Product Review: Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey
Skrewball sure seems to be the Fireball of 2019/2020. It’s generating enough word-of-mouth buzz to have reached even my snobby ears.
Full disclosure, I tend to hate peanut butter-flavored drinks. Banana and peanut butter smoothies, going back to the earliest days of my “cooking” experience in the kitchen, held no appeal for me. When I was a young man, experimenting with craft brews, chocolate peanut butter stouts/porters like DuClaw’s Sweet Baby Jesus tasted metallic and coppery to me (they still do — found myself in Denver lately and tried Epic’s Peanut Butter Baptist, got the same sour, copper notes from it). This one, however… well, read on, if you’d like to know.
It’s also worth noting that this is not an #ad. I bought this product with my own money, developed these recipes myself, and am reviewing this product without the knowledge or blessing of Skrewball Spirits (although, Steve and Brittany, if you’re reading, hit me up).
Unlike previous posts, we have a few sections in this one that don't all necessarily correspond to recipes. However, we're still committed to letting you cut through the drivel and find exactly what you're looking for. To that end, please enjoy the following links:
But, as they say, first things first:
What the Hell is Skrewball?
Skrewball is a peanut butter whiskey; much as it sounds, it’s an American whiskey that’s flavored with peanut butter. It’s made with proper whiskey, cane sugar, and real peanuts. Now, I hear you ask: What madman would create this, and where would it have become popular?
It turns out, to create a beautiful and unusual marriage of flavors, sometimes you need to start with a beautiful marriage of brilliant people. Skrewball is the brainchild of Steven and Brittany Yeng, citizens of the Ocean Beach neighborhood of San Diego. They met as kids, dated in high school, and married as adults. Together, they created a brand that’s sweeping America; but, where did it start?
Steven Yeng was born in Cambodia; his family fled Cambodia to escape the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot’s infamous regime. They lived in Thailand for a time before settling in San Diego. His parents both worked at OB Donuts for years before buying the restaurant. Steven and his brother followed in their footsteps, opening the popular OB Noodle House. Steven, independently, opened a bar called The Holding Company, where he served up a number of drinks of his own devising. Chiefly among these drinks was an off-the-wall combination of peanut butter and whiskey, served as a shot. Daring patrons tried it, and came to love it.
Brittany Merrill Yeng earned master’s degrees in chemistry and law before becoming a pharmaceutical patent attorney. By all accounts, she was the mastermind behind the brand; Brittany pushed her husband to take his strange, niche shot drink and turn it into a flavored whiskey product. The resulting flavored whiskey was something that they felt was better than the original shot, and before long they’d negotiated a deal with Infinium Spirits to distribute their wacky whiskey nationwide.
It’s probably coming off here like I love this product. Well, buckle up, because we’re about to find out how I really feel.
The Product Review
I hate that I like this product.
Let me remind you, as I stated above, that I have no love lost on peanut butter flavored products. For that matter, I have no great love for flavored spirits. In my experience, flavored spirits like this have a tendency to be a way to cover inferior liquor with sugar and artificial flavors.
I’m not saying that isn’t the case here, but what I’m telling you is that this is — at its worst — a very drinkable and likable product. The initial smell is nutty and very sweet, like a praline or nut brittle. When you sip it, you get the sensation of toasted peanuts somewhere in the back of your palate. It’s quite sweet (as one might expect from a flavored spirit), but that is balanced against that kind of nutty savoriness. The mouthfeel is interesting — it’s drying and sticky in a way that I associate with peanut butter desserts, like a nut brittle or mud puppies or something. It makes me feel like maybe there’s some kind of sweet, nutty treat stuck to my molars, but in a very familiar and pleasant way.
The bottle I bought retailed at $29.99, and that seems to be about the median based on what I’ve seen online. Thirty dollars is usually more than I would spend on a flavored spirit, but this doesn’t give the impression of really cheap liquor. The whiskey hits before the (occasionally cloying) sweetness of that peanut brittle kind of flavor, and lingers after, but without any of the unpleasant ethanol burn. It’s definitely a niche drink, and one that I think is definitely marketed to young people looking for palatable shots, but not unpleasant.
