Tasting notes

nose

brown sugar, cherry, roasted pecan and leaf tobacco, with fruitwood smoke, white pepper and mint behind

palate

brown sugar and cinnamon open into pecan pie, then toasted coconut, black tea, banana and creamy vanilla under a peppery edge

finish

medium-long; cinnamon candy and white pepper hang on with banana and vanilla, turning minty as they fade

Mash bill

Texas-grown yellow corn, Elbon rye and San Jacinto malted barley, with rye at 25% of the recipe and the corn and barley split not published. A quarter rye makes this a high-rye bourbon, and the rye shows as pepper and cinnamon over the corn. Yellow Rose built the recipe to keep an underlying sweetness of vanilla, caramel and coconut beneath that spice.

Why it's craft

Harris County is mashed, pot-distilled and aged at Yellow Rose's own distillery in Houston, from corn, rye and barley grown in Texas. It takes its name from the county the distillery sits in, and the coastal heat and humidity bring it to straight-bourbon age in about 30 months. Yellow Rose opened in 2010 as the first legal whiskey distillery in the city; Spain's Zamora Company took a stake in 2017, with the founding team still running production.