The average Thanksgiving table is loaded with turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and other holiday classics. Drinks typically make an appearance, throughout the day during football games and again at meal time. Beer, wine, liquor—it’s all welcome. But if you really want to embrace the theme this year, one-up everyone by plunking down a bottle of Bird of Courage. It’s a roasted turkey-flavored whiskey from New Hampshire’s Tamworth Distilling that aims to capture the essence of Thanksgiving. And, no, it’s not a joke.
The very real whiskey begins as a bottle of the brand’s five-year-old bottled-in-bond bourbon. From there, the distillery utilizes traditional Thanksgiving ingredients, giving a nod to those that were present at the first Thanksgiving 400 years ago. We’re talking corn, chestnuts, apples, cranberries, kabocha squash, celery, fresh sage, and parsley. Turkey, sweet potatoes, stuffing, and cornbread were also added to the mix. Call it a cornucopia of fall flavors.
“All of the ingredients were cooked uniquely and infused into the bourbon before being distilled individually on our vacuum evaporator,” says Tamworth distiller Matt Power. “The essence of the production strategy was to process every ingredient in the manner that they would be prepped for a real Thanksgiving dinner. So, the turkey was basted while roasting, the corn bread was baked until just right, and the stuffing recipe I used tasted just like my mom’s. Everything was distilled fresh from the oven so we could capture the true essence of Thanksgiving.”
The sweet essence of roasted sweet potato and squash combine with the buttery heart of fresh baked corn bread to fortify this whiskey’s deep oaky spirit. A mid-palate of sweet, New England apples and herbaceous herbs support the aromas of freshly roasted turkeys.
This isn’t Tamworth’s first unique spirit. They’re also the creative minds behind The Deerslayer Whiskey and Eau De Musc, two limited-edition releases made with venison and beaver castoreum, respectively
Bird of Courage is bottled at 92-proof and costs about $65. It’s available locally at the Tamworth distillery, or you can buy it online via Seelbach’s.
