E&J; XO Brandy

While searching for a suitable Brandy to make my Black Forest Cake, I stumbled upon this: E&J XO. The taste was pleasant, not the usual Diesel fuel I was accustomed to during my college years, and yet with wonderful Maple notes--an excellent juxtapose to my fine dark chocolate and burning cottonwood trees. The taste was heavy, watery, gritty--a perfect accompaniment to a crème brulée, strong coffee, or other rich sweets.

This was a world class brandy about 5 years back... I recall sitting on my leather couch pouring from the thick glass bottom bottle thinking my life could never have gotten so good. Leave it to EJ to mess up a good thing. If it's not broke... So the new cheap glass (& less aged) brandy (thank you bean counters!) is just barely better than my oh so ghettto E & J. I mean why even bother? I'm on the lookout for some more XO Original Gangster (imported from France) to equal what Ernst & Julio Gallo were capable of before the old guy bit the dust & his kids started cheapening everything. I'd perfer to buy from my native California for a variety of reasons but this new mix shows the contempt the company has for its customers.

Overall a very good brandy for its price. Not too much burn and has a mellow taste. However, for a short moment in my mouth it had a slightly "artificial-feeling" honey/licorice taste that prevented me from giving it a straight five stars. It's worth it's moderately higher price than the VSOP counterpart

I don't know how to rate it... This used to be my favorite brandy. But original XO is now gone, replaced by Extra Smooth version, that tastes like half & half: brandy & maple syrup. Which should be perfectly fine, if you like your brandy for breakfast. Why did they take a great product and improved it to death is beyond me! So, 5 stars for the original, 3 stars for extra damn smooth. The new label looks better though.

This is pretty good stuff. I first found out about it back in 2005 or so and have been a regular buyer ever since. I still purchase the cognacs from the French houses but if I want that brandy taste E&J XO is definitely the way to go. I give it four stars for the price, taste and smoothness. I will be doing a review of it on my site, so be on the lookout for it. www.jstarmulti.com

E&J XO. Best for the price. Too true. But is it the best in the west? Do any of the brandy makers offer product as refined as the Cognacs? And if not, why not?

I dare anyone to find a better brandy at twice the price. Here in California it is $15 for 750ml. Tastes really wonderful. Easy to drink.

I have bought three bottles of XO. I bought a half-pint in new york and it was great- smooth and mellow with a great brandy style. Then I bought another bottle at home in Wisconsin and it was great. Too good to use in a manhattan. I couldn't find it for a while, then I just bought another bottle. The label seemed different, grey when I remember a bronze color- but packaging changes. I didn't remember seeing "extra smooth" on the old label, but it's there on the grey one. This was very disappointing. It tastes like they put maple syrup in it or caramel flavoring. If I'd tasted it first I would never have bought it. I'm going to go to the liquor store tomorrow and ask what they know about this- maybe there are two versions, but the grey label that says "extra smooth" is too sweet. I'm not in high school anymore.

It all started at college when my basketball teammate introduced me to E & J VS. A few weeks later we were going through E & J by the cases about 2 1.75s a weekend. We slowly worked our way up to VSOP and finally XO. Once we got to XO we were hooked. The taste compare to VS is such a huge difference. I would recommend this to any brandy drinkers out there.

This rivals some of the better French cognacs at a third of the price. This is what value is all about.

DRINK IT DIP SH!TS F()CK ALL YOUR HIGH CLASS MUMBO F()CKEN JUMBO, FOR THE PRICE f()CK YEAH ITS GOOD COMPAIRED TO A 45$ V.S.O.P. ID DRINK THIS SH!T ALL DAY. YOUR BOOZERS N.E. WAY! SO SIP IT AND LUV IT PEACE THA F()CK OUT , LUV IT. SIP IT, LIVE IT!!

I am much surprised. This is as smooth and drinkable as water with none of the harsh flavor of regular E&J.; Great value as well.

Me and my roommate began drinking this extra ordinary drink early one Saturday morning, after drinking around 3 glasses a piece we realized we could no longer feel our faces, needless to say this drink brings out the underlying aggression in any good hearted American. My roommate ripped a water fountain out of the wall while proceeded to break a street sign and toss in (spartan warrior style) through an unsuspecting Mcdonalds drive thru window. Neither of us could recall these events but we learned of them through the 4 girls we woke up with the next morning. Apparently this drink also contains a small amount of pheromones in it (similar to the popularized cologne "sex panther"). So if you are looking for a wildly violent or possibly romantic night this drink is for you.

I just bought a bottle of XO, very smooth, excellant flavor, got to go back and buy the last bottle.

I'm not a big brandy drinker but I enjoy good spirits and this is a good one. A best buy for about $17 US though a bit harder to find than the regular E&J; and often rated higher than the more costly VSOP version.

Great tasting brandy.Since my self imposed embargo on french spirits,I have found this domestic brandy suites my taste as well as any of the cognacs I have had at half the cost.

Very nice indeed. This is a great everyday Brandy. I enjoy it on cool nights, nights when I am just reading, and occasionally when I smoke a cigar.

I usually drink E&J; VSOP. Now that I've tried "XO", I'm hooked. Extremely smooth. I love it on the rocks. It will be awesome during the winter months although I haven't had any problems drinking it in the 98 degree temps here in Florida. It also works well as a Brandy Old Fashion but why would you want to taste anything else but the brandy itself.

Now this is a tastey one! Nice for sipping neat, on the rocks or yummy as a Manhatten with sweet vermouth, a dash of bitters and a cherry. Starts and finishes well.