Dalwhinnie 15

Alright. Round 2. Really hoping the taste of honey from the last one doesn't tarnish this one.

Cost: 20 for the dram from the club.
Alcohol Content: I did finally find where it says on the test tube. This one is  43%
Method: Neat
Color: Lemon tea.
Nose: Oh god, all I smell is honey. This one doesn't smell like pee though, which is always nice.
Taste: Tastes sweet. Kind of fruity. Maybe a little bit floral. But there's some other flavor I can't describe. Almost has a lactose quality to it.
Finish: Finish is kind of like if you had been around someone smoking a cigarette and drank a fruity scotch. Like the scotch is great but the cigarette smoke is mucking everything up. Maybe some people like that, who knows.
Notes: Meh. I probably wouldn't buy this one either. But it's hard to live up to Abulour and they may have ruined every other scotch for me.
Score: 70/100

Glenkinchie 10

Aaron and I signed up for some scotch club that would send us 3 drams of different scotches. We decided not to continue with it since it wasn't monthly (which we had assumed when we signed up) so we just have the 3 to review.

This one is the first.

Alcohol Content: Company didn't send that information (or at least I'm not seeing it) but I don't think it's crazy out of the norm or anything.
Price: For this dram? 20 bucks if you split the cost of the membership up among the samples.
Method: Neat
Nose: Smells a little bit like stale urine. Like musty musty urine. But not like hobo smell where it's beer urine. This is old man urine spilled bedpan urine. Hints of citrus.
Oh god I don't want to try this.
Color: Unsurprisingly the color is also urine. Like first thing in the morning with a hangover you need water STAT urine. Yum.
Taste: Thankfully doesn't taste like urine. Very sweet. Feels cold in the mouth.
Finish: Burn and sugar. After taste of honey. Kind of reminds me of Dewars honey coated shame but not as bad by a long shot. Like this is what Dewars should have been.
Notes; I mean it's alright. It smells awful but it's not a *terrible* scotch. Would I buy this again? No. Do I think it was worth 20 bucks for a dram? God no. Maybe it tasted so disappointing because I can't get over how much this stupid club costs.
Score: 65/100

Tin Cup Bourbon

Tonight Aaron and I made ribeye stuffed with sauteed herbs and breadcrumbs in a butter whiskey sauce. I saw this odd shaped bourbon when I was buying the ingredients so I bought it too.

The bottle is pretty cute. The cap doubles as kind of a cheep-o shot glass. Or maybe I'm just using it wrong. The bottle is hexagonal probably for some reason beyond aesthetic. But the shape is why I bought it.

Alcohol Content: 42%
Price: $21 at Winco
Method: Neat
Nose: Fruity. A tiny bit of banana.
Color: Looking in the tin cap it looks orange. Like old Fanta.
Taste: Very smooth. A hint of burn but not bad. Sweet. This is a very dangerous bourbon.
Finish: That nice sting from a good bourbon. Fruity finish which I haven't really found in many whiskeys.
Notes: I like this quite a bit. I've seen online that the price can be much higher. I would pay 30 for this but not much more because I'm cheap. But so long as the price sticks this will probably be my new go-to.
Score: 95/100

Highland Park Dark Origins

I think I got this one for Aaron for Valentines day and we're just now cracking it open. I've forgotten everything about it so hold onto your butts. I think it'll be good because it has a picture of the Gray Fox on the front.

Alcohol Content: 46.8%
Price: Don't remember
Method: Neat
Nose: Smells strong and sweet. Almost obnoxious. Like how I imagine a distillery would smell but only probably distilleries smell like nothing due to health code.
Color: Smokey Orange
Taste: Omg this is weird. It tastes flat, I don't know how else to describe that. Kind of like how honey feels in the mouth. Coating and thick and omg the flavor is everywhere.
0 sting though. I expected it to sting pretty bad with the alcohol content.
Finish: Tastes like sucking on a popsicle too long and you get that wood flavor.
Notes: Whoah, this doesn't taste like it smells. I woulda given it 90 if it had been what I expected but this tasted like something completely different. It's not bad it's just deceptive. As it is I'm happy with it but it's not my favorite.
Score: 80/100

Glenrothes

Aaron got a new job a few months ago so he bought this as a hooray type of thing. I know nothing about it and am going in blind!

