I tend to steer away from Irish whiskey, I’m not sure why. Even after a visit to the Whisky Museum in Dublin early into my first year of whisky nothing really took me. The opportunity to try six different offerings from a single distillery though seemed like a good opportunity to explore what was possible with a more mature palate and outlook. Enter Hyde. Triple distilled via a traditional ‘Coffey Still’ from pure corn and barley followed by maturation for over 6 years in charred, first fill ex-bourbon casks from Kentucky in the USA. N: Wow, initially I am smacked in the face by a wall of sickly candy sweetness followed by a stiff acetone. This is sitting out for ten minutes before I put it anywhere near my face again. Now the acetone has dissipated the sweet candy corn has also subsided to reveal a sweet vanilla, lightly toasty biscuit, rum and raisin ice cream, and a soft woodiness. Call me crazy but I am convinced I smell roast parsnip too. According to the Hyde website and other reviews there are ‘middle easter spices’ and ‘cinnamon’; I disagree, not a single hint of spice here for me. P: Slightly cloying stickiness with a mouth filling peppercorn vibrancy. Sweetness is main characteristic here, vanilla heavy fructose syrup laden caramel; the kind you would add a squirt to in a caramel latte. Maybe a slight confectioners custard type quality here also. But, honestly, I get nothing else. F: Shot-medium. Slightly malty, but the combination of pepper and sticky sweetness carry over from the palate to mask any kind of finish development. Oh dear. What a disappointing start. Overwhelmingly sweet with no character, progression, or really any redeeming qualities other than the fact it isn’t outright offensive. Grain whisky, done right, I think is great (Nikka Coffeey Grain; hello!). This may as well have been a measure of corn syrup with vanilla extract in it. I don’t actually know how to accurately score this, but it’s definitely not for me. Distiller whisky taste #168 [Wasting one of my favourite rocks on this measure: a fantastic LCT-Pegmatite. This chonky-boi is an igneous rock formed from highly evolved magmas rich in volatiles, fluids and incompatible elements and is a major source of Lithium (the L in LCT). This particular pegmatite features bluish clevlandite, white albite, red tourmaline, dark purple lepidolite, light purple cookite and glassy pollucite. Pollucite is the main ore mineral of caesium (the C in LCT). There is no T (tantalum) in this example. Rock comes from Sinclair in the eastern goldfields of Western Australia] Hyde running scores No. 3 Aras Cask Bourbon: 2/5