When our founder Nicola first harvested honey from our Wiltshire hives, she noticed the frames left behind were coated in the stuff thick, fragrant, and far too good to throw away. So she did what any sensible beekeeper with a bottle of whisky nearby would do: she soaked them. What came out of that experiment became Beeble Honey Whisky, our flagship spirit, and the thing that started everything.
What is honey whisky?
Honey whisky is exactly what it sounds like: whisky that has been blended or infused with real honey. Done well, it's not a sweet shortcut or a flavoured spirit for people who don't really like whisky.
The result sits somewhere between a classic dram and something altogether more approachable. It has the backbone of whisky, but with a softness that draws you in particularly on those evenings when you want something warming without the edge.
Honey whisky has been quietly popular in Britain for decades, often made informally at home by beekeepers and whisky lovers alike. We just happened to take it a little further.
How is honey added to whisky?
The method matters enormously, and here's where honey-infused whisky separates the genuine article from the flavoured imitations.
At Beeble, we work with a family-run distillery in Perthshire, where barley is hand-picked, combined with yeast, and slowly fermented before ageing in barrels. That barrel-aged Scotch is then blended with pure, raw honey from our 130 Wiltshire beehives. No artificial flavourings, no honey "essence" just real honey, harvested with care.
Honey whisky vs whisky liqueur
This is a question we get asked a fair bit, and it's worth clearing up.
A whisky liqueur is a sweetened spirit with a significantly lower ABV, often under 20%, and is usually quite sweet by design. Think of it as a dessert in a glass.
Honey whisky, done right, is a spirit in its own category. Beeble Honey Whisky sits at 30% ABV, lower than a standard Scotch, but meaningfully higher than a liqueur. It's sweetened by honey, not sugar syrup, and the flavour profile reflects that: rounded and warm rather than cloying, with genuine whisky character at its core.
What does it taste like?
Open the bottle, and you'll get it immediately.
There's a waft of heather and warm caramel, something faintly floral like walking past a hedgerow in late summer, and underneath it all, the reassuring depth of aged Scotch. On the palate, it's smooth and mellow, with a lingering sweetness that comes from real Wiltshire honey rather than anything synthetic.
Our customers often say it tastes like something they've always wanted whisky to taste like, but couldn't quite find. Rich and deep, yet light and moreish.
How to drink honey whisky
The good news: there's no wrong answer.
Over ice is the classic. A couple of cubes opens up the sweetness and cools the honey note beautifully.
- Neat is for the purists, and on a cold evening, it's hard to argue with.
- With ginger ale, it is one of our favourite simple serves; the ginger lifts the honey, and the whole thing becomes something rather celebratory.
- In cocktails, honey whisky comes alive. A Honey Whisky Sour (honey whisky, lemon juice, a little egg white if you're feeling ambitious) is a weekend essential.
Browse all the ways to use it over on our cocktails blog.
Why Beeble's honey whisky is different
There are plenty of honey-flavoured spirits out there. What makes ours different isn't something we invented in a laboratory; it's something that was always there, in the hives.
When you taste our honey whisky, you're tasting surplus honey that would otherwise have been lost, turned into something worth savouring, by people who genuinely care where every drop comes from.
We've been B-Corp certified since March 2023, one of only a handful of spirits brands in the UK to hold that accreditation, and we're proud that our values are baked into every bottle, not bolted on afterwards.
Life is sweet. You might as well drink well.
