Chocolate got its own post because chocolate and bourbon are basically the same conversation twice. Everything else deserves its own look too.
The Best Desserts to Serve With Bourbon
The pie, the pudding, the cinnamon-heavy stuff your grandmother made without a recipe, bourbon’s relationship with dessert doesn’t stop at cocoa. Same logic as always: match the sweetness, match the spice, and let the proof do some of the work when the dessert is rich enough to need it.
Pecan Pie & Other Nutty Desserts
High Bank Barrel Proof Bourbon, 120.2 Proof
Leather and tobacco alongside caramel and maple pecan sweetness. That maple pecan note isn’t a stretch here, it’s almost the same dessert in liquid form.
Pairs with: pecan pie, anything with toasted nuts and brown sugar.
Read the full review →Apple Desserts
Green River Full Proof Bourbon
Candy apple sweetness up front, with fresh apple and pear alongside brown sugar, nutmeg, and allspice. Dessert-adjacent before it ever meets dessert.
Pairs with: apple pie, apple crisp, a good baked apple with cinnamon.
Read the full review →Bread Pudding & Caramel Desserts
Middle West Spirits Cask Strength Dark Pumpernickel Rye
Thick and syrupy, brown sugar and caramel and vanilla with the spice staying in the background.
Pairs with: bread pudding, sticky toffee, anything built around a caramel or butterscotch base. Sits in like a bourbon sauce, because it basically is one.
Read the full review →Cinnamon & Spiced Desserts
RD1 Small Batch Amburana Finished Bourbon, 110 Proof
Built almost entirely around cinnamon, nutmeg, and apple pie, with a thick, chewy mouthfeel.
Pairs with: snickerdoodles, spice cake, a cinnamon roll if you want to make dessert out of breakfast.
Read the full review →Simple & Everyday Dessert
Elijah Craig Small Batch
Corn sweetness and rye spice balanced at 94 proof, reliable without asking much of you.
Pairs with: vanilla ice cream, shortbread, a plain pound cake. Dessert that isn’t trying to make a statement.
Read the full review →If Chocolate Is More Your Speed
This post skipped chocolate on purpose, it already got the full treatment, five styles and five bourbons, in its own post.
And for the full framework everything in this cluster runs on, start with the pillar guide.
The Cluster Pillar
The Bourbon and Food Pairing Guide: What to Serve With Every Pour
Read the guide →The Pourch Verdict
Dessert was always going to end up in your glass too. Match the sweetness, match the spice, and let the proof carry the rest.
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