Tastes

With a big cube, at home: the sour CORN MASH flavor is what I get first. Sweet TOFFEE with what tastes like some kind of extract. Green apple. VANILLA and cut TOBACCO and charcoal.

Nose is sour green apple, ginger, clove, prickly cinnamon-rye. Spearmint leaf. A lot going on. Warm salt water at first taste,and it stays on the lips. Honey and corn syrupy stuff. Medium burn. Apple skins. Black pepper. Peat hint, but it hits late. An earthy base: brown leaves. With a droplet: The corn and sharp spice of the rye cut through. Spearmint, cinnamon, borderline Christmas-y. The spice is definitely what I notice. With a big ice cube: the CINNAMON just punches through; forget your Fireball next time and get this. Spearmint, spicy leaves. There is definitely an autumnal, POTPOURRI element here, although I'm tasting potpourri a lot recently for whatever reason. BLACK LICORICE and anise stomp into the later stages.

Primarily CARAMEL malts, with a second wave or ORANGE RIND and prickly spices. The salt and peat/smoke are minimal. Toffee and molasses at the front, then a citrus/spicy finish. There is a WAXY component that reminds me of those little bulk candy drinks in wax bottles that guy but the end off. (I had a lot of those as a kid because I kept the wax in my mouth to help with a stray wire on my braces. I know you were wondering.) There is a heavy PLASTIC aspect that is very medicinal and Band-Aid-like. The warm salt water does start to emerge at the end, really creating a pleasant wash of flavor and smooth texture. This is a whisky that gets better the more you sit with it, if you have the patience.

I can't tell if I taste orange peel because it's there or because the word "orangie" is in the name. The peat is barely a whisper, the salt is but a hint. Sweet caramel, very citrusy/bright qualities. Touch of apricot and marmalade. Christmas potpourri spices and pine needles. A rounded start, a sharper finish.

Grape component like a Cognac, incredibly so. Buttery and full of sugary-sweet notes. Tiramisu. The nose is straight caramel and burnt sugar. The fusels are no joke, but the sweetness is a counterpoint. It's not my favorite at this nascent stage of Scotch appreciation, to be frank, but I see what it is. Definitely a cousin of Cognac.

Super salty: chlorine at first but that goes away. Supremely mild. Almost no burn with that salt blunting everything. Peat is a mere hint. The salt is absolutely paramount.

Corn and switchgrass sweetness, only a mild burn. With a droplet caramel and honey peek out. Mild Skybar vanilla. Leather.

Aroma is black licorice and candi sugar. Syrupy sweetness, very thick palate. The red wine seeps in just a bit. Cherrywood and mahogany. Spicy resinous flavors. I am really enjoying this with one small ice cube.

Newb rating, On ice: Spices, honey, vanilla, caramel, molasses, charcoal, tobacco, leather, oak. Rounded and somewhat a blunted burn with the ice. You can *really* taste the buffalo. I really do get the appeal of that Kentucky Bourbon corn mash: it adds just the slightest hint of sourness that hits the sides of the tongue.