If you really want to understand this type of aroma note – a key aroma/flavour element of Bourbons - it is worth your while, and also great fun, to spend an evening with friends making fresh butterscotch and caramel. Butterscotch is made with brown sugar. Its primary flavours come from chemical reactions between the brown sugar molecules and those of the fatty-rich butter molecules. It typically also contains milk/cream-derived aromas but they are not as prominent as caramel.
This type of aroma is absolutely defined by its title and it is an especially enticing warm aroma that gives a distinctive mellowness to Bourbons. It may be sensed on the nose in the first “tasting” and plays a key role in the special, beautiful and lingering aromas in the after-taste. The molecular family responsible for this most compelling element in the Bourbon aroma profile has many members, and some of them are unsurprisingly found in both buttery and also carmellic aromas.
See our Bourbon Aroma Kit for more information.