Can’t stand the stuff, like pretty much any other whiskey.
When I drink whiskey, I prefer bourbon or a mild rye. Jack has a distinctive flavor that’s too hard on me unless I’m mixing it with Coke in honor of St. Lemmy.
I prefer Scotch and rye to bourbon, and can think of several bourbons I prefer to Jack Daniel’s (Maker’s Mark, Knob Creek and Bulleit come to mind). I know Jack Daniel’s is the go-to whiskey for a lot of rock stars, including a few it more or less killed. There’s a funny video floating around of Flea imitating a hair metal rocker complaining about having Jim Beam in his limo instead of Jack Daniel’s (Damned if I can taste the difference). I live in Korea, where the most available whiskeys are crappy, no-name brands they don’t even sell in America, like Windsor and Blue Point, so I can point to some brands I like even less than Jack Daniel’s, but I’m not wildly enthusiastic about the stuff.
I don’t like it, and there are other whiskeys at the same price that I actually like. I’ve got a bottle from the 80’s that I inherited. I’ll drink a little from now and then, but its taste just isn’t great. So, it’s still more than half full after years of owning it.
I simply can’t do hard liquor any more. I love vodka but I deeply regretting swallowing the same.
Jack Daniels, even more so. Goes down nice and easy, feel great for 30 minutes, feel like hammered shit for 3 days afterwards. I like the smell and taste, but just dare not drink it, or any other kind. (I do like a small sip of good Scotch once in a blue moon.)
If you want smooth go with Makers Mark or Gentleman Jack.
If you want a great bourbon with a balanced amount of bight, spice, oak, etc I would recommend Woodford Reserve.
JD is neither fish nor fowl to me.
I’ve been drinking the Bonded Jim Beam lately. Good stuff and reasonable cost.
It makes my urine smell like charcoal, so my opinion is negative.
It almost killed a friend of mine. Well, he almost killed himself using it.
I consider Jack Daniels a high-end whiskey, but then I am a cheapskate. If I am going to buy a bottle of whiskey at all (a rarity; I prefer gin most of the time) it will be something cheap like Canadian Mist. But when I do happen to have some Jack, like at an all-inclusive resort, I find it exquisite. I would never dream of mixing it with Coke; that would be an insult to both beverages.
I misremembered almost every detail of this video (“The Making if Dani California,” 2/3, almost 10 minutes long). It was Chad Smith, not Flea, and he was complaining that there was Jack in the limo and he wanted Jim Beam.
I know a woman who drinks JD with a cube along with a high-end cigar. I was chatting with her once at the bar and she lit up a cigar. The bar had recently gone “NO SMOKING” but nobody said a word; indeed, the bartender brought her over a makeshift ashtray.
Jack is reasonable. It’s fine to drink it straight, but it’s not a whiskey I particularly enjoy straight. Pretty much all I use it for is mixed drinks. There’s whiskey’s in the same price range I’ll drink straight (like Four Roses), but, for whatever reason, Jack is almost always a mixing whiskey for me. Gentleman Jack, though, is a nice, reasonably priced sipper.
Dad always had a bottle of Jack in the house, although he wasn’t much of a drinker. He probably kept it around for the occasional work buddy visitor. That, along with the rock-star stories, I’ve always associated it with middle brow blue-collar tastes.
For the price, I go with Four Roses, but I usually try out a lot of other labels and I feel fortunate that price isn’t a big deciding factor with me.
Jack is not a bourbon, it is in the category of Tennessee whiskey. For a long time George Dickel was the main competitor, but a few have appeared in the last few years.
Gentleman and the other upgraded ones are pretty good, but I do not particularly like the aftertaste of Jack Daniel’s. Kind of a weird nutty acorn taste.
I’ve been wanting to print up shirts that look like the JD bottle. But if you read it, it’d say “I don’t make much, but I’m not working for the cash. I’m working for the Jack Daniels”. Tiny college logo at the bottom.
But back on topic, there’s a bartender who’s been schooling me on whiskies of all sorts.
I’ll walk in and he’ll say “Okay, got another one you have to try. This week’ll be Irish Whiskies, and tonight: Redbreast 12 Year.”
But I can request we skip ahead to American Favorites, and try some Jack Daniels!
(Okay, I’m excited now…)
He’s also a well known track coach, although I found him an aloof and disinterested teacher when I had him for a prof.
He also thought I was weird - my own fault, really. One day he asked the class why track events are always run counter-clockwise. I piped up: “The Coriolis Effect. If we were running in the southern hemisphere we’d go clockwise!”
He gave me a long look and never called on me again. 
It’s a wholly cromulent mainstream form of booze and does the job. But as mentioned even in-house there are better variants one can very soon graduate to as the palate and liver become more seasoned.
Well, that *would *be worth complaining…
I rise and applaud you and will propagate your story holding you as an example to our youth. Imagine there was a “like” button and I clicked it.
It IS a bourbon, as Tennessee Whiskey is a subset of bourbon, distinguished by the use of the Lincoln County Process- that maple charcoal filtering that Jack Daniels crows about so much in their advertising literature. But George Dickel goes through it too, as the other mainstream Tennessee Whiskey brand.
Personally, Jack Daniels has a… funky flavor that’s like a bourbon, but not like either wheated(think Maker’s Mark or WL Weller) or rye-heavy bourbon(think Old Grand-Dad or Bulleit) . It’s its own animal, I’m guessing because of the filtration process.
It’s probably best on its own, in simple cocktails like Old Fashioneds or in some kind of simple highball like a Jack & Coke, where its distinctive flavor will be front and center, and won’t be distracting and weird like it would in a drink devised for bourbon or rye.
UK based, and I like a whiskey late at night, usually scotch, but I’m very partial to a Jim Beam; but carelessly I ran out a couple of days ago. Now, I did have a bottle of Jack in the cupboard, basically for younger persons to mix with Coke, as is their fashion. But in the absence of Jim, I thought I may as well have a Jack.
I had skimmed thru this thread a few days back (before I ran out of Jim), read it with interest but really had nothing to add; now I do. My opinion is that Jack is an acquired taste - but damn, do you acquire it quick. I need to do some more studying before I have a final opinion on the matter, but it strikes me as rather more complex than Jim, and easier to drink with every glass. And I reread the detail of this thread with enhanced interest - I did some googling and I can get Bulleit, Makers Mark and Gentleman Jack locally. So thank you all for the suggestions!
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