In the bottle: Silky caramel, vanilla, apple compote and some really beautify toasted rice notes are at the front, followed by some cherry and slightly oaky scents that really tie everything together. I also noticed some cereal, almost like cinnamon toast crunch or Oh's after letting it breath a little, overall very enjoyable.

On the rocks: It is a perfect blend of caramel, vanilla and apple compote, with En, everything just comes together magically and in absolute harmony. It's only the 7th of January and I feel like this is already a contender for a top 3 bottle of 2024. En drinks so smooth, especially after the ice melts a little and the sweeter notes rise to the surface and you are hard pressed to find the 40% alcohol. 

Diluted with water:

4:1, 3:2 ratio, with a little water En becomes even smoother, the core impact notes found on-the-rocks are still present, just a little lighter, which allows some other lighter flavors to come forward, the strongest was cocoa, which let me to try a dark chocolate pairing.

Paired with dark chocolate: wow, I tried some shochu and chocolate when I was in Kagoshima the end of last year for shochu street and found it paired as well as it does with scotch. This time, the bitterness of the chocolate blended with shochu produces some interesting peanut and nougat , actually reminds me of a payday bar without the salt from the peanuts,