Mr sippy: Whisky 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, gin, rum, tequila and vodka are subject to an ongoing assessment as 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 whisky that exists because Scottish and Irish immigrants to the US who brought their love of whisky 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 whisky 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 whisky 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 version includes - with the sweet vermouth, dash of bitters and maraschino cherry garnish - a good rye whisky.
It's a similar story with the Old Fashioned (rye whisky, a sugar cube, Angostura bitters and a dash of water served over ice and garnished, if at all, with a slither of 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 adult and 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(decreed by the Louisiana Legislature in 2008) and with a century and a half of recorded history, the Sazerac was originally made with cognac (and still can be), but the mix of an absinthe-washed glass, a little sugar syrup, a few dashes of bitters - preferably Peychaud's if you can lay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.
