How do I into Brandy appreciation? Any particular brands/styles I should start with?
Taste it to see if you appreciate it or not. Pick one a middle shelf bottle and start from there.
Step one is to be a nigger.
I don't know what step two is because that would be racist.
>>7340937
The best bang for your buck is spanish brandy
Avoid california brandy at all costs, it is shit, much like the wine inb4 hurr muh judgment of paris
Cognac and armagnac are really good if you can afford it
Memorize the level grades (solera gran reserva, xo, etc) and like with any "how do I into", drink a variety of things at all quality levels and from all regions except california, in order to develop your palate
Is it true that Wisconsin drinks as much brandy as the entire rest of America combined?
E&J VSOP is surprisingly good considering how cheap it is. If you've never had brandy before, it wouldn't be a bad starting point.
>>7341231
Someone I know brought a bottle of that to a party and we drank a bunch of it. I wasn't expecting much but wow. Tastes like utter shit. It's like they packed the distillates of E&J "wine" in a barrel with a bunch of oak dust, Werther's Originals, and vanilla extract. I tend to believe that there's room for subjectivity in a certain quality band, and below that, we can all agree that something is just objectively bad, but I just did some googling and there seem to be people who legitimately enjoy the taste of that shit. Amazing.
If you're scraping the bottom of the barrel price wise, Romate Solera Reserva is better than anything coming out of California, unless you have ghetto palate. Before I cut back on my home liquor consumption, I used to keep a bottle of Romate for cooking and I sometimes found myself drinking a glass on its own.
>>7341231
No, it really is terrible. Tastes like swill, so much fake flavoring it's repulsive. Spend the money and buy some decent, non-fake flavored shit
>>7340937
This is a lock, but it's expensive
>>7340937
You into brandy like anything else. Look up something thats professionals say is 'good' or has a premium reputation. Go to a bar. Try it. Buy that expensive one. Buy another. Then try a shit one. And another. Keep trying all ends of the spectrum.
You'll eventually enter into your own opinion, you may like something that sweeter, hints of sherry from the cask, higher vanilla flavours from the american oak. The more you drink, the more you understand what you're drinking. You bypass appreciation to understanding, and that, is whats important.
Courvoisier is decent, a mid-tier price of $30-$40, available at most better liquor shops.
Brandy is good in coffee.
