Pre-Prohibition dentists (and plenty of others) loved this spicy cousin to bourbon. Now it’s getting its old-timey mojo back.

Baby, it’s cold outside. Isn’t it nice, then, that spicy rye whiskey has been making a comeback for several years now? asks Incisal Edge spirits columnist Lauren Mowery in the magazine’s winter edition.

“In truth, it’s been a long way back, but rye wasn’t always a dusty, back-shelf has-been. It was America’s most popular pre-Prohibition whiskey, forming the base of such classic cocktails as the Vieux Carré and the Manhattan. Until 1919, Pennsylvania and Maryland dominated U.S. production, but the 18th Amendment effectively killed farm distilleries, and with them the rye tradition.

You can thank America’s resurgent cocktail culture for the rye revival; bartenders seeking classic recipes and tools outside the standard bourbon box have nudged the spirit forward. Compared to corn-based bourbon, rye tastes less sweet and far spicier, with flavors of clove, nutmeg and black pepper. “

Read on as Mowery presents four to “put you in high spirits — whatever the mercury outside” : https://viewer.zmags.com/publication/471081a8#/471081a8/82