Bourbon and V8: A Match Made . . . in Hell!

The date: 2002 or thereabouts. The place: 211 Bishop Hall. I want to mix my bourbon with something, but all we have is Mountain Dew Code Red. Matt begs me not to mix the two, but I do, despite his pleas. He insists that it's terrible and wrong, but I insist that it's delicious. I then tell him that bourbon tastes good with anything. He disagrees. A pact is forged: he bets me $1 that I can't drink bourbon with any non-dairy, commercially available beverage of his choosing and like it. The years went by, but this week, we finally initiated . . .

Matt's non-dairy, commercially available beverage of choice was Spicy Hot V8! For the uninitiated, V8 is a sort of vegetable juice composed mostly of tomato juice.

In this corner, weighing in at 12 ounces, Spicy Hot V8! In this corner, weighing in at 350 milliliters, Jim Beam Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey!

We poured the entire 12 ounce bottle of Spicy Hot V8 into a Collins glass and then added a shot (1 oz.) of Jim Beam brand bourbon. The V8 smelled like spicy hot tomato soup.

This is just before taking a drink of the concoction.

This is after three drinks. The bet called for me to like the concoction, and I definitely didn't like it. It was terrible. You could taste, in each sip, equal parts bourbon and Spicy Hot V8. The salty spiciness of the V8 mixed with the alcoholic sweetness of the bourbon was too much. Other people took sips and had similar reactions. Matt gave me points for taking three drinks, though. And I certainly didn't make such a face after the first drink: it took three!

Sure, I lost a dollar, I think we've concluded something that scientists may find valuable to know someday: bourbon does not mix with Spicy Hot V8. Or any V8, for that matter. It should be confined to colas, uncolas, and ginger ale.