E&J VSOP Brandy

I am new to drinking Brandy and am on a budget, so buy affordable brands. I recently tried Paul Mason and Christian Brothers. I thought these two were very close in flavor. I had rest of PM before opening up CB and trying a sip, as I wanted to compare. Of these two, I thought Paul Mason was better. I started watching reviews, reading reviews also. Paul Mason (French) got consistently good reviews. I read reviews of E&J VSOP, which were not good, most pretty poor. But I decided to try it anyway, to judge for myself. I would have to agree, it is not good, very artificial flavor, almost a sickening strong flavor. I do have Horchata cinnamon rice milk, so will add to the this brandy. I will not buy E&J VSOP again. I will go back to buying Paul Mason, that is my favorite.

It is amber but seemingly a bit lighter colored than the VS. The aroma is more vanilla forward than the VS, but the circus peanut candy is still present. There flavor is dominated by circus peanut candy and other confectionaries. It is quite sweet, which masks the booziness.

Has a nice caramel smell to start off, taste full of subtle sweetness

Sweet, fruits, specifically cherry, and dried stone fruits, a lottle caramel, bought it to use in an aged eggnog for Christmas. But I had to taste it first. Would i buyt this normally? Probably not for a sipper. Use in cocktails or my yearly eggnog recipe? Absolutely.

Sweet artifical ‘fruit’, caramel, milk chocolate This all sounds good on paper but the actual taste is disappointing. Might be a good mixer but the artificial taste makes me uncertain to use. Would not buy if it was the only brandy available. The candy-like artificial tase just isn’t my thing although I’m sure there are others that will disagree with this assessment.