Stranahan's Single Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt

Woah.. alot different than the non-cask strength Stranahans..Taste is super heavy green tea and floral, wood and that sweetness from Robitussin/artificial cherry.. Not my favorite from them, and not in my top 10 cask, but very interesting still.. Using this in my infinity bottle to add some complex tea and floral notes

Needs water to open up

Heavy vanilla nice flavor.

Tonight I'm enjoying a glass of Stranahan's Cask Strength Single Malt. This is a single barrel offering selected for @cheersliquor and is bottled at cask strength, 55.62% ABV. I previously reviewed and enjoyed another single barrel offering of Stranahan's bottled at 47%, so I knew I had tovtry the next step up. Purchased at @cheersliquor while visiting family in Colorado Springs for $54.99 and that seems to be a good price in the cask-strength single-barrel market these days. No information on age, filtering, or coloring is provided on the bottle. My detailed thoughts and rating below: ⠀ ⠀ 🥃 Stranahan's Single Barrel Cask Strength Single Malt - 55.62% ABV ⠀ Nose: Apples. Brown sugar. Pie crust. Bright spices, like cinammon an peppermint. ⠀ Taste: A complex mix of holiday baking spices, fruity sweetness, a good mix of oak, black pepper, and some heat! Really delicious and bold stuff. Great for a warm night. The palate is much more robust than the nose, which is more nuanced. The oak adds is drying and intense on the palate, but still feels appropriate. The texture is silky and the finish is quite long, leaving your mouth tingling and warm. Compared to the Stranahan's bottle I reviewed previously, this is much spicier and more oak influenced. Additionally, the the texture here is less oily than the previous bottle, but that could be partially due to the ABV. Overall, this is another great single barrel by Stranahan's and it makes more an absolutely delcious wintertime drink (it was 70 deg F here in San Diego today, but still). Cheers to Stranahan's and cheers to Cheers! ⠀ Current rating: 87/100

Taste: This is Kenwood Liquors Barrel #12-1171. 1.5 oz neat in tasting glen cairn Nose: (3.5) Dusty corn and cream soda on the nose. There is also some spearmint but a bit artificial like those jellied spearmint leaf candies. There is a sweetness about it but not sickingly so. It does smell like this will be a younger offering but is well assembled, offers me the notion that there will be a bit to unpack here. Palate: (3.25) Thicker viscosity and a waxiness. It is the waxy taste that you get from Vernor's Ginger Ale. It was interesting to me but could really be odd for others. This is a sweet whiskey. Really present is creamed corn or what one might also describe as corn pudding corn. Finish: (3.25) quicker, candy-like finish. Halloween candy corn is the dominant trait that you end on with the artificial spearmint leaf in the background. Overall- First, I am not usually a fan nor do I usually dabble in malted whiskey. Often they are too earthy and grainy for my taste. This one wasn't that way. Although it had some vegetable-like notes it did not give me that that "spilled on a dusty silo floor and hastily put back in the bottle" note that usually chases me off. The sweetness was another matter. This is very thick and candy-corn like! Definately is a dessert offering and will be well received by those with a sweet tooth. The strange jelly candy spearmint throws me off and seems kind of out of place. To me this is an odd-ball. You have to open your mind up to what it is, and what it isn't. It is not a traditional whiskey but it is a sweet, thick, young offering that makes interesting use of malt in the mashbill. It very much reminds me of Greg Metze's Old Elk. I don't hate or love it. It is simply different, but that doesn't make it bad. This piqued my interest.