The Simply Whisky “Good Times” (8 Year Old Single Grain Irish Whiskey 45.6%)

30 ml of Led Zeppelin minus the Bad Times

Tasting notes:
On the nose, I find some great, high register notes: lemon curd, caramelized pear, melted (paraffin-free) candle wax (unflavored), and coconut. There’s also a distinct note there of freshly baked banana bread that’s a little light on the banana, but with the other flavors, particularly the vanilla, picking up the slack.

The mouth is bright and zesty, with more banana bread, but this time with a super-creamy lemon icing. I also get pear peel soaked in Pinot Grigio essence that’s been spiked with a teaspoon of Fireball™. Chew on it for a bit, and it becomes a tart lemon cheesecake (actually, something like that would be amazing with this whisky) with a hint of stewed green bell pepper lurking in the background–not ominously, though, more like an anxious child in the background waiting to speak with Santa. But the spiciness of the (later) mouth is just crazy: it’s like the feeling I expect a motherboard has when the processors are working overtime to render high quality images for a teenage boy.

The finish is piquant, but intensely so. It is so intense, in fact, that no one particular tingle or vibration stands out. Rather, it’s a warm blanket of spice with a thin layer of lemon creme between it and your body. We’ve argued that some finishes induce well-being, and while this one certainly does that–thus living up to its name–I find myself searching for other words that capture the feeling this finish engenders: indemnifying, beatifying, remunerating, insulating, anti-gentrifying [John: What does that even mean?][Bill: Forget it, he’s rolling…], socially distanced, gladdening, honeydewed, longing…OK, actually, it’s just long. Really, really long. It induces no longing, but rather satisfies it–satisfies longings I didn’t even know I had.

   

Rating:
On the scale of famous lemon tarts–

The Good Times by Simply Whisky (8 Year Old Single Grain Irish Whisky) is Massimo Bottura’s “Oops, I Dropped the Lemon Tart”–A playful deconstruction (or destruction?) of a classic, this dessert featured on the first episode of Netflix’s Chef’s Table series–and helped bring a new level of food porn to a broader audience. This start for Simply Whisky could well be as auspicious–in no small part because it’s aimed at the more reasonable end of the retail market.

   

   

                                                                                      —Stephen

   

   

–Our thanks to Simply Whisky for the sample!

 
 

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