Blender's Blog: American Southwest

Blenders Blog from March 13th-24th 2025:

After a long and treacherous drive into the land of enchantment, it was great to be greeted with stunning scenery, great culinary scenes and some fun Distilleries. I spent a majority of my time in Albuquerque. Which is where I found the most notable experiences to share. If you find yourself with over 24 hours in Albuquerque I cannot recommend enough to have breakfast at Orignal Cocina Azul, after breakfast if you feel like doing something active you won’t be disappointed with a hike around the foothills of the Sandia Mountains at the Michael Emery Trailhead or some shopping at either the oldest wine and spirits shop in Albuquerque Jubilation Wine, Spirits and Beer or Old Barrel Tea Company for some awesome locally blended loose leaf teas and supplies. If you aren’t still full from breakfast and want a snack/lunch La Loteria has you covered for tacos, tortas and more. If you are a cannabis consumer right down the street is the best dispensary in town Oui’d prices and quality are hard to beat along with a family owned atmosphere father and son duo running the shop and helping their community beyond finding great cannabis products. By this time the distilleries should be open. If you want to try the best rum of New Mexico travel to Left Turn Distilling where they are still offering pours and bottles of their 3 year aged Molasses based rum that heavily reminded me of Barbados rum giants like Foursquare. For Bourbon Look no further than traveling to Safe House Distilling and give their Prophet Share Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon a try along with any limited edition offerings. The BiB is a Beautiful expression and easily the best in the whole state. Lastly if you need something tasty to soak up that alcohol. Check out Gimani! I lucked out and got to try a seasonal pizza of an olive oil base sauce with Pineapple Jam and Pancetta. The sweet and savory with the acidicness and salt, plus great quality mozzarella and crust, it was perfection.

Starting the Arizona portion of the trip in Flagstaff. I found it worth it to stop in at Grand Canyon Brewery and Distillery for food and spirits. Their two single malt offerings were worth a try and had plenty of food offerings to pair nicely. If you have the opportunity to start your Arizona trip in Flagstaff do so just for the fact you have opportunities to make one of the most breathtaking drives from Flagstaff to Sedona. It’s an absolute unforgettable drive that leads you to one of the top three distilleries in the state. Easily the best the representative in the states space from Phoenix to up north in Greenhaven. Nothing else compares. Ron and Billy are very talented at what they do and two of the nicest people in the industry. I cannot recommend them enough. Plus, the view from their tasting room/patio does not suck. If you were to head to the greater Phoenix area particularly Scottsdale and Tempe. Go bottle shopping at the Arcadia Trevor’s location. Their staff is friendly and helpful with a fun retail selection of everything. And they offer a bar where you can potentially try pours of a lot of their products before you buy a pack or whole bottle of something. There is plenty of great dispensary options near by as well. Food wise I can’t recommend Pizzeria Bianco or Cibo enough. Traveling to Tucson you eventually get to start seeing the beautiful Saguaro Cactus they can be mesmerizing and mind bending to see some grow 40-50ft tall. Though Whiskey Del Bac has flagship products available in the stl area, it’s definitely worth a visit to explore their limited edition releases. They too have a very friendly staff. Lastly if you find yourself with the time to travel to the southern most wine region of Arizona. Elgin distillery is there to quench thirst and blow minds. They are all around incredible distillers. Everything I tried was note worthy and well deserved of their claim of the most awarded Craft Distillery in the world. You won’t find these bottles in a liquor store only on premise. Though my time in the SW was beautiful in every sense of the word there’s nothing like home and I am happy to be back and see the rest of Common Ritual has so far been equally impressed with the most recent discoveries.