Well this seems like a good a day as any to kick off the eggnog tasting. I’ll probably post this the day after the fact, but right now it’s a day off of work and I’m sitting by a fire snuggled in against the first big snowstorm of the year. It’s beginning to feel a lot like the holiday season, so the perfect time to begin the Nog Off!
Seriously, if anyone has a better name for this thing please let me know. I’m dying over here.
Also, still taking recommendations for a dairy-free eggnog. I know there’s good ones out there, what are they?
We begin the tasting competition with Hood Golden Eggnog. Why Hood Golden? Well, it was the eggnog I grew up with and honestly, it was the eggnog that made me hate eggnog. I honestly didn’t like the stuff until I made my own. (Addendum to that recipe, the stuff is wicked boozy and honestly, add some whole milk or heavy cream before you serve it otherwise it’s hot as hell). This stuff, Hood that is, is the reason why it took me forever to come around to this drink. It tastes so… artificial. It feels like it too, they really went to town with the thickeners. But the flavor is… well… I don’t know if you can candy nutmeg, or if it’s even a good idea to, but it’s like candied nutmeg and bubblegum. It’s overly sweet, overly thick, and cloying and weird.
Aren’t you glad I’m doing this? Enough warm holiday memories ruined yet? However, like some things that taste okay-ish, it might be able to vastly improve with liquor. At the very least, you’ll have liquor! So really, you can’t lose here. This is gonna work, promise.
Again, my scoring rubric will run 5 points each for taste, depth, and overall impression.
Let’s get nogging!
Ha……..
Please remember to nog responsibly.
1. Jim Beam! Alright so off the bat the flavor is… okay? It’s nothing magical here. You do get the bourbon and the eggnog flavors, but they seem more to ride alongside each other than together. There’s a red-hot cinnamon thing, and more black pepper coming from the Beam than I remember from tasting it blind, and they do a good job of cutting the sweetness of the nog. I just don’t know if it works to mix together. Flavor, 3/5. In terms of depth, there’s, again, just two battling notes here instead of a cohesive mix, but it’s interesting enough to take a couple more sips of to figure out what exactly I’m tasting. 3/5, again. Overall impression is a bit lower only because of how overpowering the Jim Beam is on the nose- it’s all I can smell, and I wish I got more nog. 2/5. Total score: 8/15. It’s fighting in the glass.
2. Evan Williams! Alright, so, the bourbon here completely disappears into the nog until the finish, where we get a lot of pepper and a bit of something like wood bitterness. Flavorwise (which Microsoft Word insists isn’t a word, and they’re probably right), I can’t really recommend this. 1/5. On depth the score is likewise low. It begins nog and ends bourbon and there’s nothing really neat about that in terms of looking at cohesion. 1/5. Overall impression is, surprise, low as well. 1/5 for no real mixed presence of the eggnog and bourbon. Total score: 3/15. I don’t know what’s happening.
3. Maker’s Mark! It’s amazing how Maker’s-y the nose on this thing is. You can smell the sweetness difference from the others, and it definitely comes through on the palate. I gave you all full warning last time that I had a bit of a bias from my unofficial tasting last year, but I can see why. I do get both the bourbon and the eggnog at the same time, and overall the Maker’s does an okay job cutting the sweetness during the first bit of sipping. The finish is a little funky, though, and almost cloying. 4/5. Depth is good, and it really gives you a chance to experience the flavors of each independently. 4/5. Overall impression is that this is a solid blend with only a little weirdness on the finish. Go for it? 4/5. Total score: 12/15. Easy and sweet, maybe too much.
4. Bulleit! I am honestly surprised at how delicious this is given my reviews on Bulleit neat. The flavors meld together so well, a little bit of spice from the bourbon and the sweetness of the nog just fit like a glove. 5/5 Taste. The depth is nice too, you know you’re drinking something alcoholic but there’s very little burn, only a nice warmth in your stomach. There’re interesting enough flavors to put it together, but nothing too jarring or out of place. 5/5. I was first intrigued by the nose here, much better than I was expecting, and every step of tasting this was pleasant. 5/5. Bulleit gets a perfect score, wow. 15/15. Harmonious and delicious!
5. Wild Turkey 101! So, flavor wise… This is hard, but the Wild Turkey is slightly overpowering. What it brings to the table that others might not is richness. This is so bold, so flavorful, and that might be some people’s boat, but there’s almost a bit too much of it here. If you like that, go for it. Here’s what I’ll do, because this actually tastes really good, think more the flavors of bourbon with eggnog in it than eggnog with the flavors of bourbon, I’ll give it 5/5 for taste. But because here the whiskey definitely dominates, rather than integrates, 4/5 for depth. My overall impression is likewise a mixed bag. If Bulleit gives you a complete, tasty sip of bourbon and eggnog, this gives you a powerful, rich blend of the two for really warming you. I’ll do 5/5 here. Total Score: 14/15. Tasty and big, but maybe too bold for some.
6. Jack Daniel’s! There is something really weird about how this tastes. My initial impression is “Oh, hey, this tastes okay…” and then a flavor like overly-smoked maple syrup arrives on the midpalate and lasts into the finish and I don’t know what happened. It’s a jarring flavor. 2/5. Depth likewise suffers from that sudden, unexpected twist. There’s too competing elements here, not one pleasant one. 2/5. Overall impression is that this is kind of interesting, but not something I’d fancy drinking repeatedly. 3/5. Total Score: 7/15.
So, that’s week one down. It looks like we have a perfect score winner: Bulleit! A surprise for me, honestly, given how little I cared for it neat. But by some accounts this was a bourbon made to be mixed, and the results of this first tasting seem to prove it. Harmonious, deliciously blended flavors and enough of a presence to know that this nog is not for kids. But Wild Turkey 101 might be more your speed if you want warming, bold, and rich- it’s a very close second for me. Whatever you’re pouring, stay tuned for next week’s results and get ready to keep nogging responsibly, cuddle up by your fires and keep warm.
Also, get excited for the release of A Place I Have Never Been, Part I, releasing Friday, and all the other holiday cheer your glass will hold!
Nunc Est Bibendum, y’all!