It is far from the South’s finest drink—connoisseurs consider it a severe affront to whiskey, and ordering one in a high-end bourbon bar will yield you a bartender’s sneer if not a flat-out refusal to mix one—but it may be its most ubiquitous. It’s a tailgating staple, a lawn-mowing refreshment, a deer-camp mainstay, the nearest thing to a cocktail you’ll find in roadhouses, and, after cold beer, perhaps the second most-popular content of red Solo cups.

Moreover, it’s how generations of young Southerners discover the pleasures of whiskey—myself included, as I recall long-ago Ole Miss football games where half-pint bottles of Rebel Yell entered the stadium smuggled inside a date’s Laura Ashley dress, for spiking jumbo Cokes. There’s nothing noble about it, of course: It has none of the Kentucky pomp of a julep, or the pedigree of a Sazerac, or even the guayabera-shirted cool factor of its island cousin, the Cuba Libre. Yet still, to paraphrase the title of an Elvis album: Fifty million whiskey-and-Coke drinkers can’t be wrong. Read more.

Reengineered Bourbon 
and Coke 

Adapted from Stephen Dennison

Ingredients

For the syrup:

¼ cup Coca-Cola

¼ cup sugar

For the cocktail:

2 oz. Maker’s 46 or
 other bourbon

¼ oz. Coca-Cola syrup

2 dashes Angostura bitters

Lemon twist, to garnish

Preparation
To make the syrup, bring the Coke to a simmer in a very small saucepan. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Allow to cool, then refrigerate until ready to use.

To make the cocktail, combine bourbon, syrup, and bitters in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously, then strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon twist and serve.