Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

This was a response to a couple of questions one of the club members sent me a while back :-)

First, the Martini. Be warned, if you are not a big drinker a Martini is a BAD starting place for real cocktails. They are pure alcohol with NOTHING to cut the flavour except a little melted ice. Great if you love that sort of thing but it can take some getting used to.

Doing it right it should be two shots of gin, one shot of dry vermouth and garnished with two unstuffed green olives. You STIR a martini - James Bond is an idiot. Get a quality Gin, Bombay Sapphire as a minimum, Tanqueray is better, to make it. Don't go above these in price as Gin is an acquired taste and you may not like it. Quality Vermouth is VERY hard to come by so Cinzano is fine (and is dirt cheap.) Chill your serving glass down with ice in it (or put it in the freezer for a short time.) While it is chilling add the two shots of gin and shot of vermouth into a large glass (we use 28 oz glasses called Boston Glasses in bars) and top with ice. You add ice to the spirits, not spirits to the ice - prevents excessive melting. Use a thin spoon/knife/skewer/whatever and slide it down the side of the glass and use it to stir/twirl the ice around in the glass. The idea is to get all the ice moving in a smooth, circular motion -

is a good example. Stir until the outside of the glass gets nice and frosty and condensation starts to form. Empty your serving glass of ice/melted water and strain the martini into it, there should be no ice in the serving glass. Stick 2 olives on a long toothpick and plop them into the martini. And there you have it

There are a thousand different variations on this method but that is the traditional method. Alter quantities, garnish and stir time to suit taste (more stirring = colder and more watered down, great for inexperienced drinkers.) Personally I drink mine a bit more like Winston Churchill, I add extra gin and raise my glass in a toast to my dusty bottle of unused vermouth, but it's each to their own. Anything with a fruit name (e.g. Appletini) is in no way related to a martini and just had an unimaginative bartender who created it and couldn't think of a better name.

Then we get on to Vodka Martini's and that is just a whole different kettle of fish best left for another day.

Phew, now that the easy question is done on to the complex question. What makes a good scotch.

Firstly, unless you come across a bottle of 21-year-old Royal Salute or Hibiki 17-year-old DO NOT DRINK BLENDED WHISKY!!!! Blended whisky is rubbish. Even 'good' blended whisky, like Johnny Walker Blue, is crap and over priced crap at that. You can do SO much better than them. Johnny Blue is currently around $200 a bottle in most decent bottle shops and I could give you a list of whiskies as long as my belly is round that cost half the price and kick it all around the bar all day, every day. Blended whisky is what you use if you want a scotch and coke. Real whisky is always a single malt with some oddball exceptions like solera tun whiskies but that is another lesson for another day.

Secondly, Scotch is highly personalised and it takes a LONG time to truly understand the differences and develop your personal taste. What's good for me may be rubbish to you and vice versa. Get out there and try stuff. If you can handle it, drink it neat (by its self, no ice and no mixer) with just a TINY dash of water mixed in. If that is too rough, drink it on the rocks. If that is still too rough it means that whatever you are drinking is either horse piss or you just don't like it. Move on to another whisky and try again. Talk to your bartender, if they are worth two grains of salt they will be able to at least tell you the region the whisky is from. You will start to get an idea of what regions make what sort of whisky and find similar ones that you may enjoy.

As for regions, Scotland is divided into 4 main areas when talking about whisky. The Lowland, The Highland, Speyside and the Isle of Islay. Each region has it's own unique flavours and styles.

The Lowlands - The Lowlands region lies south of an imaginary line drawn from the Clyde estuary to the Tay estuary. Whiskies from the Lowlands tend to be soft and light in character. They often display very malty, grassy characteristics and subtle delicate aromas. Examples include Glenkinchie, Blandoch and Auchentoshan.

The Highlands - Moving north of the imaginary line takes us in to the Highland region. The region includes most of the rest of Scotland, with the exception of the Island of Islay and Campbeltown, and thus its malts vary greatly in character. Generalisations about the Highland region are less valid, as its whiskies will range from dry to sweet and some even have a touch of smoke and peat. Examples include Glenmorangie, Blair Athol and Talisker.

Speyside - Technically Speyside lies within the Highland region. It is home to approximately half of Scotland's malt whisky distilleries. This small area of land located to the north west of Aberdeen produces mellow, sweet, and particularly fruity malt whiskies. Examples include Glenfiddich, Glenlivet and Macallan.

Islay - Located in the Inner Hebrides, the small Island of Islay is often called 'Whisky Island' given its concentration of eight distilleries. The island produces very distinct malts, generally heavily peated and smoky in taste. Examples include Bowmore, Ardbeg and Laphroaig.

As a new whisky drinker I?d recommend looking for Speyside Malts to begin with. They tend to be easier to find and are friendlier to new drinkers. Glenfiddich is a great whisky to start with as it is easy to drink and is a nice, middle of the road flavour and is reasonably priced. Macallan is a great whisky to expand your palette on as it ranges in price and quality by large degrees, the 10-year-old fine oak is a great entry point (around $70 a bottle) and it goes up from there. I personally think the 25-year-old Sherry Oak is one of the best whiskies I have ever had but it is VERY expensive, around $500 a bottle.

