It was a good afternoon here at the OnMilwaukee.com offices today.

The Jim Beam team made a visit to the official OnMilwaukee.com bar in our main lobby to sample several bourbon selections from Jim Beam's Original Small Batch Bourbon Collection.

We tasted them lightest to strongest, beginning with Basil Hayden's (80 proof), moving to Knob Creek (100 proof) and then advancing to Baker's (107 proof) and Booker's (127 proof).

All were incredibly smooth, although, admittedly, the team had to teach us how to taste appropriately. There's no swirling of the glasses here, like with wine. Instead, for best flavor, drink at room temperature and take a hearty sip so that the spirit touches the middle of your tongue. If you're timid and just dip your tongue in the glass, you're going to get burned.

Sales rep Kim Hanson explained the ins and outs of what makes a bourbon a bourbon, as opposed to a whiskey (distilled in brand new, charred oak barrels for a minimum of two years) and why bourbon is a relatively "healthy" choice among other spirits (it's as pure as you can get, with no sugar added.)

There's a lot to be learned about this brown spirit that is often over-shadowed by more popular whiskey choices and that's why Jim Beam's bourbon professors and master distillers are hosting Bourbon School Classes -- a little education, a little sampling.

The next class at the Iron Horse Hotel next Wednesday, Jan. 14 and it's open to the public at 8 p.m.

Cheers, bourbon lovers!