My first bottle of rye was a bottle of Wild Turkey (edit: old Wild Turkey Rye, 101 proof, just before the new bottles came out and rye was dropped down to 81 proof. 101 was delicious, 81 is just mediocre, such a shame) I bought for around 2700 yen at the Don Quixote downtown. With it, I made my first Manhattan, and it was awesome. That was also back when I didn’t have anything else to mix with, so unfortunately I ran through it pretty quickly.

My next rye was a bottle of Old Overholt purchased for the low low price of around 1400 yen in a specialty shop on Ginza Dori. Compared to the Wild Turkey, it’s a bit rougher around the edges and lacking a lot of the rye punch present in the WT. Although it’s half the price of the Turkey, I don’t think I’ll be buying it again.

On my most recent jaunt to the Don Quixote, I noticed they had some Jim Beam Rye for under 2000 yen, so that’ll probably be my next rye after the Old Overholt runs out. I really wish I had some Wild Turkey though; it was really good.