Cabinet Meeting #2: The good old boys were drinking whiskey and rye

For the second Cabinet meeting, my friend Chris and I had the same idea: rye. We both wanted to taste rye against bourbon. The liquor stores have shelves and shelves of bourbon, but never more than 5 or 6 ryes, it seems. So he bought a bottle of Michter's, I bought a bottle of Old Overholt (on the recommendation of the good people at Beltramo's). Michter's is about $30/bottle, Old Overholt is $15. We decided to taste against Jim Beam as a standard bourbon comparison.

I did the pouring, so I knew which was which. The Michter's got the worst reviews from the others, although they may have been reacting to the slightly higher alcohol content. It was actually my favorite. Everyone agreed that they thought the Michter's was the bourbon. They liked Old Overholt best, and JB second. When I tasted blind myself, I couldn't tell which had a "rye" flavor, since they all tasted pretty different. I guess this means we'll just have to drink more ryes.

However, we did all agree that a Manhattan with orange bitters and rye was not the same as a bourbon Manhattan, and is a very excellent drink.