Basil Hayden Toast

Vanilla milkshake nose, brown rice front, big spice cake, brown sugar pop tart finish, very good balance

It definitely has that toast characteristic. Honestly not too bad for a BH.

Sweet. Smooth. Zero burn. Very little spice. Easy drinker that will disappear quickly.

Watery again, just like the 10 year rye. Smooth and sweet though if you do have to have it

So the copper band is wider, cork is wood instead of plastic but is this worth $10-15 more than the standard, overpriced-for-what-it-is offering? To be certain my assessment is valid a sample of the original is needed. Poured into a green, glass chalice found in our rental cabin (classy, but honestly that was the best option) I get sweet corn, caramel and a dash of rye. Thin, sweet up front with rye spice and pepper on a back and a shot finish of caramel corn and young oak. TOAST they say. Color appears a tad darker in the bottle (nice green hue in the glass), as does the nose. The oak is more at the forefront, maybe some peanut toffee and more caramel than vanilla. Entry is somehow even softer with a muted wood sweetness - toasted coconut? Sweetness is more candy cigarette than candy corn. Rye seems like it could be there but downplayed and pepper is gone. But wait - despite BH being a watered-down, high rye bourbon this has zero rye. RICE doesn’t look as clever on a bottle. Honestly it seems to work at 63/27(rice)/10 and almost reminds me of Little Book 4, where Beam incorporates a brown rice whiskey. This lacks the gusto (largely proof) of a Book/Bookers. Widely acceptable I see no huge faults about this. There might be an unpleasant sour note in there. And it’s watered down. And it’s kind of expensive. Ok fine - not great. It’s within Buffalo Trace territory though… so I’ll go with “above acceptable”. Quarter point off for price and availability.