The Eleven Bottle Scotch Taste Test

The Setup

Following a brief discussion about the relative merits of different brands of scotch whiskey on the SCC mailing list, PeeWee and Jeff decided that it would be a good idea to go to the store, buy a couple hundred bucks worth of the stuff, and try them back to back. So thats what we did. We went over to Beverages & More on friday night and returned to my house with about $300 worth of scotch packed into the back of PeeWee's mustang.

On the ride back to the house, we thought it would be cool if we could somehow set up a blind taste test of our haul, just to be sure that we weren't being unconciously (or consiously as would be more likely) swayed by the price of the bottle. Luckily for us, my wife Rika happens to be a scientist, and knows all about how to conduct blind studies. She numbered each bottle and poured a sample of each into a numbered coffee cup. She then brought the 11 sample cups into the room where we were shooting pool so that we could sample them in any order we wanted. The samples were straight from the bottle, no water added, although we did each have a glass of water to drink with the sample. While we tried each one, we wrote down our reactions (if any) to the samples. After we tried all of them, we chose our favorite and our least favorite sample numbers. I ranked all of the samples by dividing the group in half based on how much I initially liked the scotch, then re-tested the samples back to back within each group to come up with a final ordering. Peewee just chose his most and least favorites.

Once that was done, Rika let us know which samples came from which bottles.

The Results

Picture	Name	Price	Comments
	Aberlour 10 Year Highland Malt	$29.99	Peppery, Earthy, No medicine 4th place. Tried it
	Bowmore 12 Year	$36.99	Antiseptic, mediciney. Listerine. Smokey like a bonfire. Last Place. Well, I can still see. Second worst. 10th place.
	Bowmore Legend	$22.99	Listerine front. Drinks ok. Mediciney back. Charcoal. 10th place. Tastes dirty but smooth. Smokey
	Glenfiddich	$22.99	Very good. Fruity, flowery. 3rd place. Good. Sharp finish.
	Glenlivet 18 Year	$49.99	Sharp, sour. 6th place. Didn't try it
	Glenlivet French Oak	$38.99	Smells great. Tastes great. Very good 5th place. Tastes smooth
	Jonnie Walker Black	$23.99	Good. Very smooth 2nd place. Smooth. Best. The winner!
	Jonnie Walker Red	$18.99	Buttery. A bit medicine on finish 7th place. Tried it
	Knockando 12 Year Single Malt	$39.99	Smooth front, medicine back. Good The winner! Medicine aftertaste. Smooth. (Not bad)
	Mclaren Speyside	$14.99	Sour. Funny smell. Drinks ok. I know this one, its Mclaren or Tullibardine. 9th place. (Made a funny face.) Worst one. Last Place.
	Tullibardine	$19.99	Mellow. Strange smell 8th place. Tried it

The Blend

At the end of the test, we poured the remainder of the scotch left in the eleven sample cups into one big cup, and added an ice cube. Here are the comments from our tasting panel:

"Rich and varied!"

"Very complex."

"Strangely good, with a hint of ass."

Update! I went to a scotch bar in Tokyo the other night, and had some wonderful scotch. I've got some pitures of them that I will post here later!