Gather round people, it's time you learned that JACK DANIELS IS NOT BOURBON!

Cafe Society
1

Do not read if you are planning on playing in the current feud game. It would be cheating.

This isn’t meant to be a rant so much as it is a public service announcement, so it’s a cafe society piece.
Question #2 in the most recent feud game.

Name a type of Bourbon
answers:

I know this has been corrected in the feud thread, but clearly we as a culture have a problem if we don’t know that JD isn’t Bourbon, because it means we don’t know what Bourbon is, and Bourbon is one of the very finest of American traditions. (Non USers, I will get to why you should care in a second)

I do not want to take away from Jack Daniels, which is from a fine tradition of Tenessee Process Whiskey itself. But it ain’t Bourbon, and it is important to know the difference. Why? Well I can’t really explain it other than there are only a handful of things that are uniquely American, and Bourbon is one of them. Just as you would want to know, at least on some level, the difference between Jazz and Blues, you should know a little about our unique drinks.

If you are not an American and reading this thread, same deal. Just because we are ignorant about our own heritage (and yours) doesn’t mean you have to be!

Plus, it’s a good drink, and fighting ignorance is always a good thing. :stuck_out_tongue:
Also

The above is also false. Bourbon has to be made in the US, but it doesn’t have to come from Kentucky, it just usually does. Kentucky Bourbon has to come from Kentucky, but otherwise not so much. Stop the spread of misinformation!

Jack Daniels isn’t bourbon because it is charcoal filtered aka Tenessee Processed. This filtering adds the flavor of the charcoal to the drink, and renders it no longer bourbon, but an entirely different drink. Saying that they are the same is like saying that Crown Royal and Glennfiddich are the same drink.

Anyway, read about the proud history of bourbon here:

http://www.straightbourbon.com/history.html

It’s American history and a darn good drink. Know your Bourbon people! Enjoy.

This angry public service announcement has been brought to you by NAF, believer in Bourbon.

2

Jack Daniel’s is also spelled “Jack Daniel’s” because Jack Daniel was named Daniel.

3

And also bourbon is the national distilled spirit of the US. Why do you all hate America? :wink:

And the charcoal filtering process is correctly called the Lincoln County Process.

But good points and everyone should know a bourbon from a Tennesee sour mash.

4

To you :p. This is a serious issue not to be bogged down by trivialities like spelling and punctuation!

Good point about the Lincoln County Process. I more or less dashed the OP off in a fit of pique and, in retrospect there is really a lot more I could have done with it in terms of information.

But my dream is that people will see this informationally sparse thread and go out and educate themselves!

Or at least, if the readers become bartenders and they get asked what bourbon they have in stock, they will know better than to offer Jack and Crown Royal.

5

I promptly move that everybody that put Jack Daniel’s as an answer be disqualified from the game for Gross Insult to An American Tradition.

6

Well, if you want to get all technical here, what we call “whiskey” in North America makes everyone else on the planet cringe in horror. “Whiskey” is scotch to most of the world.

7

Ah HA!

This is where you are wrong. Whisky is scotch. What we have in America is Whiskey and clearly different.

8

All that being said, I think it’s really nitpicky to not allow the Tennesee Sour Mash to be at least a subset of bourbon. I know that to be bourbon it can’t have any artificial colorings or flavorings but I don’t know that I taste or see charcoal in my Jack, so I personally don’t see the big deal.

And as a liquor fiend I will say that I don’t know of one single mixed drink that can’t have Jack or George Dickel’s substitued for bourbon and be just fine.

9

Jack Daniel’s tastes much like bourbon to me. If I ask for a bourbon and coke, and they serve me a little Jack in the Black, I won’t send it back.

10

Of course, the point of the game is to guess what most people will say, not to be right.

11

I would say the Manhattan, but that really needs rye to work right. So instead I will say an Old Fashioned. Jack would not work in one of those I don’t think. Too dark of a flavor profile.

An I prefer Jack and coke to Bourbon and coke, but prefer bourbon in ginger ale to Jack. Is that because of the charcoal filtering? I don’t know. But there is a taste difference.

12

I post simply to thank you for the OP. I was vaguely aware that there was some difference between Jack and bourbon, but didn’t know what it was. Now I’ve been educated.

I’ll impress and/or bore the hell out of some people at the bar tonight.

13

Oh, yeah? :smiley:

14

Been there, done that. Bet on the latter. :smiley:

15

Pffft. I make my beef marinades with Jim Beam anyway. :wink:

16

I would. It’s a very distinctly different taste to me. Of course I would send back any whiskey and coke, but that’s because it has coke in it. Soda water, rocks or neat for me, thanks.

17

Kentuckians are notably lax spellers. And mostly shoeless.

Q: How do we know that the toothbrush was invented in Kentucky?
A: If it had been invented anywhere else it would be known as the teethbrush.

18

What?
:smiley:

19

I like “Modern Marvels” on the History Channel and some time back they featured distilled drinks.

As I recall, in the US whiskey must be aged in a new charred barrel, with each barrel used only one time. Once the barrel has served its purpose it is sold for other uses. One of the leading purchases of used barrels are Scottish distilleries which they use them to age scotch. Scotch benefits from older barrels because the stronger flavors have already been absorbed by the whiskey which leaves a mellower and smoother flavor for the scotch. So whiskey and scotch are very similar, but still different thanks to the age of the barrel’s used for aging.

20

So, but, Crown Royal and Glenfiddich are the same thing, right?