To Any Scotch or Bourbon drinkers.....
- Thread starter lwien
- Start date
BT Bean
Bredda Gravalicious
I had occasion to visit the capital city of our fair neighbor to the north today. Ottawa is a beautiful city, with some great food and museums and whatnot. On the way back I stopped at the duty free. With the crazy exchange rate I picked up a liter of Laphroaig QC for - $41 US and a liter of Talisker 10 for $52 US. Insane, and two of my absolute favorites.
Oh Canada!
Oh Canada!
Marlon Rando
Well-Known Member
I'm a big fan of dark sipping rum one of my favorites is by Ron Zacapa.
As for my Bourbon Angels Envy is so smooth, my top 3. Buffalo Trace is amazing for its price point as well.
As for my Bourbon Angels Envy is so smooth, my top 3. Buffalo Trace is amazing for its price point as well.
DirtyOldCheeseburger
New Member
The best easily accessible and relatively inexpensive bourbons are Bookers and Wild Turkey Rare Breed
BT Bean
Bredda Gravalicious
I’m a single malt guy myself, but I have a bottle of Rare Breed on my shelf right now. It’s a beautiful elixir.
Mr Mellish
Well-Known Member
We’ve been trying the Jameson Caskmates. The IPA is good but the Stout is smoother.
We tried the Joseph Magnus because a shop owner told me it was Pappy without the hype. It was still $90 but couldn’t touch Pappy. Why did I believe him?
We also tried the Knob Creek Single Barrel Reserve on someone’s recommendation. Good lord, at 120 proof I think it cleaned all of the THC out of my system. I was careful to avoid Open flame.
We tried the Joseph Magnus because a shop owner told me it was Pappy without the hype. It was still $90 but couldn’t touch Pappy. Why did I believe him?
We also tried the Knob Creek Single Barrel Reserve on someone’s recommendation. Good lord, at 120 proof I think it cleaned all of the THC out of my system. I was careful to avoid Open flame.
Larrytreez
Well-Known Member
Balvenie 12 double wood for scotch and Buffalo Trace for burbon. Both great jumping off points
ol Grandad for good cheap burbon.
ol Grandad for good cheap burbon.
BT Bean
Bredda Gravalicious
I’ve never tried Pappy, but I would love to give it a shot (pun intended). I did find a bottle of George T. Stagg a few years ago. At 140 proof it was practically hallucinogenic but surprisingly drinkable.
Balvenie 12 is a near perfect dram as far as I’m concerned.
lwien
Well-Known Member
My favorite. That hint of Sherry really does it for me.
O.K. so who fancies getting together to put in an FC bid . . . . ?
whiskyauctioneer.com
I'll get the list
If we win, I'll take a snifter and then forward the bottle on!
'World's largest private whisky collection' goes up for auction
More than 9,000 bottles of rare and vintage whiskies will go on sale at the online auction.
www.bbc.co.uk
Unveiling the world’s largest and most diverse private whisk(e)y collection
How did a whisky novice end up collecting over 9,000 bottles? That’s a good question and one which isn’t entirely straightforward. The collector, known as Pat because he is a private man who wishes to remain anonymous, bought his first whiskies based on the recommendation of a colleague.
I'll get the list
If we win, I'll take a snifter and then forward the bottle on!
bulllee
Agent Provocateur
In Search of the Ultimate Old-Fashioned
We asked 17 of America's best bartenders to submit their finest recipe for the Old-Fashioned—then blind-tasted them all to find the best of the best.
JANUARY 26, 2018story: ROBERT SIMONSON
photo: DANIEL KRIEGER
Fifteen years ago, it’s doubtful that a competition to signify the best Old-Fashioned would have found many takers. It wasn’t a cocktail that the people either tending bars or holding them up were thinking much about. It was a has-been drink, a sweet muddled mess that your grandmother favored.
The Old-Fashioned was truly Old-Fashioned.
How much has changed. The Old-Fashioned is now—and has been for several years—the go-to cocktail for the hip, the young, the epicure, the traditionalist, the cocktail snob, the cocktail newbie, men, women… hell, everybody.
We can thank our friendly neighborhood mixologists for this happy reversal of fortune. During the first decade of this century, ardent young bartenders took it upon themselves to crack the code of the cocktail, one of the oldest in the canon, and find out what had once made it so beloved. With the help of old, pre-Prohibition drink manuals, they returned the Old-Fashioned to its origins, when it was called the Whiskey Cocktail, and was a simple compound of spirit, sugar, bitters and water. (The “Old-Fashioned” prefix, which came to be the drink’s common name, was attached in the late-19th century when barkeeps began messing around with the basic formula, leading hidebound drinkers to cry out for an Old-Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail.)
Dispensed with, in this new era, was the fruit, usually an orange slice and cherry, which became a regular feature in the years after Prohibition’s repeal. Such “garbage,” in the lingo of detractors, was either plopped into the drink whole or muddled at the bottom of the glass—or both. Modern bartenders wanted none of it. They aimed to showcase the whiskey, be it bourbon or rye, not mask it. A simple orange twist, or lemon, or both, would do. Gone, too, were crowning spurts of soda water or soda pop and the crappy ice which typically sullied the drink. Modern Old-Fashioneds are now anchored by a single large chunk of ice.
