You may not give Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey that much thought. That’s the thing you order when you want a Lemmy, right? You know, a Jack and Coke. The drink that costs twice as much as it would have if you had just said “Whiskey and Coke.”

Some people love Jack and Coke. I know at least one person who ALWAYS orders one. I mean every single damn time he goes to a bar, he orders one. And if I’m buying, I’m paying for two whiskeys by ordering a Jack and Coke.

But.

And here’s the big but.

Jack Daniel’s is actually pretty good. It’s $23 for a 750mL bottle, which isn’t that much more than my own personal mixing standard, which is Evan Williams at $13 a bottle. Well, I guess that’s a pretty big difference, but here’s the kicker. People respect Jack Daniel’s. It has a cache that Evan Williams just doesn’t have. Or even Jim Beam, which is $16 a bottle. People may sometimes ask for a Beam and Coke, but not nearly as much as they do for a Jack and Coke. I mean, a Lemmy (see, I want people to start calling it that. Lemmy is a fucking legend, man.).

Not only is Jack Daniel’s more well-respected, but it’s actually something I can drink straight. It’s pretty good for a mass-produced whiskey.

And the people at Jack Daniel’s know how to throw an awesome party.

Last week, they invited me to the Jack Daniel’s House No. Siete here in Houston, Tejas at the Revention Music Center.

They transformed that space into something pretty awesome that tried to mimic what it would have been like if Jack Daniel himself were still alive.

And he, you know, liked to play pool and Foosball.

Yes, they had a DJ and a half-DJ/half-band, and then a full band that all played throughout the evening. It was all pretty fun.

But you can see a bunch of photos about that event here at the Houston Press site.

Me, I wanted to try the whiskey, and the downstairs in the Jack Daniel’s VIP lounge was where the fun really happened.

They had a great jazz duo who played all night. And they were great. But check out the drink menu!

Unfortunately, none of the drinks adequately captured the flavors of the different Jack Daniel’s liquors. I got to try them straight, though, and they were quite good.

There’s the regular Jack Daniel’s black label, which is your standard stuff. Decent.

But then there’s Gentleman Jack and Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel. The Single Barrel is what it sounds like; from a single barrel, and it has a typical single barrel price of $43 a bottle. Me, I prefer the Gentleman Jack, and I always have. It’s one of the first whiskeys I ever bought. It’s what my dad and brother always drank when it first came out. At $29 a bottle, it’s a damn good deal. Always tasty, always trustworthy.

What I didn’t know, though, is how they make it.

All they do is filter the regular Jack Daniel’s twice. That’s right. Sounds easy, huh?

But we’re not talking about a coffee filter here. We’re talking 10 freaking feet of Jack Daniel’s-made maple charcoal. Holy shit, dude! They slow drip this stuff through tons of this charcoal. It is the best-selling whiskey in the world, after all.

Besides the Gentleman Jack, there’s the Fire and Tennessee Honey, which are good on their own. Both are tasty entries into the burgeoning flavored whiskey category. But Jack doesn’t just put some cinnamon oil in it. Nope, they steep real cinnamon. And it makes a difference.

So here are a bunch of pictures, not of the party itself, because I’m not that kind of guy, but of the space and drinks.

So next time you’re buying a bottle of sipping whiskey, don’t fear to try Gentleman Jack. You might be pleasantly surprised.

And listen to fucking Motorhead while you drink it.

Bitches.