Single Malt?

[PeteC]

Stopped in for a few post-haircut cold ones this afternoon and sat down next to a very friendly man from Scotland here on vacation. Chatted about many things, then the subject of Scotch came up. I asked if a single malt was really any better than a high premium scotch such as Johnny Walker Blue Label. He looked at me with shock on his face, got up and walked away down the soi Obviously, I am in need of teaching about this subject.

Is a single malt really so much "different" and "better" and why? Can you buy a single malt here in Thailand. Pete

[chelsea]

If they rate whisky the same as they do Vodka, blue lable smirnoff is about the strongest that I have ever had.
So perhaps that is the same with the ratings on Malt

[Jaime]

A wise Mallorcan man called Pepe had a bar near the beach. The bar was very popular with British ex-pats and return visitors. One day some old faces arrived on a birthday outing and called out to Pepe; "Which is your best champagne Pep?" The wise bar owner held up a bottle and replied slowly and deliberately, "Well, this is my most expensive champagne but my best champagne is the one you like the most...."

The moral of the story is: taste is subjective so don't be fooled or cowed by snobs.

[chelsea]

Blue label Smirnoff is I think more than 90% proof, so gives a good kick. In Aus, the trendy vodka is either Absolute or Stolli (From Poland but cannot spell the whole name).
Nowhere near as strong a blue label but is still good and gets to the spot.

If you have any cocktail bars in HH, does anyone do a good long island ice tea?????

Have managed two of them after a Saturday afternoon on the punt, numerous pints and dinner with a couple of bottles of wine.

Only problems was I went to get off a rather tall bar stool after retiring to the cocktail bar, when my feet hit the floor, I could not feel my legs.

Have to now limit them to one at the end of the night and not give into my weakness of not worrying how I fell the next day.

See everyone in the last week July

[Guess]

Jaime just about has it summed up.

A single Malt is made in one distillery only and the taste varies from region to region and from distillery to distillery. Many serious drinkers will have a preference to one or another and there are many.

Blended whiskies, as the name implies, are made from many different whiskies.

There are many excellent blends. Unfortunatel Johnnie Walker which is just a brand name that is owned by a large corporate (Diagio I think) do not produce any of them. The do produce some high priced whiskies which in my opinion are inferior to standard stuff like Paddy or Crown Royal.

I can undersstand why the guy walked off but also there is a lot of snobbery abd false knowledge floating about when it comes to the subect of Whisky.

As for 98% proof. There is no such thing. Proof is measured in degrees and equates to about double that of percentage. Ufortunately different countries have adopted different ratios.

Proofing was an old method of determining the spirit's strength. When 100 degrees proof liquid is added to gunpowder it will still ignite. When 99 degrees proof alchoholic mix is added it will not.

In the US Proof is double percentage.

The strongest spirit available legally worldwide that I am aware of is Absinthe which is a Pernod like drink at 170 degrees proof. There are illegal spirits available in Poland and Ireland that are even stronger.

Most of what you hear about Whiskies is marketting bullshit designed to sell to the mass market on the one hand and to con unsuspecting Japanese and other tourists who think that the more expensive it is the better it will be.

A bit like selling trainers to schoolkids really. Pay more and impress your friends.

[PeteC]

This is good. Lessons learned and comments:

1) Perhaps never discuss Scotch with a Scotsman?

2) I remember as a teenager mixing drinks at my friends house with his Dad's Ron Rico 151 proof rum. I think I missed school for 2 days.

3) If I gave a bottle of "no name" whisky to an Asian client, my business would be gone the next day. They like the "label status", for sure. ? (Even though they buy fake Louis Vitan (sp) bags in Bangkok for their wives who never know the difference).

I think a blind taste test of several different Scotch whiskeys is in order. Pete

[Jaime]

I think a blind taste test of several different Scotch whiskeys is in order. Pete

Presumably the blind test will get you blind drunk!?

On that same subject, I had a bottle of Chivas Regal and a bottle of Bell's whisky a couple of Christmasses ago. Both are blended whiskys but Chivas has the higher reputation. There wasn't much left in the Chivas bottle and I was keeping it for my grandad as he likes it. However, my wife and my sister in law also wanted to tuck into it, Chivas being a prized brand in LoS, so I suggested the Bell's instead. They both turned their noses up with such disdain that I made them do a blind taste test. Guess what? To their embarrassment they both chose the Bell's over the Chivas, thinking that it was the Chivas!

[PeteC]

I think a blind taste test of several different Scotch whiskeys is in order. Pete

Presumably the blind test will get you blind drunk!?

No, you're supposed to only sip it, spit it out into a trough, and then wipe your lips with a linen napkin, white in color and not startched, thus avoiding lip chafe. At least the wine guys do it that way.

I wonder what the gathered crowd at a LOS bar would think of something like that? Pete

[Jim]

Proof comes in degrees, not percents. 100 degrees proof is roughly 57% alcohol in the UK; in the US it is a 2:1 ratio, so 100 degrees is 50% alcohol.

150 degree rum was therefore 75% neat alcohol, and a therefore a good warm up before school. Roughly equivalent to the stuff that made Donald Pleasance go blind in The Great Escape.

[Limey711]

For anyone who is interested have a look here.

http://www.scotchwhisky.net/

[JimmyGreaves]

Here's another nice drink from Ireland:

http://www.drinkon.com/Details/SP012654/Detail/Spirit

**Only 2 x 5cl measures to be taken in any 24 hour period**

[lomuamart]

Proof comes in degrees, not percents. 100 degrees proof is roughly 57% alcohol in the UK; in the US it is a 2:1 ratio, so 100 degrees is 50% alcohol.

150 degree rum was therefore 75% neat alcohol, and a therefore a good warm up before school. Roughly equivalent to the stuff that made Donald Pleasance go blind in The Great Escape.

Spot on.
So "overproof" Jamaican rum, such as Wray and Nephews, drops from 100%+ to about 45-50, which I can understand.
Still got me legless

[Edd Case]

Perhaps a look @ this

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4752164.stm

only a look, mind....

And yes I've seen a bottle in HH....... only the regular stuff. Think I saw somewhere that the version above was to retail somewhere around £5-600 (uk pds)

[PeteC]

That was an interesting read but personally, I wouldn't want to get anywhere near whisky that you need to drink with a spoon. Perhaps the writer, Martin Martin, is named as such because he couldn't remember his last name after he sampled it?! Pete

[Jim]

Clearly the journalist had been at the juice himself. It looks like he has his degrees proof and percent alcohol all mixed up. Whisky is not normally 40% alcohol, it is 40 degrees proof - the same as most mass produced spirits.