Sweet booze, ease the pain

Bourbon.

One of life's simple pleasures.  It's the Cognac of the South.  Bourbon is good when you mix it with soda water.  It's good when you mix it with Coca-Cola.  You can cook with it.  It's good on it's own in a snifter after dinner.  In short, Bourbon is just some good sh--!

All Bourbon is whiskey, but only a select bit of whiskey is Bourbon.  There are strict rules to determine what can be called Bourbon.  The mash must be at least 51% corn with other grains added for different flavors, although most Bourbon is more than 2/3rds corn.  There is no minimum aging requirement, but most Bourbon is aged for at least 4 years, in new, charred, American oak barrels.  The proof (alcohol content) ranges from a minimum of 80 to a max of around 160 (40 to 80% alcohol), but anything above about 100 is too "hot" for my taste.  Bourbon can be made anywhere in the US, but is most strongly associated with Bourbon county, Kentucky.

Jim Beam is the biggest name in Bourbon, and they make a range of premium spirits that are a good starting place to sample.  Basil Hayden, Knob Creek, Baker's and Bookers are all good.  My personal favorite right now is another brand, 1792.  Two fingers of this stuff in a snifter is all you need, no mixers required.  Check it out

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A few nights ago I stopped in at one of my favorite restaurants, 39 Rue de Jean, for an after-dinner snifter.  My buddy Junior was working.  I told him I wanted some Bourbon.  He says to me, "Would you like a nice Bourbon, being that it's later in the day?"  I said "Of course".  I had some Knob Creek.  I didn't think anything about it at the time, but later I thought it was kind of quaint that Junior could entertain the notion that the quality of what you're drinking should be determined by what time of day it is.  It helps to understand that Junior, to quote Roy Blount, is the Redneck equivalent of whatever "more Catholic than the Pope" is.  I love him.  His philosophy makes a kind of perverted sense.  If you need to start guzzling Bourbon early in the morning, that's when you want the cheap stuff.