Covid gave us a lot of things. Quarantine, boredom, bar closings, remote schooling, etc. Personally experienced all of those but what else covid gave me was a love for whiskey.
Now, when you read this, please try not to read it with the idea in your head that I’m a raging alcoholic.
Specifically bourbon sparked this new relationship I have with Whiskey. Which brings up a point that is very relevant, what exactly is bourbon and what is considered whiskey? Well, this is a great place to start: Whiskey is an umbrella, or parent term. Equivalent to “Wine”. There are many types and variants of alcohol that are types of Whiskey. Some of the main ones are:
Bourbon (Only made in America), Rye, Scotch, Irish, Japanese, Canadian, and then American whiskey, which, yes, is different than bourbon in ways but can be used as a parent term for bourbon.
What differs these categories are obviously the ingredients, but most of these include very similar ingredients and the varying terms rely on ratio of those ingredients, so really, to an untrainned tongue, will taste similar across the board as they are Whiskeys.
Now that you have somewhat of a feel for whiskey, it’s time to dive in to what to try and how to try it. Starting off, there are two cocktails that I think are delicious and especially nice for the summer. The cheaper, easier to drink choice which you could put back 4–5 of if you wanted, is a Whiskey Highball. It is ginger ale and whiskey man. Simple, refreshing, and won’t break the wallet or make you cringe. The second, a step-up in elegance, is the Old Fashioned. It is whiskey’s best cocktail, commonly served with Bourbon as the type of whiskey, is essentially a sugary, sweet, and floral take on the usual smokey, oak, and spicy flavor of whiskey. And don’t worry hyper-masculine dudes, this is actually a very “manly” drink, and is indeed strongly skewed in orders by men.
Now, once you grow some hair on your balls, you can start to order some bourbon on the rocks. Here is where selection of the whiskey is essential. What you order is what you are sipping on, straight. And trust me, after a month or two, it is delicious. Whiskey is like the dessert of alcohol. You don’t eat a lot of it, ever make it your full meal, but a little bit goes a long way. For starters, lets name some you are probably aware of:
Makers Mark, Woodford Reserve, Four Roses, Wild Turkey, Jameison, Jack Daniels, etc.
When you drink whiskey straight, you want to try and find a good pour, and it will make a large difference. Woodford Reserve is often the gateway brand I find people being aware of, which is a solid pour, but there are many others with similar price and taste just as good, often better. Here are some suggestions:
Bowman Brothers, Buffalo Trace, High West (the bourbon), Angel’s Envy (the bourbon), Russell’s Reserve 10 year, New Riff (the bourbon), and Four Roses Small Batch, are all popular bottles that should be on the cheaper end, taste great, and should be available at most liquor stores and bars. These choices are all bourbons.
As you move up in price there are two things to keep in mind, the juice “the bottles” will be aged longer, which develops more taste and weens off the alcohol taste, and the batch size. Now, what the hell does that mean? Well here is another good nugget. There are four levels, general, small batch, small batch select, and single barrell. If you didn’t know, whiskey is made, then aged in barrels. After that, distillers, will take all of those barrells, pour them into a big ass thing, mixing together all those barrells, and then bottled from that large source of whiskey. That’s the cheapest and most consistent way to get their whiskey to taste the same from bottle to bottle. Now, as you move to small batch, rather than one big ass thing, there are say, four different big ass things they divide the barrels into. Small batch select even more things, splitting up the barrells even more, and developing slightly different, unique, and more distinct flavors varying from each batch. The smallest concentration they will do, is take a single barrell, hence the name, and bottle whiskey directly from that barrell. A more expensive process, but produces an exclusive and unique element to each bottle.
Distillers often will use the combination of aging and batch size together and this in turn gives you a better but more expensive product. So, if you are interested in that aspect, look more into it elsewhere. Otherwise, try one of the bottles or cocktails I suggested if you think you want to explore real whiskey (my favorite being bourbon).
