Honey and Oak...Leather and Smoke

After traveling for the last three weeks straight, it was time to unwind this weekend. What better way to achieve this than with a refreshing drink, which, these days, my go-to has been the whiskey-coke. Unlike a rum and coke, I find there is a bitterness to the whiskey that the sweetness of the coke can mitigate. The alcoholic burn is less than with rum, and the caramel of the cola can bring out the smoothness in the whiskey. But what whiskey to choose? For this, we did a tasting. The candidates were:

• Collingwood
• Dewar’s White Label
• Crown Royal
• Woodford Reserve (bourbon whiskey)
• Kilbeggan Irish Whiskey
• Seagram’s 7 Dark Honey
• Jack Daniel’s Honey

Please note, I’m well aware there are a plethora of other whiskies that could have/should have made the list, but this is what I had on hand and we were tasting last minute. We were looking for two winners, one to mix, and one to sip. We knew that certain complexities of flavor would be lost in the cola, so we took that into consideration. We poured ½ a shot of each and sipped, swilled, shot, and shared our thoughts.

The Collingwood, which comes in what looks like a giant cologne bottle, was dark and rich, almost unctuous. The mouth feel was thick and the aroma heady. Dewar’s was a little more aggressive, smelling as though I was walking through the lumber department of Home Depot wearing a brown, tanned, leather jacket. The Crown Royal was smooth, lighter, with a slight burn, but not as much whiskey, woody, flavor. Woodford Reserve was slightly thicker than the crown royal, and smelled of an oak barrel in the middle of fall. It went down smooth with just enough burn on the back of the pallet to know that you are drinking whiskey. The Irish whiskey had another light mouth feel, yet still smooth. The aroma of the grain came through with a slight toasted note.

The sweet whiskies were very different. The Seagram’s 7 Dark Honey was 35% ABV (5% less than the regular) and you could taste it. While sweet, it wasn’t cloyingly so and still felt light on the tongue. By contrast, the Jack Daniel’s Honey was thicker, almost syrupy. The honey was more like wildflowers, while the Seagram’s tasted more of maple or molasses.

Now sufficiently unwound, we determined that Crown Royal was the best to mix, while the Woodford Reserve was the best to sip. Either honey whiskey would make a mighty fine Irish coffee or ice cream topping, which would be imbibed later that evening. Cheers!