Each St. Patrick’s Day I buy a different Irish Whiskey to try out. Last year I was quite successful with my pick. This year, not so much.

I purchased Paddy’s Old Irish Whiskey. Let me start by saying the price point is below a rail drink price point. But… I love a good story around a product and the reviews I read seemed interesting. And while I normally don’t buy based on reviews, the two I perused said it was heavy on the malt. Which piqued my curiosity. And, why not? If I hated it, the price point wasn’t something that would make me drink it out of regret.

This whiskey comes in at 80 proof, which for me is a positive. Big bourbons/whiskeys can overwhelm me sometimes and quite frankly, I wasn’t in the mood to be overwhelmed. The color is really light. The young prince said it looked like apple juice, it is just that light. My pictures don’t do the color justice. It is the color of organic apple juice with no sugar added - IYKYK. That was my first warning sign. At 80 proof I wasn’t expecting long legs in the glass; but there are NO legs. It’s watery. Warning sign number 2. At this point, my mind is screaming ‘Danger Will Robinson. Danger!’ but I continue. The nose is pleasant. I did smell a lot of malt; but honestly I’m not sure I would have picked it up if I didn’t know in advance what to search for.

So with two warning signs flashing in my mind, I taste it. The first sip is heavy alcohol. I taste nothing but alcohol. I take a smaller sip, with my mouth slightly open - I still taste alcohol. Where is the malt I smelled in the glass? It has vanished and left behind alcohol. I decided to let it breathe before drinking more hoping the air will soften it a bit. Nope, it did not.

I can usually find something, one attribute about a whiskey or bourbon. Whew Chile, the color looks like apple juice. That’s all I got.

Cheers,

~Kimberly Elise

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