Arizona republican., 1902-03-01
JUDGING WHISKY
How Man Was Able to Name Three
 Brands While Blindfolded

Funny, isn't it." said an expert taster of tea, who is employed in one of New York's largest importing houses. that whiskey drinker like our friend here could not. to save his life. tell the grade and brand of liquor he takes af- ter he has had two drinks?"
 'Oh. yes. I can.'' replied the gentle man addressed. and what is more. | can tell the brands of more than two kinds of whiskey and can do so with absolute certainty"
 Bet you can't" said the tea man.
 Bet I -can," said the liquor expert. And finally they put up a substantial wager on the outcome of the dispute, which was conditioned about like this:
 The liquor expert was to distinguish between three kinds of liquor and name the brand of each. He was to drink the liquor blindfolded. and was to have the privilege of selecting the three kinds of whiskey to be used in the test. He selected a well known brand of rye whiskey and an equally well known brand of bourbon. both being case goods. and as the third grade he picked the bar liquor dispensed in the place. He was blindfoIded and the bartender poured out a drink of each of the Nhis- keys and placed them upon the bar. The expert picked up the first glass and applied it to his nose. then tipped it skyward and drained it. That was the case bourbon he said. The next glass was correctly pronounced to be the bar whiskey and the final drink, of course. was the case rye. He won his bet and the tea man had to own that he was beaten. The money was paid and the tea man turned to the liquor man and said:
 How on earth did you do it?''
 Just as simple as shooting fish in barrel" said the lucky winner. You see. it. is not very difficult to distin- guish between rye and bourbon, if you have not been drinking" he explained. The taste and the smell of the two varieties are distinctive, and even novice can tell them apart. Now, I realize as well as my friend from New York that after taking two drinks no man on earth can tell one kind from the other with enough certainty to name the brands. You see, I rather took advantage of him when I claimed that I could tel more than two brands and We settled upon three. For if could tell the two first drinks I took the other one must of necessity be the third, and so it is as easy to tell three kinds as it is two.'
 
 care if you know, now that the bet has been decided. As l said before, the difference between rye and bourbon whiskey is enough to announce itself to any one who is at all familiar with liquor, provided he has not been drink ing immediately before the test. Now, you noticed that I picked out case rye and bourbon, and the liquor served over this bar is also rye. Now, the diff ference between the bar rye and the case bourbon would be easy enough to distinguish, but q person would nat urally think that if l had to pick be- tween the two rye whiskeys I would have been up against it. Well, I took that chance, because it is against, eth ics to wager money on any proposition where the other fellow hasn't chance. But when all is all said and done I did not run any desperate risk. The req son l was so certain of my ability to pick out the three brands lay in the fact that l noticed that the bar whis- key was kept on the ice all the time, while the case goods came from back of the counter, and the liquor contained in the bottles on the shelves was con siderably higher in temperature than that contained in the rye wniskey dis pensed over the bar. I have been around enough to know the difference between rye and bourbon, and when smelled of the first glass of liquor and found that it was bourbon, l knew from my sense of smell alone that it must be the case bourbon. because the other varieties selected for the test were rye liquor. The second glass did not present any difficulty either. for my sense of touch told me that the glass was 20 degrees colder than the one l had just set down, and must of