Am I a Screwball for Not Loving Skrewball?

Skrewball peanut butter whiskey

Before I plow into this examination of the phenomenon known as Skrewball, let’s get one preconception out of the way: Skrewball is not a whiskey. Neither is an onion, or a chocolate bar, or Nova Scotia salmon sliced so thin by the deli counterman that it’s practically translucent. But these other things are not widely considered to be whiskey, whereas Skrewball’s label is proudly emblazoned with the words “Peanut Butter Whiskey.” I suppose you could call Skrewball whiskey-adjacent, since a large percentage of it is in fact whiskey, distilled from corn and barley, which could make it either corn whiskey or bourbon depending on various factors which I won’t get into here. But American whiskey, by law, cannot be bottled below 80 proof, and Skrewball comes in at a dainty 70 proof (35% ABV), so it’s disqualified on those grounds alone. Additionally, American whiskey also cannot contain any additives, be they artificial coloring, added sugars, or whatever the heck it is that makes Skrewball taste like peanut butter. So… disqualified again.

What is Skrewball?

Now that we’ve established that Skrewball isn’t a whiskey, I can tell you that I love its backstory. It was created by a bar/restaurant owner in San Diego, Steve Yeng, who’d arrived in the US as a refugee from Cambodia when he was a child and fell in love with the peanut butter in his care packages. It started as a peanut butter whiskey cocktail, rumored to be made with Jameson and peanut butter, and became such a hit that Steve and his wife, Brittany, decided to figure out how to create and bottle a peanut butter-flavored whiskey. Which they did. Since its launch in 2018, it won the Consumers’ Choice award at the SIP Awards; sold a few zillion cases to bros, bro-ettes, and the bars and liquor stores that cater to them; and eventually became a key asset of spirits giant Pernod Ricard, which I hope netted Steve and Brittany Yeng enough money so they can retire in Jeff Bezos-type luxury. It’s a classic American success story. What’s not to love, right?

What Does Skrewball Taste Like?

Skrewball’s flavor comes from a proprietary formula including cane sugar and “natural premium flavors,” including peanuts. In other words, we don’t know exactly. However, Apex Flavors makes a “Screwball Type Flavor,” meant to replicate the original, which contains “ethyl alcohol, propylene glycol, water, natural flavor and > 0.10% artificial flavor.” In other words, we still don’t really know. But instead of doing the deep dive and hunting down the elusive recipes, let’s just get down to sampling the hooch and let our taste buds do the talking.

Since we’ve established that, no matter what the label says, Skrewball is not whiskey, we can focus on what it is. Which is, well, booze (technically liqueur, in fact) that tastes like peanut butter. But how peanut buttery is it? I sat down with a glass of Skrewball, a jar of Wegman’s Just Peanuts creamy peanut butter, and a bottle of Mellow Corn corn whiskey just for a little compare/contrast. On the nose, Skrewball passes muster — plenty of reasonably peanut-y aroma, sweeter than the actual peanut butter, with comparatively little of the buttery popcorn smell of the Mellow Corn. On the palate, plenty of slightly synthetic, lightly salty peanut butter flavor, but rather than complementing the whiskey notes, the two flavors feel like they are bumping into each other, doing an awkward dance on my tongue without ever quite figuring out the steps. The whiskey does, however, bring some chocolate notes into the mix, giving off a bit of a Reese’s peanut butter cup vibe.

Undaunted, I decided to chill the Skrewball and see what that would do to the flavor. Half an hour in the freezer actually improved it somewhat. The syrupy texture it attained is more appropriate for the peanut flavor. But it still tasted a little… off. Popular though it may be, I’m still not convinced that the taste of alcohol — or corn-based whiskey at least — and peanut butter mix well. In fact, the combo is, to my curmudgeonly middle-aged sensibilities at least, a little gross. Not gonna lie, by the time I’d finished tasting an ounce or so of it, I was slightly nauseated.

How To Drink Skrewball

Skrewball with coffee

As with genuine whiskey, there are many ways to drink Skrewball, aside from shooting it neat or chilled. Put it in an espresso martini and make it a, um, Peanut Butter Espresso Martini. Use it in an Old Fashioned, which I found unbearably sweet. The most notorious way to consume it is in a PB&J shot, combined with Chambord raspberry liqueur. And it tastes about as much like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as a glass of lowish-proof liqueurs can taste. But you know what tastes way, way better than a PB&J shot? A peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a glass of genuine bourbon. And you know what tastes better than Skrewball? Peanut butter and good whiskey. Or just the whiskey, hold the peanut butter.

Why Drink Skrewball?

So what the hell are you drinking this stuff for? There are two answers that make sense to me: you’re under drinking age or you don’t like the taste of “real” whiskey, or possibly both. And hey, I get it. When I was a high schooler raiding my mom’s liquor cabinet, often as not I’d swig Sambuca, an Italian liqueur faintly resembling mouthwash, on a regular basis. And why did I like it? Because it didn’t taste like alcohol and it did get me drunk, if I drank enough of it.

If you’re not yet legally allowed to drink, you should close this tab and start doing your homework. But for the rest of us… it’s time to grow up. There is a big, beautiful, wonderful world of spirits out there just waiting to be discovered. They may not taste like peanut butter but give them a try! You just might find they’re delicious. My own eureka moment didn’t happen until my mid 20s, by which time I had already consumed a chocolate “martini” consisting of an oversized cocktail glass, the inside of which was painted with stripes of Hershey’s chocolate syrup, then filled with vodka and garnished with a Hershey’s Kiss. But after my first sip of a Knob Creek Manhattan, I put away childish playthings, and my life has been richer for it.

So put down the Skrewball espresso martini. Live a little — read this very publication and try a few of the whiskeys praised herein, rather than liqueurs that call themselves whiskey. Read up on your city’s best cocktail bars and go try one of their original creations. And if, after you’ve done due diligence, you still think that whiskey is best when it tastes like peanut butter, I will step off my soapbox, belly up to the bar with you and toast to your health. As long as your glass is the one with Skrewball in it. And don’t even think about getting me to drink Fireball.