2022 World Beer Champs

2025 Sous Vide Agave Cocktails

Sous Vide Infusions Create More Time for Fun...and You Can Make Your Own Pechuga (Say What?)

 
Growing up with summer vacations has created an almost instinctual need to spend more time during the summer with friends and family at backyard barbecues and outdoor get-togethers. If you’re over 21, these gatherings we plan and look forward to will involve an adult beverage or two. Often wine and beer end up at the forefront because you can stick them in ice and not worry about getting stuck behind the bar at your own party. That’s fine, however I recommend borrowing from the modern chef’s playbook and using sous vide to create infused cocktails and spirits that will add a memorable and unique beverage experience to your festivities. 

Having a sous vide or immersion circulator is the main requirement. Using a sous vide allows for infusions to happen much quicker. What may have taken weeks now takes hours. The ability to control the temperature keeps the flavors fresher. If you measure your ingredients and use the same temperature the outcome will be consistent. Sous vide helps to take the guess work out of infusions. Anything that you put into the sous vide needs to be in a sealed jar or plastic bag. Vacuum bags are the best type of bag because all the air can be removed which allows the mixture to be submerged under water and prevents oxidation. If all the ingredients are not submerged, consistency will be lost, and flavors may not come out the way they were intended. Putting a weight on top of the bag in the sous vide will help keep it submerged. A note of caution: Do not use a temperature above 150ºF when using a sous vide to infuse alcohol. Alcohol evaporates at 173ºF and can cause the container to explode. Safety first! Heat the water before starting any prep work and it should be at temperature by the time everything is ready. Like an oven, the sous vide water needs to be at temperature when the infusion is added. Think of it as cocktail cooking. After the preparation is done, the cocktail or infused spirit is ready to be served while you spend time with your family and friends.

The warm weather and the smoky smells from the grill often lend themselves to agave spirits, like Tequila and Mezcal, that pair well with an array of fresh fruit and juices. Some people are purists and prefer their Mezcal and Tequila with no mixers or additions. That has its place. Sometimes, however, a little mixer or accent is a great way to enjoy an old favorite. After all variety is the spice of life. Adding extra flavor to Mezcal, Tequila or a mixer for a pre-batched cocktail can be a fun way celebrate time with family and or friends.

Below are some fun recipes for infusing agave spirits and mixers and a cocktail with Mezcal in it. Keep in mind that those with juices are best consumed within a week and spirit infusions are at their best within two weeks. In other words, don’t make these too far ahead. Additions can be adjusted and played with to suit the flavor profile you desire. The recipes are rated for difficulty level based on ingredients and prep time. These recipes create subtle additions of flavors that preserve the essence of the Mezcal used. By infusing for longer, or slightly hotter, the flavors can be made stronger. These aren’t your basic flavored vodka level infusions. It’s time to have some creative fun and make your own specialty spirits and pre-batched cocktails so you don’t get stuck behind the bar the next time you have people over. The work will have been done and your guests will be impressed.

Recipe 1: Charred Corn, Black Pepper and Vanilla Infused Mezcal

Difficulty Level: Easy
Yield: 375ml
Ingredients:     
•    1 small ear of corn shucked and charred (ideally over an open flame)
•    ½ vanilla bean
•    1 tsp cracked black peppercorns (Tellicherry or Mexican Black preferred)
•    375 ml Joven or Reposado Mezcal*
•    Vacuum bag or mason jar
Sous Vide Settings: 
•    Temperature 135ºF
Directions:
•    Add all ingredients to the bag or mason jar and seal.
•    Place in sous vide at temperature for 3 hours submerged. (May benefit from a weight being place on it.)
•    Let rest 1-2 days to help round out the flavors
•    Strain through fine mesh sieve, then a paper coffee filter to remove oil and grit
•    After straining place in a clean glass container.

Flavor Profile: earthy, toasty, gently spice, dry finish.
*Joven will make the corn more pronounced where Reposado will have enhanced oak aromas and flavors from the vanilla.

