Crème brûlée| Honey | Apricot | Sweet cream | Caramel

Orange blossom honey | Citrusy undertone | Dried apricot | Caramelized brown sugar | Hint of leather | Baking spices | Intensely rich

Baking spices | Honey sugar | Burnt orange peel | Toasted oak | Long & delicious

New Holland Brewing Company has a unique style that permeates throughout their line of whiskeys. This is likely due to the fact that they distill on a prohibition era pot still as opposed to the more common column still, and their bourbon has a mashbill that swaps the typical rye and malted barley percentages, with 25% malted barley and only 5% rye. This has resulted in bourbons that have lively flavor profiles often underpinned by unique summer fruit and citrus notes. Their toasted series takes that one step further, finishing in toasted oak barrels.

2025B “Rainy Day Cafe” is part of the distillery’s first four bottle release in 2025, and for the first time, each is a small batch as opposed to a single barrel. 2025B is finished for a second time in barrels that held honey. This is the second honey finished single barrel release from Dragon’s Milk, with the first being 2024B “Honeybun” which we reviewed last year and enjoyed, but found it a bit rough around the edges, suggesting the combination could reach greater heights.

Rainy Day Cafe finds the right combination of honey influence and Origin’s unique underlying flavor profile, marrying them to a satisfying degree. The resulting whiskey is intensely rich, with clear honey influence throughout but never so much that it overpowers the base whiskey flavors. It has Dragon’s Milk’s quintessential citrusy base, and also weaves in flavors of sweet cream, crème brûlée, caramel, apricot, baking spices, brown sugar, and toasted oak. The whiskey has an intensely rich midpoint and long, delicious finish.

What this small batch releases sheds in punchiness compared to last year’s honey finished release, it adds in intensity of flavor. Dragon’s Milk Origin Toasted Batch 2025B “Rainy Day Cafe” is a whiskey that fans of higher proof honey finished bourbons will not want to miss.

Historically, these bottles have only been released locally, however that changed with this release. A total of 486 bottles were released locally on March 22nd, with the remaining bottles being sold online on the company’s website starting on March 31st.