Taste Rating: 4/5
The whiskey itself is totally passable, and the peanut flavor feels both real and dynamic. It’s a bit sweeter than I’d want to drink on a regular basis — which is something you need to keep in mind when mixing it in cocktails — but it’s really not unpleasant at all.
Value Rating: 3/5
$30 for American whiskey isn’t exactly a huge ask in a market that’s becoming increasingly saturated by high-end whiskies (or MGP of Indiana products masquerading as high-end whiskies), but it is a lot to ask for a flavored whiskey. Bearing in mind that the base spirit is pretty good and that this actually is an independent product, I’m more likely to give it some leeway, but I’m probably not buying this for the home bar on the regular.
Overall: 3.5/5
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’d recommend this whiskey, if only to experience it. You might find something that you love, or you might pass it off to a friend that would enjoy it more, but I think ultimately most people will be more pleased than upset with this bottle. If nothing else, it’s a reminder that flavored spirits can come by it honestly and taste like what they’re advertising.
But What About Mixing?
As I alluded to above, you need to be careful when mixing this product; you can’t exactly put it ounce-for-ounce into a recipe that requires bourbon and expect it to stay balanced. The product is sweetened, which is something you need to take into account when mixing with this product.
I’ve come up with four different recipes for this product, and they’re all kind of on the sweeter side. This was intentional — my assumption is that if you’re going for something like a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup cocktail, you’re kind of looking for a sweet drink. I have, however, tried to balance that sweetness with other flavors to provide something that everybody can enjoy. The Graper Manhattan and Velvet Elvis in particular (I think) are well-balanced to the sugar that exists in Skrewball already.
Interestingly, I think some of the best Skrewball recipes I’ve seen exist on the Skrewball page itself. They have a PB&J Manhattan (unrelated to mine, which I developed before looking up any recipes online), a Chartreuse swizzle, and even an old-fashioned that adds no sugar to what exists in the whiskey itself. The recipes read like recipes that a bartender might have come up with, which — fair play to Steve — they probably are. I’m so used to drinks by brands being very forward on the product, without thought to balance, that I really appreciate this touch on their site.
Having said that, I did develop four recipes of my own for you to try. Want to learn more?
The PB & J Manhattan (Graper Manhattan)
Yeah, I’m gonna be that guy, today.
We’re talking about a peanut butter whiskey, so I’d be an idiot not to play with the flavor pairing of peanut butter and jelly. My very first thought was of the classic Manhattan, a stirred, spirit-forward drink that balances whiskey against a sweet vermouth and some kind of bitters to mellow out that flavor.
Contrary to the name — which is a base and vulgar pun — there’s no grape anywhere in this recipe. I paired Skrewball with rye whiskey (for dry, bready, and baking spice flavors), Chambord (for fruity, jammy flavors), and Sfumato (for bitterness that will go with the fruitiness).
Chambord is a black raspberry liqueur from France, which is sold in a Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. It is very berry forward and sweet, with a thick, jammy mouthfeel; this makes it perfect for the jelly part of our PB & J Manhattan.
Rye whiskey carries the characteristic bitterness and spiciness of its namesake grain. It’s a lot less sweet than the corn-forward characteristic of bourbon, and is vaguely reminiscent of baking spices like allspice. In this case, it is sort of lending the breadiness of our peanut butter, etc.
Amaro Sfumato Rhabarbaro is an Italian rhubarb bitter, an amaro that leans heavily on that bitter cousin of celery and poison ivy. The individual flavor is overwhelmingly bitter and fruity, which makes it perfect for balancing the fruity and savory sweetness from the rest of this drink.
As for the garnish, I mean… I just really wanted to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, so I made one. I cut a square out of it and put a cocktail pick through it. I think it’s pretty charming, and all of the smells that came off of it work with the drink, so… perfection.
Okay. Here we go. Recipe time.
The Graper Manhattan Recipe
1.5 oz Skrewball peanut butter whiskey
0.75 oz rye whiskey (I used Rittenhouse bottled-in-bond)
0.5 oz Chambord black raspberry liqueur
0.5 oz Sfumato rhubarb amaro
Garnish: A square of peanut butter and jelly sandwich
Chill chosen cocktail glass.
