The Glenlivet Twist & Mix Old Fashioned (40%)

Welcome to Day 5 of RTD Week! Today, I’ll be raising the bar on price to a considerable degree, going from three to four bucks a can to $40 for a half-bottle. But will the quality level be raised proportionately? Read on to find out.

As with all the reviews this week, in addition to the regular scoring system I will be offering my opinion on three separate elements of the drink: Sweetness, from very dry to liquid sugar; Booziness, from “does this have any alcohol” to fresh off the still; and Balance, the relationship of the former to the latter. 

While no one would contest that it’s a booming market for RTDs these days, there is also an indisputable hierarchy of quality there within, from simple two ingredient blends to more complex cocktails. And at the top of this hierarchy, or at least very near, is the Glenlivet Old Fashioned.

The packaging of this particular RTD is a clever party trick, with a twist of the cap sending the flavourings cascading into the bottle, and a quick shake blending everything together quite seamlessly. And I suppose that a case could be made that the separation of whisky and flavour prevents the degradation of either over time, but the big question that remains is how does it taste?

The ingredients list sugars, “natural flavours,” and water, which begets the assumption that this could be a pre-diluted drink. However, were that to be the case, one would expect the alcohol content to be lower than it is, so it would seem that Glenlivet instead uses the listed water as a medium for the flavourings, leaving the drink at typical whisky bottling strength. (I’m assuming that there is no necessity to list the water used in diluting the whisky from cask strength.) Something to consider when deciding on how and how much one might want to drink at a single sitting, and suggesting that a bit of stirring over ice for dilution might be a wise move.

Served chilled, the orange really pops in the aroma of the Old Fashioned, alongside much softer notes of sugar and brown spice. I find myself searching somewhat aimlessly for the classic floral notes of the base whisky, but then it occurs to me that those are precisely what make the orange so attractive, combining as they do with the fruit to create a fragrant mix of orange zest, juice, and blossom.

My worries that the flavour might be overly sweet are allayed by my first sip, which while definitely on the orange curaçao side of sweetness, is nowhere near the sugary heft of many bottled and canned cocktails. Even better, after that initial hit of sugar, the flavour quickly settles down to a drier mix of orange zest, cinnamon, and floral whisky, with side notes of vanilla and green apple.

As the flavour progresses, it dries even further – not completely, mind you, but significantly – until the drinker is left with a finish that is much more classic Glenlivet than it is any of the flavourings. The orange, spice, and sugar do linger, but underneath rather than above a comforting blanket of single malt warmth.

The Old Fashioned is, of course, traditionally a bourbon-based cocktail, just as single malt is typically not a spirit people think about using in cocktails. But the Glenlivet Old Fashioned makes a strong case for ignoring both conventions, and does so in an interesting package and at a price that is more-or-less in line with that of the regular whisky.

Sweetness (out of 10): 5

Booziness (out of 10): 9

Balance (out of 10): 9

Overall (out of 100): 89  ($40/375 ml)