Royal Challenge Indian/Scottish Whisky Blend with Dan

Royal Challenge, and bud it’s a challenge. A challenge to sniff, a challenge to drink and a challenge to understand how it even happened in the first place.

Well, culturally, Indians and Scots do mix. Pretty sure the national dish in Scotland is a wee curry after a night at the pub. So why not smash Scottish & Indian whisky together. It’s like a regiment of the British Empire.

Royal Challenge is an Indian branch of DIageo, and this is a molasses based neutral spirit mixed with Indian & Scotch malt whiskies. It’s called a Spirit Whisky in some places because.. uh.. I guess the spirit of whisky is inside each and every one of us. Or because I guess whisky-flavoured rum is still technically a whisky.

You can call almost anything whisky as long as it’s booze and it’s passed in the vicinity of a tree at some point. Here’s what we thought:

nose
Dan – young, leather, wood, kind of bitter, ethyl alcohol
Simon – caramel, new/fresh, toasted butter, cherry

neat
Dan – spicy, hot, bitter, like biting a wooden stir stick
Simon – oily, salty, wide across the tongue, bitter, medicine

finish
Dan – long, flat
Simon – coated, medicine bottle

splash
Dan – just bitter, bit of spite
Simon – pointy, bitter & heartburn

overall
Dan – 3 or 9/10
Simon – 3.5/10

Royal Challenge Indian/Scottish Whisky Blend – 42.8% 750ml – $29.95 – India

Try it? uh… maybe? Buy it? NO.