you guys making me gonna experience whisky as well, i never really drunk it, so just how is the best to start with it .... ? like when out eating its something to finish with together with a coffee or .... never was a whisky fan but as a grow older maybe my taste has been changing
If it makes you feel any better, I've given several tries over the years to try to get into whisky, but my palette is quite averse to the strong bitterness of the beverage. Do not enjoy it, and it somehow feels wrong cutting it with ice or water as some have advised me to do.
Can't do Tequila either, for what it's worth. Had one particularly bad club evening in the early 90's that I still haven't fully recovered from. Even a sniff of anything agave-based results in terrifying full-body nausea that totally shuts me down for at least 5-10 minutes.
Then there's that time I fell out of a limo in front of The Viper Room, and puked all over their sidewalk, after consuming obscene amounts of white wine at a pre-party. Needless to say, I was left in the limo with my head in a box while the group went to party inside.
Man... Memory lane of the 90's.
It was an overall good decade. Coincidentally, the same decade I decided I didn't ever want to deal with XX-chromosomal life-partners ever again.
Here's what I've learned and what worked for me, YMMV.
I could only taste alcohol, nothing else. Which is why I was so suspect over all the tasting notes and wanted to dig deeper.
What I did was buy a few bottles (at the end of which I would've concluded the experiment) and drink a dram or two every other day or so.
Before drinking I would smell it a few times and really pay attention to the sensation of smell, while drinking I forced attention into the taste even though I dreaded it as it was literally just harsh alcohol (or in the case of Islay whiskies just ashtray and alcohol).
Whether smelling or tasting, I tried to derive any sort of information that I could distill from the experience (which was nothing but alcohol and ash initially). A little over a week or so in, I'd eventually get a split-second glimpse of what should be going on, and that kept me going for longer.
Some 3-4 weeks in I started smelling and testing feeble notes, which gradually kept opening up as time went by.
It's also worth noting that once I stopped drinking for a while my palette and sense of smell would decline and I would have to start over (albeit at a slightly higher level than before). So if you had large gaps between your experiments Bob, you might want to consider this.
I recommend a Glencairn glass, they're cheap and funnel the fumes in a way that is supposedly ideal for whiskies. Don't use those cool looking glasses from movies, as they let all the aromas and flavours escape.
Cover the sides of the glass with your drink by gently swirling it, don't go too violent or it did something with the alcohol that made it stand out. Smash your nose in, smell it, focus real hard on it, put it away. Repeat a few times. Then drink.
between just drinking a sip and keeping it in for 10 seconds or longer. In the latter case move it around in your mouth to cover all your taste buds.
Keeping it in your mouth for a good 10 seconds also shifts the alcohol burn from your throat to your mouth, which lets it go down very smoothly regardless of proof. Focus on the sensation and try to figure out what is happening with laser focus. This was very hard for me for a while.
As far as ice is concerned, do not use it. Do not chill your whisky. Keep it room temperature. Chilling it dulls the flavours and brings the alcohol to the front (unless that's your jam).
Water. Experiment with this. But don't dilute it.
Just put in a small drop or two of water. That will do some crap where differently soluble parts of the whisky move up/down in the glass, which also changes the aroma and flavour profiles leading to a different drinking experience.
Very fun and a good way to make the learning experience more exciting, especially as your palette begins opening up. Blind tasting, especially with help of your partner is also a great way to accelerate your learning experience.
Now, with all this said. If you don't like whisky by default this is quite a challenge. I enjoyed it, but had to really power through unpleasant drink after unpleasant drink before my brain and taste buds adapted and learned to pick out increasingly refined details.
If you still want to go ahead, do some reading on different whisky types and pick a few of each that sound interesting to you. There are many different scotches which vary by region. Islay very peaty and smokey. Speysides are much more tame and sweet but no less interesting. Then there's a lot in between. Bourbons from what I can tell are more on the sweet and tame side as well, as are most Japanese whiskies.
If you don't mind paying upwards of $100 for a bottle and want to avoid bitter I can highly recommend Glenmorangie's Signet. It's almost a dessert wine. Fucking love that shit. My go to whisky for celebrating with friends who aren't into peat or heavy drinks.
Also, don't drink to a point where you get shitfaced, at least not repeatedly. It helped me to treat this challenge with discipline. Again, YMMV.
Poll
