Which Rye Whiskey makes the Best Old Fashioned?

‘Are we doing this again?’

This was our thought process as the comments rolled in on our YouTube channel. We had released our ‘Which Bourbon makes the best Old Fashioned?’ video about a year prior, and we had very little expectations at the time we sent it out into the world. But slowly and surely, the views and comments ticked up…and up…and up.

It was like The Little Engine That Could, chugging up the mountain. Before we knew it, it was climbing past 30k views. Not something our measly, 500 subscriber channel ever expected. What’s more, comments were flooding in about whiskey preferences, too. We began to notice a theme:

“If you ever get a chance, try Basil Hayden Dark Rye in an old fashioned.”

“I had a really good old fashioned about a month ago – probs best I’d ever had, was made with Bulliet rye.”

“Wow would love to see a repeat blind on old fashioneds but using all different RYE whiskeys.”

“I prefer Knob Creek rye or OF rye for an old fashioned.”

“The answer is none of the above. Try Rye.”

And many more, but you get the picture. We attracted a LOT of Rye Whiskey fans out there. And they all had great suggestions and thoughts about particular rye whiskeys to use in an Old Fashioned. So, because of the interest, we thought it only appropriate to give the people what they asked for: another 15 whiskeys test.

We’re no strangers to rye whiskey, either. In our own home bar, we have around 40 bottles that we’ve tried in cocktails and drink neat as well. But never have we truly put them in a matchup for the best old fashioned. So now, it was time to give it a shot and see what bottle would reign supreme in the battle of the ryes.

Just like the bourbon video, we had to determine a fair way to judge the contestants.

And just like the first test, we figured the best way to do that was a blind taste test.

The method was as follows:

• We would write the name of the rye being poured into the glass on a sticker and press it onto the bottom of the respective glass
• I would pour the rye in, followed by the bitters (both Angostura [Aromatic] and Orange bitters) and the simple syrup
• Bring the glasses over to where we were sitting, drop in a large cube and then stir 30 times exactly
• Finish the cocktail up with both an orange and lemon peel
• I would leave the room while Devon mixed up the order I had just placed onto the table
• Devon would leave the room, and I would mix up the order that Devon had just done
• Crack open our notebook and take notes on each Old Fashioned

This was the best way to ensure that neither Devon nor I knew the true order of things.

The next question is, ‘how did we ensure that we didn’t simply guess which was which, by process of elimination’? This was a tough one because we really didn’t want to crush our livers with the concept of drinking 15 Old Fashioneds in a single sitting, but at the same time we knew it had to be somewhat anonymous, so we couldn’t easily guess what we were drinking, from the roster of ryes we had chosen.

So we pondered over a testing method that allowed for total anonymity. A ‘March Madness’ style, head-to-head bracket matchup? No…it would be too easy to potentially identify between the two whiskeys we had poured, head to head. How about we test them in threes? Drink them as a group and rank from best to worst? Better, but still a bit easier to detect what had been poured if it were only 3 at a time.

Ultimately, the best system we could come up with had us tasting the bourbons in groups of five (which ends up being three groups). Within each group, we would rank our favorite to least favorite, going from 1 (favorite) to 5 (least favorite).

Then we would take the ones from each group and put them together for a matchup, then the twos, threes and so on:

From there, we ranked the ones from favorite to least favorite, twos, threes, fours and fives:

With that, we felt confident we were keeping things as anonymous as possible all while arriving at a fair and clear winner. This time around, with life and with other interruptions, it took about 6 weeks to complete, end to end. So without further ado, let’s see where these rye Old Fashioneds landed in our experiment!

The Ranking

#15 Rittenhouse Rye

Starting us off at the bottom of the list is Rittenhouse Rye – this was a surprise for us as it’s a respectable option from Heaven Hill, but we just found there wasn’t much flavor up front, not balanced as the spice was overpowering and the ethanol heat came right through.

#14 Old Overholt Rye

Old Overholt had some good notes of peanut and oak, but this one didn’t have a lot of depth or staying power. Sitting in the glass for even a couple minutes dilution showed that there was little body or depth. Overall more spicy than sweet.

#13 Michter’s Rye

We’ve always liked Michter’s Rye neat, so we were a bit surprised to see it fall this far back in the competition. It wasn’t bad, but it seemed to have less intense flavor overall. Some positives were that the spice stayed throughout some dilution with some dry oak and orange notes.

#12 Jim Beam Rye

For being a low priced offering, JB Rye made a decent old fashioned cocktail. It leaned more on the spicy, dry notes with a strong backbone of nutty flavors – which we detected as raw almond. Similar to Michter’s, while this one was decent, it just didn’t feature much depth or punch, but had better balance.

#11 Old Forester Rye

Dropping in at #11 was Old Forester Rye, which had some really nice notes of pecan and cedar. The profile began spicy and ended up sweet on the finish, which started to show more of that balance we were looking for in our criteria.

#10 Sazerac Rye (AKA ‘Baby Saz’)

Sazerac Rye – or ‘Baby Saz’ as it is affectionately titled – was spicy throughout but also had a backbone of sweetness. Black pepper was most prominent, with a nice undertone of simple syrup sweetness. We would consider this one of our contestants for ‘best spicy OF award’.

#9 Piggyback Rye

Our first craft offering to show up in the rankings, Piggyback Rye was a bit more full bodied with spicy notes throughout but bringing that sweetness more in level. Brown sugar and maple syrup sweet notes coupled nicely with some white pepper overtones.

#8 Sagamore Spirit Rye

Sagamore rye snagged the #8 spot with being well-balanced between sweet and spice, oaky, dry, and with an interesting buttery nut note, similar to cashew.

#7 Wild Turkey 101 Rye

Wild Turkey 101 Rye had a lot of flavor throughout with the rye spice cutting through even with a fair amount of dilution. Some interesting notes of citrus and saltiness made this a very enjoyable Old Fashioned option.

#6 Elijah Craig Rye

Elijah Craig Rye brought a lot to the table, which is why it found itself just outside the top 5. The progression started out as sweet and then finished with a nice spice at the finish followed by a lingering Kentucky Hug

#5 Russell’s Reserve Rye

Russell’s Reserve is the first representative in the top 5 group, and this is due to having excellent depth of flavor with equal sweetness and spiciness layered throughout. Some noteworthy unique flavors were buttercream and cinnamon.

#4 Bulleit Rye

Bulleit rye was a surprise to us mostly because of the backbone it lent to the citrus notes, which heightened the lemon flavor throughout. This one had lots of staying power and a unique sarsaparilla note that reminded us of having Barq’s root beer without ice.

#3 Knob Creek Rye

KC had a sad showing in the 15 bourbons matchup but had a strong showing in the rye category, coming in at #3. A spicy punch upfront followed by a pecan pie sweetness and that rye spice showing up strong at the end, flanked with oak, pushed KC Rye’s Old Fashioned to the top 3.

#2 Woodford Reserve Rye

Woodford Rye impressed us with an array of notes that we thought served the cocktail extremely well; baking spice, sweet notes reminiscent of cinnamon bun icing with a biting pepper note shining even at the end. The balance on this was perfect, and for us, a new go-to option.

#1 Jack Daniel’s Bonded Rye

Where are our Tennessee Whiskey fans, because Jack Daniel’s takes the top spot in our competition! The balance was spot on, with both sweet and spicy notes boldly presented throughout. JD Rye took the top spot by having great balance, great staying power even through dilution and deeper, unique notes of chocolate and a touch of molasses.