DrRHCMadden
Jack Daniel's Old No. 7
Tennessee Whiskey — Tennessee, USA
Reviewed
July 13, 2023 (edited July 23, 2023)
To this day I have never once had a Jack Daniels whisky, not even in a whisky cola. I have always held a snobbish rebuke of JD, believing it to represent an inferior and harsh spirit drank exclusively for the sake of getting drunk.
Currently sat in the Qatar first class lounge at Heathrow airport after a delightfully successful blag to gain entry I am facing down about six wine and champagne choices alongside Bombay sapphire gin and JD whisky. So here we are…
N: Supremely sweet caramel. Perhaps the vaguest hint of oily ness and maybe even a generic spice; but, ultimately I could be convinced of its use as a topping for pancakes with this nose.
P: Slightly thin, slightly sticky mouthfeel. Unsurprisingly caramel is abundant with a definite presence of candy bananas (you know the yellow foam ones?), cheap vanilla ice cream and a little presence of spirit.
F: Medium. Sticky corn syrup sweetness, a toasty presence and eventually a spirit presence in the back.
I’m surprised. I thought this would be paint stripper and a waste of my taste buds. As a cheap, mass produced whisky this isn’t as bad as others. Nothing great, but nothing awful (as long as you don’t mind sweet caramel). I’m glad to have tasted this, and at least now know that I have a safe option should I ever find myself with limited choices. I can’t see any problem with stretching this out over a cola… clearly everyone in dive bars and rock concerts has known something I didn’t all this time…
Distiller whisky taste #211
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@DjangoJohnson I get the impression this is the image they want though; the every man’s whisky and coke. I definitely avoided it to now out of a snobbish held belief it would be inferior.
@cascode damn it! My dad had a bottle of bells freshly opened for a whisky and ginger ale, completely forgot to sample. Doesn’t sound like I missed much though!
@PBMichiganWolverine my American whiskey game is weak, but seems to be growing availability in my bottle shops, so perhaps this is a future foray for me
JD 7 always makes me think of Aerosmith and Guns n Roses, drink of choice for trashy rock and roll bands to pass out on. Probably been 20 years since I’ve tried it. Perhaps it’s being a whiskey snob but the only Jack I’ve been impressed by have been barrel proof. Didn’t really dig on the recent triple mash or bonded the way I had hoped
@PBMichiganWolverine Almost everything produced at Jack Daniels is better than Old No.7 IMHO. Even for a basic Jack 'n Coke, Gentleman Jack is better. This is an old-school super-sweet and clumsy bourbon (oops, sorry, Tennessee whiskey) that I equate with similarly old-school blended scotches like Bells.
@DrRHCMadden i had the same opinion of JD until they up’ed their game to include some fantastic single barrel barrel proof versions.