September is officially Bourbon Heritage Month as declared by the United States Senate S. RES 294 in September of 2007. Bourbon fans in the U.S. and all over the world continue to celebrate every September by enjoying America’s only Native Spirit – Bourbon.
After years of personal research as passed down from my father I’m ready to share the best way to enjoy Bourbon. I’ll actually share two of my favorite ways to enjoy a Bourbon cocktail and we’ll throw in a third for future reference.
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One: Bourbon Cocktail – Neat
Ingredients
- 2 ounces of your favorite Bourbon
Instructions
- Open bottle of Bourbon. Depending on your choice of bourbon, you may be removing a cork (one of my favorite sounds in the world) or unscrewing a cap. Either way is fine.
- Caution, do not spill
- Pour Bourbon into glass
- Swirl Bourbon in glass
- Gently sniff Bourbon in glass with mouth slightly left open
- Try to recognize the four most common flavor notes as recommended by Bourbon expert Fred Minnick in his book, Bourbon Curious: A Simple Tasting Guide for the Savvy Drinker – caramel, cinnamon, grain and nutmeg. You may taste many more but, this is a starting point.
- Sip your Bourbon – it generally takes from two to 20 years for Bourbon to mature so we don’t recommend you pour the entire glass down the hatch all at once but, it’s totally up to you.
- Enjoy!
Two: Bourbon Cocktail – On the Rocks
Ingredients
- 2 ounces of your favorite Bourbon
- Ice – The water really does matter. 95% of the world’s Bourbon is made in Kentucky using organically filtered Limestone water free of iron deposits. If you are adding another source of water for your ice, you really are going to change the flavor complexity of your Bourbon. There are a few companies out there like Old Limestone that will ship you Kentucky water. Again, it’s totally up to you. There are many states with fine water but, there are many states with bad water or water that contains sulphur which will kill the taste of your Bourbon. If your water has sulphur, refer back to recipe number One.
Instructions
- Follow steps 1 and 2 from recipe One above.
- Add ice to your glass
- Follow steps 3 – 7 above.
- Enjoy!
Three: Bourbon Cocktail – Bourbon “In the Rocks”
This one is a bit more complicated but well worth it. In fact, other than special tastings around the country, you can’t get this yet. Beyond Zero is a startup company fine tuning their production processes in how to craft frozen alcohol. The process is pretty simple really. You place your favorite alcohol in the machine, wait a few minutes and out pops your frozen alcohol below zero. Now you can enjoy your Bourbon fast or slow and it will always taste the same, from start to finish. No more watered down drinks.
So, whether you enjoy your Bourbon Neat, On the Rocks or in the near future In the Rocks, please enjoy responsibly.
Cheers!
