🥃 Jack Daniel's

Jack Daniel's is a Tennessee whiskey brand made at a distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee (USA), and owned by the American company Brown-Forman since 1956. What sets it apart from bourbon is that the new spirit is filtered through a layer of sugar maple charcoal before going into barrels, a step known as the Lincoln County Process. The classic Old No. 7 is 40% ABV.

The founder was Jasper Newton “Jack” Daniel. The label says 1866, but his biographer Peter Krass dates the start of the business to 1875 based on registration records; even Daniel's year of birth is disputed. He was taught the craft of distilling by Nathan “Nearest” Green, an enslaved African American who became head distiller after emancipation. In 2017, Brown-Forman officially recognised Green as the brand's first master distiller.

The mash is mostly corn, with rye and malted barley; it is distilled in copper stills, and the water comes from an iron-free cave spring. Before going into the barrel, the spirit slowly trickles through about three metres of ground maple charcoal, a step the producer calls “mellowing”. The charcoal is burned at the distillery itself from stacks of maple logs. The whiskey is aged in new charred barrels made of American white oak.

A 2013 Tennessee law allows the name “Tennessee Whiskey” only for whiskey made in the state from a mash with at least 51% corn, aged in new charred oak barrels and filtered through maple charcoal. In the EU, the name has been protected as a US product since 1994. The range includes Old No. 7, Gentleman Jack, Single Barrel, Bonded (50% ABV), the rye Tennessee Rye, and the whiskey liqueurs Tennessee Honey, Fire and Apple.

Why it matters to you. Tennessee Honey, Fire and Apple are whiskey-based liqueurs, weaker and sweeter than Old No. 7. The Single Barrel label means the whiskey is bottled from a single barrel, so batches differ. The WHO reminds us that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption.