So… I had an assignment for my Beverages class last week wherein I had to taste a beverage and write up my observations on it. Now, as a glorified lit major, and generally long-winded at that, I filled my little paper with all sorts of flowery descriptives.
And my instructor liked it so much he made me read it aloud to the class.

So since this IS marginally related to geeking over food, here’s my homework. Because I just felt like sharing. And also because this is pretty much the only creative food-related thing I’ve done in a while. Unless you count adding a teaspoon of sriracha into my tuna helper.

Beverage Analysis – Drumgray Highland Cream Liqueur

Vickie Wu

Drumgray is a cream liqueur made with aged Deanston Single Malt Scotch. It has a sweet aroma – to the nose, it is reminiscent of chocolate or coffee flavored milk with an undertone of Scotch. When smelling, I can definitely tell that it will be sweet on the tongue.

It has an extremely smooth mouth feel. The liqueur is velvety on the tongue without being sticky and coating. The creaminess balances the bite of the whiskey. After the creaminess, there is a distinct whiskey taste and burn, but it is very soft as it has been tempered by the sweetness of the cream. I don’t generally enjoy the bite of whiskey, but this is a situation in which it provides a refreshing counterpoint to a drink that would otherwise be too sticky-sweet. As the drink warms up, the whiskey becomes more pronounced on the palate and a bit sharper. Letting the fumes roll around inside the mouth heightens that sensation, but again it is very sweet.

The taste is almost like melted coffee ice cream. The sharpness at the back end that I cannot adequately describe, but have always termed “the whiskey burn” is very light, and the sweetness remains on the palate after the whiskey has dissipated. Once the whiskey fumes are gone, there is no discernible aftertaste, but there is a sensation on the tongue that tells me that I have definitely just had something sweet. It hits harder on the tongue than Irish Creams, but that again is a refreshing change, as I find most Irish Cream Liqueurs to be too sweet and sticky.