Wild Turkey American Honey

[doubleblank]

It appears WT has repackaged/reformulated their WT Liquer into a product called Wild Turkey American Honey. The bottle is completely different and the emphesis on the label is "American Honey" with Wild Turkey in smaller print. Still located on the bourbon aisle locally.

Randy

[MikeK]

I think they bumped the proof up also. I saw this at a recent tasting, but there were so many other tasty treats I didn't get to try it...

[doubleblank]

Yeah...The proof was either 74 or 76 in this bottling vs the older version at 60 proof.

[wskybnt]

I am a huge WT fan. I like and regularly purchase all of their diferent products. So when I saw this, I said well I have to try it, its Wild Turkey, it must be good

I got home and poured some in a glass and then poured a glass of Rare Breed. I first took a sip of the American Honey, and well,,,,, it sat there the rest of the night while I filled the RB a couple of times, I couldnt make myself take another drink of the Honey shit...

I poured out the remander when I went to sleep.

[Gillman]

I haven't had the American Honey but isn't it a liqueur, essentially, or that type of drink?

Gary

[gothbat]

I believe it is a liqueur, from what I've read it's simply bourbon, honey, and probably water. It's also way too sweet, probably the only pour I didn't finish at Whisky Fest, this of course was not a surprise.

[dgonano]

Yes, they discontinued the old WT liqueur and replaced it with the new. I really enjoyed the older version in a cup of hot tea. The old version had been around for a long time.

[NeoTexan]

My wife is a BIG fan of the previous version. At the past Gala the new version was out for tasting. Jimmy was there and my wife asked him about the change. His comment was that it was made with more honey.

[ThomasH]

I haven't had the new version yet, but the old 60 proof version mixes well with diet sprite. It cuts down on the sweetness vs. regular sprite. A very tasty mixed drink!

Thomas

[cowdery]

Castle Brands makes a liqueur called Celtic Crossing that uses Irish whiskey. Drambuie is a liqueur made from scotch whiskey. I haven't had this new iteration of the Wild Turkey liqueur but it's probably just the old Wild Turkey Liqueur repackaged. It always has contained honey.

"Liqueur" isn't really a word you want in a brand name. "Wild Turkey American Honey" is a much better name.

[polyamnesia]

old thread revived (but will probably return to the grave between oct. 31 and nov 2...!), but was sent here (http://www.straightbourbon.com/forums/showthread.php?p=100006#post100006) concerning mead.

curious as to why this seems to be a big flop to many...and it seems, from the reviews i've found folks either hate it or love it. no in betweens!

how does this compare to other honey and/or bourbon-based spirits?

this is a wide (and perhaps almost unrelated) specturm for sure, but i can't help but think of this WT liqueur, Southern Comfort, Yukon Jack, Berenjaeger and that other polish honey spirit (i think it's called Krupnik or something like that).

also, doesn't the WT honey claim to be the only bourbon-based spirit?

is SComfort just a "whiskey" liqueur? hadn't had that since college....

[cowdery]

There have been other bourbon-based liqueurs in the past but now there's just Wild Turkey American Honey (WTAH) and, to a lesser extent, SOCO.

Southern Comfort's recipe was changed a few years ago so that it does now contain some bourbon. Yukon Jack is Canadian whiskey-based. Does it contain honey? I don't know. I think Wild Turkey's claim may be that all of the alcohol in its product is from bourbon, whereas SOCO is mostly GNS. Mead involves fermenting honey which WTAH does not. Honey is just added at the end for sweetening and flavor, so that's where it's not much like mead.

Wild Turkey, of course, puts the Wild Turkey name on it and the bourbon it uses is Wild Turkey. SOCO doesn't say so, but the bourbon it uses is Early Times (the bourbon, i.e., export, version).

The Wild Turkey product is a tasty liqueur. Where some people react badly to it is when they think it's a Wild Turkey bourbon, which it definitely is not. It's a completely different animal. But if you are expecting bourbon, well, WT submitted it to a competition I was judging, wrongly I think. When I hit it I knew exactly what it was, but it was a bit of a shock to be expecting to taste a bourbon and get that. I refused to judge it since it was a bourbon competition and WTAH is not a bourbon, it's a bourbon liqueur.

The model, of course, is Drambuie, which is a scotch liqueur.

[polyamnesia]

thanks chuck!

does SComfort taste much different now?

and i've never had YJack...any good? worth a try?

[cowdery]

I don't think SOCO tastes any different with the bourbon in it. Maybe it has a little more depth. The main thing is still apricot and sugar.

Yukon Jack tastes about the same.

I have to say I'm not a big cordials drinker. Just too damn sweet, most of them. When I worked on Southern Comfort, 20 years ago, I had to drink it and learned to like it, but after that period of obligation ended I seldom went back. Same thing happened when I worked on Miller Lite.

[Solomon2]

I think anyone who works in a brewery or distillery, inhaling the vapors all day long, has trouble appreciating the product at the same time.

[CrispyCritter]

I have to say I'm not a big cordials drinker. Just too damn sweet, most of them.

