Review: Green Code Bourbon

Sometimes a liquor bottle is so wild we have no choice but to write about. Other times, it’s so basic that we also have to write about it. Such is the case — intentionally — with World Whiskey Society‘s Green Code, which is packaged in “an eco-friendly, fully recyclable bottle boasting an 84% lower carbon footprint than traditional glass and five times lighter.”

Said bottle is made of cardboard, plus a plastic liner, which can be split apart for recycling (per instructions printed right on the bottle). (The screwcap is metal.)

Now, whiskey in a plastic bottle is certainly not a new idea, but that whiskey usually costs about $15 for a 1.75-liter handle, not $50 for standard 750ml.

So let’s applaud WWS for coming up with a sustainable bottle concept — while we sip on what’s inside it.

Green Code Bourbon Review

What’s in the bottle is a Kentucky straight bourbon, but additional details are not provided. All we really know is it’s at least four years old and… it’s from Kentucky.

The character it presents is certainly familiar, an entry-level bourbon with all the expected fixins, albeit one that doesn’t offer many twists.

It’s decidedly without surprise, featuring a nose big with peanut and dusted with a touch of cinnamon and some brown sugar. Ample barrel char provides a leathery note, beefy at times, becoming rather dominant after a few minutes of resting time in glass. That woody, dusty frontier character really grabs you by the nostrils after you’ve spent some time with the whiskey.

The palate is quite innocuous, melding sweeter peanut butter and honey — imagine a sandwich you’d serve your child — with backing notes of poached apples, well-baked bread, and a grind of black pepper, amplifying the charry-tarry notes in the mix. The finish sees brighter, red berry notes evoking raspberry and cherry, though this is fleeting, and later things get a bit drying.

As a mixer, Green Code is fine — even good, really — but it seems pretty clear that no one is going to put premium, premium whiskey in a plastic/cardboard bottle. Just as you can find reasonably high quality wines packaged in a box, glass has status for a reason. No shame or shade on WWS with Green Code, but put one of those 15-year-old monsters in plastic and maybe people will start to pay attention. (It worked for screwcaps on wine, by the way.)

96 proof.

B / $50

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