What happens when you cross a peaty Laphroaig whiskey with an aquatic? Malt. Sure, it’s the answer to a question we don’t remember asking, but we’re so happy that such a thing actually exists. Opening with a gorgeously caramelized whiskey note that conjures up both the smokiness and the toffee-like depth of an aged whiskey from the highlands of Scotland, Malt quickly slips into a firmly mid-tone register: rich but light, with toasty brown woods unobtrusively holding it together.
This deft lightness of touch is underscored by a minty, anisic tobacco-like note, which the notes say is seaweed. Certainly, this note gains in salt and crunch as time wears on, but while it is redolent of the sea, it less the sweet, melony undertone of Calone-driven aquatics, and more the naturally green, salty outdoorsy air blowing in off the North Sea. Wearing Malt feels like drinking a glass of peaty Scotch with friends at a beach bonfire on a cold October evening, the air infused with salt, heather, and good, old-fashioned bonhomie.
