PB & J(ameson)

Don’t click away after reading that subtitle. Hear me out, ok?

We’re heading for some cold weather, and what better way to spend your days indoors than with a fiery whiskey and a nutty, crunchy snack? C’mon, it’s delicious, and I think you should give it a shot.

Let me explain how this all came to be.

Ever since I was in middle school, one of my favorite snacks has been pretzel sticks dipped in peanut butter. I’d come home from school, scoop some Snyder’s pretzel sticks onto a paper plate, and add a dollop of peanut butter on the side. I’d sit and do my homework while scooping the peanut butter on the pretzel sticks and eating it in record time. Sometimes I’d go back for seconds.

Why not just eat pretzels filled with peanut butter? While peanut butter filled pretzels exist, the dunking of the pretzels in the peanut butter makes the experience better. The Skippy peanut butter tasted smoother and yummier, and I got to choose how much to put on each pretzel. Fast forward to today: I’m still eating my pretzels with some peanut butter scooped on the side.

Also unlike those school days, I’m years past twenty-one at this point, meaning I can go buy myself a healthy bottle of Jameson whenever I please. My mom turned me on to an easy mixed drink: Jameson, ginger ale, a healthy dose of ice, and a small lime wedge. It has that little burn you’d expect from hard liquor with that subtle gingery sweetness from the ginger ale. The drink itself is great. What makes it better is how it’s become such a shareable thing so quickly. I have it at home when I visit my parents. My family likes to whip out the Jameson at holidays now too. I’ve also been introducing friends to it, and we make our own on the weekends. It’s a fun drink to have with company.

The nostalgia and family connection makes this such a great treat for me to have. Peanut butter and pretzels can totally be a great adult snack too. It’s not too sweet or juvenile, and you can totally eat it while your sitting around with your loved ones on a chilly winter night. The Jameson works the same way. It’s a great social drink. You pour a few glasses of this simple cocktail and you’re good to go.

In general, whiskey is a great drink for the cold weather specifically because of that warmth. It’s warm going down, and it gives you a nice and easy buzz fairly quickly. Jameson isn’t too heavy. It has this very faint hint of fruitiness and a healthy dose of woodsy nuttiness. Once the sun goes down, nothing tastes better. Once it’s cold and the sun goes down quicker, you’re in the prime time to enjoy your whiskey.

Enter the peanut butter. The peanut butter and pretzel combo is like the food version of whiskey. You’ve got the nuttiness. You’ve got the smoothness of the peanut butter to match the smoothness of the whiskey going down. You’ve got that nice crunch when you bite into the pretzel. It’s texture gold. It’s savory. What’s more, peanut butter can also fill in for those sweet chocolate cravings, so you get all the flavors you could want from a snack in this combo.

Putting the drink and the snack together is really a magical experience. The Jameson & Ginger can wash down pretty much everything. Once you’ve had a mouthful of peanut butter, the whiskey is the perfect flavor to get that slightly sticky feeling out of your mouth. The only thing to make it better is a plush, cozy couch, and nice fuzzy blanket. At least, that’s all I need to feel comfortable and relaxed during the hectic holiday months.

So put your feet up and settle in with a savory, salty, and smooth combo. It’ll taste fantastic when it’s cold outside, and you won’t want to have anything else during the holidays.