Liquor Expert Guesses Cheap vs Expensive Liquor

I'm Lynette Marrero and I am a liquor expert.

[bright upbeat music]

[Lynette gasping]

I was fooled.

Vodka is a category of spirit that is, by definition,

meant to be odorless, tasteless,

but we both know that's not right.

So with vodka you can actually make it

from several different kinds of materials.

You can actually make it from things like grains,

so rye, wheat, things like corn, potatoes.

You can use actually even sugarcane and things like fruit.

But then through distillation,

we remove all those flavors and aromas

and work on something that's nice, clean and neutral.

So let's go ahead, pick this up, take a look.

So the first thing I'm gonna do

is I'm not gonna swirl and swish this

like I would a glass of wine to release aromas

because this is higher proof.

I do not want all those alcohol molecules to burn my nose.

Just have a gentle swirl.

Release some of the aromas.

Not a lot of legs.

Legs would be, you know, when you're having a glass of wine,

you see kind of streams running down.

That's called the legs.

Those can indicate things like proof.

So if it has more alcohol,

that'll cling to the glass a little more.

If it is lower proof, that can mean

that they can charge less for it

because you have more water.

Okay?

Oh wow, so there's a little floral note on the nose here.

Obvious thing you're gonna say is you get alcohol

because it's a vodka,

but it's not in a way that's so overwhelming

like a rubbing alcohol.

So this is actually very nice.

You get nuance.

B is also pretty clear, pretty classic, standard.

I'm gonna give that a little swirl.

Okay, now this has a little more viscosity.

So viscosity is thickness, right?

So think about olive oil versus maple syrup.

Olive oil might have some, you know,

it has viscosity and it'll drip down,

but it's not like taking as long

as like a maple syrup to pour.

For the proof that I'm guessing this could be,

it's very balanced.

What that means is I'm not getting sharp alcohol.

You know, it took me a little longer

to kind of really get into this one.

You know, A, I got more alcohol,

it felt a little more disjointed,

and B, I'm kinda getting it altogether,

which I think is exactly the point

of having something that's neutral and balanced.

I'm not supposed to detect way too much,

but I think this is all coming together cohesively.

So when I'm tasting, I'm gonna always grab a glass,

put it in my mouth, hold it for a second,

and then I'm actually going to discard it

in my little handy tasting spittoon,

because I do not wanna burn out my palate.

And this is just a way of keeping your palate

nice and fresh for the full tasting.

All right, so I'm gonna start back with A over here.

Okay, so let's see if what I was smelling

on the aromas comes into the palate.

First, that citrusy note that I was mentioning

definitely comes into my palate.

I'm getting a little more spice.

I'm getting things like black pepper.

From noticing from the legs,

there's something a little bit more unctuous about it.

Unctuous meaning having a little thickness to it.

Okay, so now I'm gonna get into glass B.

All right, B is black peppercorn

coming all the way through my palate

and I'm starting to salivate a little bit.

So with good, well-made spirits,

you kind of want that salivating moment.

You want your palate to perk up, right?

It's all about intrigue.

So that tends to be a marker of something

that has a lot of substance.

Okay, so I'm really deliberating here between these two.

Really I'm gonna go strongly with the nose and the aroma.

I believe that B was super balanced

and that I think it's slightly higher in proof.

So I think we're gonna get a little bit

of a higher price point here.

[drum roll]

$18 a bottle for A.

And yozwa!

$50 for B.

Well, I can taste quality.

Or price.

This is tequila, but this is reposado tequila.

So what we're gonna see here, obviously, this is color.

This brings in some of those influences

that you're gonna get when you age.

They usually can be aged in steel or oak.

So I'm gonna go ahead and taste in this glass.

It has a little bit of a bevel to it.

I wanna concentrate those aromas.

So when I'm smelling...

Especially, I like this for things

that have some age on it.

I just really want to kind of get to

the heart of what's happening.

All right, so we are going to try repisado tequila.

Repisado means rested.

So we are rested in those barrels

from that two months up to that year.

For me, this category is gonna be very important,

is to maintaining the flavor of the agave, right?

