We Tried to Make Cheap Bourbon Taste Expensive

Bourbon, by definition, is aged in unused charred oak barrels. That charred oak gives the clear spirit plenty of color and flavor over the standard four-year aging process. Some bourbons are aged for over a decade, allowing innumerable chemical reactions to take place with the turning of the seasons.

To try to simulate the effect of extra age, we bought several bottles of four-year-old bourbon costing around $15 each, and experimented with spiking them with small amounts of different flavors. We used a bottle of 12-year-old bourbon as a benchmark.

Vanilla extract, we thought, could contribute the vanilla notes that come from oak. Oak, like vanilla beans, contains vanillin, and aging bourbon in an oak barrel extracts that vanillin into the spirit.

Liquid smoke seemed like a good candidate to echo the charred interior of the barrel, which gives bourbon its color and possibly some of its earthy depth.

And we used a dry sherry to add complex aromas. Sherry like oloroso, which is aged for years without a yeast cap, undergoes oxidative processes that produce a vast range of flavor compounds.

For a 750-milliliter standard bottle of bourbon, we added:

• 3⁄4 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1⁄8 teaspoon of liquid smoke
• 1 tablespoon of dry sherry

So, how was it? Did we pour the expensive stuff down the sink and swear to drink nothing but our brilliant new concoction?

No. Tasters did not find our doctored bourbon to be as good as the good stuff. But they were pleasantly surprised by the enhanced complexity, and, to our gratification, unanimously preferred it to the unadulterated $15 samples.