Like many of you, we are tuning in to the second season of Mad Men — AMC’s drama set in the 1960s and centered around the offices of Sterling Cooper, a fictional advertising agency. Of course we love it that the show’s main character, Don Draper, is a fan of the great American cocktail: Rye whiskey. We’ve seen him drink it straight, on the rocks, and in an Old-Fashioned.

We know how Don drinks his rye, but how do you take yours? On Tuesday we posed this question to our friends on Twitter, and here are just a few of their responses:

CourtneeCee: On the rocks…the rocks never tasted so good.

GeneralRed: on the rocks, but also with sweet vermouth for a rye manhattan…the way they make it at the Royal Mile (no cherries)

mikejcorey: In a Manhattan. Cosmo Lounge in downtown DM makes a great one with it.

Let’s keep this conversation going. Readers: How do you drink your TR? Please add your responses to the comments area below.

Our friends at Sage the Restaurant will be featuring a Templeton Rye-themed menu on September 8th and 9th with a cash bar starting at 6:00 p.m. and dinner beginning promptly at 7:00 with communal seating. A Templeton Rye cocktail will be paired with each course. Cost per person is $65 plus tax and gratuity. To make your reservations, please contact Sage directly at 515-255-7722. The complete menu is posted below.

Salad
Templeton Rye poached grilled Missouri peaches, with baby greens, carmelized pecans, red onions and Maytag Blue Cheese.

Fish
Templeton Rye marinated and cherrywood smoked seabass with a frisee and radish salad with a horse radish vinagrettte.

Meat
Braised Niman Ranch Pork atop an Iowa sweet corn spoonbread and a Templeton Rye apricot glaze.

Dessert
Templeton Rye bread pudding with a TR chocolate sauce.

Photo credit: Joe Crimmings Photography

Many of you have been asking about Templeton Rye distillery tours. We are pleased to announce that we’ll be offering several tour dates through the end of the year! For a complete schedule, visit our distillery tours page.

Please contact kevin@templetonrye.com with your questions or to secure a spot.

Recently, we were honored to host United States Senator Tom Harkin for a VIP distillery tour. Senator Harkin has long known about Templeton Rye from his travels across our great state, and he was very excited to see the distillery.

The Templeton Rye team discussed many issues with the senator, including rural development, renewable energy and specific challenges facing our company. Below are photos that we captured during the tour.

From left to right: Master Distiller Meryl Kerkhoff, Senator Tom Harkin and Assistant Master Distiller Keith Kerkhoff in front of the Templeton Rye still.

Master Distiller Meryl Kerkhoff and Gene Wiese of Manning discuss historic photos in the tasting room.

Assistant Master Distiller Keith Kerkhoff explaining the finer points of whiskey filtering.

By the early 1930s, many Templeton Rye stills had been shut down and destroyed by authorities. Despite these Prohibition efforts, there was still a surprising abundance of Templeton Rye.

The excerpt below from the Iowa News Service describes one young man’s account of the Templeton Rye supply in 1932.

It is estimated by persons who should know that there are now only three stills of any importance in the surrounding county. The rest, they say, were wiped out a year or so ago when for a short time authorities destroyed them at the rate of three a day.

The supply, however, is still adequate. Recently, a young man with an investigative turn of mind barged into Templeton to see what he could drink. In response to his initial inquiry he was informed that finding Templeton Rye these days was like locating a needle in a haystack.

Never, the young man now reports, did he come in contact with a needle so large, or a haystack so small.

Got a TR story of your own to share? Please leave a comment below, or click here to tell us all about it.

During the Great Depression, many Iowans were making and selling Templeton Rye just to get by. The small towns would work together to warn each other when the Feds were coming. “The roads are rough” was code to watch out for the Feds, but it was also very symbolic of the times.

Gerald Gesinger of Carroll County shares the story behind the warning message and his memories of bootlegging during the Depression in the video below:

View more stories on YouTube at our Templeton Rye channel.

Got a TR story of your own to share? Please leave a comment below, or click here to tell us all about it.

Harry W. Harmeyer of Carroll, Iowa, reminisces about drinking Templeton Rye and his dancing days in Templeton:

View more stories on YouTube at our Templeton Rye channel.

Got a TR story of your own to share? Please leave a comment below, or click here to tell us all about it.