How to Enjoy: Designed to be drunk neat with a light chill or served with a large rock.
 

Recipe 2: Playful Paloma Twist Cocktail

Difficulty Level: Moderate, requires some specialty ingredients*
Yield: 375ml
Ingredients: 
•    100ml grapefruit juice (preferably fresh)
•    Zest of half of one grapefruit (wide strips, no pith)
•    30ml honey syrup (1:1 honey to water)
•    2 slices of fresh jalapeño
•    Pinch of salt
•    150ml Tequila (Joven)
•    75ml Mezcal (Joven)
•    .5g citric acid + .25g malic acid* (approximately a scant 1/8 tsp citric acid and pinch of malic acid if measuring by volume)
•    Vacuum bag or mason jar

Sous Vide Setting:
•    135ºF
Directions:
•    Add grapefruit juice, grapefruit zest, honey syrup, jalapeno and salt to vacuum bag or mason jar and seal. 
•    Place submerged in sous vide that is already at temperature for 1 hour
•    Strain and chill.
•    Once chilled mix with Tequila, Mezcal, citric and malic acid, and optional dash of grapefruit or orange bitters.
•    Stir well.
•    Refrigerate overnight.

 Note: this cocktail is a partial infusion!

Flavor Profile: Smoky, tart, spicy, refreshing

How to Enjoy: Over ice with soda water or straight up, shaken over ice and poured into a chilled coup or Nick and Nora. Garnish with jalapeno and/or grapefruit. Add a Tajin rim or salt on top if inclined. Sparkling wine can be added to make it a spritz.

Recipe 3: Duck Pechuga-Style Mezcal

Difficult Level: Moderate, high amount of prep work
Yield: 2 cups
Ingredients: 
•     2 cup (240ml) Joven Mezcal
•    50g cooked duck breast (skin on, lightly seared or roasted)
•    4 slices apple (red, like Fuji or Honeycrisp)
•    2 dried figs (halved)
•    1 tsp toasted pecans (chopped slightly)
•    1 tsp jasmine or white rice
•    1/2 cinnamon stick
•    2 small piece star anise (about 1/8 whole star)
•    2 Small strips orange zest (wide, no pith)
•    Optional: 2 pinches of Aleppo or other chili powder 
•    Vacuum bag or mason jar
Sous Vide Setting:
•    135ºF
Directions: 
•    Add everything to a vacuum bag or mason jar and seal.

•    Sous vide at 135ºF for 3 hours.

2025 Summer Agave + Cocktails

Click here to get the recipes from our flipbook compendium

2025 Summer Rum Cocktails

For your revelries this summer and beyond, we highly recommend that you elevate your cocktail game to maximum rumbullion with this treasure trove of bespoke cocktails we created for you with some of the top-rated winners of our 2025 World Spirits Championships® Rum Competition.

Click here to get the recipes from our flipbook

2025 Top Rum and Cigar Pairings

Carlos Cuarta is a nationally known, Chicago-based bartender that has been a valued spirits panelist at Beverage Testing Institute (BevTest) since 2013. Over the years on our blind tasting panels, he has made many general recommendations about a given spirit’s suitability for cigar pairings, but we’ve not had the opportunity to ‘talk tobacco’, so to speak, more specifically. To celebrate the release of our 2025 World Spirits Championships Rum Competition results and the inaugural blast of our trade newsletter, The Drop, I invited Carlos to create specific cigar pairings for some of the top rums from this year’s competition and then talk about these and his approach to creating successful cigar pairings in the video interview below.

In short, Carlos, who is one of our most detailed and prolific identifiers and describers of aromas and flavors on our tasting panels, uses his abilities and vast multi-cultural sense memory to identify common, complementary, or contrasting aroma and flavor bridges between spirits and cigars and then happily corroborates his theories with a careful smoke and sip.

What follows is a choice assortment of great rums paired with great cigars complete with Carlos’ tasting notes for his cigar picks, our BevTest tastings notes, awards, and review links for the top rums, and links to where you can purchase the cigars from one of Carlos' favorite online retailers.

