Bushmills vs. Jameson: The North-South Showdown
Bushmills from the north is the malt school: it makes whiskey exclusively from malted barley and puts its faith in single malts. Jameson from the south is the king of blends built on the pot still tradition. Neither is objectively better; each represents a different take on Irish whiskey.
Which is older?
Bushmills prides itself on a licence to distil dating from 1608, granted by King James I, which makes the County Antrim distillery the oldest licensed distillery in the world. The Old Bushmills brand itself was established in 1784. Jameson is younger: John Jameson took over the Bow Street distillery in Dublin in 1780. In the historical contest, then, the north leads by more than 170 years.
How does the production differ?
- Bushmills: malted barley only, triple distillation, its own single malts (10, 16, 21 y.o.) as well as blends (Original, Black Bush)
- Jameson: a mix of pot still whiskey (malted plus unmalted barley) and grain whiskey, triple distilled at Midleton
What they share is triple distillation and a minimum of three years' maturation; smoothness is in both brands' DNA.
How do they differ in taste?
Bushmills Original is lighter and drier, with notes of apple and malt; Black Bush, thanks to its high proportion of single malt matured in sherry casks, offers dried fruit and nuts. Jameson Original, by contrast, is rounder and sweeter, with vanilla and caramel. Put simply: Bushmills is elegance, Jameson is silkiness.
Does north versus south actually matter?
Bushmills sits in Northern Ireland, while Jameson is made in County Cork in the Republic of Ireland. The rivalry between the brands, though, is mostly marketing legend; nowadays you can buy both anywhere, and their fans divide along lines of taste rather than geography. At Little Island in Frydek-Mistek we stock both brands in several expressions, so you can referee the north-south showdown yourself.
The verdict?
Beginners usually take to Jameson, while single malt lovers gravitate to Bushmills Black Bush and upwards. But the best answer comes from a side-by-side tasting. Come to tr. T. G. Masaryka 1129 in Frydek-Mistek; we are open Monday to Thursday from 14:00, and on Fridays until 04:00. The menu is at /napojovy-listek.