Last week we sampled some Slyrs, the Bavarian single malt whisky. As we were quite pleased with it, we decided to try their whisky liqueur.
The website describes it as a diluted whisky (30% vs the usual 43%) with the addition of honey and vanilla notes. All things that sound good, but we've had whisky and we've had schnapps...and we really had no idea how this would taste.
Luckily most of the stores here sell single serve bottles of liquor, so we grabbed a small one to try. Better than being stuck with a full bottle of something we don't like...
My first impressions were its light color and an aroma that reminded me of the wonderfully intoxicating smell of vanilla extract.
Off to a good start.
While it does have vanilla notes to the taste, the vanilla is much more strong in the aroma than in the actual taste. It was a really subtle and well-blended drink. Very smooth and sweet, but not too much so. In fact, all of the tastes (sweet honey, whisky, vanilla, and caramel) mixed perfectly so that none dominated.
Of course my initial thought was "Wow, this is great. It's like a girlie whisky!" When I later looked it up on the Slyrs' website, I was amused to discover that whoever does their marketing is very in tune to customers' thoughts. They mention that when they tested the liqueur in the destillery, it was not only women visitors who enjoyed it. And also that they sell in miniature 50 mL sizes "for the skeptics."
Well, we are skeptics no longer, and bought a normal sized bottle yesterday.
I'm thinking this would be great for eggnog and also a really good gift to bring someone from Germany. While it's not the strong smoky whisky taste that some love, it will definitely please those who love a smooth whisky. It's very subtle and really good.