Long time readers here will know I have a mild allergic reaction to corn. (Let’s just say I need never buy Exlax again…) For this reason, Bourbon is something I tend to avoid. Similarly, beer made with corn in it has a metallic flavor to me. So most of the time I drink Scotch or Irish Whisky as it is fairly universally based on Barley.
But there is another grain. Rye. It gives a bit more spice to the flavor of the drink. Some Whiskey sold as rye has only a little rye in it, and mostly some other grain. But Bulleit 95 Rye is 95% Rye.
Bulleit Rye tasting notes
Russet in color, with rich oaky aromas. The taste is exceptionally smooth, with hints of vanilla, honey, and spice. Finish is crisp and clean, with long, lingering flavors.
90 proof (45% ABV) • 95% rye, 5% malted barley
Mostly rye, a bit of barley. No corn (maize) in sight!
For a long time, Irish coffee was a favorite of mine. But now I’m not keen on the sugar, milk, whipped cream, etc. etc. But still like coffee with a bit of a drop in it. So ordering Irish Coffee will get the wrong thing, and ordering coffee with a shot of “whiskey” in it will likely get bourbon (or it’s a crap shoot). Putting good Scotch in coffee would get me lynched in some quarters. Then there’s the variation between Islay Malt and others. Flavor will wander. What to do?
Well, I’m presently sipping a cup of black coffee with generous shot of Bulleit Rye in it. The rye stands up to the black coffee where a mild Scotch or Irish would be more hidden. It’s an ambitious drink, one with some bitter and kick in it. It reminds me of Texas, and camp coffee, with some ambition added.
I’ve done a short web search, but could find no name for a drink made of BLACK coffee with a shot of Rye Whiskey in it. So I’ve decided to christen this drink:
Texas Trailboss Coffee
Not for the sensitive palate. Yet curiously interesting. Rather like Altoids as the curiously strong mint…
Spicy without any spices. Full of flavor and rich depth. Like a “medicinal bitters” it reminds you of life. On the trail. In Texas. And, of course, only the Trail Boss gets Whiskey on the trail…
Musings from the Chiefio 
When ye’ve thundered down the trail,
Yet yer still aboot and frisky
Texas Trailboss Coffee cannae fail,
With Bulleit 95 Rye Whiskey..
[Burma Shave] :)
@Jeff:
Mikey Likey! Nicely done!
You would make a good Ben Rumson.
Woah! Jeff’s quick on the draw with the rhymes!
I never got into hard liquor. It always seemed medicinal to me. Probably because my dad used homemade cough syrup to treat my winter coughs when I was growing up. I found out when I was a teenager that it was 50-50 whiskey and honey. It shocked me.
I had never seen my parents with any kind of booze. It turned out that both their fathers had been alcoholics. So it seemed odd to me that Dad would use whiskey and honey at our house. His reasoning was that he knew what was in it; he knew how much alcohol was in it. I guess he figured over-the-counter cough syrup had too many mystery ingredients in it.
@Phil Jourdan:
And I sing about as well too!
(Lee Marvin in Paint Your Wagon…)
@Power Grab:
Well, it IS an anesthetic (works in the same way as all anesthetics, it dissolves in the fat layer of the cell way changing the thickness and thus the nerve conduction). Would help you sleep too.
Oh, and there’s a reason most hard liquors are mixed with other stuff… because generally the DO taste medicinal. Much of it, frankly, like crap. (Mediocre vodka straight comes to mind, or gin on the rocks… – anything IMPROVED by mixing with quinine “has issues” ;-)
No kidding! I never knew that.
Well, you learn something new every day. ;-)
I wonder why taking my cod liver oil at bedtime helps me sleep through the night….?
@Power Grab:
The vitamin D in it. Has all kinds of benefits.
Paint Your Wagon…My favorite musical! Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood, singin and dancin. That song of diggin in the mud and dirt for gold comes to mind every time I’m picking and shoveling in one of my excavations……….no gold yet. :-( …pg
@P.G:
Given where you are located, there is almost certainly gold in your mud. Just not enough to be worth panning or mining… I grew up running around those hills, including the odd panning and sluice operations. While most of my experience was on the Feather, some was above Chico toward Quincy. Most areas with a river fed from the Sierra Nevada would give some color in the pan. The problem was you made about 1/2 minimum wage (on the better creeks… above Oroville- named for the gold mined there and about 20 miles from Chico) The biggest benefit was you could put a mining claim on nice mountain creek front land…
“Paint your Wagon” and the second half of “Little House on the Prairie” were loosely set.here. “No Name City” or the town of “Hell” is in Butte Creek below Heaven or the town of “Paradise” We live next to where John Doe’s sawmill was on “Doe mill Ridge” to the north of “Hell Town” in Butte Creek..
Butte Creek Mining District was the richest gold placer in California. At the Forks of Butte Creek there is an very old volcanic pipe that threw the gold that eroded out and enriched the area. This was latter covered with the mud and ash debris from Mt.Tehama to the north of us. We live atop of 300 feet of those deposits that cover the ancient river bed system of gold that the later Butte Creek cut into parts of.
Wow! history and geology lessons in one comment.. ;-) …pg
Actually, from time to time I have considered prospecting on our 20 acres as a part of it appears to be an old hydraulic, likely a very poor one. Might be fun though.
8-) …pg