Manbeverages: Spirits

[dlbpharmd]

I tried the Four Roses single barrel and was blown away.

Although I keep coming back to Basil Hayden's as my favorite, I tried Four Roses single barrel at the restaurant in Gaithersburg and had a similar experience. It's smooth almost to the point of being delicate.

[Zarathustra]

Four Roses single barrel is awesome. (I notice I was short a rose last time I mentioned it. ) I recently did a blind taste test with a friend. We were trying to see how much difference there was between cheap and pricey bourbons. Here's how my ranking turned out:

1. Blanton's
2. Four Roses Small Batch
3. Benchmark(!) [cheap]
4. Kentucky Gentleman
5. Johnny Drum
6. Four Roses Single Barrel


Now, I know what you're thinking ... I just praised FRSB, so how could it be last? My friend and I think his wife messed up on the pouring/numbering for our blind test.

Blanton's was head-and-shoulders above the rest. FR small batch held its own. Benchmark was a surprise ... unless that's where the mistake was in the pouring.

We had two different batches of FRSB, and only used one in this test, but afterward we tried them side-by-side and could tell a big difference just between the batches. So, I imagine there's lots of variability in all brands.

[dlbpharmd]

I've tried 3 different bourbons recently.

A friend recommended Bulleit to me as an inexpensive, "working man's bourbon." I found it be a smooth bourbon with a mild burn, heavy caramel flavor, otherwise nothing special about it. He had purchased a liter bottle for (he said) around $30, making it an affordable choice.

Later that same night, after my 2nd glass of Bulleit, another friend appeared with a bottle of Eagle Rare. I drank some water to cleanse my palate then sampled ER. This was a different experience entirely, ER was oakey with a harsh and lasting burn. I don't see drinking that again anytime soon.

On a different occasion, at dinner, the same friend who had me try Bulleit recommended Jefferson's Ocean. This was something that I'd never heard of, and it wasn't on the drink menu at the restaurant, but the server offered it to us. It was served in a wide tumbler with 1 large ice cube. JO far surpassed any other bourbon that I've ever tasted, it had a sweet caramel flavor with minimal burn. I've since learned it's one of the most expensive bourbons out there, so I won't be trying it again anytime soon. Had I been paying for dinner that night, I wouldn't have tried it then.

[peter]

Coincidence time! I'd never heard of Bullet until earlier today randomly a work colleague told me he'd tried a few glasses last weekend!

[Cord Hurn]

I tried the Four Roses single barrel and was blown away.

Although I keep coming back to Basil Hayden's as my favorite, I tried Four Roses single barrel at the restaurant in Gaithersburg and had a similar experience. It's smooth almost to the point of being delicate.

I've tried both Basil Hayden's and Maker's Mark at dlbpharmd's recommendation after I met him at Elohimfest '14, and both were quite good. Thanks, DLB!

[peter]

Jack Daniels have been retailing two new versions in the UK since Christmas, fire-water and honey. I had a bottle of the honey and it was seriously nice. Gosh darn, half a bottle of that could slip down smooth as silk before you knew it!

[Skyweir]

Just drinking a gorgeous nip of Jack Daniels Tennessee Fire
and its yummy!!

My son brought home a bottle of Fireball Whisky and loved it .. but wasn't sure about the drink itself .. and then found Jack made a pretty nice fire whiskey. Its odd as Im not a huge cinnamon fan ..

[peter]

My son in law to be brought round a bottle of specially produced aniversery JD that cost him a hundred and fifty quid. Silly money to pay for a bottle of booze - but boy did it taste good! Glad I tried such a thing just once.

[Avatar]

Wasn't your money, so all good I guess.

--A

[Skyweir]

Hahahaha ... win win really

[peter]

There's a shop down in a small village near us that for some reason specialises in collectors whiskeys. Think aisles of pet food, cornflakes, coffee, cabinet of three thousand quid whiskeys, toilet paper.......

[Avatar]

--A

[Skyweir]

There's a shop down in a small village near us that for some reason specialises in collectors whiskeys. Think aisles of pet food, cornflakes, coffee, cabinet of three thousand quid whiskeys, toilet paper.......

What a top shop!!!

We should do a whiskey tasting night ... I said tasting wee little sips, and those that dont want to swallow can spit

[Icarus Unfallen]

"How many wee little sips, Richie?"

"72."

