Bourbon taste - Red Stag (cinnamon)

Red Stag (spiced with cinnamon)
80 proof (40% ABV) Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey infused with natural flavors

Aroma:  Pleasant aroma - hint of sweetness typical of bourbon.  Inhaling through my mouth I can sense a hint of cinnamon taste and smell.
 

First sip:  Taken neat at room temperature.  I gave the first sip a good swishing to cover all parts of my mouth and waited a moment before swallowing.  I immediately recognized the taste of bourbon with something else also present.  I couldn't immediately pick it out as cinnamon though.  After a few swishes around my mouth, I was able to feel the heat - a pleasant heat - of the cinnamon on my gums.  There was no throat burn when I swallowed, but swallowing did allow the full spice of the cinnamon to blossom - rather like the flavor and sensation of the spice in a cinnamon chewing gum.

Second and third sips:  Trying to think more specifically about the bourbon flavor on this sip...  It's not harsh.  The alcohol doesn't burn.  The alcohol seems clean - no suggestion of rubbing alcohol.  The majority of the heat is from the cinnamon.  There is a little sourness in the bourbon that I pick up on the roof of my mouth.  Any complexity or subtle flavors that might be in the bourbon are masked by the cinnamon.  Mouth feel does not stand out as thick nor thin.

Fourth taste:  Now on the rocks - in a glass with a few ice cubes.  The cool temperature takes the edge off of the cinnamon heat.  Surprisingly a little sweetness comes through when the cinnamon is damped down.  The after taste still reminds me of chewing Dentyne or Big Red gum.

Fifth taste:  Mixed with an equal amount of Coke on the rocks.  Not bad, rather tame when mixed like this.  I'm not sure either product benefits from the mixing.

Recommendation:  Not for the bourbon aficionado, but it has its place.  Order a shot at the bar or buy an 'airline' bottle (like I did) and try it.  If you sip it, it can provide an interesting diversion - a novelty - from the usual sipping experience.  Or try it as a cinnamon shooter or as a mixer.

Bourbon taste - Old Forester

OLD FORESTER (green label)
86 proof (43% ABV) Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whisky

Aroma:  Pleasant aroma - the smell of sweetness and corn

First sip:  Taken neat at room temperature.  I give the first sip a good swishing (the Kentucky chew) to cover all parts of the mouth.  A little heat on the tip of the tongue and roof of the mouth.  A normal mouth feel for bourbon - neither thick nor watery.  No throat burn when swallowing.  Flavor a little sweet, but not complex.  Hint of rubbing alcohol in the taste.  Leaves my gums feeling warm.

Second sip:  The second sip can reveal more about the flavor.  Often the first sip is dominated by the heat of the alcohol.  The first sip allows you to become accustomed to this heat and it is not as noticeable in the second and subsequent sips.  A larger sip - still some alcohol heat.  Flavor is not great, certainly not a deep or complex flavor.  Still a little bit of rubbing alcohol underlies the taste.  This is not a 'sipping' whiskey.

Third+ sips:  Now on the rocks - in a glass with a few ice cubes.  Picking up a hint of caramel in the aroma.  But now the flavor seems just unpleasant.  A little heat at the back of the palate.  I'm getting some of the flavor that I don't like in scotch whisky - perhaps a something like a smokey or burnt flavor.  The malted barley used to make scotch is dried over a peat fire and takes on some flavor from the peat smoke.  Many people love that smokey flavor, but I don't, and Old Forester has some of it.  If you want a bourbon with a touch of sweetness, a little smoke, and a bit of rubbing alcohol then this is the bourbon for you. It's not for me though.
 

Recommendation:  Pass on this one.  It's not a sipping whisky, and there are better tasting, low-cost whiskies for mixing.

Bourbon tasting

After completing a tour of Kentucky's bourbon trail I decided to do a little more bourbon tasting on my own.  The Liquor Barn chain of stores in Kentucky has an impressive selection, including a good selection of the 50 ml 'airline' bottles.  They hold just a bit more than a standard 1.5 ounce American shot (50 milliliters = 1.6907 ounces).

I picked up seven bourbons:

1. Jim Beam original - (AKA Jim Beam white)
2. Jim Beam Black - double aged
3. Red Stag - Spiced with Cinnamon
4. Booker's
5. Wild Turkey Rare Breed
6. Old Forester
7. Bulleit Bourbon Frontier Whiskey

• The first four are produced by Jim Beam distillery.  The Booker's is part of Beam's small batch collection.  Beam Inc. trades on the NYSE with the symbol BEAM.  Beam owns a large family of liquor brands, including Courvoisier, Windsor, Pucker, Maker's Mark Bourbon, and DeKuyper to name a few.
• Number five is from the Wild Turkey distillery, which is owned by parent company Gruppo Campari, who also makes Skyy vodka, Frangelico hazelnut liqueur, and others.
• Number six is from Brown-Forman distilleries.  Other Brown-Forman brands include Woodford Reserve bourbon and Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey.
•  Lastly, the Bulleit brand is owned by parent company Diageo, who produces many other brands, including Johnnie Walker, Captain Morgan, Tanqueray, and Guinness beer, to name a few.

In the 21st century, bourbon is made by large corporations, but then so is the vast majority of liquor.  It does seem that big-liquor-inc allows its bourbon making divisions to operate with a fair degree of independence.  Maker's Mark and Woodford Reserve are certainly small operations as shown by their old cypress fermenters.  And US law requires that bourbon be made in a traditional manner - aged for at least two years in oak barrels - so there is still a certain hand-crafted charm to these products.  Each of the barrels is hand loaded into the rick house where is will wait for that fateful day some 2 to 20+ years in the future when it can be tasted, catergorized, and bottled.