Tastes

In my strange, brief love affair with Jagermeister (now winding down), I made sure to try all the odd variations. In this one, the cold brew coffee mingles with the "Jager Cola" to make a sort of "Tootsie Roll quality" chocolate note on the nose. The taste is still distinctly Jagermeister (licorice/fennel, cinnamon bark et al.), but the coffee lends a nutty hint, making it ever-so-slightly more complex than the original. I do like this one more than the ginger one, but probably won't be keeping any of these around...

Rich, sweet nose with cherry fruit roll-up and tropical punch...but make that deeper and more refined somehow. Very sweet but balanced. The taste is like cherry cough syrup with a floral element, and rose Turkish delight. It gets slightly more sour near the end, but just enough to be mouthwatering. To the non-mixed drink drinker, this is a product very similar to Cherry Heering, which is often confused with maraschino liqueur. Don't make that mistake though. While maraschino liqueur is delicious in bourbon, this will ruin anything except a "Blood and Sand". Similarly, while maraschino is far too sweet to drink on its own, this definitely should be; it's almost like some kind of pre-mixed sour that doesn't need anything else.

I might as well compare the standard "B&B" bottling with a few custom Benedictine and brandy pairings that I've tried. As for the store-bought "B&B", it has the same mentholated honey on the nose, with ginger root and newfound cinnamon both contributing to a pleasant bite (see the Benedictine review for more). The main difference to note, apart from the heightened (and much welcome) dryness which is to be expected, is a baseline of tea with honey. I've noticed this tea note in the finishes of certain Cognacs before, particularly Hine, so I might be a little biased and associate it with ones I don't care for with a weak and/or boring flavor profile. I wouldn't say that this blend particularly *improves* Benedictine, it only fixes its sweetness problem in the simplest way possible (and pre-mixed B&B is typically the same price anyway). If this is a drink you like, then I would highly recommend exploring various brandies to see what mixes well; and if they happen to be less than the price of "B&B", then it's an even greater value. The ones referenced below are all VSOP, just because it happens to be Remy Martin's baseline age statement (and I guess I'm a snob). As for the "big four": Remy Martin, while 1738 is probably my favorite standalone Cognac so far, none of its expressions do enough to temper Benedictine's sweetness with their "cinnamon apple pie" character - they are better to be sipped alone. Similar for Hennessy VSOP; while it is a little more complex than Remy, its dark brooding nature is not a good fit either (it's also stupidly expensive for what it is). The cheaper Martell comes close, being a little drier, but the red fruits just aren't quite right... The clear winner of this contest is: Courvoisier VSOP. The brand is already a little hotter and drier than the others, and its floral citrus character pushes it over the top to make it the perfect companion to Benedictine (not to mention a decent sipper itself). A "C&B" made with Courvoisier is at least a quarter point higher in my book. An honorable mention goes to Hennessy Black, Hennessy's happy-go-lucky younger cousin (which happens to be marketed as a mixer), mainly because of its cheaper price and floral nature. It is about equal to store-bought B&B in quality though, except now you can adjust the dryness to your liking.

Whenever Spring arrives, so does my annual bottle of Benedictine. It somehow edges out Drambuie for that "honey herbal liqueur" spot on my shelf, and will always help determine which Cognac I keep around; if it happens to play nice with Benedictine, then it gets special consideration. The nose is sweet and floral with plenty of orange blossom, and a hint of lemongrass and pine. Thick, syrupy, but surprisingly hot on the front end, with prominent honey and mint. This is accompanied by the sap-soaked needles of that pine tree, which creates an ever-so-slight edge to make it all the more interesting. While sufficiently complex, the sweetness really needs a little brandy (ideally equal parts) to get it back on track as a truly stellar drink for any season.