Have you always enjoyed your bourbon straight?

[thunderhead]

Sorry for posting so many silly topics but if you read my into you'll see i bought many bottles and im waiting to test them out and i got sick lol so i gotta few more days, anyways im just wondering if most of you out there who drink your wiskey either neat or on the rocks have always liked it that way or if it was something you have to fight through then get to enjoy or what.

do you take big drinks or smaller sips?

when i mix my drinks i make them really strong and most my friends can't stand it and same when i do shots or drink straight liquore they can't stand it.

[theDon]

I have always drank my bourbon straight, especially since I stopped mixing it full time. I still enjoy a good bourbon and coke. Always strong, always big drinks.

The higher the proof straight, the smaller the sips. Unless you like your dick in the dirt?

[OscarV]

Unless you like your dick in the dirt?

Is that a Texas saying? I never heard it before, but come to think of it, mine has been there a time or two.

[IronHead]

Is that a Texas saying? I never heard it before, but come to think of it, mine has been there a time or two.

Someone had a song titled 'Dick in the Dirt' but I can't recall who.

I never mixed bourbon. Bourbon and coke was always too sweet for me. When I started drinking bourbon it was always on the rocks. I still enjoy it that way but I now use fewer ice cubes. It's not a hard and fast rule but for me usually under 100 proof gets one, over 100 proof gets two. Really high barrel proofs get two or three. When I am trying a bourbon for the first time I always take it neat, though.

[sotnsipper]

I'm just wondering if most of you out there who drink your wiskey either neat or on the rocks have always liked it that way or if it was something you have to fight through then get to enjoy or what.

Before I turned to bourbon, I used to enjoy Jack and Coke. When I switched to bourbon, it did not have the same flavor I liked so I left out the coke and just put ice in it. I drank it like that for a while and one day I decided to try a drink neat, no particular reason why, I just tried it. I have not looked back since. Now I drink all my bourbon straight and save the ice for a margarita or a coke. To me, ice seems to restrict a lot of flavors in the bourbon, it is hard to explain but if you do a side by side tasting with the same bourbon, one with ice and one without, you will be able to tell the difference.

do you take big drinks or smaller sips?

I generally just sip while drinking. I rarely drink anything under 100 proof so to save the burn and to keep my dick out of the dirt, I just sip it.

when i mix my drinks i make them really strong and most my friends can't stand it and same when i do shots or drink straight liquor they can't stand it.

This seems like a bonus for you. More bourbon for you, less spent on your friends. When I order a drink out somewhere, people seem to look at me weird for drinking it straight, but then again, they do not drink bourbon. Hope this helps ya out!

[unclebunk]

When I order a drink out somewhere, people seem to look at me weird for drinking it straight, but then again, they do not drink bourbon.

[MarkEdwards]

just wondering if most of you out there who drink your wiskey either neat or on the rocks have always liked it that way or if it was something you have to fight through then get to enjoy or what.

do you take big drinks or smaller sips?

[independant]

I drink all my bourbon neat with the exception of Stagg. I find I love all the barrel strengths just fine but the Stagg is just a little to much and I like to bring it down with a few drops of water to around 125 proof.

[smokinjoe]

I can't begin to tell you how many bottles of very good bourbon I wasted by ONLY mixing them with Seven Up/Sprite or Ginger Ale. This is not to say you shouldn't mix. It's just that is all I did. Nowadays I overwhelmingly don't mix, with the ratio being 75% Neat/25% with Ice. Depends on my mood, season, weather, time, Braves score, etc.. If not bourbon straight, I'll mix with Ginger, or work up a Sazerac, Mint Julep, or Manhattan on occasion. These times are rare, but I tend to go with these cocktails before Sunday dinner.

I'm a sipper. Though, sometimes I sip in rapid succession.

[BBQ+Bourbon]

I generally drink bourbon neat if it's excellent, with water if it's excellent but with overwhelming alcohol, and with coke if it's marginal.

Then again, I enjoy having a good Wellers 107 with a splash of coke at times. Sometimes, the the extra sweetness brings out a woodiness that the OWA doesn't have and I enjoy it. Sometimes I drink the OWA with a splash of RO water.

Last night, I tried OWA and Lot B and now I'm thinking that Lot B is exactly what is needed to take some of the fire out of OWA and bring out it's sweet woody flavor.

Here's the deal; I drink what I enjoy. I think everybody should do the same.

[JamesW]

Straight. Anyway else doesn't do it for me.

[ILLfarmboy]

I generally drink bourbon neat if it's excellent, with water if it's excellent but with overwhelming alcohol, and with coke if it's marginal.

Then again, I enjoy having a good Wellers 107 with a splash of coke at times. Sometimes, the the extra sweetness brings out a woodiness that the OWA doesn't have and I enjoy it. Sometimes I drink the OWA with a splash of RO water.

Last night, I tried OWA and Lot B and now I'm thinking that Lot B is exactly what is needed to take some of the fire out of OWA and bring out it's sweet woody flavor.

Here's the deal; I drink what I enjoy. I think everybody should do the same.

I was thinking along the same lines, not to take the fire out but to give some richness that is lacking in the 08 I have open. The trouble is the proof goes down, so, I thought of adding just enough WLW (129.9, whichever year that was) to balance it out, Enough Lot B and enough WLW to keep it real close to 107 proof.