[Skyweir]

ok so Icarus is in

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

How the Jesuits of 'America' heroically defended booze against Prohibition [In-Depth]

The end of a liquor raid, Oct. 14, 1922. (Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons)


By the time the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution went into effect in January 1920, prohibiting the manufacture, transport or sale of alcoholic beverages throughout the United States, 33 state legislatures out of 48 had taken it upon themselves to enact their own laws banning alcohol. Temperance societies and the Anti-Saloon League enjoyed significant influence in political institutions across the nation. While Prohibition's popularity would wane by the end of the decade because of its unintended consequences -- greater lawlessness, violence and widespread bootlegging -- at the time of its ratification and implementation, it enjoyed a fair amount of popular support.

Except in the pages of America.

While Prohibition's popularity would wane by the end of the decade, at the time of its ratification and implementation, it enjoyed a fair amount of popular support.

In the state of Virginia, wrote the editors (all Jesuit priests and brothers at the time) in an April 1919 editorial, "a small army of detectives and 'stool pigeons'" existed whose enforcement of that state's Prohibition ordinance constituted "a menace to the peace and welfare of the community, immeasurably greater than the disorderly conduct of a mob of drunkards."

The editors were just getting started. A paragraph later, they added:

If the citizens of Virginia, or of any other State, put the machinery of government into the hands of fanatics, who care nothing either for good government or for religion, provided they continue to draw a munificent salary in the propagation of Mohammedan tenets, these same good citizens have only themselves to blame.

A month later, they editorialized that Prohibition should be enforced equally against "the barons of wealth" as it would be against "the street-cleaner," noting that "[t]he rich are 'stocking up,' and will suffer no want; but after his day of exhausting labor, the poor man may not have so much as a single glass of harmless, necessary beer." And had the U.S. Senate vote on the 18th Amendment been taken by secret ballot, the editors argued later that year, it would have met with certain defeat -- as some of the same senators who argued most vociferously in favor of Prohibition were noted partakers of liquor.

"After his day of exhausting labor, the poor man may not have so much as a single glass of harmless, necessary beer."

[...]

A Plot Against Catholics?

A more novel accusation appeared in an editorial published in August 1919, "Federal Prohibition and the Mass," suggesting a certain anti-Catholic bias in the technical language used to enforce Prohibition. Would the government try to ban the use of sacramental wine? Such "wearisome and difficult technicalities may satisfy some of our Prohibitionist brethren of the milder variety," wrote the editors. "To others, however, they seem to mark the beginning of the era in which the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass can be made to depend on the favor of an internal revenue officer." If it were to come down to "a choice between Prohibition and the Mass," they warned, "it is not the Mass that will be protected."

The magazine returned to the theme two years later:

The Eighteenth Amendment has already destroyed a right reserved under the Constitution to the respective States. It has destroyed the right of the physician to prescribe what he deems best for his patient. In many parts of the country it has destroyed the right guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment. The next extension will be to destroy the Mass.

In 1925, the editors denounced the Anti-Saloon League and accused it of openly plotting against Catholics, sarcastically calling them "the good people who live in dread of the day when the Holy Father will order all Catholic Americans to capture the White House or the Washington Monument, or, if nothing better offers, even Congress." The next year, they approvingly quoted Cardinal William Henry O'Connell, the archbishop of Boston: "Compulsory universal prohibition is a different thing, for compulsory prohibition, in general, is flatly opposed to Holy Scripture and Catholic tradition."

The editors added: "We are not troubled by the accusation that we head the list of the brewers' beneficiaries. The sole interest of this Review is to assert Catholic and constitutional principles, in the hope that peace and good order may be secured through the practice of temperance in all things."

[...]

[Cord Hurn]

"After his day of exhausting labor, the poor man may not have so much as a single glass of harmless, necessary beer."

Populism I can certainly get behind.

[Vader]

I already posted this in the Star Wars/Mandalorian forum, but Menolly aksed me tompost here as well with a recipe.

The Mandalorian:
3 cl of Wodka
1 cl Woodruff sirup
dash of lime juice
shake with ice, strain in a cocktail glass
dash of tonic as filler
dark grapes on a tooth pick as decoration (or olives)
lime wedges as ears, some old sack cloth as coat.

For a children version skip the vodka and just use tonic or sprite/7up, if preferred.

May the Force be with us in 2021!

[Menolly]

Thank you, Vader!

[wayfriend]

I love that. Thank you.