What's the Best Whiskey Chaser?

WHO INVENTED THE JAMESON PICKLEBACK SHOT?
Guest blog by Kanna Smith

My mom and I may not have gotten along when I was younger, but boy do things change. After an exhausting December day filled with obligations, we decided to grab a drink.

I’d never done shots with my mom before, and she was long past her shot days, and I wasn’t taking no for an answer.

After all, “Jameson and good decisions” was my life motto.

I might be less than classy after six or seven shots, but I’m the best version of myself with a little Irish in me. So we were off to the Hermosa Saloon.

Little did I know that it would end with me giving this tiny woman a piggyback ride on our trek home.

Like everyone’s favorite party-harty man-whore, Jameson is everywhere —loved by many and despised by those he fucked over (the weak). And those people are easily coaxed back to Jame-o with a simple pickleback.

If you're going to be an asshole who orders a chaser, try pickle juice. The judgmental stare of a bartender seems to soften when you request a pickleback.

Though she was hesitant, my mom is a drinking champion. It was pretty impressive to watch a 5’3” 105 pound woman toss back shots the way she did. I finally knew where I got it from. One shot turned to two, two shots turned to three, and three shots turned into forcing the bartender to join in our fun.

Like most nights that end in mornings hunched over toilets regretting every life-choice ever
made, we’d had no intention of getting so wrecked.

Between the shots, we mended a once-broken relationship. Picklebacks helped.

Who knew that brine would cut the burn of alcohol and the past? A goddamned genius.

Piggybacks after Picklebacks

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Legend has it an old lady with gold teeth walked into the Bushwick Country Club one night and asked for multiple shots and chasers of brine. The bartender liked it so much, he coined the term "pickleback" back in 2006.

Mostly people in NYC shot pickle brine behind Old Crow Bourbon. Salt changes the PH and seems to lessen the burn of ethanol. Alcohol burn whilst doing many shots can lead to sore throats and worse hangovers.

I like to think it's Las Vegas's obsession with Jameson Irish Whiskey is what propelled the pickleback to international notoriety.

Have you seen Girls Trip?

What I like about this film overall is that it's not a "black movie." And I mean to say that this is the GET OUT of comedy. It's not a film about racial stereotypes, but it's a film that doesn't ignore them either. It's a good movie if you like raunchy comedies that deign to attempt to transcend their genre.

Think Farrelly brothers at their best meets Ice Cube at his best.

Every time it panders to the lowest common denominator with piss or penis jokes, it buys you back with a lesson about loyalty and sisterhood that comes off as genuine because it's not acknowledged until the films denouement, which is predictable, but worth it.

There's even a stupid trope about the dangers of absinthe sold in a Michael Epps cameo that's derivative, but everything in comedy is just another cue telling us when to laugh, so it's excusable or at least as excusable as when they did it in EURO TRIP. It's a hallmark of the genre of buddy trip comedies, and they do it well enough.

I think it's the only decent comedy I've seen this year, and that's sad since this country needs it so much right now. Maybe this country always needs it.

DEAR HOLLYWOOD, MORE GOOD COMEDY, PLEASE!