Post #358467 by Tiki_Cincy_Craig on Thu, Jan 31, 2008 10:43 PM

I used to sell both DeKuyper & Bols when working for different distributors over the past several years. I thought that some of you might find a few things interesting:

-Both brands are made here in the USA under licence from the European owners.
-DeKuyper is made in both Bardstown, KY & Cincinnati, Oh by Jim Beam.
-Bols is distilled in Louisville, KY under licence by Brown-Forman.
-DeKuyper distills one basic liqueur, and adds purchased flavourings and colourings to make each specific product. The flavourings for all of the American DeKuyper products are all made by Givaudan (www.givaudan.com ) in Cincinnati, OH.
-Bols imports the concentrated base essences for their liqueurs from The Netherlands, which are actually made from whole fruit maceration.

IMHO, the Bols products are of higher quality than their DeKuyper counterparts. Bols' use of real fruit bases makes their flavour superior to DeKuyper, whose use of artificial flavourings detracts from their flavour. Having said that, DeKuyper outsells Bols by a wide margin, so go figure.

As a side note, some of the Marie Brizard line is imported from France, and some are made under licence in Kentucky by Jim Beam. Regardless of their point of origin, the MB liqueurs are of much higher quality than Bols, DeKuyper, Hiram Walker, etc. My main beef with MB/Jim Beam is that they charge the same (high) price for all of their items, regardless of whether they are the more expensive imported line (due to import taxes, shipping costs, Dollar/Euro exchange rate, etc.) or the cheaper domestic products. It's a dishonest practise on their part.