Hankey Bannister Original Blend

I tasted it without knowing any thing about it. However I am impressed with the first slip and I particularly liked the wooden alorma.

In my goodie bag from the Inver House tasting last week was a little bottle of this. Now, there were two strikes against Hankey Bannister already - 1. It's a bit anticlimactic to go from tasting some of the best single malts I've ever had to a cheap, bottom shelf blended scotch, and 2. I can't think of anything connected with "Mr. Hankey" without images of a giant, anthropomorphized turd coming to mind first. Thanks, South Park. That said, I had to give this a try because...well, you're reading this. You'd have tried it, too. The nose is actually quite nice - chocolate covered banana, coconut, a little bit of lemon. The palate is, sadly, less dynamic than the nose, but hardly bad - light, sweet vanilla, a hint of chocolate, some toasted almond slivers (like what you'd put in a salad), less of the tropical fruits than the nose, but there's a distinct hint of pineapple on the otherwise short and unremarkable finish. It's not bad by any means - there are worse blends out there. But, I'm probably never going to rush home to pour myself a dram of this neat, either...maybe a great pick for making homemade Drambuie?