Summer fruit | Apples | Dried apricot | Fruity & spicy | Dry | Some heat

Summer fruit | Rye spice | Green apple | Raisin | Starfruit | Anise | Peaches | Tropical fruit | Fruit-forward and sweet with a base of spice

Spice develops | Peach cobbler | Pie crust | Sweet flavors overcome spice and linger | Transitions to dry

Located in Nashville, Indiana, Hard Truth Distilling Co. offers a broad range of spirits from rum to high-aged sourced bourbon to in-house distilled whiskeys. Sweet Mash Rye Batch 001 is a 30 barrel batch that was distilled from 96% rye using a sweet mash and then dumped on October 14, 2021.

According to the company’s website, the barrels used range in age from two to three years old, however, the whiskey shows no sign of youth. Fruit-forward with complementary rye spice, the whiskey revels in its playfulness. Its fruit-forward flavor profile is tasty and unique, not to mention surprising considering it comes from a 94% rye mashbill. More time aging will certainly add an interesting oak dimension, but as-is, the product should become a staple in Hard Truth’s portfolio as there are few whiskeys like it on the shelves.

*Editor's Note: This review was updated on 2/25/2022 to reflect the presence of an age statement on the bottle that was initially missed. The age statement is printed on the back label of the bottle underneath the barcode.