On St. Patrick’s Day, throwing back an Irish whiskey might taste different than it used to.
Flavored whiskey from American and Canadian companies isn’t novel — Southern Comfort, Fireball, Crown Royal apple and Knob Creek maple have been liquor store staples for decades — but it’s now attracting the attention of the Irish, a once inconceivable thought at distilleries that have prided themselves on whiskey’s taste itself being the draw.
“Whiskey purists have talked about flavored whiskey as an overall challenge to the category and in a negative way because they think it kind of defeats the purpose of why you’re distilling high-quality liquid and then putting it into a barrel,” said Lander Otegui, chief marketing officer for Proximo, the spirits company that owns Irish stalwarts Bushmills and Proper No. Twelve.
However, that’s changing among the Irish, with Jameson jumping on the trend a few years ago with two flavors. Jameson Cold Brew rolled out in 2020 followed by orange two years later. Both remain on sale and are attracting new drinkers to the brand.
Flavored whiskey is a $1.5 billion category and accounts for 20% of all US whiskey sales. In the past few years, flavored whiskey sales have outpaced unflavored whiskey, according to Southern Glazer’s distributors. Since 2019, the number of flavored whiskeys on shelves soared 37%, surpassing 1,000 options.
And more are joining: Conor McGregor’s Irish whiskey, Proper No. Twelve, recently debuted an apple-flavored version, which has performed strongly for the brand since its launch a year ago.
That wasn’t without hesitation from the brand, Otegui admits. They “weren’t very convinced” about launching a flavored whiskey. But with younger drinkers gravitating toward punchier flavors, Irish brands “have to be much more flexible than their historical beliefs have been,” he told CNN.
Another Irish distillery is leaping into the trend. Tullamore D.E.W., for the first time in its 200-year history, released in the US last month a flavored whiskey, choosing honey, ahead of St. Patrick’s Day.
Honey was an easy choice, said Paul Basford, US president for Tullamore D.E.W.’s parent company, William Grant and Sons, which also owns Glenfiddich whisky and Hendrick’s gin.
First off, it’s familiar to drinkers, thanks in part to flavored American whiskey “doing very strong things in the market, so it’s a natural extension for the Tullamore D.E.W. brand to play in that footprint,” Basford told CNN. (Jack Daniel’s and Jim Beam have had honey on shelves for years, and sell strongly.)