Here's to Bourbon!

When Christmas rolls around, it's time for a Manhattan cocktail! There's just something about bourbon whiskey that reminds me of the holidays. It might be the smell; it might be the taste. Bourbon is always used to "embellish" fruitcake, which I love...not the kind described as a door stop, or brick, but the beautiful cake I know from my Mom's kitchen. No colored fruit here, but the wonderful assortment of raisins, dates, figs, orange and lemon peel, pecans or walnuts. Then aged to perfection! Yumm!

But the taste of a Manhattan conjures up holiday parties, presents glittering under the tree, friends gathered around a fireplace or at a festive table, the icy cold on one's face as one ventures out to shop!

So I looked up "bourbon" and found that, as a whiskey, it is a type of American whiskey, aged in barrels, made from primarily corn. Deriving its name from the French Bourbon dynasty, it has been produced since the 18th Century. This particular whiskey was not truly called "bourbon" until the 1870's in American, and interestingly enough, it was in 1964 that a resolution of the US Congress declared bourbon to be a "distinctive product of the US."

At left a painting of the French Bourbons! Can't you just picture them with low-ball glass in hand, enjoying their Manhattan, and if that little kid behaves herself, she just might be the recipient of the tasty, coveted Maraschino cherry! Ha Ha