We’re excited to announce we have been given a case of Kings County Distilling’s special secret Chocolate Whiskey ($24).  We spoke to Colin, one of the founders of Kings County Distilling, and he explained the origin of this unique spirit (perfect for Valentine’s Day):

The story is that we were in Mast Brothers Chocolate, looking at their operation just to get ideas for how to plan for when we get a little bigger, and noticed that they give away the husks of the chocolate that are leftover after the chocolate-making process.  They said that most people use it for garden mulch.  I wondered it we could distill it, somehow, although there is no natural starch or sugars that would be convertible to alcohol, so that wouldn’t make that much sense.   But we did try infusing it in the moonshine, and it was delicious: bitter and rich like a dark chocolate, but not sweet like the chocolate liqueurs that are on the market.  I’d never quite tasted anything like it.  So we just gradually scaled up the recipe, still using Mast Brother’s husks (recycling what they can’t use), and our own corn whiskey.  Those are the only ingredients.