When/How did Crown Royal Become Popular?

[ramblinman]

Mods, before you think this needs to move to another forum I'd like to contrast it with bourbon.

Crown is essentially the champagne of whiskey for a lot of people, especially here in the south. In my more formative years I was known to enjoy a few rounds of it with ginger ale before figuring out how much I like real bourbons and ryes. Its interesting, and a bit odd to me that a Canadian blended whiskey would have the place it does in pop culture, and I'm curious as to how and when it got there.

Where they really good at marketing at the right time? A continuation of the canadian importation during and following prohibition? And why do you think it keeps this place over comparatively priced and much higher quality mass market "smooth" whiskeys like MM?

Cheers,

[kjbeggs]

Good marketing plan and pretty packaging.

[TunnelTiger]

And years ago there wasn't a single magazine that did not have a full page color adv

Well maybe not Readers Digest

[BigRich]

It was my dad's "top shelf" drink too.

[squire]

Crown Royal was created to honor the visit of HRH King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (hence the Crown and Royal) to Canada in 1939. Samuel Bronfman pulled out all the stops to create a top notch blend and achieved his goal. It was for the time and for many years thereafter a World Class Whisky, top shelf in any country.

Admittedly riding on reputation now I am mindful that reputation was originally both earned and deserved.

[ramblinman]

It was my dad's "top shelf" drink too.

It was a good sign as to how we were doing financially growing up. Good times there was Crown, normal times it was Canadian Club, bad times the likes of Canadian Hunter/Mist made took a prominent place in the cabinet.

Edited March 26, 2014 by ramblinman

[theglobalguy]

It was a good sign as to how we were doing financially growing up. Good times there was Crown, normal times it was Canadian Club, bad times the likes of Canadian Hunter/Mist made took a prominent place in the cabinet.

Growing up in Canada, my Dad grew up ordering CC and 7-up if he was out on the town and always got a bottle for Xmas each year of Crown. I never directly asked him, but it seemed to be the "special event so let's celebrate with a more expensive pour" mindset. He went through a bottle in the two weeks around Xmas and New Years, and wouldn't get another till the following year normally.

[petrel800]

You get a little baggie too, never under estimate the power of a cloth bag . . . cough Pappy cough!

[Gillman]

Mildness of taste - the opposite of a straight whiskey palate - and great marketing, IMO. How Southerners (not all, fortunately) could come to prefer this to their fine native drink is a triumph not just of marketing but also the ever-loving lure of the import. Heineken beer is worthy enough, as Crown Royal is, but, as for Crown again, is a very long-established import and people attribute merit to it for that reason alone. The corner brewpub likely makes beer far more interesting than Heineken but rare is the case where this will be acknowledged by the general market.

That said, I acknowledge that many people don't like the taste of straight whiskey, I get that.

Gary

[gooneygoogoo]

Funny, I remember on my "gateway into Bourbon night" when we had a tasting of 10 different whiskeys...even then with my undeveloped palate I can remember saying "it tastes like water" after trying the Crown. Just no flavor whatsoever. I don't understand why anyone would buy it. I guess to the "It's so good, you can't even taste the alcohol" crowd it does the trick. Interesting to hear that at one time maybe it was really good...

[Richnimrod]

I've always thought of Crown Royal as The Best overpriced whiskey, for folks who don't like to drink anything ordinary, or any actual whiskey-flavored whiskey. Just my own humble opinion, of course. It is and has been acknowleged by many to be a finely crafted, if extra mild, pour. I guess it is that. Is it worth any more than, say; Canadian Mist, which is about the same sort of non-whiskey, whiskey? I can't say it is for my dough. But it's hard to deny it's success in it's niche.

[squire]

"Fear of flavor" as the late Michael Jackson so aptly put it. Crown is in that niche of things people reflexive buy just because they can afford the price and want others to notice.

[P&MLiquorsEric]

Seagrams built it on quality and used clever marketing to make it a household name. Then diagio kept the clever marketing and cheapened the contents.

[squire]

Now Eric, just when I was in an almost good mood . . . but you're correct.

[Gillman]

I agree that Crown used to be better, but not by that much. I've tasted examples back to the 50's.

Gary

[qman22]

Crown is to whiskey what Macanudo is to cigars

[squire]

Good analogy . . . . . .

[callmeox]

I really tried to leave the thread in the initial forum, but like Crown Royal it's just not bourbony enough.

We used to think Crown was the good stuff when we were 21 and I always brought a bottle back from the duty free along with some John Labatt Classic, but I've moved on to more robust flavors.

Edited March 27, 2014 by callmeox

[ramblinman]

I really tried to leave the thread in the initial forum, but just like Crown Royal it's just not bourbony enough.

We used to think Crown was the good stuff when we were 21 and I always brought a bottle back from the duty free along with some John Labatt Classic, but I've moved on to more robust flavors.

No worries, I expected the conversation to go a little bit more with comparison to the good stuff but it didn't really flow that way.

[mbroo5880i]

I have been thinking. I am not sure I have ever bought a bottle. I know I have been gifted a bottle and drank it in bars before. I have drank it neat, on the rocks and with a mixer. It is ok for what it is but it isn't bourbon so I don't pay much attention to it.

[AaronWF]

The last time I drank CR was at my buddy's bachelor party. I had the nastiest hangover the next day, and I swore the stuff off. This was around five years ago. My hangover told me it contained ingredients that did not at all belong in my body.

[ramblinman]

The last time I drank CR was at my buddy's bachelor party. I had the nastiest hangover the next day, and I swore the stuff off. This was around five years ago. My hangover told me it contained ingredients that did not at all belong in my body.

Funny thats the reason my dad said he started drinking it. He was a JD guy and said about the time he turned 30 it started making him feel terrible the next morning, moved over to the blended stuff and wasn't a problem anymore. Interesting how it affects us all differently.

[MtnDew]

Crown is to whiskey what Macanudo is to cigars

[dcbt]

Crown seemed to be the only hard liquor that girls would drink regularly (albeit with diet coke). I can't deny buying a bottle or two back when I was first discovering whiskey (and to have something for girls to drink). In fact, I have a bottle still from probably 2004-5 sitting around. Now only my mom drinks it when she visits hah.

[squire]

Odd how it progresses from the newest thing to the hottest thing to the greatest thing to eventually something only our parents or grand parents drink.