Trying something new here. I’ve started to use the voice recorder app on my iPhone to, well, record my voice. To my great surprise, some of the stuff I talk about doesn’t suck.
This 6 minute unedited recording contains a couple of interesting thoughts:
There are a couple of long pauses – those are me trying not to crash.
Mmmmm… Scotch…
I grew up in a scotch drinking house. My earliest memories were of the fine, peaty taste of single malt whiskey. Well, no. My early memories of scotch go something like “EWWW! WTF! WHY WOULD YOU DRINK THAT? IT’S LIKE LICKING A FRESHLY PAVED ROAD WITH A DASH OF ASHTRAY”.
Like all good things though, appreciation grows from education and maturity. As I grew into my 20s, I started to join my folks in their evening tipple. Their daily drink was Grant’s or the Famous Grouse. Special occasions though meant one thing: The Macallan. Luckily for me, as I lived on the other side of the country, every time I saw my folks was a special occasion. The Macallan did flow.
Now, as a poor working stiff operating under the heavy hand of Canadian sin tax laws, it’s pretty rare that I’ll drop 8 John A‘s on a bottle of hooch. So when I was invited to attend a tasting of The Macallan at the hoity-toity One bar in Yorkville, I was in without a thought. I was not disappointed.
I’ll admit that I knew a fair bit about scotch, having invested at least 20 years of my life drinking the stuff. I’ve been to a nosing or nine, but have never tasted a vertical from a single distiller, let alone a vertical from my fave. What I learned was that a) I do love scotch and b) I like the more expensive bottles more and c) The Macallan does not make a bad scotch, only great and really fucking great.
Oddly, this was my first experience doing a before/after with adding a few drops of water. The difference those few drops make to the nose are incredible. I also learned about using pebbles to cool the drink instead of ice (so it doesn’t melt and water down the elixir). I swiped a couple of stones from my kids’ collection, and have been happily drinking cool, concentrated whiskey since.
I’d like to extend a warm thanks to the fine folks at Matchstick for inviting me to attend this wonderful event. On their behalf, I’d like to invite you, the reader, to take part in a wee survey. If you’d be so kind as to click here