Cutwater Fugu Horchata Vodka

Horchata is what you order with your street tacos in San Diego — the sweet, creamy, cinnamon-laced rice drink that's on the counter at every taco shop in the county — and Cutwater made a vodka out of it. The brand's Fugu flavors were built, in its own words, on the tastes served up at neighborhood taco shops, and this is the flagship of the idea: a higher-proof horchata. Made about fifteen minutes up the road from Pacific Beach at Cutwater's Miramar distillery, the spin-off of Ballast Point Brewing that became one of the largest craft distilleries in the country, it starts with Fugu Vodka — corn-based, filtered fifteen times — and infuses it with natural horchata flavor, bottled at 40% ABV. Naturally gluten-free. Tastings.com scored it 87 points, and it took Silver at the 2017 Los Angeles Spirits Competition. Expect a nose of cinnamon, vanilla, and sweet rice cream, opening into a rich, smooth palate where the horchata reads creamy and gently spiced — vanilla, cinnamon, a hint of almond — against the clean vodka, finishing warm with a light cinnamon glow. Honest note: this is a dessert-leaning flavored vodka, and purists should reach for the plain Fugu. Where it shines is exactly where you'd guess: a Horchata White Russian, a spiked horchata latte, a Horchata Margarita-style vodka drink, a cinnamon Espresso Martini, or simply over ice after tacos. San Diego's taco shop, in a bottle.

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