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Flavor Wheel
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By
Kristen Bieler
flavored bourbon
A
s sheer numbers go, flavored bourbons have everything going for
them: They combine the strength of the robust bourbon category with
the increasing popularity of flavors (according to Nielsen, flavored
spirits growth is more than double that of their unflavored counterparts). Yet the reality is far more nuanced, since the traditional brown spirits
consumer is very different from the flavor consumer, and the category—at least
the new generation of brands to hit the market—is so fresh, it’s hard to tell how
they will fare long-term. Estimated by some to be a 500,000 case-category today,
flavored whiskies are a small piece of the spirits pie, but their growth rate is what
has people paying attention.
“Flavor is definitely the way this category is going,” says Lena DerOhannessian,
Southern Comfort’s U.S. marketing director. Many category newcomers take credit
for “inventing” flavored bourbon, but the
fruit- and spice-infused Southern Comfort
was probably the first. It was concocted in
1874 by M.W. Heron in New Orleans’
French Quarter with the intention of
masking the highly inconsistent and often
unpalatable taste of many bourbons of the
day. Today it’s a 1.3 million-case brand.
Although DerOhannessian—along
with most consumers—considers Southern
Comfort a stand-alone brand in a category
of its own rather than a “flavored bourbon”, she closely follows the way flavor is
transforming the brown spirits category:
“Consumers are open to a different kind
of bourbon—there is no longer a purist approach. The brown spirits resurgence we
are seeing right now is largely driven by
innovative products with consumer appeal
that never existed before, and flavor will be
the most important way this category will
evolve. This is where we have enjoyed tremendous growth over the years, and other
brands are just tapping into it.”
Moving Beyond
the Whiskey Category
Of the new introductions, the leader out of
the gate is Red Stag by Jim Beam, a Kentucky straight bourbon infused with natural
black cherry flavor. Launched in 2008, Red
Stag has shipped 230,000 cases and was the
second fastest-growing spirit launch last
year. “We knew that consumers were looking for more flavor—in their food and in
their spirits—and we responded to this insight,” says Drew Munro, Beam Global Spirits & Wine’s general manager, bourbons.
Another major player in the mix
is Evan Williams. On the heels of Evan
Williams Honey Reserve which came out
in fall of 2009 (and won a silver medal at
the San Francisco World Spirits Competition), Heaven Hill recently released Evan
Williams Cherry Reserve. Both are bottled
at 70-proof with the intention of making
them more approachable, heightened by
the tagline “All Flavor. No Sting.”
As the fastest growing premium bourbon in the business with a double digit
increase last year, Evan Williams hardly
needed a boost, but brand manager Susan
Wahl says the company couldn’t resist the
opportunity to expand the consumer base:
“The flavors allow us to bring in people
who might be afraid of brown goods or
who haven’t tried them in a long time;
they present a smoother, easier taste profile and provide a great entry point to the
category.” Wahl admits the company had
the female consumer in mind when creating the flavors. They promote them as
mixable cocktail ingredients (a signature
drink is their Cherry Margarita) which
also helps capture that demographic.
Greater mixability was a goal for Red
Stag as well. States Munro, “We were
going after those looking for a mixable,
more approachable whiskey option; it lets
us target those who would otherwise or-
der something else entirely—beer, wine,
liqueur or vodka cocktails. We’ve found
that we’re sourcing occasions from many
categories outside bourbon.”
The Flavor Gender Divide
But are women the only ones drinking
flavored whiskey? According to Brad Williams, head buyer/director of merchandising at Liquor Barn, Kentucky’s largest
chain with nine stores, flavored products
“do make whiskey more accessible for
women, and opens up the category for
them.” But they aren’t as gender-exclusive
as that, he believes: it all comes down to
what flavor you’re talking about. “Men
might shy away from some of the flavors,
but they buy the honey. They see honeyflavored whiskey as a great shooter,” he
explains. “A lot of customers bring them
to tailgating parties and consume them
as shots. My dad drinks it on ice cream;
it has crossover potential as a nightcap.
You’re not going to find cherry bourbon
on a deer hunt.”
The undisputed honey leader is Wild
Turkey’s American Honey which is technically a liqueur, featuring a fairly sweet,
lower-proof taste profile. Williams credits American Honey with really energizing the flavored bourbon category since
its 2007 launch. Maura McGinn, Skyy
Spirits’ group brand director, vodka and
cordials, refers to it as a “modern cordial”
which has moved beyond the bourbon
category. “The potential for American
Honey is greater than just flavored bourbon usage. The slightly lower proof allows
for the flavor of the natural honey to come
through in the spirit,” she notes.
