Red Stag Bourbon

I first saw Red Stag the other day as I was doing my kid in a candy store impersonation wandering the isles of one of my local liquor stores. I had never heard of it nor had I ever seen Red Stag before this week. It is made by Jim Beam, one of the venerable Bourbon houses with a good reputation that goes back in history a long way. The label caught my eye and well I just had to try it.
Now usually I like my whisky (ey) straight or at most with a splash of water and on 95 degree Florida days in the summer, yeah with some ice. I don’t care for flavored vodkas but do enjoy a good vodka martini. I don’t even put lemon in my tea. So straight and undiluted is the way I enjoy my alcohol. Then Red Stag came along and caught my eye. Red Stag is black cherry flavored and I honestly had never heard of flavored Bourbon before. There may be several of them but this was the first time I had come across one. So I cracked open the bottle and gave it a whiff and you guessed it, I could actually smell black cherry (surprise!). So I took a swig and yep there it was, lots of black cherry flavor right there in this bottle of Bourbon. It left a nice after taste in the back of the throat not unlike drinking a black cherry cola but with the pleasant Bourbon taste right there riding shot gun on the whole experience.
I guess the thought is (and this is just my guess) that the Beam marketing department thought that a lot of folks like Bourbon and Coke and a lot of folks like black cherry Coke so Red Stag would make the perfect mixer for those of us who enjoy that sort of thing.
Well, it does taste pretty good. The combo is really nice and I think this is a winner for the Bourbon and Coke crowd. It may not appeal to the straight whiskey drinkers but I got to tell you that it actually was enjoyable so if you are of a mind to try something different every once in a while this could be a nice diversion from your normal whiskey.
I think it would be great at parties and I am fairly sure that there are some ladies out there who would enjoy this black cherry taste in their Bourbon and yeah some men too.
There are hundreds of brands out there and that just proves that we all like different things or else there would only be one brand so if nothing else buy a miniature 50ml bottle and give Red Stag a try. I will most likely buy it again one day soon and yeah I might even have a Bourbon and black cherry Coke once in a while…..maybe….but it does have a nice flavor to it. Try it and let me know what you think.

The Whiskey Warrior