Liquors!
 

(Thread renamed to liquors so it's a bit more inclusive ;))

I'm thinking there's probably a few here who have a taste for whisky. I acquired mine after living in the tax-free norwegian arctic where beer is cheaper than milk and - when a litre of Laphroaig Quarter Cask was 800 NOKs on the mainland, it only cost about 250 up there. There was also the Karls-Berger pub up there which is famous for it's selection of cognacs and whisky although they certainly knew how to make money selling it. Before on the mainland, real whisky was much too expensive - especially when I didn't even know what I was buying, but up there it was cheap enough even for a poor student like me to incorporate into his life and many of those bottles became good friends, especially in the dark time of the year when the sun never comes up, it's cold and perhaps a little lonely.

No, it's not a thread about alcoholism, it's a thread about passion!

As far as I know, we're not professional tasters and taste notes and the like are most likely way beyond most of us by far, but try and write a little about the whiskys you like and perhaps why you like them. I'd love to get some nice tips and maybe I can give some myself for others to pick up and try out.


I'll start out with one of my own favourites already mentioned in this thread :


Laphroaig Quarter Cask (Single Islay Malt)

http://www.vinolea.com/catalog/image...ter%20cask.jpg

Laphroaig is one of the famous distilleries from the south-west scottish island Islay, several of which distilleries are known for their intensely peat-flavoured whiskys. The first Laphroaig I tasted was the 10 year old which personally gave strong associations to bonfire on the beach by the sea. It's like you can taste the salty ocean in the whisky - and of course there's lots of smoke there. Having grown up in a marine culture, this had strong appeal to me. Laphroaig Quarter Cask is matured in small casks, a quarter of the size of the regular - and this increases the wood surface to volume ratio and gives an increased oaky flavour to the whisky. The 10 year old is good, but I slightly prefer the quarter cask.

The young whisky does pack a punch and my favourite way of enjoying it is with just a few drops of water in the glass and then a fresh tasting lager on the side. It's not too good if it's warm (so perhaps not at it's best at the height of summer), but somewhere between 15~20 degrees celcius, it is magnificent. Highly recommended!

Your turn :)

I'm a huge fan of bourbon, other types of whiskey not so much. Knob Creek is easily my favorite but it's fairly expensive so I don't drink it very often.

http://intoxicologist.files.wordpres.../knobcreek.jpg

It's made by the same distillery that makes Jim Beam, which is my primary bourbon of choice.

best name ever :laughing: sounds like slang for a flower :laughing:

Bringing bourbon into my whisky thread? ;) Just kidding, I think I'll use my mod powers and turn it into a thread about any kind of liquor. That might make it more inclusive!

Bourbon's not bad, but I've yet to taste one that actually excites me. Actually, the same goes for all whiskys/whiskeys not made in Scotland :laughing: I need to get my taste buds out there.

I don't get it. :confused: I guess there's some Scottish terminology involved that I'm not hip to because it just sounds like the name of a small river to me.

Well bourbon is a type of whiskey.

knob ;)

That I knew. I'm not getting the connection to flowers though.

Yeah, but it's not a "whisky" (without an "e") as that spelling implies only the stuff made in Scotland (okay - and Canada and Japan).

Anyways, since it's now about liquor in general, I can write about my favourite bitter which is Fernet Branca.

http://www.altacucinasociety.com/db/...caandshotG.jpg

It's an italian bitter made from a secret recipe that involves X amount of herbs. It's quite bitter to the taste and unlike sugar-infested gloop like Jägermeister, it's thankfully not sweet. It's sharp and fresh with a taste like aggressive, herby mouthwash. Like certain other bitters, it's rumoured to cure various ailments like headaches (duh), stomach aches and hangovers.

It's the kind of thing you either love or hate. A lot of people don't like it for it's bitterness while some love it for the same reason. Appearantly, it's immensely popular in Argentina and it's commonly enjoyed in a glass with cold coka cola.

I like it bare with a glass of cold water on the side. Lovely :) and it was also dirt cheap up there!

Wait... what? I think we're operating on completely different information here. To my knowledge "whiskey" and "whisky" are just two different spellings of the same word referring to the same type of alcohol. The word that specifies it being from Scotland is "scotch".

ma bad :(

theee flower :)

Ah, I know that one too. I'm just not used to hearing it from anyone under the age of 80 or so. :laughing:

There's a naming culture where these liquors are called whisky (plural "whiskies") in Scotland, Canada, India and Japan and whiskey (plural "whiskeys") in Ireland and America. There are some exceptions to the rule, though. People are more or less serious about this. If you joined a forum for scottish whiskys and use the word "whiskey" to describe them, you would get corrected.

