Enjoyed: Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Listed on the menu: Yes, as ” Barrel-aged Old Fashioned”

Ingredients: Last Feather Rye Cask Strength Single Barrel Rye whiskey, orange bitters, cherry liqueur

The occasion: Since we had family gatherings in Indiana and Illinois on two consecutive weekends, Husband, Daughter, and I filled the in-between days with outings and trips down the proverbial Memory Lane. On this Wednesday, we toured Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Samara House in West Lafayette in the morning, then walked around the campus of Purdue University, Husband’s alma mater, in the early afternoon. (I found this stop to be particularly poignant since Husband is retiring in a matter of weeks, so we paid homage to the place his career began.) We then drove north to see the lake house once owned by my in-laws, and then drove even further north to Three Oaks, Michigan, a quaint little town that Husband visited regularly during the summers of his childhood. Husband remembered that a factory from the 1800s had been converted to a distillery and a restaurant, so we had to check it out.

My rating: ***** out of 5. I had sampled Journeyman straight-up on previous trips to Indiana, so I did not want a flight, but instead a hand-crafted cocktail from the source. The menu offered four different Old Fashioneds, but I selected the most premium one made with barrel-aged rye. This cocktail appealed to me on so many levels. The presentation was spot-on, the color was jewel-like, the scent was spicy yet fruity, but the best was the rich mouth-feel, like toffee with cream and cinnamon. I was initially vary of the high proof of the rye, which sometimes overwhelms my palate, but happily the rye played well with the other ingredients. So delightful!

Final thoughts: The names of the spirits (like “Last Feather Rye” and “Corsets, Whips & Whiskey”) produced at this distillery are a nod to the history of the factory, which used the quills of domestic fowl to make “featherbone” stays for corsets (versus fragile whalebone), as well as buggy whips. We also learned that the the factory owner was a staunch prohibitionist–the irony! And I also have been thinking about corsets in general, about why they were such a profitable venture, and about whether they were indeed less comfortable than today’s shapewear for women.