My Experience with Distinctive Flavors in Bourbons and Ryes

My family is a bourbon family. Ever since Father's day of 2019, we have a family tradition of completing five different blind bourbon tastings every year. Then, at the end of the year, we have each of the winners from the previous tastings go head to head in a final battle of bourbons. Then, we pick that year's winner. 

It's simple, fun, and very eye-opening. My father always ends up creating a bias inside his own head, thinking he knows which bourbon is going to win. We are always pleasantly surprised when we get the final results. 

Often, a bourbon we wrote off as "mediocre" will take the cake in the end, and our sacred "favorite" will end up dead last. You never really know what you like until you've eliminated the bias of choosing your favorite before you've actually tasted it. 

I've learned a lot for these tastings: the flavors I personally enjoy, the completely different flavors my husband enjoys, and how to taste the difference between them. Now, remember, these are blind tastings. One of the things we do in each tasting is guessed which bourbon is which. Most of the time it's difficult to decipher, and I will get one, maybe two correctly based on deduction and logic comparing each bourbon to the other candidates. BUT, there have been two whiskeys in all that we tasted that I could guess correctly based on smell alone. They are so incredibly distinct that it was no question. 

They are Angels Envy Rye and Stranahan's Single Malt Whiskey. 

I believe Angel's Envy Rye is a beast of its own category. It's almost unfair how good it is. I, unfortunately, don't remember which tasting in which we included this mighty rye whiskey but, I do remember we actually had to throw it out as a candidate because it was just so far above the rest of the contestants. I was able to detect it just by the small. It's a wild experience. I recommend you try it. 

I've always sited Stranahan's as my personal favorite rye whiskey. I am sad to report that I don't actually know if that's true since, in its respective tasting, I suffered favoritism bias. I knew I was tasting Stranahan's the second it entered my mouth, and immediately decided it was my favorite. Though I tried and tried to eliminate that bias by tasting the other's in the list, I could not and ranked Stranahan's number one. In that tasting, Blackened American Whiskey by Metallica took first place in a unanimous vote (all except mine). I'll never know if I truly like Blackened better because of my bias. 

Sounds like another tasting is in order!