The Drink: I’ve now tried all of FEW Spirits products and can say with confidence that these guys know what they’re doing. Last year, we featured this Illinois distillery’s Rye Whiskey. This summer, their Gin was my go to for G&Ts and martinis. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been grabbing their Bourbon Whiskey the most for my evening cocktail. It’s really a little glass of Christmas, with a strong cinnamon, clove and spice smell and taste. The spice (or maybe it’s the 93 proof) hits like their Rye, but with a touch a malt for smoothness. Grab a bottle for some delicious December drinking – on sale on Caskers!

The Other Stuff:

• Adele’s 25 vinyl.
• Stainless Steel Whiskey Cubes. I prefer these over stones. They may not look as cool, but they’ll make your whiskey much colder for much longer.

Rum drinks are typically the last that I order unless I’m on a beach. Every now and then – in the dead of summer – I’ll whip up a mojito, classic daiquiri or Mai Tai. This summer, I explored sipping rums in the Bahamas, easing my way into it with Rum Old Fashioned’s. I’m confident that, until yesterday, the last one I made in July was the last sip of rum I’ve had this year.

Candice (pictured here) came over yesterday after a shoot and went straight to our beer fridge. She came back, to my surprise, with ginger beer. “I want a Dark and Stormy,” she said, with the confidence of a girl who knows what she likes to drink – a favorite quality of mine. I remembered a bottle of Cruzan Estate Diamond Dark Rum that I had and requested we use it instead of a cheaper option (I typically only make Dark and Stormy’s with Goslings Black Seal). The Single Barrel is not what you’d mix with anything, really. It’s perfect for sipping with delicious hints of oak and vanilla. But, I figured we should give it a try.

We splashed a little Reed’s Ginger Brew over a large cube into my favorite vintage glass and topped it with the Cruzan. In our opinion, it blended perfectly as more of a Rum-on-a-Rock-with-a-Splash-of-Ginger Beer cocktail. I put a separate splash in an empty glass and sipped it neat, shocked that I was doing so on December 1st and enjoying every bit of it in our flannels. Take that, winter.