Flower for vagina .. That's cute. :p:

hahaha! i know i am mature, but cmon :| its common here teaching that word to children.. as oppossed to vagina :laughing: would be strange a child calling it that.

If I were talking about Scottish whisky I would say "scotch". If I were talking about the type of liquor in general I would spell it "whiskey" since that's the way the word is spelled in my country of origin but I wouldn't object to a person from Scotland or Japan referring to American or Irish whiskey as "whisky" since that's the way they spell it where they come from.

Honestly I was going a little young when I said 80. That usage of flower is actually something I associate more with the 1800s or something.

Interestingly, scotch is a word I've only heard in american movies and television shows although I guess maybe it's used in other english-speaking parts of the world. We don't use the word in Norway and there's no norwegian equivalent, so we're stuck with whisky and whiskey.

Well that kind of reinforces my point, the terms and spellings may vary from place to place but whiskey, whisky, scotch and bourbon are all referring to the same general class of alcohol which is distinct from other forms of liquor like rum or vodka.

Yes and no, the different uses of the word do imply where the liquor is from. Even if the products were identical, I would write an irish whiskey or - if it was scottish - a scottish whisky.

I'm quite sure someone from Scotland or Ireland who cares about this would also make sure he or she was consistent with spelling it "right", either as whiskey or whisky depending on where the product is from. In other words, the slightly separate spellings do serve a function.

So then what is your general name for the class of liquors that is comprised of whiskey, whisky, scotch and bourbon from all the various countries they come from?

I don't know of a written general name that covers them all. I would use the two names and write whiskies and whiskeys. For example if I made a thread that was supposed to be about bourbons as well as scotch, I would've called it "Whiskys & Whiskeys" or something similar.

Aquavit (Akevitt in Norway) is a scandinavian liquor sometimes made of grain but typically made from potatoes and flavoured with caraway seeds and sometimes other herbs. It has a rather unique flavour I think which I haven't come across anywhere else and aside from the flavourings I mentioned, I find the taste quite hard to describe.

Gammel Oppland is probably my favourite of our norwegian akevitts. It's matured in barrels so it's a brown liquor, though there are some clear akevitts out there as well.

http://www.norsk-akevitt.org/avApr/o...opland.low.jpg

You typically don't drink this on it's own. Usually, it's part of a rich meal around christmas times, often accompanied by a dark seasonal juleøl or yule-beer (christmas beer). Getting together for dinners and drinking is a tradition up here and with enough akevitt, it usually gets quite lively. People sing drinking songs and drink akevitt shots.

Aquavit is getting more and more recognition now outside Scandinavia which I personally think is great because it is awesome. However, it is always tied up with hearty meals like salty meat or fermented fish dishes with powerful flavours. If any of you ever come to visit during the later parts of the year, we'll get a bottle.

How about either "whiskey" or "whisky" as noted in the first paragraph of the very same Wikipedia article that you quoted to me earlier:

What you quoted would be true regardless of wether or not you accept that spelling implies geographical origin. Notice that I'm writing implies, I'm not saying this is definite. Your average person may not be aware of this, but if you enter communities and discussions with people who have an interest in these liquors, they likely will be.

For example you can read here about a poor reviewer who got a lot of complaints from angry scotsmen and scotch-supporters when he accidentally called a "whisky" for "whiskey" ..

>> Whiskey versus Whisky - The Pour Blog - NYTimes.com

As you can see, the Times style guideline he posts suggests using the word "whiskey" even for scotch, but you can probably tell by the number of complaints that for many, that's not satisfactory and even offensive to some.

This demonstrates that there are a lot of pedantic, hairsplitting people out there who enjoy making a big fuss out of nothing. The fact is the english language needs a word that covers the entire spectrum of this kind of beverage and in the common vernacular it has one in "whiskey" (or "whisky" depending on one's spelling preferences). This issue is the equivalent of Puerto Ricans insisting that rum from their shores must be called "ron" by everybody else on the planet (not saying they have, just that it would be ridiculous if they did). It's just silly.

"What's you favorite type of rum?"
"Bacardi."
"You fool! That's not rum, it's RON! Only Jamaican and Bajan sugarcane alcohol is called rum!"

Do you see how crazy this is?

really? its very common here, as i said before on teaching children. i was brought up using it :). must just be a thing that died out where you stay :(.

A bit maybe, but like Mr. Sheidlower wrote, it's a very consistent culture of spelling. Personally, I like that there's a word for (mainly) scottish whiskys which is the kind I like and so I consider it a good thing rather than a bad thing :p:

Language evolves differently in different places as demonstrated by this whole whisky/whiskey issue. There's nothing wrong with that, that's the beauty of having a world full of different cultures.

There is a word: "scotch".

