Kelsey Plum’s Maker’s Mark Private Selection bourbon — Yam Jam — launches May 7 in Los Angeles at 111.3 proof. Here’s what it tastes like and why the first barrel went to the LAFD Foundation
Last year, Kelsey Plum — two-time WNBA champion, Olympic gold medalist, Los Angeles Sparks guard — drove to Star Hill Farm in Loretto, Kentucky and spent time inside the Maker’s Mark Private Selection program making decisions about finishing staves. Not as a celebrity signing off on a label. As a participant. She selected the wood treatments, built the flavor profile, and named the result Yam Jam. It is bottled at 111.3 proof. It is available May 7 at select Los Angeles retailers.
And before a single bottle sold, Maker’s Mark donated the first barrel to the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation.
That is the shape of this collaboration — an athlete who approached bourbon the way she approaches a game, and a distillery that gave her a real process to work with instead of a marketing exercise.
What Plum Actually Did at Star Hill Farm
The Maker’s Mark Private Selection program is not a label customization. It is a legitimate finishing process in which participants — individuals, retailers, restaurant partners — select from proprietary finishing staves that are inserted into an already-matured Maker’s Mark barrel for an additional period. The stave selection is the decision. Different wood treatments, different char levels, different extraction rates — each combination produces a distinct final profile. Plum made those choices herself, on site, at the distillery.
“Working with Maker’s Mark to create my own bourbon
gave me a chance to take the same approach I bring to the court —
thoughtful, precise and intentional
and craft an expression that truly reflects who I am,”
kelsey Plum
“I’ve always admired Maker’s Mark for their dedication to taking the time to achieve their exact vision. With Yam Jam, I wanted something bold and distinctive, with warmth and balance, meant to be enjoyed with family and friends, just as their founders intended with Maker’s Mark.”
Thoughtful, precise, and intentional also describes a guard who has won two WNBA championships and an Olympic gold medal. The crossover is not a stretch — it is the actual story. Plum did not show up to Star Hill Farm for a photo opportunity. She showed up to make something, and the bourbon is the evidence.
Rob Samuels, eighth-generation whisky maker and managing director of Maker’s Mark, hosted Plum and her mother at the distillery. “This partnership brings together our passion for exceptional bourbon with Kelsey’s unmatched focus, warmth and authenticity — all in support of a meaningful cause,” Samuels said. Eight generations of the same family running the same distillery is its own form of athletic discipline — the kind measured in decades rather than seasons.
The Bourbon She Built
The stave choices Plum made produced a profile that earns its name. Yam Jam opens with bright chili spice and citrus on the nose — more assertive than standard Maker’s Mark, which reads softer at its base proof — balanced by toasted oak, white pepper, and cherry.
On the palate: sweet potato pie, toasted pecan, soft baking spices, and enough warmth from the 111.3 proof bottling to keep the sweetness honest.
The finish is long and textured — baking chocolate, pie cherries, orange rind, with a lift at the end that keeps it moving. At 55.65% ABV, this is a cask-strength expression with structure. It does not apologize for its proof and it does not need water to function, though a few drops will open it further.
To accompany the release, Plum developed a signature cocktail: KP’s Kicking Mule, a citrus-forward riff on a classic mule built with Maker’s Mark bourbon, blood orange, blackberry, and ginger. The blood orange and blackberry pull the fruit already present in Yam Jam’s finish forward into the glass — a cocktail designed around the bourbon’s profile rather than layered on top of it.
The LAFD Foundation and What This Means in Los Angeles
Maker’s Mark donated the first barrel of Yam Jam to the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation — an organization that provides critical equipment, mental health support, and resources that the city’s budget does not cover.
In Los Angeles in 2026, that detail is not a footnote. The LAFD Foundation addresses the gap between what the city funds and what firefighters actually need. The first barrel going there before a single retail bottle was sold is a specific act, not a gesture.
The collaboration also extends Maker’s Mark’s broader strategic commitment to women’s basketball. Earlier this year, the brand announced a multi-year partnership with Unrivaled — the 3-on-3 women’s basketball challenger league and its first sports league sponsorship — under its “Perfectly Unreasonable” global campaign. Plum is a natural axis point for that platform: an athlete defined by going further than the situation required, in a sport that has spent a decade proving the same thing.
Driving to Kentucky to personally design a cask-strength bourbon during the WNBA offseason qualifies.
Full details on Yam Jam availability and the Private Selection program are at makersmark.com/kelseyplum.
Try KP’s Kicking Mule if…
Yam Jam is available May 7 at select Los Angeles retailers. At 111.3 proof and limited quantity, it will move quickly. Drink it neat first — give it ten minutes in the glass — then try KP’s Kicking Mule if you want to see what Plum built when she thought about how the bourbon would live beyond the bottle. A portion of proceeds supports the LAFD Foundation. In this city, right now, that is reason enough to find it.
