One of the main reasons we’ve continued on this crusade of reviews is that all too often your idea of a whiskey viewed on the shelf or pontificated upon the bottle bears seemingly no resemblance to what is in the glass. Take this, for example, named after some bank robbers, owned as another gobbled up Sazerac distillery from Kentucky, and a look that screams “I will kill you in a way Jacky D never could”
Yet once you have this you recognize it as some sort of caramel butter cookie nonsense. Where the sugar takes over so much that it’s not enjoyable, but not for the reason you’d expect. That does bring us to the second reason this site continues to go on – as a warning to all who might buy this.
What they Say: “According to legend, Louisville, Kentucky’s Eleven Jones Cave is named for the eleven Jones brothers who used the cave as a base for their bank-robbing and counterfeiting operation during the mid-1800s. The brothers reportedly outfitted the cave with individual living quarters and treasure storage rooms and then protected the cave’s main entrance with a grate of iron bars and a cannon. What happened to the Jones brothers? The legend recounts that they mysteriously abandoned their hideout, but not before collapsing part of the cave roof to keep their treasure hidden forever behind tons of stone.”
Taste: 5.0 – There’s a whiff of some wood from a barrel, but the sugar and caramel are all you really get. Not really what you want, but also not bad.
Aftertaste: 6.0 – This pains us to say. It really does. However, the phrase ‘buttery’ is very on the nose here. It’s honestly like eating the flavor you get when a cookie is just too much. There is a minor kick to say hey I’m still a whiskey, but it’s lost like a child in Wonka’s factory.
Burn/Smooth: 4.5 – That final kick in the aftertaste is matched in the smoothness like a barb. It turns this from a smooth sipper into an oddity.
Aroma: 6.0 – There’s a sweet caramel/vanilla like smell. Overall it’s just a tiny bit of sweetness, nothing sweeping or intoxicating or powerful. It’s barely there, but what is – isn’t bad.
Honesty: 5.0 – Now, all they actually talk about is a cave and some bad bank robbing brothers. However given the name, and bottle similarity it’s very obvious where this is cribbing notes from. Add that to the total lack of explaining why this whiskey is – well the freak it is – actually hurts it. Give us just a sentence, no need to be flowery – but like – why?
Mixability: 4.0
W/ Rocks: 4.0 – It does shave off a rough edge or two, but there’s no escaping that flavor, and again it’s not like something you’d seek out, but it’s also not toxic.
Whiskey and Coke: 4.0 – Thankfully it’s not Pepsi or a sugary cola as that’d be a step too far. It’s okay, and yet not as overall, it’s just too hot.
Value: 5.0 – That is actually on the cheap side, but you are kind of getting what you paid for. Nothing about this is really good, but at least you are not overpaying for it.
Google Shop Average: $11
Website: http://sazerac.com/
Reviewer Scores:
BuffaloJern: 4.0
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Metric Score: 35.5/70 |+| Metric Average: 5.07 |+| Reviewer Average: 4.0
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Final Thoughts: It’s quite hard to think of what we’ll do with the remainder of this bottle now that it’s been properly reviewed. The likely suspect would be cookies, or something with ginger – maybe a barbeque. That does change the nature of our review – in that if you are looking for some cheap whiskey for your baked goods, maybe get this over the atypical Jack?
