Yes you read that correctly, this is a bourbon – not a rum. Though you’d be forgiven for thinking so. And while it may have a sweetness that compares to a rum as well, it very much wears it’s bourbon colors in flavor. We of course intend the pun here, but if you are looking for a decent bourbon you might want to give this a chance.
The shortened version of the fairy tale here is that this whiskey is basically an above average spirit all around. It missteps in it’s – well everything not in the bottle, but what’s inside is good! It’s truly refreshing to have a bourbon not burning your throat or smell of Fireball and regret, or just taking to ice like a Floridian. We’ll delve into the specifics in a bit, but this might actually be a bourbon we can recommend, which is also a nice change of pace.
What they Say: “Puncher’s Chance is Kentucky straight bourbon inspired by two great American traditions: whiskey and fighting for what we believe in. This bourbon is made with heart and honor those who know how far they’ve come. For those who started early. Stayed late. Day after day. Year after year. For those who have the courage and strength to do what others won’t.”
Taste: 6.5 – It starts off very sweet. Not sugary so as to be bad – more a muted caramel, but enough to go around. Aside from a bit of wood that’s really all you get.
Aftertaste: 7.0 – Than a bit of smoke, some fire, some wood begin to set in and continue to build onto each other for a bit before lingering off with more sweetness.
Burn/Smooth: 7.0 – Much like the aroma below there’s just a bit here – just a few moments of burn to just say hey – I’m 45% abv so be careful son. There isn’t a whole lot of warming (just a bit) either which is sad given how pleasantly smooth this is for a bourbon. It’s not top-tier, but certainly worth it’s score.
Aroma: 7.0 – Overall it’s got a great bourbon smell, the wood is nice, there’s a healthy does of a sweetness and some spice. There’s also just a whiff of a burn/distilled spirit there less as an irritant and more a reminder this is 90 proof.
Honesty: 2.0 – Oofa, okay where do we begin. Let’s start with the name, it’s not a set origin story, but the basic idea is ‘if you can land another punch, you still have a chance to win’ the mindset being that until you are out, you’re still very much in the fight. Now that sort of aligns with the ‘motivational president in a 70’s film’ mantra on the back, but maybe there’s something about fighting for what you believe in, instead of fighting for what’s right that rubs the wrong way (gestures vaguely at world). Now let’s tackle the bottle – which while we’re fine with unique designs – this isn’t terribly unique (well for a rum), because this looks like a rum. Seriously look at the font, hell just look at an image of this from like say 10 ft away – it’s a rum. Finally let’s talk about the tiger in the room, because again why is there a tiger? It’s not like there’s another creature fighting said tiger which could maybe make sense for the fight mentality. Also if this based on American traditions, traditionally America does not have tigers. The cumulative effect is – well a hot mess.
Mixability: 6.167
W/ Rocks: 7.0 – The smoke and sweetness sort of combine into the same flavor which rises up like a flame and stays there for a bit before dissipating. It’s actually really quite nice here; however the delta for whiskies on rocks versus neat in terms of being nice is a bit different so it’s not getting too high a score.
Whiskey and Coke: 4.0 – You do get some of that unique combo from the ice, but the added sweetness is to be honest a step too far. Maybe a coke zero or something sugarless, but here (or god forbid a pepsi) is far too sweet to really enjoy.
Bourbon Old Fashioned: 7.5 – So it felt wrong knowing how sweet this was to let it suffer under the sugary cola, so we figured it’d be worth making an old fashioned to see how it does there. The result is actually well balanced making an overall sweeter old fashioned than a rye, but that’s mostly par for the course when using bourbons. As it stands this is likely one of the nicer ways to enjoy this.
Value: 5.5 – Let’s put the honesty score out of the way here. Yes everything in this bottle would be better served by an unlabeled bottle that says Bourbon – and if you say have a cripplingly decanter addiction than you can handwave the nonsense. Let’s just get down to the brass tax of the contents and the price you pay for them. Given that it’s far to give this an average score. It’s basically 7’s across the board, and a bourbon that doesn’t burn, works neat, on rocks, and in a cocktail (just pick your battles) and that’s worth paying a price of 30 bucks for. Sure if it blew our minds in a single place we’d sing to the hills for value, but no if you ignore the bottle and don’t just mix with Coke, it’s good.
Google Shop Average: $31
Website: https://puncherschancebourbon.com/
Reviewer Scores:
BuffaloJern: 6.5
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Metric Score: 41.17/70 |+| Metric Average: 5.88 |+| Reviewer Average: 6.5
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Final Thoughts: No middling or waffling here that it’s something overpriced or not worth getting. We can wholeheartedly commend the efforts here, and given the options available in the price bracket of ‘above Jack Daniels & co’ that claim to be these amazing single barrels of amazingness that ultimately suck – this is actually good. It is a bit unfortunate that it’s only what’s inside that counts (damn you romance tropes!) but that’s solved easily enough – just put it in your glass.
