I’m not really feeling this. You get it. It’s been a long day at the end of a long week with a surprising number of headaches. I’m not really complaining, I’m just tired, boss. So, I am not going to pontificate about all the things wrong in the world today or try to get folks excited about all the good things out there. Nope, I’m just gonna keep my head down, nose to the grindstone and crank out a reasonable number of words before hitting post. That’s the plan, anyway. So, I beg your patience and indulgence as we stand and make JD’s Single Barrel Sweet Tea.

This drink is actually marketed by the folks from Jack Daniel’s as “The Single Barrel Sweet Tea Frappe”. However, that just does not seem right. I understand that “frappe” can be used as an adjective meaning “to serve a drink iced or chilled” but that’s not how we do things.In the actual usage as most folks know it, a frappe means you get a blender drink or at least something served over shaved ice. I am just not prepared to disappoint people looking for a frappe in order to go along with the well-balanced naming convention. They recently shared this one on social media as a way to drum up business for their Single Barrel Select line and I thought it looked interesting. I happen to have a bottle and my sweet tea loving sidekick is getting on up in years, so I figured I better go ahead and make it. 

Grab your tins and pop in 2 ounces of Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Select Whiskey, 1/2 an ounce of St. Germain Elderflower liqueur, 1 ounce of unsweetened black tea, 1 ounce of freshly squeezed lemon juice and 3/4 of an ounce of simple syrup. Add ice and give it a good shake to the beat of “Nothing Else Matters“, but skip the Metallica original and try out the new Chris Stapleton version, in a nod to this Tennessee Whiskey based drink. When frost begins to form on your tins, strain over some artisanal ice into a rocks glass. Garnish with some freshly slapped mint and an expressed lemon twist before serving.

Obviously, this is tasty as hell. It’s sweet tea with Tennessee Whiskey and that smooth St. Germain. That elderflower topnote really helps bring this one together and lift it from the mundane to the extraordinary, or something like that. It’s a good drink, easy to make, you should try it. Don’t sweat that single barrel either, this one would be just fine with your standard Old No. 7 or Gentleman Jack or some vintage Lem Motlow Sour Mash or pretty much any other libation of Lynchburgian origin.

Lots of good stuff is down that way, including my buddy Michael who celebrates a birthday this weekend. I figure he likes whiskey all right and I know he loves his sweet tea, so this one was an obvious choice. He also understands the difference between a cold drink and a frappe, so we are good there too. Yeah, I know I should have waited till tomorrow to post a drink for him, but you see, I am right busy this weekend and not likely to have a bunch of spare time for writing a whole stack of words for the seven folks who make it past the first paragraph. It’s not personal or that I don’t want to do it, I just over scheduled myself. So enjoy this one, make it and raise your glass to Grampy Mika, cause he’s getting older and grayer, though I haven’t noticed him getting significantly wiser. What can I say, we took a year off for this pandemic and he hasn’t had the benefit of my good influence on a regular basis. I love him, though, and you might as well love him too, after all it’s his big day. Stay safe, stay hydrated and stay sane, my friends.