I lived in Kentucky for a year when I was 16 years old. As I started to drink alcohol, around the age of 23, I started to learn that I had an affinity for a drink often know to hail from the region of the United States called Bourbon. Now, all whiskey is not bourbon, but all bourbon is whiskey. It’s a subclass of whiskey. I’ve heard several differentiations of what constitutes bourbon, from where it is made, to the ingredients to, and several others. The thing is, I don’t really care about that. What I care about is that it is a drink that I enjoy. I enjoy drinking it on the rocks. I know it waters it down the whiskey, but if it is how I like it, why is it wrong?
This is about a story, and I’m fine sharing it, because I don’t think anyone really reads my posts. A couple of years ago, some of my friends moved to California and for their move in, I brought over a bottle of Bourbon. I didn’t know which one to get, so I bought one called Blanton’s. It turned out that we really enjoyed the bottle. I’ve ordered it since, but haven’t really bought another bottle. That is, until the same friend said that she was having trouble finding a bottle for sale anywhere. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked past a bottle for sale at about $60.
That is why when my friend asked me to get her a bottle if I found it, I thought it was going to be an easy request to honor. Turns out not. I’ve been looking and haven’t seen a bottle. So I started to call around and see what I could find here in Rhode Island. I called 4 liquor stores that I thought might carry it, and none of them had it.
It turns out that over the past couple of years, bourbon has been becoming harder to get a hold of. Bottles that were in the fifty dollar price range have shot up a ton. I know this is my liquor of choice, not scotch, or rum. So I am committed to learning more about this drink. Yes, I kill it with ice. Yes, at this point I don’t really know what I’m talking about when it comes the drink. But there was a time when I didn’t know a thing about coffee either and now all my friends describe me as a coffee snob.
So I guess what I’m trying to say, is here to diving into yet another area to learn enough become a whiskey snob.