Jack Daniel’s Honey Liqueur Review

By Richard Thomas

Rating: C-

Jack Daniel’s got into the rising tide in flavored whiskey just as the wave was building up steam. This Lynchburg-predigreed honey liqueur was introduced in 2011, yet the flavored whiskey fad didn’t really soar until Fireball’s explosion the next year.

The Liqueur
As a liqueur, this is basically a honey + whiskey concoction, so the alcohol content comes in at a typical 35%. Yet this stuff has more in common with products like Fireball than with the classic bourbon honey liqueur, Wild Turkey American Honey, in that it heavily leans on the honey side rather than the whiskey side.

More than anything else, what Jack Daniel’s Honey smells and tastes like is a thin maple syrup with honey added. Were it thicker, I think it would be marvelous on pancakes. Indeed, the real calling for Jack Daniel’s Honey is as a spiking ingredient for maple syrup the next time you go to a Catholic Church-run pancake dinner (cue Homer Simpson).

What it is not is something that tastes like whiskey. In fact, the maple syrup aspect is a 50-50 split with the honey aspect, so I can’t really say it works as a honey liqueur either. This isn’t to say that Jack Daniel’s Honey is bad, but merely that it is very off-center for its type. I really have to wonder if the whiskey used wasn’t aged in used oak or barely aged at all, and that strong maple character didn’t come from the Lincoln County Process.

The Price
In the United States, this liqueur typically costs $20 or $22. In the United Kingdom, expect to pay £23, more or less following the rule of same number, different currency.