What happens when you combine an episode of Pretty Shiny Packaging with an episode of A Tasting at The Murder Table? Here’s the short answer…

We first review a pretty shiny booze-centric product, then put it to use and review some booze.

And now for the long answer…

Way back in early October, we received an email from Chic Execs PR about a company that they represent called Well Told Design. The product that they pitched was glassware etched with maps of cities from all around the globe.

To be perfectly honest, conventional pint glasses and Old Fashioned glasses aren’t all that exciting, but if you dress them up with some pretty etching or painted-on artwork, then we’ll gladly set aside some time to put them through their paces. After perusing their rather extensive website, we settled on a pair of Old Fashioned glasses that were etched with a map of Philadelphia.

With our glasses all picked out, we now had to figure out what to drink. Luckily, we had an interesting concoction on deck to review, so that’s what we went with. Hochstadter’s Slow & Low Rock and Rye is what it’s called and here’s what it’s all about:

Its humble beginnings can be traced back to the saloons of the burgeoning nation‚ where stern-faced barkeeps would pour a shot of rye and let the customers add their own rock candy‚ thereby creating a drink similar to the granddaddy of all cocktails: the Old Fashioned. The effects of the new concoction were so immediate and so powerful that by the mid 19th Century the Rock and Rye cocktail migrated from the bar to the pharmacy.

As a pharmaceutical drink‚ it was used to snuff coughs‚ colds‚ sore throats‚ bronchitis‚ asthma‚ pneumonia‚ consumption‚ sniffles‚ grippes and chills‚ diseases of the throat‚ chest and lungs. No ailment great or small was immune to rock and rye’s therapeutic might. Later‚ as men reacquired a taste for it and began drinking it for pleasure again‚ it became an American standard‚ prepared and bottled by distillers and bootleggers alike as it migrated back from the pharmacy to the bar. By then the legend had taken firm root in the national psyche. Celebrated in popular culture‚ rock and rye was mentioned by none other than Sheriff Pat Garrett as the libation of choice for his pals as they chased Billy The Kid across the rugged Western landscape.

Hochstadter’s Slow & Low Rock and Rye is made from 100% raw local honey from Pennsylvania air-dried navel oranges from Florida, Angostura-Style cocktail bitters, and a pinch of rock candy.

Now we don’t know about you, but given all that history, we’d gladly try some Slow & Low as a cure for whatever annoying thing ails us as we’re confident that it tastes way better than Robitussin and/or Nyquil. Thankfully, when we gathered at The Murder Table on a Tippling Tuesday not so long ago, we sampled this elixir for the taste, not as a cure-all.

To see and hear all that we had to say about the etched glassware and what we put into it, click the play button on the following video:

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Many thanks to Chic Execs PR and Well Told Design for sending us this beautifully executed glassware!