Seagram's 7 Crown American Blended Whiskey

It has a dark color, so that's obviously artificial. The nose smells pretty much not there, with some light, fake caramel and a touch of fruit. The palate is weak and it immediately tastes artificial. There are a few flavors here, but none of them stand out as anything more than a weak attempt to taste like whiskey. It's very watered down and has a sugary sweetness mixed with artificial caramel. The mild fruit flavors taste more like a scratch and sniff smells than like actual fruit. In a direct comparison, Paddleford Creek tastes much more real and has more flavor, though it is still a weak whiskey. This isn't as bad as I feared it would be, but it tastes. A heck of a lot like nothing and the flavors that it does have are not very good. I wouldn't call this a disappointment because I didn't expect more, but I certainly don't like it. My palate is toasted now, but it might be even worse than the 8 I'm giving it. No, the 7 I'm giving it. This is priced way too high - at least get Evan Williams Black instead. Wow, this is so much worse than Evan Williams Black. If my palate were in better shape, I'd probabaly cry in anguish. The palate is kind of oily with a gross gasoline flavor that brings in a bit of smoke mixed with some bad youthful sweetness. There's quite a bit of flavor, but it's bad flavor. This isn't absolutely undrinkable, but it's very bad. It doesn't have the richness of Clan MacGregor, but it also doesn't have the disgusting sulfur. Clan MacGregor has a nice bit of fruit too, but the sulfur is really bad. This has less flavor and its flavor is bad, but it almost could be mixable. It's hard to say which is worse between these two, but I think I'll still give that ignoble victory to Clan MacGregor. When I say that this could be mixed though, I mean that it might be possible to conceal with enough fruit juice. It tastes disgusting and the price is absurdly high.

Appearance: In the Glencairn glass, much like myself, it has pretty thin legs. The color according to a nifty chart I found on Whiskey Magazine, is “chestnut oloroso sherry,” which is basically a dark amber / orange; I could have said that to begin with, but I wanted to sound fancy. Nose: The nose is sweet. And it definitely has grains (which for a blended grain whiskey there should be no surprise there.) I found notes of orange zest and cherry, and beyond that it really vanished for me. Palate: The body is really smooth with no burn going down. It’s nice for a simple whiskey actually. Although, I’m finding the longer you wait it has more bitter bite on the back of the throat. On the palate I got a note of not quite ripe blackberries, like, the berry is good but you know what it could be. And beyond that there’s nothing more I’m getting. Thoughts: Eh. It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. If someone poured me a glass I would drink it with gratitude! But for the price there are better options. In a highball, sure! I think it’d be a quality whiskey to mix in with ice and soda. Cheers!

Mini bottle tasting series. So I waited tables and bartended at a couple of bordertown resto bars in Idaho in the late 1970s while going to school in another state. The staff drank dry Martinis, but the clientele made it easy for us: CC & Coke, Jack and anything, and 7&7. I've avoided that until this moment. This had to be better when it was all Canadian (he said wistfully), but... probably not. 25% whiskey, 75% neutral spirits. It is what it is. Nice rich color, thin legs in the glass. Smells like whiskey. Sweet. Heat. Bon appétit! Thin, industrial chemicals, dry vanilla oak. And then it's gone...which is a blessing in this case. Cries for 7Up, ice, and two reds: a red Maraschino cherry and a Marlboro Red. At least that's how they made it work in Idaho.

Day 1 of a 12 Days of Christmas gift set. There is no nose to speak of. If I bury my nose in the glass, I get a hint of stale popcorn. The palate isn't spit-it-out bad, but it's not very good either. Sweet corn, corn syrup and a touch of vanilla, and you've reached the end. There's also really no finish. Maybe just a hint of drying. This is a drink I haven't had in literally decades, and I can see why. Were I a college student mixing cheap whisky with generic cola, this would serve the trick of helping me forget how "horrible" college life is. Or something like that. If you're over the age of 21, and still think this is a decent whisky, may I point you to my trusted friend, Mr Evan Williams Black Label? Please? No...really...I'm begging you...

This is not really whiskey. This is bottled with 75% neutral grain spirits and only contains 25% real aged whiskey. This is basically whiskey flavored vodka. I will still sometimes enjoy it in a 7&7 out at the bar. Which is a decent go to cheap drink. At best, this is a mixer, but there are so many better options than this though. Almost any Canadian whiskey (I use Canadian whiskey as my example because they do not use NGS) makes a better mixed drink than this does and costs about the same price.

Aroma was confusing at first and then it hit me… my old car – this smells like my High School car on a hot day, an 80’s Honda Civic, and after that connected the notes of baseball cards, pencil erasers and air-freshener citrus unfolded; Palate is more college-level with notes of biting a Solo cup to free your hands for beer-pong, ash, more pencil erasers and late nights that leave a metallic taste in the morning; Finish lives nowhere and is a quick fade of chemical caramel and nothingness.