Today we celebrate International Tennessee Whiskey Day.

On May 5, 2021 the Tennessee General Assembly declared May 21 as International Tennessee Whiskey Day to commemorate that Tennessee, (more than three years after Prohibition ended), repealed the ban on manufacturing alcoholic beverages. However, nine out of their 95 counties are still dry, like Moore County where Jack Daniel’s is distilled.

THE LYNCHBURG LEMONADE
In 1980 Tony Mason, a restaurant owner in Huntsville Alabama, created the Lynchburg Lemonade. It was named after the city of Lynchburg, Tennessee, home of Jack Daniel’s Distillery. Two years later a representative of the distillery visited the restaurant, tried the drink and was told how to make it. When Jack Daniel’s started promoting the lemonade as their signature drink a year later, without mentioning the name of its creator, Mr. Mason would have none of it. He sued the distillery and sought compensatory and punitive damages. Unfortunately for Mr. Mason, he lost getting only $1, and Jack Daniel’s still promotes the drink without a word about Tony Mason.

Sometime in the 1850s Jasper “Jack” Newton Daniel left home and started working for Dan Call, preacher, grocer and distiller. Being a busy man Call asked one of his slaves, Nathan “Nearest” Green, to teach Jack everything he knew about distilling whiskey. Mr. Green knew a lot, he was essentially Master Distiller for Reverend Call. When Jack Daniel’s was established in 1866, a year after the abolition of slavery, it was one of the first distilleries registered in the United States. To this very day the original recipe is used when producing Jack Daniel’s and even though they refer to the product as Tennessee Whiskey, the product meets every legal requirement to be called a Bourbon.

THE DESIGNER
The glass is called Puzzle and was designed by Ettore Sottsass in 2003 for Venini.

So put on some Dolly Parton, make yourself a Lynchburg lemonade and join the celebrations.