Old Elk is FINALLY Ready!!

The time has finally come - the Old Elk Single Barrel that we picked with two of our very own Whiskey Noobs Crew members, and alongside Brandon from Whiskey Weather, is nearly ready to release! The release will begin with paid members of the Patreon this Thursday, the 16th. You can find all of the information on the release in this post!

Know the Terms - Neat, Straight, and Up

When I first got into whiskey, I was always worried about how I should order it at a bar. I knew that “neat” was what I wanted, but I also heard people say “straight” most of the time. When the time came to order a glass of Wild Turkey 101 at my local bar, I panicked and said straight. A few minutes later, I received a glass of Wild Turkey 101… on ice. It wasn’t what I wanted, but I couldn’t blame the bartender - after all, what I ordered didn’t make any sense. Let’s break down these 3 terms, shall we?

Neat: First and foremost, we have the word that I should have used. Ordering a liquor “neat” means that you want the bartender to take the room temperature bottle sitting behind the bar, pour it into a glass, and hand you that glass. This is as simple as it gets.

Straight Up (or just “Up”): This one does NOT mean what I thought it meant when I was 21. “Straight Up” sounds like it means the same thing as “neat.” I mean, when we want someone to tell us the truth with no bending or twisting, we ask them to tell us “straight up.” When the subject changes from honesty to ordering spirits, however, the definition changes. Ordering a whiskey “straight up” means you want the bartender to pour it into a shaker with some ice, shake it up to chill it, and then strain the cold, diluted whiskey into a glass. This can also be abbreviated to just “up.”

Straight: This one is a weird one. These days, because people keep using it, it kinda sorta means “neat.” Except… it was never meant to. I suspect that people started saying this because they were confusing the term “straight whiskey” with the drink order “straight up”… all the while thinking that it meant “neat.” If that sounds confusing, it’s because it is. We just talked about what “straight up” means, but “straight whiskey” is something different entirely. “Straight” is actually a legal term that is often used to tell you something about a whiskey. For example, in the case of bourbon, a “bourbon whiskey” can only be labeled a “straight bourbon whiskey” if it is aged for at least 2 years. To make a long story short… when I ordered my whiskey “straight,” it didn’t actually mean anything of substance. However, because the term is being used so often to mean “neat,” some bartenders will view the term as interchangeable with “neat.” In my opinion, it is best to just avoid the confusion and say “neat.”

That’s all for now! If you want to access reviews of every bottle that I am sent for review, weekly vlogs, and more, check out the Whiskey Noobs Crew, hosted on Patreon!