So we're gonna see how that comes out

with what kind of oak they're using

or if they're using steel or just kind of,

you know, the length of time.

So I'm gonna go ahead and dig it into A.

I'm definitely getting the roasted agave,

and I know that's a strange note,

but that is really important.

When you cook the agaves,

there is a tanginess that comes through

and so you want that aroma.

You wanna smell the agave here.

Interesting.

So the proof here, you know, I'm looking at the legs.

Yeah, I'm gonna guess that this has not been aged

on the longest side, right?

It's not really pushing that one year, just pre-anejo.

I'm gonna guess this is kind of a mid-range,

like I think maybe four or five months.

Over 80 proof.

Certainly not up into nineties or anything like that,

because it's a really very mellow, nice aroma.

I'm heading over here to B.

The color is slightly darker than A.

So usually the color in, you know,

a spirit that's aged in wood,

it tells you how long it's been in wood.

You are allowed to add different things

once they come out of barrels.

Small amounts of additives to correct color.

I don't know if that's being done here.

You know, I think with this color,

because the amount of aroma I'm getting,

I'm thinking this has just been aged

a decent amount of time.

Maybe six to eight months-ish.

I wouldn't say aging longer means better quality.

Sometimes when they age it longer, they do charge more.

More time it's left in a barrel, it's not being sold,

so it's time away from being in sale.

So we will see when we get to taste.

Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and start over here on A.

So, the first taste, I'm still getting some agave.

There is a little savoriness to it.

So like a little salinity,

but overall pretty nice and balanced.

Okay, so over here...

Hmm.

That's a lot of wood for me.

Wood wood wood.

The agave for me is overtaken

by some of the wood notes here.

It's not super sweet.

Nothing being added or very little being added

to kind of correct that sweetness.

So I think B is more expensive.

I think it's spent more time in the barrel.

For me, it's little too much oak on it

or a little too much wood notes are coming through.

I believe B is more expensive.

[drum roll]

All right, here we go.

Okay.

So that is a dramatic difference.

We are not talking about little subtle differences.

Wow.

So really I am wondering if this is much more small batch,

a smaller distillery.

Maybe it's where they're sourcing their agaves.

$26, you know, they're being more economical.

They might have bigger resources.

This is a fascinating differential.

So this is gin, more specifically London dry gin.

So London dry gins starts in the UK,

starts in London clearly.

It's now a style that people are quite familiar with.

Some categories of gin you could add

maybe some sugar to it.

Add color to them if you wanna make them vibrantly purple.

Some of them they may wanna add flavors after distillation.

Cannot do that with London Dry.

So we're gonna go for this very clean, crisp style.

We're gonna really be tasting

what people really expect from gin.

Things like juniper and coriander, orris root,

and some of those botanicals.

All of those different botanicals lead up to what gin is.

Otherwise without all those botanicals, gin is just a vodka.

So A, it's pretty nice and clear, pretty clean.

Got a pretty neutral color.

Looking at the glass here a little bit,

most gins would be over 80 proof.

That's kind of an industry standard.

You kind of see things hanging around 86.

So I'm not surprised to see some nice legs

going on here to indicate proof.

You know, it hangs out in little droplets at the top

and then the legs are just kind of nice and thin,

taking their time to come down.

And we're gonna try on the nose,

'cause this is where I'm really gonna know, right?

Wow.

So first thing that hits me is a nice lemon,

that juniper, that classic pine.

I'm not getting a huge hefty wave of alcohol.

So I'm gonna say this is good quality.

Gin, it's kind of funny, I think in the market

we're gonna have an interesting thing

when we look about price point.

Mostly because I think they're actually

much closer in general,

especially in the London dry category.

We're gonna see.

Where are those differentials?

Are they really coming from, you know,

the rarity of some of the ingredients.

But again, London dry sticks,

the very classic combination of the botanicals

because you really wanna make sure that juniper's coming up,

that orris root, Angelica,

and those botanicals are coming through.

So let's go ahead and head over to B.

I mean I am getting nice long legs here.

So a little viscosity too.

It's thicker.

