Booker's Kentucky Straight Whiskey: It Detonates In Your Mouth Like A Flavoursome Atomic Bomb!

We’re back on U.S soil this week with a bourbon so robust and hardy, it could easily punch its way through the vault of a bloody Las Vegas casino! So guys tip those caps and welcome into your boozy hearts Booker’s Barrel Strength Kentucky Straight Whiskey. And if you’re after a bourbon that’s stronger than Hulk Hogan and packs more of an alcoholic punch than Mohammad Ali, then this Kentuckian is your whiskey swilling main man. So, ready those glasses, prepare your pipe and brace yourselves, as this is a bourbon that holds nothing back and packs one hell of a vigorous attitude.

We first came across this bourbon in a tasting pack from Flaviar (if you haven’t already check out these guys, they rock! www.flaviar.com). To say it blew us away is a freaking understatement! And that’s not just because of its alcoholic potency. Weighing in at a dizzying 63.25% ABV, this barrel strength bourbon (for those not in the know, ‘barrel strength’ or ‘cask strength’ means the bourbon is taken straight out of the barrel then bottled at it’s natural proof and not cut with water.) is distilled by the Jim Beam Distillery down there in blazing Kentucky. It is a bourbon personally selected by Jim Beam’s grandson and late distiller, Booker Noe, who introduced his bourbon to the public in 1992. Aged between six and eight years, each small batch is selected from the ‘centre cut’ of the aging rack where the temperature and humidity are best to produce such exquisite bourbon. And Jesus is it exquisite! So now we’ve done some schooling, it’s time to get our taste buds purely pummelled!

First, though, we’ll get our noses stuck in. But hang around a bit as this bourbons aroma takes its time to unleash its pure awesomeness, but when it does; man do you know it! BAM, your senses are filled with sheer bourbon love. Hearty, oaky wood notes wrap themselves around bursts of rich caramel with such tenacity, you can’t help but climb out onto your freaking roof and scream out your pure love for this stuff! Thick vanilla is prominent in this flavour festivity, bringing with it that smooth creaminess that makes bourbon just so damn delectable. But just by getting your nose stuck in you can tell this bourbon has a hefty character to it. It’s deep, commanding and wonderfully powerful. On the back end you get a slight touch of smokiness and considering it’s high ABV, you don’t get any overbearing vapours. It’s vigorously soft.

But it’s once you get this dram inside you that you feel the full force of this brawny bourbon beast, and it truly steam-rolls you over. A pure explosion of glorious oak erupts in your mouth with such strength and audacity you’d think you’d just been hit by a boozy double decker! It even made us shout out ‘Jesus Christ!’ on first sip as it nearly blew our freaking head off! Well, it is 63.25% ABV after all. But it doesn’t put you off; it’s intensely entrancing. You go back for more, and then some more. It commandeers your whole body, your whole mind and in that sheer moment, all you want is more Booker’s.

But then decedent caramel bowls its toothsome way in, holding hands with that wholesome, creamy vanilla, delivering such an exquisite and awe-inspiring sweetness that we’d quite happily sell all our worldly possessions just for one tot! Smokey notes drive their way in on the end adding that extra to the proceedings and, now bare with us here, you also get a slight poke of creosote. Yes, you read right and yes, we know that sounds gross but it’s totally not! Remember as a kid when you smelt the stuff but always wanted to smell more of it? Well, Booker’s has that luring quality. It’s that intense alcohol merging with the wood and it reminds us of when our Dad used to paint the fence (er, correction, when he used to make US paint the fence!). Add this boisterous taste blowout to the long and ever so smooth finish that Booker’s deliver, and you’ve got yourself one full flavoured, potently impeccable bourbon that you’ll be ecstatic to have let into your lives.

But for us what draws us into this bourbon, what lures us in is that delectable sweetness, robust oak and the way it utterly detonates in your mouth like a flavoursome atomic bomb. It’s overwhelming but, man, does it get you going! Yes it’s strong but who doesn’t like an alcoholic punch to the face? Especially when it comes like this! But this is definitely one bourbon not to be knocked back, this one is to be sipped, and effervescently at that. It’s what it deserves, it’s what it needs; it’s what you need.

Pick yourself up a bottle here.

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