Art Eatables Along the Bourbon Trail

By Alisha Proffitt Photos By Matt Johnson

Art Eatables didn’t start with a business plan. It began in a family kitchen, where Kelly Ramsey was making candy with her mother for her young son’s birthday parties. Guests enjoyed the sweets, and before long, friends were asking her to make candies for other celebrations. What to her felt like a casual project gradually took on a life of its own. By 2011, Ramsey had formed an LLC. Within a year, she had gone from part-time candy maker to a chocolatier working with Kentucky distilleries.

“I didn’t know I was going to be a chocolatier, much less a bourbon chocolatier,” Ramsey says. Still, in Kentucky, candy-making often comes with one inevitable request: bourbon balls. Ramsey resisted. “I thought they were too sugary to be interesting. I also thought they didn’t do much for the bourbon, and that was a shame.”

Instead, she looked for a way to let bourbon stand out rather than get buried in sweetness. When a friend from Jim Beam handed her a bottle to experiment with, Ramsey worked on a recipe until she found the right balance. The proof came at a cookout, where one taster declared, “That’s made with Jim Beam, isn’t it?” For Ramsey, that recognition validated that she was onto something. “That isn’t something that happens with bourbon balls,” she says.

Feeling encouraged, she began developing what would later become her signature Small-batch Bourbon Truffles™. Her mother, a Maker’s Mark® loyalist, pushed her to use that bourbon for a truffle. “I have to give her credit, because we got Maker’s Mark® as a client in the spring of 2012, and things began moving quickly.” By that fall, Ramsey had quit her job and opened the first Art Eatables store in downtown Louisville.

From the beginning, her approach was unusual. Rather than slotting bourbon into existing candy recipes, she started with the spirit itself. “This is sort of working backwards – the chocolate is created around the bourbon. I figure out which chocolates to use to complement their bourbons best.” That method means each truffle or caramel begins with the whiskey and an attempt to highlight, extend, or shift its character.

“Chocolate and bourbon are very similar in that respect,” she says. “Some chocolates make the bourbon land in different parts of the palate, some reduce the finish, some extend it. It’s really a delicate balance.” The process can be unpredictable. A pairing that feels perfect one day might taste flat on another. Adjustments follow until the balance holds. And sometimes, the results surprise even the distillers themselves. “One of the coolest things is when you go for a tasting and the Master Distiller looks shocked and says, ‘That’s my bourbon!’”

Over the years, Ramsey has collaborated with distilleries across Kentucky, including Yellowstone Select, MB Roland, and Bardstown Bourbon Company. Some send her products and leave the development to her; others are involved in the process alongside her. “We’ll meet and toss ideas back and forth, figure out new twists to try, and I will pitch brand new products and pairings that can really enhance their brand and their tasting experience.” 

She classifies her chocolates into two broad categories. “Showcase” pairings are designed to highlight what a bourbon already does best. “Alteration” pairings change the way the whiskey is read—making it brighter, sharper, smoother, or shifting where it lands on the palate. Both approaches give distilleries a way to see their spirits from a different perspective. 

Underlying this work is a simple observation: bourbon and chocolate share more than most people assume. “Chocolate has a lot more in common with bourbon than most people think,” Ramsey explains. Both are agricultural at their core, based in craft traditions, and dependent on fermentation for much of their flavor. That shared foundation makes it possible to line up notes across both worlds— caramel, vanilla, fruit, spice, even floral tones. 

Art Eatables opened its first location in downtown Louisville before “Bourbonism” had fully taken hold. “We were the first bourbon-themed attraction in downtown Louisville that wasn’t a bar or restaurant – we beat all the distillers down there, and were there to welcome them as they came.” Today, her chocolates are part of the Bourbon Trail experience, offered in tastings and sold in distillery gift shops. “It used to be common to get a bourbon ball on some of the tours, but it wasn’t a big part of the tour… Now, chocolate has become a significant part of the guest experience.” 

Visitors might stumble across Small-batch Bourbon Truffles™, Chimères™, Caramel Shots™, or Chocolate-dipped Bourbon Modjeskas. Whatever the form, Ramsey says, they tend to be a strong seller. “Most of our distillery partners tell us that our candies are the second biggest seller at their shops. Right after the bourbons, of course!” 

What began as candy for children’s parties has grown into a business that now plays a central role in how visitors taste and understand Kentucky bourbon. By putting bourbon at the center of the recipe, Kelly Ramsey has turned chocolate into more than a sweet ending; it has become part of the story.