Oh wow.

Definitely super herbaceous.

Definitely that juniper is hanging out

in the lower half of this glass,

in a different way.

It's the aroma you kinda get from...

You know, I don't wanna say too much

like pine trees or Christmas, but it sort of is that aroma.

Gonna guess this one might be slightly higher proof,

carrying all of that flavor.

So less water, it's gonna deliver

lots of flavor to the nose.

We'll see what happens on the palate.

So I'm gonna start here with A.

Hmm.

Wow.

I'm getting lemon, lemon, lemon.

Lemons coming right through.

Some of the juniper notes kind of disappear.

A little less coming out there.

Maybe there's a little bit of hint of like white pepper

and things like that, but dissipated very quickly.

I'm gonna dig into B

'cause I feel like I need a longer journey here.

Wow.

Juniper, pepper, citrus.

It is all coming through.

That juniper has a really nice length of finish, depth.

I'm getting lots of just vibrant flavors and aromas.

Some people equate maybe a longer finish

with a premium spirit.

I do think sometimes a long finish can be a bad long finish.

This is a great long finish.

I think this one dissipates so quickly in A,

but this long finish, you know, I'm guessing it adds

to the value and quality of B.

I don't like to equate flavors, aroma, length of flavor,

but I just think this has had a lot more care

and thought into making it.

But I'm gonna go with, I think, B is more expensive.

[drum roll]

Okay, well I guess all those different investigative clues

led me the right decision.

I think my biggest clues were that beautiful finish,

the nose delivered on the palate.

When those two things connect, you're like, okay,

that is a quality distillate.

There you go, B.

Congrats.

Bourbon.

A bourbon is a whiskey

and it's made from 51% corn in the mash.

So the mash bill is all the different grains

that come together, ferment into a beer,

which you distill it into, then, your white dog whiskey

and then you age it to become bourbon.

In a bourbon, you have to age in new American oak barrels

and that usually goes into a charred barrel.

That toasting prepares the barrel to receive the whiskey.

It's gonna release all these different chemical compounds

that give you the flavors and aromas

of vanilla, cocoa, caramel.

All right, so I'm gonna go ahead and take a look at A here.

Going back to this toasting barrels.

You can have light toast, you can have a heavy toast.

Color is also something

that comes from charring barrels, right?

So you get that nice darkness.

The liquid that goes in is usually

at a pretty high percentage,

but it's gonna start taking some of that.

It's this conversation between the wood.

I'm taking a look at this glass here,

which is our very traditional whiskey tasting glass.

Kind of take a look at the viscosity here.

Got a nice little...

Thin little legs kind of starting to form here.

The color here is a nice amber.

You know, this might have spent more time in barrel.

So far I'm thinking there might be some extra aging

which might lean into the price point.

We're gonna go over here to B.

The color on this, it seems a little bit less reddish,

so a little more gold in color,

but definitely kinda get that nice hue.

Kind of down here I'm getting a little bit of like

a nice graininess, like a cereal note.

And I'm guessing this one's a little younger.

It's showing me some of the younger characteristics.

The cereal, the grains maybe quite haven't been

overshadowed yet by the aging in the wood.

Okay.

So I'm gonna start with A here.

Wow.

Okay.

I think this is some good...

A percent ABV on it.

There's a little cocoa now that comes in.

It's quite dry.

That to me maybe is telling me

that there's a little more tannin.

So tannins are, it's kinda like what you have in wine.

They're particles that come out from wood aging

that can be very dry.

I'm kind of leaning into this has spent more time in wood,

has maybe picked up some of those tannins

and it's gimme that nice dryness to it,

but not overly sweet.

So really nice balanced.

It feels like it's been mellowed out through the wood.

Alright, so now I'm gonna get ready for B here.

Okay, some of those cereal notes are really coming out.

It's a little bit sweeter than it was on the nose.

Less of that tannin.

Actually, my palate's quite juicy.

I feel like there's a big age difference,

but I feel like this is much younger than this.

Some of those sweeter notes.

It hasn't had time to pull more extraction from the barrel

to kind of dry it out, gimme those tannins.

