Tastes

Quarter Horse is made using a technology called TerrePure which the distillers claim can recreate years of aging in a matter of hours using ultrasonic waves. No I am not making it up. That's how the technology is described. This Bourbon has been aged for a year and, as far as I can tell, then put on the TerrePure machine to give it additional flavor. Sounds like a cool technology and interesting gimmick but in practice, if the Quarter Horse is anything to go by, this will hardly be the future of bourbon making. Right off the bat it has one of the least inviting smells from a bourbon I have ever experienced. It smells of corn, rye, hay, sandalwood chips and a strange burst of ethanol. The sandalwood chip smell isn't pleasant though. More like a dusty accident than an intended odor. As for the ethanol, it reminds me of the various alcohols I got to experiment with in Organic Chemistry. Not quite the ethanol humans consume. Taste wise this is just really bizarre. It tastes like some other liquid that isn't bourbon doing it's best impression and falling quite short. Best comparison I have is how Stevia kind of replaces the taste of sugar. You can still tell it's not "real" sugar though. Or as if you left a glass of bourbon out on a hot day then came back to it and it tastes flat and lost most of its flavor. This isn't pleasant. There is some flavor of apple tart along with the sweet corn flavor of bourbon so it isn't all completely bad but these positives don't last for very long. They're extremely ephemeral quickly giving way to one of the worst finished I have ever experienced in my life. Medicinal, perversely bitter, acrid coupled unpleasantly with that fake ethanol taste I caught on the nose which overwhelms the finish quite unceremoniously--it tastes synthetic in the worst sense of the word. Worst of all the finish stays around for much, much longer than the actual flavor. I timed it and it stuck with me for 2 minutes. That's a real shame because I really wanted to like this product. I'm open to new technologies when it comes to production methods and it's a cool bottle. I'm not going to lie, I'm half tempted to buy the bottle both because it looks cool and it makes for an interesting conversation piece and point of comparison. But as something to drink, this is borderline undrinkable. I'm not even sure it can be used as a mixer, though maybe with some Coke the worst of the finish can be dealt with. I could finish my glass so it's not getting a rating below 1 which I reserve for stuff I can't finish and outright makes me want to gag. But this is pretty damn close.

An amazing introductory bourbon. Nose is on point with it's ingredients. My initial guess was 60% corn, 40% rye which is pretty close to the actual ingredients. Look deeper and you see the traditional notes of vanilla and caramel. On the tongue not much changes. Sweet corn, a bit of a kick from rye, sweet vanilla and caramel linger in the background. The finish is light and has a surprisingly cherry finish. Sweet without overdoing it and a perfect mixer or guilt free daily sipper.

This is NOT a complicated bottle. Aroma is of corn, ethanol and the expected sweetness of bourbon. You can tell this is mostly made from corn and is over 40%. Taste wise you get what you smell. There is no complexity or surprises here. It tastes of generic bourbon with an overwhelming taste of corn, caramel (maybe more rightly stated caramel corn), overly sweet vanilla and molasses. You can catch a whiff of the oak at the end reminding you that this has been aged for four years. This is very, very sweet stuff. But unlike Jack Daniel's it just feels sugary rather than the weird artificial additives and odd sour note that reminds you that define Jack. Sure this is more generic and sickly sweet but at 43% it goes down so smoothly and the sweetness does wonders mixed. Recommend you drink it on the rocks to deal with the sugar but for the price this is my go to ultra-budget bottle.

Maker's Mark smells quite pleasant but you wouldn't know it immediately upon opening the bottle. Without letting the Bourbon open up it just smells of oak and paint thinner. Let it linger in your glass though and the sweet smells begin coyly venture out. Vanilla, custard and baked pastries with chocolate mark the smell. There's also hints of corn and oak at the back. Nothing unusual for a Bourbon but they are quite pleasantly balanced. The palate is much less sweet but still appealing. Vanilla, brown sugar, oak and caramel dominate the experience. Further in the back you get toffee and baked bread. Towards the back mid palate you get a pleasant burst of corn. The finish is pretty light but lingers for a surprising amount of time. I'd say it's like having some vanilla with a nice, yeasty, sweet bread. Not bad if not at all complex. Ultimately Maker's Mark is a standard but well rounded Bourbon. There are no surprises here but by the same token it's hard to find any concrete fault with it. It's a worthy addition to any bar and a great daily sipper with lots of sweetness and breadiness to please just about anyone.