Salud!

Chill Out with Refreshing Summer Wines

Summer is the perfect time to enjoy wines that are refreshing, crisp, and light. Consider this range of white, rosé, and sparkling wines that are ideal for chilling out on warm, sunny days.

White Wines

White wines are having a moment! Data from a 2024 NIQ report show that white and rosé wines are the only two wine categories seeing marketplace growth, with whites and rosés coming in at 56.5% of all table wines sold, versus 54.9% in 2023.

Part of the reason for the growth is that white wines pair so well with the foods that Americans are enjoying, especially in the summertime. From grilled meats and vegetables to salads and savory Asian dishes including spicy fare, whites, rosés and bubbles are great accompaniments.

Sauvignon Blanc has become a darling of the white wine category, for its crisp acidity, juicy orchard fruit and food friendliness, but it’s far from the only option.

Consider Albariño for its zesty, fresh notes of peach, lemon and subtle salty appeal, and don’t forget Portuguese Vinho Verde, made with their version of Albarino, known as Alvarinho.

Chablis also is a wonderful white for summer, with crisp green apple and citrus flavors and low-oak influence. Or reach for a dry Riesling for its crunchy acidity. Pinot Grigio offers light, clean crisp notes of pear and apple/

Check out some of the high-scoring white wine choices from our recent BevTest tastings here:

Crowded House 2023 Sauvignon Blanc, from Marlborough, New Zealand (95 points; $13)  A spot-on example of a vibrant savory NZ Sauvignon Blanc with ample fruit, acidity, and versatility that refreshes the palate and begs for another sip, and another

Wölffer Estate Vineyard 2022 Antonov Sauvignon Blanc, from Long Island, New York (94 points, $32) Orchard fruits, melon, and a bit of tropical fruit balanced with a hit of the classic green herbs note, this is exactly what you want from cooler climate Sauvignon Blanc.

Baskoli Txakoli Blanco 2023 Hondarrabi Zuri, Getariako Txakolina from Spain (94 points, $25)  Has the potential to be the next delicious and trending white wine to take the world by storm f--or a summer or three; refreshing on a hot day.

Weis Vineyards 2022 Dry Riesling from Finger Lakes, New York (93 points, $20; 12% ABV)  Very linear and focused with good mineral backbone and tart fruit with a touch of honeysuckle roundness; drinks very Austrian in style.

Kirkland Signature 2022 Chablis Premier Cru, from France (93 points, $18) An elegantly styled, well-balanced Chablis with nice mellow fruit, bright acidity, and delicate smoky minerality; will be superb with grilled seafood.

Mistura Unica 2024 Vinho Verde, from Portugal (92 points, $8)  A wonderfully tangy and quenching Vinho Verde that will be brilliant as an aperitif with oysters and shellfish, like a garden party in a glass.

Cielo 2024 Pinot Grigio from Delle Venezie DOC, Italy (93 points, $9)  A round and lush Pinot Grigio with great flavor and texture; a superb sipper that can also work with richer white meat dishes.

Rosé Wines

Ten years ago, American wine drinkers were going gaga over rosé, as the U.S. embraced rosé wines with a gusto not seen since pinot grigio debuted in America in 1979. Today, rosé has found its place in the U.S. as an everyday favorite, and it still surges in popularity in the summer time.

Rosés can come from anywhere and can be made from a wide variety of red grapes from Cabernet Sauvignon to Tempranillo and everything in between. Hues can range from very faint pink to salmon to deep pink and light ruby. Color cues can often tell you if the wine is going to be lighter or heavier bodied. Take a look at some of the recommendations here and get ready for rosé all day!

Chateau Sainte Marguerite 2024 Fantastique Rosé, from Côte de Provence, France (95 points, $45)  Deftly balanced, bright and passionately flavorful - the perfect accompaniment to great conversation and an array of fresh foods—this is a glass full of perfectly balanced hand-picked berries and dried flowers.

