Nose - Light floral, white fleshed fruites, unripe green plums, honeyed black tea. Taste - Sweet golden raisins, sugar coated gummy apples, more honeyed fruity oversteeped black tea lending a tiny hint of bitterness, faint whisp of a smoked tea like if you put tea in one of those cocktail smokers and let that mingle with the whisky in a glass. Hint of candied ginger. Finish - Lingering heat like if you took a bite of a potent piece of candied ginger, faint black tea bitterness. Score - 89/100 Final Thoughts - So I find this quite similar to the Taketseru 12 but slightly less smoky/peaty and has less of a Asian tropical fruit vibe. It's pretty tasty and is a bit higher proof which is nice. It's good on its own but I can see how it could get a bit boring. I could see this doing very well in a highball or maybe even a cocktail that features something like St. Germain, sparkling wine, or a lighter citrus like lemon or kumquat. More on the orange/lime/grapefruit and less lime as I can see that might be a bit too much for this.