Tastes

This is a follow-up to my earlier taste. I've used Mellow Corn in quite a few interesting cocktails, from a highball to a curious negroni cousin using ambrato vermouth. Try it in a recipe where you'd normally use a vodka or gin and you might be surprised. This does need a bit more love from that side of the aisle, but right now I want to concentrate on this neat. This is a subtle whiskey. It's light and bright and sweet and creamy. The mouthfeel isn't thick or oily, but it's rich none the less. There's a very nice corn sweetness that delights the taste buds when the mood calls for a treat. This is the cocktail equivalent of a bonbon. The proof is evinced by a bit of heat, a blush of white pepper, and the most tentative of Kentucky hugs. Mellow Corn is a light sipper. I'm not a big fan of buttered popcorn, but my wife is. With social distancing a dominant part of our world, we spend more than a few evenings binging old movies or new series. When she opts for the popcorn, I'll be having my own version - a bottled in bond liquid corn version. On my scale of 1 to 5, an average, well-produced product will score a 2.5. The bell curve should see most reviews landing between 2.0 and 3.0. Mellow Corn is running with the pack, maybe with a nose on the downward-sloping curve and at a value price point. That's a win.

I grew up with the taste of the Irish and Canadian whiskies so popular and common in the eastern MA region where I lived in my DNA. I still have a taste for both, and I'm definitely a Red Breast fan. It's a lovely drink and I've pretty much had one or both RB and GS on my shelf for at least 6 or 7 years now. I've not tasted this expression before now. Tasted neat from a glencairn. Allowed to rest about 5 minutes after the pour before evaluation. The nose is sweet with candy aromas - noughat, caramel, and honey. Theres a rush of ripe fruit - cherries and apples, plums, figs. There's a fair amount going on in the glass. On the taste buds this is dessert in a glass. The flavors deliver what the nose promises and this has a full spectrum of fruits and sweets layered over a creamy foundation of well aged malt. There is a good barrel influence and a nice warmth to the intermediate-length finish. If you like sherry finished whiskies, this will definitely fit the bill. I do, and it does. This is a great guilty pleasure and I"m sure it will find its way into repeat rotation. An above average dram, for certain!

This expression has been on my bar for about a year and I've enjoyed many trips to this bottling. The pour is a burnished yellow-gold. Full sheeting on a swirl with a few low tears marking this wisky's path back to the bottom of the glencairn. On the nose this is pure Islay. Iodine and band-aids, new yellow rubber boots and barbeque smoke, brine and succulents, malt and peat, floral and sweet. Helen Keller said that smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles. The nose of this whisky proves her observaton right. My nose has taken my imagination on an adventure in the bowl of this tasting glass. Simply magnificent! The taste is one of roasted meaty, smoky tobacco over a salty, honey-dipped drop of silky... Okay, that's a bit much. Am I being over enthusiastic? I like Islay scotches. By way of an example, I give you Lagavulin 16 and Laphroaig 10. The Lagavulin is a near perfect sip for me while Laphroaig doesn't cut it. The Laphroaig is lacking subtlety, in my opinion. It's brash and made up, like a trashy tart in a cheap bar. The Lagavulin fascinates me, like a mysterious contessa in her best evening garb. But the Ardbeg, well that's the gal I'd most like to bring home. Plenty of complexity balanced with a bouncy nature that just says "drink me". I like this whisky a lot. I ask you to pardon my exuburance, you've read the review thus far so I'll just cut to the chase. This is a 4 star whisky. It's a full bodied Islay of near ideal proportions and, at 108.4 proof and non-chill filtered, this just ticks the boxes for me one after another. I hope I never run out.

Enjoying a tour of some of the brands I haven't touched in years for whatever reason. The journey continues with Crown Royal, this taste coming from a 50ml nip that came complete with a little purple bag. I love it! Tasted neat from a glencairn. The light amber pour has some sheeting and clingly legs after a swirl. The nose is immediately off-putting with sharp ethanol and traces of acetone right up front. I'm going to give it a good 10 minutes to sit before evaluating. After a good, long wait elements of caramel and faint vanilla make an appearance. Most of the chemical/alcohol notes faded away. What's left is the opposite of complex. The first sip reveals a sweeter taste with a creamier mouthfeel than the nose advertised. The upfront is actually pretty good, but the follow through is choppy and disconnected. There's a bitter finish that makes me not want another sip. And then comes a rather interesting lemony bit that makes me wonder if I'd taste it again on another sip. Wash, rinse, repeat. Cloying introduction, sour departure. I'll drink this on the rocks, or mixed, anyplace where this is the best choice I have. It's not horrible for a fully mainstream, mass market name brand delivered in a plastic bottle. That does't mean I want it in my cabinet. It is, at it's best. wholly average. My scale of 1 to 5 places the peak of the bell curve at 2.5. Most competent, but unremarkable, whiskies will be found between 2 and 3 on this scale. Hard pass on buying a bottle.

