Hard News: Trams, drams and scams
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Of the subtler malts - the sort that don't slap you about the chops, pull down your trousers and then pour a tanker-load of palm-oil over you while you're discombobulated ...
Just reading that makes me need a lie-down ...
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The psychology behind DPF and Kiwiblog et al has me completely flummoxed. However I did come across, The Online Disinhibition Effect by John Suler, http://www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/overview.html</quote>
Elegantly summed up here
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and here i was, thinking 'peaty' was a good thing for whiskies.
goes to show, i'm low on the totem pole on learning about these things.
sigh... to the pub!
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and here i was, thinking 'peaty' was a good thing for whiskies.
goes to show, i'm low on the totem pole on learning about these things.
Jeez, I'm in danger of looking like a snob here. I'm not generally keen on heavily-peated whiskies - don't like Laphroiag much, quite a bit keener on whiskies with a bit of the ocean about them, like Lagavullin.
But it was interesting with the really top-end whiskies the way that the smoky flavour got kind of annoying. There was a lot more variety and nuance in the whiskies with less or no peat.
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"and here i was, thinking 'peaty' was a good thing for whiskies."
I peaty you, Che N00bie.
Yeah, I don't know anything about whiskies either. Well, single malts don't taste too good witih coke (liquid variety) and I tend to put water in them. Lemmy drinks a bottle of Jack Daniels a day still, although don't know how true that is or if JD counts as a whisk(e)y as such. Gives you nasty hangovers either way.
So what's worth getting in the duty free then either in Auckland or Australia?
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So what's worth getting in the duty free then either in Auckland or Australia?
The Aberlour 10 year-old is great value at less than $60 for a litre. Ditto the Cragganmore for five bucks more.
For $70 there's the Longmorn 15yo, and for $80 the Talisker is super.
For something smoother (and you could probably even mix coke with it), the Johnny Walker Green Label, not a single malt but a blend, is $70.
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Right, noted, thanks.
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Oh well, I will be snob then. Sort of.
I like a peated whisky, but that's me. Each to their own! There is a whisky for every occasion: sometimes you just feel like being knocked around by a cask strength highly peated whisky from Islay, and sometimes you feel like an older, soft, heathery, complex Highland whisky.
So, peat can help make a fantastic whisky, but I can understand how it can get in the way, as it tends to dominate. Just drink what you like!
Also I find that island or coastal whiskies that are peated are very distinctive and drinkable from a young age, while the Highland and Speyside whiskies generally need a bit more time: 10yo Glenlivet is boring, but the 25yo is fantastic.
Russell, I am curious as to your distinction between Laphroaig and Lagavulin: both are heavily peated and coastal, although Laphroaig is more pungent and oily to the Lagavulin's dry elegance. Also, geographically the distilleries are as equivalent to each other as are Island Bay and Seatoun.
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Also I find that island or coastal whiskies that are peated are very distinctive and drinkable from a young age, while the Highland and Speyside whiskies generally need a bit more time: 10yo Glenlivet is boring, but the 25yo is fantastic.
I very much had that experience at Dramfest. I've never had the opportunity (and am not likely to until the next festival) to try so many aged and excellent Speysides. And they were fantastic.
Russell, I am curious as to your distinction between Laphroaig and Lagavulin: both are heavily peated and coastal, although Laphroaig is more pungent and oily to the Lagavulin's dry elegance. Also, geographically the distilleries are as equivalent to each other as are Island Bay and Seatoun.
Yep, distilleries a mile apart, isn't it? But don't they taste very different to you? The Lagavulin is richer and more complex and, of course, the casks are exposed to the sea air. So it's more, say, Lyall Bay ...
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Laphroaig and Lagavulin: both are heavily peated and coastal, although Laphroaig is more pungent and oily to the Lagavulin's dry elegance.
am i snob for thinking that people talking in this way is a good thing? i say. "three cheers for talking about food and booze!"
that, and jack daniels is a bourbon. it deserves to be drunk by sailors. hairy sailors with bad teeth. roaring, hairy sailors with bad teeth.
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BTW: touch of gout. I will eat cherry concentrate capsules and behave myself for a few days ...
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A post-doc I worked with did some stuff on gout a while back (some family member had it). Aside from cherries she also recommended parsley juice (pres all the anti-oxidants in the chlorophyll do something). I'd try mixing it with apple juice or carrot juice.
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A post-doc I worked with did some stuff on gout a while back (some family member had it). Aside from cherries she also recommended parsley juice (pres all the anti-oxidants in the chlorophyll do something). I'd try mixing it with apple juice or carrot juice.
Ta. The cherry extract seems to work well for me, and is backed up by some actual science - although it's bastard hard to buy in NZ.
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Did you know, that originally, Lagavulin was started by someone trying to exactly emulate Laphroig?
They did in fact, end up with a better product (in my opinion).
At least, thats what an Islay islander tells me.
Me, I like peat, but to be honest, I havent been exposed to enough different varieties to have formed a decent opinion.
