This year for the holidays I’m going to try a brand new whiskey every day in December. #lifegoals Dec. 29 One thing that this experiment has taught me: Crown Royal is decent as a distillery. I’m never going to be a fan boy, but I give credit where credit is due. I’ve had three different things from them this year, and they’ve ranged from average to outstanding. This little 50mL marks my fourth look at Crown Royal. I can’t pretend that this nose isn’t awesome. Reminds me of my favorite sour apple candies. And I mean sour. The scent alone is turning my taste buds. Body is a bit of a let down, honestly. The sour apple is there, but it’s accompanied by a sickeningly sweet syrup flavor. The nose hinted that there might be a true sour apple bomb here, but at the end of the day, this feels like just another apple liqueur. The sour apple does linger on a bit here on the finish, but you have to will yourself to forget the syrupy sweet body to be able to enjoy it. This is fine. I’d say mid to high end when it comes to a liqueur, sub par on any real whisky rubric. That sour apple influence is genuinely interesting, but I feel like they somehow screwed up the sweetness factor. Better than Jim Beam Red Stag, worse than Crown Peach and the glorious surprise that was Piehole. ‘Tis the season. I DO have 2 more new whiskeys lined up. Thanks St. Nick!