![]() It’s instructive to note that many bars in Scotland itself provide small pitchers of local water on the bar counters for patrons to use with their whisky. If you try to pour the water from a glass, you will put TOO MUCH in and simply dilute the whisky. How much water? I generally use a straw to pick up some water (you remember playing with fast-food straws as a kid, right?) and drop 4 or 5 drops into my glass. They literally unravel, releasing new flavor compounds and esters (volatile compounds that smell like flowers and fruits). A chemical reaction occurs between the water and the tightly-wound chains of amino acids in the whisky. Ok here’s the big controversy: Water in your scotch, or not? Nowadays just about everyone agrees that a little (emphasis on ‘little’) water helps a whisky (especially subtle or floral single malts) ‘open up’ in the glass. You won’t be able to taste the fine nuances of a single-malt, and so you’ll end up “wasting” the money you spent on that nice bottle. The quality improvement in the cocktail from using expensive whisky is just not going to offset the massive increase in price. ![]() There are plenty of fantastic cocktails (even some inventive ones using young peated malts to imbue smokiness in the drink) out there, but you’re better off using blends or inexpensive malts for this as well. No Mixers.Īgain, if you want to get the best out of your expensive bottles of whisky, drink them without mixers like soda water, cola, or fruit juice. Take my advice: learn to savor good single-malt scotch neat (“straight up”: no ice). If you like the taste of whisky on ice, get some decent (cheap) blends like Johnnie Walker, Famous Grouse, etc, or some inexpensive Irish whiskey ( Jameson or Powers, or Bourbon ( Malt Advocate likes these two). Ok, I just told you you can drink whisky however you like… but I can guarantee that if you add ice to your whisky, especially single-malt or anything costing more than $30 a bottle, you will be dulling the flavors that you paid so much to get. Here’s a brief guide for my fellow Noobs out there: 1. There are, however, a few words of wisdom spoken in whisk(e)y circles about the “right” way to do things. If you like mixing The Macallan 18 with Gatorade and drinking it from a mason jar, you go right ahead and do it (just don’t make me watch!). First, let me start off by saying that nobody should ever tell you how to drink your whisky. ![]()
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