Guess which whiskey the US military buys by the barrel

Seeing as they have to put up with some truly horrible food, as well as truly horrible situations, our troops deserve some premium hooch. And in fact, they already have a favorite lined up for their gift list. Business Insider reports that the US military is actually the world's largest buyer of Jack Daniel's Single Barrel -- and has been for the past 16 years.

The intel comes from Jack Daniel's master distiller, Jeff Arnett, who says the military has been a huge fan of Single Barrel since day one. They've been the top buyers of the "By the Barrel" program -- wherein customers can pick out their own barrel of the stuff -- since it launched in 1998, just a year after Single Barrel debuted. (Just for perspective, a barrel contains about 250 bottles-worth of whiskey and these particular ones can run between $9,000 and $12,000.) Navy SEAL teams in particular have been known to buy the barrels, and it's even rumored that the team which took out bin Laden purchased one after the raid. MacDill Air Force Base has also bought several, proving the brand's popularity across multiple military branches. As holiday parties gear up into full swing, we only hope commanding officers have saved some of the booze for their bashes.

Kristin Hunt is a Food/Drink staff writer for Thrillist, and kinda assumed that the US military just bought that Svedka with the stars and stripes on it. Follow her to misconceptions at @kristin_hunt.