The Bourbon - and other spirits - Thread (was: @ Myronwemissyinz)

I didn't know Rogue was making whiskey - have a distillery now. I'll have to get it when I see it.

I knew them as a brewery. Their Dead Guy Ale is really good. I'm not a fan of their IPAs (to be fair, I'm not a fan of most IPAs) but they make some tasty other styles.

---------

One of my daughters got me a bottle of Bumbu rum... which I just turned into a nice batch of coquito. Should be ready to drink today. It's best if you let it mellow a day or 2 in the fridge.

 

Sounds about as bad as whoever it was brewed beer from yeast from.... another part... of a woman's body.

 

I generally despise flavored "whiskies." (Side note: They're not whiskey. They're liqueurs. The fact that the base is whiskey matters not. The instant you add any flavoring at all to the spirit, it ceases to be whiskey). They're usually way too sweet - and this is coming from someone with a HUGE sweet tooth. And a lot of them just taste artificial.

That said, I've had a few that were surprisingly good. Firefly Sweet Tea Bourbon is fantastic. Add a few ice cubes on a hot summer day and sit out on the porch. Heaven. I haven't seen it around lately. I hope they didn't stop making it. They do make a Sweet Tea Vodka also which is pretty damned good too. But the "bourbon" is better.

Forget Screwball. Way too sweet. If you can find it, try P'Nutty instead. It still has some sweetness, but not cloying. And the peanut flavor is much closer to roasted peanuts.

Jack Daniels Honey goes great in hot tea - especially this time of year.

As to the rest: Fireball, all of the flavored Crowns and Beams. Bleh. There's a few decent cocktails you can make with some of them. But I'd never drink them as a sipper.

 

A few new (to me) whiskies to report:

Jefferson Ocean and Tropics. Is it all just a marketing gimmick? Aged at sea, or aged in a tropical location? They're unique enough that I don't think so. I prefer Ocean. But Tropics has quite a good nose. I swear it smells like chocolate at first sniff. Then it evolves into dark fruit and spice. The flavor is initially sweet (think caramel like a Sugar Daddy). A little cherry. Black tea. Cinnamon and black pepper. Why I prefer Ocean is because Tropics does have a somewhat astringent finish that I'm not fond of. The Ocean is a more standard bourbon, but nicely rounded out. Typical vanilla, brown sugar, holiday spices. But there's a tiny hint of brine / sea salt. That COULD just be my imagination or placebo effect because of how they say it's aged. It's very subtle, so I'm having a hard time determining if it's real, or if I'm just thinking it should be there, so I taste it.

Macallan 12 year old Sherry Cask: I've had the 12 and 15 year old Double Cask, and sampled 2 different non-age statement bottles over the years. I always found Macallan to be over-hyped. It's not bad. Just not anything special to me. And also not really my taste. But it's this bottle that I finally pinned down why I don't particularly care for Macallan. As sherry cask single malts go, it was pretty much what I expected. But I found a tasting note that I finally identified. And it shows up in every Macallan, I just could never put my finger on it.... baby vomit. You know how that smells? There's a lingering, subtle, but still there taste just like that. For the money, I'd buy 3 bottles of Total Wine's Grangestone Sherry Cask. And I'd be happier with it. As an aside, I also taste baby vomit in Hershey's Chocolate sometimes. So it might just be my taste buds. Cilantro tastes like soap to me. I might be a little messed up.

Talisker Dark Storm: I picked up a bottle of this while on a cruise last spring. I don't know if it's still travel exclusive. But it used to be, and I never saw it until I was in Mexico of all places. Yeah. I went to Mexico and bought scotch. (I got tequila too. ) I absolutely LOVE Talisker 10 and 18. "Storm" is pretty good. "Skye" tastes like it's a little young and seems unfinished. But for a budget bottle, it's not bad at all. But I finally got around to opening Dark Storm the other day (celebrating another trip around the sun). WOW!!! This stuff is amazing! It's not as refined as the age statement Taliskers. But it is loaded with flavor and very complex. If flavor was volume, this one goes to 11. The best analogy I can use is if you know beer. Imagine a normal single malt is a bog standard ale. This is a quad. Very sweet, dark fruit (plums, and raisins in particular) with a little earthiness (probably peat. But I'm more used to iodine heavy peat like in Islay scotches). The neat thing for me about Talisker in general is that the flavor keeps evolving as you drink it - even more so depending on what you might be eating. So occasionally, I'll get some pepper here, some honey there, oh, there's a hint of black licorice, now it's apple and cherry instead of plums/raisins. The only thing I felt it lacked was smoke. I had to really search hard for it. But I would definitely buy it again.

Jack Daniels Cask Strength: Go ahead. Call me weak. It was too hot for me. I had to add a few drops of water. But even then, I expected Jack Daniels but louder. It wasn't. It was just a damned good bourbon (yeah. I went there. Fight me. )

 

I forgot one more flavored whiskey that I think is actually pretty good.

Jameson Orange. It shouldn't work. But it's good.