Crown Royal: to exchange or not to exchange...

[Tri2Cook]

So I received a 750ml of Crown Royal as a well-intentioned gift. The problem is, I'm not a fan of the stuff. My first thought was to simply exchange it. Then the fun side of my brain interrupted the sensible side and said "we have no cash investment in this, maybe we can play with this stuff". So are there any fruit, nut, spice, etc. infusions, fat washes, punches, flavor bases, etc. that this stuff would be a good candidate for or would I be better off just exchanging it for something I like?

[David A. Goldfarb]

There's always a use for the purple bag.

[Kerry Beal]

I'd be exchanging - got no use for rye myself. I'd rather have an amber or dark rum for experimentation, sauces etc.

[thayes1c]

Rehydrating dried fruits like cherries or prunes, maybe? Makes the whisky taste better, too.

[Tri2Cook]

Yeah, I've pretty much decided that's the way to go. I'll just pop in on monday and swap it for something else. Kerry, those are good suggestions but if I'm going to exchange it, it doesn't have to be something for playing with. I was just on the infusion theme with the CR because I don't like drinking it as is.

[Kerry Beal]

Yeah, I've pretty much decided that's the way to go. I'll just pop in on monday and swap it for something else. Kerry, those are good suggestions but if I'm going to exchange it, it doesn't have to be something for playing with. I was just on the infusion theme with the CR because I don't like drinking it as is.

What might you swap it for?

[Tri2Cook]

I'm not sure. I really want to do some tequila with strawberries but it's the wrong time of year for the berries so no point in that right now... unless I use some good frozen (I know, I know). Maybe I'll just go for something bubbly to pop open on new year's eve or a selection of beers.

[campus five]

Um, just to note that unlike in Canada, where CR may be labeled as "rye", elsewhere that's a bit of a misnomer.

CR is a blended whiskey, and while that would mean it includes a blend of several different whiskeys (include rye ones), it also blended with grain neutral spirits. A crude way of explaining it would be to say that CR is part whiskey and part vodka (and of course part water). It has way less whiskey flavor and more neutral spirit.

[campus five]

I'd just hate anyone to think that CR has anything to do with proper straight ryes like Rittenhouse or even Old Overholt. If I asked for a rye manhattan, and got one with CR, I'd be sorely disappointed. (not that I'd ever order one someplace that would make that mistake)

Edited December 27, 2009 by campus five (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Campus five - I'm sure if I ever tried any 'single rye' ryes I might just discover one that I like - just like there are a number of single malts I thoroughly enjoy. Didn't mean to be unfair lumping the blend CR in with 'all the other ryes' - just haven't met one I really care for yet - not that I've gone searching.

[Shamanjoe]

There's always a use for the purple bag.

I used to keep marbles in my purple bag. Never really used the bottle inside much. I'd be interested in hearing any ideas about what I could do with it.

[Kerry Beal]

There's always a use for the purple bag.

I used to keep marbles in my purple bag. Never really used the bottle inside much. I'd be interested in hearing any ideas about what I could do with it.

I recall in the boat that we kept supplies for splicing and whipping in one of the purple bags. There was a lump of beeswax, some fine whipping cord, a splicing needle, some sail making needles...

[Tri2Cook]

Yeah, I know Crown Royal is a blended whiskey. That part doesn't matter to me. I don't drink enough liquor, straight or in cocktails, to be a booze snob (snob being meant in a completely positive manner). I just don't particularly care for CR. I'm mainly a beer and low-level wine guy (low-level meaning I know what I like and don't like, not what I'm supposed to like and not like... I don't have much formal wine knowledge). Most of the liquor I keep around is for use in cooking, experimenting and having on hand for friends. I like an occasional Maker's Mark... on it's own, with coke (yes, I do that to my bourbon sometimes but not in the usual bury the bourbon in coke proportions) or in a julep on a hot summer day... or gin and tonic, but don't venture beyond that often.

[KatieLoeb]

I dunno. I made some pretty tasty bourbon from a humble handled 1.75 bottle of Ezra Brooks bourbon for Thanksgiving. I infused it with a pre-bagged Peach-Apricot tea that was meant to become a gallon batch of peach-apricot iced tea in a commercial environment. Instead I put the big tea bag in the bottom of a small Cambro container and just barely covered it with bourbon. Heated up briefly in the microwave (about a minute) and then poured the rest of the bourbon over. Stirred and let it sit for about 1.5 hours, strained it through a gold coffe filter and added only a small amount of spiced simple syrup to round it out and smooth out any tannic edge it might have had at that point. It was delicious mixed with ginger ale, on the rocks or most of all as a julep with some mint sytup I'd made the night before. Best salvage of some tasty but average bourbon yet. It made that which was just adequate taste interesting and delicious with minimal effort. Loose teas work just as well in this context, just a bit messier in the straining and cleanup. The only thing to remember with a tea infusion is that shorter time with more tea leads to better results than longer time with less tea that turns tannic and astringent after more than two hours or so. If you have a really good tea shop in your orbit, this can be an easy solution to creating something new and interesting from something seemingly useless and uninteresting to you. Spiced and fruit teas are particularly useful in this context.