Taylors Estate 2024 Rosé of Pinot Noir, from McLaren Vale, Australia (94 points, $18)  Crunchy red fruit, lime zest and dried flowers neatly packaged in this poolside rosé that is complex enough for a buttoned-up dinner table.

Lucas Vineyards 2023 Dry Rosé of Cabernet Franc, from Finger Lakes, New York (93 points, $18)  Charming and crushable, loaded with red berries and a pleasant, light herbal character as a counter balance.

King Estate 2023 Rosé of Pinot Noir, from Willamette Valley, Oregon (92 points, $20) A complex rosé that keeps you going back to the glass looking for more aromas and flavors yet not so complicated that it can't just simply be enjoyed.

Sparkling Wines

Fresh, fizzy and festive, sparkling wines are great fun for summer sipping. Champagne is the undisputed queen of bubbles, but there are so many exciting new choices in this category.

Consider the new darling of Italy, rosé Prosecco, which made its global debut in 2021, after the Consorzio Tutela de Prosecco DOC approved the current method in 2020. It’s made with 85% Glera – Prosecco’s signature grape – and up to 15% Pinot Noir, for its beautiful pink hue.

South Africa serves up MCC – aka Methode Cape Classique – which, as the name suggests, is made using South Africa’s version of the classic Methode Champenoise, using traditional Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes.

French Crémants are another affordalicious choice, made throughout France, using the methode traditionelle. And finally, Spanish Cava, also made using the méthode traditionelle, from Spanish grapes including Macabeo, Xarel-lo and Parallada pairs perfectly with picnics, porches, pools and patios.

Let these fresh, fizzy favorites inspire your next porch party:

Kirkland Signature 2023 Rosé Prosecco, from Prosecco DOC, Italy (93 points, $7) A lovely Rosé Prosecco with a very pleasant red berry essence.

Graham Beck NV Brut, from Western Cape, South Africa (93 points, $25) Fine mousse with excellent acid and structure hold together the combination of citrus, orchard, and crisp red berry fruits that elevate this Brut.

Specially Selected NV Crémant d’Alsace, from Alsace, France (90 points, $14.99) A bone-dry sparkling wine with bright citrus flavors makes this a great Champagne alternative.

Jaume Serra NV Cristalino Brut Cava, from Spain (91 points, $12). A quintessential Cava that will give any NV Champagne a run for its money.

For more wine, spirits, and beer picks for your summer and beyond, visit our Latest Reviews section

Sign up for the Drop™

We are excited to announce the world premiere of our timely drinks newsletter, The Drop™, on May 16th.

The first edition will feature a treasure chest of rum content based on the results of our 2025 World Spirits Championships® Rum Competition, that will also debut on the 16th on tastings.com.

To herald the dawning of these two epic events we put together a trailer worthy of the grandeur and gravity of the moment.

Get ready to Get Your Grog On and please sign up for The Drop here.

Drink Green Wine for St. Patrick’s Day

It’s almost St. Patrick’s Day again. Depending on where you live that can mean any combination of activities from parades, dying a river green, meals focused on corned beef and cabbage, and green beverages. It’s not uncommon to drink green beverages on St. Patrick’s Day that you dyed yourself or bought with the dye already included in a restaurant or pub. A bevy of drinks are dyed green including spirits, beer, and wine. It can feel fun and festive. This year, put down the wine with green food coloring added. Instead choose a wine that is made with green farming, a wine that is made with a green initiative. Wines made from a green initiative can be any color, red, white, rosé or orange and it can be still, sparkling or fortified. The green is a reference to one of many farming practices that drinkers can feel good about. The major green farming practices are organic, biodynamic, sustainable, and regenerative. These different practices are used to produce a multitude of different wines from all around the globe. The winery may choose to become certified for the practice that they use, but they may not. Certification isn’t needed to follow the path of one of these practices. Certification is needed to put it on the label. Some producers, especially smaller ones tend to shy away from the expense of certification. So, when in doubt about a wineries farming practices ask an employee at your local wine store. They may know off the top of their head, or they can look it up for you if the store isn’t too busy. There are so many certifications and stamps on labels it can be difficult to know what it all means. Each type of farming has similarities and some difference. Knowing the basics of these farming types can help make deciding on a wine easier. What’s great about choosing one of these types of green wine means you can’t go wrong no matter what green process you choose.

