Rant/Rave: Bourbon

[33anda3rd]

Wait........is there a season when you can't drink tequila?

[thrill]

I was in Binny's two weeks ago and they had the WL Weller 12-year for $29.99, right there on the bottom shelf next to the Very Old Barton.

Holy [expletive]!

I'm going to start hitting up the liquor stores in less posh neighborhoods. I think the whiskey snobs are too thick where I usually go because I can snap up a 7 year every now and then, but I've never seen the 12. I've seen it online ranging from $60 to $150ish.


Speaking of tequila, my grapefruit tree is producing like crazy this year and there's no better cocktail in the world than one part fresh squeezed, ice cold grapefruit juice and one part tequila. Been enjoying that quite a bit lately.

[33anda3rd]

Where's 33.33 to tell me why it's so damn good?

Only you can answer that.

Swirl it. Let it settle for a second. Sniff it--don't take a deep sniff, take 4-5 short little sniffs like a dog sniffing around for something. What do you smell and what does it remind you of?

Taste it. Make sure it slowly passes over every part of your tongue so you get max flavor. Any obvious flavors? Anything you're getting? Remember, you're not wrong. If you say wet hay, then it's wet hay even if no one else gets wet hay, that's your tasting vocabulary.

Finish. What flavors remained when the initial burn of alcohol was gone? Did they disappear quickly (short finish), linger a long time (long finish), or somewhere in between?

That's a really basic, easy, quick way to answer why you like it. There's other stuff involved, like sweetness from corn, spice from rye, smoothness from wheat--figuring out you like sweet can guide you toward ones with more corn in the mash, figuring out you like spice can lead you to high-rye bourbon or even rye whiskey, etc. But if you taste it somewhat critically with those three things in mind you'll get some answers to why you like certain things.

[Jocephus]

ive posted this before but am thinking of it again with the smelling talk

[33anda3rd]

I'm going to start hitting up the liquor stores in less posh neighborhoods. I think the whiskey snobs are too thick where I usually go because I can snap up a 7 year every now and then, but I've never seen the 12. I've seen it online ranging from $60 to $150ish.

If you read anything online saying "don't believe the hype re this bourbon shortage" then I'd disregard that. It's real and it kind of sucks.

The allocations are tough. I can buy one bottle of 12-year/month, two bottles of Antique 107/month, and six bottles of Special Reserve/month for the restaurant. That's what I'm allocated, and all I can get. Even superstores like Binny's are allocated and get very little. You have all the collectors snapping the stuff up when it gets released, or the re-sellers (death to all of them) or the traders. This regular, Josh, he's been collecting bourbon for like 20 years. He bought three cases of Weller 7-Year, back when Weller 7-Year still had an age statement, in little pint bottles, for like $3/bottle in 1998. He could probably sell one of those little pints for $100 online, but he gives them away to people he likes. Good dude. Point isn't that he's a good dude, though, but that bourbon was cheap in the fairly recent past, and it probably will be again once all the producers who are rushing to distill and barrel more juice now get the right age on that juice. Once we hit the point that it's not scarce, we should be able to buy a Weller 12-Year most times we hit our better stores. For now, it's a great time to get into gin or rye or mezcal.

[thrill]

Further reinforcing the stereotype that Tucson is full of dumb hicks, every time I go there for work, I hit up a BevMo on my way out of town, and every time there's at least one Weller 7.

[jim]

Wait........is there a season when you can't drink tequila?

I like it better when it's warmer out.

[haltz]

Speaking of tequila, my grapefruit tree is producing like crazy this year and there's no better cocktail in the world than one part fresh squeezed, ice cold grapefruit juice and one part tequila. Been enjoying that quite a bit lately.

You've basically got a Paloma there, which I really enjoy as well.

[jim]

Paloma's aren't more popular in Mexico than a Mexican Margarita, not by a long shot. The only thing is that Mexican's don't fuss over their Margarita's like Americans do. Squirt, tequila, and some salt are all you need. This shaking and blending and all of this are to just sell $7 drinks to people.

[33anda3rd]

Paloma's aren't more popular in Mexico than a Mexican Margarita, not by a long shot.

False. What's in a margarita? Triple sec. How Mexican is that? Not very. The margarita is the most popular tequila drink in the US. In Mexico it's the Paloma. At big Mexican resorts catering to vacationing Americans, it's the margarita. But that's not what's popular in Mexico, it's what's popular at Mexican resorts.

Do a Google search. "most popular cocktail in Mexico." What's the first result? Paloma. Second? Paloma. Wikipedia page for margarita calls it 'the most popular tequila drink in the US.' No one calls it the most popular drink in Mexico because it's not. Not by a long shot. That would be as demonstrably false as "this is the coldest winter in Chicago history."