Tastes

An incredibly bready, almost like a honey toast smell immediately greets you but there's a surprisingly playful citrusy note. I can't pin point it. Not quite orange but also not mandarin. It's very nice. Be sure to look for it as it's quite prominent and it's not often I find it in a whiskey. Honey, vanilla, the sweet, odd sugary taste of sherry, a nice citrusy note dominate the palate. It's very sweet, almost reminiscent of a bourbon without that sugary overload that defines the category. The finish is of a peculiar woody character I'm not familiar. My guess is that it's the Japanese wood making it's presence known along with a fantastic cinnamon note that complements it quite well. The bready flavor rounds out the finish reminding you that despite the bourbon influence this is a wheat based endeavor. Divine. Don't miss out on this.

Get past the initial fumes of strong ethanol and you'll find surprising butter and nutty smell to it along with corn, which is unsurprising given it's made up of 80% corn. I drink a lot so this didn't burn much at all though I imagine as a shot this would make it's presence known. They went out of their way though to make this a pleasant experience. On the tongue it reminds me of salted caramel candies. I forgot the brand but will update this review if I figure it out. Also reminds me of the Buttered Popcorn Jelly Belly. Other reviewers weren't lying when they said it's a butter-based taste though there is also some kind of nut. My best guess is walnut but I'm not up to date with my nuts. It's there though and pleasant. The finish is of ethanol though so just be prepared for that. This would honestly make for an interesting mixer when you want whiskey and butter to your cocktail. Peculiar!

This is much better than the Bourbon Outing but still remains an extremely subpar product on the market. For those that don't know, Quarter Horse products aren't aged for very long. Instead a machine called the TerrePure attempts to mimick the effects of aging within a few hours with catastrophic results to the end product giving them an odd, extremely artificial taste. The nose is sharply unpleasant. Smells strongly of rye, a weird sawdust smell also present in the Quarter Horse Bourbon (I'm inclined to think it's a result of the TerrePure process since both products had this bizarre smell), a spicy note I believe to be cardamon and a strong fake ethanol presence. I actually think this one may objectively smell worse than it's Bourbon counterpart just because the paint thinner smell from the fake ethanol is quite astringent here. On the tongue though this is world's above the Quarter Horse Bourbon. It has an extremely simple taste. Rye to start with hints of vanilla and oak. However I wouldn't say it's particularly pleasant. None of the flavors really mesh together. It's comparable to eating a fruit just before it's ripe--the flavors are there but it doesn't quite taste right. That makes sense this was only aged for a year so it's still quite young. Still you could almost forgive being offered a young rye whiskey were it not for the horrendous finish. It doesn't start out too bad with the cardamon coming at the end along with a somewhat sharp, spicy bite. Not bad. However any positivity this rye whiskey has built up is wholly negated by this awful, artificial ethanol-esque finish that makes the entire experience feel artificial. It's very hard to describe what the flavor is but it tastes like synthetic alcohol and has an almost medicinal property to it. Unfortunately for Quarter Horse Rye this bizarre synthetic finish lingers for well over a minute leaving a disastrous final impression. However, the Quarter Horse Bourbon's finish has the same artificial problem while being intolerably bitter and gross, so Quarter Horse Rye has the distinction of being better just by virtue of being tolerable if unpleasant. Ultimately it's very hard for me to recommend Quarter Horse Rye. If you want a cool bottle and a somewhat interesting conversation piece, pick up the Rye instead of the Bourbon. But if you want a quality experience stay far away from both.