Bourbon and Coke Started ... When??

[Gillman]

A further thought is that in the early days both bourbon and soft drinks were expensive. Only the well-off could have afforded either with any regularity. And being well-off, the people who knew these drinks would have had people with Jerry Thomas' skills to make cocktails (i.e., purpose-made) for them.

It was, arguably, only when both bourbon and Coke became relatively cheap that people, and perhaps younger people (at least nationally), thought to combine them.

But again I return to the question, which can be a subsidiary theme of this thread: does anyone drink, or has anyone heard a call for, bourbon and Pepsi?

Gary

[BourbonJoe]

But again I return to the question, which can be a subsidiary theme of this thread: does anyone drink, or has anyone heard a call for, bourbon and Pepsi?

Gary

Before being diagnosed with type II diabetes, I drank Evan Williams Black Label and Pepsi all the time, much preferring it to Coke. Now, it's an occasional bourbon and diet Pepsi.
Joe

[Gillman]

Thanks and clearly some people do enjoy the drink with Pepsi. I'll have to try it soon. By the way Canadian rye whisky is often consumed with Coke (or Pepsi I am sure for some): "rye and Coke" is a common call here.

Gary

[ILLfarmboy]

....In northern Ohio, where I grew up, adults of my parent's generation drank bourbon or beer, or both. They didn't drink Coke or other soft drinks, not just not with alcohol but hardly ever under any circumstances. If adults drank soft drinks they drank ginger ale or root beer. Coke and Pepsi were too sweet. Kids drank Coke and I suspect it was those rule-breaking, we-won't-grow-up baby boomers, especially my first wave cohort, who kept drinking Coke and just added bourbon to it as they got older...

I recall a story my parents related to me. Dad was born in '43 so this would have been around 1960/1962. Viola was and still is is a dry town but if you ordered a "special Coke" at Pinky's restaurant, a popular hangout for kids, both those just above and just below the legal limit, and they knew you, what you got was more than Coca-Cola. Whether this meant rum and Coke or whiskey and Coke or either one depending on your known preference is something I will have to ask mom and dad. My uncle, who is nine years older than dad, would probably remember the same thing, that is if the practice went back that far, and I would immagine it did. I might e mail him and ask.