Alcohol Content: 43%
Cost: I really honestly can't remember but was up there.
Method: neat
Color: Morning piss.
Nose: It smells kind of like hot chardonnay - like if you were using it for cooking and poured it into a pan. It has a really flat hot smell to it. Decidedly NOT pear or vanilla - which almost every other one smells like.
Taste: Really bland. Almost refreshing in a water sort of way. But I'm really not getting strong hints of anything in particular.
Finish: No real burn. Maybe a sweet but bitter flavor.
Notes: I've been having some allergy problems lately with all of the wind kicking pollin out of the trees. So maybe this is amazing and playful but to me, right now, it's sort of just bland. Not in a bad way it's just unexpected.
Score: 78/100 Not bad compared to some of the ones we've been having lately but nothing about it stands out.

Ardbeg Uigeadail

Aaron went to Bevmo to get some mead before they sold out for the return of Game of Thrones which, by the way, I'M SUPER EXCITED FOR. Unfortunately they didn't have any of the 7 Kingdom's beers which is a major bummer. But while he was there he picked out a new scotch. I'm going in blind - I know absolutely nothing about this one but he had a coupon so let's have at it!

Cost: $71.00 at Bevmo
Alcohol Content: 54.2%
Method: Neat
Color: Oakish?
Nose:  My husband is over here saying it smells like bacon. I think he needs to get his face checked. Beggin strips maybe... but it mostly smells like smoked wood and vanilla. It does not smell bad but I know it's probably going to taste like medicine. The wood smelling ones always do.

Husbands don't know it's not bacon.

Taste: Ick. It burns right off the bat. It tastes like it's cold if that makes any sense. But it's not a good taste. If my kids were dicking around in the kitchen and I noticed that the cupboards under the sink weren't locked and I picked them up and smelled their mouths and it smelled like this tastes I would assume they swallowed furniture polish or wood cleaner or something. It's like licking a janitor or bowling alley shoes while having someone taze your mouth.
Finish: Harsh. Regret. I hope he 71 dollars likes this because I think this is liquid bullshit. A hint of lemon.
Notes: Yeah so if you have pica and you enjoy eating handfuls of bark-chips and peated garden soil this should be right up your alley.

55/100 It doesn't have any nasty super sweet artificial flavors but it's not good either.

J&B Scotch/Whiskey blend

If memory serves me J&B was the preferred rink of Patrick Bateman; so I was surprised to find it in my local Walmart Neighborhood grocery store.

It says it's blended scotch whiskey. Something about the king wanting to drink all of Scotland at once or something.

Cost: $20.99
Alcohol Content: 40%
Method: Neat
Color: Very very light, like watered down honey. Probably the lightest of all I've tried so far.
Nose: Wood. Hint of medicine, Pear? Doesn't smell as sweet as some other scotches and is not anywhere near as peated. But I wouldn't call it a super great smell.
Taste: Strong pear, a tiny bit of bandage, general scotch flavor. If you had scotch poached pears in a hospital it would probably taste like that.
Finish: Sweet. Much sweeter then it hinted at.
Notes: Meh

70/100

Evan Williams Single Barrel Vintage Bourbon 2006

Evan Williams is a fine Bourbon. It's nothing fancy and I wouldn't brag about drinking it but I wouldn't turn it down were it offered to me. When I saw this I figured it was absolutely worth a shot and nabbed it.

First of all, they need to pass on the crappy wax seal. The pull string on mine got all jacked up and I had to chip it away with a knife. I get that it makes it look less of a hobo whiskey with the kingly seal but it was a pain in the butt to work with.

Cost: 31.99 at Vons but the membership discount brought it down to like 19 or something.
Alcohol Content: 43.3%
Color: Pretty dark and ruddy. It's akin to a light redwood.
Method: Neat.
Nose: Citrus, pear, vanilla. It smells like it's going to taste very sweet.
Taste: Not really all that sweet. Pretty strong burn. Maybe a light oak but this isn't tasting like any one specific things. I get some wood some vanilla and maybe a little bit of pear but otherwise it's very balanced.
Finish: Very strong burn - especially in the chest. The burn is lasting quite a while. Lasting flavors are woody more than anything else.
Notes: This was pretty good. I would buy it again on sale but at full price you might as well just spring for Aberlour - the Bourbon of Scotches.
Score: 80/100