Bourbon Tasting With the Guys at Mosquito Lake
The forecast for our overnight at Mosquito Lake called for lows in the high 30s and one to two inches of rain. In other words: perfect.
Mosquito Lake is a special place for those lucky enough to know it…not because of its size, depth or location, but because of the friendships that are made and strengthened there. The lake is private and located on hundreds of gated acres owned for generations by a good friend’s family. It sits in rural northwest Washington State in the shadow of snow covered Mt. Baker. While the owner goes there often to check up on the small off-the-grid cabin and the rest of the property, for most of us Mosquito Lake is a summer spot with the days filled with floating on the warm water, listening to great music and drinking incredible wine and spirits. You know, fifty-plus-year-old men acting like eighteen year olds….just with much, much better booze.
But the call went out for a rare winter overnight at the lake which came as a welcome distraction from the burdens of work and the news of the day. Assignments went out to each confirmed attendee on what to bring. I was tasked with bringing the bourbon…and assignment not to be taken lightly. Now, that said, finding a great bourbon (whiskey) is not that tough – there are dozens of bottles that would do the trick. So in order to bring some novelty to the task, I landed on doing a tasting of Jefferson’s Wood Experiment 5 pack. There were five of us going, so each of us would be able to sufficiently sample this fine label (I also brought a bottle of Four Roses Small Batch for a deeper in the night option). I made a mental note to bring up some glassware as it would be a shame to use a red Solo cup. It was then that inspiration struck. Why not make the whole thing that much more special with a custom engraved glass?
After ample internet research, I landed on the Crystal Imagery deeply engraved whiskey glass. But I wanted to customize it a bit from their sample approach and sent of an email to see what they could do. Laura responded immediately and let me know “we can do that!”. The set arrived in perfect condition and I could not wait to give them to the boys as they exceeded even my own high expectations. And they did not disappoint – my friends were blown away by the quality of the engraving. The land owner even exclaimed, “wow – our first piece of merchandise for Mosquito Lake!” The tasting was a hit and the glasses fawned over throughout the night.
As it turned out the tempest never arrived – just some sprinkles and low fog that sprinted over the frozen lake, giving it an animated life of its own. It was a night like so many others there that added new memories among friends. And now those memories have a custom glass to be filled anew.
Credits: Greg Latimer (A very happy customer!)
