Ever wondered what the difference is between all those dark liquors? If you think they're all the same, think again. Whiskeys come in many forms, and we're here to help you distinguish between the three main types (bourbon, scotch and rye) plus show you a few cocktails to remember them by! 
 
 From craft cocktails to giant whiskey lists, dark spirits have been cropping up on more and more menus across the country. Check out what makes each unique, and the next time you're navigating the drink selection you'll be well equipped to order (and enjoy) the tasty spirit you really want. 
 
 Whiskey (or sometimes, Whisky) 
 
 Who should we thank for the different spellings of this popular spirit? Geography. "Whiskey" is produced stateside, while many other countries call their product "whisky." However you choose to spell it, this distilled alcoholic beverage is made from fermented grain mash (barley, corn, rye or wheat) and typically aged in charred white oak casks, giving it its distinctive brown color. Whiskey is a broad category of liquor and can have lots of differences in color, taste and smell. 
 
 Photo provided by The Pig. 
 
 Washington D.C.'s The Pig, with over 70 choices on its menu, celebrates differing shades and nuanced flavors across a variety of whiskeys -- some perfect for sipping solo and others ideal for incorporating into a mixed drink. 
 
 How to drink it 
 
 If you're looking for a classic whiskey-based cocktail, the Boulevardier combines a good dose of whiskey with equal parts Campari (an Italian, bitter dark red liqueur) and sweet vermouth (a fortified wine flavored with botanicals like flowers, seeds and herbs): 
 
 Photo provided by Huertas. Photo by Nancy Borowick. 
 
 In the Boulevardier at Huertas in NYC, Michter's Whiskey and Contratto Bitters come together with a dash of the restaurant's own house-made Red Vermouth. 
 
 Ready for more? Several subsets lie within the "whiskey" category, all with subtle yet important differences... 
 
 Scotch 
 
 Technically, Scotch is whisky (spelled without the "e") that must be produced in Scotland, made from mostly malted barley and aged in oak barrels for three years or more. (The number following the name on a bottle of Scotch tells you how long it was aged.) Some Scotch tastes a lot like bourbon, but with a signature smokiness that lingers at the tail-end of a tasting. For this reason, some people avoid it, but for others, the acquired taste only makes the experience better. 
 
 How to drink it 
 
 Scotch is most often ordered "neat" (without ice) or "on the rocks" (with ice). When drinking Scotch neat, you may want to add a few drops of water, as this can help reveal the flavors of the liquor. 
 
 Scotch. 
 
 Purists drink their Scotch unadulterated, as its strong flavor profile doesn't tend to go well in mixed drinks. However, the Rob Roy -- named after Scottish hero Robert Roy MacGregor -- is a timeless cocktail that's favored by many a whiskey drinker and made with Scotch, sweet vermouth, Angostura bitters and a maraschino cherry. 
 
 Rob Roy. 
 
 Bourbon 
 
 Bourbon, whose name comes from an area known as "Old Bourbon" in Kentucky, is a whiskey that's distilled from corn. For a whiskey to be considered bourbon, the grain mash must be at least 51 percent corn. On top of that, by law the mixture must be stored in charred oak containers and cannot contain any additives. From "Mad Men" episodes to modern nightclubs, neighborhood bars to interoffice gifts, bottles of bourbon have been popping up (and open) on our collective radar a lot in the last few years. 
 
 Bourbon. 
 
 How to drink it 
 
 Both Scotch and bourbon are satisfying on their own, but also go particularly well with spice. Bottlefork in Chicago features the spirits in two drinks: 
 
 Photo provided by Bottlefork. 
 
 "Differences of Character" has Bank Note 5 Year Blended Scotch Whisky, Allspice Dram (an allspice-flavored liqueur), ghost chili, lemon and honey, while "For the Allocation" includes Very Old Barton bourbon, Génépi des Alpes (an Italian herbal liqueur), plus Gran Classico and Regan's Orange Bitters. 
 
 For something a little sweeter, check out the Apple Barrel at Whetstone Tavern in Philadelphia: 
 
 Photo provided by Whetstone Tavern. 
 
 This one combines bourbon with Apfelkorn (a sweet, apple-flavored liqueur). 
 
 Or if you like things a bit more tart, try The Wishbone from Bowery Meat Company in NYC: 
 
 Photo provided by Bowery Meat Company. Photo by Jackie Gebel. 
 