Wahl has seen the same thing with
Evan Williams’ Honey Reserve: “Honey
crosses over—at tastings, it is what the
men are drinking, even some of the triedand true bourbon drinkers, which has
been a great surprise for us. It’s a subtle flavor so the bourbon really comes through,
and if you’re a bourbon drinker, that’s
what you want. When they taste it, they
don’t perceive us as straying too far from
real bourbon.”
flavored bourbon
Winning Over the Traditional
Whisky Drinker
Two flavored bourbons you just might
find on a deer hunt, however, are White
Tail and Bird Dog. A caramel-infused
and blackberry-infused bourbon respectively, they are both 80-proof and packaged with wildlife and nature imagery.
They are aiming for that place where
whiskey enthusiast and hunter/outdoorsman/wildlife conservationist intersect,
says a spokesperson for Western Spirits, which owns the brands. Retailing
between $17.99 and $19.99, Whitetail
and Bird Dog have been in development
since 2007, and are just now achieving
nationwide distribution. The company
reports early success in traditional bourbon markets—Texas, Kentucky, Mississippi—and some less likely places such as
New England and New York City. Unlike many other flavored bourbon suppliers, Western Spirits isn’t pushing the
mixology angle, but instead encouraging
consumers to drink them neat.
In fact, as more and more brands enter the flavored whiskey arena, the trend
seems to be a direct appeal to the traditional whiskey drinker. Which only makes
sense given the nature of the base spirit,
says Dean Phillips, CEO of Phillips Distilling Company, whose father kickstarted
the premium flavored vodka craze with
Belvedere and Chopin: “Whiskey is an
authentic category. The whiskey drinker
looks for authenticity and heritage; categories like vodka are much sexier.”
Southern Comfort
Lime
Seagram’s 7
Dark Honey
Revel Stoke
Spiced
Whisky
Phillips is convinced the spice category has the most viability, and is intent on
going after the spiced rum market, rather
than just winning over whiskey drinkers
with the masculine Revel Stoke, Phillips’
spiced Canadian whisky. “Whiskey is a
badge of honor, and even when it’s flavored
it will never be as accessible as vodka or
rum,” Phillips says. Still, it can be softer,
smoother and more flavorful, which is what
he has tried to do with Revel Stoke. “The
idea of infusing whiskey is not a new idea. I
was inspired by the Rock & Rye liqueurs—
the citrus and rock candy-infused whiskies
created in the 1930s.”
Another distinctly masculine entry is
Jeremiah Weed. The brand originated as
a 100-proof liqueur and for the last three
decades has been the shot of choice for
American fighter jet pilots. In the Jeremiah Weed family there is also a traditional
bourbon, and as of last year, a Cherry Mash
version. “We were looking for a way into
the fast-growing flavored bourbon market
yet we haven’t aggressively promoted it,”
says Yvonne Briese, marketing director
and brand director for North American
whiskies, Diageo.
Why does Jeremiah Weed Cherry
Mash keep a low-profile? “The truth
about brown spirits is that they are not
easy liquids to drink,” Briese explains.
“It isn’t like vodka which can be easily
launched—you can’t just shove it out
there and make people like it. We have
a sweet tea vodka under our Jeremiah
Weed label, which is more of a universal
Red Stag
by Jim Beam
Black Cherry
Whitetail
Caramel
Flavored
Evan Williams
Cherry
Reserve
offering, but our flavored varieties appeal
to traditional bourbon drinkers, and they
are mostly men.”
Interestingly, both Phillips Distilling
Company and Diageo have more accessible plays: Phillips Union Cherry and
Phillips Union Vanilla are blends of Canadian whisky and bourbon and clock in
at a much lower proof than Revel Stoke
with a more liqueur-like profile. Phillips
promotes them as perfect mixers with cola
and targets a younger audience. “They
aren’t aimed at female drinkers necessarily, but anyone who consumes flavored
vodka,” he describes.
Diageo’s Seagram’s 7 Dark Honey,
which launched last fall, will soon be followed by Stone Cherry early next year;
both are at the opposite end of the flavored
whiskey spectrum from Jeremiah Weed.
“Seagram’s has tremendous equity—it’s
a 2.5 million case brand with one of the
highest levels of distribution throughout
the country—and one of the reasons it’s
so popular is because it is so mixable and
mild,” says Briese. Dark Honey follows
suit, with a lower proof and price point
which makes it an easier-to-drink spirit for
a different drinker. Briese maintains that
“surprisingly, it has not attracted mostly
women. It is a very social drink, consumed
typically with cola in high-energy bars by
a young demographic.” Whether one will
experiment with flavored whiskey depends
on where they are in their evolution as a
consumer, says Briese, and it does require
a degree of open-mindedness.
