Drink What The Family Drinks with The Cooper Spirits Company

By Pat Evans Published January 6, 2020

The Cooper Spirits Company is set to launch a limited release of Hochstadter’s Family Reserve Straight Rye Whiskey.

The Philadelphia-based company will only release 7,500 bottles of the 123.8 proof, cask-strength spirit, aged 16 years in charred American Oak barrels. Sourced from Alberta Distillers Limited and bottled at the distillery in Philadelphia, the bottles will carry a suggested retail price tag of $199.99.

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The whiskey was selected by Robert Cooper, the late founder of Cooper Spirits Company, from tasting through the company’s whiskey library.

Cooper Spirits Company describes the whiskey as “unfiltered, undiluted and full-flavored, delivering an intense explosion of robust rye flavor.”

“At 16 years of age and bottled at cask strength, these barrels deliver a vibrant maturity and a full-bodied rye flavor that we hoped to achieve with the first release of Hochstadter’s Family Reserve,” Cooper Spirits Company SVP of Marketing and Innovation Robyn Greene said in a release.

This whiskey is the latest in the Hochstadter’s brand for the Cooper Spirits Company, which first launched the line in 2013 as a reintroduction of the historical spirits’ name. In the 1800s, Hochstadter’s sold more than 20 brands of spirits produced in New York, including Irish Whiskey and its bottled Rock & Rye cocktail.

The Hochstadter’s line joined the Cooper family and was eventually discontinued in the 1940s, until the third generation distiller Robert Cooper chose to relaunch it with his independent distillery opening in 2006.

The 21^st century line began with Cooper Spirits Company’s Hochstadter’s Slow & Low Rock & Rye and was joined in 2015 by Hochstadter’s Vatted Straight Rye Whiskey.

Expected to spread throughout the nation, Hochstadter’s Family Reserve should be served neat or over a large ice cube.

Along with the Hochstadter’s line, Cooper Spirits Company launched in 2006 with the introduction of St-Germain, a French liqueur made from fresh elderflower blossoms. Now wholly owned by Bacardi, the New York Times has called St-Germain “one of the most influential cocktail components of the last decade.”

Cooper Spirits Company also produces Lock Stock and Barrel spirits and Crème Yvette, a “berry fruit liqueur.”

Former Beverage Writer

Pat Evans is a writer based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, focusing on food and beer, spirits, business, and sports. His full…

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