Mars Iwai

Nose of cherry, cherry wood, blackberry, and cassia; not a lot of flavor, some black cherry, oak, and faint anise; a little watery; pretty smooth; medium finish with medicinal cherry and oak

Jesus Christ this whiskey smells awful. I don't know what others pick up but it smells like sharpies and rubbing alcohol to me. By far and away the worst smelling swill I've ever caught a whiff of. Luckily, the taste isn't nearly as offensive as the smell. There's not very much depth of character and this whiskey tastes dirt cheap. But usually dirt cheap can lean either too heavily into no taste at all ( watered down ) or too heavily into disgusting alcohol burn. This doesn't possess either of those qualities. It's got a light taste that is decidedly blended of cheaper malts. There is a heavy corn presence but an odd sourness toward the end of the taste. It has a very strange tongue numbing sensation going down and the after taste reminds me of the same sour qualities you may get after taking a swig of warm coke. Is it worst thing in this price category? No, not even close. But to say there are much better choices in the $30-$40 / bottle range is the understatement of the year. You could do worse, but there are so many better choices.

The nose is extremely light and very hard to pick out flavors outside of cinnamon, caramel sweetness and light pear with light ethanol burn. The taste is just as light as the nose with a thin mouthfeel with flavors of pear, cinnamon, caramel and icing sugar with light ethanol burn that finishes short with a slight bitterness with caramel, icing sugar and light pear. This is a lackluster whisky with light sugar flavors and faint fruit that is better than the Mars Lucky Cat “Mint”, but only because there are no bitter dirt flavors. These appear to be selling for around $30 which is a much better value than the Mars Lucky Cat “Mint” and could be an addition to your bottle blockade that helps protect your better bottles from those magician family and friends that ask for your “smoothest” whisky followed by performing their only trick of “The Disappearing Bottle” as this can be characterized as sugary alcoholic brown water. Big thanks to @jonwilkinson7309 for the generous sample of this one.