Help me with a practical joke (Cognac based!)
Discussion
Ffffaster said:
We have a friend who is a bit of a pseudo-aristocrat. He's a lovely, lovely bloke but he does belong to the school of "expensive is always better" and he's the sort who waxes lyrical about pricey bottles of wine when the rest of us really can't discern the difference.
We think that he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a “normal” bottle of alcohol and one of the more expensive ones, though he claims he could because it's "obvious".
So, we’ve decided to put him to the test without his knowledge.
We’ve managed to secure a very lovely (but very empty) bottle of expensive Hennessey Paradis Imperial Cognac (which costs £1,500 new!). http://www.drinksupermarket.com/hennessy-paradis-i...
The plan is to fill it with something rather less grand and get him to drink it. He will go into hyperboles and that’s when we plan to show him the picture of the real bottle being distilled into the expensive bottle!
I do appreciate that this isn’t a particularly sophisticated practical joke, and it may not even be funny to most, but it will amuse us!
My question is: what cheap cognac would you suggest we fill in the expensive bottle? I know nothing about cognac, so don’t want to refill it with something that is obviously much inferior and spoils the fun!
I’ve done a little reading and apparently Aldi’s Chevalier Cognac VS https://www.aldi.co.uk/p/41466/0 is supposed to be great tasting and only costs £29!
Do you think this is good enough to go into the “joke” bottle? Our friend is not expert, but he’s not a mug either!
Thank you all because I'm not particularly sophisticated! No unpleasant comments about the friend please. He’s a lovely bloke but we all have our faults and his is harmless!
If your friend has actually tasted the Hennessey, then I don't think that you will succeed in fooling him.We think that he wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a “normal” bottle of alcohol and one of the more expensive ones, though he claims he could because it's "obvious".
So, we’ve decided to put him to the test without his knowledge.
We’ve managed to secure a very lovely (but very empty) bottle of expensive Hennessey Paradis Imperial Cognac (which costs £1,500 new!). http://www.drinksupermarket.com/hennessy-paradis-i...
The plan is to fill it with something rather less grand and get him to drink it. He will go into hyperboles and that’s when we plan to show him the picture of the real bottle being distilled into the expensive bottle!
I do appreciate that this isn’t a particularly sophisticated practical joke, and it may not even be funny to most, but it will amuse us!
My question is: what cheap cognac would you suggest we fill in the expensive bottle? I know nothing about cognac, so don’t want to refill it with something that is obviously much inferior and spoils the fun!
I’ve done a little reading and apparently Aldi’s Chevalier Cognac VS https://www.aldi.co.uk/p/41466/0 is supposed to be great tasting and only costs £29!
Do you think this is good enough to go into the “joke” bottle? Our friend is not expert, but he’s not a mug either!
Thank you all because I'm not particularly sophisticated! No unpleasant comments about the friend please. He’s a lovely bloke but we all have our faults and his is harmless!
If you are sure that he hasn't tasted it, then it would be good to see you pull this off.
Don't try it with a French Cognac. Get a Spanish brandy. IMHO, they are in a different league altogether. If you doubt me, nip down to Tescos and buy the cheapest Spanish brandy and compare it to a standard French Cognac.
You might be able to pull this off with a £20 - £30 bottle of Spanish.
However, don't even try it if he has tasted the real thing.
don4l said:
If your friend has actually tasted the Hennessey, then I don't think that you will succeed in fooling him.
If you are sure that he hasn't tasted it, then it would be good to see you pull this off.
Don't try it with a French Cognac. Get a Spanish brandy. IMHO, they are in a different league altogether. If you doubt me, nip down to Tescos and buy the cheapest Spanish brandy and compare it to a standard French Cognac.
You might be able to pull this off with a £20 - £30 bottle of Spanish.
However, don't even try it if he has tasted the real thing.
Thank you. That's very helpful and something to consider as well. I suspect he has tried Hennessey (I haven't). You sound rather more worldly to me so could I ask for a Spanish brandy recommendation and a link(s)? If you are sure that he hasn't tasted it, then it would be good to see you pull this off.
Don't try it with a French Cognac. Get a Spanish brandy. IMHO, they are in a different league altogether. If you doubt me, nip down to Tescos and buy the cheapest Spanish brandy and compare it to a standard French Cognac.
You might be able to pull this off with a £20 - £30 bottle of Spanish.
However, don't even try it if he has tasted the real thing.
Ffffaster said:
don4l said:
If your friend has actually tasted the Hennessey, then I don't think that you will succeed in fooling him.
If you are sure that he hasn't tasted it, then it would be good to see you pull this off.
