Fifth Avenue Forum

may the odds be ever in your favor

If they're available, Espolon or Olmeca Altos Plata are really good and pretty damn budget friendly. Those two would be my choice/recommendation.

Espolon was pretty much my go to for a while. My wife grabbed a bottle of Tequila Ocho Plata and I really liked that. I'll give Olmeca Altos Plata a shot next time I'm at the liquor store.

Dickie with the most polite way of saying: that's sh*t.

It’s not “sh*t”. If you like a sweeter flavor profile it’s pretty damn good. I have a bottle of the stuff sitting in our liquor cabinet. It’s just that as far as the purists are concerned it’s not “real” tequila.

That makes sense. My first thought was it didn’t seem super tequila like but it was still good/tasty. Def not “sh*t” I’ve had “sh*t.” I still say budget wise Cabo Wabo or Olmeca Altos could be enjoyed just as much. As we try new tequilas and revisit some old ones I will say Cabo is more bland than anything but it’s not a bad thing if you want to do a shot or make a margarita.

Espolon just had a bit too much bite for me.

pappy raffle open https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outl ... reserved=0

Hmm, link isn't working on the page

A few months ago, my local liquor store sold a bottle of Pappy 10 for $1,000.

It's just not worth that much. I'd rather buy a bottle of something like Woodford Double Oaked, Old Forester 1920, Russell's Reserve Single Barrel, Larceny Barrel Proof, Knob Creek Barrel Proof, Elijah Craig Barrel Proof, etc. and save myself at least $925.

Opened a new bottle that I like very much so far: George Remus Bourbon. This is a high-rye bourbon (94 proof; no age statement) from MGP in Indiana. The unique thing is that "George Remus" is a new house brand for MGP, so this isn't MGP whiskey that it being bottled/labeled by another company. I get citrus, caramel, and nice rye spice. It's around $40 and worth the price. Unfortunately, it's not (at least yet) available in Pennsylvania. I picked up the bottle on a trip over to Ohio. This is one I will buy again the next time I drive over.

Was over in Ohio over the weekend to see some family members, and I did some liquor shopping before returning. Picked up the new George Dickel Bourbon, Old Grand-Dad 114, and Cleveland Underground Black Cherry Wood Bourbon, along with a bottle of aged applejack (Tom's Foolery Straight Applejack) and a bottle of Flores Zuta Osa Slivovitz. The only slivovitz I've ever seen in PA is Maraska.

Mmmmm slivo

Kicked some bottles and opened some new ones. First finished up was George Dickel No. 12, which I bought over in Ohio because PA only carries the Dickel Rye for some reason. Dickel has a lot of haters, but I think it's a good whisky at a great price, and I'd take George Dickel 12 over Jack Daniels' standard offering any day. I have additional bottles of Dickel to try, including the Barrel Select and the 13-year Bottled in Bond. The next bottle for my "Tennessee Whisky" slot* is Jack Daniels Single Barrel Select.

Next finished up was Alberta Premium Rye Cask Strength. This is a powerful, spicy rye. I think mine was around 130 proof, so it needs a little water to be really drinkable, but it's really good when proofed down a bit. The "Whisky Bible" guy called it his whisky of the year for 2021, and while I'm not sure it's that good, it is very good. This whiskey demonstrates that Canada is capable of producing whisky that isn't bottom-shelf crapola, which makes it all the more irritating that virtually all of the Canadian stuff on our stores is bottom-shelf crapola. I've heard people say that "Canada makes great whisky, but most of it doesn't make it to the US," and this gives credence to that sentiment. I recommend this stuff, and it's still pretty widely available in PLCB stores. The next bottle for the rye slot is Bulleit Rye.


* I've decided to limit myself to at most 10 open bottles of whisky at any one time: (1) a budget bourbon; (2) a mid-shelf bourbon; (3) a high-end bourbon; (4) a rye; (5) a Tennessee whisky; (6) a Scotch; (7) an Irish; (8) a Japanese whiskey; (9) a whisky from a craft distillery; and (10) an American spirit that generally does not fall into any of the other categories, such as wheat whiskey, corn whiskey, single malt, applejack, etc.

Been drinking a lot of Old Fashioneds lately. I made a simple syrup where the sugar component was a 50/50 mix of brown sugar and molasses, and I've been buying a ton of oranges because they're in season in the winter, so I have a ton of orange peel to use. Hot damn, does an Old Fashioned with molasses simple and a flamed orange peel come out tasty.

Sounds excellent. I'm loaded on bourbons just waiting til my Japanese whiskey rampage cools down.

The orange peel 100% makes the old fashioned and the negroni/boulevardier... without the orange, they're okay. I will (and do) drink them as I don't always have oranges around, but the pop that the orange peel gives is incredible.

Been drinking a lot of Old Fashioneds lately. I made a simple syrup where the sugar component was a 50/50 mix of brown sugar and molasses, and I've been buying a ton of oranges because they're in season in the winter, so I have a ton of orange peel to use. Hot damn, does an Old Fashioned with molasses simple and a flamed orange peel come out tasty.

I'll need to try with the brown sugar and molasses, but not a huge fan of molasses. The orange is definitely key. I also add a twist of lemon to it sometimes as well.

