Tasting Koval Single Barrel Whiskey made of Millet

Koval is a young American distillery, founded in 2008 in Chicago.

We can cite a lot more interesting stuff from their website, but why don't you just have a look yourself?

Most important is they produce more than just whiskey, they are not afraid to experiment and most importantly, try to produce organic spirits with local producers. We like that from a whiskey perspective, but also from an economic perspective. Interesting drinks, more jobs. If you want to argue, there's a comment section at the bottom, but we recommend you read Beyond Outrage, by Robert B. Reich first.

So, a good thing is Koval is available in Europe; a company called Haromex has the common sense to import this stuff.

Koval Millet came in a 50 ml bottle, which makes you calculate how much you actually pay for a normal 0,7 litre bottle.  Let's say it's affordable. We tasted a bottle from cask no. 671 and made of 100% millet, bottled at 40%. 

Millet in The Netherlands is used amongst other things for making porridge. Wonder how we grow so tall and get so old folks? Its millet and kale.

Furthermore, it doesn't contain any gluten, so for those who are gluten intolerant: here's your drink. The grains are small and so is the yield, that's probably the reason why big distilleries would never use it. So cheerz to Koval for this alone.

Now, what did they make of it (according to our humble opinion)?

Color: gold

Nose: Plum as in Slivovitz, cloves, sour-sweet, wood notes (cedar?), English cask ale, wet tobacco, balsamic

Taste: oily, (charred)wood again, baked bread, stewed apple, blueberry cake, muscat

Finish: a rather short kick with a vegetable/herbal note to it

With ice (hello, it's American whiskey):  Oh yeah, it becomes a bit cloudy. That shows how brave they are. Wow, more sweetness on the back of your tongue, more sweet apple, this must also be great for making cocktails.

Final conclusion: you should try this. It's different, it's great for a warm summer's day, throw in some ice, put on your Sade Love Deluxe album and simply enjoy.

©Whiskytips 2015

→More Whiskytips on Facebook, Youtube, Twitter an Instagram