By
George Brozowski
Honestly
now, what is it with all these convoluted flavorings
that are appearing in nearly every spirit distilled today?
Bourbon has gone sweet. Vodka comes in so many flavors I can't
keep track. Why even beer comes in dozens of flavors. Gins
ingredient list keeps growing with more botanicals being added
almost daily, there's no end to it. If you ask me I think
it's the marketing departments at all those distilleries that
want to push their product lines into more markets that are
forcing the issue.
It's
like the gateway theory of drug abuse. If you start smoking
marijuana you'll eventually end up hooked on heroin. These
flavored spirits and lower alcohol spirits are the gateway
liquors that get people started by drinking say a sweet scotch
and then progressing to normal unflavored scotch. It must
be working otherwise every distiller in the world wouldn't
be doing it.
However
the Scottish folks have raised more than their eyebrows at
all of this hanky panky. The Scotch Whisky Association has
come out with a ruling that in part states:
"There
is no law preventing the production of new products based
on Scotch Whiskey. The important thing is that they are labeled
and marketed in a way that clearly distinguishes them from
Scotch Whiskey.... Under EU law it has to be sold under the
sales description 'Spirit Drink'.... Promotion of the product
should also not suggest it is Scotch Whiskey."
And
so after close examination of the Dewar's Highlander
Honey labels I noted that the spirit is described
as "Dewar's blended Scotch Whiskey infused with natural
flavors" on the front label. On the back label it clearly
states, "Spirit Drink".
Since
Dewar's Scotch is really good Scotch I couldn't
wait to see how this "spirit drink" stacks up against
the original so here goes.
The
nose is definitely sweet honey backed by the smoky aroma of
scotch. There is also a whiff of alcohol but that dissipates
quickly. It actually smells so nice that if this were a candy
I'd pop it right in my mouth. It tastes like a smoky candy
on the palate. I mean this stuff is sweet straight up. The
scotch takes a few steps forward but the honey is still out
front. You definitely get a sense of the scotch and it does
taste nice and smooth and smoky with a hint of oak. The finish
is warm and pleasant and coats the throat like honey would
and it lasts a while. On the rocks the honey mellows out and
the scotch flavor comes out a bit more. It seems much more
balanced on ice. It's still pretty sweet though. This might
make an excellent after dinner drink or a dessert substitute.
To
try out my gateway theory I took the Dewar's Highlander Honey
and a bottle of traditional Dewar's scotch
over to a friend's house who I knew didn't drink or like scotch.
She tried the Highlander honey and liked it well enough to
end up having three drinks on the rocks.
When
she tried the traditional Dewar's she scrunched
up her nose and said she didn't care for it. Now I know that's
a rather small sampling to provide empirical scientific proof
but it certainly upholds my gateway scotch theory, enjoy!
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