A Bourbon-Flavored Bacon is Coming to Stores Near You Soon

If you have ever wanted to combine bourbon and bacon without the buzz, two big brands in those respective fields have great news. 

Oscar Mayer and Evan Williams are teaming up to present a new taste for the morning, but that’s just the beginning. 

2 great tastes go great together 

With bacon and bourbon both enjoying a renaissance over the past decade or so, perhaps someone putting them together was inevitable. 

Both rely on the magic of smoke to unlock flavors that wouldn’t be found in a simple pork belly or corn liquor, so it is well known they play well together in a variety of ways. 

Bourbon pairs well with meat already and bacon-infused Old Fashioneds are a thing, so why not cut out the middle man? 

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According to Oscar Mayer, its new maple bourbon bacon is a thick-cut product cured with Evan Williams Bourbon before going through the customary 12-hour slow smoking process that makes bacon into bacon (rather than just “fresh side,” which can be used to make delicious dishes in its own right). That is designed to add the flavors of vanilla and caramel that are typically associated with Kentucky bourbon, which among other things must be aged in oak-charred barrels to call itself bourbon. 

“We are leaning into bold, trend-driven flavors our fans want, bringing new energy to a beloved breakfast classic,” Oscar Mayer brand manager Anna James said in a press release that also notes bacon represents one third of their business. 

How to best utilize bourbon-flavored bacon

Of course, bacon isn’t just for breakfast or BLTs anymore. 

While bacon was once a niche food whose demand waned with the seasons so much pork bellies were traded on the futures market, now it is in demand all year. 

That was no accident according to a seminal article by Bloomberg that laid out why that bacon boom was no accident, helping us get to today when we can find bacon in everything from donuts to burger ingredient, as a food flavoring, a side dish and more. 

And you know what that means? 

A product combining the flavors of bourbon and bacon up front should lend itself to making better bacon-garnished Old Fashioneds, bourbon bacon cheeseburgers or bourbon-soaked bacon cinnamon rolls. 

The possibilities are endless. 

What’s next from Oscar Mayer? 

The company also announced it will be rolling out two more products this summer: Beef and Pork Franks and Cheesy Smokehouse Stuffed Hot Dogs. 

Those sound like things that will complement the new PBR brats announced by Smithfield earlier this month. 

About the brands 

Now owned by Heinz, Oscar Mayer was founded in Chicago in the 1880s and eventually pioneered packaging and marketing meats such as hot dogs, which were previously considered unsafe to consume because of inconsistent production and storage practices. 

Evan Williams is a leading American whiskey brand that got its start 100 years earlier on the banks of the Ohio River and now produces multiple lines of bourbon.