Drambuie

Appearance: Transparent yellow-gold. Aroma: A sweet herbal-honey nose with a strong alcohol prickle. Flavour and Texture: Unctious and sugary-sweet on the arrival with a character almost like golden syrup. The honey is noticed after the initial sugar bloom and the herbal flavours follow, and there are notes of orange zest, menthol and licorice. The texture is thick and there is a soothing warmth to the aftertaste. Drambuie can be divisive. Some drinkers find it far too sweet and brightly herbal - an unnecessary embellishment of scotch whisky. For others it is the epitome of the ideal liqueur - high abv, bold taste, whisky based, no dairy component, etc. Personally I think it tastes like medicine - very nice medicine. In fact, the best medicine I know of to deal with the symptoms of the common cold is a hot toddy made with Drambuie. Pour a generous double dram into a tumbler, add the juice of half a lemon, two aspirin tablets and top it up with very hot water. Stir well and sip it as it cools. If it's not strong enough, add some whisky or more Drambuie. Go to bed and put a hat on the bedpost - keep drinking until you see two hats. Beats the heck out of any medicine I've bought in a pharmacy. As for drinking it for pleasure, I've been known to indulge but one small dram is usually enough - it's just not something I enjoy sufficiently to crave more and a little goes a long way. Oh, and as for the Rusty Nail - it's a good way to get smashed quickly but most times I'd rather not spoil a good whisky (and the hangover can be monumental). The one exception is camping in cold weather - a flask of pre-mixed rusty nail is just the thing to take the chill off a cold tent. "Good" : 3.75 stars

Quick Hit: Orange and nutmeg aroma. Syrupy, sticky sweet filled of orange bitters and aniseed, pinch of cinnamon. Licorice finish with orange zest.