Flavored Whiskey
As with other spirits categories, whiskey can be flavored with herbs, spices, fruit flavors, or just about anything else, typically just before it is bottled. One of the biggest trends in whiskey in the last decade has been the growth of cinnamon-flavored whiskey, particularly Fireball. Honey-flavored whiskeys have also surged in popularity in recent years. These flavored styles offer an easier, sweeter, and friendlier entry point into the sometimes daunting world of whiskey and are usually geared toward novice drinkers, though a few more elevated offerings are on the market. Note that flavored whiskeys are distinct from whiskeys that are aged or finished in a unique barrel (such as a used Port wine barrel or a maple wood barrel), even though it may impart a specific and unique flavor. These types of whiskeys are categorized (and are widely considered) as full members of their parent category (bourbon, rye, Scotch, etc.).
Top Flavored Whiskey Posts:
George Dickel Tabasco Barrel Finish
Sons of Liberty Pumpkin Spice Flavored Whiskey (2016) and Gala Apple Flavored Whiskey
Ol’ Major Bacon Flavored Bourbon
Old Forester Mint Julep
Fireball Cinnamon Whisky
Wild Turkey American Honey Sting
1) Who is Clyde May? An Alabama farmer and WWII veteran who turned to illegal whiskeymaking to supplement his income… and learn a thing or two about craft distilling. In 2002 Clyde’s son Kenny May decided to revive the family business and open a distillery. 2) Where is Conecuh Ridge? Southern Alabama, near the Florida…
From Georgetown Trading Company (the importer of the masterful John L. Sullivan Irish Whiskey), comes this extreme oddity — a flavored/infused rye whiskey. Flavored whiskeys are growing in popularity as a category, but they’re mainly Bourbon or Irish, and honey and cinnamon are the predominant flavoring agents. Pow-Wow Botanical Rye is a straight rye whiskey…
How do you take the edge off of white whiskey? You can put it in a barrel for 6 years or so, or you can drop in some flavoring and sell it tomorrow. Shine (aka “XXX Shine”) makes a straight white dog, but it also makes two flavored versions, a tea flavored whiskey and this,…
“Finished” has a particular meaning in the world of whisky, normally implying that a whisky has been moved from one type of barrel to another, usually a different type of wood or, more commonly, a barrel that once held another spirit or wine. “Maple finished” has actually been done before: Woodford Reserve made a maple-finished…
Early Times is a budget Kentucky whiskey, and recently the brand added its first flavored variety to its lineup. Early Times Fire Eater, as you might expect, joins the increasingly popular category of cinnamon-flavored whiskeys on the market. There isn’t a lot of information available about the underlying spirit here — let’s assume it’s standard…
I’ve never quite understood the idea behind the Mickey Finn name. Yeah, it sounds Irish, but it really means a drink served to someone to knock them out (typically to take advantage of them in some way). Why you’d name your Irish whiskey brand after such a thing, I have no idea. Mickey Finn makes…
The name says it all, pretty much: Canadian Rye whisky (a blend of whiskies aged 3 to 7 years — the 3, 5, and 7 refer to barrel ages) blended with Quebecois Canada 1 Light maple syrup (and caramel color). Distilled four times, it is aged in used Bourbon barrels and bottled at an odd…
You just can’t kill this honey+whiskey trend. It’s so popular that now they’re coming at it from the honey side: Barenjager, one of the original honey-flavored liqueurs (if not the original honey liqueur), is adding Bourbon (from Kentucky, but of otherwise unknown origin) to its recipe to create a hybrid spirit just like, well, all…
Now the Irish are getting into the honey whiskey thing. Bushmills Irish Honey is the first honey-flavored spirit (to my knowledge) from the Emerald Isle, a simple blend of original Bushmills, Irish honey, and Irish water, bottled in the traditionally squared Bushmills-style bottle. The results are solid. As Jack Daniels proved with its Tennessee Honey…
Red Stag — black cherry flavored Bourbon whiskey — was a bit pioneering on its own. And while it isn’t the only flavored whiskey we’ve encountered, now try this on: Two new versions of Red Stag (which is still based on a standard, four-year-old Bourbon), one with honey and tea flavors, one with cinnamon. I…