Buffalo Sweat Shot

Bourbon and Tabasco — TRPV1 capsaicin heat and alcohol vasodilation producing the perspiration the name promises, Wild Turkey (1940) and Tabasco (McIlhenny, 1868).

The Buffalo Sweat Shot is an American dare-shot combining whiskey with Tabasco hot sauce — a fiery combination whose perspiration-inducing name accurately describes the capsaicin-and-alcohol warmth that follows consumption. Wild Turkey bourbon, one of the most commonly used whiskeys in this shot, takes its name from a 1940 wild turkey hunting trip during which executive Thomas McCarthy brought a bottle of bourbon to share with fellow hunters, who subsequently requested more of that "Wild Turkey whiskey." Wild Turkey Distillery in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, has been producing bourbon under continuous family ownership by the Ripy family (who established the distillery in 1905) and the Russel family of master distillers since Eddie Russell's father Jimmy Russell joined in 1954. Tabasco hot sauce, produced by the McIlhenny Company on Avery Island, Louisiana since 1868, provides the capsaicin whose TRPV1 receptor activation produces the burning heat. The combination of alcohol's vasodilatory effect — which increases skin blood flow and warmth — with capsaicin's heat receptor activation produces a genuinely perspiration-inducing double-warming that makes the Buffalo Sweat's name earned rather than merely colorful.