I’m currently in Michigan getting away from the city for a few days. And as always, I have to check out the local liquor store for some interesting finds. Now, Michigan is known for a few things: cars, Motown music, cheating at football, and of course cherries. So it just felt right to grab a bottle of Traverse City Whiskey Co. bourbon whiskey infused with Traverse City cherries.
History
Traverse City Whiskey Co. is among the group of young craft distilleries that have popped up in smaller cities across the United States over the last couple decades. Traverse City, Michigan was founded in 1847 and best known for being the biggest producer of tart cherries in the US (and hence Traverse City Whiskey Co’s line of bottled cocktail cherries).
The whiskey company was started in 2010 when founder Chris Fredrickson’s father discovered a whiskey recipe that his great grandfather patented during the prohibition era. Driven by a love of good whiskey, Fredrickson and his college friend Moti Goldring decided to start his own distilling company and try to restart the lost family business.
For the first few years, the Traverse City Whiskey Co. didn’t have a facility of their own, instead outsourcing production of their spirit to MGP in Indiana (a distilling company that mass produces spirits for other companies to bottle under their own brand names). The lead product, their XXX Straight Bourbon Whiskey, first appeared on shelves in 2012 (after the appropriate two year aging period). In 2015, they finally had enough money and resources to purchase an old power station in downtown Traverse City and open their first local distillery, moving most of the spirit production there.
Since the new distillery opened, the business has expanded rapidly with their products available in most states and they just this year announced plans to purchase an additional building and expand their production even further. The business remains privately owned by the original founders to this day.
Product
I am making the assumption that the flagship XXX Straight Bourbon Whiskey is the base for the infusion.
Originally distilled by MGP, most of the production of Traverse City Whiskey Co’s flagship XXX Straight Bourbon Whiskey now resides in-house at the former power plant turned distillery. Some sources indicate that the product is now a mixture of locally distilled spirits and some still imported from MGP, but I should note there’s no mention of MGP on their packaging or marketing materials.
The grain bill for this specific spirit is rather vague, only noting that it includes corn, rye, and malted barley. As a straight bourbon whiskey, the rules dictate that at least 51% of the grain bill needs to be corn, but as we see with others like Bulleit Bourbon, a little change in the remainder of the grain bill can have a huge impact.
Another requirement of their labeling (specifically the “bourbon” statement) means that the spirit needs to be aged for a minimum of two years in new charred white oak barrels. The website claims that their product is aged for four years, but the bottle I enjoyed only claimed three years of age. I’m guessing that this difference in age is the demarcation line between the older, MGP-produced version and the newer blended version that incorporates the locally produced spirit (but that’s just an educated guess).
The final step for this product is to take the base bourbon and infuse it with cherries. At this point, the whiskey can no longer technically be called bourbon; however, they are very clear about the product and the infusion on the label. Traverse City is known for cherries – specifically, Montmorency tart cherries – and is home to the National Cherry Festival. To infuse this into whiskey just makes sense… but what worries me is the “and natural flavors” wording stuck on the end of the label. I don’t know if we are getting an actual infusion of delicious local cherries or just some cherry juice mixed in.
Packaging
We’ve seen this same formula again and again in craft spirits. The straight walled round bottle, the high squared shoulder, even the rustic lettering on a solid colored label isn’t new. But while it might not be groundbreaking, it works (I mean, it’s so ubiquitous for a reason). The bottle and the label are visually appealing, giving off the appearance of a craft distilled spirit and letting the delicious amber coloring of the spirit shine through the bottle.
I do appreciate that for this version of their spirit, they use a cherry red colored label rather than the normal black, as we saw on their XXX Straight Bourbon expression. It’s a nice hint to the contents of the bottle, as well as the raw materials being used — and helps to differentiate the bottles on the shelf.
The bottle is topped off with a cork and wooden cap, which is a touch I appreciate. Too many bottles are topped by plastic caps when a wooden one isn’t that much more expensive and improves the experience immensely.
Neat
I am not sure if it’s my eyes wanting the color of the whiskey to be redder than usual or if it actually is, but my glass of whiskey gives off a bright auburn hue that’s warmer than the normal color of a good whiskey.
Taking a first whiff, all I can think is: have you ever opened a jar of cherries and stuck your nose in? Because that is what this whiskey smells like. It’s incredibly sweet – almost sickeningly so. Based on that, my guess is that the infusion is with sweetened juice and not actual fruit.
I braced myself for the first sip, but even being forewarned was not enough. Woof – this is rough. It’s surprisingly bad, especially since the Traverse City whiskey that I’ve had before was good, and the experience Nick had in his previous review was too. I am not sure what happened here — maybe they tried to salvage a rejected batch of whiskey to make this? Either that or the infusion process turned a once good whiskey to gut-rot.
It’s so surprisingly bad that I’m starting to question my assumption that they used their XXX Straight Bourbon Whiskey as the base.
There are no distinct whiskey flavors that I can pick out for you. The entire flavor profile is bottom shelf whiskey mixed with maraschino cherries. The only saving grace about sipping this neat is that I was sitting on a Lake Michigan beach watching a gorgeous sunset.
On Ice
Have you ever had a dive bar old fashioned? The kind where it’s made with a generic whiskey over too much ice and cherry juice? Yeah, that is exactly what this tastes like on the rocks.
Good news: I can actually pick out some whiskey flavors now. There is more of an oaky note, some brown sugar, and just a hint of spice. Bad news: you cannot escape the cherry flavor.
This is a step up from drinking it neat. I actually can taste whiskey when drinking this on the rocks! However, what could have been a subtle infusion with an good foundation whiskey is looking more and more like an cheap cherry abomination.
Old Fashioned
I stared at my glass before taking a sip, contemplating my decisions and wondering what was in store for me. If drinking this on the rocks tasted like a dive bar old fashioned, what am I about to get myself into?
This cocktail is very fruit forward. So much so, in fact, that it drinks like more of a boozy sangria rather than an old fashioned. It’s so very sweet that any additional sugar is just doing this a disservice. The only flavors that you get are cherries, sugar, bitters, and more cherries.
However, there is one saving grace for this cocktail – it might be the perfect whiskey for your friends who do not like bourbon. I had my wife, who is not a bourbon fan, take a sip — and her glowing review was: “I kind of like it”.
Mule
I don’t hate this. I don’t love it either. It’s just a very different spin on a mule.
Let’s start with the whiskey – which is to say, it doesn’t taste like there is any. There’s no note of oak. No brown sugar. No spice.
It’s just notes of cherry.
Imagine a cocktail that is a little boozy and full of ginger beer and cherries — imagine a boozy Shirley Temple. That said, I could actually see this filling a niche somewhere. It’s not my cup of tea, but it’s not the worst mule I’ve ever had either.
Overall Rating
If you really want to try this, I suggest finding it at a bar. You don’t need any more than a couple of ounces to come to the same conclusion as me (presumably).
I honestly think infusing Malört with cherries would leave you with a better end result. Outside of the four tasting drinks, the remainder of this bottle ended up in a Buffalo City sewer somewhere. As someone who loves to buy shots of Malört, I would never wish this on my worst enemy.
| Belle Meade American Cherry Edition Production Location: Michigan, United States Classification: Flavored Whiskey Aging: No Age Statement (NAS) Proof: 35% ABV Price: $31.99 / 750 ml Overall Rating:   |
Overall Rating: 1/5
I can think of much better uses for $32.