Lots of good advice all along the thread, but what @bump said just above seems especially resonant. Even within a category like “bourbon”, the stuff comes in a bewildering variety of styles & flavors. All hard to label or describe.
Another amber booze fan here. My bar currently has 8 open bottles of scotch, no two the same. I’m a fan of the Islay peaty smoky stuff but many of my guests are not.
The best advice was early on when picking a gift that’s otherwise a shot in the dark. Find out what brand(s) they prefer and get something along the same flavor / style profile, but a different brand or model from what they have. How to know what’s “the same flavor / style profile”? Ask the slightly raggedy old guy at the real liquor store, not the Costco.
A point nobody has mentioned yet:
There’s a bit of a proof arms race going on, especially among the micro-distilleries. For me at least, the ~80 proofs are almost all better than the ~100s. The alcohol is essential to the overall taste, but more alcohol is not better. So don’t just blindly buy the “high test” version of their usual stuff & expect that to be a big hit.
Exactly. I’d think that in general, the most popular examples of a style are a good starting point. I mean, if you were to drink say… white-label Jim Beam, you’re getting a good, solid standard bourbon. Nothing spectacular or fancy, but good quality and representative.
That’s not helpful as to individual taste for gift-giving though. I would think that if I were in your shoes, I’d quiz the person as best as I was able, to try and find out what they like, and then aim for something similar. For example, I have a buddy who likes peaty Scotch. So knowing that, I’d aim for some kind of Islay single-malt for a gift.
But if I only knew he liked Scotch, I’d probably aim for something that is more middle of the road and obviously at the price point I want- maybe one of the more expensive Johnnie Walker blends, or something from a more expensive line at a well-known distillery. Like say… one of the oddball Glenmorangie variants, or something from Compass Box maybe.
After all, the point isn’t necessarily to hit the ball out of the park. If you buy him an obviously nice bottle of booze in the type he likes, you’ve hit at least a double right there. Actually getting the sub-style right is a triple, and IMO, if you do that AND you manage to find something he hasn’t had before and likes, then that’s the home run.
But I’d be happy with a double. (A single is just giving him a gift in the first place, I’d say).
I have to mention one of the most appalling misfires of a gift bottle I’ve ever received. Several years ago my sister, knowing I like bourbon, gave me a large bottle of Jack Daniels Apple Liqueur - and apple liqueur flavored with Jack Daniels. I find it completely undrinkable (and that’s saying a lot). I would have much preferred a plain bottle of Jack Daniels. I might even have had an occasional sip of apple liqueur (although I prefer other kinds). But the combination is utterly vile. So if you’re not sure what someone likes, it’s best to stick with a safe bet rather than being adventurous.
I gave a bottle of the good stuff to a friend based on our conversations about his Scotch preferences which are quite different from mine. I got lucky and he was overjoyed with my choice.
Turns out another friend had given him a real nice bottle of something he didn’t enjoy. So he re-gifted the 90% full bottle to me. And to my taste it’s excellent. Win-win!
Even if you despise JD Apple liqueur, if you can find someone who’ll enjoy it to gift it to you’ll come out ahead.
Happy hunting. BTW, that stuff sounds awful to me too.
Hie thee to a bar (when they re-open) or hit up a liquor store for minis of each. Only way to do it because they are totally different bourbons. Maker’s is a wheated bourbon. 16% of the mash bill is wheat. Knob Creek (which is really just Jim Beam with a college education) use rye. Totally different flavor profiles, while still being having the corn flavor of bourbon. Maker’s is softer. KC has more spice. Maker’s is a lot younger as well. It is also bottled at a lower proof then Knob Creek.
As for the rest of the thread…who are you people. and what have you done with the Dopers who are usually here? Where are the pronouncements on taste that condemn 3/4 of the readers as naugahyde-palated troglodytes? You people are letting me down!
As for cheap-ass vodka, my preferred brand is Kavlana at ~$6.95/handle. I use it to clean glassware now that rubbing alcohol is impossible to find. But there is no way I am ever drinking anything less than Tito’s.
I think I somewhat agree, but I think contrary to common opinion there are subtle differences between good brands of vodka. I did favor Stolichnaya for a while but then switched back to plain old Smirnoff. Someone flying in internationally once brought me a large bottle of Absolut via duty-free, and I found I much preferred its clean taste to that of Smirnoff. It’s slightly more expensive but not by much. It’s been my go-to vodka ever since. But I would agree that stuff like Grey Goose (at nearly twice the price) is ridiculously overpriced, but Absolut is definitely worth the small price difference over Smirnoff. Not sure how Stolichnaya compares since I’ve never done A-B testing, but I do like Absolut and I’d much rather support the Swedish economy than the Russian (actually, I believe Absolut is now French-owned but still made in Sweden).
Believe me, if I could think of anyone who might like it, or there was someone that I really disliked, I would have given it away years ago. At this point I am think of leaving it in the park, but I am afraid kids would get into it.
On the other hand, I once inadvertently bought a bottle of Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey (same deal but with honey liqueur) because the label was similar to the regular stuff and I didn’t look carefully at it. While it’s not my thing, I was able to gradually consume that one.
If I’m going to mix a liqueur with a whiskey, my preference is Rusty Nails (Scotch and Drambuie). I first tried it because that it was what the bartender at my favorite Bronx bar in the 1960s would pour himself it you offered to buy him a drink.
Some gave us a bottle of Royal Crown Apple a few years back. It sat in the liquor cabinet until I found an excuse to “gift” it to my redneck neighbors, who loved it. I’d rather be sober.
A fine description of Laphroaig, and most helpful for anyone considering trying some. I always describe it as being like proper whiskey drunk from an ashtray.
Feel free to send any excess Laphroaig you may have over to me. I love the stuff.
A few years ago they stopped making my favorite 16 year. ISTM they realized they could simply hold it another 9 years, call it a 25 year, and bump the price from ~US$80 to ~US$350/bottle. So they did.
I wonder if y’all are talking about the 10 year; that stuff is pretty harsh.
Now failing to get good affordable Laphroaig my go to favorite Islay is Lagavulin 16. Not as complex, but every decent liquor outlet carries it.
I like both Royal Crown, um, excuse me, Crown Royal, Deluxe and Rye. Last year I received a bottle of Crown Royal Peach. Incredibly nasty stuff. When I discovered that my neighbor liked it, I immediately re-gifted my bottle to him.
It tastes like a tire fire with just a hint of gym sock.
I bought a bottle once. I gave it to my boss and he accused me of trying to get his job using the mirror universe method. It ended up going to the sales guy nobody liked.
Going the other direction, The Balvenie single malt 12 yr double wood was very drinkable, but you really have to like sweet flavored scotch though.
Many of my own liquor preferences have nothing to do with the actual quality of the spirit but rather have everything to do with a positive experience I associate with that brand.
My favorite vodka is Stoli, not because it particularly stands out in the vodka spectrum (it doesn’t), but rather because when I worked for Safeway one of the floor guys was a Russian immigrant who had about a 100 word English vocabulary. I made friends with him, and that year for Christmas he presented me with a fifth of Stolichnaya and proudly proclaimed “Russian vodka!” when he gave it to me. He stopped working with us shortly after that but I never forgot.
My favorite whiskey is Canadian Club, not because it’s great whiskey (it’s not), but it was the favorite drink of a Syracuse bluesman I really respected that was a close friend of a close friend.
This is true. My first visit to Jamaica on a cruise, I bought a $7 bottle of rum, just because it was $7. You can’t buy anything in Canada that cheap. It turned out to be one of the best rums I’ve ever had (although I admit I don’t drink a lot of rum to begin with).