Lowland malts tend to be hard to come by so unless you get very lucky I wouldn't bother going looking for them. Highland malts can be all over the place in terms of flavours so try some different ones out. The ones I listed above are good starting points.

Islay Malts are the big boy whiskies. HUGE flavours, heavy on peat and smoke. They taste like a glass of rich earth that someone put into a smoking hood for a week before blending down to be drunk. This is where you go to if the other whiskies lack the balls to put hair on your chest. Definitely not for everyone but these are my go to malts. I try keeping a bottle of Laphroaig 10 year old at home whenever my meagre uni student lifestyle allows for it. A close second for me is Oban.

So yeah, there is the VERY short intro to whisky knowledge from me ☺ Best bet is simply to get out there and try stuff. All the knowledge in the world comes to squat if you don't actually try them. Another time we'll talk about the other nations whisky/whiskey types.

  • Like 1

Jameson and Dry they best way to finish off the day.

As for scotch, Cragganmore 12 is nice but my favorite is glenmorangie port cask (Quinta Ruban), but anything speyside is quite drinkable.

I agree the Islay whiskys are very smokey (ie laphroaig) and peaty, and they can git tae fook.

I lived in scotland for 12 months and drank quite a few drams whilst I was there, and there are so many fantastic tasting whiskys that are made by boutique distilleries, and are quite cheap to buy, the only issue is that they only sell it over in Scotland :(.

Another think I find is that people who only drink Vodka have extremely bad taste :P

lemons?

or taunt it for a couple of years....

haha. i uses lemon juice lemonade, and a small amount of sugar then blend it with ice.

however dem fat maryqueens have sour mix over there which, no matter how hard i try i cannot replicate!

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Seat of the pants assessment of the new intake: The car is way less "doughy" when hitting the loud pedal, especially off idle when stopped or in traffic, I did use a cheapo lazer thermal thingo to measure the temp around where the pod filter got its air, it was between 55 - 60°C, in saying this the car was shut off and not moving, so the OEM intake pipe was not supplying any fresh air to where the pod was when the car was at least moving A weird bonus was induction noise on the throttle in the cabin increased a bit,  I was worried that I was actually going to lose some of that induction noise I love so much, outside though, when I got the daughter to do a WOT drive by pass for me, the induction noise has increased alot when on the throttle, not quite ITB doort, but well up there I'm extremely happy with the results and have been exploring the country roads in the region  As for house mods: 1.New front fence is up and is awesome, it really upgraded how the joint looks from the street, and the added security is nice 2. Electricians have replace some interior lights, and with more lighting in the garage, a few new motion detecting lights out the front above the garage, front room, and at the front door, which I have already found heaps helpful coming and going, also now has fancy pants CCTV all round the house The only hold point for power though is the solar and batteries due to supply issues, although this will happen over the next few weeks 3. I have done a heap of landscaping out the front and I'm almost ready to do a new small retaining wall with some nice blocks to replace the brick and cemented in rocks around the raised garden beds cemented in river stone "was the fashion at the time" the house was built. I currently have a pallet of retaining wall blocks and 2 bulka bags of 20mm blue metal to replace the wood chip that is in the raised garden beds around the house 4. I now have 3 big raised garden beds for out the back to grow some vegetables, about 70cm high, 200cm long and 100cm wide 5. My 2 compost bins are already pretty full with brown, green and kitchen waste from the landscaping I'vedone so far, but they will probably take a few months to break down, so anything else that gets chopped, trimmed, and kitchen waste will just start filling the base of the raised garden beds to about 30cm before I start throwing 40cm of good compost, and stuff, for the vegetables to grow in, I'll need a few ton of compost and soil, but the local supplier can sent me bulka bags of the stuff Basically the logs, wood chips and a few strategically placed rocks for drainage, will give the beds some good organic materials down low to break down over time, and they will hold moisture during the warmer months to save the water in my big arse water tank if we don't get alot of rain So, all in all, the car and house mods are going well, and I'm really enjoying being retired, I sleep in too 0700 and slowly plod around inside until I feel like actually doing anything, and only work in the yard for as long as want, which has actually been alot over the last few weeks,  although when you look at it, it seems that not a huge amount of work has been done,  until I look at the before I started the work pics Happy days and good times indeed 
    • hahaha yeah. Plan is to get side skirts and probably just rear pods. But going to do them one-by-one. I've got a set that I really like from RHDJapen, but that one isn't shipped to AU. So need to find someone who can get it for me
    • Here's an idea, answer the questions I asked you as they are trying to work out WHY the LSD will be binding up in a straight line.
    • You haven't driven many modern cars then have you? Most of them have sfa steering feel with their stupid electric bullshit steering systems.
×
×
  • Create New...