What Kind Of Whiskey Did Cowboys Drink In The Old West?

Whiskey was not the only drink served in saloons back in the days of the Old West, but it was popular with customers then just as it is today. However, there are differences between the types of whiskey cowboys drank and what we imbibe nearly 200 years later. The purity and even ingredients of what saloon owners called whiskey varied greatly.

The major American distilleries at the time were concentrated in the East. These included Old Taylor, Old Grand-Dad, and Old Overholt (which are still around today).  Bottles of ryes and bourbons – known as "the good stuff" because the liquor was unadulterated — had to be transported great distances to reach thirsty cowboys in the West. This raised the cost for customers. However, they didn't always get what they paid for. 

Not known for their scruples, saloon owners would often source locally distilled neutral grain spirits or watered down their stock of genuine whiskey, covering up any unpalatable flavors with unsavory ingredients like chewing tobacco juice, burnt sugar, chili peppers, and snake heads. These questionable concoctions were given evocative names like Tarantula Juice and Coffin Varnish. Today there are a number of whiskeys that beginner drinkers should avoid, but at least you can be sure they are, indeed, whiskey.

Hollywood has cemented the image in modern minds of the cowboy sauntering up the bar and ordering a whiskey. Even Western film star John Wayne enjoyed bourbon on the rocks at the end of a long day. Saloon-goers in the Old West definitely did drink their whiskey straight, especially if it was "the good stuff" from back East. But the less than savory alcohols masquerading as whiskey often needed help to make it drinkable.

Cowboys weren't knocking back the now classic old fashioned, but they weren't far off. The original drink called a cocktail was a blend of liquor, sugar syrup, and bitters. Jerry Thomas's 1862 book "The Bar-tenders' Guide" not only described a whiskey cocktail but included a number of drinks that were primarily whiskey, sugar, and water, such as the whiskey toddy as well as the cherry shrub, where cherry juice stands in for simple syrup. The Mule Skinner was another simple cocktail made with whiskey and blackberry liquor one might find on the frontier.