The Coffey Grain whiskies from Nikka come in two shapes: 45% regular releases and ridiculously strong single casks (think of 60% to 63% ABV). I have tried one or two of the strong ones and found them to be to my liking, so I was curious to try this one too. A small trade of samples between me and Phil Blake got me this option.

Coffey Grain is named after the Coffey still in which it is distilled. Now I can write a lot of technobabble, but in short: It’s grain whisky. From Japan in this case.

Nikka Coffey Grain at The Whisky Exchange

Sniff:
Vanilla and coconut, but mostly coconut. No surprise there, I have found this earlier in this kind of dram. There is some wood influence with a touch of sweetness and vanilla sugar. A small hint of something spicy is in there too. Nice, but very straight forward.

Sip:
Syrupy sweetness at first, and a very thick bourbon-cask style dram. Pineapple juice and coconut. I get a very big pina colada feeling here, but the rum is replaced by whisky. It does have some of that white Bacardi sweetness though.

Swallow:
The finish continues on without much news. It does add a few notches to the white rum flavour, with a touch of oak too.

I think a large chunk of the Nikka All Malt is coming from these kind of whiskies. Not a bad thing but something rather similar. Lots of sweet coconut going on. It’s nice and will never disappoint, but it is a very simple and straight forward dram.

Nikka Coffey Grain, 45%, 50cl is available at The Whisky Exchange for £ 36.49