That this pared-down style remains the status quo at the nation’s better cocktail bars was borne out recently when PUNCH put out the call for Old-Fashioned recipes in order to determine the best specimen. (You’ll still find the fruited rendition at rank-and-file taverns across America.) Joining us to blind-taste the 17 entries were Tom Macy, head bartender and partner at Clover Club in Brooklyn; Lynnette Marrero, bar director of Llama Inn in Brooklyn and co-founder of the bartending competition Speed Rack; and Joaquín Simó, owner of Pouring Ribbons in Manhattan. Eryn Reece, head bartender at the newly opened Banzarbar, was behind the PUNCH bar.
Unlike previous tastings for other cocktails, there were few outliers among the submissions. Contestants hewed closely to the time-tested model. Though the bartenders were not instructed to stick to whiskey—the Old-Fashioned model can be, and often is, applied to nearly any spirit—everyone did. Bourbon was asked for as often as rye. And aside from one formula which called for sorghum syrup, all the drinks were sweetened with some form of sugar, either raw or simple syrups of various richness. Garnishes ranged from orange twist to lemon twist to a combination of both, known as “rabbit ears.”
The most experimentation came in the bitters department, where participants often opted for more than one brand, typically combining the classic Angostura with another type, usually orange bitters.
Each of these ingredient choices are highly important matters in the building of the drink, according to the panelists. Marrero said she selects her twist, bitters and type of sugar “based on the whiskey I’m using.” Simó and Macy added that, because the drink so openly celebrates its chosen spirit, the whiskey should be of quality.
“I wouldn’t make an Old-Fashioned with something I wouldn’t sip neat,” said Simó.
When confronted with a drink that obviously used two or more bitters, the panel generally saw the wisdom in the choice. “I like simplicity,” said Macy. “But if you could add one thing to this drink, I would say another kind of bitters.”
A number of drinks called for a muddled sugar cube. These were easily spotted by the loose grains of sugar left sitting at the bottom of the glass. None of the judges were in favor of this method, at least in a bar setting, believing the use of simple syrup aided both speed and consistency of flavor.
A common failing in the construction of many Old-Fashioneds, the panel believed, came down to precision. If you didn’t hit the exact right amount of sugar and dilution, you could end up with a drink that was too sweet, too dry, too astringent, too flabby, too strong, too weak. While the elements in the drink are few, they all need to be carefully controlled.
When all those elements came together in harmony, as happened a few times during the tasting, it was immediately apparent. The top three vote-getters were all widely liked, with the champion drink chosen as the best by all three judges, this writer and Punch Editor in Chief Talia Baiocchi. This was Macy’s own recipe, which he serves at Clover Club. It called for two ounces of Wild Turkey Rye 101, a teaspoon of 2:1 demerara syrup and three “healthy dashes” of a bitters mix made up of Angostura, Bitter Truth orange bitters and Bitter Truth Jerry Thomas Decanter bitters. For garnish, both a lemon and orange peel were used. The judges found the drink had a pleasing layering of flavors and was a good illustration of how a well-chosen whiskey can set an Old-Fashioned apart.
Coming in second was New Orleans bartender Chris Hannah, who calls for a high-rye bourbon (Bulleit was employed for the tasting), two muddled demerara sugar cubes, two dashes each of Angostura and NOLA’s own Peychaud’s and an orange twist. The judges thought the drink likably strong, with the correct sugar level.
Simó’s drink took the third spot. To two ounces of Russell’s Reserve 10 Year Old Bourbon, Simó added a quarter-ounce of 2:1 demerara syrup, two dashes of Angostura, two dashes Regan’s orange bitters, one dash Bittermens mole bitters and an orange twist. The tasters thought the drink spicy and complex, with the sugar content and mouth-feel right on the money.
Other cocktails approvingly sampled were Phil Ward’s mix of Rittenhouse Rye, 2:1 demerara syrup and four dashes of Angostura, and Marrero’s recipe of Bulleit bourbon, one teaspoon rich demerara syrup, three dashes of Angostura and two dashes of orange bitters.
Confronted with so many well-wrought examples of the drink, it seemed certain that the good old Old-Fashioned would continue its current winning streak as one of America’s favorite cocktails.
Referencing the drink’s amazing popularity, Marrero quipped, “It’s the vodka-soda of today.” She meant it as a compliment.
Bad Dog
Yeah I pissed on the rug...... so what
a couple of my favourite pairings
cheers
cheers
![:\](/i/s/hmm.gif "Hmm :\")
Robert-in-YEG
Well-Known Member
I haven't had alcohol for a long long time. That doesn't bother me a bit, as alcohol just doesn't agree with me.So recently, I started getting into single malt scotches, not to get drunk or even buzzed, but just to put a shot into a new Glencairn Whisky Glass that I just got and just sip it and smell it for an hour or so. I don't think I've ever used my sense of smell like this before. It's almost better than sipping it. If ya haven't tried it, while vaped.............you gotta.
Sidebar: If ya don't like gettin' the munchies late at night and getting fucking fat (like I did at one time, ok maybe more than once), then for some odd reason, nursing and smellin' a shot of whisky totally keeps those munchies at bay. This would make sense if what you were smelling smelled like shit, but that liquid in that glass when I'm vaped, smells really, really good.
Of course this is exactly what I'm doin' as I'm posting this.
When I did drink, it was Scotch whiskey. Most of my friends and family think Scotch is gross, preferring to drink Rye.
My favourite Scotch was Glenfiddich. This is a lighter coloured Scotch; my guess would be that it isn't aged in Oak for as long as some other whiskies. Typically, I just sip it straight with no ice. If I want to get hit harder, I have Scotch and Sprite. Please don't ban me; I know it is wrong to mix with Sprite, but I just couldn't help myself.
Robert-in-YEG
"God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he made school boards."
~Mark Twain