Prompted by the new whisky glasses we’ve opened another of the Drinks by the Dram miniatures.

This time the hand in a box picked out a Swedish whisky. It’s called Mackmyra Brukswhisky and weighs in at 41.4%. It smells sweet. Like almost like a sweet wine level of sweet. It tastes… like whisky. It’s very generic with next to no character beyond ‘Whisky’.

Underwhelmed as Lovely-girlfriend and I both were, we decided to crack open another one… on a school night and everything.

This time we’re in Scotland for a 15 year-old Dalmore. At 40% it’s slightly weaker, but purely based on the colour, it’s going to have a lot more flavour… or so we hoped…

‘This is just not very interesting’ – Lovely-Girlfriend

It’s a little bit spicier, and there’s more to it, but not much more. Boo. I’m starting to wonder if the Drinks By the Dram drams lose the flavours somewhere along the way (especially if they’ve been sitting in a cupboard for a year).

So… A third one…A fabulously named Fettercairn Fior.

There’s more to it (thankfully!), it’s a little smokier and there’s an actual aftertaste.

‘you can sit and ruminate on that for a bit’ – Lovely-Girlfriend

It’s a bit warmer with a little bit of smoke and a little bit of spice (and a touch of what I rather uneducatedly call ‘angle grinder’ it tastes a bit like that smell when people are using an angle grinder. I like that taste!). It’s not my favourite whisky ever. It’s definitely my favourite of the evening by quite some margin. Not just because of its awesome name either.

[Whisky modelled by the ever lovely Lovely-Girlfriend]