This is the everyday bottle in the Fierce & Kind range, and it’s built to be poured freely rather than hoarded. The mash leans on corn with a serious proportion of rye behind it enough to give the whiskey a peppery spine instead of pure sweetness and it’s matured in heavily charred barrels before bottling at 90 proof. Expect caramel, vanilla, baked apple and toasted oak up front, then that rye pepper on the back end, all at a strength that stays friendly all evening. The San Diego brand behind it is minority- and woman-founded and employee- and customer-owned, and it sends a quarter of its profits into its own foundation. Neat, on a rock, or in an Old Fashioned it handles all three without complaining.