Rose Now in Bloom Year Round

Many say that America hit “peak rosé” in 2017. You may remember when everything seemed to take on a rosé hue, from gummy candies and cupcakes to fun runs (Run for the Rosé!), fashion accessories and of course frosé – the sippable, slushy drink that was the rosé rage at smart restaurants and bars.

Since that blooming of attention, rosé wines have wilted a little bit, instead becoming a wine that people drink year-round, and not just in the summertime. Still, though, spring is when the newest vintages of rosés debut, so let’s take a stroll down the pink path and see how rosé has settled into its place on store shelves and wine lists.

A Brief History

Rosé has been around for millennia, and first entered the American consciousness in the 1950s in the form of Mateus and Lancers. These were sweeter “gateway” wines that enjoyed some popularity for a decade or two.

But over time, Americans got more savvy about wine, and these brands were rejected for being of poor quality, when compared to the Italian and French wines that were being poured at dinner parties and restaurants throughout the 1960s and ‘70s.

But watch out – here comes 1972, and Sutter Home’s White Zinfandel, famously created after a stuck fermentation resulted in a pink wine with high sugar levels. All of a sudden, pink wine took on a new level of popularity. It was sweet, light, pink and people went mad for it.

Fast forward to 2010: White Zin was in our collective rearview mirrors (though it hadn’t entirely disappeared), as a flood of high-quality rosé wines started coming in from Europe – especially Provence, rosé’s global HQ. Today, rosé wines are about 10% of still wine consumption, so when added with white wines this is more than half of all wine consumed globally. Rosé wines are being made in virtually every wine region around the world – and people are drinking them practically all the time.

See Right Through

BevTest is back at it with our World Spirits Championships, as well as our World Cocktail Championships, kicking the year off with our Vodka call. With so many applications, ingredients to be distilled from, and flavors to be made, Vodka is incredibly versatile. Let’s jump right into the deep end with our eyes open and see right through to the clear winners, mmmkay?

Pop Off

Oh, RTD’s… they’re like the snack pack of cocktails! No shame here; we’ve all had chips for dinner at some point, right? So let’s pop into the easy-peasy world of pulling a tab back or twisting a cap open and dive right in!

Fine Wine

For our On Demand wine tasting this month, we saw quite a few wines that piqued the judges’ palates, but these BevTest Gold medals stood out from the rest of the crowd.

Wonderful World of Washington Wines

Washington State is the second largest wine producer in the United States, with a yearly volume of more than 17 million cases of wine; and much of that generated by one winery, the state’s oldest existing: Chateau Ste. Michelle. In fact, Chateau Ste. Michelle produces more wine than the entire neighboring state of Oregon. But before we dig into “the Chateau,” let’s review the industry’s history in this Pacific Northwest state.

Washington Wine History

Washington wine dates back to 1825, when the first grape vines were planted by the Hudson Bay Company at Fort Vancouver. Pioneer William B. Bridgman later introduced vinifera vines to Yakima Valley in the early 1900s and in the 1930s, Dr. Walter Clore, recognized as the father of the Washington wine industry, researched what varieties would grow well in the state. These early innovations, research, and pioneers later gave way to the significant growth of the industry in the 1960s and ‘70s.

The Yakima Valley, Columbia Valley, and Walla Walla Valley emerged as prominent wine regions, cultivating varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Riesling. The industry’s growth continued through the late 20th century, marked by the establishment of numerous wineries and a focus on producing high-quality wines that reflected the unique terroir of Washington. Today the industry is thriving with more than 1,000 wineries and 80 different varieties planted across 20 American Viticultural Areas (AVAs).

