I haven’t purchased any Breckenridge whiskey for at least seven years. And I think I only bought it the one time. If I remember correctly, it was ok but I wasn’t terribly excited to buy it again. But when I saw it on the Mini Shelf at Binny’s Beverage Depot as I travelled through Illinois on my way to Kentucky, I thought it might be a good candidate for the series of “revisited” posts that I’ve been doing occasionally.
Of course, there was one issue with that plan. It turns out that I never did a review to revisit. I’d spent the last seven years, assuming that I had. I actually forgot that I never reviewed it.
This kinda bothered me. I’ve never been one to remember birthdays, or anniversaries, or holidays, or even appointments. But that is mostly because I am not very good at remembering what day it is. I’m pretty amazing at remembering almost everything else.
Except names, I’m terrible at remembering names.
The first time I bought Breckenridge it was a sourced bourbon that was cut with local water. “Snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains” as the label states. It seems that somewhere along the way, they started adding a little of the whiskey they distill to the mix as well. So now they call the product “a blend of Straight Bourbon Whiskeys.” Which most of the time means that it is a combination of Straight Bourbons from different states. Of course as we learned from Steve Ury’s very informative post on American Blends, the word blend overrules the word straight and “a blend of Straight Bourbon Whiskeys” can have undisclosed additives such as caramel coloring and sugar as long as they don’t exceed 2.5% by volume. So, I guess all I know for sure about this bottle is that there are bourbons in there and they cut it with water.
Breckenridge, A Blend of Straight Bourbon Whiskeys
Purchase info: $2.99 for a 50 mL bottle at Binny’s Beverage Depot, Bloomington, IL
Details: 43% ABV, 2-year age statement
Nose: Anise, Vanilla, Caramel
Mouth: Cinnamon, Licorice, hints of vanilla
Finish: Short. Cinnamon fades really quickly. The licorice hangs out a bit longer, though not long enough to make much of an impression if you aren’t trying to notice it.
Thoughts: So I think I realized why I forgot about reviewing this whiskey. It is a very forgettable whiskey. So much so that at one point during the tasting I got distracted by something else going on in the house and actually forgot what it tasted like before I could write the notes down. I wish I was joking.
Honestly, this isn’t really worth picking up. I remember it as being merely ok back in 2012 and now it isn’t even that. It’s on the lower end of meh for me.
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