Bourbon balls is a signature dish of United States; we have verified places to eat it in Lexington and Louisville. Kentucky's boozy candy: bourbon-soaked sugar and pecan centres dipped in dark chocolate.
Bourbon balls · Lexington
Kentucky's boozy candy: bourbon-soaked sugar and pecan centres dipped in dark chocolate. Invented in Frankfort in the 1930s, they anchor every Lexington holiday tin and candy counter.
Ruth Hanly Booe of Frankfort's Rebecca Ruth Candy is credited with inventing the bourbon ball in the late 1930s, after a chance remark about pairing her candy with Kentucky whiskey. The combination of bourbon fondant, pecan and dark chocolate became the Commonwealth's definitive confection, boxed for Derby parties, Keeneland meets and Christmas across Lexington and beyond.
Where to eat Bourbon balls in Lexington: the editor picks
Bourbon balls · Louisville
Bite-sized chocolate truffles filled with bourbon-soaked pecan and butter cream, the Kentucky Derby chocolate that turns up at every Louisville confectioner.
Bourbon balls were created by Ruth Hanly Booe at the Rebecca Ruth Candy shop in Frankfort in 1938, the year before bourbon became the official Derby drink. Booe's original combined chocolate, butter, sugar and a generous splash of Kentucky bourbon with a pecan topping. The candy became a Kentucky Derby gift tradition. Muth's Candies and Cellar Door Chocolates in Louisville both produce hand-rolled bourbon balls each Derby season, with peak production from Thanksgiving through May.
Where to eat in Louisville:
- Muth's Candies
Where to eat Bourbon balls in Louisville: the editor picks