Far be it from us to tell you how to do anything. The subject of this post is not dichotomous. THERE IS NO WRONG WAY TO DRINK WHISKEY. As with many things pertaining to human sensory, each individual must decide for himself what is pleasing. So therein is our first and only rule: Imbibe in the way that brings you the greatest immediate satisfaction. This is supposed to be fun. Let’s have fun shall we?
Now we have that out of the way, let us explore the differences in drinking and enjoying whiskey. You could search the whiskey blogs and forums for days and find folks on each end of the spectrum discussing how they prefer to drink their whiskey. On one end we have the self-described purists who tout ‘No water. No ice. Nothing at all.” On the other end we have folks who only enjoy ‘brown spirits’ when mixed with soda water and a lime. To be honest, we are much more suspicious of the former than the latter. To everything their is a season. A time to shoot. A time to drink ‘neat’. A time for ‘straight up’. A time for ‘rocks’. And sure, even a time for whiskey and soda or a cocktail. Drink what you like without apology.
The important thing to remember here is that their is an established lexicon at the bar. It’s one thing to know what you want. It’s another thing to communicate that to your server, bartender, mixologist, etc. Here is your “How to Order a Drink” primer from DrinkYourWhiskey.com:
- Straight Up (or Up) – a drink that is shaken or stirred with ice and then strained and served without ice in a stemmed glass
- Neat – a single, unmixed spirit served without being chilled and without any water, ice, or other mixer
- One the Rocks – a spirit poured over ice cubes
Neat drinks and rocks drinks are most often served in a rocks glass (aka old-fashioned glass or lowball). There is substantial confusion in the usage of “neat”, “straight up”, “straight”, and “up”. In the context of describing ways of serving a drink, all of these mean “served without ice”, but some bar patrons and bartenders use them inconsistently.
When ordering a whiskey and mixer (eg water, soda, etc), you’ll always be served whiskey + mixer + ice, though we’ve found the ratios of these components vary widely from region to region. Down south, the most diluted you will find a whiskey & soda is a 1:1 mix. It’s not uncommon to find this pushing a 3:1 or 4:1 mix of whiskey and coke respectively if the barkeep is familiar with your preference. Furthermore, you will most likely find this concoction served in a rocks or double rocks glass in the south. Most every other region in the US, you will find the strongest whiskey & coke to be a 1:1 mix, though more commonly served in reversed proportion than the South and presented in a highball.
In summary, we’ve learned not to let anyone boss you around. To paraphrase MC Hammer’s “Addams Groove”, do what you want to do, say what you want to say, live how you want to live, play how you want to play. Yes, only you know how you enjoy your whiskey. Now, you know how to properly convey that someone preparing it for you. To end on a challenging note… It is said the only constant in life is change. Our tastes change over time. What you may have craved in your 20s may be much less gratifying in your 30s and so on. How else could you monitor these changes if you’re always drinking the same thing prepared the same way? We encourage you to change things up from time to time. You may even want to consider a tasting from time to time.