I am a big fan of molasses, so factor that into my recommendation. I love stuff like molasses cookies and Boston brown bread.

Oh **** molasses cookies. Now we’re talking.

Kicked some more bottles. Wild Turkey 101 is a smashing value for a bourbon that one can buy pretty much everywhere for $25. The extra oakiness makes for a great cocktail whiskey, and it's plenty good enough to sip neat. It's utterly absurd that regular Buffalo Trace, which has roughly the same MSRP, is unobtainium in PA when WT101 is everywhere. They're basically competing products.

Knob Creek 9 is a decent bourbon, but it just didn't do it for me. I got baking spices, peanut shells, cereal grains, and a bit of caramel, but it came off as drier than I like in a bourbon. I understand the "peanut shells" thing is a characteristic of Beam products, and maybe if one really likes Beam they'd like this, but for me there's a lot of very good bourbon around the $35-ish price point, and the KC 9 just isn't my bag.

Going to open a bottle of Larceny next.

I’m a Negroni/boulevardier fan. I had some lemons left from some baking and gave a cocktail called the Italian gentleman a go… it’s awesome imo.

https://www.cocktailexplorer.co/cocktai ... bartender/

I replaced the simple syrup with yellow chartreuse and it’s quite good. I served it with a lemon twist garnish.

I've been sticking with my brown sugar/molasses Old Fashioneds, but I've been experimenting with different bitters. Of course I have the ubiquitous Angostura, but I also picked up three bottles of "The Bitter Truth" brand bitters from Amazon: (1) Aromatic Bitters; (2) Bogart's Bitters; and (3) Drops & Dashes Roots Bitters limited edition. I think I like all of them better than Angostura. The Aromatic Bitters, in particular, seems to have more of a "baking spices" element to it than Angostura does, and I can definitely smell allspice and cloves. Those will go very nicely with bourbon cocktails in particular because bourbon itself often has that sort of "baking spice" flavor.

Changing up the bitters really gives one insight into just how much flavor they are bringing to a bitters-containing cocktail, which IMO is quite a lot. It makes for an interesting experiment.

Was down in Sevierville TN over a long weekend for a family reunion... staying in a cabin with 21 relatives most of which I haven't seen in 8 or so years. Didn't realize that my uncles and cousins are huge bourbon and scotch fans, so we ended up having a nice little smorgasbord.
At one point, these were all open...

Angel's Envy Finished Rye - Aw man...this one was so good. A bit sweet...maple syrupy...but as a sipper? Sooo smooth and still clean, even with the sweetness . It amazing how much the rum casks change the flavor profile.

Woodford Reserve Double Oaked - just so good. And it was a 1.75l bottle. I really need to just have a bottle of this in my stash at all times.

Four Roses Single Barrel - Love single barrels. I forgot to take a pic of the bottle for the barrel info, but this one was excellent. A bit of an alcoholy initial punch on the tongue (like a single malt), with the sweetness coming in after. Less 'smooth', but right in my wheelhouse.

Buffalo Trace - hey look...a state where it's readily available. Brought 2 bottles back with me.

Elijah Craig Small Batch - really good, but this one went with ginger ale so that I didn't fall off the smoky mountains.

Balvenie 12 year Doublewood - for the scotch drinkers. Absolutely love this one...sometimes you just want to taste some peat, although this one is not all that peaty and smoky. Was a good compliment to the bourbons.

Not too shabby.

That's a hell of a line up. Good stuff.

Happy cinco de Mayo.

I made some steak tacos and then after the little one went to bed I made some margs. We wanted another round but were out of limes. But had lemons…

2:1:1:1 tequila (blanco):lemon juice:elderflower liquors:triple sec

I don’t think it’s a named cocktail, but it’s delicious. Give a go if you have the stuff.

My dad got me a bottle of Buffalo Trace while he was in Kentucky. Good stuff? Haven't had it before.

Buffalo Trace is a perfectly good bourbon at the $30 or so price point. I like it a lot, back when I used to be able to buy it. But I don't think it's going to knock your socks off when compared to other stuff in that approximate price range, such as Elijah Craig Small Batch, Four Roses Small Batch, Maker's Mark, Larceny, or even Wild Turkey 101.

It's unobtanium in many places (like here in PA) simply because it comes from the Buffalo Trace Distillery, and a lot of people think that everything that BT makes must be just like George T. Stagg, or Eagle Rare, or E.H. Taylor (which also all use the Buffalo Trace "low rye" #1 mash bill), so the demand is through the roof. Such thoughts are silly because the master distillers at every distillery select barrels for specific bourbons at specific price points. If the juice in a given barrel tastes good enough to sell as George T. Stagg or Eagle Rare, then it will be bottled and sold as George T. Stagg or Eagle Rare. No one is going to put juice in a $30 bottle that tastes good enough to put in a $60 bottle.

I happened to stop into my local liquor store a while ago and they must have just gotten a delivery as I was able to pick up a bottle of BT at retail price. It is good, but like Shyster wrote, it isn't anything amazing and I wouldn't spend more than retail for it.

It's ok. The clamor for it is ridiculous