The Cutty Sark Prohibition Edition fell into my lap via a mass email from a PR agency in late 2014. While it wasn’t the most romantic or serendipitous way to stumble across a new bottle, it was the reality of my job as a drinks writer at the time.
The email announced a new branded campaign between Cutty Sark and defunct shoe brand Generic Surplus, featuring a pair of black-and-white Prohibition Edition sneakers to kick off the partnership. As a fan of Scotch, sneakers, and free stuff, I knew I had no reason to turn down this offer.
The bottle was dark and somber, with a vaguely medical shape that matched its Prohibition-centric message. It bore a retro black-and-white label with an illustration of one of the most famous ships in history, the Cutty Sark, for which it was named. (The shoes, on the other hand, were the exact opposite of the carefully crafted story to promote the bottle. They looked like something an athlete would wear to a Gen X wedding in the early 2010s.)
The Prohibition Edition pays homage to the infamous Captain William McCoy (famous for inspiring the phrase “the real McCoy”), who famously smuggled the Cutty Sark into the U.S. during Prohibition. The Prohibition Edition's dark black bottle stood out among the collection of boring wines, whiskeys, gins and rums that littered my desk.
Getty Images; Ilya S. Savenok
On the nose, Cutty Sark’s Prohibition Edition graces the air with a wave of vanilla, toffee, spice, and dried fruit. A more complex palate of rich toffee, vanilla, and pepper melts into a creamy texture and a warm, toasty oak finish. It’s the kind of drink that can make you respected, professional, and worldly. A blend of both single malt and grain whiskeys, Prohibition Edition is aged in American oak barrels, thus filling the gap for bourbon drinkers.
There’s no denying the inherent style and class behind an order like “Cutty Sark. Prohibition Edition. Neat.” With a price point that typically hovers around $30 a bottle, Prohibition Edition is underappreciated: the cursed stepchild of a heritage brand that doesn’t quite know its place in the world. When I moved outside the New York area, I found that bartenders couldn’t handle my go-to whiskey order.
In a time of endless gimmicky product launches, the Prohibition Edition has always caught my eye. Perhaps it was the backstory and shoehorning that kept this bottle under the radar. Even the Prohibition era carries more weight than it did in 2014. Over the past decade, articles exposing the U.S. government’s role in adding toxic additives to products they knew would be turned into bootleg alcohol remind us of what Prohibition looked like without rose-colored glasses.
Beyond the romanticized history and mismatched shoe collaborations, the Cutty Sark Prohibition Edition helped me step outside of my comfort zone by finally quieting my brain and encouraging me to enjoy the nice glass of whiskey in my hand. Not every brand story has to make sense or tick the boxes—especially when the ingredients make your mouth water.
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