Canada is home to many distilleries, most of which turn out relatively mediocre fare and heavily over-taxed prices. CC is one such from the Hiram Walker group done down in Ontario, a province that should stick to making wine!
Being away from home, nostalgia clouds judgement and seeing a litre bottle at $13 rather than the $22 we pay for the 750mL was tempting. More so was the 100 Proof sticker (it’s sold as 80 Proof to the best of my knowledge).
I poured a double over ice, just to test the taste. The color is on the darker side of what I expected though by no means as dark as Jack Daniels. Right off the bat, the smell and taste of alcohol hits you, probably as a result of being blended with neutral spirit and an ABV of 50% (the over-simplified version is that proof = 2x ABV). Drinking this straight up is a bit strong. Still, it is aged and quite smooth. The taste could best be classified as alcohol, caramel and grain (big surprise).
While serving it on the rocks was a minor disaster, a double shot topped up with ginger ale is absolutely spot on. You can even try coke and be pleased. CC & G is the way we drank it as Freshmen and didn’t know better, but a few years later, the company released an alco-pop known as C.C & G.
It’s different from most scotch and most american whiskey and worth a try, specially as a party drink.