Drink

Most of you probably know the highly successful Elements of Islay bottling range by Speciality Drinks. Here the Islay distilleries have been assigned pseudo-chemical symbols, so the bottles look like as if were snatched from the shelf of a chemistry lab. Wouldn’t it be nice to expand this concept to a full-blown periodic table like the ones gracing the walls of school rooms and university lecture theatres? After all, there is a lof of chemistry going on in whisky making, so the analogy is not entirely pointless. After quite a few hours of data collection, brain tormenting and formatting here is the result, downloadable as PDF file: The table contains both working and closed Scottish malt and grain whisky distilleries as well as a selection of important blend brands. Displayed data includes founding and closing years, number of stills (malt distilleries only), production capacity and current ownership. Two major issues had to be tackled: the assignment of symbols and the ordering. The table has more than 150 entries, and symbol assignment was not an easy task. To avoid confusion, the Elements of Islay symbols should not be altered, and there should be no one-letter symbols to avoid the impression that some distilleries or brands were something special or somehow rated above others. Since there are more than 30 “Glen” distilleries, not every distillery can have a two-letter symbol starting with its first letter. Three-letter symbols were out of question. So for some of the Glens the second part of the name was used for symbol assignment. A special case is Glengyle that received the Ki symbol. Suitable second letters after G were running out, so Ki was chosen to represent Kilkerran which is the brand name Glengyle uses for its whisky. Unlike in chemistry the ‘elements’ are not numbered. The number of a chemical element equals the number of protons in an atom, clearly defining it. For a whisky distillery there is no equivalent, only the founding dates could justify a numbering, but then the entire table would have to be based on that. How should the distileries be ordered then? In chemisty the elements are grouped by periodic similarities in the configuration of electrons, so it could be argued that whisky distilleries should be grouped by similarities in style. But while some distilleries like Laphroaig or Glenfarclas do indeed have rather distinctive house styles, others like Benriach or Bruichaddich offer a wide variety of styles. Experimentation with casks and peating levels have steadily increased, so grouping distilleries by style would cause a serious headache. In this table the active malt whisky distilleries are horizontally grouped by geography. The concept of whisky regions has often been criticized, also on this very blog, not the least because of the problems of styles just mentioned. But used simply as a geographic guiding line, it can be useful for an overview of distilleries. Lowlands and Islay take the outer ends – if there are any regions that display at least a minimum of regional character, than these two. Islands next to Islay is fairly straightforward, the remaining distilleries are grouped by a virtual tour across the Scottish Highlands with Speyside in the centre. The grouping is of course subjective because there are no clearly defined sub-regions. Vertical arrangement is by distillery capacity from low to high. Closed malt whisky distilleries as well as grain whisky distilleries and blended whisky brands are ordered alphabetically. Capacity data for closed distilleries is hard to find and thus omitted. And regional grouping would have looked very patchy. Lochside and Loch Lomond are only listed as malt whisky distilleries, even though they produce(d) also grain whisky. Please note that Carsebridge was founded in 1799 as malt distillery, it only switched to grain in the mid-1850s. The limited space of the table does not permit to include sub-brands like Longrow or Ledai

There wasn’t much happening drink-wise in Episode 5. That was fine. There was a lot of heavy history happening in that episode – I’ll forgive them a lack of cocktails. That brings us to episode 6, where Roger starts picking up clients in airport lounges. The orders start with Roger drinking (ewww) water with an onion and ordering a Jim Beam, double, for his friend. I was all set to tell you all about the history of Jim Beam, but then something interesting happened. Bert ordered a spirits of elderflower. Let’s talk about that. Elderflower liqueur is one of my favorites. I love to ask a craft bartender to create a drink for me – whatever they want – using elderflower. I’ve also used it in sugar cookies and it’s quite tasty. The brand you’ll see on the shelf most often these days is St-Germain. If you’re familiar with Paris, you’re probably already recognizing the name of the famous street, St Germain, where Hemingway wrote and Picasso painted. The St-Germain web site describes its signature liqueur as follows: “It has been said that Paris is a mélange curieux, a curious mixture of flavors, styles and influences. So it is with St-Germain.”  Technically, the liqueur is made from elderberries, but you’ll taste everything from flowers to peaches to grapefruits in the liqueur. Honestly,  I enjoy drinking it on its own. It’s also quite wonderful mixed with champagne or sparkling wine. Here’s the classic St Germain cocktail, straight from their web site. I was so tickled by their “variation” that I grabbed the thing as an image instead of retyping. Have a laugh … and have a cocktail.

