Gingerbread | Holiday spices | Cinnamon cake | Toasted oak | Spiced honey | Amburana dominates

Rye spice | Honey | Cinnamon spice | White peppercorn | Oak | Faint honey | Spiced bundt cake

Rye spice | Cinnamon cake | Noticeable oak | Holiday spices | Lingering warm spice

While Kooper Family Whiskey Company is based in Ledbetter, Texas, like many of their other releases, its latest limited edition bourbon started its life outside the state. To create Father’s Office Cigar Bourbon, the company sourced bourbon from Ross & Squibb Distillery (MGP). Presumably first aged for 2 years in Indiana, the company aged it six additional years in Texas. Aiming to create a cigar-blend bourbon in honor of Father’s Day, the bourbon was then subjected to Brazilian Amburana oak staves for 7 weeks and Japanese Mizunara oak staves for 12 weeks.

Using Amburana to finish a bourbon is always a tricky affair. Literally hours too long can produce an overabundance of holiday spice flavors that dominate and drown out all other flavors the whiskey might contain. In the case of Koopers Whiskey Father’s Office Cigar Blend Bourbon, there is no doubting the intense amburana influence. Full of gingerbread and holiday spice scents, the aroma instantly clues you in that amburana was involved in some form. The midpoint pulls in warm spice in various forms along with honey and oak. Ending on rye spice, cinnamon cake, and a noticeable amount of oak, the holiday spices reappear to drive home the Amburana’s heavy-handed influence.

While you may think using staves versus barrel finishing would have a subtler impact, that is not the case here. The Amburana staves absolutely dominate the sip and drown out any hope of what the much more delicate Mizunara staves might have imparted to it. Clearly, Koopers Whiskey’s take on a cigar blend leans heavily into the holiday spices. The end result is a nice Amburana-forward, finished whiskey that will appeal to those who appreciate a super-strong Amburana flavor profile. However, if you’re looking for a more balanced whiskey that utilizes both of its finishing staves, Father’s Office Cigar Blend Bourbon will leave you wanting more.