Iowa and Illinois Love Our Whiskey, According to Searches
It's no secret we like our booze up here and researchers at Upgraded Points set to figure out what our favorites are.
The study used Google Trends to compile each state's favorite liquor types, and favorite liquor brands, and mapped out the results from the search volumes.
Iowa's favorite liquor is whiskey, but the state's favorite liquor brand is Malibu. (If you're confused by that, no worries, there are plenty of states whose favorite liquor doesn't match their favorite brand. The study found only 15 states chose brands that match their favorite liquor.) The state's fave celebrity brand is UFC fighter Conor McGregor's Proper No. Twelve Irish Whiskey.
Illinois also likes whiskey but their favorite brand is Ketel One. Their favorite celebrity brand is NBA player Scottie Pippen's DIGITS Bourbon.
The weird outlier for this study is Nevada. Their favorite liquor is absinthe. Ew.
The study measured Google Trends from February 2021-February 2022. As you can see from the map, the most popular form of liquor overall in America is whiskey (which includes my home state, Arkansas), followed closely by vodka (which apparently the northeast loves).
Malibu is the most popular brand across the states with McGregor's Proper No. Twelve Irish Whiskey and Dan Aykroyd & John Alexander's Crystal Head Vodka being the top celebrity liquor brands.
The study found Americans like a wide variety of liquor. Out of the 14 types that the researchers looked up, 11 were found to be the most popular booze in at least one state.