Jeremiah Weed
Blended Bourbon
Whiskey
Firefly
Sweet Tea
Bourbon
Bird Dog
Blackberry
Flavored
Wild Turkey
Amercian
Honey
Flavored bourbon
BEAMIXOLOGIST
From Bobby “G” Gleason,
Beam Global Master Mixologist
Hot Cocktails
■
Hot Chocolate Cherry
1 part Red Stag by Jim Beam
4 parts hot chocolate
Whipped cream
DeKuyper Green Crème de Menthe
In a pre-heated Irish or glass coffee mug
pour in the Red Stag by Jim Beam. Fill with
hot chocolate and top with whipped cream.
Garnish with a drizzle of the Crème de Menthe.
■
Red Mistletoe
2 parts Red Stag by Jim Beam
1 part DeKuyper Dark Crème
de Cocoa
3 parts Heavy Cream
Chocolate syrup
Shake all ingredients but chocolate syrup
vigorously with ice and strain into a chilled
cocktail glass that has been drizzled with
the chocolate syrup.
Cool Facts
Red Stag, a natural black cherry-infused
bourbon, merges the caramel and vanilla
notes of Jim Beam Bourbon with the sweet,
natural flavors from black cherries to offer
a mixable, approachable option for pouring
creative and delicious cocktails. Use Red
Stag in both hot and cold creations while
you entertain this holiday season.
■ Red Stag by Jim Beam is 80-proof.
■ Bourbon is “America’s Native Spirit.”
■ Red Stag was in the top two fastest
growing spirits launches in 2009.
Service Provider: Beam Global Spirits & Wine, Inc.
Which brands work and which ones
don’t has everything to do with how
much support they receive in the
marketplace, rather than the size of
the supplier behind it.
Breaking Out
of Bourbon Season
Creating opportunities for usage in
warm weather months is another big
opportunity since bourbon is typically seen as a cold weather beverage
first. Scott Newitt, co-founder of the
Firefly brand, is doing just that. Firefly
was the first sweet tea vodka to hit the
market in 2008 (there are now about
15 others). The recently released Firefly Sweet Tea Bourbon uses the same
South Carolina-grown tea leaves and
Louisiana sugarcane with a base of Buffalo Trace Bourbon (Newitt partnered
with Buffalo Trace Distillery owner,
Sazerac Company, in 2009).
The combination of sweet tea and
bourbon—“two Southern traditions”—
gives Firefly Sweet Tea Bourbon unique
summertime appeal. So far Newitt has
observed that in cooler months the
brand enjoys a younger demographic as
many of the traditional bourbon drinkers return to their tried-and-true brands,
but as the weather warms he sees people
of all ages, since it’s a summertime bourbon alternative. With its comparatively
low 60-proof, it doesn’t need anything
“except perhaps a bit of soda and some
mint.” And unlike Firefly’s Sweet Tea
Vodka, which Newitt believes has a
65% female demographic, it is men
who have adopted his bourbon: “We
really went after the bourbon drinker
with this product, and although it’s still
early, I believe in five years it will be our
top-selling product.”
Southern Comfort managed to
capture a greater piece of the warm
weather consumption without even
trying. One of the brand’s biggest
spikes in history happened with SoCo
Lime—a shot of Southern Comfort
with lime juice—which was developed
organically in bars throughout the
country around 2001 and 2002. “SoCo
Lime was the first shooter in the category, and it’s great year-round with
a freshness that makes it perfect in
summer months,” says DerOhannessian. This year the company launched
SoCo Lime in a bottle.
Generating Sell-Through
Which brands work and which ones
don’t has everything to do with how
much support they receive in the marketplace, rather than the size of the
supplier behind it, say retailers. It’s
harder for newcomers without an established brand to leverage, according
to Liquor Barn’s Williams. But Revel
Stoke’s launch surprised him: Combining on-premise activation with in-store
displays and lots of tastings, the product sold out in a day “which blew me
away” he adds. He advises others to do
the same: “It is critical to have a real
go-to-market plan with these flavored
products, because the category is so
new. Marry your on-premise activation
to in-store promotions and you will create awareness.”
The on-premise is also using flavored whiskeys to leverage sales. In
Chicago, Scott Horwich, Faith &
Whiskey GM, sees flavored whiskey
as a great way to appeal Millennials:
“As I am only 26, I definitely would
also say I’ve noticed flavored whiskey
is a great way to reach those between
21-25 who aren’t established in terms
of what spirit they tend to buy. Red
Stag has gotten a big push with the
Kid Rock tour, but honestly, it’s just a
flavored bourbon
good product so it’s easy to suggest to customers.” Says Andrea Thompson, beverage manager of Rockbottom Restaurants,
“Flavored whiskey is a trend here to stay.