Anyone who wants to provide me with samples is most welcome... :) -
Yep, distilleries a mile apart, isn't it? But don't they taste very different to you? The Lagavulin is richer and more complex and, of course, the casks are exposed to the sea air. So it's more, say, Lyall Bay ...
Yes, they do taste different - I guess I am just registering my surprise that you like one but not the other. To the best of my knowledge, the Laphroaig casks are aged in warehouses adjacent to the sea wall, thus they also get a wash of salty sea spray...
Lyall Bay is probably more accurate. :) Seatoun can be Ardbeg. Someone should set up a distillery on the south coast of Wellington - that would be awesome.
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that, and jack daniels is a bourbon.
Now, hold on just one whisk(e)y-snobbing minute there, Mr Tibby! You wouldn't want to go shouting that around Lynchburg, Tennessee. Or in nearby Bucksnort, for that matter. Jack Daniel's is a sour mash whiskey. Bourbon is from Kentucky, like Jim Beam.
I, too, taste the sea, however, in both Laphroaig and Lagavulin. To my mouth, Lagavulin = oily; Laphroaig = medicinal. But what do I know, my preference for one or the other swings with my moods...
Russell said:
Just<i> reading</i> that makes me need a lie-down ...
Yes, my writing tends to have that effect on people.
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Seatoun can be Ardbeg.
Now there's a whisky I actually don't like ...
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Jack Daniel's is a sour mash whiskey. Bourbon is from Kentucky, like Jim Beam
my mistake!
must have been the sugary-sweetness of it that fooled me...
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Have started getting people pushing their blogs/websites in our comments at www.bloggingitreal.blogspot.com, that's www.bloggingitreal.blogspot.com, or you can just follow the link at Hard News links on the right hand side where it says "bloggingitreal" which will send you to www.bloggingitreal.blogspot.com
They all go along the lines of "Congratulations on an awesome website. Really enjoy reading it. Keep up the good work. Check out our website at "sellingcrap.com". One dude the other day wants us to link to his site and in turn he will link to ours. Yeah mate, if we all operate like that every website will have 4000 links on the front page and say nothing... actually ....
cheers
Yamis at www.bloggingitreal.blogspot.com -
I just found a comment on my LiveJournal from the palm oil guy*!
It was on a post I'd made about my Wii, and he suggested that instead of working up a sweat on my Wii, that I should just healthy palm oil. (No thanks. I'd much rather play my Wii than eat a spoonful of oil. Yech!)
I deleted it and marked it as spam, so hopefully it will help prevent further spamming on LJ.
* It was technically anonymous, so I don't know if it was the same person, but it was written in the same friendly voice as our oily friend above. -
Yes, they do taste different - I guess I am just registering my surprise that you like one but not the other.
I can understand how one can prefer one over the other, but to my mind they're both fantastic in their own way. Lagavulin is far smoother and much more refined, but Laphroaig has that spooky "smoky bacon" aroma that always draws me in. It's also what makes it great for breakfast :-)
Whoops, if I keep making remarks like that, the alcohol police will be onto me now that "large amounts of alcohol" is defined as more than six drinks in a session.
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Tom said...
It's also what makes [Laphroaig] great for breakfast :-)
Now there's a breakfast I haven't tried yet. Thanks, Tom!
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Hey Russell! goutse.cx is free! That could be fun.
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It's certainly quite a bitch keying in this reply perched on my La-Z-Boy whilst balancing my notebook on my lap with my bottle of Shiraz next to my elbow.
Crash! That's the sound of my ego landing on the floor after being called a killjoy!
Killjoy or not, I've been involved in health and fitness pursuits for the past 10 years. To see Astroturf used in this context is still new to me, just as whisky and cheesemongers were. The only drink that I've consumed that's harder than my Shiraz is my Bud and the only cheese that I swear by is Wisconsin.
But, seriously! Beats me how an oil that is supposedly rich in MCT's can ever be labeled as saturated? That's the same thing they said of coconut oil and all other "tropical oils". But hey, I take a tablespoonful of coconut oil and palm oil now to unclog my arteries from years of munching Big Macs and B Kings. The latest research shows that they are both rich in MCT's and antioxidants. Heck, palm oil's content in vitamin E alone shows that it is rich in the full spectrum of alpha, beta, gamma & delta tocopherols and tocotrienols. No other source contains all of them! Where did I get this info? The Palm Oil Truth Foundation's site!
You may be right that the Palm Oil Truth Foundation may be a front for American manufacturers or the Malaysian palm oil industry. However, that does not negate the wonderful work that they are doing in propagating the truth about the oil.
It is important to keep a level head and an unjaundiced eye on the issue. So much disinformation has been spread, either deliberately or as a result of blind citation of "old and outdated research", it is, to me a blessing in disguise that an organization is setting the record straight!
Killjoy or not, I'll be most happy when bloggers like you, whom I've ardently followed keeps an open mind!
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Er, yeah, good try Robin ...
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