I tend to use liqueurs as cocktail ingredients, in combination with a base spirit such as whiskey, gin, or brandy - but sometimes I like a nip of a liqueur for something different. However, they are sweet enough that more than an ounce or so is enough for me.

[cowdery]

I just learned that Pernod-Ricard has big hopes for this product and that the reformulation that accompanied the renaming and packaging redesign reduced the honey flavor. Presently, all of the alcohol in the product is Wild Turkey bourbon, no GNS, and it's the last thing being made and bottled at Tyrone, since the rest of the bottling was moved to Fort Smith. They are positioning it as a Jagermeister alternative.

[polyamnesia]

i will have to try this eventually.

i do hope it isn't too sweet...i think i burned my appreciation for straight sweetness (no hints of it...!) with Limoncello.....i can barely take a sip of it anymore....unless it was to wash down some blackened redfish with tabasco....would take something like THAT to counteract that lemonhead taste!

but still, i think honey is a great part of most any liqueur formula.

andy

p.s.

now how would you think American Honey might taste better if blended with some MORE WTurkey?! would this be "vatting" ?

i've tried to find precise info on vatting and can only glean a sense of it from various posts...is vatting done in a bottle ... or can it be done in a glass? aside from the term in Scotch parlance (blending/vatting), can someone lead me to a thread that might answer the exactitudes of VATTING?

thanks:)

[barturtle]

There is at least one other of the bourbon liqueurs to try, Prichard's Sweet Lucy. I haven't had it, but it is of the apricot orange persuasion.

[ILLfarmboy]

There is at least one other of the bourbon liqueurs to try, Prichard's Sweet Lucy. I haven't had it, but it is of the apricot orange persuasion.

Sounds interesting. Sort of like a artisanal knock off of Southern Comfort. Prichard's Double Barreled Bourbon is available down state in my area but I've never seen the Sweet Lucy. At least that I recall. Janean occasionally uses SC in a couple different mixed drinks.

[cowdery]

I had forgotten about the Prichard's, which is easy to do since its distribution is very small.

As for vatting, Andy, around here it's a synonym for gillmanization, which means a mixture of two or more whiskeys to create a sum that is, hopefully, greater than its parts. Yes, it can be done in the glass, or scaled up from there.

[Gillman]

It's a practice as old as the hills and still done by non-distilling merchants (sometimes), and done in a way by some distillers. For example, albeit from 100% of its own production Wild Turkey takes 6, 8 and 12 year old bourbons and blends them to get a consistent, pleasing taste, it's called Rare Breed. So you can do it too, in your own way.

Also, one might view this as sort of making a cocktail, which is partly a combination of different liquors (sometimes again).

Once you feel familiar with the different tastes, you can balance them to get something that may please as much, or more, and be different.

My name has become associated with this courtesy some SB-ers kindly giving me the nod but it's nothing that I invented, only an old practice being revived (or rather noticed).

If you added American Honey to Wild Turkey you would end up with an American analogue to a Rusty Nail (Scotch and Drambuie).

Gary

[Gillman]

If, say you blend two parts Lot B to one of Elijah Craig 12 years old, you would get an interesting (I think) 4-grain bourbon.

Try it in the glass, this is simplicity itself.

Gary

[Sijan]

I've had either this or the original version and thought it tasted pretty awful. Cough syrup comes to mind...

[polyamnesia]

well, i love honey...and all i hope is that this is not TOO SWEET (like limoncello-sweet!).

i know not to expect bourbon when sipping WTAHoney...which i plan to get, maybe today. i trust the brand and the intention.

now is this to compete with Jagermeister?

i would think at least Berenjaeger....that IS honey-based (tho still a different animal).

Jager is great, i love it, but that stuff DOES taste medicinal....i can't image this WTAH tasting that way.

an experiment i look forward to...

btw, i think i will pick up a bottle of good ole WT101...and should the honey version be too sweet, i'll make that american "rusty nail"...at least it will stay in the (WT) family!

edit ADDENDUM:

funny, on the WT website, they still feature a bottle of the OLD RR101 and the WT "Liqueur" (and is a lower proof than AH which i think is 70 or 72)....so, the bottle nor the description of the newer products--like RR90--is listed. appears not to have been updated!

here's the short description given of the now discontinued WT Liqueur:

Wild Turkey Liqueur (60°, 30% alcohol) The only bourbon-based liqueur on the market, Wild Turkey liqueur brings out the best flavors of our premium bourbon, but with real honey to give it a sweetness that's hard to resist. The palate is a bit like syrup and glides around the mouth with obvious notes of vanilla and citrus.

Perfectly suited for after-dinner consumption, it rounds-out Wild Turkey’s portfolio of exceptional products. Wild Turkey Liqueur also marries well with Wild Turkey Bourbon to make a Kentucky-style "Golden Nail." It also goes well with vanilla ice cream, pecan pie, or as an ingredient in a butterscotch sauce.

Wild Turkey Liqueur is the recipient of a Silver Medal at the 2000 San Francisco World Spirits Competition

AND i stand corrected....they do have a NAIL...the GOLDEN NAIL.....!

now what about WT101 and Drambuie?........