I understand that there's a consistent spelling of "whisky" in Scotland and Canada, but that's true of many english words. That doesn't mean "whiskey" and "whisky" don't refer to the same general thing any more than it means that "theater" and "theatre" don't refer to the the same general thing.

^As I wrote, we don't have the word scotch in Norway. Regardless of what you think, among those who care for whiskeys, there's many who draw distinctions between whisky and whiskey. You can choose to respect it or not. If you don't respect it, you may get into language conflicts with those who do.

I do respect it and if I use the word "whisky" and not "whiskey", it's because I'm specifically referring to whiskys from specific localities. Scotch is a word I've yet to use much but maybe I should adopt it here to avoid future confusion.

"Whiskeys"? Wait... what's this? Did I just see you use one word to refer to this entire category of beverages regardless of their country of origin? Watch out or you might offend the delicate sensitivities of some of those New York Times readers!

As I mentioned in my first post in this thread I do care for whiskeys! Bourbon whiskeys specifically are my absolute favorite type of alcohol hands down. It's just the people who get hung up on minor regional spelling difference which sound exactly the same when spoken aloud that I don't care for.

Now you're just being a pain in the bum. Write something interestin about liquor, you lazy ass. :p:

Well, I enjoy both rum and ron...

:p:

Rum is a bit boring over here. The selection of rums you can easily obtain in the store are largely limited to different varieties of Captain Morgan's, Club Havana, Bacardi and Malibu if the last one counts ..

They are okay, but none of them are very exciting. I'm assuming there's a world of interesting rums out there for those who can get their hands on it though.

Well, my in-laws are Jamaican so I get exposed to a decent amount of good rum. Jamaican white rum is crazy by the way; it's incredibly strong, smells like model airplane glue and will fuck you up before you even know what hit you. Here's some Wray and Nephew (63% ABV):

http://empty.personal.asu.edu/wp-con...-white-rum.jpg


For a quality Jamaican rum that won't make you feel like you've been hit by a train I recommend Appleton Estate.

http://www.thedrinkshop.com/images/p.../3514/3514.jpg

I'll just chip in with a couple of favourites of my own...

http://sambasixtytwo.files.wordpress...y-sapphire.jpg
^ Anyone who thinks they hate gin needs to be pointed in the direction of this and a bottle of lemonade. It's just a pain in the arse how it's sold for its weight in gold and all.

http://www.travelinireland.com/pictu...on-whiskey.jpg
^ Malted + unmalted barley = awesomeness. Again, it's expensive as hell though.

Jameson is more for irish coffee than on it's own I think :D

I've heard stories about expensive, aged tequilas being enjoyed like fine cognacs. It's interesting because normally, tequila implies much sucking of grapes, licking salt off your own hands and getting generally ****faced over here. I mean, it's not a drink I associate with sophistication, at least not according to my own experiences so far.

Anyone tried the posh variant?

Can't say that I have, but in the States Jameson isn't all that expensive, and I'll drink that **** on the rocks. I dig it.

Janszoon - Nicely done with the Knob Creek drop. I like my bourbon as well.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3242/...1f4125.jpg?v=0
Now this! Is a winner. Wheat bourbon. Smooth as a baby's ass.

http://www.lasplash.com/uploads/2/bulleit_bourbon_1.jpg
This is nothing to scoff at, either. If you scoff at things, that is.

http://www.tequilasource.com/bottles...jo_2999_r2.jpg
But this is my shit. Specifically the Anejo. I am a tequila drinkin' fool. But I'm actually surprised I'm even in this thread, with the kind of hungover day I had.

Jamaican rum is rediculous. I stole a bottle from my uncle when I was in college and we had the bright idea of sneaking it into peoples beer bongs, good times.

I love Scotch, which usually leads people to believe that I'm a single malt snob, but I'm really not. I'll drink anything from Inver House which can be purchased in a 32 oz. plastic jug to Glenmorangie which at some places can go for over $30 a pour. I really can't get down with bourbon though; Knob Creek is definitely too sweet for my tastes, but I do have somewhat of a penchant for Jack Daniels.

OK I can't seem to find any pictures on Google right now and I'm away from my home so I can't take a picture of it, but it's a Cuban rum called Castillo Cuban Rum. She gets it while she's away on business in Mexico and I have to say it's probably the smoothest rum I've ever had. It's got enough of a kick to it to make you not shoot back the shots quickly like with white rums, but it's smooth enough to make you want to. If you can, try it with the Mexican Coke bottles because they're made from actual cane sugar rather than corn syrup. Generally the Mexican cokes are 200% better, but they're hard to come by. I know Costco and Sam's Club have them, but I'm sure Mexican run convenience stores would have it. Anyway, the blend of both flavors is nearly orgasmic and quite possibly the only sugary drink I will willingly drink.