my lucky day

I have two stories today, showcasing how lucky I've been.

First, my flight from Seattle to Houston was delayed and got off the ground late.  (No, that is not the lucky part). I was originally going to have about a 50 minute layover- usually just enough time to get off the plane, go to the bathroom, pick up some food and get back on the plane.  Well, because of my late flight, I only had 10 minutes between the flight arrival and my next flight's departure.  I arrived in the E terminal, rushed off the plane, as did others trying to make their flights, and looked quickly at the tv screen to find the gate for my next flight.  Well, what do you know...I arrived at Gate E12 and the next flight was leaving out of Gate E15.  All I had to do was walk across the hallway!  How fabulous.  Of course, no time for bathroom breaks, but I was just happy to have made the flight.

Got to the hotel, checked-in, got my conference registration materials, and went to my room.  Went out to dinner at Mr. B's with a colleague.  Shared a crabcake for an appetizer (yum!), had bacon wrapped shrimp and grits for my dinner (double yum), and bread pudding for dessert (yum, but the one I made for new year's at home was better...if I do say so).

Headed back to the hotel (the Astor Crowne Plaza Hotel), and saw that the hotel lobby bar is called the "Bourbon House."  Well, given my post yesterday I couldn't help but belly up to the bar and check out their bourbon collection.  They claim it is the most extensive bourbon collection in New Orleans.  I don't know if that is the case, but they do have an amazing collection.  They didn't have the "Corner Creek" I wanted to try, but they did have Basil Hayden's, which Peter C. recently reminded me about.  So, I asked for some Basil Hayden's.  They bartender said he likes to serve it neat with a separate glass of ice so you can add as much or as little ice as you want.  So, I tried the Basil Hayden's.  It was really nice and smooth-but still with that kentucky bourbon kick--quite good.  We struck up a conversation about bourbon.  He told me about a banana pancake drink he made at home with some Knob Creek, brown sugar simple syrup, dark chocolate bitters (or something like that) and bananas--all shaken up and emulsified and he said it was delicious.  Sounds yummy to me.  He also told me about a whiskey sour he used to make at his old job that was a Basil Hayden's whiskey sour.

Okay, so that was lucky in a way--lucky to have such a bourbon collection in my own hotel.  But the real luckiness came from the rest of the story.  I asked the bartender about Booker's and Baker's--two other bourbons made by the same distillery as basil hayden's (and knob creek for that matter).  He brought the 2 bottles over to me and gave me a look at the bottles and went off to help other customers.  I sat looking at the bottles, and then when he came by again, I asked him if I could take the lids off and smell the Booker's and Baker's.  He said sure, and then said I could even have a little taste of each and gave me 2 clean glasses. So, there I was, with my glass of Basil Hayden's- neat, and a bottle of Booker's, Baker's, and two empty glasses.  I felt funny opening the bottles and pouring myself a little taste, but I went ahead and did it--I wasn't going to waste my lucky day.  I poured the tiniest bit into each glass.  Booker's is something like 128 proof and it tastes like it--strong stuff.  It had good flavor, but it seems like you would only drink Booker's if you were trying to get drunk or something.  Not for me.  The Baker's had a nice nose to it and was pretty tasty too.  It has a higher proof than many Bourbons- I think it was around 100 proof.  Still strong but a little more mellow.  So, I got to taste three really good bourbon whiskeys for about eight bucks plus tip.  LUCKY!

So, I'm sitting there, having my own little impromptu tasting, when the bartender brings me about 1/5 of a glass of whiskey sour.  Apparently, someone else ordered a whiskey sour and the bartender suggested he use Basil Hayden's which the customer approved of.  After he was done pouring the customer's drink, I guess he poured what was left in his shaker into this glass for me.  Totally unexpected.  However, I much prefer my bourbon neat or on the rocks to a whiskey sour.  I could barely appreciate the good whiskey in it.

So, I told the bartender that I had to go to my room because I had to be up ridiculously early (at least my time), for meetings in the morning, but I said I might come down tomorrow night and try a different bourbon.  He told me to hang on for a minute then he went into the back room.  He came back out with a little booklet that said "Bourbon House - New Orleans Bourbon Society (NOBS)", with 47 different bourbons listed.  As you taste different bourbons you get a stamp and when you taste all 47 you become a "Master Taster" and your name is forever immortalized on a plaque in the Bourbon House.  As a member of NOBS, you get a complimentary pour of the featured bourbon of the month.  He gave me this little booklet, stamped my "Baker's, Basil Hayden's and Booker's" and said that now I could come back for a free taste tomorrow night.  He said he wouldn't be working  (so it wasn't just that he was flirting or something), and that they were tasting a bourbon this month called "Heaven Hill" (I think).   So, looks like my luck might run over into tomorrow night as well!

kentucky bourbon

For those who don't know, I am a fan of Kentucky Bourbon.  I'm not sure where it came from, although those sips of mom and dad's manhattans when I was younger probably played into it a bit.  I've tried scotch and don't like it as much as bourbon.

