Straight From Peanut Country

This cocktail is not, as you might assume, named after actress, movie star and serious cocktail and Bourbon enthusiast Tallulah Bankhead. Instead, the cocktail is a tribute to the Southern blue collar tradition of putting a handful of peanuts into a bottle of Coca-Cola as a quick snack. This particular way of mixing salty peanuts into the sugary soda, sometimes referred to as “farmer’s Coke”, started in the 1920s when shelled and salted peanuts were first sold in small packets in grocery stores. The practicality of being able to have both food and drink in one hand, leaving the other hand free to drive your car or work made for it to quickly spread through the Southern states from Texas to the Carolinas. Basically all States that grew peanuts. 

According to the National Peanut Federation it was convenient in another way too. Workers with dirty hands didn’t want to eat their peanuts without first washing their hands. When that wasn’t possible they could instead simply dump their snack into their bottle of Coke. 

The Tallulah was invented by bartender Zak Kittle while working at Ollie Irene, a gastro pub in Birmingham, Alabama. The co-owner of Ollie Irene, Chris Newsom, had a great-aunt called Tallulah and her love for whiskey made them borrow her name for the drink. 

The Tallulah is made with whiskey, typically Jack Daniel’s, peanut orgeat, instead of the regular orgeat made with almonds and featured in many tiki drinks, Coca-Cola and a garnish of salted peanuts. 

THE DESIGNER
The glass was designed by Akira Minagawa, in 2021 as a collaboration with Sugahara glassworks. It is called Peanuts.

TALLULAH

2 parts Tennessee Whiskey
1 part Peanut Orgeat
2 parts Coca-Cola

Shake first two ingredients and strain into the glass. Top up with Coke and garnish with salted peanuts.

Enjoy it like a peanut farmer.

Dolly And Tennessee Whiskey

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as International Tennessee Whiskey Day to commemorate that Tennessee, (more than three years after Prohibition ended), repealed the ban on manufacturing alcoholic beverages.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.