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Hardcore, desperate alcoholics will do whatever it takes to get alcohol in their bloodstream, even if that means drinking mouthwash. Perhaps some of them even acquire a taste for its minty flavor, and Dr. McGillicuddy's was created with this niche in mind. I cannot easily think of any other reason for the existence of a liquor that tastes exactly like mouthwash, so there you have it.
I was first introduced to Ouzo a number of years ago by an old friend, who told me a story of how his Greek boss had insisted he drink it as some sort of perverse initiation into both manhood and gainful employment. He described the effects of this rite of passage as being “like getting kicked in the face by a donkey,” and urged me to always treat Ouzo with the utmost respect. Then, of course, he poured us each a few shots of it to illustrate his point.
If you like the taste of black licorice, you might enjoy Sambuca, an Italian liquor with anise flavoring. Sambuca is a drink for a couple of old Italian cronies to sip slowly at an outdoor cafe on a long, sunny day. The traditional way to drink it is with a coffee bean floating in it. This doesn't really do anything to the flavor on its own, but if you drink the Sambuca and eat the coffee bean, it's an interesting combination.
It never fails. You tell somebody that you drank some tequila, and they ask you if you ate the worm. No, of course you did not- there is no worm in tequila, there never was, and there never will be. There is no such thing as a tequila with a worm in it.
The worm is found in some brands of mezcal. Mezcal is a Mexican type of traditional hard liquor, but it's different from tequila. According to some people, tequila is essentially a type of mezcal, not the other way around. That doesn't change the fact, though, that no one ever puts a worm in the tequila. The worm is only found in some brands of mezcal from the Oaxaca area.
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Other than my inexplicable (even to myself) fondness for Johnny Jump-Ups, I have always been a purist when it comes to whisky- you don't put anything in it if you want to be able to call yourself a serious whisky drinker. I do realize that this rule is much less enforceable when it comes to bourbon- in fact, I've had to start adding ice to my bourbon in recent years because it gives me stomach pains if I don't. But on single malt I have held the line.
Some people prefer bourbon whiskey, and some prefer Scotch. Some people like Irish whisky, and if you were lost in the Arctic circle you might drink Canadian. Some people will only drink single malt, the crème de la crème of Scotch whiskies. I personally believe that there are different whiskies for different moods, and this is ultimately a subjective affair.
With apologies to the real Puritans- who actually enjoyed a good drink in moderation- the tendency to be what people call “puritanical” about alcohol is a peculiar type of delusional thinking. Why do I say delusional? Because aggressively sober people are absolutely convinced that avoiding alcohol is healthier and cleaner, in the absence of overwhelming and consistent evidence to the contrary.
If you've ever had the thought that some Southerners are a little bit too obsessed with the Civil War, try visiting rural Western Pennsylvania. It's a beautiful place, but that's just the icing on the cake. If you ask around you'll probably find someone who's still obsessed with the Whiskey Rebellion!
My theory is that everyone has one “evil drink,” the drink that functions like Dr. Jekyll's potion and turns an otherwise convivial drinker into Mr. Hyde. My evil drink is vodka.
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The bourbon whiskey distilling tradition is supposed to derive from the Scots-Irish of Appalachia, but Jim Beam Bourbon Whiskey is actually the product of a German family. They were called the Boehms, but they changed the spelling to “Beam” when they hit Kentucky.
Read more about The Beam Family