When I was in Louisville last summer for a work conference, I got to do a few bourbon tastings on the Urban Bourbon Trail.  I think I might have blogged about it--been so long I can't remember, and I'm too lazy to go back and look. :)

I can never remember the differences between whiskey types.  I found this glossary, which is very helpful for understanding some of the differences. I look at it now and find the "definitions" interesting, but I'm sure I won't remember the differences later.  Sitting around the lunch table at work a couple weeks ago, we started talking about whiskey.  One of the people there who is a die-hard scotch drinker did not want to believe that scotch is actually a whiskey.  She said she doesn't drink whiskey because it is so low-class(!), so scotch can't be whiskey.  We hated to break it to her, but scotch is a kind of whiskey...made with mostly barley (instead of corn or other mash).  Her comment made a few of us want to cringe --I guess I am low-class (in her eyes at least).  If drinking bourbon means I'm low class, I guess I'm fine with that.

Anyway, while I was in Louisville, I got to see menus full of bourbon brands- many of which I had never heard of before.  I tried some new ones: Rowan's Creek, Pappy Van Winkle, Noah's Mill, Kentucky Vintage, and Old Forester Signature, and some old ones: Woodford Reserve, Maker's Mark, Knob Creek (Knob Creek is my least favorite of the three).  I saw a few bourbons that had yummy descriptions (Buffalo Trace and Corner Creek).  I wrote down their names, just in case I happened to find them on a drink menu or even at the liquor store some day.  But I didn't really expect to find these bourbons in Washington state.  At David's office holiday party this year, his boss, who knows I am a bourbon fan, was telling us about this new bourbon he bought that he really likes.  "What is it called?" I said.  "Buffalo Trace," he said.  Huge audible inhale of breath by me, surprise on my face: "No Way!  Where did you find it?"  He said he found it at the liquor store, down on one of the lower shelves.  He gave me a glass of the Buffalo Trace at the party, so I knew I would enjoy having more of it at home.  I was so shocked.  I don't go to the liquor store often, but we had to make a special trip to get a bottle of this.  And then once we got to the liquor store, we saw another bourbon we wanted to try, so we came home with two different bottles on that trip.

This new bottle of Buffalo Trace led to a special bourbon tasting at my house over the holidays.  David and I were the only attendees, but we had a good time. We tasted 4 different bourbons- two new ones, and two bottles that were already in our cabinet.  We did this almost a month ago, so my memory has faded on the details, but I still remember the big impressions, which I will share with you below.

Woodford Reserve and Maker's Mark are the standby's in our liquor cabinet.  The new ones were the Buffalo Trace and the new Maker's 46--the first new bourbon Maker's Mark has come out with in over 50 years.  I'll go through them from left to right, and reveal our favorites at the end.

Woodford Reserve:
When I was in Louisville, I did a tasting with someone from my office.  She prefers Irish Whiskey, but was willing to try some bourbon.  After tasting 6 different kinds, she said that Woodford Reserve was her favorite and she would consider drinking it, although irish whiskey would still be her first choice.
I taste a bit of caramel in this- a mellow sweetness (not truly sweet, but you know what I mean).  A really good nose.

Buffalo Trace:
This has really nice notes of vanilla.

Maker's Mark:
The classic bourbon.  I think this was the first bourbon whiskey I ever tried, and I really liked the brown sugar-ey undertones to it, so I've been drinking it ever since.

Maker's 46:
This bourbon did have the oak-ey flavor that it promised.  It also had hints of caramel and vanilla.

All in all, I thought the Woodford Reserve and Maker's 46 smelled the most similar and the most yummy.  I think the Buffalo Trace was more vanilla-ey than the others.  And, truthfully, the classic Maker's Mark became a bit less shiny with this stellar company.  Having tasted these four bourbons together, I don't think I'll buy Maker's Mark anymore (Sorry, Matt T.).  I'd rather drink one of the other three.  David said that his two favorites were the Woodford Reserve and the Buffalo Trace.  He said both were about on the same level for him.  I think my favorite is still Woodford Reserve, but I also like and enjoyed the Buffalo Trace and Maker's 46.

It was a fun little experiment-like a wine tasting, but more "low-class"  :)

the veil of ignorance

David shared this idea with me--I don't think I had ever heard of it before (although it certainly has similarities to the golden rule) and I think it is really cool and would do a lot toward changing public policy in this country.

Paul Krugman puts the idea into his own words, "We should try to create the society each of us would want if we didn't know in advance who we'd be."

The idea originally comes from John Rawls.  If society was completely changed, and we stood behind a curtain, not knowing whether we would be poor, rich, smart, less smart, male, female, which race we would be--how would we design that society, standing behind the veil of ignorance?  I'm not doing a good job of explaining this, I think.  Let's try using someone else's words...

Here is some text from the Wikipedia article on the concept of Veil of Ignorance.
"It is a method of determining the morality of a certain issue (e.g. slavery) based upon the following principle: imagine that societal roles were completely re-fashioned and redistributed, and that from behind the veil of ignorance, one does not know what role they will be reassigned. Only then can one truly consider the morality of an issue....Since one may occupy any position in the society, once the veil is lifted, this theory encourages thinking about society from the perspective of all members."

I am convinced that some of the policy decisions in congress right now (Hello!  Revoking health care?! ) would not be taking place if each one of those people stood behind the veil of ignorance and considered the issue.  Unfortunately, I think many folks would have a hard time setting aside their well worn ideologies to consider a completely refashioned society. 

It makes me sad that people are so selfish, only considering how something will affect them in their current situation.