What you see here is a maple liqueur made with 4 year old Jim Beam whiskey and some other mysterious things (of which we can assume include maple syrup or a flavouring that makes stuff taste like it!)
Maple is one of the flavours that you may find naturally occurring in a whiskey – so I’d imagine it’s not a huge stretch to try upping the ante in flavour with a little…assistance. Which I suppose is great, if you like maple
Previously Jim Beam’s flavoured whiskey liqueurs were nested under the Red Stag brand, but with this one it seems that they’ve decided to take a slightly different approach in their branding. This is supposedly because they want to tempt their existing (predominantly male) customer base to try something new. Maybe they are big tough men who think that anything less than unadulterated liquor is for pussies. It’s also 35% ABV, instead of the 40% which you’ll find in the Red Stag range.
Flavoured whiskey liqueurs really seemed to take off after Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey came onto the scene circa 2011 – starting a trend which has seen lots of big name American distilleries experimenting with sweeter flavours. That said, I’m sure that Drambuie have been up to something similar for longer still (but with more Scottish accents and cold weather)
brb replacing my maple syrup supplies with maple syrup flavoured bourbon…
plot twist: i don’t have any maple syrup