Fifteen bucks, it turns out, can buy you some damn decent liquor. Our drinks correspondent brown bags it for the recession

more or less smells nutty and spicy, like real, pricier cognac

There's enough flavor in this lightly sugary, nutty, and vanilla-tinged rum to make it a bargain

light but clean and barley-sweet, with flashes of peat smoke

bright and piney, with a nose-crinkling shot of black pepper — a lot like Tanqueray

Jim Beam is a wonderful whiskey. Even better, though, is Evan Williams — hands down the best cheap liquor we tasted

complex nose

On the palate, it's impressively thick and chewy

grainy sweetness balanced out by tannins