America has embraced a range of artisanal alcohol offerings in recent years, from single-malt Scotches to craft beers and ciders.
In following this concept, the overproof movement is somewhat akin to the natural state and organic food movement as well, where people are searching for authenticity.
For the cocktail crowd, the strength of the alcohol is not about putting hair on your chest but about emphasizing taste. The higher the proof the higher the flavor of the spirits coming out and conserved within the mixed in cocktails.
There are a few cask strength also called barrel strength cognacs such as the recently offered Comandon Single Barrel Cognac expressions with 41%/Vol to 47% alc/vol ranges. These cask strength cognacs are not compensated with distilled water to the standard 40% alc/vol you will normally find.
- Comandon Single Barrel Cognac Cask Strength
Tim Cooper, resident bartender with the downtown New York cocktail spot GoldBar, says he focuses less on names and more on how this burgeoning category of spirits helps him concoct drinks.
“The higher the proof, the more flavor that’s extracted,” says Cooper, who last month won the grand prize in a “Show Me the Proof!” cocktail-making competition sponsored by cognac maker Louis Royer SAS.
- Cognac Louis Royer Force 53
The event, held in New York, featured drink mixers from around the country competing to create a winning cocktail using Royer’s overproof “Force 53” VSOP cognac. (The 53 refers to the alcohol percentage, which means the cognac registers at a potent 106 proof.)
Other recent additions to the high-alcohol market — in strengths topping out at nearly 150 proof -- include bourbons (Knob Creek Single Barrel Reserve), rums (Plantation Rum Original Dark Overproof), ryes (Wild Turkey 101) and gins (Perry’s Tot Navy Strength Gin). Sales are strong for these and other overproof brands, according to officials at various brands.
Beam Inc., the Deerfield, Ill., spirits company known for its namesake Jim Beam bourbon, notes its Scottish-made Laphroaig Cask Strength whisky ($59.99 for a 750-milliliter bottle) as an example. Sales have surged by 70% for the brand in the latest quarter from a year earlier, the company says. That is a faster growth rate than that of its still-popular, standard-strength Laphroaig 10 Year Old ($49.99).
- Examples of Cask Strength Spirits
Beam anticipates selling out of its entire 2,500-case U.S. allotment of the Cask Strength expression by year’s end. “High-proof whiskies are in hot demand at the moment,” says Beam spokesman Dan Cohen.
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