WC Test Drive: Tincup American Whiskey

Tincup American Whiskey is a relatively new American bourbon whiskey originating from Denver, Colorado – at least that is where the distillery is located, the grains come from other non-Colorado Midwestern locations and are then paired with Rocky Mountain water to produce the corn-malt-rye [64% corn, 32% rye, 4% barley] whiskey blend. Tincup is aged in American white oak casks and emerges at 42% alcohol content [84 proof]. The name is derived from the tin cups that miners in the region used during the 19th and 20th century in the roughshod mining towns that dotted the area at the time – and the cap is a fashioned tincup replica.

There is no doubt that Tincup is a man’s man whiskey. WC found it to be extremely fiery and harsh from the get-go, taking names and asking for no excuses. If you tried hard enough, you might find notes of citrus, black pepper, ginger, cinnamon and caramel – however all we found was high, hard spicy heat in our glass – and we were not about to argue with it. We might suggest adding a mixer to tone things down a bit, but that might just make Tincup angry.

WC evaluates Tincup on a sliding scale, if you like your whiskey to bring the high, hard heat – and some of you do – then it certainly delivers the goods on that front. However, if you prefer a more subtle velvet hammer approach, you and Tincup will not get along. In view of this dichotomy, we bestow a slightly above average grade of 80 out of 100 for Tincup’s WC score.