Phillips Union Whiskey Kentucky Straight Bourbon/Canadian Whisky with Dan

This is the last refugee of my quick trip to Saint John, New Brunswick, and the second of what we’re calling Transnational Blends. If Three Ships was a curious rendezvous with a southern-hemisphere enchantress that makes you want to visit her foreign lands (nudgenudgewinkwink), then Phillips Union Whiskey’s cross-border mix of Kentucky Straight Bourbon and Canadian Whisky is the realization that the American you spent spring break making out with is your cousin, and now you can’t go to family reunions anymore.

So many words.

What is Phillips? Good question. www.phillipsunion.com is an empty page, not even a 404. Philips Distilling, however, is the Minnesota home of Union, as well as stablemates Sour Puss (getting high school girls drunk at college parties for 20 years), Revel Stoke spiced whisky, and whatever problem-drinking fodder something called Ice Hole is supposed to be.  That said, all piss-taking aside, they make a certified organic gin, a Scotch and an Irish whiskey we might hunt down in a compulsive need to crank out content/drink until the inner shouting goes quiet.

HERE’S WHAT WE THOUGshit, sorry. Here’s what we thought:

smell
Dan – fake cherry, nail polish
Simon – dated perfume, floral notes but cloying, tequila back

neat
Dan – caramel, horrible, thick
Simon – syrupy, cloying, burn, chemical, heartburn

splash
Dan – like shitty Baileys, syrupy, choco-caramel, not real
Simon – washed out, like hand soap

Phillips Union Whiskey Kentucky Straight Bourbon/Canadian Whisky – 40% 750ml – $30.29 – USA/Canada

Try it? No, don’t. Buy it? No.