Combine all liquid ingredients in a large stirring glass with ice. Stir approximately 30 seconds or until very cold.
Strain into chilled cocktail glass.
Garnish with a clean-cut square of PB&J.
It’s so hard to keep the edges clean with PB&J
Okay, the square of PB&J might be a little silly, but… I like it. It’s a great little bite at the end of a drink. The rye adds some body and grain to the peanut butter whiskey, the Chambord gives the sweet, fruity, jamminess you want, and the Sfumato balances everything out in a bitter, very harmonious way. I recommend this drink — and not just because I did it. I’ve made this for myself a few times since we shot for this post, and it’s probably my second-favorite peanut butter cocktail.
Speaking of…
Peanut Butter and Honey Old-Fashioned (Winnie's Cup)
On the simpler side, this one.
Interestingly, Skrewball actually has an old-fashioned recipe on their site; theirs pairs Skrewball and rye (sounds familiar), but doesn’t add any kind of sweetener, relying on the sweetness of the Skrewball itself.
I doubled-down on the sweetness, adding honey syrup to the Skrewball. And I like it.
I don’t think I need to explain the concept here; a college-aged Eddie, having enjoyed more than his fair share of the Devil’s Lettuce, once extolled the virtues of a peanut butter & honey sandwich, swearing it was the greatest thing humanity had accomplished. I’m still not entirely sure that I was wrong.
Yes, the whiskey is sweet, and I’ve paired it with a rather strong honey syrup, but the idea is to get more of the flavor of honey out of the syrup than to get the sweetness. Honey syrup is made by simply mixing honey with hot water, so that it mixes more easily into cold drinks. Most recipes assume a ration of one part honey to one part water; I favor a 3:1 honey syrup myself. Obviously, you can customize your honey syrup to your taste, but I like a heavy hand with honey, because I also tend to use wild, very flavorful honey, and I don’t want to lose that flavor behind the water.
Yes, this drink is going to be sweet, but we balance it with a heavy hand of Woodford Reserve’s bourbon barrel-aged, spiced cherry bitters to bring the sweetness back a bit while embracing the natural, fruity sweetness of the drink as a whole. It goes with the kind of savory-sweetness that a wild honey syrup is going to bring to the table, and the final drink is going to read as kind of wild, sweet, and fruity.
I’ve named this one the Winnie’s Cup because I really, really love Winnie the Pooh: it’s probably the only intellectual property from my childhood that I look back on with any kind of nostalgia. Pooh Bear was forever getting himself in trouble in pursuit of honey, so it seemed only natural to indulge the silly, willy, nilly old bear’s sweet tooth with something so honey-forward.
The garnish was a lot of fun for me, but mostly because it’s delicious; I used a proper maraschino cherry (because it’s an old-fashioned, and it featured cherry bitters) and some raw honeycomb; it looks great in the drink, and you’ll definitely want to eat it at the end. Okay, enough babble. Recipe!
The Winnie’s Cup Recipe
2 oz Skrewball peanut butter whiskey
0.25 oz honey syrup (made of 3 parts raw, wild honey to 1 part hot water, or to your preference)
4-5 dashes Woodford’s Reserve spiced cherry bitters
Garnish: Maraschino cherry and raw honeycomb
Combine all ingredients in a rocks glass over a large cube of ice.
Stir for about 30 seconds, or until well-chilled.
Serve with a garnish of cherry and honeycomb.
It’s pretty, huh?
Not much more to say, here. It’s sweet, but I stand by it. It definitely evokes a peanut butter and honey sandwich, and I think it looks damn good doing it. Now, on to one of my favorites…
Peanut Butter & Banana Whiskey Sour (The Velvet Elvis)
Shhh, don’t look at the bottle of rum. I just… really like that rum.
I’m not gonna lie, I’m really proud of this one.
I wanted to make something inspired by the classic peanut butter and banana combo, but my experiments with the Skrewball and banana liqueur alone were a bit too sweet to call it a whiskey sour. I ended up substituting a small amount of the whiskey for Jamaican rum.
