this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2024
83 points (95.6% liked)
Ask UK
1229 readers
18 users here now
Community for asking and answering any question related to the life, the people or anything related to the UK.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Once you've got your eye in, scotch and bourbon are quite different. Many (although not all) scotch whiskies have peat in their flavour profile (a kind of smoky, salty, earthy flavour which is very distinctive), while bourbons never do. Bourbon is almost always quite a lot sweeter than scotch.
They're also made quite differently. Bourbon is mostly corn, and often has lots of rye and wheat in the mix, whereas scotch is mostly made of barley. Bourbon is always aged in new oak barrels, whereas scotch is mostly aged in second-fill barrels (which might previously have been used for bourbon, wine, sherry, port, cider etc.).
Even in my college days I was just never been able to get past the poison taste of ethanol to get to the good stuff that differentiates the flavors