Home Brewed Bacon Bourbon - Double Trouble with the Japonize Elephants

Today's edition of One Woman, One Beer is about a distant cousin of beer: the whiskey--the other grain beverage. Attending a Japonize Elephants show at the Bottom of the Hill in SF, One Woman was handed a glass of Bacon Bourbon by Wasabi-T Fab (aka the smokin' accordion player chick in the cowboy hat) of the group.

Wasabi-T knows she has a genius idea in her hand

Bacon Bourbon, a homemade concoction by Wasabi-T, is Bulleit Bourbon infused with apple-smoked bacon. That's all there is to it. A novelty, for sure, and a damn fine one. A good part of the bacon lingers in the smell, the initial encounter with this mysterious dark golden potion. Because the fat is frozen off and removed in the infusion process, the blended product has a clean, bright taste, with a bacon flavor sure to catch your attention but not by overpowering everything else.  It sips much smoother than a regular whiskey, and salt from the bacon cuts the heat of the alcohol, bringing out its sweetness.

Add dark chocolate (which, somehow, magically appeared on scene) as a pairing , and you get a whole new set of sensory relations. The taste of cacao suddenly jumps out brightly, amplified and almost caramelized by the salty vanilla of the bourbon.

The musical pairing, needless to say, is the romping but oddly articulated blue-grass/Baltic punk of the Japonize Elephants, who play songs with names like "Bob's Bacon Barn Train Bacon Grass Special" and "Whiskey Willie." Now, stop staring at your computer and get out your dancing shoes.