Grant's Family Reserve: Blended Scotch

Blended scotch whisky has, rather unfairly, been saddled with a bad reputation. Sure there are some bottom shelf blends that will turn your stomach, but there are also blends that offer excellent quality at an affordable price. In fact, it is far easier to find an affordable blend that tastes great, than it is to find a single malt of similar quality at a similarly low price point.

What is it?

A blend contains a mix of single malts and a component of grain whisky, which unlike a single malt is made from grains other than barley. Grain whisky is lighter in body and should ideally allow the complexity of the malt to shine through.

The difficulty for the master blenders, who figure out the exact proportion of different malts and grains to use in a blend, is maintaining a consistent product and sourcing enough malt to widely distribute the final product. The beauty of single malts is their variability, but blenders want a consistent end product. When you buy a bottle of Johnnie Walker you expect it to taste a certain way. Blenders must work with what is available and continually tweak the recipe to offer a final product that is familiar to consumers from batch to batch.

William Grant & Sons

The art of blending becomes a great deal easier when you have a massive supply of quality malt available. William Grant and Sons is still a family owned company. They are the makers of Glennfiddich, Belvenie and the lesser known Kininvie single malts as well as Grivan grain whisky.

Grant revolutionized the sale of single malts when Scotland's largest blender went bankrupt and he was forced to sell Glennfiddich as a single malt. Glennfiddich remains the largest selling single malt in the world. With all of this wonderful malt, it is no wonder Grant's is able to produce excellent blends. It doesn't hurt that David Stewart, the companies master blender, has been at his post for 42 years. This is the longest tenure for any master blender in the industry.

The Whisky

Grants Family Reserve Blended Scotch Whisky smells slightly of banana, ripe fruit, toffee and contains a hint of smoke.

The taste is a mix of toffee, biscuits, cream and chocolate.

There is some smoke on the finish along with a rich fading fruit.

For around $15.00, this is tough to beat in its category. It has a little of everything and offers enough complexity to hold your interest. I would recommend this to someone who has never tried scotch and doesn't want to spend a lot of money giving it a shot.

I give this a 9/9 value to quality rating.

Desk Coffee: The Shredder

I first sampled Desk Coffee at the new Whole Foods Market here in Richmond, Virginia. Tom Thorogood, a former barista from Can Can Brasserie, was giving samples of several varieties of their coffee. Tom is arguably the best barista in Richmond, so with high expectations, I gave the coffee a try.

Beyond Tom's recommendation, Desk also has a great marketing hook. All of their coffee bares the name of a piece of office equipment (The Shredder, The Eraser...) or uses other office related terminology.

The Company

Desk is an acronym for David, Emily, Stephen and Kelly. The four principals, coffee lovers, spouses and longtime friends boast 15 years of coffee industry experience with Blanchards and Advance Coffee Tech Services, both based in Richmond.

Further flavoring their unique professional experience Stephen and Emily are classically trained orchestral musicians while David is an investor and Kelly is an interior designer.

The Beans

I contacted Desk Coffee Company to find out more about the process they use to select their beans. Stephen was happy to explain the four main criteria used to create Desk Coffee's range of products.

• Quality - You must have great beans to make a great cup of coffee.
• Sustainability - They focus on coffee that is grown sustainably and follows fair trade practices.
• Availability - In order to provide customers with a consistent product, the beans must be available throughout the year and into the future.
• Price - They strike a balance between quality and affordability by sourcing coffee at prices that allow them to offer their product to consumers at realistic prices.
  

Stephen also explained that Desk Coffee's roastery is certified organic, which means the roasting process is organic from start to finish. Not all of their coffee is labeled organic because sourcing organic beans can be extremely difficult and expensive. The processes used in farming coffee beans is by-in-large organic, however, the process of organic certification is often too expensive for many farmers who live from crop to crop. Therefore, Stephen believes it is more important to source beans that are sustainable and fair trade.

The Coffee

I like my coffee dark so for this review I sampled The Shredder, which is labeled as a "dark, bold blend". Based on the description I was expecting the coffee to rip my head off, but it turned out to be an extremely smooth, drinkable and almost delicate coffee. The flavor is rich with hints of nuts and chocolate. However, there was not a single hint of bitterness or acidity.

This is a great everyday cup of coffee for me. I will certainly be trying some more of the offerings from Desk Coffee. All of their products are available online at www.deskcoffee.com.

At $10.99 per pound Desk Coffee is a great value in high end coffee. I give The Shredder a 9/9 value to quality rating.