Whiskey of the Month #9: Tennessee Honey

I'm shamelessly plundering Father Cigar's stash this month (it's easy to do when he's in Italy) and I thought I'd purloin a dram of Tennessee Honey and start the summer drinking season off right.  While I admit I haven't tried every honey whiskey out there (Rebel Reserve's Honey Whiskey has been looking mighty tasty of late but I think I'll be holding out for a new single malt towards the end of the summer, so stay tuned) but I think of the ones I have tried, Tennessee Honey is probably my favorite.

Why?  Well, it's easy to drink.   A lot of people are turned off by whiskey's smell and even the taste (I think both are the best parts, myself) but with Tennessee Honey, you get something rare: a balance between the sweetness of the honey and the flavor of the whiskey that makes for an exceptionally smooth and eminently drinkable whiskey experience.   You can throw this into any glass you have handy and get happily pickled on your porch, no problem.   Throw in some ice to have it on the rocks and you have a perfect refreshment for a hot summer's day.

Now, to business:

Color: A perfect shade of golden honey.

Body: I'll freely admit I haven't actually taken a whiff of too many honey whiskies--  I'm usually busy guzzling them down, but the initial impression gives you a nice wave of sweetness- but what flavor of sweetness is hard to pin down.  There's honey, to be sure-but I think my overall impression is one of caramel/toffee more than anything else.

Palate:  This reminds me a little bit of Drambuie- another honey based liqueur that's traditionally used in Rusty Nails (I tended to make mine heavy on the Drambuie- and if memory serves, I committed what many would consider an unforgivable sin with my first legal purchase of alcohol by using a bottle of 12 Year Old McCallan to mix them with.)  The viscosity, however is not as thick and syrupy as Drambuie- but its not watery either-  it's pretty well balanced between the two extremes.

There's an underlying taste of nuttiness to this that I can't quite pin down.  I keep wanting to say walnuts, but it's very subtle.  While the body suggests toffee, I would say caramel comes to the forefront with the palate- and the harshness of the Jack Daniels is very evident.

Finish:  I have yet to taste a whiskey that warms as satisfyingly as this one does.  This goes down easily and smoothly and warmth follows from the top of your head to the tip of your toes.  

Overall: If there's a better honey whiskey out there, I have yet to taste it.   This one isn't too sickly sweet and balances the flavors of the honey and the Jack Daniels perfectly.   While I may not be a regular drinker of Jack (the one large bottle high above my bookshelves is courtesy of our friend, the Rainbow Wahine who left it here after a very, very long and memorable weekend) I can safely say that if I found a bottle of Tennessee Honey as big as the empty huge-ass handle of Jack I've got gathering dust above me, I'd buy it.  This stuff is that good.