Today we taste Gentleman Jack and compare it to the lower end product, Jack Daniels to see if we can find the differences and why you’d want to pay additional for Gentleman Jack over the other products.
Of course, one would expect Gentleman Jack to be slightly better than that of the standard Jack Daniels because it does cost a bit more and has a fancier bottle. However, sometimes one doesn’t know if it’s worth the additional investment to jump to the next level; perhaps it’s just a slightly marginal increase over the standard product…?
Turns out the Gentleman Jack does have a more mature taste along side a bit more of a “strong” alcohol intensity yet that intensity is curbed and rounded on the edges so you don’t end up with such a cutting bite. Traditional Jack Daniels has a bit more of a “bite” that will make you shake your head a bit when sipped straight. Overall, it still doesn’t bring a ton of additional “wow factor” that makes one stand out so far above the other. Does it compete well against a Maker’s Mark or Buffalo Trace? Probably not exactly defined on the oak or on a front-end sweetness but yet Jack Daniels isn’t a bourbon, so it’s tough to find a closer comparison than against itself.
If you’re looking to just do a standard cocktail in a mixed drink, standard Jack Daniels is probably a better product. However, you’ll probably not find a huge difference between the two products to park one on your sipper shelf and one on your cocktail mixer shelf.
In short, we’d probably put it on the “meh” list of product variants. It’s not exactly as young as the Jack Daniels standard but it’s not that well-defined which makes you need to create a purchase a separate product to experience it alone (or mixed).
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