His & Her Reviews: her review of Mystic Farm Distillery Cask Strength Single Barrel Bourbon

Much like a Jesuit or a Mandalorian, the Lovely Assistant always make good on her promises. Here’s her review of Mystic Farm Distillery’s Heart of Mystic.

Nose: An avalanche of butterscotch hard candy buries you at the jump. Seriously, this could easily pass as a Glenfarclas it’s so butterscotch heavy. With a little breathing time, the corn and wheat dust grain notes I tend to find in craft spirits creeps into the edges, but it never challenges the butterscotch’s dominance.

Palate: Initially a little slow to wake up on your tongue, at least for me. After a brief moment of sleepiness, you find a very buttery sensation both in mouthfeel and flavor. This is followed by a brief flash of sweet caramel before an intense cinnamon time bomb erupts in the mid-palate, vaporizing the earlier flavors. As the cinnamon fades, prominent sweet and bready flavors begin building in unison, leaving you with a pound cake or sweet bread as a conclusion.

Finish: The sweet bread flavor continues, and begins leaning more into the yeast/craft funk range. The impression you’re left with is harvest fresh grain goods, as interpreted by a bakery or coffeehouse. It’s a solidly lengthy finish with a friendly but very present hug of warmth.

Summary: I’m frankly unfamiliar with craft whiskey, especially craft bourbon. I also have previously felt very little temptation to try many North Carolina distilled spirits given their reputation (or lack thereof). But this is a rock solid, sweeter-leaning wheated bourbon that easily earns and deserves recognition from any whisk(e)y shopper. While single malt will always be first in my heart, good bourbon is good bourbon.

Image courtesy of Jon who also writes on Low Class & High Proof.

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