Whereas before on A, I was definitely getting

a nice drying feeling,

so I wasn't kind of getting that same coating.

I believe that A is our more expensive bourbon.

Oh!

[Lynette laughing]

All right so we have A here is about a hundred dollars.

Nice.

You're getting that age, time and wisdom.

And you know, not bad.

23 bucks over here.

I'm not gonna say that this whiskey isn't gonna be

just hanging out with you for some shaking cocktails.

However, I would not be taking A

and mixing it quite in that same way.

It's a sipper.

Rum.

Jamaican rum has a few things that make it quite different.

So Jamaican rums are made in copper pot stills.

You have age coming on here.

So we're gonna try ones that have had some

of that wood influence as opposed to maybe

one of the Jamaican rums that would not be

having much aging.

The ones that are unaged tend to be pretty high proof.

There is a certain terroir and an aroma

that ends up in Jamaican rums.

So they call this the Jamaican funk.

The Jamaican funk brings out notes

of like mango, banana, pineapple,

and that can be affected by the natural yeast

that's happening around and the bacterias.

That's all part of the good stuff.

So we are gonna be tasting in these rum tasting glasses,

which are very similar to a whiskey glass.

They do have a stem that I can actually smell

from a further distance,

bringing it closer or not to the nose.

But again, they have that somewhat straighter side,

not the billed,

'cause I wanna focus those aromas

so I can really dial in and see what's going on.

Okay, so I'm gonna go ahead and take A here.

You know, it's kind of nice, dark amber color.

That could give me an indication

that there might be some color correcting.

Sometimes color being added is you wanna

have a richer color.

That's a way to kind of perceive older age.

I'm getting a lot of acetone,

being like when you open nail polish.

So a little bit that of aroma coming through.

So I'm like, ooh, maybe this one might have a little bit

of color correction.

Maybe not aged quite as long.

Okay, so we are now here in our B.

So the color here is a really nice, pretty,

kind of gold and amber hue.

Not quite as dark as A.

But the other one went more reddish,

which leads me think there's probably some

caramel coloring in there.

So I'll give that a little swirl.

Okay, I got some nice legs here.

I'm thinking this got a little more proof.

Oh yeah, those are long...

Might be slightly above 80.

I'm getting a lot of grassiness and a tanginess

that reminds you of the sugarcane.

Gets quite elegant.

There's a subtlety to the aromas here.

Let's go ahead and give A a try.

Interesting.

I'm getting like a lot of dryness, right?

That acetone aroma that was on the front,

which made me feel like maybe there was

a little bit of a lesser quality,

it's not delivering on my palate.

Let's go ahead and get into B here.

On my palate, I'm getting a lot of...

There's a hint of a elegant sweetness.

A has darker color, so might make me think that there was,

you know, longer aging, et cetera.

But I felt like it was a little less nuanced.

I felt like B was delivering some of the similar tones,

but in a more slower release.

I definitely think there's a more elegant nose on B.

Color here, I think is the...

Might be the thing that's trying to trick me.

I think B is the one that probably is longer aged,

maybe has an older blend in it,

but I think this, B, is the one that is more expensive.

[drum roll]

Okay.

[Lynette laughing]

Well, this one fooled me.

Wow.

I mean I guess this must have some higher proof.

This is $200 and B is $24.

I mean, I'm assuming that acetone that I was getting on here

that I'm maybe sensitive to,

might mean that there was a big difference in proof here.

So if I was getting those alcohol esters on the nose,

but I really did get a decent amount of that.

Wow, I really thought that was maybe additives.

For my $24 here, I thought this was really the one.

I was like, great.

This one's giving me some nice fruit aromas.

Had a nice elegance.

So, all right, this is where, for me,

I'm gonna save myself about 150 bucks,

$135 when I'm enjoying my Jamaican rum.

So there we go.

So when tasting liquor or spirits,

I think what's really important to note

is that there's a bunch of different factors

that are gonna go into cost and price point.

So be confident, be comfortable,

know what you like and go into that direction

and enjoy your spirits.

And you can be the critic next time.