Tastes

The nose is mild but pleasant: some vanilla creme and a medicinal note. There is a perfumey, jasmine like second moment, like an herb or a field of purple flowers, or at least a purple hand soap. Just the slightest barrel spice. First taste is buttercream and vanilla bean. It's very smooth and creamy, both in flavor and in viscosity. The creaminess of it is almost like half-and-half creamer, but better because, you know, the 40% thing. Lemon meringue pokes its head in. There is a touch of prickly cinnamon that comes through if you agitate or chew it a bit. The finish has a bitterness you'd get from vanilla extract. Some cut tobacco and just a bit of leather. Also a definite sawdust spice that takes a minute to show up, like Fat Thor summoning Mjolnir in Endgame. (Not a spoiler.) Just a little bit of metallic astringency and tannins to pucker up the joint a tad. To say it's peated is probably accurate,but also academic: there is a little cigar ash, but nothing I'm seeing indicating that more than a nominal amount of peat has arrived on the premises. That's not a complaint! This creamy Scotch doesn't need peat any more than a well-crafted Altbier needs an overdose of hops. At $50 it may be a tad overpriced but no regrets on this buy.

Rich mahogany, oak, sherry, syrup. This is such a wonderful drink. Rich and deep. Woody like finished oak. Caramel and toffee. Puckery barrel tannin finish. So sugary and full of brown sugar.

A terrific value for a pour, but I am struggling to believe how much people pay for entire grenades of this. That isn't to say it isn't good: it's excellent. Brown sugar, rich finished wood, beautiful barrel tannins, and all with a smooth, brown sugary base. I'm sure I am giving this one short shrift, but it is a hell of a good whiskey. But it's not so out of this world that you all should be spending as much as you do on it.

The nose is rich finished wood, with plenty of barrel spice. Dry sawdust. Caramel and toffee. Spicy black pepper, bitter carraway seeds. Bubble gum. Tastes primarily like candied apples at first, and then stewed cinnamon apples. More sugary toffee and caramel. Cinnamon/rye, mingled with oak spice. A spicy, peppery burn on the back end: the heat is pleasant but that 95 proof don't treat you gentle. The finish is tobacco ash burn, like a cigar left a little too long in the mouth. Oak and barrel tannins. The caramel and brown sugar wash over the very end, as well as vanilla, which smooths it all out. It's a velvety, rich, full Bourbon with a lot or depth.

Nose is lemon (like lemonheads candy), butter, coffee creamer, barrel wood, sugary caramel and honey. Some barrel tannins in the nose if you let it settle. Taste is more lemon drop candy, vanilla creme, sweaty salt brine, earthy autumn leaves, coffee grounds. Grassy/lemongrass. No peat, but a tobacco burn on the tongue. Almonds, rye toast. Apple skins. Finishes with tobacco ash, earthy forest floor, cut tobacco leaf, Caraway seed bitterness. Pencil-shaving wood. This is a very solid blended Scotch under $40.

Can't break this one down all that much: the nose is cola and maple syrup -- although the maple syrup may come from my Canada association. It tastes like root beer barrel candy, spicy ribbon candy. Sweet and just a tad spicy. Black licorice rope. The finish is a syrupy finale. There is a reason that this is such a popular mixer with colas: it's appropriately sticky, sweet, spicy and filled with star anise and root beer.

Screwtop bottle, pale gold hue. The nose is heavy cream, salted butter, vanilla, caramel sugar. Finished oak barrel, flowery perfume. Freshly cut pear. The slightest hint of ripe raisin. The nose is very creamy and milky; smooth, light and without much burn. Taste is more of the milk cream. It's so buttery smooth on the palate too: creamy and slick. Once you chew on it a bit it becomes not unlike a creamer you'd put on coffee or tea. (Note to self: try this in coffee.) There is also butterscotch and homemade applesauce, with the skins. A dry, ashy finish that offsets the soft creaminess of the taste. There is almost nothing harsh in Tenjaku. It's a really pleasant dessert whisky in the Scotch tradition.

Smooth caramel and cinnamon. Brown sugar. This is one of the sweeter, sugary-er Bourbons I've had. Not complex, but enjoyable.

The heat in the nose is rounded like stewed apples dipped in caramel and booze. Taste is apple skins and more stewed apples with cinnamon. Mild barrel spice/pepper. The finished wood comes through in the second wave. A little chew brings out some molasses and vanilla creme. Stewed apples is probably the most prominent flavor Ashy finish: cigar box and lightly roasted tobacco. Oak and a hint of pine needles. An earthy finish, like forest floor/brown leaves. This is such a solid, steady, well-balanced Scotch. Pleasant but also full of flavor. And it gives me a comfy, warming sensation inside every time I have it, like a hot drink on a winter's night.