The Glenlivet 12 (50 ml airline bottle)

Tasting notes: 
The white carnation boutonniere offers a young man his first opportunity to wear flowers.  This moment makes visible one of his awkward, pimply steps toward manhood, but it is the aromas that stand out: the flower’s heavy scent, the musky notes of dime store cologne, the halo of tetrachloroethylene from the ill-fitting tuxedo just removed from the dry cleaning plastic, the starch of the too-tight shirt.  The Glenlivet 12 offers a similar contest between the floral and spicy, but unlike our would-be prom king, this one is not a loser.  South Carolina peaches, marinated in molasses and cilantro, pierced by Amazonian ipê wood whittled into skewers by a Damascus steel knife, then grilled over a cast-iron hibachi at high altitude.  A few drops of water brings out a surprise—the subtle taste of lemon, like pound cake topped with lemon curd, delivered by mistake in the leathery hands of a poorly-trained service monkey.  
  
  

Rating:

--On the scale of television chimpanzees--

Zippy--He wasn't the best, but neither was he the wan Kokomo or the self-important Bear.  No, Zippy's ubiquity made him no less loved. 

  
                                                                                     --John