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Whisky Review: Crown Royal Bourbon Mash Whisky

We review the controversially named Crown Royal Bourbon Mash, which will only be sold for one year before Diageo is forced to change its name.

OVERALL RATING

5
$30.00
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Tasting Notes

About:

Appearance:
The whisky pours the familiar color of golden brown snickerdoodles, bouncing lively in the glass and leaving behind lovely legging. It possesses a solid level of clarity despite being a bit muddy or drab in its brightness.
Nose:
The aroma is robust, although it does not come off as appealing. A very dry, unappetizing melange of wood shavings and paint thinner hits first, followed by some nuance of estery banana and classic circus peanuts. There is a hint of something promising, apricot, maybe, or guava. Whatever subtleties were to be imparted by the use of bourbon barrels are unfortunately absent in the aroma.
Palate:
The first impression as it coats the palate is surprise, pleasantly, that this beverage is not as dominatingly sweet as the more accessible Crown Royal products. That’s about where the pleasantness ends, however, as the next perception is one of a flabby, thin body. The woodiness dominates the taste, evoking near-saline levels of umami and the dry, lingering character of peanut shell dust. Some vanilla appears at this stage, but reads in to a bigger bit of acrid, burnt caramel. There is a drinkability present, in part due to the thinness, once the palate acclimates to the sharper points here, which may be the high point of this drinking experience.
Finish:
Comments:
There will be many disappointed, uninformed bourbon drinkers who snag this affordable bottle on a quick, blind run to the liquor store. And I can’t imagine fans of the syrupy yet amazingly mixable purple-bagged OG edition will be much happier if they accidentally scooped up this bottle. My leftovers here will certainly find their way in to a tall shaker pint with ice and a dry, citrusy, or gingery soda on a hot summer day.

Editor’s Note: This whiskey was either bought as a sample by The Whiskey Wash or provided to us as a review sample by the party behind it. Per our editorial policies, this in no way influenced the outcome of this review.

Jim Bonomo

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