LYNCHBURG, TN—Saying the spirit had been blended with construction workers, farmers, and airline pilots in mind, distiller Jack Daniel’s unveiled a new whiskey Thursday designed to be consumed while operating heavy machinery. “Whether it’s a forklift, dump truck, or crane, nothing lightens the load of handling large industrial equipment like Jack Daniel’s Blue-Collar Label Whiskey,” said company spokesperson Luke Montgomery, who added that the white oak barrel-aged whiskey also takes the edge off for workers operating a drilling rig in a coal mine or on an offshore oil platform. “It’s perfect for sipping discreetly from a thermos while barreling down a cornfield in a combine harvester toward screaming farmhands, or down a runway in an Airbus 320 toward screaming baggage handlers. The next time you’re in the business district of a major city swinging around a 12,000-pound wrecking ball, consider the bold, distinct flavor of Jack Daniel’s.” Company officials later clarified that the new Jack Daniel’s was perfect for “plain old drinking and driving” too.
The main asphalt plant and quarry I worked at ~20 years ago had a long standing story that the guys running the front end loaders in the quarry did so with a large cooler filled with beer on every shift. The main path they traveled was “paved with their discarded cans.” As ‘proof,’ there was a picture in the control house of the crushing plant of a red pickup truck with a utility bed. The entire truck sat no higher than the tires. One of the operators had driven a 992 loader over the middle of the foreman’s truck when they said no more drinking on the job.