Why Washington

Although there are 60,000 acres of wine grapes across Washington, the majority are located within the Columbia Valley AVA in the eastern part of the state. Here, the Cascade Mountains block the wet weather from the Pacific Ocean and create dry, warm conditions. In other words, it’s a high desert with as much as 17-hours of sun during the growing season and very hot days followed by very cool nights. That diurnal temperature swing (sometimes as much as 50-degrees between day and night) is key for maintaining acidity in the grapes. As for the soils, throughout the Columbia Valley you’ll find a basalt foundation resulting from old lava flows, glacial slack water deposits from the Missoula floods, loess, and free draining, nutrient-poor composites making up the majority. These porous and well-draining soils are ideal for growing grapes and they provide a source of minerals to help the vines thrive.

With only one AVA west of the Cascades, the Puget Sound AVA, the majority of the regions across Washington are similar in climate to the Columbia Valley, but with varied soils, micro-climates, and elevations. It’s largely an arid to semi-arid region, geologically and geographically advantageous for growing a variety of grapes with balanced levels of acid, sugars, and structure.

The Chateau

Dry Wave

Oh, January. Is there a sadder month? Well let’s make it officially the saddest by not drinking, some people said. Yeah, yeah, health, well-being, blah blah blah. If you are insistent on starting off 2024 in torment for your greater good, then who is BevTest to stop you? Instead, we’d rather support your choices and offer up some of our favorite N/A options for you to enjoy while you wait for February, the second saddest month of the year.

BevTest's Top 5 of 2023

It’s December, which for most means it’s time to think back on the year as it closes out and ponder about choices, decisions, and memories; here at BevTest we’re sitting back and reflecting on… our favorite alcoholic beverages of the year! Just us? We hope not because we have a highly curated Top 5 list of our best and brightest from our little corner of The Lab!

Last Call

For our World Spirits Championships’ Last Call competition, we saw an all-encompassing group of products from across the major categories. From these entrants, we awarded BevTest Platinum medals to some really special standouts, including Bhakta Spirits 1990 Armagnac Cask-Finished Jamaican Rum, Kuleana Rum Works Hokulei Aged Rum Batch No. 12, Bhakta Spirits 1928 Blended Straight Rye Whiskey, Calvados, and Armagnac, Elijah Craig Barrel Proof Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Batch No. C923, Larceny Barrel Proof Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey Batch No. C923 and Old Potrero 6 Year Old Copper Pot Still Straight Rye Whiskey, all of whom are sitting pretty at 96 points. Not to be left on the shelf, check out some of the other impressive offerings we flighted up and put through their paces.

Scary Sips The Sequel

Ah, Halloween. The scariest, most ghastly holiday of the year, and while most people think of New Year’s as the most reflective holiday, here at BevTest, we’ve found that Halloween gives us pause to take a backwards glance at some of the products we tasted that we really could have done without in 2023 (or forever for that matter). Come along my pretties, down the deep, dark pit that is our most terrifying sips (thus far).

Armagnac Attack

For the Brandy and Liqueurs review in our World Spirits Championships this year, we saw some very good to excellent examples throughout the two categories, but there were a few standouts in the Luxury Armagnac category that truly deserve a special shoutout. Bhakta Spirits took our judges' collective breaths away with most of their selections, yet the following three were the BTI Platinum medal winners, and for many, many delicious reasons. Let’s see why!

Manhattan Madness

World War Whisk(e)y

Whiskies of the World, unite! For our World Whisky competition this year, the fight was fierce. We saw incredible Whisky from all over the globe, including contenders from Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, Japan, Taiwan, India, France, Poland, and Iceland. With so much exceptionalism to go around, we had our top Whisky judges on the case to help evaluate and decide who and what really rose to the top. We’ve picked some of our favorites to highlight, so let’s do a deep dive into some barrels, shall we?

Margaritas Por Favor

DRumroll Please