Bourbon and cherry are two flavors nature intended to find each other.

Bourbon and cherry are two flavors nature intended to find each other. Last night I breezed into a party at the Crocodile featuring Jim Beam’s new Red Stag to sample what I was hoping would not taste like cough syrup. “Cherry flavored” never quite captures cherry beyond that of a Lunden’s lozenge, and Beam is billing this spirit as having “natural flavors.”But Red Stag tastes good — well, it doesn’t taste bad. On the sweet side, the cherry rings true without conjuring up a dose of Nyquil. Think of Beam on the rocks, give it two to three pumps of Monin cherry syrup, and you have a rough idea of the taste. I just really don’t get the marketing here. The flavored bourbon verges on the girlie, but its moniker is a 12-point buck. The website is part NYLON photo shoot meets whatever Urban Cowboy-Allman Brothers hipster look is going on right now on Capitol Hill. Is Red Stag aimed towards the young and urban? Beam is also launching Red Stag with a contest featuring Kid Rock — now that sounds more in line with the traditional square-bottled whiskeys.I can’t imagine Red Stag as a shot–too sweet. I can kind of see it on the rocks, maybe cut with regular Beam bourbon to make like an instant Old Fashioned or Manhattan. I secretly want to try it as a sour, complete with egg white, but don’t know how that very cherry flavor would play with the citrus. All in all, I don’t know why Red Stag exists or what niche it fills, but at least Jim Beam is trying something new.