Last Night's Tipple

Apropos of my last Last Night's Tipple post, Highland Park 12 year old can be had for £26.99 for a 700 ml bottle from Oddbins in the UK; I paid less than $32 for a 750 ml bottle from Spec's. Apropos of my Last Night's Tipple from two days ago, Highland Park decided to stop using spirit caramel in their 12 year old bottling (the only one that they had previously used caramel in) when they changed the packaging to the current retro-looking flask a year or two ago. I had had a bottle of Highland Park 12 with the old packaging (and consequently, with spirit caramel). I can't say that I noticed any difference between the way it was then and the way it is now, but that doesn't mean anything: we have previously established that my palate isn't the most sensitive in the world.

In any event, there's nothing for me to write about the aroma, flavor, or other characteristics of this whisky that I haven't already written. In my mind, it's the perfect combination of smoke, honey, and barley. If you don't like Highland Park 12, then you don't like Scotch. That's not to say that HP must necessarily be your favorite if you do like Scotch, just that anybody Scotch lover would find something to like in it. At less than $32 a fifth (which is something of an anomaly -- I've seen it for substantially more elsewhere), it's an outstanding bargain, as these things go.