The other day, I took a chance, spent $15 and picked up the house brand bourbon at Albertson’s super market called “Origine”. They also carry a “Origine” for every type of liquor and I have to say, they all do look very intriguing… From the gentleman who is in charge of ordering at the market, we got a bit of info to our question, “Is this any good?” He explained to us, that this brand is their high-shelf brand, as opposed to “Heritage” which is pretty low-shelf in most regards. But as our new buddy told us, brands such as Jim Beam or Jameson or so on, will have a certain amount of booze left over once they’ve finished bottling their own label, maybe a batch that isn’t up to their high standards or just a certain percentage that they make in excess to their own for distribution to these store brands that are just re-labeld and sold separately.
I tried it out, first neat, then with 2 ice cubes, then with a bit of ginger-ale. At first taste it just tasted like a mid-shelf bourbon, like Jim Beam actually. Now, I’m not a Beam fan by any means but that won’t stop me from drinking it… I didn’t really enjoy it neat, so I tried it with ice, once it opened up it was actually not bad! And of course, once you pour shit in it, such as ginger-ale, it doesn’t matter what it tastes like, it’s all the same.
Gorgeous bottle/label, so it always intrigues me, but I guess if Jack Daniels were cheaper than this on the day I purchased it, I would have gone with that. NOT a bad deal at $15, buy a bottle and try it out. I am actually looking forward to trying some of their other liquors in the future.
- Brad
