Many drink scotch because it makes them look cool, which is partially true, but a true scotch drinker is so much more than that. If you love a good glass of scotch on the rocks, here’s some basic things you need to know about the art of drinking scotch. Cheers!
Scotch means Scotland: Scotch is not just the signature spirit of Scotland, it’s in fact, the only country where scotch is made. Scotland boasts of 115 licensed distilleries, so if you are drinking scotch, it’s from Scotland.
Region matters: The easiest classification of scotch is based on the region they come from. For instance, whiskeys from Islay region seems to have a strong peat flavour. The single malts from Speyside taste sweeter. A true scotch master can look at the region of origin and tell us the nature of that scotch.
Types of scotch: There are five major types of scotch. Single malt, which is made from malted barley and water at a single distillery using pot stills. Single grain is made with water, malted barley and one more kind of grain. This is also made in a single distillery. Blended malts are basically the mixture of more than one single malts while blended grains are a combination of multiple grain whiskies. Blended scotch whiskey is a cross between a single malt and and a single grain.
Aging: Every scotch is aged for at least 3 years. But aging isn’t the most crucial factor when it comes it picking scotch. If you like a particular spirit from a distillery, even if it’s not aged for top long, you will do just fine.
Scotch in a cocktail: Purists like their scotch unadulterated. Some like it on the rocks. The strong flavour makes it infamously hard to mix scotch in a drink, but with some sweet vermouth and bitters, you can mix a few really, class cocktails. Try a Rob Roy for starters.
