2 Gingers Irish Whiskey

2 Gingers Irish Whiskey is a brand owned by Beam Suntory. It was founded in 2011 by Minnesota bar owner Kieran Folliard. The two Gingers are Kieran's red-headed mother Mary and aunt Delia. 2 Gingers is distilled at the Cooley distillery. It is reported to be 4 years old, but an age statement is not included on the bottle. This review is of a newly opened bottle

Nose: some wine, lots of caramel, some vanilla, and, yes, quite a good bit of citrusy malt. This very much smells like Cooley malt. Sweet reigns, though there is quite a decent balance from a little bitter and a little sour. I didn't really expect to like this whiskey, but I surprised myself by liking it enough to buy a bottle. It is a very pleasant nose, if you are not offended by a significant caramel element. In the case of this nose, I am not offended, either

Taste: generally a good translation of the nose flavours to the palate, but the caramel is even more intensely strong. There is some partial relief from the overwhelming caramel given by the sharp and tart malt...but not enough

Finish: medium length, which brings out the sour and bitter contrasts. I like the finish better than the palate

Balance: 2 Gingers is marketed heavily for cocktails, and would be good for them, or for Irish coffee. The nose is good in itself. Otherwise you have to get to the finish to get much of a balance to the intense caramel on the palate. Don't go anywhere near 2 Gingers if you can't accept a lot of caramel sweetness for the duration. It is also worth noting that the bottle from which I sampled before deciding to buy this bottle seemed significantly less sweet than did this reviewed bottle. If it had seemed equally sweet to what I am drinking now, I would not have purchased a bottle