LAWRENCEVILLE, Georgia — Bourbon is one of the hottest libations of recent years. But talk to anyone who knows, and they’ll say there are a few traps drinkers, no matter how seasoned, will fall into.
Theo Rutherford, a Bib & Tucker Bourbon whiskey expert, spoke with Sightseers’ Delight during Big Green Egg’s EGGtoberfest at Coolray Field about the mistakes whiskey connoisseurs make when drinking or buying.
“The one main mistake that people make —and one of the big reasons that people sit there and go, ‘I don’t like whiskey because of the whiskey burn’ — is when you sip whiskey — sip anything for that matter — what you’re doing is you are taking oxygen away from your body,” Rutherford said.
“So your body automatically wants to breathe in the second you take your sip,” Rutherford added. “What happens, though, is all the alcohol vapors are trapped [at the back of your throat]. So when you breathe in, that’s where all the alcohol vapors go, and that’s what causes the whiskey burn, or what we call the Tennessee hug.”
Drinkers who breathe out immediately can avoid the whiskey burn, Rutherford said.
“A lot of people say, I don’t like whiskey because it’s too hot,” Rutherford said. “Well, it’s not that it’s too hot. You just need to breathe out first, and your bodies are accustomed to that.
For any number of reasons, some whiskey drinkers feel the need to align their habits with others’ expectations. But bourbon is a personal choice, and what works for one drinker may not work for another.
“The other mistake with drinking is people judge how other people drink whiskey,” Rutherford added. People ask, “‘Should I drink it on rocks? Should I drink it with water [or] with Coke?’
“I don’t care. All I ask you to do is taste it the way that it is first, and then decide from there, just because this is how we intended for it to taste, this is what we worked to do,” Rutherford added. “And then after that, if you want to put ice in it, you want to put water in it, you want to put Dr Pepper in it, I truly do not care. But just taste our work first, then decide for yourself, and then enjoy it.”
It’s not just drinkers who make missteps. Whiskey buyers also make mistakes.
“Where the buying is concerned, I think people put too much pressure on themselves,” Rutherford said. “And I think people assume that more expensive means better. It doesn’t.
“There’s some really good whiskeys out there that are $15, and there’s really bad ones that are [$]400,” Rutherford added. “So it’s putting way too much pressure. People chase bottles at this point. Look, we [have] a couple exclusive things if they want to chase, great. For me, if you find what you like, don’t necessarily stick with it, but make sure you always have a bottle at home.”
