New York CNN —On St. Patrick’s Day, throwing back an Irish whiskey might taste different than it used to. Flavored whiskey is a $1.5 billion category and accounts for 20% of all US whiskey sales. In the past few years, flavored whiskey sales have outpaced unflavored whiskey, according to Southern Glazer’s distributors. But with younger drinkers gravitating toward punchier flavors, Irish brands “have to be much more flexible than their historical beliefs have been,” he told CNN. Flavors are “a good way to get them into the brand and into the whiskey category, and certainly into Irish whiskey,” Basford said.

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Persons: Patrick’s, “, ”, Lander Otegui, Bushmills, Jameson, Conor McGregor’s, Otegui, Honey, Paul Basford, William Grant, Basford, Jack Daniel’s, Jim Beam, ” Jon Berg, ” Basford, ” Otegui Organizations: New, New York CNN, CNN, Tullamore D.E.W, Tullamore, NIQ Locations: New York, St, Southern, Tullamore D.E.W, Tullamore