I’ve switched to drinking my bourbon neat all the time, and I consistently get straight bourbon, direct pour from the room-temp bottle, in a short glass.
If I got ice or anything else in it, I’d send it back.
Huh. I had no idea that there was an “old fashioned” cocktail mix, but, sure enough, there is. I’m just confused why one would need a mix for an old fashioned. There are different types of old fashioneds–Wisconsin has its own take on the cocktail that is different from the rest of the US–but none of them should require a mix, and I really can’t see how a mix makes it any easier.
I actually have heard something like this. I’ve been at some bars where “neat” is always a double shot (in a tumbler, of course), while a “shot” is a single in a shot glass.
The hyper marketing of vodka, especially flavored vodka so the kids can have simple drinks that get them drunk fast, seems to have ruined it for patrons who like actual cocktails or who like to taste fantastic scotches and bourbon…
I suspect that bartending schools have a less demanding curriculum than in days passed, too.
I was a bartender for quite a few years, and I loved to study old bartending guides. Here is how I always understood the terms. [ul][]Neat - booze is poured directly from bottle to rocks glass []Up - Chilled and strained into a cocktail glass. []**Straight **- see Neat []Straight up - not really a thing. Should only be used when ordering pure booze. For example, I can’t make a “straight up” Manhattan, because it can’t be “straight” So if you order a Vodka Straight Up, it is the same as up.[/ul]
The very idea of anyone ‘shooting’ a good bourbon makes my eyes roll back into my head!
My granddad taught me to drink bourbon and branch, but nowadays that would just get you bourbon and tap water, so I always order mine neat and have always gotten one shot of bourbon in a rocks glass.
I think an unmentioned & key point in this discussion is whether the bartender is permitted to do free pour. The question back about whether you wanted “a double” makes me think it’s one of those bars that is strict about a policy such as “Order a brand name bourbon, you get one jigger of bourbon. Want more? Pay more.”
I always thought “straight up” and “neat” were synonymous, but “neat” was a more British term. I didn’t think the size of the glass meant anything. I am probably the least sophisticated bourbon drinker you ever stepped over lying in the gutter, so what do I know.
Regards,
Shodan
If you can, visit the Maker’s Mark distillery. A beautiful area of Kentucky, with entertaining informative tour guides. You won’t be able to sip on sight but the stuff permeates the air!
I’m not sure what you mean exactly by sipping on site, but they certainly do have a tasting at the end (at least they did when I did, with four drinks: an unaged Makers Mark, a five year Makers, an overaged seven years Makers, and the 46. It actually was really interesting tasting an unaged whiskey, a “properly” aged whiskey, and an overaged whiskey one after the other.)
Odd that this thread came back from the dead, because I just encountered the same thing. In a restaurant, as my cocktail-before-dinner, I asked the waiter for a “bourbon, neat”. He came back with a glass full of ice with a bit of bourbon getting watery in it.
So I googled it while waiting for dinner, to make sure I wasn’t the one who screwed up, and got the same definitions as previously cited here (including the difference between “neat” and “up”.)
What does overaging do to it?
Generally makes it overly woody and unbalanced.
It just makes it shittier. Some bartenders are too lazy to properly mull the fruit and their employer allows them to be lazy by supplying the Jero mix.
You are quite correct! I had so forgotten that & I don’t know how I could have. I guess I was just thinking of leisurely sitting & sipping, instead of the tour group sitting for an en masse tasting.
In Korea and parts of China, bars that actively pursue expat clientele have drinks on the menu they just plain don’t know how to make. I see “Martini” on the menu and order it, and they give me a shot glass full of vermouth.
Once in Old Town Alexandria Virginia, at a swell bar that should’ve known better, I ordered a Scotch and soda. The “soda” they used was Coca Cola. Kids.