Is Japan not the weirdest, sickest country on earth? Whiskey AND M&Ms are #9 in the vending machine!!??  If I found a vending machine with bourbon and Reese’s, my life would be over, because I would have found heaven.  Unless, of course, all of my money was too crinkled up to go in the machine; that would be hell.

via Abux77 on Flickr

So this is how they market bourbon to the Japanese? Wow.  I really want a bottle, homeboy.

via BlogSoop.

Awesome commercial. When I dip you dip we dip.

If you are looking for something to mix with your bourbon or whiskey (besides ice cubes), you should learn a few easy recipes. My favorite is always a good bourbon with fresh-squeezed lemon and orange. College Drinker has gone a bit deeper by explaining the “11 Easy to Make Whiskey Drinks” with basics like the Manhattan, Old Fashioned, New York, and more.

Check them out at College Drinker.

Here’s a shot from the rye / bourbon shelf at my bar. It’s a thing of beauty.

Left to right we have (ri)1, Knob Creek, Maker’s Mark, Buffalo Trace, Jim Beam, Jim Beam Red Stag, and Wild Turkey.

(use a smaller glass, or add more bourbon!)

I’m a big fan of a lot of different alcohol styles, especially beer, Scotch, bourbon, and, to a lesser extent, rum. That means most of my drinks are mixed with nothing at all; either a draft beer, or a cocktail that consists of nothing but Bourbon and ice.  However, there are times where adding other ingredients takes your drink to another level (although it’s hard to beat what Oban and Knob Creek offer right out of the bottle). So here’s a very simple one for you.

• Fill a lowball with ice.
• Add 2 ounces of bourbon; use Jim Beam or better.
• Squeeze all the juice from half a lemon. No seeds, please.
• Squeeze all the juice from about 1/3 of an orange.
• Do not garnish.
• Stir.

I’m sure there is a named recipe out there for this awesome drink, but I don’t know what it is. So until we discover what that might be, we’re calling it the Ben Hanten, as was suggested by someone on Friend Feed. And if you want to make it double the awesome, add two dashes of Angostura bitters.

Update: I found something somewhat similar called the Bourbon Squash over at Trader Tiki. Do yourself a favor, though: skip the sugar, make the bourbon more of a feature, and add a few dashes of bitters. That’s the Ben Hanten.

Maker’s Mark is everywhere, and so it’s weird to read a recent review about the legenday bourbon. But I’m always interested to learn more about Maker’s. You have to admire a small guy who’s made it big in the market. The small-batch, handmade bourbon clocks in at 90 proof and it’s amazing with a few ice cubes or a splash of warm water.

If you don’t have your bar fully stocked with Maker’s, buy some now. There will likely be shortages in the bourbon market. In fact my distributor has said Knob Creek is rationing shipments for the rest of the year. That’s because premium bourbons are gaining popularity, but the distilleries are ill-equipped to respond to demand spikes due to the aging process. Knob Creek is aged 9 years; Maker’s is aged between 4 and 6 years.

For a more detailed review of Maker’s Mark, see Drink Hacker.

The liquor reps bring new brands to sample all the time. I’m usually skeptical of flavored products like Bacardi Dragon Berry and the thousands of flavored vodkas. We don’t have the room to stock everything, or to tie up our money for the rare person who wants root beer flavored Three Olives vodka (yes, that’s a real offering).

BUT. When one of my reps brought samples of the new Jim Beam Red Stag, I was excited. In a nutshell, Red Stag is regular Jim Beam with some cherries thrown in for flavor at the end of distillation. It tastes great and it’s a full 80 proof (a lot of flavored vodkas and rums are 70 proof).  We went through our first bottle in a couple days and we’re beefing up our stock.

Red Stag is good with cola, but for my taste it’s better with just ice. I’ve also found that adding a small amount of sweet vermouth makes for a pretty kickass Manhattan. For a more detailed review, see Liquor Snob.