The over-hyped, glossy packaging and tepid “remarks” of the creators in the ad campaign really illustrate the “shotgun wedding” that is Beam-Suntory. Congrats on taking the Beam mashbill and making it taste like a soft, unfocused Japanese whiskey. Did they really need to create the “first new brand” in umpteen years to do that? The packaging is sexy, the marketing is sexy, and the story tries to be compelling. In the end, though, this comes across as kind of forced—contrived, even. I searched for weeks to find this only to discover that, over a month of tasting and re-tasting, I just don’t get much from this. It’s not offensive, or even badly made and blended. However, just not exciting and doesn’t live up to its considerable, if ad agency-conceived hype. It is always on the shelves, so they either have produced a ton of it…or it isn’t selling.