4 Of The Best Bourbons To Add To Your Caramel Sauce

Bourbon caramel sauce is one of the world's most underrated boozy delights. It combines the richly sweet flavors of caramel with the complementary flavors of bourbon, grounded by a smoky wood flavor derived from the whiskey's barrel aging. Since bourbon also shares similar flavor profiles as caramel, creating a bourbon caramel sauce for the whiskey lover in your life is a no-brainer. It's pretty easy to make from scratch, but if you don't want to whip some up yourself (which is totally valid), you can add a shot or two of your chosen bourbon to your caramel as an easy way to elevate your dessert.

But, not all bourbon is the same. Generally speaking, there are quite a few ways you can take a bourbon-caramel combo to the next level. It just depends on what you're using your caramel sauce for, and what other flavors you want to supplement with your bourbon caramel sauce. You also have to keep proofs in mind; the higher the proof, the more alcohol bite your caramel has. Luckily, there are plenty of options available, and almost all of them can be used to make a delicious bourbon caramel sauce you can drizzle to your heart's content.

If you want to add a little oomph to your caramel, look for a simple, high-quality, relatively inexpensive bourbon that's still worth a buy. You can absolutely pour a shot or two of your top-shelf bourbon into your caramel sauce, but you should save your expensive bourbon for sipping. For this sauce, get a good bottle that doesn't break the bank and is made well; one with vanilla notes that's lowish proof so you don't have to cook off the alcohol burn of a high-proof offering. Buffalo Trace checks all these boxes.

It's a bourbon that really adds to a caramel sauce with its deep vanilla and oak flavors that people love about whiskey. It's sweet, but not so sweet that it's overwhelming. It's 90 proof, so it doesn't have a ton of burn or a flavor that takes away from the caramel — it only enhances it. It's also worth noting Buffalo Trace pairs so well with caramel sauce, it makes its own. The best part is this high-quality bottle can be found just about anywhere.

When it comes to experimentation with bourbon caramel recipes, lean into bourbon's various offerings. Knob Creek's smoked maple bottle is worth a try for an outside-the-box spin on what you'd typically think should go into bourbon caramel sauce. It's low-proof, and the added sweetness of the maple complements the vanilla flavors in your caramel sauce perfectly. In fact, maple can be a vanilla replacement on its own.

Feel free to get innovative: Imagine a delicious baked French toast and caramel roll fusion with a subtle boozy kick from the whiskey, or caramel drizzled over a sundae with vanilla ice cream and pecans. Knob Creek Smoked Maple shows how versatile adding bourbon to your caramel sauce can be, and it's slightly cheaper than the regular nine-year bottle. It's absolutely worth embracing these unique flavors and making them the star of the show.

Adding a flavored whiskey can transform the sweet profile of your caramel sauce from a complementary tasting note to something completely different (but just as delicious). Traverse City Whiskey Co.'s flavored bourbons (cherry, apple, and peach) are a good place to start.

At 80 proof, these are less spirit-forward and add more of a sweet bourbon-and-fruit flavor to your caramel. The best part about using these bourbon for caramel sauce is they can lean into the seasonality of your treats or elevate classic combos. In this case, think apple-bourbon caramel sauce. Serve up caramel apples for a classic snack, and bring it a step further with a caramel apple crisp. The complementary bourbon flavoring is a winner for someone looking for a dessert with kick, even if the low-proof offering is sweeter than a traditional bourbon's booze-forward version.

Ah, Costco. Home of so many great liquor deals and one of the most underrated bourbons you can find. The two Kirkland Signature bourbons, small batch and bottled in bond (the latter is slightly more expensive), come in 1.75-liter bottles at a price point between $25 and $30 (pricing may vary by state). If you're someone who uses this whiskey primarily as an additional ingredient for cooking, the larger bottle and price point make this purchase an excellent choice. You have to spend over $50 to get roughly the same amount of Buffalo Trace. 

The Barton 1792 distillery produces Kirkland Signature bourbon, which is one of the oldest and most distinguished bourbon distillers in history; you aren't sacrificing any quality. At 100 proof, you're getting a little bourbon bite, but vanilla, oak, and, yes, caramel notes are prevalent on the nose and tongue. It's delicious enough to be both your daily drink and your go-to bottle of cooking bourbon for a long time to come.