Bourbon

America's native spirit by act of Congress: a corn-rich whiskey aged in brand-new charred oak, tasting of vanilla, caramel and frontier sunshine. Ingredients: a mash of at least 51% corn (the rest rye, wheat and malted barley), limestone-filtered Kentucky water, yeast. Method: 1) Ferment and distill the sweet corn mash. 2) Age in new, charred oak barrels — the char cracks the wood and gives bourbon its color and its vanilla-caramel soul; by law the barrels are used only once. 3) Serve neat, over one large ice cube, or in a classic cocktail. The experience: sweet corn up front, then caramel, vanilla, baking spice and warm oak. History: Kentucky's distillers — many of Scots-Irish descent — built bourbon along the Ohio River in the late 1700s; in 1964 Congress declared it “a distinctive product of the United States.”