Highland Park 12 Year Old

This started off as a confusing malt for me. The packaging suggests adding water, but I made sure to try it neat first. It was delicious and surprisingly intense at first. I could smell very little of the fruit/honey sweetness some pick up on. It smelt mostly of smoke, leaves and rubber, with a slight hint of caramel that was quickly washed away each time. Tasting it revealed more smokiness and a thick, super-creamy texture to it that I haven't found as much with other scotches. The finish was long and spicy- far stronger than most scotch, but not coming close to an Islay bottle, for example. When I added a little water, the fruit smells really came out, especially a hint of apple and slight honey to go with it. This is really best with water (not the case for most, in my opinion) but it's good all-around. I would even call it a great starter scotch- it's not too weak, not too strong, has a number of flavors and isn't too expensive :)

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