Critical Role is teaming up with Find Familiar Spirits, the maker of Quest’s End Whiskey, to launch the world’s first fandom-centric spirit with Sandkheg’s Hide, an in-world limited-edition super-premium whiskey. Fans of Critical Role will get to immerse themselves in the world of Vox Machina with the packaged whiskey.
Sandkheg’s Hide is a custom-blended small-batch bourbon inspired by the lore of Vox Machina, Campaign 1 of the popular streaming series. The drink was first introduced in Episode 65 as a “fierce” alcoholic beverage made in the deserts of Marquet from the acidic bile of an 8-foot-tall insectoid creature known as a sandkheg.
The bottle captures the description from the episode with a dark green glass with a distressed label, wax seal, and an exclusive coin medallion around the neck, contained inside a burlap bag. The box is designed to appear as if it’s inside an in-world shipping crate, with a “found” journal from the Exandrian maker of Sandkheg’s Hide written by Jasmine Bhullar, art by Tyler Walpole and a map by fantasy cartographer Deven Rue.
Ale Ochoa, the master blender of Quest’s End, uses in-world flavors to help inspire real-world flavors including 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.
Fine Familiar Spirits is co-founded by Matthew Lillard (Scooby Doo, Scream, Five Nights at Freddy’s), who is a huge Dungeons & Dragons fan and currently has his own shows on the Dungeons & Dragons channel. It’s also cofounded by screenwriter Justin Ware, with Blue Run Spirits co-founder Tim Sparapani as the advisor.
“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.”
“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 available at Quest’s End website (questsendwhiskey.com), their distributor Seelbach’s (seelbachs.com) and on the exclusive site for SandkhegsHide.com. It’s a limited-run sale with just a three-week window and will become a collector’s item.
Critical Role started as a web series following Matthew Mercer as the dungeon master along with his friends and voice actors Ashley Johnson, Marisha Ray, Taliesin Jaffe, Travis Willingham, Sam Riegel, Laura Bailey and Liam O’Brien. It has spawned an animated series on Amazon Prime Video, comic books, and more.
