Don't tell Heather Greene there's a proper way to drink whiskey.

Greene, a whiskey expert who calls Downtown Jersey City home, was asked during a recent tasting whether drinking whiskey neat -- no ice, no water, not chilled, not mixed -- is the "right" way.

"There is no right way," she said. "I'm all about the populist way of drinking whiskey. You don't have to be super fancy about it. You can drink it however you like it."

She should know. Greene just finished a two-year stint as the director of whiskey education and sommelier at the Flatiron Room in Manhattan, and last year celebrated the publication of her first book, "Whiskey Distilled: A Populist Guide to the Water of Life." There are few people on Earth who know more about whiskey, whether it's single-malt Scotch, bourbon or rye.

Whiskey has made a tremendous comeback in recent years. Bourbon and Tennessee whiskey makers raked in nearly $2.7 billion in revenue in 2014, up 9.6 percent from the previous year, while sales of premium whiskeys like Knob Creek jumped nearly 20 percent, according to the Distilled Spirits Council.

Greene said there are many reasons for the increased interest in whiskey, including a certain AMC drama about advertising executives often seen sipping the stuff.

"Some people call it the 'Mad Men' effect," she said, "that nod to nostalgia, with Don Draper and all that chic sexiness."

As part of her continued effort to promote whiskey as the globe's finest spirit, Greene last Monday stepped behind the bourbon bar at new restaurant Park and Sixth, across the street from City Hall, to teach three Jersey City power players and whiskey novices -- Mayor Steve Fulop, Councilwoman Candice Osborne and Corporation Counsel Jeremy Farrell -- all about the "water of life."

NOSE AROUND

The first trick to enjoying whiskey is not to taste it right away.

There are countless aromatics formed during the whiskey-making process: vanilla, coconut, even sulfur. Smelling before you sip -- it's called nosing -- helps to tease out these flavors.

There are five basic tastes, Greene notes, but over 1 trillion smells.

"Nosing is everything," she said at Park and Sixth last week.

Greene started off the tasting by handing Fulop, Osborne and Farrell two glasses each, one with rye and one with whiskey. To differentiate between these two classic whiskeys, she told them, it's important to evaluate them side-by-side.

"Smell them," she said. "Rye has a sort of herbaceous, kind of grassy, white peppery, tingly kind of smell, and bourbon is a much more orange, vanilla kind of whiskey."

The three politicos poked their noses into their glasses.

"I can smell vanilla for sure," Osborne said. "I can kind of smell the grass."

Farrell, who came into the tasting a Scotch enthusiast, added, "And they smell more different than they taste."

Greene smiled and nodded. In her book, she argues that, if you plug your nose and taste whiskeys from different regions, you won't be able to tell the difference between them.

For the uninitiated, whiskey is an umbrella term that includes Scotch, bourbon and rye. It can be made using corn, wheat, rye and malted barley. Though Scotland (where it's spelled whisky) is home to over 100 whiskey distilleries and Kentucky is famous for its bourbon, the "water of life" can be made anywhere. Japan is home to some "beautiful" and "very refined" whiskeys, Greene said as she handed them each a glass of a Japanese single malt.

"No shots," she said. "Just sip."

Her City Hall tastetesters weren't quite as enamored.

"It has, first of all, less of a smell, and on the taste I feel like, to me at least, it feels like a less interesting or sophisticated flavor," Fulop said after sipping a Japanese whiskey.

Osborne concurred: "It tastes like you have nickels in your mouth."

CORNUCOPIA OF FLAVORS

Greene became an expert in all things whiskey almost by accident.

For nearly a decade, she worked as a singer-songwriter, but while living temporarily in Scotland in 2005, she began working at the Scotch Malt Whisky Society after answering a want ad in a local newspaper.

Within a few months, she appeared on a panel of whiskey experts performing cask tastings, and soon she was crisscrossing the globe as a "whiskey ambassador" for Glenfiddich, which makes the world's best-selling single-malt Scotch. In 2012, she became New York's first female sommelier.

Greene moved on from the Flatiron Room after her book was released last year, when she became more in demand for consulting gigs, classes and tastings. She has taught the fundamentals of whiskey to Bill Clinton, members of Congress and, now, three of Jersey City's top political players.

For Fulop, Osborne and Farrell, Greene poured out samples of a rye, a bourbon, three different types of Scotch and the Japanese single malt.

Though whiskeys are all made from the same ingredients -- water, yeast and some type of grain -- different grains and water sources and the method of distilling creates a "cornucopia of flavors" that gives each whiskey a distinctive taste, Greene told them.

For Osborne, first elected to the council in 2013 the same night voters chose Fulop to be mayor, rye was her least favorite. Her eyes filled with tears when she sipped it.

"The rye is the gross one," she said. "Now when people try to order rye, I'll say, 'You're just trying to be cool.'"

Farrell remained a Scotch lover and Fulop preferred the bourbon.

Greene lit up when the mayor could tell the difference between glasses of bourbon, rye and Scotch just by nosing, the method Greene says is the single most important element in appreciating whiskey.

"When you smell them all," Fulop said, "you can tell which is which."

"What's really fun for me is you got it right away," Greene told him.

Fulop laughed.

"I got it. I got it," he said. "I'm done. I'm an expert."

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd.