Teacher's Highland Cream

Honest value, especially for the price. But to call it "cream of the highlands" would be stretching it...

Nose: Barely perceptible - lighter than either Cutty Sark or J&B. Nothing but ethanol with the faintest wisps of generic "whisky" aroma. Palate: Hah! You call this a palate? I call it the taste of regret. Once again it's just ethanol with some faint whisky-ish flavour. It's like someone took a bottom shelf scotch and watered it down with industrial alcohol to the point where you can hardly taste anything. Finish: Mercifully fleeting. Faintly sour, metallic and bitter with no discernible character at all. This stuff may have 3 year old grain whisky at the heart (well, it has to, doesn't it?) but its personality has devolved into nothing more than "essence of dead cask". It is a huge disappointment and a mere shadow of its once powerful self. There was a time when this had a bold and assertive smoky character from start to finish and it was my affordable mixer of choice, but sadly those days are gone. A few years ago the brand was purchased, along with several other properties, by Beam Suntory who immediately changed the blend, the packaging and the character of the whisky. The words "Distilled, blended and bottled in Scotland" once appeared proudly on the label. Now it just says "Product of Scotland" which infers that it is shipped in bulk and bottled at the market destination. I'm giving it half a star on the assumption that it doesn't contain methanol. UPDATE: Re-reviewed 11May18. I took the risk and bought a bottle of this a year after my initial review to see if it had improved at all. It has not, in fact it has deteriorated. In comparison to this, Johnnie Walker Red is nectar. One last note: I know from experience that there are blends that are much worse here in Australia than overseas - presumably we don't actually get the real McCoy in these cases. Grant's, Black Bottle and others are like this so it's possible that Teacher's might be alright in the UK but appalling over here. "Very Poor" : 59/100 (0.75 stars)

I was iffy on this after some recent reviews but I found it to be a pleasant dram. Has hints of peat smoke through the malty sweetness of the nose, the palate is pretty sweet with caramel but there is a nice subtle bit of peat to balance it out. finish is smooth but very short. Overall I enjoyed it, and I would rank it up there with Famous Grouse as an easy drinking every day type of dram for me.