Jamaican rum is often made in a single, copper pot still. The ingredients and the unique distilling method lend Jamaican rums a tropical, fruity smell and taste that’s reminiscent of overripe bananas. Smith & Cross is a great example of this, and I thought it would inform the flavor of this drink in a really great way.
I also went with a high-quality banana liqueur, in this case Tempus Fugit’s Créme de Banane; I love this banana liqueur, in large part because it has a very, very ripe, almost banana-bread-like flavor to it. It’s got an overripe banana flavor that goes really well with the rum, and brings enough sweetness to the party that we don’t have to add any sugar to this recipe to make it work.
For the sour part of this recipe, I went with full yuzu juice. Yuzu is an Asian citrus that tastes like if clementines had no sugar to them. I experimented with a combo of yuzu and lemon, but I found that the characteristic sour orange flavor of yuzu was the best one with the sweet banana (in my opinion).
As for the texture, I stand by an egg white in any sour cocktail recipe. An egg white, well-shaken and -emulsified into the drink, provides a silky, delicious texture that makes a sour cocktail even more drinkable. There’s no need to worry about raw egg; for one thing, using only the white means you don’t really get an egg flavor, it’s just there to provide texture; for another, between the acid in the citrus and the alcohol, you’re kind of cooking and sterilizing the egg already, so it’s safe(r) to drink. If you’ve never tried it, be brave; I can’t (legally) make any blanket statements, but I’d be willing to guess that you’ll be fine.
As for the garnish, I wanted something beautiful that celebrated the key ingredient of this cocktail, so I went with a bruléed banana.
As we learned in our créme brulée recipe, coarser sugar means a better crust. In this case, I used a coarse, raw cane sugar and just sprinkled a tiny amount over top before melting it with a torch. It’s beautiful, simple, and is the perfect accompaniment to a peanut butter banana whiskey sour.
Okay, enough jibber-jabber. Here’s our recipe!
The Velvet Elvis Recipe
1.5 oz Skrewball peanut butter whiskey
0.5 oz Jamaican rum (I used Smith & Cross)
0.75 oz banana liqueur (I used Tempus Fugit, you could use Giffard or Marie Brissard)
0.5 oz yuzu juice
1 egg white
Chill cocktail glass.
Combine all ingredients in a shaker without ice.
Dry shake to emulsify the egg, about 20 seconds.
Add ice to shaker and shake to chill, about 10-15 seconds.
Fine strain into chilled cocktail glass.
Garnish with bruléed banana.
I mean… come on, dude.
This drink might be my favorite of the ones we’ve done so far. It has a silky-smooth texture, great sweet-savory flavor, and a great sour hit from that yuzu. I named it after Elvis Presley for fairly obvious reasons (peanut butter and banana was a favorite of his), but I also named it after the quintessential piece of kitsch. Portraits of Elvis painted on velvet were a thing, and I wanted to acknowledge that while making a nod to the silky texture that the egg white lends to this drink; thus, the Velvet Elvis.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup (The Alexander Reese)
And now, the crowd favorite.
I mean, we pretty obviously had to do something with chocolate, right?
The Brandy Alexander is a classic drink, consisting entirely of brandy, créme de cacao, and cream. It’s a sweet dessert drink, and when making a variation inspired by everyone’s favorite peanut butter cup, sweet wasn’t something that I wanted to shy away from.
The recipe is incredibly simple, it just subs out the brandy for peanut butter whiskey. I think the garnish and name both speak for themselves, so here you go:
The Alexander Reese Recipe
1 oz Skrewball peanut butter whiskey
1 oz dark créme de cacao
1 oz heavy cream
Garnish: Half of a peanut butter cup on a cocktail pick
Chill cocktail glass.
Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice.
Shake well until very cold and frothy.
Strain cocktail into chilled glass and garnish with a half of a peanut butter cup on a cocktail pick.
It kind of tastes like a chocolate and peanut butter milkshake, in an awesome way.
That’s all there is to say, guys! Thanks for reading. What do y’all think of the format? Do you want to see more product reviews? What should we dig into next? Don’t forget to follow us on social media and leave comments with your thoughts, suggestions, and questions! Thanks again, and have a great week!
