This really isn’t a cocktail, but my recent experience with Evan Williams Bottled-in-Bond with Coke, led me, naturally, to the name of this “cocktail”. So much oak…
1 oz Evan Williams Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon
3 oz Coca Cola
Ice
Place ice into glass. Pour in the bourbon. Add the Coke.
OAK!
With the Evan Williams 1783 getting low, and my mini bottle comparison proving that I don’t know beans about bourbon, I went to Reddit and a few other sites looking for low cost, much appreciated bottom shelf (or bottom adjacent) bourbons.
Repeatedly, Evan Williams Bottled-in-Bond (White Label) kept coming up. And guess what? It was on sale! So 750ml made the trip back to the lair.
You know what I smell? Corn! Imagine that! Given it’s 100 proof, I expected to have my nose burst into flame, but the alcohol wasn’t overwhelming. I can also get some oak.
Tasting it gave me sweetness, corn, and oak. And there is the alcohol! Surprisingly, it might have been less imposing than the lower proof 1783. I added ice and this helped quite a bit. I have read of people saying that they taste peanut of all things. Over ice, I swear I can taste peanut!
Hmm. So far, drinking any base spirit straight isn’t my favorite thing to do, although I keep trying! So what to do? I added it to Coke in a 1:3 ratio (1 part bourbon, 3 parts Coke). The survey says: Oak! Vanilla. Pepper. So much oak. I think I shall call it Oak-a Cola. I don’t dislike it, but the oak is very prominent. And I get a peppery heat, almost more so than an alcohol burn.
So, even if I can’t drink it straight, there are always cocktails.
Age: At least four years (a requirement for bottled-in-bond bourbons)
Proof: 100 (50% ABV)
Price: $13 for 750ml (on sale)
Buy Again: Probably (or similar)
This was a tough one. While making some cocktails with my son and his girlfriend, my son asked what kind of whiskey I had.
There was no whiskey in the cabinet, and until that point, I never intended to have whiskey anywhere near me. (If you haven’t read the intro page, now is a good time).
By this time, I had tried the Meyers’s rum, and it had reminded me of whiskey, but perhaps because of the presentation, had not turned me off to the taste.
So I went down the rabbit hole of reviews and a visit to the ABC store to snap pictures of the entire wall of whiskey, focusing (no pun intended) on the middle shelf. At this point, I discovered just how high-end whiskey had become. So, I also snapped away at the bottom shelf for reference.
I’m not a whiskey drinker, and my intention was to ALWAYS mix it. Even then, I didn’t want to settle for the bottom shelf. Strangely enough, there appears to be a fairly good opinion of some of the bottom shelf whiskey when it comes to mixing (and a few that are decent neat sippers).
I finally settled on Evan Williams. Then the challenge became a choice between the lower end Evan Williams products, and the lower middle shelf.
The online consensus was that even the bottom shelf Evan Williams bottles would work in a cocktail. But in the end I decided to go one step up to the Evan Williams 1783 Bourbon.
Update: Evan Williams 1783 has a caramel flavor with a slight spice.
Distiller: Heaven Hill
Proof: 86 (43% ABV)
Paid: $17 for 750ml
Buy Again: Yes
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