A few years back I discovered a very affordable flavored bottle of whiskey called Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey. It was about 12.00 a bottle and I found it to be intriguing. I was hoping it would taste like the "Atomic Fireball" candies I ate as a kid. I was indeed satisfied, because it did taste very much like them. This became somewhat of a drink of choice when I wanted something a little different. It was great chilled, in shot form, or on the rocks. I began to take it to parties and gatherings and everyone who tried it thought it was great.
Then all of a sudden one day it blew up. A bottle was no longer twelve dollars. Local bars started to serve it and had it inside of a frozen shot machine. It had gotten massively popular. They created drinks and cocktails around it and people were calling it the new Jagermeister. I obviously don't care if my drink is popular or not, but what I do care about is price. A bottle now is around 18.00 a shot at an average bar is 6.50. I like it and all, but not that much. This is a little to rich for my blood as a drink of choice unless I absolutely love it.
Needless to say since it is popular other brands have tried to catch up and create their own cinnamon whisky. I am sure there are many others but these are the ones I saw the day I decided to do this:
I tried three types, with one of course being the original Fireball. I did a taste test. The first was a sip of each one, eating a cracker afterward (to clean my palate). The second was a blind taste test to see if I could tell the difference and which one I preferred. Below I will walk you through of what I though of each one and then at the very bottom I will tell you what I tasted in the Blind test. Lets get started:
Fireball:
We are starting with the original. Fireball is produced by the Sazerac company and is the darkest in color compared to the other brands. This was of course my introduction to this type of whiskey and before starting the taste I assumed this would be my favorite.
This one strangely tasted the most syrupy and artificial, it felt very thick in texture and it coated my mouth with a sugary like film. With that said, it did remind me exactly of the fireball candies which do the same thing.
Early Times Fire Eater:
This one is produced by the Brown-Foreman Corporation. It is much lighter in color then Fireball, however looked similar to SinFire. This is an offshoot of Early times that produces other whiskeys. I had actually never heard of "Fire Eater" before and just randomly saw it on the shelf. I remember hearing that Early times was going to make one but had not heard anything about it.
I could taste hints of cinnamon but I felt like the sugar really overpowered the cinnamon in this one. It did not have a syrupy feel but more like a direct sugar taste like a pack of sugar was mixed in.
SinFire:
This one is produced by Hood Rivers Distillers. The color was light and comparable to Fire Eater. I heard about this one through a friend who said he liked it better then fireball. I doubted it of course and assumed it was short lived. I was wrong. I started seeing SinFire parties locally at bars and started seeing advertising for it. I have also heard Fireball did a lawsuit (Huffington post article) a while back due to the name.
The cinnamon flavor was the strongest with this one. It had less of a sugar after bite then the other two. This one taste the most like cinnamon bear candies, It was smooth with a little cinnamon after bite. This was my favorite in tasting before the blind taste test.
My blind test and overall thoughts
So Blind I was able to identify which one was Sinfire and the other two were interchangeable. SinFire had the most recognizable hints of cinnamon and texture when swallowed. The Other two felt more syrupy. It was surprising that I did not know which was which. I liked Sinfire the most when blind before knowing what it was.
My overall outcome is that SinFire was my favorite. I feel like they took what fireball did and perfected it. With that said I would drink all three but would choose SinFire if given the choice.
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