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Polar bear with carrot

Monday, March 21, 2022

A wee nip of the Irish

I guess you can tell a lot about a person by what they choose to imbibe. I am not a big boozer but I am known to have a nip now and then, preferring vodka and hard spirits drank neat to beer or wine. My go to is Irish whiskey and I tend to buy Jameson out of habit.

Now Irish whiskey is not really a hip libation. The cultured and affluent like to conspicuously display their sybaritic excess and high net worth with expensive Scotch single malts. 

Even if I had the money, which I don't, I don't really care for the taste. I guess it is a bit too nuanced for my simple palette.

American whiskey is all the rage, rye and bourbon suddenly hip but there is a smokiness to it that I also find mildly off putting. 

Too much like my abusive stepfather's Old Crow or Old Grand Dad I suppose, the mere smell teleports me back to one of Bosch's little hell zones of childhood.

So I go for the Irish, it is clean, straightforward and simple. As I said, my go to is Jameson but I have no problem drinking the protestant whiskey, Bushmill's, in its absence. My gullet is evidently nondenominational.

I was wondering about possible alternatives and came across this website, The twelve best Irish Whiskeys to drink in 2022. Interesting. 

I have drank two of these in the past, Green spot and Red Breast and one not on the list, Powers. None of them slayed me.

I do like the sound of some of these. Writer's Tears and Knappogue sound promising. Might scratch some literary itch. Be interesting to dwell in the devil's keep for a spell. 

Might be time for a fact finding research project. Let me know if you are in.

6 comments:

Ken Seals said...

Interesting, I could go for a sip or two. Count me in for the tasting :-)

Anonymous said...

Funnily enough, I only became aware of the whiskey religious divide a couple of weeks ago on reading a John Banville novel. Never bought Jamesons but years ago a cousin who lives near the Bushmills distillery gave me a bottle of Black Bush. The cousin is a catholic - maybe that's why he gave it away..

Patrick said...

Oban is an affordable and very smooth scotch. Give it a try.

Bob Schmid said...

Definitely in, Robert -- Red Breast is my favorite, so far . . .

lizzy said...

Interesting. I don’t like beer and wine, never have. Drank some beer in college, but that is because that is what was around. When I was a bartender I drank dewars - which is certainly not an expensive scotch. But if I am going to drink for enjoyment (very rarely) it will almost consistently be Jamison. I can’t stand bourbon - but I never realized it was what the bastard drank. I figure he drank everything in order to wash down his pills.

Blue Heron said...

That is so funny Liz. Had no idea you drank it too. Must be something genetic about the stuff.