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Highly suggest making an old fashioned flight to try it out. Choose your favorite bourbon (which has a corresponding rye), and make 3 old fashioned, 1 with only bourbon, 1 with only rye, and 1 with a 50:50 blend. You might be surprised which you prefer.
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This is pretty common in rum drinks, especially tiki. Like you said, rye offers something unique separate from traditional “bourbon” and so the flavor profile of the end drink is different
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To bring that full circle, Fairmont (the hotel) does their house Old Fashioned using 50/50 rum and bourbon. I believe it was Mount Gay and Woodford.
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It guarantees a minimum balance of corn and rye in the resulting blend. If you have a whiskey that you know has an appropriate mash bill (e.g. Rittenhouse BiB) then you could be boring and just use that. But there's also more to a whiskey than its mash bill. Blending different kinds can yield new and interesting flavors. And after all isn't that what cocktails are all about?
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