Bourbon and Cola

Oak-aged bourbon and cola on ice — a timeless American highball where the spirit's vanilla and caramel character meets the sweet effervescence of the mixer.

Bourbon and Cola is one of the most widely consumed spirit-and-mixer combinations in the American South and one of the most straightforward highballs in the American drinking tradition. Bourbon whiskey has been produced in Kentucky since at least the 1780s, when settlers in the bluegrass region began distilling a locally distinctive corn-heavy grain mash — the specific geographic and production conditions of the area, including the limestone-filtered water of the Kentucky aquifer and the climate's dramatic temperature swings, producing a spirit with particular character. The federal Standards of Identity established by the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897 and subsequent regulations formalized bourbon's definition: at least 51% corn mash, distilled to no more than 160 proof, entered into new charred American oak barrels at no more than 125 proof, and aged in those barrels. Coca-Cola, created by Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton in 1886 and commercially bottled nationally from the 1890s, became the dominant American soft drink within decades of its introduction. The combination of bourbon and Coca-Cola emerged naturally in the American South, where both products were deeply embedded in regional culture, and the Jack and Coke — Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey plus cola — became one of its most recognizable commercial expressions. Kentucky bourbon with cola is the broader variation, using the full range of Kentucky straight bourbons rather than a single Tennessee expression.