Огненный бурбон

How do you know when you’ve really made it in life? It depends on who you are and what racket you’re in. For charming chumps like us, success could mean dental insurance, a bed that doesn’t fold in half, or an honorably discharged student loan. For those of loftier falutions, arrival in the big leagues might be marked by the acquisition of an assistant or an unused car.

Even more ambitious folk gravitate toward fields with well-known mountaintops. Actors want Oscars. Pianists shoot for Carnegie Hall. Gymnasts go for gold. And flavored spirits marketers hope to land a signature cocktail on the Applebee’s menu.

By this last measure, and most others, the pushers of Fireball Cinnamon Whisky have been phenomenally successful: Fireball is the fastest-growing liquor brand in America, with already-strong retail sales doubling from 2013 to 2014, so it’s no surprise that the Fireball Whiskey Lemonadeheadlines the ’Bee’s 2015 summer cocktail list.

Fireball, a cinnamon-spiked liqueur produced by the Sazerac Company, spent a couple decades under the radar as Dr. McGillicuddy’s Fireball Whisky before a 2006 rebranding helped launch the 66-proof Canadian import’s climb up the American shot charts. It’s now the sixth most popular spirit in the country by retail sales volume, which doesn’t account for its even greater success in its natural habitat: hanging around a sticky barroom waiting for the chance to jump down the throats of post-teen screamers looking for a little something to eliminate their Bud Light breath and their inhibitions.

And if you need any more evidence that Fireball is a certified hit, consider the imitators it has launched. There are dozens of hot-cinnamon-flavored spirits out there now, many of them whiskey-based, and one of them made by the most iconic name in American booze: Jack Daniel’s. That’s right, the country’s best-selling brown liquor has seen fit to take on the red-hot Canuck with Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Fire, a 70-proof blend of cinnamon liqueur and Jack’s famous Old No. 7 sour mash whiskey. What say we pour a couple shots and have them fight it out?