--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, david david
<davividavid@...> wrote:
>
> I haven't had much to say lately, but this topic
is
> right down my gullet:
>
> Old Overholt (or old overcoat, as afficianados
have
> affectionately nicknamed it) is a good, smooth,
light
> bodied starter rye. I actually think it works
better
> >
Once more, I'm astounded by the erudition and arcane
knowledge of this group of rare birds. I've read versions of
the history David David attributed to Bettridge before, and
assume it's accurate. But bourbon didn't replace rye in the
bars of New York when I was familiar with them. When I was a
young man around the New York bars, we used the term rye to
refer to a bunch of blended whiskeys--Imperial, Calvert,
Seagrams, and so on, (the Canadian whiskeys were call brands
but understood to be rye)---as in rye and ginger, rye and
soda, and so on. When I moved to Milwaukee and ordered a rye
and water the first time, the grumbling bartender dug around
the back shelf for about 10 minutes before fishing out a
dust-covered bottle of Old Overholt straight rye that I'd
never in my life heard of. The bar liquor in Milwaukee in
those days was brandy, as in brandy and sour, whatever the
hell that was (though it was not sour, as in whiskey sour),
and brandy and schnapps, for which a few drops of schnapps
was dribbled onto the top of a shot of brandy--a forerunner
of the shooters of later decades. Regional differences, I
guess, in that world west of the Hudson.
Con Lehane
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