Don't try it with a French Cognac. Get a Spanish brandy. IMHO, they are in a different league altogether. If you doubt me, nip down to Tescos and buy the cheapest Spanish brandy and compare it to a standard French Cognac.
You might be able to pull this off with a £20 - £30 bottle of Spanish.
However, don't even try it if he has tasted the real thing.
Thank you. That's very helpful and something to consider as well. I suspect he has tried Hennessey (I haven't). You sound rather more worldly to me so could I ask for a Spanish brandy recommendation and a link(s)? If you are sure that he hasn't tasted it, then it would be good to see you pull this off.
Don't try it with a French Cognac. Get a Spanish brandy. IMHO, they are in a different league altogether. If you doubt me, nip down to Tescos and buy the cheapest Spanish brandy and compare it to a standard French Cognac.
You might be able to pull this off with a £20 - £30 bottle of Spanish.
However, don't even try it if he has tasted the real thing.
Gran Duque De Alba - Solera Gran Reserva is very nice, however it looks like it costs £40 a bottle. It is incredibley smooth and quite rich.
If that is out of budget, then Waitrose have Torres Gran Reserva at £16.00. It is better than French Cognacs costing 3 times as much.
My brother is a wine snob. Recently, at a family gathering, he waxed lyrical about a red wine. He wasn't at all happy when I told him that it was from Lidl, and it only cost £4.50.
Using a decent Spanish brandy is about right, because if he can't tell Spanish from Cognac and he claims to be some sort of expert then it really is egg on face time. Standard Hennessy vs super-duper Hennessy is easy to excuse, you can BS your way out of that. But Spanish to Cognac is like mistaking a Yorkshire bitter for a traditional English ale from somewhere in S England.
bulldong said:
don4l said:
My brother is a wine snob. Recently, at a family gathering, he waxed lyrical about a red wine. He wasn't at all happy when I told him that it was from Lidl, and it only cost £4.50.
LOL. People can be such idiots about drinks.battered said:
Using a decent Spanish brandy is about right, because if he can't tell Spanish from Cognac and he claims to be some sort of expert then it really is egg on face time. Standard Hennessy vs super-duper Hennessy is easy to excuse, you can BS your way out of that. But Spanish to Cognac is like mistaking a Yorkshire bitter for a traditional English ale from somewhere in S England.
Thank you all again.Working on using a "cheap" Hennessey, which one should I buy? Link would be great. Thank you!
don4l said:
Unfortunately, there are not many Spanish brandies on sale in UK supermarkets. My wife is Spanish, so I either get miner in Spain, or the in-laws bring a bottle when they visit. I wasn't aware that so few are available here.
Gran Duque De Alba - Solera Gran Reserva is very nice, however it looks like it costs £40 a bottle. It is incredibley smooth and quite rich.
If that is out of budget, then Waitrose have Torres Gran Reserva at £16.00. It is better than French Cognacs costing 3 times as much.
My brother is a wine snob. Recently, at a family gathering, he waxed lyrical about a red wine. He wasn't at all happy when I told him that it was from Lidl, and it only cost £4.50.
Sainsburys generally have one (local to me in S London anyway) - about £27/litre.Gran Duque De Alba - Solera Gran Reserva is very nice, however it looks like it costs £40 a bottle. It is incredibley smooth and quite rich.
If that is out of budget, then Waitrose have Torres Gran Reserva at £16.00. It is better than French Cognacs costing 3 times as much.
My brother is a wine snob. Recently, at a family gathering, he waxed lyrical about a red wine. He wasn't at all happy when I told him that it was from Lidl, and it only cost £4.50.
Interested to see where this one goes! Used to drink a ton of cognac, and after a blind tasting between Otard XO and VSOP I stopped buying expensive cognac... Massive difference between the crappiest and half decent, but after passing 30-40 quid I struggle to taste much difference.
Posh booze in posh places after posh dinner does taste amazing though, but I know most of the difference is in my head.
Posh booze in posh places after posh dinner does taste amazing though, but I know most of the difference is in my head.
Ffffaster said:
battered said:
Using a decent Spanish brandy is about right, because if he can't tell Spanish from Cognac and he claims to be some sort of expert then it really is egg on face time. Standard Hennessy vs super-duper Hennessy is easy to excuse, you can BS your way out of that. But Spanish to Cognac is like mistaking a Yorkshire bitter for a traditional English ale from somewhere in S England.
Thank you all again.Working on using a "cheap" Hennessey, which one should I buy? Link would be great. Thank you!
It tastes like meths.
You will not fool him with a cheap Hennessey.
The cheapest Spanish brandy is "Ciento Tres" (103). It is far better than Remy Martin or Martell. Unfortunately, I do not think that it is sold here.
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