 Cinnamon-infused bourbon, black peppercorn, lemon, egg white and bitters come together in this fresh take on the classic whiskey sour. 
 
 Finally, if you're on the hunt for a quintessential bourbon cocktail, get to know the Old Fashioned, where sugar and bitters are muddled together with a splash of soda, topped with ice and bourbon, and garnished with an orange wheel and a cherry: 
 
 Photo provided by Vernick Food & Drink. Photo by Jason Varney. 
 
 Vernick Food & Drink in Philadelphia stirs a classic Old Fashioned with bonded bourbon, sugar and bitters. By definition, bonded bourbon must be produced in one distillation season from one distiller, aged in a federally bonded warehouse under U.S. government supervision for at least four years and bottled at 100 U.S. proof (50 percent alcohol by volume). Whew! 
 
 Rye 
 
 Rye is a grass in the wheat tribe and closely related to barley. 
 
 Rye. 
 
 "Rye whiskey" can refer either to American whiskey, which must be distilled from at least 51% rye and aged two years or more, or Canadian whisky, which may or may not actually include any rye in its production process. Full in body and spice, rye -- which had been playing second fiddle to its closest cousin, bourbon, ever since U.S. corn production increased in the decades following Prohibition -- has been making a steady comeback on cocktail menus across the country in the last decade. 
 
 How to drink it 
 
 Rye's bold, slightly burning bite cuts right through sweet mixers, making for intense beverages with layers of flavor. Here are a few drinks featuring the zesty spirit: 
 
 Photo provided by Jardiniere. 
 
 At Jardiniere in San Francisco, the Darkest Dawn is a tasty sipper made with rye, Barolo Chinato (a fortified wine), Nocino walnut liqueur and bitters. 
 
 Photo provided by Freemans. Photo by Daniel Krieger. 
 
 At Freemans in NYC, the Freemans Cocktail features rye whiskey, simple syrup, pomegranate molasses, lemon and house-made orange bitters. 
 
 Yet another classic cocktail that you're sure to come across is the Vieux Carré. Rye-based and named for the French Quarter in New Orleans, legend has it that the drink was invented at city's famed Carousel Bar in the 1930s. Traditionalists make theirs with rye, sweet vermouth, Benedictine (a gold-colored, sweet liqueur first produced by Benedictine monks in the 16th century), Angostura bitters and Peychaud's Bitters (a lighter, sweeter and more floral version of Angostura bitters created in New Orleans around 1830 by the Haitian apothecary Antoine Amédée Peychaud). 
 
 Photo provided by SMYC. 
 
 At SMYC, the Vieux Carre includes Hine VSOP cognac, Sazerac Rye, Carpano Antica vermouth and Benedictine. 
 
 For all the latest on food, drinks and restaurants, visit the Reserve blog and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. 

 In consumer food‐sensory studies, sorting and closely related methods (for example, projective mapping) have often been applied to large product sets which are complex and fatiguing for panelists. Analysis of sorting by Multi‐Dimensional Scaling (MDS) is common, but this method discards relevant individual decisions; analysis by DISTATIS, which accounts for individual differences, is gaining acceptance. This research posits that replication can improve DISTATIS analysis by stabilizing consumer sensory maps, which are often extremely unstable. As a case study a fatiguing product set was sorted: 10 American whiskeys—5 bourbons and 5 ryes—were sorted into groups by 21 consumers over 2 replications. These products were chosen because American whiskeys are some of the most important distilled beverages in today's market; in particular, “bourbon” (mashbill more than 50% corn) and “rye” (more than 50% rye) whiskeys are important and assumed to be products with distinct sensory attributes. However, there is almost no scientific information about their sensory properties. Data were analyzed using standard and aggregated DISTATIS and MDS. No significant relationship between mashbill and consumer categorization in whiskeys was found; instead, there was evidence of producer and aging effects. aggregated DISTATIS was found to provide more stable results than without replication, and DISTATIS results provided a number of benefits over MDS, including bootstrapped confidence intervals for product separation. In addition, this is the first published evidence that mashbill does not determine sensory properties of American whiskey: bourbons and ryes, while legally distinct, were not separated by consumers. 

 Bartenders pour whiskey at Drexel’s annual Philly Chef Conference, hosted by the Center for Hospitality and Sport Management. In a recent study, a Drexel food scientist found that rye and bourbon whiskeys, despite popular opinion, are not discriminable for average consumers. 
 
