Boozehound Unfiltered: Ole Smoky Salted Caramel Whiskey

Ole Smoky is probably familiar to locals as being the purveyors of moonshine that graces the shelves of

most of our local liquor stores. And let me tell you: once upon a time, we all had a very, very good time with a jar of their Blackberry Moonshine- and perusing their website and seeing the full extent of their range makes me want to a. go down to Tennessee and come back with the really good flavors and b. reflect once more about the paucity of good liquor in this state because of Iowa's stupid ass liquor laws.

(But seriously: go look at their website- hot damn do they have a range and we really only get a fraction of it. Granted, I'm not sure how to feel about some of their whiskey flavors- salted watermelon? But some of their moonshine cherries? Yes, please. Butter Pecan flavored Moonshine? Sounds like a fantastic way to dissolve a few brain cells. Plus, they've got a line of canned cocktails. We here in Ioway are getting straight-up robbed and if someone offered me a job in Tennessee, I might just take it, just to be closer to all this frankly delicious-looking stuff.)

I am sure that somewhere out there in the world of whiskey, there's a debate about flavored whiskies going on- and while some flavors do get an eyebrow raise from me- most of the time, I could care less. Whiskey is whiskey and if you want to try a different flavored one to shake it up and do something different that's fine. If you prefer flavored whiskey over the regular stuff? That's fine too. There's no wrong way to drink whiskey and it's purely a matter of preference to me. I'll drink just about anything and if I like it, I like it, if I don't, I don't. The tasting is the experience.

That being said, let's break down some Ole Smokey Salted Caramel Whiskey:

Color: Kind of a range here-- when you shine a light through the bottom of the glass, it's more of a light honey/pale golden color. Look at from the side in regular light and you get shades of amber and a deep, rich golden honey color.

Nose: Obviously, caramel is prevalent here, but what's really impressive is that you get a hint of the salt as well- which is good because it's salted caramel, but I would imagine that takes some work to pull off. There's also another sweet note here that I couldn't quite put my hands on but in the end, I'm going to have to say it's vanilla.

Body: Smooth- and what's nice here is that the nose gives you the impression that this should be thick and full bodied and robust- syrupy would not be surprising here, but instead, it's nicely balanced and the salt comes to the forefront and dampens down the sweetness quite nicely.

Finish: Kind of a range for me- sometimes I got a little bit of harshness here, but other times, it seemed to be more gradual and nicely warming. Couldn't quite put a finger on why that was, but it certainly didn't ruin the experience for me by any stretch of the imagination.

Overall: This is good. Like, real good. Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeal good. I would have it in a house. I would have it in a mouse. I would have it here or there. I would have it anywhere! (You get the idea.) I've been throwing a couple of ice cubes in it and it's nice on the rocks, but if you wanna try some straight you can do that as well and it's still good. My Grade: 10/10 would drink again.