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Honey Finished Bourbon

Green River Honey Finished Bourbon Will Enjoy Sweet Success

We all know the song, "Sugar Sugar" well, this nose is all honey, honey. The underlying bourbon is present, but it doesn't stand up to the big dose of good quality bee nectar.

Steve Coomes

• 3 min read
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Green River Honey Finished Bourbon Will Enjoy Sweet Success

Bottle Details

TASTING NOTES

NOSE: As the song says, "Ah sugar, ah honey, honey." This nose is all that. The wood spices make clear that the underlying bourbon is present, but it doesn't stand up to the big dose of good quality bee nectar.

PALATE: Unlike the nose, bourbon leads first ... and then ... honey dominates. Sure, there's good spice character, a little citrus and a little oak, but this honey, like this other song's claims, is sweeter than the whiskey into which it's infused. And based on its delicate presentation, you'd never know this was 92 proof.

FINISH: Short, simple and sweet.

Reviewer's Verdict

RATING: Bottle.

WORTH THE PRICE: Sure it is. $25 is a fair price for a well-made honey-finished whiskey. It's exactly what Wild Turkey charges for its American Honey, which is a 71 proof bourbon-based liqueur. This is much better than that. Tons of people will love such a sweet and easy drinker, and it makes an excellent Gold Rush cocktail.

WHO IT'S FOR: People who like their whiskies sweet–not cloying, but honestly sweet and loaded with honey flavor. It's a great pour to introduce whiskey-timid friends to bourbon without roasting their palates. It's an after dinner pour for friends who've chose wine all night; a properly sweet good-bye kiss in a glass.

REVIEWER'S VERDICT: Lofted Spirits turns once again to its high-quality and versatile Green River Distilling Co. bourbon stocks to give drinkers some variety at a bargain price. I'm not a honeyed-whiskey connoisseur. The quality of the handful I've had ranged from clumsily executed to really nicely done, yet super hard to get (Nelson Brother's Honey Cask Finish). For me, this one works. That Green River has pulled off a solid product at will excite drinkers who enjoy sipping on the sweet side.

Lofted Spirits' master blender Dan Callaway put it this way in a news release: “'Natural flavors’ aren’t always as natural as they claim to be. Green River Honey is changing that–putting our money into real, natural honey and Kentucky Straight Bourbon. Its flavor and approachability opens the Green River brand up to higher energy occasions, plays well in a cocktail, and bridges a huge gap in the category between higher priced honey-cask finishes and cheaper immature flavors.”

Will this garner awards and lofty praise from the American whiskey cognoscenti? No. But I'm confident it will more than pay its own bills. This should generate high product trial among whiskey newbies and veterans who crave something sweet now and again.

Suggested Food Pairing: Dessert of course, and lemon pound cake at that. This also could work with sweet-and-sour Asian dishes, especially if the proteins are fried.

Disclaimer

This bottle found its way to us compliments of the brand. What ends up on the page is ours alone — and they knew that going in. Around here, honesty isn't a policy. It's the whole damn point.

About Our Rating System

Bourbon & Banter uses a three-tier rating system created over a decade ago: Bottle, Bar, or Bust.

  • 🍾 Bottle — Buy it. This one deserves a place in your cabinet. (Approximate equivalent: 85 and above on a 100-point scale)
  • 🥃 Bar — Worth trying, but not necessarily worth owning. Find it at a bar before committing to a bottle. (Approximate equivalent: 70–84)
  • 💀 Bust — Skip it. Life is too short and your shelf space too valuable. (Approximate equivalent: below 70)

Numeric scores imply a precision that doesn't exist — and most publications never score below 80, making half the scale meaningless. We'd rather answer the question that actually matters: buy it, try it at a bar before you buy, or skip it. The approximate equivalents above are for reference only.