Over the past weekend, some virus decided to try to colonize my body. As far as I can tell, my immune system is fighting the good fight, but until its mission is accomplished, I am unable to post any reviews since my palate is entirely out of whack.
Now I often get weird impulses when I am sick. Once I designed an entire infographic because I felt like I needed something to do. This time my love of data analysis got the better of me and I decided to find out how much the glass of whiskey I was drinking cost.
I told you I get weird impulses.
Because I had a scratchy throat, I was drinking a little whiskey. Because my palate was shot, I was drinking inexpensive whiskey. I think it was a little bit of JTS Brown Bottled in Bond. This particular pour came out of a handle that I brought back from Kentucky. And because I save all my receipts when I travel, I knew that the price for that handle was $22.49 at the Party Source in Bellevue, KY. Because I was good at algebra, I know that if I divide the price per bottle by the number of milliliters in the bottle, I will get the price per milliliter. And if I multiply that by 50 mL, I will get the price per drink. Why 50 mL? Well, because it is a nice round number that also happens to be the size of the single-serving airplane bottle (even if it was slightly less than my average pour of two ounces).
So after sitting in bed and scratching out a little algebra on the iPad, I realized that the JTS Brown in my glass at that moment had cost me about sixty-four cents (I’d consumed some of the glass). Not too bad, really. I mean, at that price, I could have almost felt like another round was warranted. Now I am a frugal man, but I knew that it was unusual for me to drink a sixty-four cent glass of whiskey. That led me down the rabbit hole of figuring out how much other glasses of whiskey I’d had recently cost. Which led me to analyze the recent price increase that Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond had recently undergone in my market (from $2.33 per glass to $3.33). Which, long story short led me to re-reading at every blog post for the summer and pricing everything I’d purchased since I left for Kentucky last month. And looking at store websites.
And that caused me to come to a serious realization. Bourbon is expensive! At least it can be. I usually look at a bottle as a “per-bottle” cost, which of course, it is. But when I started looking at it as a “per drink” cost, I began to realize that maybe I don’t want that second pour. Or at least I started to think a little harder about it. And perhaps that is a good thing. One hazard of running this site is that I get a little “accustomed” to the cost of bourbon. It’s just something I buy so that I keep having content. Maybe this illness was a good thing since it ended up reminding me that bourbon isn’t just a thing that lives on my shelf. It is something that actually costs money when I drink it. I mean the thought of spending five bucks per glass, in my own home, pains me and ten bucks or more per glass makes my frugal bones cry out in anguish.
Curious about the math? Use the formula in the image above to price your own. What follows are the examples I did while in some sort of illness-induced mania.
| Name | Bottle Price | Bottle Volume | Price of drink |
| 1792 12 year old | $49.99 | 750 | $3.33 |
| Castle & Key Restoration Gin | $32.99 | 750 | $2.20 |
| Castle & Key Autumn 2019 Gin | $39.99 | 750 | $2.67 |
| Cooper's Craft 100 proof | $29.99 | 750 | $2.00 |
| Crown Royal Rye | $24.99 | 750 | $1.67 |
| Elijah Craig | $22.99 | 750 | $1.53 |
| Evan Williams | $11.99 | 750 | $0.80 |
| Evan Williams handle | $19.99 | 1750 | $0.57 |
| Four Roses Limited Small Batch 2019 | $139.99 | 750 | $9.33 (eek!) |
| Four Roses Singel Barrel OBSF | $72.99 | 750 | $4.87 |
| Four Roses Single Barrel | $37.99 | 750 | $2.53 |
| Four Roses Small Batch Select | $57.99 | 750 | $3.87 |
| George Remus | $36.49 | 750 | $2.43 |
| Henry McKenna BiB-old price | $34.99 | 750 | $2.33 |
| Henry McKenna BiB-highest price | $49.99 | 750 | $3.33 |
| Henry McKenna BiB-recent purchase | $41.99 | 750 | $2.80 |
| Jim Beam Black | $17.99 | 750 | $1.20 |
| Jim Beam Black Handle | $27.99 | 1750 | $0.80 |
| JTS Brown BiB | $22.49 | 1750 | $0.64 |
| Knob Creek | $24.99 | 750 | $1.67 |
| Knob Creek Handle | $51.99 | 1750 | $1.49 |
| Knob Creek Single Barrel Store Pick | $39.99 | 750 | $2.67 |
| Lot 40 | $39.99 | 750 | $2.67 |
| Lux Row Double Barrel | $149.99 | 750 | $10.00 (Yikes!) |
| Maker's Mark | $20.99 | 750 | $1.40 |
| Makers Mark Handle | $41.99 | 1750 | $1.20 |
| Maker's Mark 101 proof | $49.99 | 750 | $3.33 |
| MB Roland Wheat Whiskey | $54.99 | 750 | $3.67 |
| Old Ezra 7 year Barrel Proof | $69.99 | 750 | $4.67 |
| Old Forester 100 proof | $24.99 | 750 | $1.67 |
| Old Forester 100 proof Handle | $45.99 | 1750 | $1.31 |
| Old Forester 1910 | $58.99 | 750 | $3.93 |
| Old Forester Single Barrel | $39.99 | 750 | $2.67 |
| Old Grand Dad 114 | $23.99 | 750 | $1.60 |
| Old Medley 12 year | $47.96 | 750 | $3.20 |
| Parker's Heritage Rye | $149.99 | 750 | $10.00 (nope!) |
| Rebel Yell 100 proof | $17.99 | 750 | $1.20 |
| Remus Repeal Reserve 2019 | $84.99 | 750 | $5.67 |
| Remus Volstead Reserve | $199.99 | 750 | $13.33 (holy shit!) |
| Russell's Reseve | $28.99 | 750 | $1.93 |
| Very Old Barton 100 proof | $13.99 | 750 | $0.93 |
| Very Old Barton BiB Handle | $24.99 | 1750 | $0.71 |
| Wild Turkey 101 | $18.49 | 750 | $1.23 |
| Wild Turkey 101 handle | $31.99 | 1750 | $0.91 |
| Wild Turkey Rare Breed | $42.99 | 750 | $2.87 |
| Woodford Reserve | $23.99 | 750 | $1.60 |
| Woodford Reserve Handle | $44.99 | 1750 | $1.29 |
| Woodford Reserve Master's Collection Ryes | $85.99 | 750 | $5.73 |
| Woodford Reserve Rye | $29.99 | 750 | $2.00 |
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