Good Drinking

I was in Colorado a week ago. My friend picked me up from the airport and we drove up the steep highway right into the mountains of Summit County. I already knew that Colorado is a great place that offers some of the best of the United States. It has great outdoors, great food, great people. And great beer. But I wasn’t expecting a great Bourbon, not one that was distilled right up the street from my friend’s house.

Breckenridge Bourbon has a very smoky, smooth flavor. It is truly delicious, but with no hint of sweetness. It would be a crime to put coke in it, or even ice. It’s excellent neat and at room temperature.

Breckenridge Bourbon is distilled in, you guessed it, Breckenridge, a tiny ski town in Summit County surrounded by mountains, bike trails, vacationing Americans and the laid-back locals who serve them. The distillery is in a little warehouse on the corner of a strip mall. The first thing the guide told us on the tour was that bourbon doesn’t have to be distilled in Kentucky to be considered bourbon, even though most is. To be bourbon, the whiskey has to conform to certain guidelines about how, how long, and with what it is distilled.

The tour was took us through the little store room of aging barrels and into the back room with the big tanks and the still. The bourbon sits in the oak barrels for five years, and you can see how it soaks right through the wood. Black bourbon-goo seeps out through the seams.

The giant copper still was shiny, tall, and impressive. They also had a huge tub of pears they were going to use to make something special. And, on top of all of that, they make a very nice vodka.

Check the liquor stores in Colorado for booze from this quality distillery, and if you make it to Breckenridge then definitely check out the tour.

Tomato juice and vodka is not a Bloody Mary. Certainly not. To enjoy this drink you will need a few more ingredients, and perhaps a little experience getting the proportions right. But I can promise you that gaining this experience will be pleasurable, as long as you don't do it every single morning.

Of course vodka and tomato juice are the two main ingredients of a Bloody Mary and your only liquid ingredients, unless you want to make a Caesar, which is how they drink Bloody Marys in the Great White North, Canada. Caesars use clamato juice, a mix of tomato and clam juice – why? I don't know. Do you?

So fill a nice sized glass with ice and vodka and tomato juice in the proportion you prefer. With better vodka, you can make it stronger. I like Finlandia for well prices, but good vodka.

Then you add spices – celery salt and pepper. Why celery salt? I don't know, it's another Bloody Mary mystery, but it's better than regular salt. Shake a little of each in and stir, enough to add flavor but not dominate.

Then get some Tabasco sauce in there. You can use any hot sauce really, and as with everything else in the Bloody Mary put it in little by little to taste.

Finally, you need a stick-like garnish – usually a big dill pickle or a celery stick. I've even seen meatsticks. Wait until the end of the drink to eat it because it will absorb alcohol and taste really good.

Then put on Willie Nelson's "Bloody Mary Morning," and go out on your front porch with an ice cold beer as a chaser. I challenge any hangover to survive that.