Booker’s 2022-03 Kentucky Tea Batch

Buy it if you find it! (preferably at $80)

DISTILLERY	Jim Beam
REGION	Kentucky
AGE	7 Years, 4 months and 14 Days
STRENGTH	63.25% ABV (126.5 Proof)
MASHBILL	77% corn, 13% rye, and 10% malted barley
MSRP	$80 – 100

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GLANCE

Clear with dark gold-amber. Intensity is deep.

NOSE

Strong notes of vanilla hits you right away and the classic bookers nose hangs behind the rich vanilla. Brown sugar with fresh oak and surprisingly some vegetal notes pull through. At this point I don’t get anything that reminds me of tea though. Curious and wondering I head into the palate…

PALATE

Booya! (a phrase I haven’t said in a while) escaped my mouth. Here where I understood why it’s called Kentucky Tea Batch. So, one thing that jumped out to me right away was that how not very viscous it was (compared to the other booker’s expressions I have tried). I got notes of peanut, caramel popcorn, macadamia nuts, cinnamon and vanilla. Hints of brown sugar followed throughout. Then towards the middle and back of the palate, I got dried cranberries, cherries and raisins! The watery/light texture and more fruit forward flavors started to convince me of the tea flavor profile more. How it lightly coated the tongue with profound flavor helped make the connection as well.

FINISH

Long and very complex. Initially you get peanuts, caramel, vanilla and butter popcorn. Largely following through from the palate. But as the finish goes on you get green crisp apples and citrus notes. This again took me by surprise but having the distillate sit on my tongue convinced me that this would indeed make some fine Kentucky Tea!

CLOSING REMARKS

Booker’s Bourbons batch to batch had been falling short of expectations, especially at the rising cost per bottle. Starting from last year, I can say things appear to be turning around. Prices haven’t come down but the quality in the product has increased. There is more delicious flavor and its balanced better. Part of the Booker’s I have always enjoyed is the marketing/story that goes along a lot better when the actual distillate is able to rise with the story. The age of each recent batch is starting to hit the 7 years + and there are just more potent flavors the end consumer can enjoy. Having said that each batch is still a gamble in terms of what you will get but personally the last few batches have been winners in my book. Cheers!

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