With the recent trends towards consumers becoming more knowledgeable and interested in flavors, mixology, food pairings
and combining ingredients, I believe flavored liquors will stay around.” Thompson has seen the majority of her flavored
whiskey sales in specialty cocktails, and a
recent promotion with Jim Beam might
help explain the interest. “We put together an incredibly successful Red Stag
sampling program,” she says. “Ten of our
Rock Bottom Restaurants selected twohour time periods – during happy hour,
football games and other busy times – to
have promotion teams come in to the restaurant and have guests sample Red Stag.
In addition to samples, we featured three
specialty cocktails which all showed the
versatility of flavored bourbon.”
And, of course, there is a reason why
Red Stag was the most successful new
product launch in the whiskey category in
the last five years. Beam was tireless in its
efforts to support it; and teamed up with
celebrity Kid Rock as Horwich notes,
simultaneously running innovative programming to fully leverage the partnership, explains Munro. After sponsoring
his 2009 “Rock N’ Rebels” Tour, Beam
offered consumers a special edition gift
carton of Jim Beam and Red Stag that
gave access to exclusive downloads of Kid
Rock songs. “This partnership marked the
first time a major record company has giv-
Kid Rock helps give
Red Stag street cred
If anything defines
today’s consumer,
it is a willingness
to try new things.
en a spirits company rights to launch and
distribute an exclusive CD from an A-list
rock star, and it’s been a massive success
thus far,” says Munro.
If anything defines today’s consumer,
it is a willingness to try new things, but
“try” is the operative word. “People grab
their comfort brand that they know they
will love, and pick up a 50ml of something
new they want to sample—we are flying
through those,” says Liquor Barn’s Williams. Heaven Hill relies heavily on them,
in addition to aggressive rebates that encourage people to pick up a bottle.
Finding the Right Home
The dilemma many retailers are facing?
Where to shelve them. Next to the base
brand in the whiskey section? In the liqueur section? Or a stand-alone flavored
whiskey shelf with all brands together?
(Some retailers report that when they
are split up, they don’t do as well.) Of
course, suppliers vote for all three, but
for retailers with limited space, that’s out
of the question.
The flavored vodka model—placing
them next to base brand—is favored by
some suppliers, but it depends on the brand
since the target consumer for many of these
flavored whiskies wouldn’t be shopping in
the whiskey section. “We want Jeremiah
Weed shelved with the bourbons, because
our consumers are mostly male whiskey
drinkers, we believe,” says Briese. But with
the Seagram’s 7 Crown flavors, she prefers
retailers place them in the liqueur section,
alongside Southern Comfort and Jägermeister. Another area where these can
have a lot of success is in the cold box.
For Evan Williams, it boils down to
geography: In less bourbon-centric regions, the flavors do better when shelved
in the liqueur section, but in bourbon territory—Texas, Georgia, South Carolina,
New York—placing them with the bourbons is most effective. And there is truth
to the “halo” effect, with line extensions
giving the base brand a lift when placed
side by side.
Passing Trend or Here to Stay?
“I thought it might be like some of the
other flavor crazes that came and went,
but it’s not fading,” says Williams. “I am
convinced there will be a permanent category for the products that are truly high
quality. It might be niche now, but in a
few years it could be a real category. After
all, it took flavored vodka and rum longer
than this to get off the ground.”
Yet there is unanimous agreement that
flavored whiskies are something different
entirely. According to Newitt, the nature
of whiskey limits what flavor permutations will work: “You won’t see grapefruit
or bubblegum; I would say bourbon is limited to honey, tea and a small handful of
fruits.” Besides, the whiskey world is still
tradition-bound compared with other categories, so the category will never move
beyond a few base flavors.
Aside from providing an alternative
to whiskey as a thriving subcategory, flavored whiskies may also pave the way for
the trade-up, every supplier’s best case
scenario. “Our goal is to keep consumers within our brand franchise,” reports
Wahl. “Consumers who are experimenting with the flavors as an introduction to
the bourbon category may trade up to our
Single Barrel or our 1783, which gives us
staying power. We don’t see any of these
as mutually exclusive or cannibalistic.”
Just like wine drinkers who start with
sweet Riesling and move to Cabernet, flavored bourbons can catch drinkers earlier,
believes Newitt: “Bourbon drinkers have
been adult drinking age for an average of
three years before they try bourbon because it’s a more challenging taste profile.
These products could change that.”
Even the original flavored bourbon
is providing trade-up options. Southern
Comfort now makes a Reserve six-year-old
bourbon at 100-proof with limited availability, and DerOhannessian is proud to say
its flavor doesn’t need any masking. ■