Lack of a taste for good whisky/whiskey does not make you less than human. You
have free will, or so I’ve been told. <g>
I had a strong taste for brown spirits when I was under the drinking age
because it was readily available from my parents’ liquor cabinet, and, after I
reached driving age, from drunks “hired” to purchase it from the local state
store. Then, the object of the exercise was inebriation, not appreciation of
fine spirits, so the experiences were wasted, not to mention lost in the fog
of, ah, youth.
For many years I pretty much left alcohol alone, except for the occasional gin
and tonic or decent beer. About 10 years ago I started rummaging around in our
liquor cabinet and found, much to my surprise, a small stash of single malt
Scotch and higher quality blended Canadian whisky. Also there was something I
had forgotten entirely: a bottle of Dewar’s sent to me by a friend many years
ago from a case he had received as payment for being the feature of one of
those old macho Dewar’s ads. As I recall, it was labeled as 12 years old, and
had been in my possession for at least 25-30 years. I know aging in the bottle
doesn’t count, but let me assure you, even blended Scotch that’s been hanging
around for 40+ years is, well seductive.
So while I still enjoy gin-and-tonics (gins-and-tonic?) I’ve been reborn into
the fold of the whisky/whiskey appreciators. The selection these days is
nothing short of mind-boggling and I have convinced myself that, for example,
the various flavors of Jack Daniels are mostly marketing. The original Black
Jack is fine enough for me, and is especially suited for the classic “hot
toddy” of tea, lemon, honey and whiskey. It’s also good neat, on the rocks,
with water _and_ rocks, and even, if you’ve a hankering for fizz, club soda.
The same can’t be said for Scotch. The various bottlings of single malt are
also mind-boggling, and I’m sure some of it is marketing, as with Jack Daniels,
but I’ve been through enough samples of single malt to know there are real
differences, however subtle, among, for example, the various contemporary
bottlings of Talisker. I’ll never exhaust the available supply of single malt,
but I shall try. <g> And for what it’s worth, to my taste, single malt should
never be mixed with anything more than a single drop or two of water. And by
drop or two, that’s exactly what I mean. According to whisky lore, a drop or
two of water added to a proper dram somehow releases hidden subtleties of the
whisky.
Don’t get me started on beer. It’s enough to say I’ve long since stopped
drinking it for its ability to turn me stupid and restrict myself to the
occasional pint of something good to accompany one food or another. In fact, I
tend to think of beer as food now, to be appreciated rather than swilled.
But everyone’s mileage varies, and while having failed to develop a taste for
whisky/whiskey does not make you less of a human, it does deny you one of the
purer aspects of heaven on earth. <g>
--Bob Whitmire
Certified Neanderthal
On Apr 6, 2015, at 9:41 AM, Paul Braun <pbraun42@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I feel as if I'm somehow less of a human, but I've never developed a taste
> for whiskey/whisky. I mean, if someone offers me a shot as part of a toast,
> I'll drink it, but I've just never developed a taste to the point where
> I'll actively seek it out.
>
> On Mon, Apr 6, 2015 at 1:05 AM, Nathan Wajsman <photo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Because I drink less now than before, my collection of good booze has
>> grown somewhat, since I travel a lot and so spend a lot of times in
>> airports where there are often interesting offerings to be found. As a
>> result, my whisky altar contains whiskies from six countries plus assorted
>> other goodies:
>>
>>
>> http://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/4253606_kdsZ6C#!i=3975113089&k=kVWHrnk&lb=1&s=O
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|