Mr Sippy: Cocktails on a rye high
Anybody who pays attention to their booze will understand the type of alcohol you drink can be as subject to the fickle whims of trend as food or fashion. While it's impossible to imagine drinks such as Tia Maria or Midori (or its evil banana-flavoured cousin Lena) ever being considered ''on trend'', whisky (that's whiskey in the US, Canada and Ireland), gin, rum, tequila and vodka vary as to whether they are hot or not.
Gin is hot at the moment, with a slew of new labels and the sudden, welcome expansion of choice in tonic waters beyond generic brands and Schweppes. But with colder weather on its way and Prohibition-era cocktails still holding their own among fashionably enlightened barflies, those who want something delicious and ''of the moment'' should try rye.
Rye is an American whiskey that exists because Scottish and Irish immigrants to the United States, who brought their love of whiskey with them, couldn't get their hands on enough barley - their grain of choice - to make it worth their while so turned to the more abundant rye. Made with a mash (milled grain and water) that has to be at least 51 per cent rye grain, the resulting whiskey is aged in charred-oak barrels for at least two years and ends up a little like bourbon but drier, less sweet, fruitier and more complex.
It's been tricky to get rye whiskey in Australia and so local versions of cocktails invented for, and traditionally made with, rye have until fairly recently had to settle for bourbon. Not that there's anything wrong with (good) bourbon. It's just that if you're drinking a Manhattan (perhaps one of mankind's greatest inventions alongside the martini and penicillin) you want the real version. That includes - with the sweet vermouth, dash of bitters and maraschino cherry garnish - a good rye whiskey.
It's a similar story with the Old Fashioned (rye whiskey, a sugar cube, Angostura bitters and a dash of water served over ice and garnished, if at all, with orange peel). Made with rye, the Old Fashioned expertly constructed is a sublime drink, masculine but not macho and bound to make you feel more sophisticated.
But the rye drink for those truly wanting to walk the aficionado path right here, right now is the Sazerac. The official cocktail of New Orleans (decreed by the Louisiana Legislature in 2008) and with 150 years of history, the Sazerac was originally made with cognac (and still can be), but the mix of an absinthe-washed glass, a little sugar syrup, a few dashes of bitters - preferably Peychaud's if you can lay your hands on it - and a twist of lemon peel is sublime with rye.
