Hofland Sloe Gin

The ratings before me don’t give me much hope for this, but at least I never intended to drink it neat other that for this rating. Potently sweet nose, like snow cone syrup perhaps, of berries, plum, maraschino cherry and a little something herbal. Very sweet on the palate, featuring the aforementioned fruits and a small amount of noticeable gin. Thick and syrupy mouthfeel. It’s certainly not for drinking neat, but I think it has a good flavor (in small amounts) for cocktails.

Terrible neat. Might be tolerable in a mix drink.

Wow! If given a blind taste test with this and cherry cough syrup, I do not think I could tell the difference. Candy sweet with a strong medicinal flavor. OK with champagne or Prosecco in a fizz or royale, but I’d rather have something more interesting like creme de cassis. Had been meaning to try this but will not get again.

Nose - cherry cola or Kool-Aid, cough syrup, raspberry hard candy, mild ethanol burn. Taste - cloying cherry cough syrup, raspberry lollipop, grape juice, vanilla, nondescript herbal notes, finishing long with syrupy cherry Kool-Aid and cough syrup flavors. This smells and tastes like mixing half cherry Kool-Aid and half cherry cough syrup. It’s very easy to drink, but chemically and cloying. I can’t imagine ever wanting to drink this, either neat or in a mixed drink. I’m rinsing my mouth out with water now to flush out the lingering sickeningly sweet stickiness.

Rating: 7/23 N: Super sweet. Cherry, Hawaiian Punch, something a bit artificial and off-putting like Veil Citron. Not much complexity here, but as a sweet mixer in a fruity drink, it smells like it could work. P: It's fruity, sweet, and just a bit artificial. Cherry cough syrup, to some extent. It's a bit more bitter and tart than the nose suggested. That artificial citron taste kind of becomes cranberries a bit. I do get some more herbal, bitter flavors, and maybe a hint of pine that could be the juniper, but more than that I get cranberry herbal infusion. You know, that stuff in tea bags that tastes awful if you leave it in hot water for more than 3 seconds? This is a far superior version of that though. There are some sweet raspberry flavors as well and maybe a little bit of cherry, but I have trouble picking anything else out. F: The artificial flavor stays and the tartness comes out a bit more. I am even more convinced that it tastes like cranberry. There's still some bitterness and sweetness. The finish doesn't improve my opinion of this. Well, it isn't good. I don't think I've had a raspberry liqueur - which this reminds me of - that's worse than this. At the same time, it's far from being as bad as Southern Comfort. It tastes quite artificial and sweet, but it's just nowhere near being as bad. This is actively unenjoyable, but it at least isn't harsh and it certainly isn't among the bottom few things I've tasted. I can't imagine going harsher than a 4 on this, but I also can't see higher than an 8. I'm was thinking that a 6 was most appropriate for a while, but now I'm thinking of a 7. An 8 seems more plausible than it did before, but not likely. That artificial flavor is pretty bad. At least it doesn't rip the taste buds off of my tongue though.