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It is actually been quite some time since I had anything from Ole Smoky. I know that I have had quite a few of their creams, and I have certainly had some of their moonshine. I assume I have had some of their whiskey, but none of it comes to mind. If you had asked me before, I might have said they don't even make a whiskey, as I associate them so much with their moonshine. Well, if I haven't had it before, I can't say that anymore.
Yes, it pours as you expect. It might be a little more caramel in color than normal whiskey, and it might not. I've said before that I am not a whiskey connoisseur, and the only reason I even started to try any of them was their proximity to the high ABV beer that I tend to go for. There's no beer that I can recall having that is 30% ABV. I'm not sure that it would taste very good, but flavored whiskeys tend to allow the alcohol to compliment the flavor rather than dominate it. The aroma is, unsurprisingly, mostly caramel. There's a whiskey lingering underneath, but I'm not sure I can even smell salt. Does salt even have a smell? I know salt water does.
First sip appears very smooth, at first. If it didn't change, I would have just said it's smooth as melted caramel, but it does change. It's weird in that it seems like it gets watery toward the end of the drink, and then the whiskey jumps out like a creature hiding in the closet who has finally decided it's time to kill the homeowner. It calms down immediately after that, and the caramel and salt mix with the whiskey while the Kentucky hug takes hold. I can't say it was a great sip, but we'll see how it goes through the rest of this glass.
So, it gets better. The unbalanced nature seems to go away nearly immediately, and the resulting taste is relatively smooth, but the caramel is more shy than it needs to be. I get that most people drink whiskey so that they can drink whiskey, so they want to taste the whiskey. I believe that flavored whiskeys should have the flavor as the dominant ingredient over the whiskey that is the base.
Bottom Line: Not half bad, but not a go-to.
2.25/5
