Baker's Bourbon Review

Baker's Bourbon is one of four products in the Jim Beam Small Batch Collection which was launched by former master distiller Booker Noe. The other three bourbons in the collection are Booker's, Basil Hayden, and Knob Creek. For various good and bad reasons those other three get discussed often but it's rare you hear anyone talk about Baker's. I'd say that's because price-wise it's never made sense versus Booker's or Knob creek before those products have gone up in price or lost an age statement over the last couple of years. Through all that, Baker's has been stable in price, still bears an age statement, comes at a very respectable proof, and yet still it seems largely slept on. 

This product is so far out of mind that I wouldn't have thought to buy it on my own but the crowd over at /r/bourbon voted it as the May community review so here we are. On the noteworthy side of things, according to their website, Baker's uses a special strain of jug yeast. I point that out because most folks get a lot of nuttiness in Beam products that we attribute to their yeast so it will be interesting to see if this deviates from the typical Beam profile.

Aged 7 Years; 53.5% ABV; Batch B-90-001; $58

Nose: Smells like classic, highish proof, middle aged bourbon. Vanilla/toffee/burnt wood sugars, etc. It checks all the boxes you'd expect for the age and proof.

Taste: Again no surprise here, it just tastes like middle aged highish proof bourbon. Burnt caramel and other wood sugars, almond toffee, light rye in the form of baking spices, and a decent amount of umpf from the 53.5 % ABV. The age is apparent as there is some wood depth but there are still some traces of the grainy new make corn spirit.

Thoughts: This tastes exactly like I'd expect for the stats which is a good thing. While it isn't as peanut forward as something like Booker's or Knob Creek, I'm still getting a slight nutty vibe in the form of nut toffee. All in all, this is a decent, bordering on good bourbon though it is somewhat boring. Therein likes its real fault as $60 for the most okayest bourbon profile is quite a stretch and probably the main reason not many care about this. 

Rating: B / B-

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.