Rye in Your Eye

A postscript to my posting yesterday. I didn't drink all 5 ounces of that High Hat cocktail. I'd drunk the Income Tax cocktail right before it, and after drinking about 2/3 of the High Hat, I was getting a bit too buzzed for my liking, so I kitchen sinked it.

I usually process alcohol pretty efficiently, but I'd only had a little popcorn for a Sunday night supper. So it's not like I was drinking on a full stomach. I tried the Readi-Whip trick that I told you about a few posts ago; that took a bit of the buzz off. Still no one's fingers etc. to lick it off though.

I got to wondering: what exactly is in this old bottle of Jim Beam rye that I mixed it with? (the High Hat, not the Readi-Whip) It's not something you see as often as, say, a bottle of Jack or Maker's Mark or even Glenlivet. In my mind, buzzing or not, I think of it as something you'd find in a dark woody men's club bar, or maybe something being held by a former denizen of one of said places looking up at you from his sprawl in front of a dumpster in front of the townhouse that his wife got in the divorce.

Wikipedia says that rye is the original American whiskey made in the Northeastern states and pretty much disappeared at Prohibition. Bourbon is a Jimmy or Jackie Come Lately. Rye supposedly makes a drier cocktail, supposedly is better for drinks like a Manhattan, and supposedly has a more peppery taste than bourbon. I didn't get a pepper taste, though the High Hat did seem pretty dry (I suppose). And it's said to be not as sweet as bourbon. I'll agree with that.

I think I'll continue to use Maker's Mark for my occasional Manhattan though. Back the bottle of rye goes into the liquor cabinet until the magic calendar summons it out again.