Bourbon

Bourbon, a style of whiskey that can legally be made only in the United States, must be distilled from a mash containing a minimum of 51 percent corn and aged in new, charred, oak barrels for a minimum of two years. It gained its name from Bourbon County, Kentucky, where, in the late 1700s, flatboats were loaded with barrels of local whiskey that were then transported to cities in the South. There, it became known as whiskey from Bourbon and, eventually, bourbon whiskey.

Although the Whiskey Rebellion against taxes introduced on spirits in 1791 took place in Pennsylvania, it is pertinent, since it drove some distillers into Kentucky, where bourbon was born. In 1794, after numerous riots resulting in tax collectors being tarred and feathered and their houses burned, President George Washington, for the first time in the history of the United States, mustered troops to fight their own countrymen and quell the uprising. The rebellious distillers lost the battle without a great deal of violence; those who agreed to pay taxes were pardoned, and others were imprisoned until they settled their debts.