Tag Archives: whisky

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#DrinkUpLinkUp — 1835 Bourbon

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Over Christmas in Texas, my husband and I went to a liquor store for a bottle of… something. We walked in the door, and I immediately couldn’t decide what I wanted. None of the usual goodies sounded right. After roaming around the aisles for awhile, we ended up on the whiskey aisle. A  salesman asked if he could help us. We explained our problem: we wanted something different.

He lead us over to this:

 54: 1835 Bourbon

He told us he couldn’t keep it on the shelves because of its popularity, and he told us that it was as smooth as some of their top-end bourbons. We told him we were skeptical, we’d tried other Texas-branded liquors and had been less than impressed with all of them. (OKay, all of them except Tito’s Vodka. My husband keeps a bottle of that around all the time, he likes it so much. THEY can distill some good vodka!) He swore we’d be impressed this time, so with a sense of adventure, we went with it. Plus, it was very reasonably priced.

We got it back to my parent’s house and poured a shot of it to share.

And.

Well.

We were once again, less than impressed with a Texas-branded alcohol. This wasn’t a sipping bourbon, leaving the salesman’s claim of it being as smooth as a high-end bourbon a total empty promise. I was disappointed, but also not terribly surprised.

It mixes well enough, at least. I wouldn’t drink it on the rocks, but as a bourbon and coke or a Manhattan or old fashioned it would be fine. We’ve mixed it with coke or ginger ale to almost get through the bottle.

I’m from Texas, and I truly want to love Texas liquors… but so far, I’ve been left less than impressed. 1835 Bourbon is on that list of, “Just okay” versus “Awesomeness.”

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#DrinkUpLinkUp — Dock 57 Blackberry Whisky

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Every year, the bar I work at holds a “Christmas Decorating Party” where we all bring in little bottles of liquor, the bar provides mixer, and we “drink your ornament.” (See my blog about it here.)

One of the little bottles I grabbed at the liquor store was Canadian Club Dock 57 Blackberry Whisky.

Hmmm… another flavored whisky. I like blackberries. I’ve no opinion about Canadian Club in general. So. Why not?

When I opened the little bottle, I poured some in a shot glass and passed it around to a few friends. All said it tasted good! You could taste the blackberry heavily, and I know you could smell it without even bringing the bottle to your nose.

I mixed the rest of the bottle with 7-Up, and it made just a nice fruity drink. If you’d given it to me without telling me it was Whisky, I’d have never known. That fact alone is a plus and a minus to this whisky.

I would call this a “women’s whisky.” Oh don’t get mad at me. I know PLENTY of women who can slam back shots of Jack, Jim and Crown without even blinking. I’m one of them. But on average, women tend to gravitate to fruitier, lighter liquors.  Think the many flavored vodkas that exist today. I would actually lump this whisky right in the middle of those.

It’s 40 Proof. It’s light. Its heavy on the blackberry. It would be good hanging out by the pool, not sitting around a fire.

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