If you can’t go to Scotland soon, there’s still no reason to put off your whisky education.
Even if you don’t have a local pub, you can learn, enjoy, and educate your palette.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- Friends. Others who wish to learn more (or just have a glass of whisky with you).
- 4-5 bottles of different whiskies, one each from most of the whisky regions of Scotland. Your friends should bring in at least one bottle each to share.
- Proper tasting glasses. You’ll need enough for guest to have 4-5 glasses in front of them at one time.
- A way to measure proper drams of whisky.
- Time. This isn’t something to rush.
You’ll also need a drinking glasses for each and a pitcher of water. The water should be room temperature. If your tap water has a noticeable taste, use bottled spring water.
Now pour each guest a wee dram of whisky from each bottle and set the “flight” in front of them, along with a glass of water and the pitcher within reach. It might be a good idea to make little coasters with the name of the whisky on each to keep track of what everyone is drinking.
Now all together, begin your experience. Sniff, taste, and compare notes. What do you smell and taste? What do you like?
Take a sip of water, then try another. Which whisky really speaks to you?
After everyone has tasted them all, just sips, a couple of times, have everyone add perhaps half a teaspoon of water into the whiskies and try them again.
I’d also recommend supplying everyone with note cards and writing implements to make notes.
Most important: have fun. Relax. Drink responsibly. And as host, make sure that everyone is safe to make their way home.
The Whisky Assignments: If You Can’t Go To Scotland Soon by Randy Murray, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.