Pairing Cedar Ridge Bottled-In-Bond Rye with Five Tribes

The Whiskey: Cedar Ridge Bottled-In-Bond Rye

Cedar Ridge, based out of Swisher, Iowa, has become a leading force in the craft whiskey scene in recent years. Over its twenty years of existence, Cedar Ridge has won several awards and become a highly recognizable brand. They were generous enough to provide me with a sample of their bottled-in-bond rye, one of their limited releases. This one was a treat!

The first thing I notice on the nose of this pour is fruit. This whiskey is incredibly fruit-froward, almost like nosing juice in a Glencairn. Pick a fruit and this nose had it – I found strawberry, peaches, cherries, and pear, all mixing together into a wonderful medley. I’m not sure I’ve smelled another whiskey with such strong fruit notes in the nose before – it’s a wonderful thing. This fruit is countered by a nice strong pop of rye spice, which is enhanced by the sweetness of the fruit notes. Finally, I also find some cinnamon mixed in there. This nose is very reminiscent of Red Breast to me, which I’ve loved for a long time.

A lot of those bright notes found on the nose transition smoothly into the palate. The first taste I get is the rye pop, which is really delicious and is in no way overwhelming. The fruit also continues to flow, but it morphs into something more akin to fruit candy than real fruit. There’s a confectionary sweetness to it for sure, but the fruit – pear, cherry, so on, is also distinct. Really nice. There’s also a vanilla note that makes itself known, which when combined with the fruit brings forth images of peaches and cream or fruit ice cream. Interestingly, I find this whiskey dries my mouth, almost like drinking a cabernet. I haven’t had many whiskies that create that sensation, so that’s interesting.

The finish carries on the notes of the palate for a good long while. Leaves you with light notes of peach, cherry, and rye spice, and these notes carry on long enough to really appreciate them. This is a really impressive release, and unique too – offering some of those traditional rye notes while being uniquely fruit-forward. Delicious! 

The Game: Five Tribes

Five Tribes is one of those games that is silently a classic. A design by Bruno Cathala, Five Tribes takes the ages-old game of Mancala and turns it into a sandbox of tactical decisions and changing game dynamics. I’ve never played anything quite like it, except for its ancestor Mancala. While they share the same DNA, there’s no doubt that Five Tribes is a complete and total makeover from Mancala.

Five Tribes takes the core mechanism of picking up a group of pieces and dropping them one-by-one in adjacent spots and moves it on to a wide-open, square board. There are five different colors of pieces (representing the five tribes), and each has different power when you finish a move with a piece of that color. Yellow pieces act as wealth and reward those who collect the most of them; green pieces give you access to the market, where collecting a wide variety of goods leads to an exponential amount of points; white pieces give you access to genies which grant special powers; blue pieces are builders, who reward you with points for finishing on and around certain tiles; and red pieces are assassins, which allow you to eliminate other colors to potentially claim land. The pieces you choose, where you choose to land, and the powers you draft through the genies all make a huge difference in the gameplay. You can also minimally invest in certain tribe colors and focus instead on claiming land tiles.

Two things stand out about Five Tribes – how wide open the potential path to victory is, and how visually appealing it is. Pretty much everything you do in this game rewards points. It’s up to you to decide which action rewards the most points at any given time, and that changes turn-to-turn based on what your opponents did. Point-salad games are pretty common nowadays, but this one stands out for how quickly the board changes and the analysis that requires. To the other point, there’s a ton of information that the game has to convey over the course of the game, and there’s never any issue doing so. The game manages to be easy to read while also being extremely colorful and appealing visually. A great game all-around!