A month of discussing the book, Canadian Whisky: The Portable Expert reaches its grand finale on Sunday, May 26, 2013, at 3:00 eastern time. Please join us on Twitter for the final installment of #DavinTT. This week we’ll be discussing Chapters 22 through 25 while we sip a wee dram of Canadian whisky. If you want to join in, any Canadian whisky will do. However, this week we are discussing Highwood, Hiram Walker, Forty Creek, and Valleyfield distilleries so if you have a whisky from one of these distilleries on hand, all the better. Search for #DavinTT on Twitter at 3:00 eastern time, Sunday and join in the discussion, add your comments and discuss a Canadian whisky you are tasting. We invite bloggers to blog about the book, the experience, and the whiskies. Let the fun begin! If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with @WhiskyLassie on Twitter. Canadian Whisky: The Portable Expert is available at Barnes & Noble, Chapters/Indigo, and many other fine bookstores, or on-line at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca. And don’t forget, Father’s Day is just around the corner. There is nothing Dad would like better than a book about Canadian whisky!

Cheap and cheerful. Big fat bubbles, sweet tasting. Fam [...]The post Nino Franco Prosecco. Prosecco but not as you know it… appeared first on The Wine Sleuth.

Issue 168 of the International Wine Cellar, published last week, leads off with our most extensive coverage to date of new releases from Napa and Sonoma, featuring tasting notes on nearly 1,800 wines. The new issue also includes in-depth coverage of Bordeaux 2012 and a special report on the  wines of South Africa. For as little as $19.95 for a two-month subscription, you can get immediate and unlimited access to the current issue, as well as to the easily searchable and sortable IWC data base of over 100,000 tasting notes. Whatever you normally spend on a bottle, the International Wine Cellar will help you become a smarter consumer and drink better wine. READ MORE »

Following the successful 2012 launch of the Company's single-serve coffee offering on the TASSIMO system, Tim Horton's has reached an agreement to introduce premium Tim Hortons coffee on the Mother Parkers Tea & Coffee RealCup platform.  Under the terms of the agreement, Tim Hortonspremium-blend coffee and decaf coffee will be sold in Tim Hortons restaurants in Canada and the U.S., and online in a single-serve format. This market introduction, anticipated in July of this year, will provide access to approximately half of the Canadian market not currently reached by their existing single-serve coffee offering. Tim Horton's K-Cups will work in all Keurig K-Cup Brewers.     Related StoriesSnapple Raspberry Iced Tea K-CupsHawaii Roasters 100% Kona Single Serve Coffee For Keurig K-Cup BrewersUpShot Single Serve Coffee Solution for Keurig K-Cup Brewers 

Tea Type: Black Tea Where To Buy: Whittard of Chelsea 1886 Product Description: Darjeeling Happy Valley 2nd Flush  SFTGFOP1 Loose Tea. Darjeeling 2nd flush teas have a more developed slightly nutty taste than 1st flush teas and are more full-bodied. Happy Valley is a famous Darjeeling garden with an reputation for producing top quality teas. This is a rich cup with a beautiful flavor and a touch of the “muscatel” Darjeeling tea is renowned for. Tasters Review: Recently I received a sample of this Single Estate Black Tea from Whittard of Chelsea.  As many of you know I start each day with at least 1 Black Tea and then move on to other tea bases throughout the day. This was a delightful Darjeeling.  A nice 2nd Flush. This has a gentle sweet-woodsy flavor with a bit of nuttiness to it as well.  It’s rich and pleasing in every way.  It’s a more pronounced flavor that many of the Darjeelings I have been sipping on lately.  I can vouch for the ‘muscatel’ flavor they refer to in the product description – especially on the end of the sip on to the aftertaste which lingers admirably. The post Darjeeling Happy Valley 2nd Flush from Whittard of Chelsea appeared first on SororiTea Sisters.

Post by Stefan Van Eycken, Tokyo Today sees the official release of the 3rd Memories of Karuizawa. It’s available to members of Bond#1 right now; from next week, it will also be on the shelves of selected retailers here in Japan. The 3rd release is one of the few casks left from the 1996 vintage, and it is – in fact – a sister cask (#3684) of our very own Nonjatta Karuizawa (#3681). There’s definitely family resemblance so it won’t surprise you to read that we are quite fond of this new single cask. On the nose, there’s fruit, of course – assorted berries, dried apricots and raspberry meringue – but there’s also fresh ginger ale and grass in early summer with some very subtle wood smoke in the background. After a while, a nice orange marmalade note comes to the fore, accompanied by over-ripe kiwis, honey-roasted almonds, shiso leaf and a touch of eucalyptus. On the palate, it packs quite a punch neat: orange zest and raspberries on the attack, then slightly under-ripe grapefruit and gooseberries. It really needs water – only then does it reveal its charms on the palate: milk chocolate, hazelnut cream, nougat, candied orange peel again, ramune candy, then caramel pear mousse and pumpkin seed spread. Resistance is futile… it’s a phenomenal amalgam of flavours. The finish is long and lingering on sweet jam notes but with a lovely tart edge. Now for the bad news: there are only 303 bottles. Since no one will bother to ready any further, we’ll just sign off wishing you a nice weekend... and it will be if you manage to score a bottle of this. Read more about Karuizawa Distillery here.

