I never did drink whiskey. Only Jack Daniels,(but apparently that is a bourbon, what is the difference?). Any good ones to try?
Glenfiddich.
Nothing like an open-ended question to get the arguments going. Did you like the Jack? That will give us something to work from.
Glenfiddich is whisky, not whiskey.
(Sorry, bit of a Scotch snob, even though I can’t tell my Oban from my Tomatin.)
I personally don’t drink, but if my father was going to sip something it was always Jonnie Walker.
Jack Daniel’s isn’t bourbon, it’s Tennessee whiskey. The charcoal filtration process means it’s not a bourbon.
If Jack is the only thing you’ve tried, you may want to stay kind of close to home at first- try stuff like:
[ul]
[li]Jim Beam (bourbon whiskey)[/li][li]Old Overholt (rye whiskey) * [/li][li]Crown Royal (Canadian Whiskey)[/li][li]J&B (blended Scotch Whisky)[/li][li]Jameson’s (Irish whiskey)[/li][/ul]
None of those are particularly assertive examples of their respective styles, but should give you an idea of what the styles are about, more or less.
Once you’ve found one you like, you can start to branch out from there.
- Rye is similar to Bourbon, only funkier. I particularly like it, especially with Coke.
For a Bourbon - which I agree with the above - try Knob Creek, an honest 100 proof. Pour a glass of JD alongside to compare, and you’ll understand.
If you really have never had any Whisky, I suggest you start with Johnnie Walker (Black Label) or Old Parr. They are great baseline whiskys, IMO. Crown Royal is pretty bad, if you ask me, but it is interesting to try once in your life (and it makes an entertaining Godfather). Congratulations on starting on a path worth travelling and Cheers.
I’m a relative newcomer to spirits (mostly beer till ten years ago, mostly wine since) so my experience is limited, but my favorite bourbons so far are Booker’s, Wild Turkey 101, and Knob Creek, in that order. My favorite scotch (a single-malt) is the Macallan 12.
Tullamore Dew (Irish).
Hangar One (aka St. George Spirits).
[QUOTE=bump]
[li]Crown Royal (Canadian Whiskey)[/li][/QUOTE]
Having been chastised in my thread when I misspelled (Scottish) whisky, I can now correct you when it comes to Canadian Whisky 
I started drinking whiskey at 17 when I thought it would be cool to order a whiskey sour even though I had no idea what it tasted like. I eventually dropped the sour and just drank whiskey and ginger ale. All this time I think I’ve been drinking Canadian Whisky. But I don’t really know whiskey from scotch from bourbon. The threads linked to in an earlier post only talk about different brands and don’t really tell us noobs much. Where would one go to learn more?
Break out the wallet and start sampling. A good place to start is with a bottle of Knob Creek bourbon. If you want some smoke and complexity, get yourself a bottle of Macallan Single-Malt scotch. Or find a good bar, go in sometime when it isn’t busy, and start working your way through the shelves.
I prefer Maker’s Mark Bourbon . Anyone try Rebel Yell?
As mentioned, Jack Daniels is Tennessee whiskey, but bourbon is also a type of whiskey - in other words, you have drunk whiskey. The various types are outlined here.
Why, you’re just in time! See the link in my post #16. (Scotch and bourbon are two of the several types of whiskey.)
In college, a group four or five friends and I decided to do a blind taste test of several Scotches. So we went out and bought miniatures of about a dozen, then had one person pour them into identical glasses and a second person number the glasses without showing the pourer the numbers. (Each wrote down what he was doing so we could match them up later.)
We evaluated the scent and took a small sip of each, making notes at each step, and then ranked them in our order of preference. When we had finished all this we finally put the names to each.
This was how I learned that I like single malts more than blended Scotches, and Glenlivet best.
The Scotch that virtually everyone disliked most was Johnny Walker Red, which was surprising, since it was probably the best known name. I don’t think we tried JW Black. I think Glenfiddich was in there, but don’t ask me, more than twenty years later, to remember any of the others. (Another thing I learned was that even small sips of a dozen Scotches can get you pretty damn drunk. I’d suggest not testing more than six or eight at once.)
I highly recommend doing a blind test like this because it’s far easier than you might expect to have your judgment swayed by preconceived notions. With a blind test you’ll find out what you really like, regardless of the price or the brand marketing. If you find out you like Ol’ Sweaty Kilt ($1/liter) better than Macallan Fine and Rare Collection, 1926 ($38,000), well, you’ll save an awful lot of money. And if you really like an expensive Scotch best, you’ll know that you really like it and haven’t just been duped by a slick marketing campaign.
Thanks for the info on the types of whiskey.
Now I usually see Jack Daniels burgers or steaks or BBQ sauce, does the whiskey add anything to the taste of food?
Johnnie Walker Red: ugh. 12 years minimum rule for me. Even the most undiscerning can tell the diff between 12 years and 8 years or less. 18 years are kinda wasted in me. I don’t enjoy them more enough to justify the additional expense.