Bozzy's Blend (N/A%): During our visit to Compass Box offices in Chiswick, London last Summer I had the chance to blend my own whisky. How cool is that? After geeking out about whisky and tasting different Compass Box expressions for hours John Glaser gave us some sample bottles of mystery whiskies, a graduated cylinder and an empty sample bottle and let us blend our own whisky. Exactly like letting your kids play for a while in the sand box and get dirty with all their favorite toys so you can take a little break... For my blend I used 30% of Islay Malt, 40% ex-bourbon cask matured Highland Malt, 10% ex-sherry cask matured Highland Malt and %20 Lowland Grain whisky and here is what I ended up with. Color: Nose: Very medicinal and coastal. Rubber gloves, wet beach sand and ocean spray. Behind these I can get some sweet citrusy aromas. Lemon meringue pie and lemon puffs. Water muted down everything but didn't add anything noticeable. Palate: Sweet and salty pastry. Salted butter on warm challah bread, moist fruit cake. Some strong peppery notes are overpowering the palate, like cracked black pepper. Adding water helps to bring down the sharp edge a little. Finish: Pretty long with black pepper spiciness. Overall: Once again let me kneel down in front of the true wizard and pay my respect... This is an excellent example why John Glaser is John Glaser. I managed to blend something totally one dimensional and definitely less interesting than any Compass Box expression (didn't want to use the term bland or boring here...) basically more or less using the same ingredients he used for creating Oak Cross and/or Asyla. Ok, for my defense I didn't have a second shot. I am sure I could come up with something much better after tasting this if I had the same whiskies right now on the counter. You can clearly tell what went wrong or what didn't work after tasting your own blend. But I have to tell it was a priceless experience. So much fun and also amazingly educating... I definitely want to take it to the next level by choosing some whiskies and try different formulas using the very same ingredients and compare them with each other. Thanks again to John Glaser for hosting us in Compass Box offices in London. It was an amazing day...
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