BOURBON BOOM CAUSES PERIODIC BOURBON SHORTAGES AT BUFFALO TRACE DISTILLERY FRANKFORT, Franklin County, Ky (May, 2013) Bourbon whiskey consumption has been on a roll, and Kentucky’s bourbon distilleries are struggling to keep up with demand. Nowhere is this more true than at Buffalo Trace Distillery, producer of brands such as Blanton’s, Buffalo Trace, and Pappy Van Winkle. Despite the increase in distillation over the past few years, demand for bourbon is outpacing supply. Bourbon must be matured in new oak barrels and Buffalo Trace ages many of its barrels for eight to ten years, and some even as long as 23 years. That’s a long time to wait for a bottle of bourbon. Not to mention, with the amount of bourbon lost to evaporation each year a barrel is half empty after ten years. This is the price paid for well-aged whiskey, but not good news for a world thirsty for every drop of bourbon coming out of this 226-year-old Distillery. “We are making more bourbon every day. Our warehouses are filling up with new barrels. Waiting for the bourbon to come of age is the hard part. While we wait, there could be temporary product shortages, even on favorites like Buffalo Trace, and Eagle Rare,” said Kris Comstock, bourbon marketing director. “This announcement is not meant as some sort of scare tactic to get people hoarding bourbon.  We always want to be upfront with our fans.  We won’t take drastic measures to mitigate the shortages, such as raising prices excessively, lowering the proof or reducing the age of our whiskies,” continued Comstock. “We’ve made a commitment to quality that we’re not willing to compromise. What this means is that there simply may be times when some of our brands are missing from store shelves.” Comstock stresses that any bourbon shortages from Buffalo Trace will be temporary, as new barrels are coming of age and are being bottled daily at the Distillery, and will soon find their way to the liquor store shelves and bars.  He notes, “We just ask our fans to remember, aging good bourbon takes time, and we’re doing our best to keep up.” Over the years the Distillery has taken several steps to try to prevent any shortages, such as increasing distillation, installing additional bottling lines, hiring more people, and managing brands on allocation. In fact, Buffalo Trace will hire another person dedicated to watching and balancing bourbon inventory with sales. Because of these efforts, Buffalo Trace Bourbon continues to become more available each year, as well as Weller, Eagle Rare, and Blanton’s. It just might not be enough.  Buffalo Trace estimates the bourbon shortage could start at any time and may last a few years, based on current sales trends. About Buffalo Trace Distillery Buffalo Trace Distillery is a family-owned company based in Frankfort, Franklin County, Kentucky. The Distillery’s rich distilling tradition dates back to 1787 and includes such legends as E.H. Taylor, Jr., George T. Stagg, Albert B. Blanton, Orville Schupp, and Elmer T. Lee.  Buffalo Trace Distillery is a fully operational distillery producing bourbon, rye and vodka on site and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Distillery has won seven distillery titles since 2000 from such notable publications as Whisky Magazine, Whisky Advocate Magazine and Wine Enthusiast Magazine. It was named Whisky Magazine 2010 World Icons of Whisky “Whisky Visitor Attraction of the Year.” Buffalo Trace Distillery has also garnered more than 200 awards for its wide range of premium whiskies. To learn more about Buffalo Trace Distillery visit www.buffalotracedistillery.com

Surprised? Intrigued? Grain Update Our Tasting Panel love to select the very best flavour experiences for you, wherever they may come from. No noses will be left upturned by our unique and sparkling single cask grain whisky selection. Here’s a peek at the top five grain whiskies that have been intriguing and surprising the members this month. 1) G1.9 The palate gets a Ping! 21yo Refill ex-bourbon hogshead, £54.70 More 2) G3.5 Chocolate Cafe Latte 33yo Refill ex-bourbon hogshead, £86.60 More 3) G10.4 A witch’s Christmas tipple 23yo Refill ex-bourbon hogshead, £61.20 More 4) G3.3 Curious but good 26yo Refill ex-bourbon barrel, £68.10 More 5) G3.4 Pride of Bengal 27yo Refill hogshead, £72.10 More Grain Pair: Going fast – only 15 left at £116 G7.5 Smoky Werther’s Original  & G10.4 A witch’s Christmas tipple More The Scotch Malt Whisky Society, The Vaults, 87 Giles Street, Leith EH6 6BZ Contact: sales@smws.com or call 0131 555 2929 (Mon-Fri 9am-4.45pm). Visit the Society at http://www.smws.co.uk/memberships for your chance to join and to take advantage of their great offers.