Drunk Like A Hero

Drunk Like A Hero

From Oliver LaFarge's magnificent short story, "Spud and Cochise."

"Spud knew the form of those bottles from dim memory. Four Eye Monongahela, liquor so good even barkeeps can't help drinking it, so rare that only twice in his life had he ever tasted it. Two bottles! Just thinking about them, he felt the springs of his old youth welling inside him. It's so long since I really been drunk, he thought, drunk like a hero."

"The perfume of the Four Eye Monongahela, its full flavor and its great strength pervaded them, filling them out, penetrating to their finger tips. They felt good-will toward mankind, they were elevated, their powers increased, and their minds clarified."

Originally shared by Alex Scrivener

Monongahela (MO-non-gah-HEEL-a) is a rye whiskey distilled in and around southwestern Pennsylvania and northwestern Maryland, typically within barging distance of the Monongahela River. (Geography refresher: the Monongahela flows northward from Virginia and, via tributaries, from Maryland into Pittsburgh, where it merges with the Allegheny to become the Ohio River.) The rye made in this region long had a reputation for being bigger, spicier and “chewier” than other, softer ryes historically made elsewhere, and was certainly more assertive than the corn whiskey associated with distilleries that cropped up as settlers moved west.

Old Monongahela has also, until recently, had the reputation of being non-existent. Chasing after it was like chasing after a ghost: A few descendants of original producers persisted (Rittenhouse, Old Overholt, Hochstadter’s), but all had been acquired by bigger producers and production uprooted to outside the region. You could call these “Nongahela” ryes—the same in name but not necessarily in style or flavor.
http://punchdrink.com/articles/pennsylvania-maryland-whiskey-best-rye-eastern-america-back-from-extinction/

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