It's been at least 12 years since I last had this - and then it was mixed with coca cola. I've probably sipped on this bottle once, but I don't recall. The bottle in question was gifted by a family member, is full to the neck but has been opened and has been in my posession for at least 5 years. That said... Black Velvet is a Canadian whisky. In fact, its the number 2 selling Canadian whisky after Crown Royal. Its owned by Heaven Hill and produced in the Black Velvet Distillery in Lethbridge, Alberta. Tasted neat in a glencairn. I let the drink rest for about 5 minutes before evaluating. The pour is a brassy, light color. Not much viscosity to the swirl. The nose has immediate notes of grain alcohol, and something a bit sweeter with fruity notes. Overall the nose is indistinct and thin. On the palate the thin nature continues. The whiskey is a bit watery, with no appreciable finish. It's not satisfying at all. There's a little drop of sweet, a bit of alcohol and then a flash of white pepper. Finally, there's a bit of a bitter aftertaste. I have no idea what I'll do with the rest of this bottle. This isn't something I'll drink neat again, it's definitely a non-descript mixer. Smooth? Sure, because there's nothing going on. Sweet? Maybe a little. Interesting? God no. (review update: after further consideration I realized I'd never drink this and won't serve it to friends, so down the drain it went) My scale is 1 to 5, with 2.5 being the peak of the bell curve. Most competent whiskies will end up between 2 and 3. For me, this one doesn't make the cut. I'm quite sure there are worse whiskies out there, and I hope I none of them end up in my cabinet. Hard pass.

Until I saw this in my local liquor store, I'd never even heard of this brand. I found it at an ABC in a sale rack for $2 for a 100ml sample. Its 80 proof, straight bourbon aged "at least 36 months." You never know how things will turn out, so I figured I'd give it a shot. The whiskey is very light in color and comes in a plastic bottle. I tasted this neat in a glencairn. The nose immediately after the pour is pretty weak, but there's nothing offensive about it. Actually, I'm kind of surprised that there aren't any acetone or ethanol notes. I let the pour sit for about 10 minutes before evaluating. After the rest the nose on this is mild,but slightly paint-like with sweet notes that remind me of buttered popcorn at the movies. There's just not a lot there to like (or not like). Overall its pretty nondescript on the nose. This whiskey is pretty thin. There are minor tears after a swirl and very little sheeting. First sip, this is sweet and actually pretty nice. It's very mild. There is a soft pepper-like finish that lasts for a few seconds. I'm getting a bit of vanilla, sweet caramel and the slightest bit of spice. Clearly a low proof and I don't think this will work too well in a cocktail. I can see this in something like a "smoked" old fashioned with too much demerara - the kind of sweet, innocuous old-fashioned served by "whiskey bars" to the newly minted bourbon lovers who just know life would be completely different if they could only score a bottle of Pappy... But no way this stands up to vermouth. Or soda. Maybe coca cola if you just don't like the taste of whiskey. Its very watery and lacking in body. Anyway, it doesn't suck. At least not completely. I think I like it better than JB white label (which I don't care for at all), but its been a couple years since I last sampled that one. It's actually acceptable if price is a serious concern and your expectations are modest. I'll pick this neat over JD Old No. 7 neat every time... On my scale a 2.5 is peak of the bell curve. Clearly the majority of competently made mass market whiskey should land between 2 and 3 on this scale. Zackaraiah Harris is in that group, scoring a surprising 2.25 (an extra quarter point for being a great value). No, I'm not likely to buy another bottle. I've purchased Jim Beam Repeal Prohibition bourbon on sale for the same price and I thought that to be a better product. Zack is a pass, but I'm not a hater...

My scale is a 2.5 = fully mainstream. A solid, if unremarkable, whiskey. That is an apt description of this. I've been drinking Tullamore for more years than I care to disclose. Sweet, innocuous, with flavors of honey & grain & alcohol. It's not going to change your world, but it might brighten your afternoon! Erin go Bragh

I was looking for an affordable alternative to Monkey Shoulder as a mixer for my scotch & soda or occassional Rob Roy and I posted a query for a few suggestions on a couple of facebook whiskey sites I follow. Famous Grouse was offered as one suggestion. My reference is Dewar's White Label, which I like but not enough to put it in my cabinet in favor of MS despite the price difference. Ultimately I'd like to find something closer to $20 than $30, and I certainly haven't had all the blends out there in that price range. So this is the first of what I think will be an exploration of affordable scotch blends. I started by tasting this neat in a glencairn. Its pale, thin, and shows little in the way of legs on a swirl. The nose is sweet and only mildly scotch-like. Tasted neat this is sweet with forward notes of honey, some orchard fruits such as apples and pears lightly playing the background. Nearly no peat nor heat. Eh.... On a large cube this didn't get better. I"d much prefer my regular Johnny Walker Black or even a Dewar's White Label. Finally with soda, mixed 50/50, this is okay. Certainly not great. This tastes like a mediocre Irish whiskey! Sweet and approachable. Probably would be good in a sweeter mixed drink like a Blood & Sand, but I don't think it will work in a Rob Roy. Overall its a thoroughly forgettable dram that might serve as a good gateway into real scotch for a first timer looking for "smooth" and sweet. This isn't a bad dram. Just boring as hell. I think Dewar's is a "bell curve" whisky at 2.5 (minus a quarter point for being too expensive). This isn't as good as Dewar's, but it IS less expensive. Still....