It is pretty sweet but I get more of a spice taste from it. I started with Crown Royal but it was getting too expensive for me and it kind of smelled and tasted like drinking a sharpie to me. I hate the aftertaste I get from JD. SoCo is the best cheap whiskey I've been able to find so far.
Is Southern Comfort even whiskey based? I honestly have no idea. It’s a liqueur as opposed to a proper spirit regardless. I know it historically was, but Sazerac made a point of saying they were going to start using bourbon again after Brown Foreman apparently made it with grain alcohol. Good value whiskeys would probably be Evan Williams Bottled in Bond, Old Grandad (bottled in bond if wherever you are stocks it), or Wild Turkey 101.
It's pretty bad. It's way too sweet, to cover up the low quality of the "whiskey." One that's even worse is Yukon Jack, in the whole saturated with sugar and almost about to crystallize out into rock candy whiskey drinks.
Google says "grain-neutral spirit," i.e. basically vodka. But it's colored and flavored to imitate whiskey (poorly). Yukon Jack is apparently actually Canadian whisky, but the sugar obliterates any taste it has other than that.
Another option for a daiquiri is Hamilton Jamaica Gold, its made for the specific reason of not turning 3-4 ingredient drinks into brown liquid. That Plantation Stiggins' is going to bring a bit pineapple to the drink and its worth the purchase.
I’m currently using Flor de Cana Extra Seco. Have Wray and Nephew Overproof to try when I want to truly hate myself.
adding Wray & Nephew to the base liquor (1 1/2oz. with 1/2oz. of overproof) helps not knock you on your ass but adds to the flavor
Didn’t do Wray and Nephew tonight, though I’ve subbed a half ounce of it into one back when I used bacardi starting out. In spite of Wray’s reputation it smoothed out the sort of acrid, almost gingery aftertaste I was getting with the Bacardi. Also did something tonight called a regal shake. You put a citrus twist into the shaker tin with your other components and the ice, particularly if you have large chunks like I do now, will pulverize the oils out and disburse them into the drink. I can taste the orange in a really pleasant way which is neat considering how badly orange juice itself will fuck up a drink. Grapefruit is apparently better for daiquiris, but I don’t keep that on hand. Any other clear rums you’d recommend or is Flor de Cana a good choice?
Copper and Kings appears to not be available right now, though the Fabbri ones appear to be somewhat more reasonably priced than the Luxardo (over 20 bucks for a jar of the things jesus christ) at 15 bucks. Have you used Jack Rudy cherries at all? That’s what I’ve got in the fridge right now and getting a frame of reference is hard because everyone just defaults to the luxardo ones.
Angostura's pretty much the default that will work for nearly anything. I could see some of the flavored bitters being interesting but I'd have to get some and play with them a bit - Fee Brothers stuff might be ok, not sure about that one cheap looking brand that shows up at my local stores. Fee Brothers makes the only orgeat they offer.
I think I recommended Fee Brothers Black Walnut Bitters further up in the thread for use with maple syrup in an old fashioned. Chocolate bitters from Angostura or Fee Brothers, or Bitterman’s Xocolatl Mole Bitters (a bit more expensive but they have a dropper in the bottle so you’re actually controlling how much is in a dash and they’re pretty tasty) if you want to try things with tequila. Some kind of orange bitters is probably more important than either of those, but if you’re sticking to old fashioneds the former two will take you further.
