now.

And what would you say to that person?

Um ... this is tough! It's hard to talk about yourself. But, OK. I'm an incredible value. Ounce for ounce, I'm a better deal than if you were to buy all these spirits a la carte. My spirits are Vodka, Coffee Liqueur and Flora, which is just a really nice mix. The vodka is incredibly smooth, the Coffee Liqueur has a wonderful, robust coffee flavor and is a no-brainer around the holidays, and then there's Flora, which is a lovely, floral-berry liqueur. And the bottles are half the size of the regular bottles around here, so it's like a sampler. People walk up to me all the time and are like, "OMG, soooo cute."

Do you believe in reincarnation?

Oh yeah, for sure. I've been a ton of boxes since the '70s.

Great to be born in the era of recycling, huh?

Amen to that.

What kind of box do you think you'll be in your next life?

I mean, if I'm being honest? Probably an Amazon box. But I think it could be fun to be a box of chocolates. Like a Whitman's sampler or something. We'll see. Flaps crossed.

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Holiday Gift Boxes are sold at the distillery, or order online for local pickup. 

Free gift wrapping and holiday cocktails from 1-5pm this Saturday. 

AGE YOUR OWN WHISKEY KITS: LET'S DO IT TOGETHER

Drinking is, of course, a social thing, and sometimes you're happy to pop a bottle of whatever — even if it's not your absolute favorite — to please the crowd.

And other times, you really want to geek out about what you're drinking with people who are just as passionate as you are. 

Our Age Your Own Whiskey kits are for those geek-out moments, and they come with a built-in crowd of fellow DIYers. We're all going to do it together. Here's what we mean... 

First: what's in a kit? A bottle of our White Oak Whiskey (our unaged single malt barley whiskey), a toasted American oak stave and an instruction card. It's $25, and available through the holidays at the distillery (oh, hey there, perfect gift). You're in the driver's seat with this kit, and get to decide just how much color and flavor you want.

The idea is that everyone with a kit starts aging their bottle at the same time and uses social media to do this thing together.

Here's how it works:

1. Drop the stave in the bottle on 12/26.
2. Snap a photo each week and post it to social media with #whiskeymyway. Use the hashtag to see who else is aging, how it's going and how their whiskey tastes. And let's share tips: are you agitating? Keeping it warm? Adding an extra stave? (We sell extra staves for $2.50 a pop.)
3. Each week, we'll post a summary of the bottles so we can see each other's progress. Follow along on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and here on the blog.

It's all on the instruction card that comes with the kit.

We've seen great color and flavor right around five weeks, but the fun part is that you get to decide when your whiskey is ready. 

And that's how you age whiskey without filing for a federal distiller's permit. Hurray!

WHISKEY SOUR RECIPE

We're releasing our very first barrel of single malt whiskey on Saturday. RSVP and come early if you want to get a bottle. So you get a bottle, bring it home, and then what? You make a Whiskey Sour.

You just cannot go wrong with this drink: smooth and airy, with a gentle tang and a nice, foamy cap. Your dad likes it. Your bestie likes it. Even your co-worker who definitely does not like whiskey likes it. There's a reason a Whiskey Sour is known as the white T-shirt of cocktails.

A note on your shaking technique: cocktails like this one that call for egg white are usually shaken in two steps. The first is a so-called dry shake without ice — this emulsifies the egg white. Then, add ice and shake a second time, which chills and properly dilutes the drink. Cheers!

WHISKEY SOUR

Makes 1 cocktail

2 ounces Cardinal Spirits Whiskey
1/2 ounce fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup
1 egg white
brandied cherry and bitters, for garnish

Combine ingredients in a shaker without ice, and shake vigorously to emulsify the egg white. Then, add ice to the shaker and shake again to chill. Strain into a rocks glass with ice, and garnish with a brandied cherry and a couple dashes of bitters.

FIRST WHISKEY BARREL RELEASE

We are bottling our first ever barrel of whiskey this week, and will release it on Saturday, Dec. 5, which happens to be Repeal Day, the date Prohibition ended. What timing!

This is a single malt whiskey, made from 100 percent malted barley from Sugar Creek Malt Co. in Lebanon, Ind. As far as we know, this is the very first craft single malt whiskey in Indiana. 

We are thrilled to be able to share this whiskey with you before the end of this year, our first year of business. A distillery only releases its first barrel once, you know. So if you're interested in purchasing a bottle (375ml for $30) please RSVP and come early.

Emptying the whiskey barrel into the tank in preparation for bottling.

5 things you should know about our whiskey:

1. WE ARE RELEASING JUST ONE (1) BARREL. There are roughly 53 gallons of whiskey in that barrel.

2. IT TASTES TOASTY, MALTY, SPICY. And there's definitely some welcome sweetness to it, which comes from the way we distill it. Our house flavor, if you will. Its home for the better part of this year was a charred American oak barrel — traditionally used for bourbon, but we used it for our single malt whiskey.

3. OUR WHISKEY WAS AGED ON SITE AT THE DISTILLERY. When you take a tour, we'll show you the other barrels that are waiting for their big day to come.

4. WE DIDN'T ADD ANY COLOR TO THIS WHISKEY. Did you know that some distilleries add caramel coloring to their spirits to make them look more mature? What's that all about? We're not even going there. Ours went straight from the barrel to the bottle without any tinkering.

