Tennesse Whiskey

Before it is barrelled, new spirit is dripped slowly through a deep bed of charcoal made from burnt sugar maple. Producers burn stacked ricks of maple down to charcoal, grind it, and pack it into vats that can stand several metres deep. The charcoal strips out some of the heavier compounds and leaves a softer, sweeter spirit with a faint sootiness underneath. It takes days rather than minutes, and the bed has to be replaced as it loses its effect. The name comes from the Tennessee county where the practice is said to have started, although those boundaries have since changed.

Tennessee law requires whiskey sold under the state name to be produced in Tennessee, to meet the federal requirements for bourbon, and to be filtered through maple charcoal before ageing. An exemption is written in for one long established producer that does not use the process. The statute is far more recent than most people expect. Federal rules do not list Tennessee whiskey as a type of its own: it is labelled under the federal whisky class, and its separate standing comes from the state statute and from trade agreements rather than from the federal standards of identity.

Most Tennessee whiskey does meet every requirement for bourbon, so the word could legally appear on the label. Producers choose otherwise, because the state name and the charcoal step are the point of difference. Trade agreements have also recognised Tennessee whiskey as a distinct product of the United States. The practical answer is that it is bourbon with an extra process and a different name on the front.

Set beside a bourbon of similar age, Tennessee whiskey usually tastes rounder and less sharp, with the grain and the rye spice pushed further back. Some drinkers pick up a dry, ashy note under the vanilla. The charcoal adds no colour and no age of its own. Everything the whiskey gains in colour still comes from the new charred oak barrel that follows.

It holds up in a tall glass with cola or ginger ale, and the sweetness means you need less mixer than you might assume. Neat, it rewards a splash of water.

No. Producers differ in mash bill, in barrel entry strength and in how they run the charcoal step, and one well known distillery chills the spirit before it goes through the maple charcoal.