The Great Whiskey Debate: Scotch v Bourbon

Last night it was the Scots vs the Yanks at The Great Whiskey Debate. Hosted by Beam Global Spirits & Wine and Agraria Farmers & Fishers to benefit Operation Homefront, lucky attendees like myself got to sample whiskey cocktails, sip single malt scotches and taste Kentucky's finest bourbon.

My deepest experience in this debate was my Kentucky grandmother giving me whiskey, lemon & honey for a cough... or possibly an FSU game day cocktail mixed with Diet Coke.

Taking the time to smell, experience and taste each of the whiskeys gave me a much greater understanding of what I prefer. Some that I thought had too strong an alcohol scent actually went down quite smooth.

Here is the Farmers & Fisher's mixologist's original recipe for my favorite (and the one pictured above):

Farmer Jon
2 oz Knob Creek
½ oz curacao
¾ lemon juice
½ oz simple syrup

Preparation: Place ingredients in a mixing glass, fill with ice and shake. Strain into a sugar-rimmed old-fashioned glass filled with ice. Garnish with an orange zest.

Those of you who followed my live Twitter feed that night probably got TOO much information. Thanks for talking back to me and sharing your stories too!

PS. With all of the uproar about the Founding Farmers article in the Washington Post, I have to say that the servers at their sister restaurant were quite precise about sourcing ingredients. Trust me, I was asking A LOT of questions.