5. WE WEREN'T PLANNING TO RELEASE WHISKEY THIS SOON, but you tasted it and told us to do it. We offered samples of what we had aging to whiskey drinkers who we know have good taste, and over and over again, we heard, "It's ready to go." And here we are.

Jason, Doug, Jeff, Adam, Justin and Rob. Happy faces after a couple of stressful minutes of emptying the whiskey barrel. 

CRAFTPACK, VOL. 12

Links that make you go Hmmm.

We've got all new Tiki Tuesday drinks with a wonderful, wintry twist — like the one above with Standard Dry Gin, pineapple shrub, lapsang souchong syrup, lime and sage. 

Is there a more polarizing liqueur than this one?

Eating — and drinking — invasive species.

Diddy's birthday apple pie was 30 inches across, had 30 pounds of flour, 20 pounds of sugar — and zero drops of the apple-flavored Ciroc that Diddy just launched. Missed opportunity?

Cocktails for Dingdongs and other new booze books that might be fun to gift (or get).

LEFTOVERS PUNCH RECIPE

Making cocktails for a crowd this weekend?
This is the only recipe you need.

This punch is the best possible use for leftover poultry herbs, which you're bound to have after Thanksgiving meal prep. Make a little bundle of stray rosemary, thyme and sage, and plunk it in tart cranberry juice with clove-studded citrus and our vodka for a festive punch.

Mix it up tonight, chill, and set it out just before guests arrive on Thanksgiving. 

LEFTOVERS PUNCH

By Logan Hunter

2⅓ cups Cardinal Spirits Vodka (about ¾ bottle)
1 gallon pure unsweetened cranberry juice
15 cloves
2 oranges, sliced
1 cup sugar
1 whole vanilla bean, sliced lengthwise, or 1 ounce vanilla extract
Poultry blend herbs (1 sprig each of sage, rosemary, thyme)

Combine all ingredients in a punch bowl and stir to dissolve sugar. Refrigerate and let chill overnight so that flavors meld. Strain if desired before serving.

CRAFTPACK, VOL. 11

Links that make you go Hmmm.

3 outstanding cocktails to make with Nocino, our new walnut liqueur.

Would you rather breathe in booze or drink it?

Here's what graced Gourmet magazine's covers decades ago this month: wassail in December 1953, eggnog in December 1943, and a glass of brandy in December 1941.

This is kind of a big deal.

If you're into snagging cocktail ingredients in the wild, then put this Forager's Cocktails recipe book on your wish list. 

HOLIDAY GIFT BOXES ARE HERE

A short list of people in your life who will love a Cardinal Spirits holiday gift box:

Mom.
Postman.
Your receptionist.
Friendsgiving host.
Uncle Steve.
Bestie.
Frenemy.
Aziz Ansari.
Julie and Jason, who just had a baby.
That guy you want to impress.
Your kid's teacher.
Ryan and Lauren, who just bought a house.
That federal agent, who keeps asking all those questions.
Your paleo friend.
That account you want to win.

Our holiday gift boxes are HERE! Available at the distillery only, starting Friday, through the holidays for as long as they last (probably not that long). To be safe: You can pre-order them right this second.

Even the actual cardboard boxes are local — they were manufactured in Columbus, Ind., at Columbus Container Corp. Locally made products in locally made packaging — it does not get more local than that, folks. 

Here's what we've got:

Gift Box 1
Set of 3 half-size bottles of Vodka, Tiki Rum and Standard Dry Gin

Gift Box 2
Set of 3 half-size bottles of Vodka, Songbird Craft Coffee Liqueur and Songbird Flora

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Songbird Coffee Kit
Full-size bottle of Songbird Craft Coffee Liqueur and two glass coffee mugs

Moscow Mule Kit
Full-size bottle of Vodka and two pure copper mugs

Video by Anna Powell Teeter

MEET OUR CREW: KEVIN HINKLE

We've got a spectacular crew here at Cardinal Spirits, and we'd like you to meet everybody one by one. Today, get to know Kevin, one of our wonderful bartenders.

KEVIN HINKLE

HOMETOWN
Portage, Ind.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU LIVED IN BLOOMINGTON?
4 years

BEST PART ABOUT LIVING HERE?
I like the people. This town is chock-full of talented, hard-working individuals...
and a great selection of food.

FAVORITE DRINK?
Any IPA I can get my hands on.

GO-TO DRINK AT CARDINAL?
Zelda's Return... so good.

FIRST JOB?
Throughout middle school and high school a couple friends and I ran a highly successful lawn care company. Our only clients were my friend's stepmom and her boss.

MAKE A PREDICTION ABOUT THE FUTURE:
I have a good feeling about John Stewart moving to HBO.

FAVORITE CEREAL?
Great Grains Cranberry Almond Crunch

IF YOU COULD HAVE A DRINK WITH ANYONE…
I'd love to have a drink and play a round of golf with Chevy Chase in Caddyshack

FIND KEVIN
On Instagram @kevinhinkle  |  On Facebook

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MICHELLE GOTTSCHLICH

ALEX UTTER

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CHRIS RESNICK

ALYVIA CAIN