Jamie Foxx Unveils ‘Bolder, Stronger, and Better’ Cinnamon Brown Sugar Flavored Whiskey
Jamie Foxx’s Brown Sugar Bourbon is now Brown Sugar Blend Whiskey. (WES Brands/BSB Whiskey)
Jamie Foxx and his Brown Sugar Bourbon flavored whiskey brand announced a major change on Tuesday. Brown Sugar Bourbon will no longer exist in its previous format. Instead, it is being replaced with Brown Sugar Blend Whiskey, a 70-proof flavored whiskey with brown sugar and cinnamon flavoring and brand-new packaging.
The flavored whiskey hosts a suggested retail price of $24.99.
The project is helmed by Foxx and WES Brands, a spirits incubator, which claims the latest project took two years to develop. The flavored whiskey epitomizes “the essence of bolder, stronger and better,” according to the brand, and features a black matte bottle with a glow-in-the-dark chenille letter patch.
“Life is precious, so I’ve always tried living it to the fullest,” Foxx said in a news release. “As an avid whiskey drinker, owning a brand that is sippable and unlike any other has been a life goal of mine; with BSB, I’m finally making that happen.”
WES Brands is tapping Remy Cointreau alum and 15-year Spirits Industry veteran, Naeemah Leonard, to be its senior brand director of whiskey to help the launch.
“Last year was a record year for flavored whiskies,” said SVP of Marketing at WES Brands Lauren Kiyak in a statement. “U.S. depletions reached 18.25 million cases in 2023, up from 14 million cases in 2019. We knew we had an incredible opportunity on our hands.”
BSB — A Polarizing Flavored Whiskey Brand
As great as Foxx is as an actor, we’re still trying to wrap our heads around his decision to purchase Brown Sugar Bourbon, a flavored whiskey with a bit of a polarizing history.
Foxx purchased the Brown Sugar Bourbon brand in April 2022. The spirit technically isn’t a bourbon — it’s actually a whiskey-liqueur hybrid, rendering the name a misleading one.
As far as celebrity booze plays go, BSB is one of our least favorite brands for a variety of reasons — mainly because of the flavor. Its initial release provoked the wrath of whiskey and bourbon enthusiasts because of the confusing labeling — bourbons can’t be flavored, after all.
Yet, with the myriad celebrity-backed whiskeys rolling out, it’s easy to develop a bit of celebrity spirits-related ennui, if you will. For all we know, it’s quite possible Foxx has turned things around with BSB’s latest release…. or it could be another cash grab.
Kiyak’s comment about the revenue potential for the flavored category was right on the money, and it is experiencing meteoric growth right now, despite its awful reputation among whiskey aficionados. By 2032, the category is expected to be worth 105.18 billion, according to Custom Market Insights, and let’s be real, in this economy? The promise of money talks.
Even industry veterans like Kaveh Zamanian are heeding the siren’s song of flavored booze and releasing flavored franken-whiskeys like Mash and Mallow, a S’mores Flavored Whiskey that dropped in October. Though Zamanian referred to it as “irreverent,” we couldn’t help but wonder if there was some financial motivation.
Yet, Foxx appears to be speaking from a genuine place when he refers to BSB’s latest release.
“BSB is an ode to my personal philosophy — it’s about bringing people together to celebrate life and have fun,” Foxx said.
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