Beverly Cafe Whiskey Was Finished in Coffee Liqueur Casks

Welcome to Taste Test, where every week our critic Jonah Flicker explores the most buzzworthy and interesting whiskeys in the world. Check back each Sunday for his latest whiskey review.

If I can break the fourth wall for a moment, as much as can be done in a whiskey review anyway, I have to tell you that Beverly Spirits has been trying to get me to write about their products for a while. Unsuccessfully. That’s not because the whiskey the brand releases is bad, it just hasn’t really stood out—in either a good or bad way. But the brand’s new Beverly Café, an Espresso Martini-inspired bourbon-rye blend finished in coffee liqueur barrels, very much stands out as being an unusual whiskey that is worth trying.

Beverly Spirits is an American whiskey brand that was founded in 2022 by Andrew Borenzweig. Its portfolio veers towards the higher end of the whiskey spectrum, like the expensive port-finished expression released in a run of just 210 bottles specifically for the Beverly Wilshire hotel. The core lineup includes a cheaper version of that whiskey without the cask finish, as well as the cask-strength Reserve and an American single malt—all of which are distilled and produced at Cedar Ridge Distillery in Iowa.

At first glance, you might think that Beverly Café is a flavored whiskey, but it is not. According to the brand, it was inspired by a cocktail called Serenade to a Stranger that Borenzweig swooned over at Gucci Giardino in Osaka, which happens to use Beverly High Rye as its base spirit. Back home in L.A., he decided to try to create a whiskey tribute to the drink, so he took the signature 50/50 blend of bourbon and rye whiskey and combined it with straight bourbon and rye from MGP in Indiana (the final derived mashbill of the four components is 54 percent rye, 38 percent corn, 8 percent malted barley). The whiskey was then finished in two types of barrels, spending six months in Barrel-Aged Black Hjerte coffee liqueur casks that were previously used to age bourbon, and six months in Blood Orange Black Hjerte casks—both from L.A. brand Laurel Canyon Spirits. The two cask finishes were then blended together and bottled at 110 proof.

Make no mistake, that is an assertive way to finish a whiskey, and the effects of this secondary maturation are evident from the second you nose it. But that’s a good thing, because the whiskey has turned into a rich and decadent sipper that would be great to pair with dessert. I don’t really think the flavor emulates an Espresso Martini, but it does remind me of some of High West’s intense cask finishing in the sense that it almost turns the whiskey into a high-end version of a bottled cocktail.

The first flavor that jumps out is, as you’d expect, coffee, followed by notes of dark chocolate (almost like an American single malt), maple, brown sugar, cinnamon, and molasses. The effects of the blood orange coffee liqueur are very subtle, with a slight citrus tinge on the back end as you sip, and the higher proof means that this truly drinks like a whiskey and not something more akin to a liqueur, whether neat or poured over ice.

Beverly Café is an expensive bottle priced at $140, but it’s definitely worth trying if you’re interested in tasting something outside the whiskey norm, especially if you are the kind of person who enjoys an after-dinner dram. You can currently purchase the whiskey directly from the brand or at select retailers, including high-end L.A. grocer Erewhon, but this release is limited to just 550 bottles so grab one while it’s still around.

Score: 86