World’s Fastest Bourbon Arrives at 600 Miles Per Hour, Guess How It Happens

Strange ways to mature whiskey are nothing new in 2020

We’re well-acquainted with Jefferson’s Ocean Bourbon, a whiskey that gets matured as it travels on a boat to five different continents while crossing the equator four times. Recently Brown Water Spirits released a whiskey called O.H. Ingram River Aged Straight Whiskey that was aged for three years in a floating barrelhouse moored on the banks of the Mississippi River. And let’s not forgot Blackened American Whiskey and its “sonically-enhanced” aging using low-frequency sound waves. Now, you can add jet aging to the list.

The “world’s fasted bourbon” is a brainchild of a California-based aviation company and Maryland’s Tobacco Barn Distillery. Scott Sanders, a retired US Navy rear admiral and co-owner of the distillery, collaborated with Art Nalls, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, to create 700 MPH Bourbon.

If you didn’t guess it already, that’s the average speed of a Harrier Jet where the bourbon will mature. The idea came to be when the pair were chatting about the fact that Sanders ages rum inside a decommissioned warship.

He told him that he should bring some whiskey to California to be aged in a Harrier. They wanted to see how the pressure of traveling 700 miles per hour would affect the flavor of the bourbon.

The bourbon itself is aged in new, charred American oak casks. While it will be maturing for three years, the duo plans to have it spend at least half of the time flying in the jet. COVID has slowed the process, but they plan to start this project in the early spring. Eventually, the bottles of 700 MPH Bourbon will sell for around $150 with a portion of the proceeds going to charity.