And to answer the question posed in the opening post, neat, never ice, once in a while a bourbon and branch, a Manhattan or an Old Fashioned.

Yes, I always drank it neat. Small sips are key. In large measure I started out sneaking the occasional nip as a kid. So, later on, small sips from a glass was a natural progression.

[Vosgar]

I like my bourbon neat, only a couple of times have I tried adding a few drops of water to see if I like it any better. It seems like only the high test stuff handles a little water or small ice cube without ruining the flavor.

There's been a couple of times I've tried some with Coke, but it's never worked for me. Damn shame to screw up a perfectly good bourbon.

[ErichPryde]

I started out drinking Crown and Coke or Jack and Coke, then a friend suggested Beam and Barqs. I remember several years ago, when my wife bought me a bottle of buffalo trace for my birthday. I wasn't quite into bourbon at that point, and I ended mixing most of the bottle! :stickpoke:

After I grew up a bit, I started getting a bit more selective with my whiskey and drinking it neat. I throw the occasional ice cube in- While reading a good book, a pour of Thomas Handy with a cube of ice or two will keep me entertained for quite some time. sometimes crushed ice hits the spot. Nowadays most of my mixing is reserved for the occasional Sazerac (the 6 year and a splash of Handy make a good sazerac!), but I still have a soft spot for Jack and Coke with a wedge of lime.

[p_elliott]

I started out drinking my bourbon with water but now drink it exclusively neat. I also just take sips but they can catch up to you and you Dickel 8 just doesn't work.

[theDon]

Is that a Texas saying? I never heard it before, but come to think of it, mine has been there a time or two.

I don't know if it's Texan, but my Dad and Uncle's have said it forever. We are 7th generation Texans or so on their side. I have heard a few of my friend's Dads say it also who are the same age, in their 50's and 60's.

[George]

Up until last year, I never drank hard liquor. I was strictly a beer and wine drinker. Now that I've started drinking bourbon, I'm having it neat, for the most part. I'll sometimes add a little water to the higher proofs.

[Special Reserve]

When I was young in addition to beer I drank Scotch either on the rocks or with water. In my early 20's I was reintroduced to bourbon and I thought it was great. Through my 20's and into my 30's I drank bourbon and water. In my late 30's and in my 40's I drank bourbon on the rocks. In my 50's I started drinking bourbon neat. Now about 10 years later, I mostly drink neat with a few selections such as PHC 2007 over ice. I think it's worth repeating just how good PHC 2007 over ice really is.

[OscarV]

I think it's worth repeating just how good PHC 2007 over ice really is.

With ice, water or neat the PHC '07 is truley unique.

There is a store that I know of that has a botlle with the lower label missing that had all the info about it.

The store owner says it's an "07 and he has the right price on it, I might pick it up.

Even if it isn't a 122.6 I'm sure it would be worthy.

[Stu]

When I was a teenager, my Dad took me into a bar and asked what I wanted. The billboards of that time were full of 7&7 advertisements so I said "7&7". Dad said "do you want to drink whiskey or 7 up"? I tried it neat and have been drinking it that way ever since.

[Special Reserve]

...The store owner says it's an "07 and he has the right price on it, I might pick it up.

Even if it isn't a 122.6 I'm sure it would be worthy.

The 122.6 proof is the only 2007 PHC I've seen in MI.

[Joshua]

Pretty much always straight. It loses something to me mixing it. My buddy always has makers and sevens, and that was too sweet for me. I tried makers with some ice, which was fine but got watery fast. It is a shock at first to sip bourbons neat- but you quickly get used to it.

I drink barrel proofs neat, but VERY small sips. I'll pour maybe 3/4th of an ounce of Stagg or WLW and take tiny little sips for a while. I drink lower proofs a bit faster, but 110proof seems nearly the right spot for enjoyable sipping to me.

But really- do whatever you want and enjoy so long as it's responsible.

[ShewDawg]

I started off my drinking life on beer, saw too many of my older friends get piss drunk and vomit all over the place. That didn't really seem to exciting to me.

College was where the appeal of spirits began, and not until I transferred to an SEC school, did I begin to understand the differences in whiskey. In fact, cost played a role for me, with Jim Beam being significantly cheaper than Jack Daniels at the time. It wasn't until my late 20s did I awaken to the goodness of bourbon neat. This was only because my father travelled to see Fogerty in KY and "killed some time" by visiting some distilleries.

If only I had realized back in college then what I do now (in bourbon, not just life) of all the sweet dusties I was leaving high and dry. Now I am in NJ, where good brown liquor is tough to come by, and chugging away trying to find some good bourbon.

[Hondo]

Yes and I guess the reason that I started off drinking mine straight was because of the environment that I was in. The first person to offer me a drink out of a bottle was an elderly fellow that I was deer hunting with. The option was drink it straight or pass...

Since that time I have always loved the taste and taken it straight or when I order it out I order it neat.

I do enjoy the occasional mixed drink but mostly drink it straight and always have.

I have not had anything stronger than OGD 114 and might add a little water to anything much stronger than that.

[yemenmocha]

As long as the addition of modest amounts of water to VERY high proof whisky can still "count" as straight, then yes I drink everything straight. My ideal is around 46-50%.

I've never used ice for any spirit. I don't understand it. I see people do this with beer occasionally and it doesn't make sense to me. Maybe I should be more polite or politically correct and say something like "it's all subjective" but that would be disingenuous.