Cornell & Diehl Small Batch Sun Bear Bourbon Cask is available now in limited quantities.

Welcome to another episode of Tasting Notes. Summer means that it is officially Sun Bear season. Today I'm here to talk about the 2026 release of Cornell & Diehl's most popular Small Batch, Sun Bear — this year, Sun Bear Bourbon Cask.

One of the things about Sun Bear that makes it a really interesting mixture is that the blend itself really lends itself to being a vehicle for experimenting with the honey that is used. Jeremy's been able to experiment with a lot of different types of honey from different sources, honey that's been processed in interesting ways, and this year, the highlight of Sun Bear Bourbon Cask is a black mangrove honey that has been aged in an ex-bourbon barrel for a year. That's adding lots of complexity, lots of that barrel character, and it really does play well and add a new, interesting dimension to the Sun Bear blend that we all know and love.

Bourbon Cask

Before I get into the smoke, I want to talk a little bit about the tin note and the components. Sun Bear — the recipe has not changed. This year, the grades that are used are 2023 grades of Bright Canadian leaf and 2023 Red Virginias from North Carolina. To that, a little bit of well-aged 2019 Izmir from Thailand is added, and then the secret proprietary Sun Bear magic stuff that Jeremy does to the blend in the processing stage.

So a base of really great Virginias, high in sugar content, really nice. A little bit of that Oriental character, and then of course, the barrel-aged honey itself — the bourbon barrel-aged honey. The tin note this year is rich. There's a little bit of that zesty, bright, sort of summery feel to it, but overall, I'm getting what reminds me of vanilla and the barrel character from a lot of bourbons and a lot of barrel-aged whiskeys.

There's a nice boozy element. A lot of sweetness, I think, is perceptible in the tin aroma. Gives you a hint of what the actual smoke has in store for you. There's a little bit of baked goods, maybe graham crackers, a little bit of woodiness. Really complex, really interesting, gorgeous flakes, perfect moisture content right out of the tin.

It's exactly what fans of Sun Bear are looking for, are familiar with, and are expecting. So I gave mine a tiny bit of aeration and drying time once I rubbed out the flakes, and I find that it takes to the flame really easily, performs really well, and gives you a pretty big burst of flavor at the beginning of the smoke.

Blend Components

Right off the bat, familiar territory. The base blend, featuring those 2023 Canadian Bright Leaf and 2023 North Carolina Red Virginias, comes through. It's exactly what you're looking for when you want to smoke Sun Bear, for fans of the blend that have been following it through its different iterations over the years.

A little bit of a zesty, bright Virginia quality. A lot of baked goods, a lot of breadiness, a lot of maltiness. A little bit of earthiness and a little bit of a floral quality from the Thai Izmir, and also from some of the processing that's been done to the blend. The boozy quality is definitely evident.

I think there's a richer, deeper sort of spectrum of those top notes that I'm attributing to the bourbon-cask-finished mangrove honey.

It's a little more on the malty side than a Bright Virginia typically is. And you get a lot of that barrel character — a lot of that sort of charred oak, vanilla, caramelized sugars. A lot of baked good notes too.

A Deeper, Richer Sun Bear

I think the most surprising thing to me here is that processing and aging the honey in the bourbon barrel cask for a year, and then applying that to the blend, what that seems to have done to the overall experience of Sun Bear is deepen it, richen it. There's a lot of body, a lot of creaminess. It's very dense on the palate, and it still has that familiar feel and that complexity that I think we've all come to know and love with the Sun Bear iterations.

The bourbon barrel honey really accentuates the natural sweetness of the base Virginias that are used in Sun Bear. It's just a deeper, richer experience with a slightly different flavor profile, emphasizing a different part of the spectrum than previous iterations of Sun Bear have. The body, the creaminess, the vanilla notes, the charred oak — all that barrel character comes through really strong and really upfront, and the base tobaccos provide the sort of support: the natural sweetness, the malty notes, a little bit of the zesty quality.

It has a little bit of something for everybody here, especially if you're a Virginia smoker and if you like to vary your Virginias, from the bright to the dark, to the extra dark. And yeah, I think that this one is going to be, like all of the other Sun Bears, a really good candidate for aging.

Built to Age, Ready Now

That barrel character, that complexity, is likely to be more pronounced. Sweetness is going to be amplified. This is one of the most popular Small Batch releases for a reason. They're excellent for smoking right now. They're excellent for putting away. We've seen many iterations over the years become prized on the secondary market, because of how well they age and because of their rarity, and Sun Bear Bourbon Cask is going to be no different.

Today, I'm smoking Cornell & Diehl's latest Small Batch, Sun Bear Bourbon Cask, in an Eltang Basic, one of my favorite Virginia pipes, just a workhorse of a pipe. And, yeah, there you have it. Unsurprisingly, Jeremy and his team at Cornell & Diehl have hit it out of the park again with the latest release of Sun Bear, the most anticipated Small Batch of the year, Sun Bear Bourbon Cask.

Black mangrove honey aged in a bourbon barrel for one year before being applied to this blend. Really special, limited, and definitely worth putting a couple away to enjoy down the road.