Ice? In a drink? Have you gone mad!!???
Nanuq907
Member Posts: 2,551 ✭✭✭✭
Okay tonight I'm experimenting with bourbons. I've got my old favorite Bulleit, room temperature, neat. A sip and WOWSERS all that oak and vanilla and spice just hit me the right way. Nice long linger, oak and vanilla and happiness for 3 or 4 or 5 minutes. Yummmmmmmmmmm
Next comes the Elijah Craig small batch. Neat, room temperature, take a sip. Hmmmmm. What? Did someone drop a AA battery in the glass? What's that zinger, that sharp note right there in the middle of the palate? Did someone put some Godforsaken green apple in there? It's got a lot less oak, lots less vanilla, there's a funny sweet thing happening... this is a busy sonofagun with ... honey? Some Christmas spice? Wow it's an experience but I'm not ready to work this hard to enjoy a dram of booze, thankyouveryfrickenmuch.
Sooooooo, what was that I read the other day? Some likkers are best with a bit of ice? That seems counter-intuitive to a guy that understands organic chemistry, but so be it. There are stranger things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy. So let's ice that bad boy.
*Clink clink* let it sit... sniff sniff... it smells the same (well of frickenCOURSE it smells the same. Go back to your chemistry, you twit!) Sniff... sniff... okay let's dive in. Siiiiiiiiip. Wait for it... wait for it....... hold it on the tongue, let it slide around, open the mouth, breath, sniff... and swallow.
What's this? WHAT'S THIS?? Who stole the AA battery?! Where did the green apple go??? What sorcery is this?!!! Take another hesitant sip... my God. It's like warm in the mouth. Supple and warm and there's a promise of more, it's like honey and butter and ... nutmeg? What's this??!!!!?? Okay, I may very well have a new favorite bourbon here. And after YEARS of enjoying Bulleit, it's totally, completely unexpected.
Mind == blown. How did this happen? Do we have a sommelier here? How did adding a couple innocuous ice cubes to an otherwise nasty bourbon turn it into the nectar of the gods? The stuff is delicious! But only in the presence of ice, hmmmmmm, like anything else Norwegian! Maybe that's it!
Altfor reint har ingen smak!
Comments
Distilled water my Aunt Granny! The traditional drink of us country boys has always been Bourbon and Branch!
Buddy of mine lives in Alaska, loves to take his boat out to one of them big glaciers, chip of a piece for his glass of Whiskey.
Some day I'll go up for a visit. Worked with him in Iraq and Djibouti.
I read an article once that explained the phenomenon, but I can't recall the exact argument. The best I can offer is that the sudden introduction of more water (all whiskies are diluted from cask strength) somehow destabilizes the solution of esters, releasing some and binding others. That's the best of my recollection, and I may have worded that non-scientifically.
At any rate, palates more delicate than mine can vouch that the effect is there, however it happens.
This explains the action in a sort of non-scientific way:
Come on, man!
Take your medicine. It oughta burn all the way to the belly then warm you all over from the belly button to your finger tips.
No, wait, that's 'shine.
most shine is that way, just won't stop burning. Few years back got some from an old gent who used potatoes instead of corn, now it still burned but just for a few seconds smoothest shine I ever drank, only got few quarts and then source dried up, guess he either got caught or died......
not all shine is that way. if it is aged in oak it can be as tasty as any store bought liquor
What can you put in it to get rid of that nasty heartburn inducing oak taste? lol
I tried being sophisticated with many bourbon's, scotch's, and whiskey's but they have that nasty oak taste. Now Patron..... that's a liquor I can make love to! Patron Silver neat...
Not shine or bourbon but this is my favorite way to make scotch
https://youtu.be/PTQLBv8sgDI