 Whiskey aficionados may claim that Manhattans must be made with fiery, grassy rye, while an Old Fashioned requires the sweetness of bourbon. 
 
 But a new study from a Drexel University food scientist shows the average consumer cannot discriminate between the two flavors. 
 
 Jacob Lahne, PhD, an assistant professor in the Center for Hospitality and Sport Management, found, in a blind sorting task of American ryes and bourbons, participants were more likely to group together products by brand rather than type of whiskey. 
 
 The results were published in the Journal of Food Science. 
 
 "There is definitely a tendency for bartenders to talk about how some drinks should absolutely be made with bourbon or rye, and I think it’s clear now that there is more flexibility,” Lahne said. “In a way it’s fun and exciting — it gives you a bigger universe to play with." 
 
 The only legal difference between bourbon and rye products is their mashbill: Bourbon must be fermented from a mash that is majority corn, and rye from a majority of its eponymous grain. Otherwise, the legal and stylistic requirements for the two products are identical. So it’s possible for a 2 percent difference in mashbill to tip a whiskey from one category into the other. 
 
 Yet, in both pop culture and whiskey educator circles, the two kinds are held to be distinct —bourbon is often described like smooth caramel, while rye is called dry and brash. 
 
 Despite the quickly growing demand for whiskey in the United States (with revenues over $2.6 billion in 2014), there had been no rigorous examination of the assumed difference between bourbon and rye. 
 
 Lahne wanted to know, how can straight rye and bourbon be so dramatically different, if their basic recipe is so similar? 
 
 To get to the bottom of the conundrum, Lahne presented 21 study participants with trays of 10 anonymized whiskeys — five bourbons and five ryes — in random order. They were instructed to smell but not taste the alcohol. This method is in accordance with published guidelines for Scotch whisky evaluation. 
 
 The participants were then asked to organize the whiskeys into no fewer than two and no more than nine groups, by any criteria they wished. In a second session, when the participants came back days later, the same whiskeys were presented in an identical fashion with new, randomized labels. They were asked to sort the whiskeys into groups again. 
 
 The researchers next used a statistical analysis (called DISTATIS) to interpret the group’s responses. Lahne and his team found that the subjects did not separate the whiskeys based on mashbill (bourbon vs. rye), but instead were more influenced by properties like alcohol content, age at bottling and brand. For instance, participants were very likely to group together Jim Beam whiskeys. 
 
 Lahne hypothesizes that the researchers saw this trend because individual makers have strong “house” flavors. Jim Beam whiskeys — both bourbons and ryes — might be characterized as smelling like roasted peanuts. 
 
 “It is interesting how distinctive that flavor is,” he said. 
 
 The perceived differences between bourbon and rye may stem from a time in history when mashbill differences between the two were greater, Lahne said. However, modern American whiskeys that are most popular today are very likely more closely related. 
 
 In future studies, Lahne and his team plan to further explore how specific sensory attributes — like that peanut aroma — may be linked to producer, alcohol by volume, age, chemical makeup, and other production variables.
– The study may be small, but researchers at Drexel University have opened an inquiry into whether modern bourbons and ryes—both types of whiskey—are different enough to be discernible to the average taster, and they've come back with a resounding "no." Reporting in the Journal of Food Science, lead author Jacob Lahne says the average consumer doesn't appear to be able to tell the two flavors apart, and that any perceived differences may be remnants of a bygone era when the two may have been produced more differently than they are today. "In a way it's fun and exciting," he says of the impact his findings may have on certain cocktail recipes. "It gives you a bigger universe to play with." What separates a bourbon from a rye is its mash bill: To be legally called a bourbon, which comes from an "Old Bourbon" area of Kentucky, reports the Huffington Post, the mash must be at least 51% corn, while rye has to use at least 51% rye. In other words, it's possible for the two to be nearly identical, with only a 2% difference in primary mash content. And when the researchers presented 21 participants with a tray of five bourbons and five ryes in anonymized labels and randomized order, had them sniff each, and then a few days later drink each and group them into whichever categories they pleased, people tended to catalogue the drinks based on alcohol content, bottling age, and brand (i.e., Jim Beam whiskeys are known for undertones of roasted peanuts). Telling apart a drink's mash bill, on the other hand, may need to be left to the professionals—perhaps the subject of a future food science test. (See why bourbons are in short supply.)