Classic Whiskey Cocktails: American Style

By: Carl Hanson

"There is no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others."-- William Faulkner

Whiskey. The Name Game.

Whiskey is the water of life. Literally. The word comes to us from the phonetic spelling of--let's see if we can get this straight--the sounds that English speakers made attempting to pronounce uisege beatha, which was the Gaelic rendering of the Latin aqua vitae, which means "the water of life." And there you have it. Clear as a cold Irish stream.

Whiskeys of the World

Whiskey-Soaked Songs We Love

"Whiskey River" by Willie Nelson
"Jockey Full of Bourbon" by Tom Waits
"Streams of Whiskey" by the Pogues
"One Mint Julep" by Ray Charles
"Whiskey Under the Bridge" by Brooks & Dunn

Our Favorite Bourbon-Belting Movies

Bogart may be lamenting the day Ingrid Bergman walked into his Casablanca "gin joint," but he's drinking whiskey while he whinges. Here are a few films that put bourbon front and center. Incidentally, each of these movies was up for Best Picture. Bonus points if you can name which movies did not win!

"The Lost Weekend" (1945)
"Chinatown" (1974)
"Unforgiven" (1992)
"There Will Be Blood" (2007)

Whiskey and Rebellion in the New Nation

In 1791, the United States, fresh from a war of independence and, really, just a babe in the cradle, faced its first internal rebellion. Broke and desperate for funds, the federal government slapped taxes on American-made whiskey. Back then, most whiskey-makers were just frontier farmers using stills to turn excess grain into quick cash. When these folks refused to pay, President George Washington himself led in the troops to put down the so-called Whiskey Rebellion. It was a minor skirmish, really. But the upshot was that whiskey production shifted to Kentucky and Tennessee, two places that were still, at that time, outside the taxman's reach.

Whiskey, the epic booze of the great American West. It's what the dust-covered cattle punchers and squint-eyed outlaws called for when they sidled up to the bar. And it was the belt of choice for tough-guy private-eyes of hardboiled fiction and American film noir. Yes, American culture is steeped in whiskey.

Bourbon or Whiskey?

Kentucky bourbon and Tennessee whiskey share much in common. They're both made from a mash of at least 51 percent corn, and they're both aged in charred oak barrels, which give them a mild, smoky-sweet character. Here are a handful of our favorite bourbon cocktails.

Top-rated classics:

That Ain't Bourbon, Jack

But there is a difference between Tennessee Whiskey and bourbon. Though both are charcoal filtered, Tennessee whiskey uses charcoal made exclusively from the Volunteer State's sugar maple trees. Can you taste a difference? Is the Tennessee whiskey a bit smokier?

Top-Rated Blended Whiskey Cocktails

Blended whiskeys were Prohibition's parting gift to America. With repeal in 1933, whiskey makers were eager to meet the newly legal demand for booze. But it was bottom-of-the-barrel time in their warehouses. With reserves running ruinously low, they hit upon mixing spirits together. Today, of course, the blending process is considerably more refined, and distillers blend their whiskeys to maintain a consistent, familiar flavor.

Coming through the Rye

Before corn-based whiskeys stole the show, rye whiskeys were the rage. Today rye whiskey is mostly a blending booze, but it's also making a comeback behind the bar, starring once again in classic cocktails like the Sazerac and Manhattan. It's a shade less sweet than bourbon with an appealing, somewhat bitter flavor. Next time you pour these cocktails, sub in some rye, and see what you think.