Horse with No Name Habanero Infused Bourbon Whiskey

Product of: Germany

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A straight bourbon from Texas infused with 2% habanero chili distillate made by Alexander Stein in Germany's Black Forest. What do you call such a reprobate hard to classify spirit, "Horse With No Name."

Stein is the distilling innovator behind Monkey 47 Gin, and to make this Habanero-infused whiskey, he has partnered with the highly regarded Fireston & Robertson Distillery in Texas. For Horse With No Name, they have developed a bourbon made from 71% yellow dent Texas corn, 21% red winter wheat, and 8% six-row malted barley, fermented using a yeast strain from pecan nuts.

After aging in new toasted American oak barrels, the bourbon is blended with a habanero distillate produced from specially cultivated Red Savina habanero chilis grown in the Black Forest.

Stein mills these habaneros and then macerates them in neutral molasses alcohol for around ten days. This maceration is diluted with spring water and distilled in a 100-litre still, and the resulting distillate is then left to rest and mellow in earthenware tanks for several months before being blended with the bourbon to make Horse With No Name.

Review and Tasting

Sampled on 25/08/2020

Appearance:

Clear, golden amber.

Aroma:

Fruitcake, dedicated coconut, vanilla, rye bread, smoked red bell peppers, crystalised ginger, dried mango, overripe banana, and cinnamon.

Taste:

Chargrilled burnt corn-on-the-cob, blackened fruitcake, and vanilla with a distinctive and appealing metallic barbequed sweet yellow bell pepper note dusted with cinnamon, black and white pepper spice.

Aftertaste:

That strangely alluring metallic vegetal note continues through the long finish with classic bourbon vanilla notes infused with sundried tomato, sweet yellow bell pepper. Sweet rather than hot lingering spice.

Overall:

It's very unusual to come across a new product that has everything going for it: attractive and distinctive packaging, great back story, fun marketing, ease of mixability, as well as tasting good neat. To add to all of that, Horse With No Name even has an earworm soundtrack. What's not to like.