Garrison Brothers: Whisk(e)y Wednesday presented by Lock & Key

Garrison Brothers Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey

First of all, tonight brings another great Women & Whiskey event to Lock & Key! Make sure to check it out if you aren't joining me in New Orleans for the Louisiana Brewers Bash at The Irish House!

This week, Whisk(e)y Wednesday travels west to the great state of Texas where Garrison Brothers has been distilling a "Texas born from Texas corn" product for several years. They have several different whiskey varietals available, but at Lock & Key we recently tasted the Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey. It began with an aroma of sweet corn, candy, and a little bit of pepper. The corn continued on the tongue. While we all know that bourbon is by nature at least 51% corn in the mash bill, this elixir doesn't stray far from being a straight corn whiskey. A little bit of spice pokes through as if it might be from a hint of rye, but other than that its like drinking boozy corn syrup with a waxy mouth feel and young, crafty punch. It coats the mouth and lingers warmly on the tongue and the throat as more corn flavors follow it down. The whiskey doesn't get complex which perhaps shows its youth. All in all it is most certainly a drinkable bourbon that tastes a solid notch up from pure corn white whiskey, but at $18 a pour at Lock & Key, there are better whiskeys for your dollar.

Garrison Brothers Texas Straight Bourbon
Average Score: 56.5

Whisk(e)y Wednesday is a blog post series on Bite and Booze sponsored by the Lock & Key Whiskey Bar. Lock & Key has one of Baton Rouge's best selections of bourbon, Scotch, Irish, and other whisk(e)ys available for on premise consumption. This WW feature was scored by Jay Ducote from Bite and Booze, Arthur Lauck from Lock & Key, Jeremy Spikes from Old Maul, and Natalie Parbhoo from International Wine and Spirits. Scores are marked for Nose, Taste, Finish, and Balance and Complexity using our own proprietary scoring system. Marks are then added and averaged, leaving us with a final score out of a 100 point scale. Our scale should be looked at on the full range of 0-100 rather than an academic range where 70 is passing and anything less is failing. A 50 should be considered a very mediocre whisk(e)y (though not undrinkable) while anything below 20 is absolute horse piss and anything above 80 is rather extraordinary and anything above 90 is world class.