Trader Joe's 10 and 18 year old SMS

Mar 12, 2006 7 Replies

I bought the 10 yo stuff on a lark (well, the US$9.00 price had a LOT to do with it.) Turns out the stuff is pretty damned good. Nice honey and caramel qualities that rival some of the more-expensive sherry casked names but doesn't finishes fairly harsh. With that in mind, I bought the more-expensive (US$32.00) 18 yo SMS. Aside from having a kick like a mule, there's nothing in this bottle. No bouquet. No finish. No nothing. It's an expensive drunk. Live and learn.



The Ranger


I didn't realize that Trader Joe's had a scotch. One of the problems of living in Oregon where the state controls liquor sales. They'll never get a liquor license because they are considered a grocery store, and no liquor store would probably be allowed to carry the Trader Joe's brand. Guess I'll have to ask my parents down in California to pick me up a bottle. Thanks.

I totally agree. The TJ's 18 year is vapid. I keep trying it, thinking I must be missing something.

It doesn't even drink cruel (like Laphroaig)! I'll shelf it for a while to see if that little air pocket improves the taste. Probably not but who knows.

The Ranger

Unfortunately, Laphroiag is my scotch of choice. And if Laphroiag drinks "cruel" (I love that description, I am at a loss to find a sufficiently bland adjective to describe TJ's 18 year old. Timid? Cowardly? Meek?

I was quite excited when I bought the bottle. What a disappointment!

schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@v46g2000cwv.googlegroups.com...

What about amorpheus blob, or drop?

Niels

Ok, how about: dire, direful, fearful, forbidding, formidable, hair-raising, abhorrent, deplorable, disagreeable, distasteful, loathsome, nauseating, obnoxious, offensive, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, sickening; evil, foul, heinous, noxious, odious, vile!

Clearly we've ruined its reputation - if it ever had one to begin with.

DaveS

I got a Trader Joe's 10-year Macallan last year and it was terrific--not an oloroso sherried expression, but still assertive and flavorful. At a TJ's in L.A. a month ago they still had a shelf label for the Macallan 10, but there was none there, nor at a couple other TJ's, so I got the 10-year Longmorn, and it is a weak, flabby, caramelly thing with a nose of watered-down varnish accented by a touch of nail polish. Good price though.

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