It was announced today that Critical Role is teaming up with celebrity actor/gaming entrepreneur Matthew Lillard’s Find Familiar Spirits, makers of Quest’s End Whiskey to create Sandkheg’s Hide, an in-world limited-edition super-premium whiskey for fans of the wildly popular Critical Role universe. The new spirit will be limited run and include a brand new story straight out of the world of Vox Machina.
A custom-blended small-batch bourbon, Sandkheg’s Hide sprung from the lore of Vox Machina, Campaign 1 of Critical Role’s celebrated streaming series. Sandkheg’s Hide is introduced in Episode 65 as a “fierce” alcoholic beverage produced in the deserts of Marquet from the acidic bile of a sandkheg (an 8-foot tall insectoid creature).
Inspired by the description of the bottle in the episode, the exciting new bourbon comes in dark green glass with a distressed label, wax seal, and exclusive coin medallion around its neck, tucked inside a burlap bag. Designed to look like an in-world shipping crate, the whiskey’s unique box will also contain a “found” journal from the Exandrian maker of Sandkheg’s Hide that tells the story of this unique concoction, written by Jasmine Bhullar with all-original art by illustrator Tyler Walpole and a map by fantasy cartographer Deven Rue. Quest’s End master blender Ale Ochoa used in-world flavors as inspiration to create her blend and barrel finishes, with base bourbon notes of baked apple, brown spice, shortbread cookie, and oak blended with whiskey finished in vermouth barrels for herbaceous notes and whiskey finished in sherry barrels for dried red fruit and a hint of smoke.
Founded by Lillard and screenwriter Justin Ware with Blue Run Spirits co-founder Tim Sparapani as advisor, Find Familiar Spirits recently burst onto the super-premium spirits scene with three enormously successful launches, Quest’s End Paladin, Quest’s End Paladin +1, and Quest’s End Rogue. As a lifelong gamer with a legacy in iconic pop-culture film and TV (Scream, Scooby Doo, Five Nights at Freddy’s), Lillard is a strong believer in the power of community in fandom, and there’s no more dedicated community than the fans of Critical Role (aka Critters).
“From the gorgeous ‘in-world’ Exandrian bottle design to the delicious whiskey blend to the incredible all-new Critical Role art and story in the journal, we’re insanely proud of what we’ve created with Sandkheg’s Hide,” said Lillard. “We think Critters are going to freaking love it.”
Critical Role is a multi-platform entertainment phenomenon with a variety of shows including the flagship web series, comic books, graphic novels, animation, live performances, podcasts, and an ongoing animated series on Amazon. Led by veteran voice actor Matthew Mercer, and composed of well-known voice actors Ashley Johnson, Marisha Ray, Taliesin Jaffe, Travis Willingham, Sam Riegel, Laura Bailey and Liam O’Brien, Critical Role takes the audience on an epic adventure through the fantasy world of Exandria. Their online streaming channels boast more than 2.2M YouTube subscribers and 1.3M Twitch followers.
“We wanted to do something special for our fans, and we wanted to pull something from the actual lore of the show,” said Shaunette DeTie, Licensing Manager at Critical Role. “Quest’s End was a natural fit as a partner — both our companies have an authentic love for storytelling as well as gaming and fantasy.”
Sandkheg’s Hide will be sold direct-to-consumer only through the Quest’s End website (questsendwhiskey.com), their distributor Seelbach’s (seelbachs.com) and on the exclusive site for SandkhegsHide.com. The sale will run for three weeks only.
Images via Find Familiar and Critical Role
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